Cookie journey

Maternity leave

2009-05-12T08:06:00.000-07:00

All of the sudden (or so it seems) I found myself facing the last day of work before my maternity leave. And I thought it deserved a festive touch. My collegues deserve a sweet token of appreciation now that hey have to do their work *and* mine for the next 16 weeks. So I planned a little cake get-together. Of course, there had to be some token that would remind everyone of the occasion. I found the cutest image of a pregnant lady (in the form of a decorated cookie) on nancy's fancy cookies, which you will find in my links list, and I copied the image in royal icing to form a plaque.It worked out okay, even though Nancy's were nicer :o).

I decided I needed something that was both easy and decadent, and then the first thought is usually choclate. So I picked our favourite cheesecake recipe, that features an lb. of white chocolate, is absolutely divine and never fails. THe combination of the cheesecake with the strawberry topping is simply perfect. Find the recipe at www.epicurious.com, try it and never look back ;o).
HEre's the result:

Second, I decided on Rose Levy Beranbaum's 'Chocolate oblivion truffle torte'. This extremely impressive yet very easy to make recipe is a treat for the true chocolate lover. Just never tell anyone the only ingredients are chocolate, butter and eggs ;o). I decorated with fresh raspberries and chocolate curls:

Last but not least, I added my personal favourite of all times into the mix: a strawberry pie, made out of a cookie tart shell, vanilla custard and loads of strawberries. Again, I used some pregnant lady picks to liven it up:

Now that we're looking at a C-section next week, it will probably be a while before I'm back in the saddle again. But I hope to finish some cookie treats before the big event, and will post some pictures if I can manage to actually finish them in time.
See you on the other side of delivery!!

Apricot custard streusel pie

2009-03-07T09:57:00.000-08:00

This pie is a modified recipe that I found in a Good Housekeeping dessert book. I have made it several times with different kinds of fruit, and it is a nice all-occasion pie that keeps well and appeals to many.
Originally, it is made with a regular pie crust (and Good Housekeeping tells you you can buy ready made, which of course you don't want to ;o)) and fresh peaches.

I substituted the crust with my favorite paté sucrée from the get-go: 50 grams of beaten egg,100 grams of sugar, 200 grams of butter, 300 grams of flour and a dash of salt. You can make this in your mixer, preferably with the paddle attachment, or by hand. Mix butter and sugar, just intil incorparated, you're not looking to aerate the mixture here. Add the egg, mix shortly, add flour and salt until a dough forms. Shape into disk and wrap in saran wrap. Refrigerate for at least an hour, up to three days ahead. Let the dough warm up slightly before rolling it out on a floured surface.
Transfer dough to buttered pie pan, and just patch up any tears. It will all be fine in the end. You will have some dough leftover if you use this quantity for lining a 9-inch pie pan (I also use it for tarts that go up to 12 inchis in size). In the summer, I use this dough to make (blind baked) tart shells that I fill with custard and fresh strawberries.

Cover the dough in the pie plate with any fruit you like, sliched fresh peaches (you'll need about 4 ripe peaches), apricots (I use canned in winter), cherries, just use your favourite. In a bowl, whisk together 8 oz of sour cream with 1 cup of sugar (I use less, depending on the fruit I only use 1/2 cup, but never more than 2/3 cup), 1/4 cup of flour, 1 tsp vanilla and and 3 large egg yolks. No beating is necessary here, just whisk until homogenous in consistency. Pour custard over fruit and bake for 30 minutes in a preheated 375 degree oven.

While the pie is baking, make a streusel topping by rubbing 4 TBS of cold, cubed butter (no margarine, please) into 1/2 cup of flour and 1/4 cup of sugar until crumbs form. Sprinkle crumb topping evenly over custard, then bake for another 10-20 minutes, until custard is set (you can check this with a knife or by slightly jiggling the pie pan. You'll see whether it has set or is still awfully jiggly). If the crusts browns too quickly, cover it with a ring of foil when you sprinkle on the streusel.

Remove pie from oven, and let cool completely. You can store the pie in the plate at room temperate, where the custard will stay softer and slighlt creamier, or in the fridge where the custard will firm up a little more. In the fridge it will keep for up to four days. Just decide for yourself which you prefer :o). If you want, you can put on some slices of fruit on top of the pie prior to serving.

And here is what it looks like (although the picture is not great!)

If you look closely, you'll detect my fabulous new high-heel cake server in the background ;o)

I promised pictures...

2009-02-25T09:58:00.000-08:00

And just to make sure I will post them, I might as well do it today. First of all, the new kitchen and the cake curtain:

Then, the cake for my sister who turned 40! Please don't pay too much attention to the figurine's head, because I made three and still didn't like the outcome. I blame hormones ;o)

The text on the cake reads '40 and fabulous'. It was a 6 layer chocolate cake with chocolate mousse and chocolate ganache. It looks a little smallish in the picture, but it was actually very high and extremely heavy. I do think it held at least 2 lbs of chocolate.

Then, the cupcakes for my nephew. I actually cheated and bought the chocolate Santas. I was desperate to find something 'quick' that would still look nice and this fit the bill. I still spent 6 hours in total making them, but J. loved them and that made them worth it :o).
The cupcakes are Elinor Klivans' Hi-hat cupcakes and the kids just loved the frosting (as do I!)

So there, two posts in a day and pictures to boot! I will try and keep this up :o)

Alive and .....kicking

2009-02-25T01:24:00.000-08:00

Hard as it is to believe, I haven't fallen off the side of the earth. I've just been eh, preoccupied, to say the least.
I've blogged about the progress on the new house, and now we've been living in it for almost six months already. We moved September 6th of last year, after a weeek of frantically painting the whole house on a reduced time-schedule. At that point, I finally realised the house was *really* a lot bigger than old one. In spite of my plans for a really cool and bold colour scheme, and mixing textured wallpapers with paint, the house turned out to be just painted white, top to bottom. I just couldn't decide on what colours I actually wanted, let alone find the courage to start wallpapering for the first time in my life. So instead, we bought 30 buckets of white primer and 30 buckets of white paint and had a go at it. Colours can come later (or not, LOL!) We moved in with the paint barely dry, but hey, we made it and that's what counts, right?

Then came moving day. We rented a truck, got much welcomed help from family and friends and started loading up the truck and tractor my BIL brought. It was total chaos, to say the least. I think we had about 100 boxes in the living room, because the guys brought them in quicker than I could read their destination labels and I finally just gave up and let myself be buried in them. I sorted through our belongings twice in the past year and was still amazed at all the STUFF we had. We schlepped and hauled and worked and unpacked until I could no longer distinguish left from right, and I was determined not to rest until the house was finally feeling like home with things in their final place as much as possible.

So the week after the move, we bought two new HUGE closets, put them together (IKEA was our friend) and unpacked as many boxes as we could manage. and then, with the house still feeling 'bare' and empty in spots, the BIG fatigue set in. Luckily, we had two weeks of vacation time left, and decided sleeping was a first priority. After a week, I got suspicious because I got more tired by the day. And then, the reason came out:

(drum roll.....) I was pregnant. PREGNANT! Actually, I still am :o).

It was a very welcomed and happy shock, but a shock it was. And I spent the first 16 weeks of pregnancy trying to keep my head above the water. I dragged myself to work, longing to take naps on the floor under my desk during office hours. I got into my car to drive home, wondering if I'd still be awake for the whole drive. I ate, slept, worked, slept, and that was basically it besides feeling awful. I wanted to slap everyone who told me this was completely normal and it could last the whole pregnancy (gee, thanks!), but lacked the energy to do so. Let's just say that baking was the farthest thing from my mind. I could cry. Here I was, I had this wonderful, shiny new oven, a glorious pink cake in front of my window, and all I could manage was stay awake long enough to force down a sandwich. My sister turned 40 and I made her a cake (it took me a three-day weekend), but that was IT.

By Christmas, I started to feel a little better and managed to make my nephew cupcakes for his birthday treat. I also managed to make some cookie dough, that I froze and baked one sheet at a time whenever I could manage :o). I promiss to download the pictures from my camera and post them soon.

Now my belly is proudly sticking out (dare I say 'think hippo') and I'm starting to plan and look forward to making treats for the birth, treats for saying goodbye to my collegues when my pregnancy leave starts, I'm making birth announcements and I'm basically trying to get my 'oomph' back :o). My energy is still extremely limited and temperamental, but I'm doing the best I can and will try to bring the blog back alive as well. It will be a great incentive for me to push myself and start the baking routine back up :o). So yes, I am alive, and the baby is kicking me :o).

I hope to see visitors and comments return as well!

Counting down...

2008-07-23T05:43:00.000-07:00

It seems we're entering the last 6 weeks or so before we can move in to our new home. Needless to say, we still think that it is a loooooong time ;o). But anyways, as we speak, ceilings are being plastered, tiles are being placed, the heating systems is being tested and we are making progress in general. Last weekend, we slowly dove into the project of painting the house by starting with the stairs. After deciding on the colour, we starting painting and decided we totally hated it. New colour, new brushes, new start, and now the job is done. It will look good once the actual nice steps are being installed. The ones we have now look more like driftwood, but who cares as long as bags of plaster are still being hauled up and down, right? So we almost go over there daily to look at the progress (or really in an effort to try and make things speed up by *looking* at the things that still need to be done, heh). I even washed windows for the first time because I decided I simply needed to see what it would like like without all the mud and various other stray materials ;o). I pretended to have forgotten that the house is still bare and has no kitchen or anything else, and I caught a glimpse of an image of us happily roaming around in our kitchen, with the new shiny oven burning ;o). I could almost smell the scent of cookies ;o).

In the meantime I've been busy making curtains for the kitchen (with help of my mom, who is a true wizzard when it comes to fabric and needlework) and I stitched a gloriously pink, three-tiered cake on one of them. I couldn't think of anything more fitting and am very happy with how it turned out. Pictures to follow! You see that even in spite of being cut off from baking, cake still rules my life ;o)

I'm hoping that in a few short months, I'll beback full-swing into baking many new and exciting recipes and will be able to bring this blog back to life!

Finally, an update!

2008-05-07T22:50:00.001-07:00

I know, I know, I've been a horrible, non-existent blogger. But being basically cut off baking, I find it hard to keep up. I know things will improve once we move into the house and have that brand new, shiny oven installed.

In the meantime, builders have kept plowing along at the house, and it's really starting to look great. They have moved to the inside of the house now, which means that nothing much will change on the outside anymore, which makes me feel as if nothing were happening, but the contrary is true. Construction workers are coming in and out, hauling loads of pipes and electric supplies into the house. THey are hammering the whole stuff into the newly built walls, that are starting to look slightly deformed because of it, but we have been reassured that everything will just turn out fine in the end. At this point we're looking at a move-in date around the end of August, possibly early September.

Just to show the progress, here is the house in its latest glory (notice the front door we *loved* the minute we laid eyes on it ;o)).

My dad

2008-03-30T06:04:00.001-07:00

March 1st, my dad very unexpectedly died at the age of 69. He hadn't been in good health for the past few years, but this was not to be expected. Our small family that now consists of 6 people total, is trying hard to come to terms with this loss, and all other things just seemed less important the past few weeks.

My dad was a carpenter in his working years, and being involved in many a building project himself, he followed the building of our new house with great interest. He always knew what was coming up next, told us about the time when he was still involved, and how things had changed over the years. Not only did he show great interest, he was also proud and a great supporter.

When we felt the world had to stand still for at least a few moments, time just passed us by as usual, and the builders kept going on as if nothing had happened. Which was hard, but a blessing at the same time, because it makes you realise you have to go on.
So in the past few weeks, we saw the house 'grow' fast. The highest point has already been reached, the roof is half done, windows have been ordered, and all in all things are just progressing rapidly.
The pictures below show different stages of progress.
Walls:
Ceiling in the living room:
Bedroom without roof:
Brick walls:
Roof!

Wish you were here to share it with us dad!

Week 2

2008-02-19T23:05:00.000-08:00

In spite of the fact that we had a little frost during the past few nights, the contractor went right ahead and poured the concrete into the wooden crate that will hold our entire house in the future. It was strange looking at that surface, imagining in less than a year we'll be sitting on our couch in that same exact spot! But it is interesting to see how things are prgressing a little every week. we've never spent much attention to houses being built and don't know much about it, but now, we're even interested in the time it takes concrete to thoroughly dry and harden, heh :o). In the meantime, we've been looking at bathroom sinks, tubs, faucets and tiles, and the choices are overwhelming. Also, after looking at that, we once more changed the set up of the bathroom (the architect will be so happy...). Drawing rooms on paper and shoving paper furniture and items around in it makes you see things differently! We did the drawing thing for the living room as well and were both kind of shocked to realize we don't have a lot of furniture to fill the space. But oh well ;o). We'll deal with it when the time comes to haul things into the room!
Below is a picture of the concrete floor, taken on a quite cold Saturday morning. It looks so peaceful, even with all the construction activities going on. I can't wait to move in ;o).

Construction - week 1

2008-02-12T22:51:00.000-08:00

It's official! The hole has been dug and filled with stones and sand, the fences have been put in position, IT HAS BEGUN!!
Within the next 6-8 months, the drawings will turn into a (hopefully) lovely home, with a spacious kitchen to bake lots of goods in :o). We're very busy running around from one vendor to the next, then back to the architect and back to the drawings, because it's like dozens of decisions have to be made every day. But we're beyond excited and very much looking forward to the whole proces. Just to start of, here are pictures of me and M. standing on our lot. The snow has left in the meantime, making the weather more building-friendly ;o).

Accept defeat

2008-02-11T23:12:00.000-08:00

I have to confess I did. Accept defeat, that is. I really, really tried to make this oven work for me, and it just won't behave.
Last week was my husband's birthday, and I wanted to make some pies for us to enjoy with our families together. M. requested rice and apple pie, and I used my T&T recipe for the first, and a new one (at least to me) for the latter. I was excited about the apple pie recipe, as my fellow student in the English course I'm taking shared it with me as her absolute favorite. It is an old fashioned recipe for Dutch apple pie, that directs you to cook the apple filling before baking the pie. As I feel apple pie often tastes a bit 'raw', I was excited to try it.
I made sure the oven temperature was right and stable (I got it to do that at least). I baked the rice pie that I baked a 100 times before. It looked gorgeous, all seemed well although the bottom was a little too brown for my liking. The apple pie behaved too, and came out gorgeous looking.

My husband decided shortly after everything was out of the oven, that a 'test tasting session' was in order, so I cut intot he apple pie. The bottom looked a little too brown as well as did the rice pie, but I didn't think anything of it (yet). My husband took the first bite, and when I asked him how it was he answered very politly 'it's a tad dry'. He was just being kind, let me tell you that. We then cut into the rice pie, which was like eating sand. Yuck! this is supposed to be a creamy, smooth conconction, and it was just sand-dry. I threw it out. I ran into the kitchen and made another dough to bake an apricot crumb cake (I thought this was something that wouldn't fail even if the oven collapsed in the middle of baking it) and baked it the next morning for back up. It looked somewhat funny, it was like the crumbs had all melted together for the most part. Ugh...

When our families came I served them the pie (my husband suggested saying we had bought them at the local bakery, which admittedly is pretty bad, LOL) and even though the apricot cake was presentable my sister mentioned that it was 'different'. I thought so too. All in all, I threw out most of the rest and felt defeated. Very much so. So I've decided to lay low on baking for the next couple of months, until our home is built and the new kitchen is in place. I hate it, but I hate throwing everything in the trash straight from the oven even more :o(.

In the meantime, I'll use this blog for updates on the construction of the house.
I am so very excited to day that the hole has been dug, fences have been put in place, and things are really starting to happen right now, whooohoooo! I'll be back with progress pictures :o)

The piano

2008-01-28T23:06:00.000-08:00

This post has nothing to do with baking, but since it has something to do with how I spend my free time, I thought it was warranted to post about it.

Since I was 7 years old and my parents introduced me to music by taking me to the local orchestra, I have been playing a musical instrument. During that first visit, when the music teacher thought I was too young to learn reading sheet music (but mom persisted) and reluctantly let me in, I knew this was for me. Soon, I was handed a french horn and began practicing. The horn was never a conscious choice, but it was the only instrument the orchestra had available for new students at the time, so that's what I played. After a year or so, I switched to the trumpet, again because a new student needed the horn and I was given a slightly better available instrument ;o). I did like the trumpet better and played it for more than 12 years after that, so it was a good match for me.

An even better match was the piano though. After playing that horn for a year, the orchestra hired a wonderful, talented director. He seemed to like me and talked to my parents, convincing them they needed to let me try to play the piano. He told them it would help develop my skills, and also, would give me more satisfaction in making music as I would be able to play by myself without missing the orchestra. My parents agreed, and bought me a piano. Of course, this was a tricky move, as they didn't know whether I would like it and be consistent with it, at the age of 8. But I fell in love with it the moment I laid eyes on it. I took lessons, and playing on it was my favorite thing in the world. I remember my mom encouraging me to do something else for a change ;o).

Making music became more and more important. When I was 15, I was playing in three orchestras with my trumpet, and seriously considering a career in music as a pianist.
I accompanied many of my friends on the piano, played the organ in church whenever needed, and accompanied the high school choir and orchestra. I owe that director so much for his encouragement.

When I left high school, the director of the orchestra asked me to accompany his men's choir, and I did. This is when I became more interested in singing and vowed I would take lessons one day.

Slowly my life changed though. After I finished college and started working and met my now husband, I found myself with a lot less free time on my hands. I quit the orchestra, but still continued to play the piano. A couple of years later I quit the men's choir, and the piano lessons and took up singing lessons. I loved everything about it and accompanied myself on the piano, but it was quite hard for me to get my voice to do the things I wanted it to. I could read the more complicated pieces but couldn't sing them, lacking technique, which became frustrating. When I started taking an interest in baking and decided to take pastry classes, I quit singing and focused on something else for a while.

All that time, I took the piano with me when I moved out of my parents' and started my own life with my new husband. The piano never found a good home in the living room as there simply wasn't any room for it, but it was always there. Now that we are building a house, I decided it was time to move the piano back into a proper spot in the living room. Seeing it desperately needed a new caot of paint after 26 years of use and 3 moves, I decided to give it a whole new look and make it black. It is now waiting for us to move to our new home, ready to reclaim it's position and waiting for me to get back to playing it regularly. Which I fully intend to do :o). So here it is in it's new 'do': I know a professional would definately find the flaw in my paint job, but I think it looks pretty darn good :o).

Woman with a mission

2008-01-28T06:53:00.000-08:00

This weekend I got serious about my oven troubles, and was determined to go look for an oven thermometer and not come back without one. And I did find one I was happy with, took it home and declared it my new personal assistant.

I knew that the temperature would probably be off, and decided to just preheat the oven and wait what happened. I turned the knob to 350 and found a nice, uncomplicated recipe for Cape Cod Cranberry muffins in my brand new Carole Walters book that I decided to turn into a quickbread, as a baking time of an hour seemed less sensitive to wonky ovens than one of 20 minutes.
After half an hour, I checked for the temperature. It was about 250 degress. After 40minutes, it was about 280. Long story short, I turned up the temp, turned it down and did my best to get some consistency in oven temperature. My conclusions after the oven had been on for 2 and a half hours didn't really make me happy, but I got the quick bread baked, within the indicated time, and it was cooked perfectly.
But yes, the oven takes one FULL HOUR to preheat properly, and the knob indication is off, way off, at least 50 degrees. At least I'm no longer in the dark about what I'm doing, but one hour of preheating does seem rediculous. Just to prove my small succes, I'm attaching a picture of the bread. We really liked it, I added lots of cranberries and nuts, and as the recipe called for orange juice, I used the zest of the orange as well. I think I could easily have added the zest of two oranges, as I think the bread would benefit from the extra flavor kick, but other than that, it was good.

I'm bad...

2008-01-22T23:12:00.000-08:00

About blogging. And about other things as well, the main thing being baking. I just can't seem to get over my oven-intimidation. I need an oven thermometer, and of course I can't find such a thing in the stores I've been looking in. I did see them ALL OVER before I was looking, I know that for sure ;o).
I do have more excuses than the lack of a decent oven and a thermometer though. First of all, the move and the funny effect it has had on me. I'm feeling somewhat disoriented 4 weeks after the fact, as if reality has finally set in. Then there's the task of copying what seems like a 100 documents a day, for insurances, financial advisors, mortgage brokers, the contractor and the architect. We're still stuck without an internet connection at home, an have no telephone to beat (I'm so not amused about this). Then there's the fact that I have the most horrible cold and I'm painting my piano which has kept me awfully busy in my 'free' hours. I promiss to at least blog about those results soon. For now, I'll hide in my corner, allowing myself to wallow in self-pity for a little longer :o). But not for too long, I promiss!!

Cranberry bar cookies and the 'new' oven

2008-01-14T06:30:00.000-08:00

This weekend I finally found some time to think about baking for a change. Things have been crazy with the move, finalizing the sale for our 'old' house, trying to turn the rental house into something that resembles home for the next 10 months, and building plans, contractor meetings and whatnot.

So back to baking. I was so pleased to find an oven in the rental place, and one that looked that it hadn't been used much to boot. The only thing that concerned me was the less than precise temperature knob. Right on the knob are the indications for temperature. What is problematic, is the fact that the distance between 100 and 200 degrees the same as the distance between 200 and 350 degrees, and the same as the distance between 350 and 400 degrees (??). Yes, I scratched my head a couple of times over that too.
I had used the oven twice before, to bake frozen mini-quiches, that admittedly took me 50 minutes to bake instead of the usual 30 in my left-behind oven. I decided right then, that I would not make cookies first, because I feared ending up with either raw or overbaked cookies.

I came across this recipe for cranberry-bar cookies, in Fine Cooking magazine Issue 82. I probably raved about thsi issue before, and I'll do it again. It is magnificent, and you should have a copy in your library :o).

The recipe states you need to partially bake the crust (20 minutes), add a cranberry topping and streusel, than bake another 25. First bake is at 325, second at 350. Setting the oven was a challenge in itsself. I followed the recipe, took out the crust after 20 minutes, even though it looked a little too raw. I added the topping and the streusel, and checked after 20 mintes. Raw. I kept checking at 5-minute intervals, until the whole thing had baked for 60 minutes instead of 25 and I had turned up the heat. It was the strangest thing, still only slightly pale, golden would be a stretch. But it was presentable and quite nice, even though I found it a tad dry. I loved the filling though, and think it will be lovely in any kind of linzer-like cookie or torte. I'll have to think of what to bake next, which has to be something that can withstand serious oven-abuse ;o).

Apricot crumb cake

2008-01-02T22:48:00.000-08:00

As promised, I'm coming back to share my mother's recipe for this fabulous, home-style comfort food :o). It is called 'kruimelvlaai' in Dutch, ('kruimel' = crumbs, 'vlaai'= a typical pastry made in the southern part of the country, where it is eaten on every possible occasion that calls for the smallest celebration ;o))

I usually double this recipe and fill a rimmed baking sheet with it, but the recipe as is, can be used to make a 10 inch round (I use a fluted pan with removable bottom) or a 9 by 13 inch rectangular pan. The pan needs to be buttered.

Kruimelvlaai

For the dough:
• 250 grams (8.75 oz) self rising flour
• 100 grams (1/2 cup) of sugar
• 100 grams (7 TBS) of unsalted butter, softened
• 1 large egg
• salt to taste

For the crumbs:
• 125 grams (a little less than 4.5 oz) self rising flour
• 100 grams (7 TBS) unsalted cold butter, cubed
• 100 grams (1/2 cup)of sugar (I sometimes use vanilla infused sugar)
• salt to taste
• optional: cinnamon or speculaas spices to taste

Filling(adjust to your liking):
• pureed apricots (I usually use 2 large cans of apricots, drained, per recipe
We have also succesfully made it with cherries, plums, peaches and vanilla
custard, but we like the tang the apricots give best. Of course, fresh apricots
are to be preferred, but you can only buy them for about 4 weeks in the summer.

Method:

Mix ingredients for the dough with a cool hand until a smooth dough forms (this also works in a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, mix on low speed and no longer than necessary).Wrap in foil and let firm up in the fridge for at least two hours (or up to three days).
Mix ingredients for the crumb topping, using your fingertips to rub the butter into the dry ingredients, forming crumbs (this can be made up to three days ahead and stored in the fridge).
Puree the apricots or prepare other fruit you're using.
Butter the pan.

Preheat oven, I mostly use my convection setting on 350 (180°C), but if you're using upper/lower heat, set the oven to 390 (200°).

On a floured surface, roll our the dough and fit it in the bottom of the pan. Don't worry about tearing, just patch it up and pat into the pan to form an even layer.
Spread the filling over the dough, leave a rim of dough on the sides to prevent the filling from sticking. Sprinkle crumbs evenly over filling, covering it completely.
Bake until golden brown, 30-40 minutes. (If double the recipe, it might take 40-50 minutes).
Let cool completely in the pan. Cut into squares or as desired, directly from the pan (remove rim if using a pan with removable bottom).
This is best eaten the next day. It keep for at least three days, and freezes beautifully.

Enjoy!

Now I don't have a picture to show you exactly how wonderful this looks, but it is a true favorite of all of us. I made a double recipe to have something on hand during the move, and it was very much appreciated. It's not fussy because it keeps well and doesn't have to be stored in the fridge.

We're slowly trying to adjust to living in a very different place that doesn't feel like home yet. It does have everything we need though, and will certainly do for the next 8-10 months when the house is being built. I cannot wait for the new kitchen!
Meanwhile, the rental place does have an oven that has barely been used (judging from the way it looks on the inside). I've been testing the waters with 'safe' things, like baking quiche and pizza, and so far, apart from everything taking a lot more time than the oven in the old house, it works. I hate guessing for the right temperature (it has a know that you turn to faded numbers indicating temperature), but I'm sure I can learn to deal with it :o). I'm browsing my new books, trying to find something not too complicated for the weekend!

Merry Christmas

2007-12-25T11:50:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas to all of you! I hope you all have a wonderful day, shared with family and others that are near and dear to you, and that you have some fabulous dessert :o).

Here things are a little out-of-the-ordinary, to put it mildly. The past days have been a whirlwind of packing, cleaning the rental house, hauling things over, figuring out what to do first, worrying, making a million calls and running errands, and all the excitement that comes with moving and adjusting to a new place to live. The actual move will start Dec. 27th, and until then, we're trying to relax a little and celebrate Christmas with our families.
Now that my oven is back, I simply could not resist to use it for *something*. So I made a nice lemon cake and paired it with vanilla poached orange segments and lemon curd for a Christmas trifle. It was lovely. Also, I made a big batch of spiced/sugared nuts as gifts to our dads who both adore nuts. It couldn't be simpler and they are just a lovely snack, best eaten straight from the oven. (whisk 1 egg white with a teaspoon of water until frothy, add 1 1/4 lbs of mixed nuts, stir in a mixture of 1 cup sugar and 1.5 tablespoons of cinnamon, and bake at 250 for 50 minutes to an hour). Here they are before baking:
Because I think that we can all appreciate something nice during the whole moving process, I have prepared the dough and streusel for an apricot crumb cake, that my mom has been making since forever and we all love. It makes a big sheet, so there will be plenty to go around and it keeps well too, so I know it will be good for a couple of days. And that will be the last of my (soon to be someone elses) oven I'm afraid.
My husband gave me two magnificent new baking books (The art of the cake and the latest Carole Walters book on muffins, scones and coffeecakes and the like) and I'm itching to try all kinds of complicated new recipes. The rental has an oven, and it looks barely used, but it has yet to be discovered how well it works. For now I'm just glad it is there!

I'll probably be offline for a couple of weeks while we struggle with our internet provider, but I'll be popping in here and there for sure. See you soon, and HAPPY NEW YEAR to all!!
Thank you all for reading my stories, your comments, and your cheering up and cheering on when needed :o). One resolution for next year is for sure to bake lots and blog about it!

Sold!!!

2007-12-18T22:44:00.000-08:00

Not a baking report, but just a quick YIPPPPPPEEEEEEEE to say that we sold the house! I'm finishing my nephew's birthday treats tonight, and after that, my better-than-ever just repaired and returned oven will be unemployed to leave room for packing and moving. We have 10 days, yikes....!
Thanks for all the good vibes and finger crossing!!

Withdrawal syndrome

2007-12-16T07:51:00.000-08:00

Living without an oven just isn't for me. After two weeks, I KNOW. And so does my husband (trust me on this ;o)). I pleaded with the repair guy. And pleaded and pleaded, and there was nothing he could do he said. His changing story about different parts didn't sound very plausible to me, but he has the power and I still don't have an oven. So I pleaded with my mom. And my sister. With a lot more succes I must say ;o). So I ended up with 4 batches of cookie after all (yay!!). First I prepared a double batch of sugar cookie dough, to make cut-outs for my nephew's upcoming birthday. After testing at least a dozen different recipes, I'm sticking to my tried and true that contains a hefty dose of cream cheese. It might be a little harder to work with, because it's kind of sticky, but the taste makes up for it. I sprinkled the leftover dough with cinnamon sugar, pearl sugar and almonds and cut out stars, trees and wreaths and voila, instant Christmas gratification :o). I will use them as teacher gifts this upcoming Friday.
Then today I made one of my all time favorites: Rose Levy Beranbaums linzer jam-filled thumbprints. I filled them with homemade blackberry jam. And because chocolate is always appreciated, I made another batch of Fine Cooking's chocolate crackle cookies. All cookies are securely tucked away into the freezer for the holidays, and will be used for gift-giving as well. Happy Holidays to all of you, and here's to a sweet New Year!! Please send some good vibes our way on the house, because the day after tomorrow we will FINALLY know if we're packing up this week or not...

Marshmallow & Fudge

2007-12-09T07:42:00.000-08:00

What do you do when you want to bake but have no oven? You make do with candy :o).
I have been wanting to make fudge for a long time, and the one time I tried it, the taste was nice but it was so crumbly that cutting it into blocks was simply impossible. So I looked for a foolproof recipe and found two, one on the Scharffenberger site, and the other was shared by Adele, who sais she found it on the can of the evaporated milk she used. So I got cooking! The first I tried was simply sweetened consensed milk and chocolate. It turned out beautifully, although I doubt I prefer it over plain chocolate.
The next one I tried was the evaporated milk recipe, that I mixed with milk chocolate and peanuts, having peanut clusters in mind. This one was more crumbly, and even sweeter, but prefered over the other by my test team. For good measure I made another batch of the first recipe and added kirsch-soaked dried cherries and cranberries. Very nice as well.

Now that I finally found a readily available substitute for corn syrup, it was time to start cracking on making marhmallows again as well. I fell in love with this candy the forst time I made it myself. There is something about that billowy, cloud-like slab of sweetness that just is irresistable to me. This time I made them with raspberry puree, and a little added straight cranberry juice to get the color a little more pronounced and just because I love cranberries :o). They turned out delicious, the fruit flavor definately shines through the sweetness. Now I really should cover some of these in bittersweet chocolate and they would be nothing short of perfect.

Other than this sweet explosion, I finally seem to have realized it might just be possible that the house will sell (final word on the 18th of this month) and that means I have to PACK! I have been in serious denial all this time, kidding myself that it would not make sense to start packing when the deal is not finalized. But now I realize that if all goes well, we'll have to pack up the entire house in EIGHT DAYS. And those eight days include Christmas. And we won't be packing on Christmas day. It hit me like a ton of bricks and I started organizing my pantry, removing things that are past their expiration date, making a plan to eat as much as we can to save us from moving it all (and that included making another 15 jars of jam in an attempt to clear out the freezer). We even looked at the rental house Saturday, and it is ehhh... awful. Truly awful. It is dark, old, small and not well kept, and that is just putting it mildly. And filthy, but that can be fixed. The good news is, it has an (old) oven that should work.
I guess we are in for a new adventure :o).
And just to make sure that the move won't be easy, we got word on the oven (needs a disgustingly expensive repair) and our fence in the yard broke down. Now all we need is for the roof to start leaking and the party will be complete. Who said selling a house was easy??

Royal icing plaques

2007-12-05T00:23:00.000-08:00

My nephew's 10th birthday is coming up, and now that I have no oven, it was the perfect time to start playing around with some ideas for treats he can take to school.
I have made cupcakes for at least 6 times in a row, so I thought cookies might be a nice change. And I love decorating cookies, so this is a treat for me as well. I looked for a nice design to go on a cookie, and found this one, that is pictured on my favorite mug:
I have done this design before for thank you cookies and thought they might make a fun birthday treat as well. I just cut out a part of the box the mug cake in, and traced over it so I had a nice 'template' for making sugar plaques. If you are good at free hand drawing, you wouldn't have to use a template. As I am terrible at it, I need it :o).
So I made a batch of royal icing (1/2 lb of powdered sugar mixed with one large egg white until stiff and no longer glossy) and colored a part of it black to make the outlines with. I slid the template under pieces of silicone mats that are perfect for this type of work. Parchment also works though. I piped over the lines of my template using a pastry bag fitted with a number two (Wilton) tip, and let it dry for an hour or so. Then I thinned down some royal icing with a few drops of water, tinted it pink, and started filling in the nose section:
Key to making this work, is to let sections dry COMPLETELY before starting flooding in other sections with different colors. If you don't, colors will bleed into each other, and it doesn't look as pretty. So I let the noses dry overnight, then filled in the eyes section with thinned, untinted royal icing. As the nose was dry, I added a little dot of white on the nose as well.
At this point I could also proceed with flooding the neck section, as it only borders the already dry nose area. For this I tinted thinned down icing with a color called egg shell yellow, and I tinted a little bit dark brown. I completely filled the section with the yellow, than let some drops of brown fall rondomly into it, swirling them a little bit into the yellow. Because you want the spots to blend in, you do this while the yellow icing is still fluid. I simply used a tiny spoon to spoon some icing in the neck section, than used a very fine paint brush to disperse it evenly and also into all the corners. Make sure there are no holes, as it will reduce the strength of your plaque. So here we stand now:
I let this dry overnight as well. I saved my yellow and brown icing for the next day, making sure it was sealed airtight. All it needs the next day is a nice stir, and maybe an extra drop of water. Now comes the tricky part: the head section. It is tricky because the spaces that need to be flooded are small and are harder to fill in neatly. Smaller spaces are also prone to developing holes because of airbubbles. For this I use a thin paint brush. I make sure my icing is thin enough to spread, and not too thin to make a watery, overflooding mess. I let it 'string' off my paintbrush and fill in the gaps that way. It is kind of elastic if it's not too thin and works beautifully that way. Of course, you could also use a pastry bag fitted with a number 1 or 2 tip for this, but I prefer the brush. I use a toothpick to drag the icing into small nooks and crannies:
Fill in the ears with the brown icing, and let your brush with brown icing 'kiss' the ears of the giraffe to make spots or dots:

As the eye sections were already dry, I could also pipe on the eyes at this point. I used the same icing I made the outlines with, piped on black dots for eyes, and flattened them slightly with a paint brush:
For a little extra glimmer I brushed the white dash on the nose with a little luster dust:
So now you just have to let it dry completely (again overnight is best) and very carefully remove your plaque from the silicone mat. What I do is take it to the end of the table, and let the plaque extend a little over the table while I slowly pull the mat from underneath. Always make sure most of the plaque is still on the table (turn it and pull on other ends). If you want to use it standing up, to top a cake or cupcake, for example, you turn the plaque around, lay a toothpick on it, and flood the whole back with thinned white icing, making sure the toothpick is flooded in. This will strengthen your plaque considerably. If you want to put it on a cookie, like I did, just pipe a little unthinned royal icing on the back, and gently position the plaque on the cookie.
Of course, you could also do the whole proces of filling with colors directly on the cookie, but because of the drying time, I don't like to do it on cookies that need to be eaten. I have done it with cookies I used as Christmas ornaments, and then it looks like this:

Gingerbread townhouse cake -part 2

2007-11-30T22:46:00.000-08:00

The cake is done! And on its way to 2 dozen weekend-working collegues who are going to perform the taste-test :o).
If you want to give the cake a go yourself, go to http://www.marthastewart.com for the recipe and instructions and tell me what you think.

As I wrote before, I was quite well prepared for finishing this cake. I had the genoise in the freezer (it held up beautifully) the daquoise at hand (you can definately keep it for more than one day, unlike the recipe states), the soaking syrup in the fridge and all cookie decorating finished. What was left was making the buttercream and constructing the cake. So I read the directions twice, and started the buttercream. I have to confess I don't have a lot of experience with buttercream, as it's not the first type of filling I turn to when making a cake. I prefer ganache and pastry cream type fillings over buttercream, but you have to venture out and be open to new things, and a gingerbread-flavored buttercream can only be good, right?
So I started heating up eggwhites and sugar in a double boiler. I was armed with my candy thermometer and followed the instructions to the letter. Let it warm up sufficiently, then started beating the crap out of it in my beloved stand mixer (that deserves the name 'thunderbird' for the noise it produces, but is simply THE best ever). It behaved as promised, turned paler, thicker, stiffened up nicely, only, after 15 minutes it didn't seem very cool. It wasn't much cooler after 20 minutes either. What to do? According to the recipe it should be ready for adding butter at this point, and being nervous of overbeating the stuff, I hesitantly started adding the butter. More so, because the recipe said that if the mixture gets too cold, it might curdle. Definately didn't want to deal with that. So I added the butter by the tablespoon as directed, and it looked all fine and dandy, except it still wouldn't cool.
This is when I started to get the icepacks and wet towels out. It didn't help one bit. I don't know what it was, but it stayed warm and when all the butter was added I had a soupy concoction at hand (granted, it tasted great). I tried to calm myself down, having visions of running to the store yet again and buying yet another dozen of eggs and 2 lbs of sugar. I figured I had nothing to loose and put the whole bowl in an ice bath, stirring gently. It got more manageable, never curdled or broke down, so I closed my eyes, took a deep breath and started slathering it on, waiting for disaster to strike. And guess what, it was all fine and it just stiffened up beautifully in the fridge. Victory!!

After this ordeal, I noticed time was running away from me. I still had to bake the last batch of cookie dough I made earlier that morning, before my oven was hauled out of the house for a check up (WHAT was I thinking?). And of course the oven had to be cool again and cleaned before pick up. So I baked cookies, ran around frantically trying to clean up the kitchen that looked like a battlefield at that point, while at the same time trying to look in control when waving at the neighbor who was looking at what I was doing from outside the window ;o).
I got it done, everything looked reasonably normal and tidy, when with 15 minutes left before the repair guys came, I thought I'd better unplug the oven. Then I couldn't find the plug. I called my husband at work, who told me I needed to look for the plug in the basement. When I did just that, I remembered we had recently covered the pipes and cords and all that pretty stuff with a piece of plywood twice my size. It was screwed in position with what seemed like 79 screws. At this point, I was in hyperventilation mode. My husband was trying to calm me down, telling me to give it a try and if I couldn't manage, he'd jump into the car that very moment and be over to rescue me. So I got going, screwing as if my life depended on it. I somehow managed to move all the boxes in front of the darned wall, get the board down without breaking it or hurting myself (don't ask me how I did it), and finding the plug. Of course I couldn't reach it and I climbed on a rather wonky construction, stuck my hand into a cobweb-covered black hole, trying to find the plug. And I did, thankfully. I banged my head and was covered in cobwebs, but I did it a full three minutes before the arranged pick up time.
I washed my face, combed my hair, tried to look in control once again and calmly made myself a cup of tea ;o).

Is it even necessary to say that the pick up only happened TWO FULL HOURS LATER? That I tried to decide whether I could start that cranberry curd, to use up some of the 21 egg yolks in my fridge, or not, for two hours? I guess everything worked out eventually, but that was one crazy day. The curd turned out, the cookies turned out, the cake was in the fridge, and the oven got picked up. Now I'm left with a big hole in the oven cabinet and the kitchen is just empty without the oven. Of course I can only think of dinner options that need to be prepared in the oven. And I want to bake bread and scones and everything else like I will never get another chance. It's official: I'm really crazy.

But, this is getting awfully long and I still haven't talked about finalizing the cake. The thunderbird was in full swing again this morning at 6.00 a.m., whipping up a batch of 7-minute frosting (again that didn't cool, what's up with that??). I slathered it onto the cake that still looked in fine shape, pressed in the cookies, took a few snapshots, listened to my husband who was insisting he was running late, made breakfast and hauled husband, cake and breakfast into the car and drove off.
So what have I learned in the proces?
1. Selling a house is stressful
2. Selling a house is awfully stressful
3. Preparing for a possible move is extremely stressful
4. Do not make this zillion-component cake when you don't have a lot of time on your hands.
5. Do not try to bake another batch of cookies 15 minutes before your oven gets hauled off the house. There WILL be other occasions.
6. I still love to bake, it keeps me both sane and insane :o).

Without further ado: here's the master piece:

Gingerbread townhouse cake -part 1

2007-11-29T11:14:00.001-08:00

As soon as I received the december issue of Martha Stewart Living and saw the cake on the cover, I knew I HAD to make it. It is beyond gorgeous. I have always loved gingerbread and have made so many houses and other structures I lost count, but what did it for me this time was that the cookies surrounding the cake reminded me of Amsterdam town houses. So I looked up the recipe in the magazine without even looking at anything else. And there it was in all its glory. Three different frostings (gingerbread buttercream, 7-minute forsting and royal icing), two different cake components (a genoise and a walnut daquise) and of course, the cookies, which are made from two different doughs.
Almost 40 eggs and over 3 lbs of butter. Now is that impressive or what??

The hard part was finding an occasion to make it for. I couldn't justify two people having a sliver of cake, not knowing what else to do with the rest, looking at these ingredients. But then, Marco had to work three weekends in a row, and his collegues make a perfectly sized group for sharing. Plus, they love baked goods :o).
So I got going. I prepared the genoise Sunday, and *loved* the recipe, judging on the scraps I tried. It's in the freezer now, and we'll see how it held up tomorrow. Then I got going on the cookies, and honestly, they were a pain in the you-know-what to make. Two kinds of doughs, that need to be mixed, chilled, rolled out, frozen, cut out, frozen, decorated with windows, refrozen, and baked. A dozen cookies took me almost three hours and they weren't even decorated at that point. I ran into a little trouble with these cookies. YOu are instructed to cut out windows and doors to decorate the cookies with, contrasting the types of dough to create more interest with the different colors. What should have been noted though, is that the dough for the windows should be rolled THINNER than the dough you cut your templates out of, because the thicker windows distort the cookie shapes when baking. I swear, the minute I saw it happening, I was reminded of the same problem I had with these cookies that have appliqué dough as well (also Martha Stewart ;o))
But, as I said, it was only until I saw my cookies bend out of shape that I remembered having seen this before. And I wasn't about to spend another three hours on 12 cookies. So I tried to cut somewhat cleaner edges, and froze them.
Today I got them out and decorated with royal icing, and I have to say, in spite of the fact that they are prone to breaking on top of everything else, they are so cute that all is forgiven :o).
Here are the results, pictured next to the cookies in the magazine:
So that leaves the buttercream for tomorrow, as well as the construction of the cake. The daquise layers are also ready to go (and they gave me grief also, one has broken into more shreds than I care to mention), and I'm determined to make this a succes. So determined, that I'm getting up at 5.30 a.m. on Saturday to make the 7 minute frosting and get the cookies up before Marco leaves for work around 6.45.
And after that, I'm afraid I'll have to come up with some baking solution, as my oven will be removed from our house for a repair tomorrow.
What in the world am I going to do with myself without an oven?? And if nothing else, I need to keep up with my blog! The last word hasn't been spoken on this issue yet, that's for sure!

Kirsch-Nuss-Striezel

2007-11-24T01:51:00.001-08:00

I found this bread in a German magazine and knew it would probably make a good alternative to stollen (which I happen to love and Marco hates ;o)). It's a yeasted bread, filled with a mixture of cherry jam, dried cherries, an apple and nuts. And very easy for such a festive outcome, I must say, even more so if you have a powerful standmixer that will do your kneading for you. I liked the result so much that I'll post the recipe here:

Kirsch-Nuss-Striezel (cherry nut bread)

1 scant cup whole milk, warmed (225 ml)
1.5 oz fresh yeast, or 1.5 envelopes dried yeats (42 g fresh)
4 TBS butter, melted (50 gr)
3.5 cups flour (400-450 gr)
salt, to taste
1/4 cup sugar (50 gr)
1 egg
1/2 c walnuts or pecans, coarsely chopped (75 gr)
1 apple, peeled, cored and finely chopped (200 gr)
2 TBS cherry jam (40 g)
2 oz dried cherries (50-75 gr)

1 egg yolk, for glaze

Crumble yeast into luke warm milk, add melted butter and egg and stir to break up the egg yolk. Mix flour, salt and sugar, then add wet ingredients. Knead until smooth and pliable, adding more flour of dough is very sticky. (I used my stand mixer and let it go for 5-10 minutes, I could see the dough improve during kneading).
Let dough rise in an oiled. covered bowl in a draft free space until doubled in volume (approx. 45 minutes).
Roll out dough on floured counter, into an 8 by 24 inch rectangle (20*60 cm). Spread filling onto dough and roll up jelly-roll style. Cut dough in half, and intertwine two halves into 'braid'-like shape.
Let rise for another 20-30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 375°(convection setting) or 400° upper/lower heat. (175°C convection / 200°C upper/lower heat). Bake for 35-40 minutes, if bread browns to quickly, drape foil over to prevent from overbrowning. Bread is ready when it sounds hollow when tapped.

Enjoy!

Chocolate makes you happy!

2007-11-23T08:12:00.000-08:00

This week we got a call from or realtor, telling us we might have sold our home. That's right, MIGHT. We know for sure in about 3 weeks, but this time things might actually work out. I was in denial for three days, determined to not let this get to me, as the last time we heard a message like this, it ended up not being true after all, and I didn't enjoy that rollercoaster ride much.
But all of the sudden, it hit me that *if* this time it's for real, I have a heck of a lot of work to do. And probably months and months ahead of me in a rental house without an oven. So yes, I did start to pack a little (how many baking related things can a person have??), but I'm also determined to make the most of the time I have left with my treasured oven :o).
As Marco has to work again Saturday morning, I decided he and his collegues needed a real pick-me-up and I went all out with a decadent chocolate cake.

The recipe for the chocolate cake was recommended by Heather (and I trust every word she sais after that awesome shortbread recipe), and the frosting came highly praised by Marie Louise. The frosting, together with a cake that resembles the one I tried, can be found at the Scharffenberger website. I'll post it here as well:

That Chocolate Cake

This recipe is from the book The Essence of Chocolate, Recipes for Baking and Cooking with Fine Chocolate (Hyperion, 2006), the story of Scharffen Berger chocolate. The introductory notes say, “If you could only have one recipe for chocolate cake, this would be the one.” With a recommendation like that, how could we not share it with you?

Ingredients:

Cake

Unsalted butter and flour for pans
2 cups granulated sugar
1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
¾ cup Scharffen Berger unsweetened natural cocoa powder
1 teaspoon salt
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
½ cup canola oil
1 cup whole milk
1 cup boiling water
Frosting

1-1/4 cups granulated sugar
1 cup heavy cream
5 ounces Scharffen Berger 99% Cacao Unsweetened chocolate, finely chopped
8 tablespoons (4 ounces) unsalted butter, cut into ½-inch pieces
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Method

For the Cake:

Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly butter the bottom of two 9-inch round cake pans. Line the bottom with parchment paper, then butter and flour the parchment and the sides of the pans.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the sugar, flour, cocoa, salt, baking powder, and baking soda, mixing on low speed. Min in the eggs, oil, and milk.

Increase the speed to medium and beat for 2 minutes. Reduce the speed to low and mix in the water. The batter will be soupy.

Divide the batter evenly between the cake pans. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean.

Remove from the oven and cool on a cooling rack for 5 minutes, then turn the layers out onto the rack and cool completely.

When the cakes have cooled, check the frosting. It should have the consistency of mayonnaise. If it is still too thin, allow it to cool longer.

For the Frosting:

In a small saucepan, combine the sugar and cream and bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Reduce the heat and simmer for 6 minutes. Add the chocolate and butter and stir until melted. Pour into a bowl and stir in the vanilla.

To Frost the Cake:

Place one cake layer on a serving plate. Spread the frosting with a hot palette knife or icing spatula to give the frosting a beautiful shine. Run the knife under hot tap water and dry with a towel. Spread about ¾ cup of the frosting over the top of the first layer. Top with the second layer. Spread the remaining frosting over the top and sides of the cake, heating the knife again as necessary.

Serves 8 to 10

Doesn't the name alone make you want to run into the kitchen and try it? Anyway, I lucked out and found Lindt unsweetened chocolate while doing some grocery shopping this morning, and that pretty much sold the deal. I was a little suspicious (I seem to be suspicious often when baking, LOL!) of the cup of boiling water that needed to be added, as well as the 2 1/2 cups of sugar my recipe called for, but I always make a recipe as written the first time I try it. The cakes baked up beautifully, in spite of my inferior 9' cake pans. I can't believe that I have a zillion pans, and do not own a decent 9' cake pan, but I digress. I made the frosting, and was suspicious again, as it looked somewhat soupy. But after an hour or so, it had a nice consistency, and I used it to frost the cake. I spread beautifully into a shiny, smooth layer, and the smell of the cake and the chocolate frosting is just intoxicating. I thought it looked a little naked with just the frosting, so I sprinkled it with chocolate curls, and the result is pretty impressive, if I do say so myself. So I suspect that even if they have to work on the weekend, some people will be pretty happy tomorrow. And so am I, now that I'm smelling of chocolate myself, after what might be one of my last rendez-vous with my oven :o).

Thank you hearts

2007-11-20T11:23:00.000-08:00

So tomorrow is the day when two collegues and I say 'goodbye' to our current department at work. We'll still be working for the same institution, but it's a big change nonetheless. One that needs to be marked with a small gathering and a small token of our thanks to the people we've worked with in the past 4 years. I thought cookies would be appropriate, and hearts the perfect shape, to say 'thanks'. So here is the result after three nights of baking: almond filled cookies:

And brownie hearts:

Filled speculaas hearts:

And shortbread/sugar cookies dipped in chocolate and sprinkled with hazelnuts:

I'm hoping the people at work will enjoy them and have a sweet little moment with the cookies :o).

For good measure, I'm adding the recipe for the brownie hearts, which came from the Martha Stewart site:

Brownie hearts and brownie bits
Makes 12 hearts
Prep time: 20 minutes
Total time: 1 hour

After you cut out the hearts, roll the brownie leftovers into bite-size morsels. Once coated with cocoa or sugar, they resemble truffles. You'll get about forty-four bites.

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
2 1/2 cups packed light-brown sugar
6 ounces unsweetened chocolate
4 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
Confectioners' sugar, colored sugar, cocoa, or crushed toffee bits, for decoration

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Butter the bottom of a 9-by-13-inch baking pan; cut a piece of waxed paper to fit the bottom, and press it onto the buttered surface. In a large microwave-safe bowl, combine butter, brown sugar, and chocolate. Microwave on high for 1 minute; stir. If the chocolate is not softened, continue to microwave at 10-second intervals, removing before it's completely melted.

2. Beat eggs and vanilla into the melted chocolate with a wooden spoon. Beat in flour and salt. Pour the batter into the prepared pan, and smooth the top. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out almost clean, 35 to 40 minutes. Let cool.

3. Run a knife around the edge of the pan. Turn the brownie cake out onto a baking sheet, and flip over onto a work surface. Cut out the brownies with a 2 1/2-inch heart-shaped cookie cutter. Dust with cocoa if you like. Form the scraps into 1-inch balls, and roll them in the coating of your choice.

Variations: If you don't have a heart-shaped cutter, you can cut the brownies into squares or other shapes. If you like, add one cup chopped nuts to the batter, or decorate the top of each brownie with a whole pecan or walnut.

All kinds of baking

2007-11-18T07:40:00.000-08:00

I tried a lot of new recipes and yet I don't have even one picture to show for it, but I can still report on my progress ;o).

Yesterday we had invited friends over for dinner, and I found this recipe for the cutest little appetizer quiches in Fine Cooking magazine (it's in number 82 and I promiss you this issue of one of the best ever published). You basically make a traditional filling of bacon, leeks, eggs and cream, and use puff pastry for the crust. The puff pastry is rolled out, cut into small circles that fit the wells of mini-muffin tins, filled with a tablespoon of filling and then frozen. You bake them frozen, and in 25 minutes you have a very festive looking appetizer, best of all, it was really delicious. We were so enthusiastic about it we're going to try it with different fillings (we love salmon-broccoli) and make sure we have a stash in the freezer with the holidays approaching and all.

For dessert, I made a classic crumb cake, also from a Fine Cooking magazine. I always find crumb cakes a little on the dry side, and wanted to put a layer of pureed apricot in between the cake and crumb part. I think apricot is the perfect tangy counterpart for cakes like this, but, I ran out! There wasn't an apricot left in the house (not even a can! the horror!), so I had to improvise and filled half with a seedless forest fruit jelly, and the other half with an apricot jam that didn't have any sugar added. The result was decent, but I know I would have *loved* it with apricots. Will make it again the *right* way (grin).

Then, I have this bake-a-thon coming up because two of my collegues and I are switching departments at work and there's a little 'goodbye' thing going on wednesday in our current department. So I've decided to bake heartshaped cookies, bag them in pretty cellophane bags and add a tag that says 'a heartfelt thank you'. I'm making chocolate dipped sugar cookies, heart shaped brownies (both are ready in the freezer), and heart shaped filled speculaas and almond filled cookies (see earlier post). I'm definately taking pictures of the whole project, so that report will follow sometime this week.

Then it will be time to think about the holidays, and my nephew's 10th birthday. It is my honor to make him treats to hand out at school every year, and it gets harder and harder to come up with something original. It must be some kind of cupcake with a nice decoration, but after the ones I've done I'm running out of ideas. If you have any, please don't be shy! For good measure, I'm adding a few of the treats I baked for earlier birthdays, so this entry won't go picture-less after all. First are jungle cupcakes:

Next up: snowmen cupcakes (sorry for the bad picture):

And reindeer cupcakes:

Last, a couple of birthday cakes for him:
Pirate ship:

And dragon cake:

Caramel macadamia nut chocolate tart

2007-11-11T12:47:00.001-08:00

As I said before, a caramel macadamia nut tart also was part of the weekend cooking and baking fest. I made this for dessert, for a lasagna, salad and tomato bread diner party. Somehow we ended up with other guests than planned, but it turned out to be a very nice evening anyway :o). This tart comes from Fine Cooking magazine, issue 82, which I think is one of my favorite issues ever. The lasagna took a long time to prepare, but was worth every minute. And I knew this tart couldn't be anything else than a winner when I saw the recipe. You make the crust, completely bake it, then prepare the caramel, sprinkle toasted nuts on, let cool, and prepare the chocolate layer. Before serving, you whip up some heavy cream and creme fraiche and sprinkle with additional nuts. I really liked the tart, but thought the chocolate was a little overpowering to the caramel, which could have shined more (it was delicious on its own, with the pronounced vanilla flavor and the nuts). But, when I added the dollop of cream (which I usually avoid as much as I can), it surprisingly came together perfectly. It mellowed the chocolate out a little bit, making it more balanced. Still, the caramel was a little washed out by the rest. I think the 70% chocolate was a bit much, and 50-60% would have been better, but all in all, it was a lovely dessert. I didn't hear any complaints for that matter.
Next week I'm definately trying other desserts from the same issues, because one is more tempting looking than the next! Stay tuned :o).

Tomato-garlic bread

2007-11-11T00:44:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I made this wonderful tomato-garlic bread, that I found in one of Jamie Oliver's cookbooks. The book has a basic recipe for yeasted bread, followed with flavoured variations on this master recipe. I make this variation often as a small appetizer before dinner, and serve it with herbed butter, olive tapenade or a bread dipper. It makes a great sandwich too, or, lightly brushed with olive oil and grilled, a perfect starting point for bruschetta.

The recipe starts with roasting 2 lbs of tomatoes, fresh basil and a bulb of garlic (drizzled with oil seasoned with salt and pepper) in the oven for an hour, so some planning is essential. After roasting, the mixture is pureed and to be used as the liquid in the basic recipe. I sometimes add sliced sun dried-tomatoes for an extra flavour boost.
One recipe yields two loaves, but yesterday I discovered I still had half a batch of the pureed tomato mixture in my freezer, so I made 9 small rolls, which was a beautiful presentation also. It saved me so much time I'll always roast double batchesw of tomatoes now to freeze and have on hand whenever the mood strikes. Oliver bakes them in tomato cans, which also looks festive, but I never tried that variation. I never seem to have enough empty cans on hand ;o). The bread has a wonderful soft texture, stays fresh for at least a day and also freezes beautifully.

Macadamia dulce de leche biscotti

2007-11-10T13:56:00.000-08:00

As I announced in my previous post, Silvana passed on the most yummy-looking recipe for biscotti, and seeing it has three of my favorite ingredients that make a combination I just adore, I knew I had to try it. Unlike the 'dunking' biscotti kind that can be bone dry (and lovely, don't get me wrong), this recipe includes a stick of butter, which I think makes them more of a decadent American cookie and less biscotti-like, taste-wise, if that makes sense. Anyway, she was kind enough to let me share the recipe here as well, so without further ado, here are my new favorite not-so-biscotti-like biscotti:

Macadamia Dulce De Leche Biscotti
2 ⅓ Cups All-Purpose Flour
1tsp bp
¼ tsp salt
1 ½ c macadamia nuts roughly chopped
1 c commercial white chocolate chopped aprox ½ inch pcs (Use the cheaper commercial kind if you want dulce; it caramelizes while baking and toasting Lindt and the better stuff not so much!)
1 c dried cranberries (or apricots) plumped in vanilla vodka (or alcohol of choice)
¼ lb (1 stick) of butter at room temp
1 ¼ c sugar (I used just 1)
3 eggs

Preheat oven to 375
In a bowl stir together dry ingredients.
Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
In a small bowl, lightly whisk eggs, then add to butter mixture in a slow steady stream
add any leftover vodka, and incorporate briefly
Fold in flour in 3 additions just till incorporated
lightly fold in nuts and fruit
Prepare 2 baking sheets with parchment and scoop dough out with spatula onto baking sheets equally in long logs
Wet hands and smooth down sides and top of logs flattening as you go to about ½ thick. Logs will spread while baking. Leave at least 3” space around them (keep wetting hands as you go; it prevents the soft dough from sticking.
Bake logs in preheated oven until a light gold color about 18 minutes. Remove from oven and cool for 10 minutes. Transfer to a cutting board as soon as cool enough to handle slice with a sharp knife into slices ½ inch wide. Arrange back onto the parchment lined sheet, making sure to leave room between the slices. Bake until lightly toasted and the edges start to turn golden. Let cool completely on the baking sheet

Just a few notes to this recipe: I soaked my cranberries in brandy I have been infusing with vanilla beans and it added a nice touch. The cookies are on the sweet side because of the white chocolate (I just chopped a large block of white Lindt chocolate), but to me, the combo with the macadamia's and the cranberries is nothing short of perfect. I love them (as did my husband).
And after learning our house didn't sell after all, what's a girl to do but do some mean therapeutic baking and cooking? So a report on Jamie Oliver's tomato bread and a Macadamia nut-caramel-chocolate tart (Fine Cooking magazine), which were on the menu also, will appear here shortly. And before anyone starts to worry: we didn't finish all these goodies just between the two of us. Everything was shared and much appreciated :o).

Cookies, cookies

2007-11-03T11:08:00.000-07:00

After a frantic week of possibly selling our house, and possibly not having sold it after all (we still don't know), preparing for an open house that was planned before all the hectic set in, I tried to calm myself with baking. It always does the trick, plus, there's the added bonus of a lovely smelling house :o).

Again, my inspiration came from the Fine Cooking forum, and, of the Fine Cooking magazines. I found a biscotti recipe that called for apricots and lots of ginger, and knew I would make my mom pretty happy with those, so I decided to give it a try. Let's just say Silvana inspired biscotti baking (thanks Silvana, and I'm trying your macadamia nut biscotti soon!)

The recipe is out of FC 75, the cookies are called gingerbread biscotti.

10 oz (2 1/4 c) AP flour
1 1/4 c packed dark brown sugar
2 tsp ground ginger
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp nutmeg (I used cloves, I hate nutmeg)
1/4 tsp baking soda
4 oz (1 c)pecans coarsely chopped
4 oz dried apricots (1/2 c) coarsely chopped
1/4 c molasses
2 large eggs
2 tsp finely grated orange zest.

Position rack in middle of oven and preheat to 350. Line a large cookie sheet with parchment. In a stand mixer with paddle attachment, combine floour, brown sugar, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, nutmeg, salt, ginger and mix to combine. On low speed, briefly mix in pecans and apricots.

In a measuring cup, mix eggs, molasses and orange zest. With mixer on low, slowly pour in egg mixture. Mix until well blended and dough comes together in moist clumps, 1-2 minutes. Divide dough in two equal piles and shape into 10 by 1 1/2 inches logs. Shape with floured or slightly wet hands (dough is sticky). Position logs 4 inches apart and bake 30 - 35 minutes. Let cool on rack until cool enough to handle, about 10 minutes. Slice with serrated knife into diagonal slices, 3/4 inches wide. Bake another 10-20 minutes on baking sheet, to desired dryness. Store in airtight containers after cookies have completey cooled.

My notes: the second bake I only baked them for 10 minutes, yet they are quite crunchy. Seeing the recipe has no butter, I think they'll end up bone dry no matter what. The flavor is excellent though. A really wintery, spicey cookie. I think that dipping in bittersweet chocolate would be a nice addition, but they are good without as well.

Next up were the dark chocolate crackle cookies, out of the latest FC issue (I can assure you this recipe is worth the prices of the magazine all by itsself).
The recipe calls for cocoa, melted chocolate, and chocolate chips and adds orange zest for some extra flavor and interest. The end result is a deeply chocolatey cookie, with a hint of orange. This is definately on my list of new favorites (I'm so psyched to have discovered so many of those since starting this blog!). Karen told me she used espresso instead of the orange, and I'm trying that the next time I'm making them, as I know it will be a fantastic flavor combination. So without much more ado, here are the cookies, dressed up for festive occasions :o).

I bet these would make a great Christmas gift!

Hopefully, in the next week we'll learn more about the house selling or not, so until then, please send some house-selling vibes our way!!

Italian shortbread

2007-10-27T00:30:00.000-07:00

Looking for something new to bake, as usual, I asked the ladies and gents at the Fine Cooking forum what they were baking. Heather mentioned an Italian shortbread she had tried and liked a lot. She was also kind enough to share the recipe, and I'm doing that here as well:

Italian Shortbread with Almonds and Jam
Desserts: Mediterranean Flavors, California Style
by Cindy Mushet

Yield – 6 – 8 servings

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon pure almond extract
1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup apricot jam or other not-too-sweet jam (I used strained raspberry jam)
1/3 cup sliced almonds

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and set the rack in the middle of the oven. Have ready a 9-inch ungreased fluted springform pan. (I used a 4” by 13” tart pan with removeable bottom)

Beat the butter and sugar on medium speed in a stand mixer for 3 to 4 minutes until very light, scraping down the sides of the bowl and the paddle from time to time. Add the almond extract and beat on medium speed for 30 more seconds to blend.

In a small bowl whisk the flour and salt together. Add to the butter mixture and beat on low speed to combine, just until the dough is thoroughly blended, 30 to 40 seconds. The dough will be stiff. Remove 1/2 cup of dough and spread it on a small plate in a thin layer; place it in the freezer.

Press the remaining dough into the pan evenly – it can be a little higher at the edges, but the center shouldn’t be elevated. Spread the jam evenly over the dough to within an inch of the edge. Retrieve the remaining dough from the freezer and crumble it over the jam. Sprinkle the almonds evenly over the top.

Bake the shortbread for 40 to 50 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove from the oven and let cool completely on a rack before removing from pan.

Cut the shortbread into serving sized triangles. (Can be frozen)

Despite the fact that I have made more cookies than I can ever recall or count, I haven't made much shortbread. I always thought it somewhat boring, with just the butter, sugar and flour, and ventured more into the -studded with nuts, chocolate and everything else you can imagine- category.
I am so glad I tried this one though. It is very simple to prepare, and just very delicious and interesting with the jam and almonds. This recipe made my top ten of favorite cookie recipes easily, and I know I'll be making it often from now on.
I was looking for a rectangular pan to bake it in (like Heather did) and had to increase my ingredients because I didn't have a small enough one. It was no problem at all. I bet you could easily double the recipe too, and freeze part of the cookies (Heather said they freeze beautifully) so you always have something nice at hand for unexpected occasions.
I used store bought cassis jelly, just because that sounded good and it definately was a great choice. But I'm sure this would be nice with any not overly sweet kind of jam (I have some homemade blackberry jam left that I think would be marvelous too). Just another picture in case more convincing is needed for trying this one:

Edited to add that Heather recommends to freeze the cookie as a whole, and only cut them after thawing. I can see how that would help prevent them from drying out. Thanks Heather!

Sugar cookies

2007-10-21T06:34:00.000-07:00

I was suddenly in the mood for plain, sugar cookies and Maida Heatter has just the ticket. The title only made it sound as if I didn't have to look any further: plain, old fashioned sugar cookies. I used vanilla infused sugar, my best vanilla, and looked for some nice cookie cutters that fit the season. And there you have it: delicious cookies in leave and acorn shapes. When they were baked it did think that they looked a bit too 'plain' so I jazzed them up with some nuts and a little chocolate:

Aren't they just beautiful? If you want to give them a try, I just have to warn you that they are not all that suitable for cookie cutters with intricate designs, as the cookies will puff up and lose some of their shape. If you need crisp, clean lines, this is not a suitable recipe. For these acorns it worked perfectly though:

Apple pie

2007-10-20T04:03:00.000-07:00

The markets are still overflowing with gorgeous looking crisp apples, and I realized it had been ages since I made apple pie. So apple pie it was. I have a few favorite recipes that I tend to fall back on. There is the luxurious looking apple pie from Rose Levy Beranbaum's 'Pie & Pastry Bible', where she has you arrange thinly sliced apple slices like a blooming flower. Another tried and true is a recipe for a deep dish caramel apple pie I found on epicurious and have been making many times since. It is sweet, but definately delicious. I was looking for simple this time though, and as the ladies on the Fine Cooking board were raving about Dorie Greenspan's apple pie, while I was about to give up on the book as I hadn't liked the few recipes I tried from it, I thought it would only be fair to give it another go. So many skilled bakers couldn't be wrong!
So I got to work. The crust calls for both shortening and butter, and I personally prefer them over all butter crusts. They are just flakier. The recipe is easy, calls for straightforward foodprocessing of the ingredients, and isn't as fussy as RLB's (which is admittedly delicious, but still fussy). I made a double crust recipe and found my foodprocessor was a bit too small, as the ingredients weren't getting mixed properly. So I dumped the whole batch out, put half back in, and went from there. Went without a glitch :o). I let the pastry rest in the fridge over night, but I'm sure with freezing all ingredients before making it, I could have rolled it out directly. (Great to know if you're pressed for time). I subbed the sugar for brown sugar (great idea) and for the spices I used a mix called 'apple bake' from Watson that my dear friend Jane sent me and which I use only very sparingly.

The crust behaved perfectly when rolling (although I started out lining the pan with earlier prepared sugar cookie dough, wondering how the dough behaved so differently, duh!!). The apples were piled high into the crust, covered with the second crust, painted with cream and sprinkled with sugar. And into the oven it went. The house still smells divine hours later. We tried our first piece when the pie was still slightly warm and we both *loved* it. A winner!! Which means, there is no such thing as giving up on this book yet. I'll have to try more from it now, with newly gained confidence ;o). Here is the master piece:

Even after my oven leading a life of it's own again (it miraculously switches to different settings while baking, this time switching from lower/upper heat to only lower heat, leaving me wondering why the crust didn't brown as quickly as usual) you can see how nicely the crust baked into this flaky, crackly-with-sugar perfection:

Dutch baking

2007-10-14T04:00:00.000-07:00

With fall making its entrance, and speculaas and fall spices popping up everywhere, I was looking for recipes for some nice seasonal treats. I'm a big fan of 'gevulde speculaas' (filled speculaas)as we call it, which is basically a spiced cookie, filled with almond paste, baked into a big slab of cookie that you cut into pieces after baking (you could compare it with a bar cookie I guess).
When browsing my books and the web for recipe, I stumbled onto a recipe for another Dutch treat as well, also using almond paste but without the spices. We call them 'gevulde koeken' which translates into 'filled cookies'. Both came out so well, I decided to post a full report with instructions and the recipe here.
I have to thank Chufi on Egullet, who described the proces and the recipe before. I have slightly altered it to our likes.

Let's start with the filled cookies. It really is a fairly easy process, just takes some time because the dough needs to be chilled and rolled/cut, but I promiss, if you're an almond lover, you will be glad you gave it a try.

This is the recipe and the directions:

300 g / 10.5 oz AP flour
200 g / 1 cup - 2TBS cold butter, cubed
150 g / 3/4 cup sugar
200 g / 7 oz almond paste
1egg

1 egg for egg wash, with a little milk added and beaten
blanched almond halves

Preheat oven to 350 F / 175 C.

In a stand mixer with paddle attachment, mix butter, flour and sugar to form a dough. You may need to add about 1 tsp - 1 TBS of cold milk or water for the dough to come together. Wrap in foil and refrigerate for about an hour (up to a few days)

Mix almond paste with egg.

Roll out the dough on a floured surface, until fairly thin. Cut out rounds with a fluted round cutter. I used a 2.5 inch cutter, which yielded 44 rounds for 22 cookies. Put half the rounds on a baking sheet, and place filling in the middle of each cookie. It's okay to make a mound.

Moisten edges with a little water, put pastry round on top and seal edges. Generously brush with egg wash and put an almond on top. Brush again with egg wash.

Bake in preheated oven for 20-25 minutes, until golden brown. I got them out of the oven twice to brush them with the egg wash again, to give them an extra lovely color. This is how they look right out of the oven:

Now to the filled speculaas, which is basically the same proces, but it's quicker because it is traditionally baked into a large slab and cut after baking. If you're into the cutting proces and like to make individual little tarts, you can follow the same procedure as described above.
The recipe and instructions:
To make these cookies the traditional Dutch spicemix (speculaaskruiden) is used. You can make your own, the spices that should be in there are: cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, ginger, aniseed, coriander, cardamom, in a ratio: cinnamon 3 : cloves 2: nutmeg 2: ginger 1/2: aniseed 1/2: coriander 1/2: cardamom 1/2.

300 g / 10.5 oz of selfrising flour (or use AP flour with 1 tsp baking powder)
150 g / 11 TBS of cold, cubed unsalted butter
150 g / 1/2 cup + 1TBS brown sugar
1 to 2 TBS speculaas spices, to taste (I use 2)
pinch of salt
about 1 TBS milk

350 g / 12 oz almond paste
grated rind of half a lemon
1 egg

1 egg for eggwash, beaten with a little milk or cream
blanched almond halves or slivers

Preheat oven to 350 F / 175 C.

In a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, mix the forst 5 ingredients for the dough. You may have to add the milk to make it come together.

Divide into two parts, wrap in saran wrap and refrigerate for an hour, up to three days (it will stiffen the dough and help to develop the flavor).

Mix the almond paste with the lemon zest and the egg until you have a spreadable mixture.

On a floured counter, roll out one part of the dough into a rectangle (or any other shape you like). Put on a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Spread the almond paste on top, leaving a 1 inch border. It will still be pretty stiff. Carefully spread it over the pastry with the back of a spoon, wetting it to keep the paste from sticking.

Roll out the other part of the dough and place on top. Press the edges to seal and trim all around with a knife to make a neatly shaped log.
Press the almond halves on top and genrously brush the log with the egg wash.

Bake for approximately 25 minutes. Let completely cool before cutting into pieces. This could also be made in a tin or as individual filled cookies.

The speculaas will keep pretty well and improve in flavor. Just store in an airtight tin. Enjoy!!

Fall is here!

2007-10-06T04:20:00.000-07:00

It's fall. The leaves are changing colors, the days are getting shorter, and there's that fall like smell in the air, makes you want to cuddle up inside with candles lit, a hot cup of tea and a nice piece of something sweet. Now what to make? The apples are so beautiful right now, that I just couldn't resist buying them, so I went looking for a nice apple-y cake. I remember making an apple cake from the Lisa Yockelson book 'Baking by flavor'. I haven't tried much out of the book yet, but this recipe had a 5-star rating in the book (added by me ;o)) so I figured it was worth making again.
The recipe calls for 3 large apples, grated, and lots of spices that make me long for december and speculaas (the typical dutch cookie that basically has gingerbread-like spice combinations). So apart from the cinnamon in the recipe, I subbed everything else for a healthy amount of speculaas spices and for an extra kick, I subbed the vanilla extract for cinnamon liqueur I happened to have. When the cake was baking, I wished that there were people in the house for a showing (our house is still for sale) because *I* would buy a house that smelled like ours did at that point in a heartbeat.

M. couldn't wait to try the cake just 2 hours after it was baked and swooned over it, but when we shared a piece for breakfast this morning, it was even better. It's moist, apple-y, spicey and fall-like all at once. I'm sure I'll be making this again and again.

Lemon whoopie pies

2007-09-28T23:13:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a baking day. My mom needed something for an event, and asked for simple and flavorful, and I thought we couldnt' stay behind empty-handed after the effort ourselves. So I made an orange butter cake for mom (sorry, no picture but I will have to post the recipe sometimes because it's fabulous) and for us I made cookies.
I went back to 'big, fat, cookies' and looked for something exciting and ended up at 'lemon whoopie pies'. After the first sandwich cookie I tried, we decided we both loved the concept, and I as had lemons on the kitchen counter, the choice was easily made.

For the cookies, you make a cake-like batter, you put heaped tablespoons onto parchment paper and bake them on cookie sheets. They spread a lot, but bake into nicely puffed sofr cookie saucers with a nice hint of lemon from the lemon rind. But the best part is definately the filling. Lemon juice, lemon rind, cream cheese, butter and sugar. I was sceptical because to me the recipe is 'american frosting', butter beaten with powdered sugar into a gritty mess, but this was nothing like it. There was a very nice balance between the sugar and the tangy lemon (and cream cheese) and just a perfect companion for the cookies. The filling is somewhat runny, and eating the cookie messy, but, after the first bite we didn't seem to care. Definately another winner from this book!

I'm editing this post to add the recipe, per RuthAnn's request :o).
For the Cookies:
1 1/2 cups AP flour
1/2 ts baking powder
1/4 ts baking soda
1/4 ts salt
6 TBS unsalted butter, at room temp.
1 cup sugar
1 ts finely grated lemon zest
1 large egg
1 TBS fresh lemon juice
1 ts vanilla extract
1/2 cupe buttermilk (any fat content)

Filling:
6 TBS unsalted butter, at room temp.
6 oz cream cheese, at room temp.
1 ts vanilla extract
1 ts finely grated lemon zest
2 TBS fresh lemon juice
2 3/4 cups powdered sugar.

Make filling first, because it gets runny and needs to firm up in the fridge a little. With an electric mixer on low speed, beat butter, cream cheese, vanilla, lemon zest and juice until thoroughly blended and smooth, about 1 minute. Add sugar and mix until smooth, about 1 minute. Put in the refrigerator until it is firmer, about 30 minutes.

Make cookies: Sift dry ingredients together and set aside. With an electric mixer, blend butter, sugar and zest until smooth, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Add egg, lemon juice and vanilla, mixing until blended, about 1 minute. The batter may look curdled. On low speed, add half of the flour mixture, mixing just to incorporate. Mix in buttermilk, followed by other half of flour mixture until it is incorporated and batter looks smooth again.
Drop heaping tablespoons of batter onto buttered parchment paper on cookie sheets (I used silicone mats, unbuttered). Space cookies 3 inches apart, and bake at 350 for about 12 minutes. Tops will feel firm and a toothpick will come out clean. With the exception of a thin line or their edges, cookies will not brown. Cool cookies on baking sheets for 10 mintes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Sandwich cookies, using 1/4 cupe of filling for each pair. Wrap cookies separately in saran wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour. Serve cold.
Makes 8 sandwich cookies.
(Adapted from 'Big, fat cookies' by Elinor Klivans)

Nutella truffles

2007-09-28T23:03:00.000-07:00

It was my sister's birthday last Tuesday, and of course I had to make something for her. She's a true chocolate lover, and always tells me 'the bitterer the better', so I was looking for something fabulous and chocolatey for her to enjoy. I browsed all kinds of brownie recipes, flourless chocolate cakes and whatnot, and then all plans for elaborate things somehow ended up in truffles when I ran out of time. I searched Carole Bloom's book (truffles, candies and confections) and when I reached the recipe for Nutella truffles I knew I didn't have to search any further. Even if our tastes have developed into 'more sophisticated things' both my sister and I cannot seem to shake our preference for Nutella, so I forgot about sophistication and just went ahead.

The recipe couldn't be anu easier. A cup of Nutella to half an lb of bittersweet chocolate. Melt chocolate, stir in Nutella, let set intil pipeable in the fridge, pipe into mounds. The trouble was in the piping. I had to remelt the whole thing twice because I couldn't get it to uniformely stiffen into a consistency that was easy to pipe. Running out of time, I worked with what I had and they didn't come out very nicely shaped, but, the taste was there :o). I rolled half of them in cocoa powder and the other half in chopped hazelnuts, for an extra flavour and texture boost. She enjoyed them (as did I), but I think the Nutella taste got left a little, and next time I'd add less chocolate which might make the whole piping thing easier as well.

Dimply plum cake

2007-09-22T14:06:00.001-07:00

With all the plums at the market, the 'plum talk' over at Fine Cooking and most importantly, after my first succes with the NYT plum torte, I decided to give Dorie Greenspan's dimply plum cake a try.

I bought Mrs. Greenspan's book online, even though I never bought a book from this author before and hadn't tried any of her recipes before (at least that I remember). But when you don't have access to fine bookstores with loads and loads of the last cooking and baking books you could ever wish for, that make you think you'd like nothing better than spend the rest of your week doing nothing but inhaling those books, you get desperate. And you let your best intentions of not buying a book that you're not sure you'll definately like and use a lot (and even the tiniest bit of certainty will do) just fly out the window. Just like that.
I started out strong and just read about the book ('Baking, from my home to yours') thinking it would not be anything I need. Neeeeeed need. Not. But the rave reviews kept coming. And then those rave reviews became really mean to me when people started adding pictures. And more rave reviews. And more people telling the world no baker would ever be the same after baking from this book. It was a given, this book should grace the shelves of every self-respecting baker. And I am. And I caved.

I loved it. I loved the pictures, I loved how many recipes it had, and loved the author's writing style. So I started baking after wading through 8 zillion posts about which goods were definately out of this world great. I baked a cake. It was toothachingly sweet to me. I baked cookies. They were toothachingly sweet as well. I maked something else I can't even remember and didn't like it one bit. And I yelled at myself for buying something unseen again. And everybody still thought the recipes weren't overly sweet at all.

I mentioned the plum talk before, and it included the recipe for Dimply plum cake from this book. And I gave it another go. It was dead easy to make. I only tweaked a little, out of necessity. I didn't have an orange to zest, so I subbed the vanilla extract with Grand Marnier in the hope of bringing some orange flavor in (which I love). I decreased the sugar by 20%, just to be careful. And I added some streusel because I loved that with the last experiment too. Okay, now having written that down, it seems more tweaking than I thought, but, it really wasn't awful ;o). And this is the result:

It looks great. The house smelled divine. I did not like it :o(. I thought the cake texture wasn't as light as the NYT torte, which was feathery. This wasn't. There was no orange taste (my bad, I admit), but what I did taste was the sugar. Again, too much for my likes. So I think I've got to give up on this book. I only need to find someone who will appreciate it, because lots of people do and I'm obviously in the minority. And I will definately have to make a new resolution and keep it this time when it comes to ordering books on the internet...

Quiche

2007-09-16T12:12:00.000-07:00

Just to prove that not only sweet things come out of my oven, here's a report of tonights dinner: quiche.
We both love quiche and we have a couple of tried and true recipes that we keep falling back on. One is on epicurious.com, a spinach quiche that we've altered a little after making it several times. Another favorite comes from a co-workers wife, and calls for broccoli and salmon. This time we wanted to try something new. After browsing our Fine Cooking magazine collection the savory tarts in issue 41 caught our eye. There were several variations in the magazine, and we picked the 'cabbage, leek and bacon tart'.

As usual, our planning left a bit to desire. We had figured out this morning that the dough needed to rest in the fridge, so at least we had done that. We missed that it had to rest in the freezer for at least half an hour after rolling it out though, so dinner was late as usual on Sundays :o).
The dough was very easy to handle. It fit my beautiful Emile Henry dish (that I don't use often enough) perfectly, didn't tear and baked up beautifully flaky:

The filling needed some fussing too: the cabbage needed to be cooked, than cut. The bacon had to be cooked, then the leek, and after that the cabbage was added and THEN the whole thing was supposed to cool completely. Well, that didn't happen. After patiently waiting for 5 whole minutes (heh) we caved, threw everything together and hoped for the best.
We weren't disappointed. The tart looked exactly like the one in the magazine, sliced very well and let's just say one of us ate a *lot*. I personally thought the crust could have tasted better, and secretly longed for the beloved spinach quiche. But like I said, one of us declared it a winner and thoroughly enjoyed the experience :o)

The disappearing plum torte

2007-09-16T08:01:00.001-07:00

On Fine Cooking's message board 'cooks talk', the ladies were talking about this plum torte they had tried. Some had tried several recipes and compared them, among them Dorie Greenspan's 'dimply plum cake' and the following recipe from the NYT that was somewhat similar:

Plum Torte (from the NYT - Burros & Levine)
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar, PLUS 2 tablespoons sugar
1 cup unbleached flour, sifted
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 eggs
1 pinch salt
24 halves Italian plums (prune or purple), pitted
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Arrange a rack in the lower third of the oven. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
Cream the butter and the 3/4 c. sugar. Add the flour, baking powder, eggs, and salt and beat to mix well. Spoon the batter into an ungreased 9 or 10-inch springform pan. Cover the top with the plums, skin sides down. Mix the cinnamon with the 2 T. sugar and sprinkle over the top.
Bake for 40 to 50 minutes, until the cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove from the oven and let cool; refrigerate or freeze if desired.
To serve, let the torte return to room temperature and reheat at 300 until warm. if desired. Serve plain or with vanilla ice cream.

Now judging on different results, I thought this torte would fit our likes very well, and seeing I had plums in the fridge that needed to be used up ASAP, I gave it a try.
I think it took me no more than 15 minutes before I had prepared the batter, cut the plums in half and greased the pan (as some reported some problems with sticking) and put the whole thing together. It was dead easy. While putting the butter back in the fridge, I noticed this container with streusel topping I had prepared for a fruit crisp that never saw the light of day the week before, so I decided I'd just sprinkle some of that on as well. And so I did, bravely venturing from the recipe as written, ha!
After exactly 50 mintes, the torte looked done, toothpick came out clean and the house smelled fantastic. To be honest, this is not a dessert you make when you want to have people 'ooh' and 'aah' over your great looking desserts, because mine looked rather errrr, rustic ;o). The topping seemed okay, even if it had weighed down the cake batter a bit, but still, everything was fine.

I couldn't get my husband to wait until the next day (when almost any cake is better tasting in my experience). It was still warm when he ate the first piece. After that, he had it for breakfast the next day, as a snack at noon, and after a quick visit from mom and BIL, the thing had miraculously disappeared before I had even had a chance to think of taking a picture.
Well, that can only mean I'll have to make it again I guess. No arm-twisting needed ;o). It truly was delicious. Sweet cake, tangy plum, and a little extra added crunch from the topping, what else can you ask for?

Hi-hat cupcakes

2007-09-09T00:04:00.001-07:00

I love Martha Stewart. Well, not the woman herself, but the whole concept. I just think that there are so many wonderful ideas and little things to make life a little easier, or a little nicer, or a little sweeter, which makes me check out her website often. And I'm secretly jealous that there's TV-shows to be seen and magazines and books to be bought everywhere in the USA, that I have a heck of a time getting my hands on here in the Netherlands. So, as I said, I look at the website often. And my eye caught the little video on 'hi-hat cupcakes'. When I learned the recipe came from Elinor Klivans, I didn't need much more convincing to try them. Plus, they just looked super cute.

I thought they would be great to share with my sisters family and went to work. The cupcake recipe asks for sour cream, and per the advice of a friend in Germany, I used 'schmand' this time in stead of our Dutch sour cream. It was indeed a lot thicker.
The recipe was quite easy to put together and the batter tasted like chocolate mousse. It was so delicious that I could have eaten the whole batch raw instead of baking it. It was a bit much for the 12 cupcakes it stated it would make, so I let myself be tempted into overfilling the cups. It wasn't that big of a deal, but they would have looked neater if I hadn't. And probably wouldn't have collapsed the little bit they did.

The icing was a meringue that you prepare au bain marie, mixing for 12 minutes with a hand mixer. It came out just as promised, nice and thick, and when I tasted it, it reminded me of the 'melocakes' that I loved as a kid. It was sweet, but to me, perfect. I piped the frosting on thick, then cooled a little in the fridge, and gave the frosting a chocolate coating. And this is how they looked after that:

Aren't they totally beautiful? And I think they tasted lovely too. Like a said, nostalgia with the resemblance of those big 'kisses' I loved as a kid, only better.

To be honest, I would change something next time. When I make them again I will make them bite sized as mini cupcakes. That way, it will be much easier to get both cake and frosting in one bite, making the whole thing even better. And there definately will be a next time!
The recipe can be found on the Martha Stewart website, and you can watch this little video where she shows you how to make them.

Oh, and before I forget, I really do think I neeeeeeed that cupcake book ;o)

Cinnamon sugar snickerdoodles

2007-09-03T08:57:00.001-07:00

The last week of our vacation has begun. I do think it has to be marked with a new cookie ;o). I didn't particularly feel like making the effort to go to the store for ingredients, and browsing through 'Big, fat, cookies', I came up with snickerdoodles that didn't need any fancy ingredients. This is an *easy* cookie to make. And like all things cinnamon, it makes the house smell divine. Nothing is lovely and cozy as cinnamony things in the oven!

Now for the result: this is a lovely, simple, everyday cookie. Fits the bill for a dreary, rainy Monday afternoon!

And finally, a word to those who are reading this blog (assuming you are out there ;o)), please leave me a note and say 'hi', I'd love to chat a little!

Decorated cookies

2007-09-02T06:47:00.001-07:00

Shortly after I discovered my love for decorating cakes, I became interested in decorating cookies as well. My first 'decorated cookie' was a gingerbread house that was in a book my mom had given to me years ago. I had admired it often, just didn't know where to start. After the first one, I baked 4 more in a week, officially hooked. I discovered a whole new world of gingerbread and decorated cookies on the internet, and from that time on, I searched high and low for the most challenging patterns. I am totally in love with gingerbread books by Teresa Layman, by the way, she is a goddess when it comes to gingerbread.

But anyway, back to the cookies. I started using patterns for cake decorating purposes to make cookies, and it worked well. I started collecting books on the subject, and trying out new things whenever I had time. I went from Christmas cookies to 'thank you' cookies, to wedding cookies and favors and everything in between. I once sent a box with 100 decorated cookies to a friend for her wedding in the US (I can't tell you how nervous I was about breakage !).

Now that I have some time off from work which means time to play, I went through my books and favorite websites and made some test cookies. The results are as follows:

I got this pattern from a 'window color' magazine

This one was made with a cookie cutter from 'www.kitchengifts.com'

I found this cookie in Elizabeth Strauss's book 'Confetti cakes'

This shoe can be found in a Peggy Porschen book. I will definately try the other designs in there as well. There's a cute outfit and an adorable purse to go with the shoe.

This is a www.rollingpinproductions.com' design that I copied. I fell in love with this bear a long time ago and think it would make a great Christmas tree cookie with scarfs in various colors.

Last but not least, this tractor cookie for my tractor-loving nephew. I'm trying this cutter out (www.kitchengifts.com) to come up with a treat he can give to his classmates for his birthday.

More designs to come!!

Nougat & the corn syrup saga

2007-08-24T08:12:00.000-07:00

I love nougat. Actually, I love almost anything sweet, nutty, caramel-y and chocolatey, but that's besides the point. I love nougat and was thrilled to find a recipe for it on the Foodnetwork webpage by Jacques Torres, find it here: (http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,,FOOD_9936_18050,00.html?rsrc=search).
I never made nougat before and this recipe looked like a challenge, but I'm all for that. So I tried it, loved it, and never looked back to buying nougat :o). And the only challenge left with this recipe, is cutting the nougat when ready. I'm telling you, it's a work out all by itsself.

Now there's this one little problem. As easily as you can buy corn syrup (one of the key ingredients in the recipe) in the US, I never expected it to be a problem here in the Netherlands. I bought it on vacation in the US a few times, armed with plastic bags and cushioning to not have the stuff spread all over my suitcase, but the nougat was all worth it. But of course I ran out of syrup very soon. I looked everywhere. Supermarkets, asian stores, markets, specialty stores, Turkish stores, you name it, I went there. Without any luck I might add. Finally, one store owner told me there was just 'no interest' in this product and no self-respecting import firm would buy it. I was perplexed. No interest? I am full of interest! But nothing helped. I went to the trusted friends and experts at the Fine Cooking message board, and Adele (thank you!) found me a substitute, for which you basically boil water and sugar to the soft ball stage. So I did. And it looked fine, until the syrup cooled and got a lot harder to handle than corn syrup with its pouring consistency. But hey, I had come this far, I wasn't about to give up.

I found another nougat recipe in a Martha Stewart magazine and bravely fought with the sugar syrup that was almost impossible to get out of its container. I made the nougat, fought another battle when it stuck to the pan, but all was forgotten when I tried it. It's not as good as the Torres recipe, but it's nougat, and what's not to love?

I got out my chocolate equipment, figured this was a good time to polish off those skills as well, and after another battle (the chocolate just did NOT want to behave and the nougat threatened to fall apart), this is the result:

Now I know you have to be in a very good mood to even call this 'rustic looking', but again, it's nougat :o). I think that after all the battling involved these little bars actually aren't half bad. I think a few people will be happy to share them with us, without judging their appearance. So long story short, I'll be making the sugar syrup again, as well as the Torres nougat recipe, and will be giving lots of it away as Christmas gifts. Properly cut and chocolate dipped, that is :o)

Chocolate dipped melting moments

2007-08-20T08:18:00.000-07:00

As I said in my previous post, I made the dough for the chocolate dipped melting moments and today I baked the cookies off. The dough gets very firm in the fridge, and needs some handling for it to get malleable and rollable. You roll out the dough in prtions into ropes, then cut the ropes into pieces, form them into crescents and bake. After baking, they are rolled in powdered sugar, and when cooled off, one end is dipped into chocolate.

When I was rolling the cookies in the powdered sugar, three broke (as the author warned would probably happen). I tasted one of the broken ones, and I liked them so much I got out my favorite 70% chocolate to dip them in :o).

So there you have them. Lovely looking, very delicate and not to mention *delicious* cookies. A definate winner!

Three nut fingers

2007-08-19T02:11:00.000-07:00

I went back to the starting point of this blog, which is 'Rose's Christmas cookies'. I heard people say good things about the 'three nut fingers', had all ingredients on hand and gave them a try. I loved the idea of a sandy, nutty cookie, being a big fan of mexican wedding cakes (I never can stop eating those when they are around). The cookies were very easily put together, baked, and rolled in superfine sugar.

The result is a nice, small cookie with a good taste, but in all honesty I think they're on the dry side. They are a little mealy when you first bite into them, as they fall completely apart in your mouth, until the nutty taste shines through which makes up for that, even if at least partially. I have the dough for the 'chocolate dipped melting moments' in the fridge and will bake them off later.
Aaahh, I love quiet, Sunday mornings, when there really is nothing better to do than bake cookies :o)

Chocolate covered, chocolate chip cookie mud balls

2007-08-11T02:29:00.001-07:00

I know I said I was venturing into other cookie books, but I got stuck with Big, fat cookies one more week ;o). My mom asked me to make her some cranberry/pecan biscotti, and since I was looking up the recipe, I decided to give another chocolate cookie a go, as I had such succes with two others. So chocolate covered chocolate chipe cookie mud balls it was.

Making the cookie was a very unusual proces (at least to me). Ms. Klivans has you bake the cookies, crumble them while the chocolate chips are still in the melted stage, form balls, let the chocolate harden in the fridge, then cover the balls in melted chocolate.
I baked the cookies, this time in my mom's oven, which was kind of hard because it reacts totally different from mine, takes longer baking times and can't be set as precise as I like with my anal tendencies when it comes to baking ;o). So the cookies took longer, spread a lot (not that it's a new thing....) but I just proceeded. I broke up the cookies will still pretty hot and thought it would be a disaster as they seemed greasy. I now realize that it was because they were so hot that the butter couln't possibly have set either. There wasn't a lot of butter in the recipe, so that couldn't be a problem anyway. But they firmed up, I coated them in chocolate, let them firm up again the fridge and they are definately *good*! I did use only half a cookie for each ball to make them not as monstrous, and it was a good decision. They look like somewhat large filled chocolates, and are definately as nice as that. Very rich, chocolatey, and still some crunch from the cookies. I'd definately recommend trying them.

Orange pecan brown sugar cookies

2007-08-04T22:26:00.000-07:00

I've decided that although I didn't exactly stick to my initial plan of baking everything in 'Rose's Christmas cookies', I'm still trying out new recipes, mostly of cookies, so the title of my blog still holds truth ;o). Which menas I can happily blog about any cookie I've tried which is what I'm doing!

This week I made the 'orange pecan brown sugar cookies from 'Big, fat, cookies' to try and make up for last week's disaster. The author describes how lovely her house smells whenever she makes these cookies and it sounded so appealing I wanted to accomplish that as well. These cookies have a lot of chopped pecans and plenty of orange zest to give them flavor. The dough contains no eggs and no leavening and is very easy to put together. I started baking the first batch, and even if Ms. Klivans prodicted a lot of spreading, I quickly feared that last week's spreading fest into pancake-like cookies was happening all over again. We talked about this problem extensively over at Fine Cooking's 'Cooks talk' where it was suggested to increase baking temperature to prevent spreading. So I quickly changed my oven setting from upper/lower heat to convection (as you're supposed to decrease the temperature about 20 degrees, as all cookbooks say) and left it at the same temp. And miracle of miracles: it worked!! The cookies spread less and stayed a cookie-like thickness. Even though sometimes, one of four on my sheet didn't want to behave and spread anyway (strange).
So I think they came out well, at least they looked very appetizing, see for yourself:

Now taste-wise, I was disappointed. Yes they are orange-y, and there's plenty of pecans too. I just thought they were very sweet and not all that interesting. My husband liked them fine, though they're not his favorite either.
I guess I should have changed the title of this blog into 'cookie book journey', because I think I'm ready to move on to another book. I'm glad I still have a lot to choose from :o).

Big, FLAT cookies

2007-07-28T13:46:00.000-07:00

I'd been eyeing the recipe for weeks. Wasn't hard to do, as there's a picture of the cookies on the front cover of the book (Big, fat cookies, that is). It looked like two deliciously thick and cakey brown-sugared chocolate chip studded cookie with a thick ganache layer in between. Heaven. So I started making the dough, and was anticipating greatness when just tasting the raw dough. Heaven indeed. Then I started to actually bake the cookies. The spread, spread, spread some more, only to end up flat as pancakes. No thickness, no cakey-ness, nothing. I chilled the dough. I chilled the sheets, I made the cookies smaller, I took them out of the oven earlier thinking I might have overbaked, all to no avail. I had the filling ready before all the cookies were baked or I would have given up. I sandwiched the cookies anyway (nothing wrong with the ganache), but the end result was *very* disappointing. I blame dutch sour cream consistency, which is supposed ot be thinner than the US kind. Or, maybe I should have just stopped after those first three winner recipes, and let it at that. Still deciding ;o).

Just because I didn't want to accept defeat, I turned some beauties of apricots into a simple apricot cake. It's a Bill Granger recipe. Simple, uncomplicated, and totally relying on the quality of the fruit. Which was fabulous. It didn't look all that sophisticated but was in fact, simply perfect. The tang of the apricots combined with the sweet soft cakey batter (this one did turn out cakey indeed, ha!), just delicious. *That* was worth a picture after all! On second thought, it will be once the site lets me upload the picture. Maybe tomorrow will be a better day all around ;o)

Truckloads of plums

2007-07-20T07:40:00.000-07:00

A very nice coworker of Marco told him to stop by to get some plums, as he was drowning in them and didn't know what to do with them anymore. We went home with three humongous buckets of plums. They are really nice too and completely organic!
So I made plum tarts. It's one of my dad's favorite tarts, and I figured what would be a better occasion that his birthday to treat him to it? So I baked two, in an effort to use up some of the plums (still two buckets left, LOL!). My hands look like I've been working in a coal mine, but the house smells like cinnamon and life is good :o).

That powdery stuff you see on the plums is just the cinnamon sugar, not yet completely melted into the plums. I promiss it's not just icky flour that should have gone in the dough!

I got to make thank you cookies as an added bonus, for which I picked ' chocolate oatmeal cherry cookies' from Big, fat cookis (again) and they are wickedly big and nice. Still not serious competition for those chocolate cookies (will I ever stop swooing over these cookies?!), but nice nonetheless. Hope they like 'em!

Big, fat cookies take 4

2007-07-18T11:14:00.000-07:00

It's official, I can't stop trying out new recipes from this book. I let my husband pick this one, and he chose it because he wanted something 'different'. The lemon butter crumb cookies are basically crumbs that are baked into cookies, with a nice dose of lemon zest to add interest. I worried the dough might be to dry, but it baked nicely into buttery, crumb-y treats. The cookies are quite fragile as the edges tend to crumble off, but they are a nice change from the ordinary. I must admit they can't compete with the chocolate chunk mountains (still in awe over that recipe), but they definately are a nice change. I'm afraid my side track isn't over yet!

Jam session

2007-07-15T05:41:00.001-07:00

I'm an avid jam maker. I don't know how I started this habit, but once I got my first jar made and tasted it, I was hooked for life. I use less sugar than commercial jams, and lots of fresh fruit. Nothing else. Yesterday at the farmers market I ran into some wonderful looking apricots and nectarines. And then I had some trifle berrries left over, that needed to be used. So I made two larges batches, one apricot/nectarine/strawberry and one apricot/nectarine/strawberry/blackberry. We slaved over a hot stove on a hotter than hot day, but the end result is worth it: 20 nice jars of summer in a bottle ;o).

A lot of baking

2007-07-14T08:15:00.000-07:00

Somehow there were just many reasons to bake this weekend. Firs reason was, that my sister and her family were coming back from their vacation, and that calls for baked goods in our family. So I made a huge sheet of my mom's old fashioned apricot crumb cake. It turned out very well, but the picture didn't so I have to come up with a new one before I publish ;o).

Second reason was that we are invited to a dinner party and promised to bring dessert. After thinking long and hard, and avoiding a lot of ingredients that my pregnant friend isn't allowed to have, it came down to trifle. I made a lemon buttermilk cake from Maida Heatter, lemon curd, bought fresh berries at the farmers market, made some raspberry sauce, and voila, everything needed for a very nicy summery dessert.
THe cake is very fragrant and flavorful with a nice texture. I took te opportunity to use my very favorite rose Bundt pan just to show off ;o). End result in the pictures, reviews to follow!

I'm already browing to the 'big fat cookie' book again to try out something new too. Let's just say I want to maintain the wonderful smell in the house!

Big, Fat Cookies

2007-07-13T02:30:00.000-07:00

I'm back in the saddle, but afraid I got distracted by another cookie book that this ' cookie journey' wasn't about. But the results are so great I had to include them here. I made the chocolate chunk mountains, out of the book by Elinor Klivans: Big, Fat, Cookies. And honestly, I was patient and waited a day to taste them, as the book suggested they are best the day after baking, but now that I have I can say these are fantastic. I could think of 10 other words to describe them, and they'd all come down to the same conclusion, that they are magnificent cookies. They are thick, big, extrenely chocolatey and the smell is intoxicating :o). How could they be anything but wonderful with 23 oz. of chocolate for a recipe that makes 23 cookies? I know these will be in my favorite cookie recipes of all time, at a high ranking ;o). I guess I'm not done making recipes out of this book yet!

Nothing much

2007-07-08T23:02:00.000-07:00

In spite of the fact that I had picked out recipes, bought ingredients and was ready to bake, nothing much happened over the weekend. I did manage to make last week's biscotti again, this time with apricots and almonds, but that's as far as it went. I also reduced the sugar with 10%, the difference wasn't noticeable to me. We liked the cookies again, but I have to say I preferred the cranberry/pecan version. I'm not the biggest almond lover I guess! I will definately play around with the recipe more.
The chocolate cookies I had planned on will have to wait a couple days more, but that's what having a house on the market does to your cookie baking efforts...;o) Cleaning is a necessity!

Biscotti and Patties

2007-07-01T08:21:00.000-07:00

I was having the hardest time deciding on what recipe to try next from the book. Somehow, I wasn't in the mood for anything I saw. So I put it back on the shelf and noticed another, very unused cookie book sitting next to it, and it was calling my name ;o). It's 'Big, fat, cookies' by Elinor Klivans. My husband commented that the cookies pictured on the front looked great, so I made them. Also, I came by a recipe for biscotti that looked interesting enough to try as well. So here's my report!

The biscotti recipe had many choices on add-ins, and I picked dried cranberries and pecans that I had just stocked up on. I love biscotti, but sometimes they are just a little too hard to my liking, mostly when they totally lack butter. I'm all for low-fat cookies, but not when they don't taste good because of it. This recipe called for a few tablespoons of butter, but still not too much. I didn't make them as big as the book directs you to, and I didn't bother with the complicated way of adding the dried fruit to the dough (just mixed everything right in). I have to say this might be number 1 on my biscotti list. They are truly delicious. Crispy, but not tooth-breaking hard. Studded with nuts and dried fruit, simply delicious. I'm going to try them with dried apricots and almonds next.

Next recipe I tried was called 'Peppermint patties'. Now I didn't have the peppermint extract called for, and my husband asked me to not make it peppermint no matter what I did, so I just made the butter/sugar filling a vanilla one. I made the cookies slightly smaller (two-fisted in size seemed a little excessive ;o)) than the recipe stated. The verdict: sweet, chocolatey, goodness. They are definately not a little in between snack, and are aslo sweet, but the chocolate cookies, chocolate glaze and buttercream filling blend together wonderfully. They are best when served cold, like the author suggests.
I'm thinking this book deserves further test baking and could become one of my favorites!

Macadamia white chocolate chunk cookies

2007-06-22T11:49:00.000-07:00

Even if this cookie does not come from the book I'm following, I wanted to share this one because it was the first american cookie recipe I made, and the one that has since haunted me ;o). My husband and I were vacationing in Florida for the very first time, when we bought a bag of Pepperidge farm cookies. We picked the macadamia nut version, because we truly had never heard from the nut before and wanted to try it. We bought bag after bag after eating that first cookie, and when we got home, I wanted to make them at home so we could keep on enjoying them.

A friend came to the rescue and found a copycat recipe on the internet. It was only months after that, that I finally tracked the nuts down in a supermarket in Germany (luckily, they are readily available all over Germany, just not here in the Netherlands). I went back to the recipe, tried to convert the cup measures into the metric system, and started baking.

The cookies did not taste like the ones we bought, but they were great. The people we shared them with have all been crazy about them. My BIL, who is definately the biggest fan, calls them 'killers' and that's what we all call them now. Since then, I've baked them for gatherings, as thank you's, as hostess gifts, as pick me ups for friends, you name it, I used it as a reason to share them. When I took pastry classes, I shared them with my class mates, and one of them introduced them in the restaurant he worked in where they serve them with coffee after dessert.

Years later, I discovered that in calculating grams for cups, I miscalculated the amount of nuts and chocolate. The original recipe had a ginormous yield and I halved it. I forgot to halve these two ingredients and I think that is what makes them extraordinary.

The recipe is very forgiving, you'll just have a little trouble making sure you get some dough with the nuts/chocolate :o). These freeze beautifully, and even the dough freezes well. Just portion them (I use a cookie scoop) before you do. I try to refrigerate dough balls for at least an hour or two before I bake them.
Enjoy!

Pepperidge farm Sausalito cookies (copycat recipe with alterations)
1 cup butter, softened
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp salt (I omit as I use salted nuts)
2 1/2 cups of flour
12 oz chopped white chocolate (I prefer big chunks)
3 cups chopped macadamia nuts (I only chop roughly).

Preheat oven to 375 F. Grease cookie sheets (I use parchment or silicone mats).

Cream together sugars, butter, egg and vanilla (I use stand mixer with paddle attachment).
In another bowl sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt (I never do this, I just dump everything in with the creamed butter mixture). Mix until just blended. Add chocolate and nuts and briefly mix or stir with a wooden spoon. Form into 1 inch balls and place on cookie sheets 2 inches apart. Bake for 10 minutes (I actually bake them 12-14 minutes as we are of the crunchy cookie lovers' camp!).

Cashew puffies

2007-06-20T11:12:00.000-07:00

Another recipe that does not require much effort and can be whipped up quickly and easily. The recipe calls for unsalted cashews, but I was too lazy to wash and recrisp mine, so I just threw them in, salt and all, and omitted the salt called for in the recipe. I creamed butter and sugar, added egg and vanilla, then the sour cream and got suspicious about a good outcome as the batter separated/curdled at this point. It came together when the flour was added, but I've seen too many pound cake batters curdle before my eyes (I'm seriously cursed when it comes to pound cakes for some reason) to know it can be disastrous. Anyway, proceeded as directed, baked, test tasted and plain didn't like them. I found them rubbery, dry, and overall pretty much uninteresting. The taste of the mellow cashews just didn't stand out in the sweetness of the dough. No spices to add some interest either. I won't be making them again, easy or not! I rate them 5 (out of 10), my husband said 7. Makes an average of 6, which makes it the least liked recipe so far. Oh well, can't win 'em all, right?

Mahogany buttercrunch toffee

2007-06-18T07:10:00.000-07:00

I made this last Thursday, when I was in the mood to whip something up but didn't have a lot of time. Plus, I had the (very few and basic) ingredients on hand which helped in picking this one too :o). Basically, this is toasted nuts, cooked caramel and chopped up chocolate. Easy peasy!

I toasted the amount of blanched, sliced, almonds called for, and chopped them in the food processor. Spread half the nuts out in a rectangle on a Silpat, cooked the caramel, poured it over the nuts and sprinkled the hot caramel with chopped chocolate. I used milk chocolate on one half, and bittersweet on the other. When that melted, I spread it out and sprinkled the other half of the nuts on. I just left it on my kitchen counter until the next morning. I was surprised to find the chocolate still wasn't very firm (it had been quite warm all day so the kitchen wasn't exactly cool), but a few minutes in the fridge cured all problems. I could easily break it into pieces then, only lost a lot of nuts in the proces. It appeared that a lot of the first nut layer hadn't stuck to the caramel layer, so it wasn't as nutty as I'd wanted it to be.

All of this had to be done in quite a hurry, so much that I didn't get to take a picture and didn't get to taste it. My husband, who took it to work, reported that he thought it was the best recipe I had tried so far, and that his coworkers agreed. So I definately will have to make it again. I think I'll use hazelnuts next round, and chop them very coarsely or not at all, to have the extra nuttiness in each bite :o). I'll make sure to take pictures then!

Next up: cashew puffies.

Peanut butter and jelly jewels

2007-06-10T08:22:00.000-07:00

I remember making this cookie before. It was one of the first recipes I tried out of this book, just because I was fascinated by the use of peanut butter in almost everything edible in the US ;o). I mean there's peanut butter crackers, cookies, ice cream, peanut butter as a dip for veggies, apples, peanut butter pretzels, I don't even know what else, but I know there was a lot! So back to the cookies. The first time I tried them I used the chocolate filling, and I honestly don't remember what the outcome was then. So I did them again, this time with the cherry jelly, because after all, this is about trying new things, right?
Dough was easy enough. I creamed everything, chilled the dough, formed balls as directed (although I messed up the size, because I only got 40 instead of 60 cookies), made the holes, and those dough balls kind of cracked even after chilling. But, I just went ahead and they came out fine. I wasn't pleased with the cherries in the jam I bought, so I used canned cherries to top the cookies with and boiled down the jelly as directed to coat.
I have to say the cherries made for a lovely contrast and a nice presentation (and much 'fresher' than chocolate could have been in this case) but this wasn't one of my favorites. Just too much peanut butter, a little too sandy, a little too fall apart-y, just not my favorite cookie. I say 6, my husband sais 8 our of 10. On to the next!

Laura Brody's chocolate phantoms

2007-06-03T08:50:00.001-07:00

It was time for chocolate, and these cookies looked very promising with the macadamia nuts and all. I have to say, when I was making the batter (that is mainly chocolate, just an oz of flour!) I kept thinking they were more of a fancy candy than a cookie. I used a combo of 55% and 70% chocolate because I didn't want them to turn out too sweet. I must say that this was *fabulous*. Very chocolatey, not sweet, lots of nuts, and slightly chewy. When I open the container I stored them in, the chocolate smell is overwhelming. But then, what else could you expect of a recipe that calls for an lb of chocolate?
We both rated them 8 out of ten. Very, very good!

Mother Bauer's buttered rum cookies

2007-05-27T06:30:00.000-07:00

Next recipe in the cookie journey, picked beacuse I want to keep varying the types of cookies I make. These are rolled out cookies, filled with a rum flavored buttercream.

I have to confess I didn't follow the recipe exactly as written. The cookie dough calls for a small quantity of grated almonds (I used store bought ground almonds as they are a finer grind which I prefer texture-wise) and, to enhance the almond flavor: -gasp- almond extract. Well, almond extract will never make it over the footstep of my house, let alone the kitchen. I hate it with a passion. I have tried it on two occasions, and threw both batches of cookies I used them in, in the trash because I detested that horrible extract. I can smell it from a mile away. So I just left it out. You have to stick to your principles sometimes ;o). Be glad I'm not getting into my true feelings for nutmeg at this point, ha!

Back to the cookies. I loved making these. But then, I love the whole rolling and cutting proces. The fun starts when you begin to decide on the perfect cookie cutter for the task. My husband doesn't believe me, but I actually didn't have the cookie cutter that was used in the book, so I used a butterfly cutter, a VW beetle cutter and some undefined shape that I wasn't thrilled with when they were done.
The cookies look beautiful, are again very delicate and flavorful. I thought the filling wasn't a lot, so I skimped and then had leftovers. My rating of the cookie was 7 (out of 10), because I did find them a little too sweet. My husband rated them 8 out of 10.
We both decided that the next recipe will be one that has chocolate!

Birthday intermezzo

2007-05-26T01:20:00.000-07:00

Not considering the fact that I turned another year older (well, technically it's only a day), I *love* my birthday. I love having a special day, I love doing something nice, and most of all I love going to see my mom and wish her a happy birthday as well, because we share birthdays. So yesterday was another lovely birthday, and in order to celebrate, I had to bake.

I decided that cookies weren't birthday-ish enough and wanted to make something else. I talked to mom, and we both agreed we need something with lots of whipped cream, and something that doesn't even come close to whipped cream, in order to please everyone in our (small) family. So I made the much requested hazelnut genoise filled with praline whipped cream, topped with caramelized nuts to please the cream lovers, and, as mom, my sister, my husband and I detest the whipped cream blobs, a lovely fresh strawberry pie. Granted, it is filled with vanilla pudding that was lightened with a bit of whipped cream, but there's no need to tell anyone ;o).

The cookie journey to be continued in the next entry!

Jeanne Bauer's Maple Macadamia Bars

2007-05-20T08:07:00.000-07:00

Next stop in the journey: maple macadamia bars. I picked them mainly because I hardly ever make bar cookies. I think cookies need to be portioned, formed, dropped, whatever, but cutting just doesn't make the whole thing feel cookie-like. Oh well ;o). We love macadamia's, so that alone was reason enough to try them.

The recipe has you make the crust and the filling (nuts/caramel-syrupy concoction) separately. Crust was easy enough to put together, but after the first step, the blind bake, my foil that held the beans stuck to the crust, tearing pieces out of it. Oops. As well as I could, I got the stuck parts off the foil, put them back where they belonged and pretended I didn't know it happened. I though at this point the crust was very thin (as in too thin). I baked it some more, and prepared the filling. Sprinkled the nuts on the crust, poured the syrupy stuff all over it and baked some more. At this point, the whole thing looked quite suspicious. It seemed too dark brown, bubbled all over (as the recipe said it would), just looked funny. I took it out of the oven, let it cool, while worrying I would definately have to peel the foil that I lined the pan with off of the cookie, in tiny shreds. Also, I thought they'd become rock hard.

No such thing. The foil peeled right off (in one piece!) and they cut beautifully. The crust is buttery, flaky, yummy-ness. The filling is sweet, nutty, yummy-ness ;o). Yes, we both loved them and both rated them 8 out of 10. A definate winner !

Rose's crescents

2007-05-17T07:24:00.000-07:00

Was the next recipe to try. I picked these cookies because something plain, buttery and sweet most often turns out to be a favorite for me. Before mixing the dough, that called for a small amount of blanched, sliced almonds that had to be ground, I wondered if I should toast them. As the recipe didn't specify that, I skipped the toasting. The dough had to rest for two hours in the fridge, then had to be portioned, cut and formed into crescents. It was a bit time consuming, but fun anyways :o). The dough seemed to work better when chilled, so I stuck the cookies in the fridge after molding, waiting for their turn in the oven. I was a little suspicious because the little dough crescents didn't even resemble the picture in the book, but just carried on.

I baked them (specified time was exactly right), rolled them in superfine sugar combined with cinnamon as directed, and they looked as if they had come right out of the book. I personally found them delicious. One of the most delicate cookies I ever tried. Buttery, sweet, and a hint of almond (and I decided the cookie would benefit from toasting the nuts first, so I'll do that next time). I rate them 8 out of 10, but my husband labeled them 'good but a little dry' and said 7 out of 10.

Now off to pick out the next recipe!

Cocoa Brownies

2007-05-11T09:01:00.000-07:00

I picked the cocoa brownies for round one of the cookie journey. Mostly because I had all ingredients on hand, they seemed pretty straighforward and simple to make, and because my husband loves brownies. I have never understood the brownie hype, but that might have something to do with the fact that brownies are just not very well known here in our neck of the woods.

But, back to the recipe. Preparation was as easy as it seemed, and the brownies baked up beautifully, making the house smell wonderful. I cut them a few hours later, and tasted a few of the unevitable crumbs. Let's just say I thought they were okay ;o).

My husbands coworkers on the other hands totally loved them, without being very critical and telling him what they specifically liked/disliked. I'm going to have to make them be more critical next time! But I guess that round one was a good one. Next up are crescents. They look like a wonderful, plain, cinnamon scented cookie. That one's for me :o)

Introduction

2007-05-08T07:05:00.000-07:00

I have been interested in baking for quite some time now, and was looking for a new challenge, a 'project' that would inspire me to do new things. I thought long and hard on what the project should be like, until I read a blog where a lady worked her way though a Maida Heatter cookie book. The idea was so appealing to me, that I started browsing through my own cookbook collection, looking for a book that somehow stood out to me. The winner was Rose's Christmas Cookies by Rose Levy Beranbaum. I have tried a few recipes out of the book, and liked the results a lot. An added bonus for me is, that all ingredients are listed in weights, and the author's approach to baking, eye for detail and precise descriptions fit me like a glove.
So I decided to give it a go myself, and try to bake my way through (at least most) of the recipes.

Now I will just have to form a test panel, to get some different tastebuds involved besides our own to achieve more objective ratings :o). I'll try to make a recipe each week, time permitting, and will post results and hopefully pictures here.

Stay tuned!