Easy Dinner Rolls

I know, it would have been nice had I made this post prior to you all preparing your Thanksgiving dinners.  I am very sorry and will continue to beg your forgiveness...

My go-to recipe for basic dinner rolls can be found here.  It's the base recipe for yeasted rolls on the King Arthur Flour website.  You could follow the recipe exactly, but here are the alterations that I routinely make:

1.  I use olive or canola oil instead of butter in the rolls
2.  Since I always have potatoes around but never potato flakes, I mash enough boiled potato to equal the volume and adjust the water a bit to compensate for the additional moisture
3.  I make eight giant rolls, and cram them all into one 9" pan

Cranberry Pumpkin Bread

Cranberry Pumpkin Bread

based on The Joy of Cooking

1.5 c all purpose or white whole wheat flour
2 t ground cinnamon
1 t ground ginger
.5 t freshly ground nutmeg
1 t baking soda
.25 t baking powder
1 t salt

.33 c milk

6 T butter
1 c sugar
.33 c brown sugar
2 eggs
1 c pumpkin puree
1 t vanilla extract

2 c fresh cranberries
.5 c toasted pecans

Preheat the oven to 350F.  Grease and flour a 9x5" loaf pan.
Combine and sift your dry ingredients.  In a stand mixer, cream the butter and sugars until fluffy and well combined.  Beat in the eggs one at a time, then add the pumpkin puree and vanilla.  Once mixed, alternately add the dry ingredients and milk, beginning and ending with dry.  Fold in the cranberries and pecans, and transfer to your baking dish.  Bake until a pick inserted in the center comes out clean - about one hour.

Quite Possibly the Best Cake Ever

I've always been a fan of raw apple cakes.  My mother made a very tasty one when I was growing up and it was my favorite dessert.  It was even relatively healthy and could easily be made vegan.  It's definitely the best vegan cake I've ever had, and I still use her recipe when I simply need cake but have no eggs.

This, boys and girls, is not her recipe...  While hers is just as good, this one is loaded with butter and simply irresistible.  It is not vegan, and it is not healthy; I figure this is the uptown version of the down-home cake of my childhood.

The following recipe comes from Dorie Greenspan.  For those of you who don't know, she's a food writer and cookbook author who splits her time between the States and France.  Her recipes are reliable, approachable, and a great way to expand your baking prowess without having to break the bank on specialty ingredients.  The only changes I make are to cut the apples smaller and use brandy instead of rum.  Enjoy!

Marie-Hélène’s Apple Cake 

¾ cup all-purpose flour

¾ teaspoon baking powder
Pinch of salt
4 large apples (if you can, choose 4 different kinds)
2 large eggs
¾ cup sugar
3 tablespoons dark rum
½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Generously butter an 8-inch springform pan and put it on a baking sheet lined with a silicone baking mat or parchment paper.

Whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt together in small bowl.

Peel the apples, cut them in half and remove the cores. Cut the apples into 1- to 2-inch chunks.

In a medium bowl, beat the eggs with a whisk until they’re foamy. Pour in the sugar and whisk for a minute or so to blend. Whisk in the rum and vanilla. Whisk in half the flour and when it is incorporated, add half the melted butter, followed by the rest of the flour and the remaining butter, mixing gently after each addition so that you have a smooth, rather thick batter. Switch to a rubber spatula and fold in the apples, turning the fruit so that it’s coated with batter. Scrape the mix into the pan and poke it around a little with the spatula so that it’s evenish.

Slide the pan into the oven and bake for 50 to 60 minutes, or until the top of the cake is golden brown and a knife inserted deep into the center comes out clean; the cake may pull away from the sides of the pan. Transfer to a cooling rack and let rest for 5 minutes.

Carefully run a blunt knife around the edges of the cake and remove the sides of the springform pan. (Open the springform slowly, and before it’s fully opened, make sure there aren’t any apples stuck to it.) Allow the cake to cool until it is just slightly warm or at room temperature. If you want to remove the cake from the bottom of the springform pan, wait until the cake is almost cooled, then run a long spatula between the cake and the pan, cover the top of the cake with a piece of parchment or wax paper, and invert it onto a rack. 

Carefully remove the bottom of the pan and turn the cake over onto a serving dish.  Serve with lightly whipped cream if desired.

Reminders of Spring

I always thought of strawberries and rhubarb as quintessential spring flavors- peaking in June and a faded memory by the time summer ends.  Not so for me this year!  Here it is, approaching mid-September, and my strawberry patch has produced a goodly amount of fruit, and my friend's rhubarb plant needs thinning...

To bring these two ingredients together with a seasonally appropriate flavor profile, I decided to make a crisp (you know, crisp like a fall day etc).  I made the streusel with brown sugar, flour, blanched almonds (ground coursely), and some powdered ginger to give a little zing.

I'm going to refrain from posting a proper recipe because, to be honest, I estimated everything.  But, I will suggest a few ideas that will help keep your next crisp, well, crisp:

- choose your thickener wisely; flour takes longer to thicken and loose it's starchy flavor than refined starches (such as corn or potato) do, and the faster you can secure your liquid, the less soggy your topping will be.
- if you're using a high moisture item (like rhubarb), think about macerating it with some of the sugar for about an hour, then draining off some of the excess liquid.
- consider baking your fruit mixture for about twenty minutes before adding the topping; this will reduce the overall moisture content in the filling.
- make sure to use enough topping to make a rather thick layer; there will always be a soggy bit right next to the fruit, so if you want any crunchy bits, you have to put quite a bit

Rosemary Olive Oil Cake

I serve it with yogurt mousse.  It's good with tea.  And that's all I have to say since there's one piece left calling my name.

Last Minute Birthday Cake

At 2:00 on Sunday I received a phone call.  It was kind of a kitchen-style 911. 

Caller:  "Help!  I'm on my way to the outdoor store with my husband, it's his birthday, and I don't have time to make a cake!"
Me:  "Never fear!  I can make it happen in time for dinner if you'll let me raid your chocolate cupboard!"

(disclaimer: the caller is a very close friend of mine, who happens to live next door and keeps a ridiculous stash of Guittard chocolate)

The birthday boy loves him some chocolate- the last birthday cake I made for him was a plain sponge layered with a variety of chocolate mousses and I needed to do something different...  I didn't want to do chocolate on chocolate with a chocolate frosting, and I know that they enjoy coffee with dessert.  I decided on dark chocolate layers with a coffee-caramel mousse and a bittersweet chocolate glaze. 
 

Not bad for such short notice.
Oh, and check out the manly floral arrangement...

The Macaron

It's the new rage.  It's delicious.  And unless you live next to a fantastic patisserie, you probably can't find a good one.  There are recipes all over the blogs, and I am here to provide you with yet another method to help you figure out this little bit of cookie madness!  The ingredients are pretty much always the same, in similar proportions, with similar methods...but it seems that everyone has their own little twist...

A macaron is a traditional French cookie made popular by Pierre Herme, a seriously famous pastry chef in Paris that deserves every bit of his acclaim.  The outer shell is essentially a meringue enriched with almond flour.  It is often colored to give a hint of what the filling is.  Fillings range in every flavor from fruit preserves to flavored ganache.  My most successful fillings so far are Meyer lemon curd and white chocolate-lavender.

Macarons (yield 36 sandwiches)

Before you start, make sure that you have ready four regular sized cookie sheets lined with parchment or (preferably) Silpat baking mats, an accurate candy thermometer, and a piping bag fitted with a medium round tip.  Also, this recipe is a prime example of the need to have your mise en place organized and ready to go prior to embarking on your macaron journey.

Step 1:

150 g almond flour (you can grind blanched slivered almonds in a coffee grinder and sift through a very fine sieve)
150 g confectioners sugar (sifted, unless you are grinding your own almonds, in which case you should grind some of the sugar with the nuts to keep them from caking)

Sift these two ingredients well, and set aside combined.

Step 2:
100 g egg whites (aged at least 24 hours and up to 48 hours at room temperature- they won't spoil)
35 g granulated sugar


In a very clean mixing bowl, start beating the whites on low speed until frothy, then slowly add the sugar and whip until soft peaks form.

Step 3:
150 g granulated sugar
50 g water

While your meringue is whipping, heat the sugar and water to 110C/230F.  This will be just a few moments after the mixture turns completely clear.  It is very important to have the whites at soft peaks when the mixture reaches temperature because if you heat the sugar too long, it will create too firm of  a meringue.  With the mixer running on low speed, gently drizzle in the hot syrup, then bring the speed up to medium and whip until cooled a bit and the meringue holds a good shape, at least thirty seconds.  For those of you new to meringues, this is considered an Italian meringue.  

Step 4:

Fold the almond flour and confectioners sugar into the meringue.  If you wish to add any colorings, now would be the time to do it.  Continue to fold until the mixture is homogeneous and the texture is such that any distinct shapes melt into the batter in 30 seconds.  If the meringue is too firm, the cookies will come out more button shaped, and if the meringue is too thin, well, just make sure you don't over mix it or you will end up with sweet crackers.  Many recipes describe this as the consistency of "magma," if this helps you, great, but I didn't have any magma around to compare with.

Step 5:
Immediately, put batter into piping bag and pipe quarter sized disks onto the baking sheets, leaving about 1/2" between each one.  They don't expand much, but they do need room for the air to circulate around.  After piping, set them in a safe place for at least one half but up to two hours so they can form a kind of shell.  When you are ready to bake, preheat your oven to 310F for convection, 330F without.  This is where your intimate relationship with your oven gauge comes in handy, because every oven is just a little different, and it may take a few tries to get the baking bit just right.  Once in the oven, bake for five minutes, then rotate and bake for perhaps two minutes more.  Remove from the oven, let cool for a couple of minute on the Silpats/parchment, and then gently place them on cooling racks to finish.  Once they're cool, fill with whatever suits your fancy- buttercream, ganache, jam, nut pastes.

Zaletti

Zaletti are one of the many traditional Italian dishes based on corn; the word "traditional" in this case always makes me smile since corn wasn't present in Europe until after the introduction of food sources from the Americas.  Once corn came to northern Italy in the mid 1500's, all sorts of wonderful dishes arose- soft savory polenta, olive oil and polenta cakes, and, my dear, zaletti.

Originally developed in the region around Venice, the  combination of corn and lemon pays tribute to the trading history of the area while staying true to the textures and flavors expected from European baked goods.  This cookie is lightly sweet with a distinct toothsome texture unique to cornmeal products.  They are equally fantastic with tea, espresso, and sweet wine.   

The dough is made of a combination of fine polenta (American cornmeal works just fine) and all purpose wheat flour, with a bit of sugar and leavening.  It is then enhanced by the combination of plumped dried currants and lemon zest.  Depending on your liquor cabinet and personal taste, the currants can be plumped with water, brandy, grappa or any other liquid you have on hand.  Each option will give a slightly different flavor- today I moistened my currants with Cointreau to play off of the citrus notes in the lemon zest.  Here is the link to my favorite zaletti recipe : http://www.babbonyc.com/dolci-zaletti.html  

My Secret Obsession

I don't admit this very often, but I am completely and utterly mad about bread and butter.  If some law ever came into effect that I could only eat one thing, that would probably be it.  Sushi is a worthy contender, but in the long run, I would probably have to go with the bread.  I'm not talking about Wonderbread here.  Not sliced bread, and not even the stuff "baked" fresh daily at Costco.  I mean that real, honest artisan loaf with that toothsome yet tender crumb, really well defined crust, and the complex aromas from sourdough or a good long preferment.  And butter; that's a whole separate topic for discussion.  Salted or not?  Goat or cow?  Oh, I could go on for pages...

This fascination really started during childhood, with my mother baking the majority of our bread.  It wasn't particularly complex, but it was fresh, smelled incredible, and instilled a lifelong appreciation for fresh loaves.  Perhaps six years ago, I bought the book Artisan Baking Across America, by Maggie Glezer (which I would highly recommend to anyone).  This book has had a huge impact on the quality of my bread.  Both my husband and I have always baked, but the recipes we used were always pretty rudimentary.  Since this book came into our home, we have been teaching ourselves how to bake and have consistently produced beautiful loaves worthy of the best bakeries in the area.  So, this gorgeous loaf was the product of yesterday's labors:

The method for this loaf isn't particularly complicated; it has a preferment (a small percentage of flour and water combined with yeast and allowed to ferment for many hours to develop flavor and build up the yeast) which is then added to the standard flour/water/salt combination, but this is where the recipe diverges from standard lean doughs.  This loaf has just a touch of honey and about three ounces of mashed potato.  Also, the preferment is the only source of leavening; generally when using a preferment, more yeast is added when putting together the final dough.  So the low yeast content (effectively 1/3 of 1/4 teaspoon for this one loaf), a high percentage of water, and some added sugars resulted in a fairly sloppy dough and a very long proof time.  I have to tell you though, the result was worth it.  I ended up with a thick, well developed crust, beautiful pale golden crumb, and an aroma to die for.  And yeah.  I ate it with butter. 

The Buche

This buche de noel was my contribution to the Christmas dinner we attended.  It was loads of fun to make and I learned a lot about working with genoise sponge cake.  My husband helped mightily by sculpting all sorts of forest creatures out of marzipan to decorate the darn thing! 


Instead of filling it with the traditional buttercream, I went with a bittersweet chocolate mousse to compliment the chocolate genoise.  I think you end up with a better flavor and a better mouthfeel with less work to boot.  After the drama of rolling the cake, we coated it with semisweet Callebaut chocolate ganache, chilled it, and then began decorating.

We did the traditional meringue mushrooms (filled with chocolate of course) along with sugared fir boughs, but the highlight was really the little critters.  We had a snail (this is the northwest, it should have been a slug...), a rabbit, some earthworms, and a beaver that, depending on the angle, looked more than a little rabid.