Tag Archives: cookies

Modern Baker Challenge: Lime-Scented Wafers

Posted on January 22, 2012 by | 9 Comments

I don’t make cookies as often as you might expect–for someone who blogs a lot about baking, if you poke around here enough you’ll note that my posts on this topic are scant.  It’s probably just a matter of taking the easy way out–I just prefer something I can stir together and dump into a pan all at one go.  (So when I figured out that you can basically bake muffins as a quick bread, you can guess what happened).

Lime Scented Wafers (1 of 5)

However, I did sign up for the Modern Baker Challenge, and a few weeks ago, you might just recall, was Christmas, so it’s practically obligatory to turn a few batches of cookies out of the oven.  With no particular plan in mind I leafed through my second copy of the Modern Baker down in DC. (It’s not because I’m obsessed that I have a spare:  Nick Malgieri was kind enough to send all us participants a personalized signed copy so I now have two, which turned out to be quite convenient).  I paused at the page for the lime-scented wafers–citrusy, simple, with a single batch turning out enough to feed a crowd, this seemed like the perfect option.

Lime Scented Wafers (2 of 5)

This is nothing more than a basic roll cookie–formed into a tube, chilled, and sliced–scented with lime juice, coated in lime zest and sugar crust.  Pretty simple, but like many things that are simple, difficult to get absolutely perfect.  Aesthetically at least.  It might be failure begetting failure, with me making bar cookies too infrequently to get the technique down, but my carefully rolled cylinders always emerge from the fridge flattened at the base.  So instead of crisp little cookie disks I get something looking either like a deflated tire or worse, a badly drawn rectangle.  I tried to smoosh them back into the desired shape as I placed them one by one onto the baking sheet but it got to be tedious, and with the dough softening more and more I wasn’t improving matters.  For those of you baking along, I also ended up using only about half of the lime sugar coating.    I meant to find some creative use for it, but with kitchen real estate being very tight in a full house, down the garbage disposal it eventually went.  If you make these, I’d say you only need half the quantity called for.

Lime Scented Wafers (3 of 5)

Fortunately, I am not a professional baker, and my in-laws are not so fussy about the details as long as the cookie tastes as it should.  (Substance over form here, people).  Crisp and fragrant, with a crunchy sugar edge, it was a welcome component of my husband’s family’s traditional “Platter of Sin.”  They softened a bit after a few days, but were still being happily nibbled on.

Lime Scented Wafers (4 of 5)

So while these cookies were definitely not a disappointment (and there was an impressive quantity of them), I’d still say I have to work out a few kinks before I become a cookie-making superhero.  In the meantime, if there’s any secret tricks you’d care to share, I’m all ears.

I leave you with a shot of the infamous Platter of Sin.  And be assured, that’s only a small portion of it, lest you have any fears that it’s not sinful enough.

Lime Scented Wafers (5 of 5)

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Modern Baker Challenge: Pine Nut Macaroons

Posted on December 2, 2011 by | 11 Comments

As you may know, we’re baking along with the Modern Baker Challenge, chapter by chapter through the recipes in Nick Malgieri‘s The Modern Baker.  Our fearless leader Phyl decided that, it being December and all, cookies were the next sugar-topped mountain to climb.  Marie’s already made sour cream brownies (as she put it, “better than anything out of a box”), and now it’s my turn to make Pine Nut Macaroons, basically almond cookies studded with those familiar teardrop-shaped nibs.

My love of anything almond started when I tried the soft, aromatic marzipan on a trip to Toledo, during my study abroad year in Spain–where some believe it may even have originated.  (Previously, I had thought marzipan equalled those rock-hard sugar decorations atop grocery store cakes and couldn’t really figure out why anyone would intentionally eat them–and this coming from someone with a sweet tooth).  I was possibly charmed into loving marzipan with the mere explanation that in Spain it used to be sold at pharmacies as it was considered a cure for chronic fatigue and other such maladies.  This is obviously a clever way to justify ”self-medicating” yourself into a sugar high.

Pine Nut Macaroons (5 of 6)

As I have plenty of pine nuts in the fridge (they are so pricey, I can’t afford to let them go rancid), when I was “assigned” these cookies in our virtual challenge, I charged full steam ahead.  I measured out (almost) all my ingredients, and then realized I didn’t have the one ingredient that got me going down this path to begin with:  almond paste.  (Jump first, then look, is that how it goes?)  Fortunately, I recalled that our same fearless leader had posted, about a year ago, how to make your own.  And as long as you have a food processor, it’s blindingly simple.  Kicked up with a bit of almond extract, it’s got all that almondy-amaretto flavor I love, and I can see why Phyl now makes his own.

Making the cookies is easy too, though this is one of these cases where simplicity just makes technique and proper proportion all the more important.  Here’s where I hit another minor (but very minor) snag.  I couldn’t find my quarter-cup measures for the sugar (thus, eyeballing it with a half-cup measure because I didn’t want to measure out my sugar/life in coffeespoons).*  I probably added not quite enough in the end.   What’s more, I have a bad feeling I added just a touch too much egg-white liquid.  The result was that, even piped out, my cookies didn’t hold together into the nice tight orbs featured in the cookbook’s photo, but flattened out even before they confronted the heat of the oven.  I thought about scraping my flat little circles back into the bowl to add more sugar and firm them up.  But I decided that was probably a bit obsessive, and too much effort for a Monday night.

Pine Nut Macaroons (2 of 6)

But it was OK.  My vision of these cookies was for a textured exterior, but soft and yielding in the center.  Instead, I got shattering discs that were crisp and crunchy.  Yet, because the all-important, amaretto flavor was preserved, there was no cause to complain.

Pine Nut Macaroons (3 of 6)

That’s the thing with baking.  Sometimes you don’t come out with what you intended to make, but what you come out with can still be  just as good.   And that is success, however modest, can be success enough.  Perhaps a bit like so many other things in life.

As a side note, we’ve been plugging away at the Modern Baker for almost two years now, so it’s probably goes without saying that this book has been a hit with all Three Clever Sisters.  While we’ve been keeping our ovens hot, a paperback edition of the Modern Baker has come out, and Nick Malgieri has sent all of us “challengees”  signed copies.  Now in possession of two copies, one of mine has made its way to an excellent cook who still claims to be hapless at baking.  She’s reported that this book is clear and straightforward enough to convince even her to give it another shot.  Meanwhile, my sister-in-law, who I believe is at a cookie decorating class as I type these words, has long been greedily eyeing my other copy.  I guess , in short:  this is a great baking book for anyone, at whatever level.  (In case you’re in need of ideas these days).

*As that sentence may have been completely nonsensical, I should explain that this was an attempt to reference T.S. Elliot.  Karen’s already dared to eat a peach, so I’m just continuing in a well-worn, if slightly bookish, path here.  4 tablespoons actually equals quarter cup, but I threw caution to the wind and guesstimated, and you’ve seen the results.

Pine Nut Macaroons (4 of 6)

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America’s Test Kitchen Boston Blogger Cookie Challenge

Posted on May 10, 2011 by | 8 Comments

Recently I’ve found some fun new Boston-based food blogs–and it’s a good thing:  I’m not always the most up on things, so I have to rely on others to get me up to speed more often than not.  And luckily for me, I found out just in time via Megan about America’s Test Kitchen Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie Challenge.  About noon today, to be exact.  Entry (via a blog post describing your experiences making the recipe) due tonight by 11:59 eastern.  Winner gets a trip to the America’s Test Kitchen Studios (they of Cooks Illustrated) to watch a taping of the show!

So:  I win, I get to go to the studio and meet a gaggle of amazing food folks, and I lose, I get to try some amazing chocolate chip cookies?  Not a hard decision.

I wasn’t surprised to see that this recipe had some major departures from your standard toll house recipe–most notably, using brown butter.  (I’ve blogged about using  brown butter before here).   Though it seems like making brown butter adds an extra step, it only seems that way because it’s a little unusual:  in fact it takes less time than waiting for your butter to soften as most recipes require.  (I do always try to cheat and soften in the microwave, which works out for me sometimes, and which sometimes just creates another mess to clean up).  Better here that it’s not even necessary at all.  Also, I’m always happy not to have to haul out a mixer.  Here, you only need a whisk and a spatula.

But back to the brown butter.  I was a bit nervous that I had overdone things burned the butter.  Browning butter caramelizes the milk sugars and imparts a nutty aroma.  Per the recipe, I swirled and cooked my butter until it was a golden brown, but got nervous when I poured the liquid into a bowl–in a deeper vessel, it looked almost burnt.  And was the aroma charred or nutty?  I couldn’t tell.  I tasted it and didn’t note anything off so I continued.  Not helping the looks of things were the foam collecting over the surface and rather dark butter solids gathering at the bottom of the bowl.  Nevertheless, after mixing in the sugar I began to feel heartened–the aroma became that of a decadent caramel.  (And as I love caramel, this could only be a very good thing).

The cookie dough was remarkably glossy and smooth, a deep golden brown that held together well as I portioned it out onto the cookie sheet.  And the result was truly delicious.  Browning the butter really does seem to add something special to the flavor profile, and the cookies are moist and chewy without being overly cakey.  I think this recipe is a keeper. While it’s a bit of a departure from the standard method, it’s easy and produces fabulous results.  If you’d like to try, check it out here!

Hmmm…I think I need another one.

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Almond Financiers

Posted on March 2, 2011 by | 8 Comments

I’m almost inclined to say that the reason I like these almond financiers so much is because they are just so easy.   If you suddenly find you need a quick dessert, these are your saviors.  If you just want something sweet, but don’t have the energy for much effort in the kitchen, these fit the bill.   If you want a light note to end a sophisticated dinner or a light bite in the afternoon with tea, these can go either way.

But really, I just can’t resist tiny little cakes that remind me of marzipan.  Enjoy a similarly miniature espresso and pretend you are lingering over dinner at a fancy restaurant!

I’ve posted about chocolate financiers here before.  Now, some might contend that you can’t improve on chocolate; and I am not here to say one is better than the other, but that both are worth your time. 

These little cakes are moist and satisfying thanks to the mellow flavor of almonds.  Their petite profile makes them elegant and chic (would you expect any less of something called financiers?)

I use my immersion blender to finely chop the almonds so that they are freshly ground.  I prefer using this to a food processor because the quanities are so small, and, psychologically, it just feels like there are less dishes to clean in the end.  You can also use almond flour if you have that.

I make these in mini muffin tins, but you can make larger financiers in regular cupcake molds filled partially full (as I did here).  Adjust the baking time upwards somewhat.  This recipe was inspired by a Nick Malgieri recipe.  Enjoy!

Almond Financiers

  • 1C (4 oz approximately) of almonds, ground
  • 1 C sugar
  • 1/2C flour
  • 4 egg whites (1/2 cup)
  • 8 T (one stick) of melted butter
  • 1t almond extract

Heat the oven to 375F.  Grease a mini-muffin pan.  Mix the almonds, sugar, and flour.  Stir in the egg whites and almond extract, then fold in the butter.

Fill the wells of the muffin pan about halfway full.  Bake until the cakes are risen, golden, and are firm to the touch, about 18 minutes (or longer if making larger financiers).  Remove from the muffin pan and allow to cool.

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Modern Baker Challenge: Perfect Elephant Ears and Instant Puff Pastry

Posted on August 2, 2010 by | 9 Comments

Puff pastry:  rich with butter yet light and flaky, shatteringly crisp.  One of the defining features of French patisserie.  Classically intensive in preparation.  You can see why I was intimidated!  There are more daring things that one can attempt in a home kitchen, but for me this was challenge enough.

Though traditional puff pastry is very time-consuming to prepare (you not only have to roll out the dough but also the butter, and then roll them together in stages, resting after each turn in the fridge to keep the butter cool), I learned how to make a quick puff pastry at my baking class last fall at the CSCA.  Though the results were fantastic (and between sampling my cardamom elephant ears and everyone else’s creations, I was sick on butter by the end of it), I wasn’t sure I could achieve the same success at home without the watchful eye of our instructor Elise.

As I found Nick’s (can I call him Nick?) recipe for instant puff pastry as I leafed through the Modern Baker, I felt pleased:  now I would have to make it on my own–it’s part of the Modern Baker Challenge!  I kept meaning to, after all, but was always a bit nervous.  I think I have my friend Amber to thank for putting my nose to the grindstone–though I didn’t make it until after she left, it was our reminiscing about palmeras when we were on study abroad together in Spain that finally got me to buy the jaw-dropping quantities of butter necessary to make puff pastry dough.  (Palmeras, a.k.a. palmiers, a.k.a. elephant ears!)

Puff pastry is a base for various recipes, both savory and sweet, but elephant ears were a great “test drive” for my first attempt flying solo–and for reasons other than the nostalgia factor I mentioned above.  They only require a dusting of sugar and a few foldings of dough before going in the oven.  Thus you haven’t invested too much time in case it turns out your puff falls short.

The basic idea, and I think this is where your puff pastry may fall flat, (so to speak) is getting the butter processed into the flour just right.  You don’t want the dough to look like crumbly sand, as you do when making a pie dough.  You want large shaggy pieces of butter as well as finer pieces, and it’s these larger chunks that roll out into streaks of butter in the dough.  (Classic puff is built on layering dough and butter–wrapping dough around squares of butter and rolling out over and over again.  In the instant version, the large streaks approximate this process).  I’m glad I had the experience of my class as I knew what things were supposed to look like (though I unfortunately didn’t get a visual for you).

Nevertheless, once I had completed all the steps I knew I was on the right track:  see the layering in the cross-section of my raw dough below?  That’s butter and dough–the layers of butter will expand under heat, creating the “puff”.

Now the test run:  On to the palmeras!  After rolling out a rectangle in sugar (that’s right, rather than flouring your pastry mat, you sugar it), you fold each long end a quarter of the way in, and then in again to get this:

Slice (I used a serrated knife so as not to distort the shape too much) and arrange on a baking sheet:

And bake.  It’s amazing to see how these expand under the heat of the oven, and see them take on the lovely honeyed color, glistening with caramelized flavor. 

You can make these with flavored sugars as well–cinnamon sugar is a classic, but I prefer cardamom sugar. 

I have quite a bit of puff pastry dough in the freezer for when the urge hits.  That’s the other wonderful thing about puff pastry–once you have a stash it’s relatively easy to whip up all sorts of recipes.

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Butterscotch-Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies, a la mode: Pre-race dessert

Posted on June 3, 2010 by | 2 Comments

A few months ago, I ran the Eugene 1/2 Marathon.  Due to my laziness, I failed to secure a hotel room before they were all booked up.  Fortunately for me my friend Annie lives in Eugene and is always kind enough to put me up for the night.

She did so once before prior to a long-distance swim last August at Dorena Lake — the swim was a total let-down, for reasons other than the recent algae bloom.  On that occasion, I made her watch the epic Twilight.  She wasn’t exactly into Vampire Movies, but I was making my way through the series which I liken to junk food.  You start it, you know it’s terrible for you, but you just can’t stop until the entire bag of doritos/oreos/jelly beans is gone.

To make amends or maybe to supplant that previous bad memory, I decided to cook dinner for us (her husband was away that weekend with some ultimate frisbee tournament — is it called a potlach?).

For dinner, I did my usual — some kind of whole wheat/wholesome pasta with a marinara sauce enhanced with more onions, garlic, spinach, and tofurkey sausages (seriously — they are good!).  But for dessert, I was a little creative.  I made oatmeal cookies, per the instructions on my Quaker Oats package and instead of the raisins, I add one bag of butterscotch chips and 1/2 bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips.  I’ve found in the past that the chocolate oatmeal combo is a little overpowering and the saltiness of the butterscotch balances everything out.

Now the ala mode part.  I made a hot fudge sauce, I combined 3 Tbsp of cocoa powder, 1/2 c of sugar, 1/3 cup of milk, 1 Tbsp of butter, and 1 tsp of vanilla in a sauce pan, over low heat.  I brought the mixture to a boil and then let it simmer till in thickened.

Okay, maybe I was a little impatient for the 1st helping because it was a little think when I drizzled it over the ice cream and cookie, but for my 2nd helping it was deliciously thick and not surprisingly decadent.

As for my run, I had a great race, so that’s cause enough to repeat the dessert right?

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Bacon Fat Spice Cookies

Posted on November 29, 2009 by | 7 Comments

Yes, this is really weird.  I’d blame my sister-in-law for this one, but I’m equally culpable.

Actually, I should blame Jennifer McLagan and her fascinating book, Fat:  An Appreciation of a Misunderstood Ingredient.  I got this book from my mother for my birthday, and while I haven’t actually yet rendered my own lard nor do I regularly grate suet into my recipes for extra flavor, I do love this book.  Part the fun is that the whole premise of this book is based on celebrating that nutrient that is so, well, misunderstood, part is the sheer uniqueness of so many of the recipes (recipes that have only recently fallen out of favor, relatively speaking) and part is just that things with fat typically are, well, delicious!

My sister-in-law Colleen was visiting over Thanksgiving and merrily going through my cookbooks.  Since it’s a slim volume and could have been overlooked, I specifically pulled out “Fat” for her–knowing it was the kind of food book she’d enjoy.  Hot on the success of my half lard, half butter apple pie (post to follow) we were intrigued by things such as “lard cookies.”  As we looked through we also noticed “Bacon Fat Spice Cookies” (recipe here)–we had some bacon defrosting in the fridge, they looked easy, and since we had no plans for the bacon fat anyway, we figured, why not?  Even for me, who is not a big bacon person, this recipe looked fun: perhaps merely due to the sheer off-the-wall nature of it!  I know that people have fallen out of using bacon fat for cooking (though I understand it was a delicious use for the stuff)–but cookies?  I don’t even know if that counts as traditional!

Jennifer McLagan notes this is a recipe she came up with on her own by substituting bacon fat for the butter typically used for northern European spice cookies.  She estimates a pound of bacon is necessary to produce half a cup of fat (noting that it can vary)–our extra fatty Meat CSA bacon produced nearly enough for a double batch!

You add quite a bit of spice to this–a half teaspoon of flavors such as cloves and ginger (most recipes only asking for a “pinch”!)  We reasoned these quantities might be necessary as we anticipated the bacon fat would have a pretty strong flavor.  Not only that, but you don’t use just regular sugar, you use molasses!  (I used regular, not blackstrap).

Once we had mixed the dough, we thought it looked a little too liquid based on the sheen.  So we added a few more spoonfuls of butter, yet it was as shiny as ever.  However, when you touched it you realized it was a proper dough, it was just the soft bacon fat that gave it that look!

I used my mini cookie scoop to portion out the dough, and Colleen flattened out the little balls with her fork–much like peanut butter cookies. 

We put them in for 10 minutes and ended up leaving them in for a total of 14.  Once again, we may have been fooled by the shininess of these cookies into thinking they weren’t done.  But I think we ultimately got it right.

As for the taste–well, they taste like bacon, sugar, and spice.  For me it was a bit strong–at first you taste the spice, but then the bacon flavor lingers and becomes a bit strong for something like a cookie.  Maybe it would be better to only replace half the butter with bacon–it’s not that bacon flavor is bad, it’s just overpowering.  (Though that’s the answer as to why McLagan adapted a spice cookie recipe–only flavors such as clove, cinnamon, and ginger are assertive enough to even hope to stand up to bacon grease!).  Also, perhaps the bacon fat for butter substitution would work well in a savory biscuit or crisp recipe.  Alongside a  beer perhaps?  (Don’t hold me to that one though; I’m not a big beer drinker either to know if that suggestion is repulsive).  Anyway, what’s clear is little E loves them.  And lucky enough–if anyone has the metabolism to power down cookies made with bacon fat, it would be him!

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Butterscotch-Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Bars

Posted on January 19, 2009 by | 8 Comments

Disclaimer:   this is another one of my improvisations. 

Thanks to my dear friend Lis, I’ve rediscovered cookie-bars.  A few years ago, during my first year of law school an overly-zealous resident at the medical center declared that I must have pink eye, and I was ordered to stay home from class for at least three days. This wouldn’t be such a big deal except that it was the last week of classes, and I was a very, very frantic law student petrified by the impending doom of law school exams.  In reality, I really just had aggravated eyes from wearing my contacts too long, but for anyone who is dependent on school health insurance can tell you, the doctors at the clinics are a little to eager to diagnose any and every kind of nasty infection. 

Anyway, while I was at home, quarantined to my hobbit-hole apartment, I had some very kind friends who were intrepid enough to bring me some goodies.  Lis brought me some oatmeal cookie “bars” made with butterscotch chips rather than raisins.  I was intrigued, especially because I’m normally bored out of my mind making little perfect cookie dough balls after the first sheet comes out of the oven.  With the cookie bars, you simply spread the entire batter in a retangular cake (jelly roll?) pan and bake for about double the time.  It really is easy.  By the time you’re finished cleaning up the kitchen, the bars are ready to leave the oven.

For this recipe, I used the general cookie recipe on the oatmeal box and spice it up with two types of chips, butterscotch + chocolate, and then I sprinkled some toffee pieces (left over from the chocolate bark) on the top for good measure before baking. 

Ingredients:

1/2 lb of butter softened

1 1/2 cups of brown sugar

2 tsp of vanilla extract (I think I actually forgot to add this – oh well)

2 large eggs

2 cups of rolled oats (I prefer old-fashioned)

1 1/2 cups of flour

1 tsp of baking powder

1 tsp of cinnamon

1/2 tsp of nutmeg

1/2 tsp of salt

1 cup of butterscotch chips

1 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips

1/4 cup of toffee pieces.

First, butter (Pam-spray) a large rectangular pan.  It’s not entirely necessary since there’s so much butter-yummy, atery-clogging goodness, but it’s a little easier and it doens’t really change the unhealthiness either way.  Heat the oven to 350.

Beat butter, brown sugar, eggs and vanilla until fluffy.  In a separate bowl, mix all the dry ingredients together (NOT the chips and candy!).  The reason for this, is you want all the leavening agents to be thoroughly incorporated as well as the spices.  Add this to the wet ingredients.  Add B + C chips.  It’s probably wise to combine these together before adding to the batter, for the same reason as above, a diversity of flavors throughout, rather than in clumps, but as you see from the pictures, I forgot. 

 img_1772

Spread the batter into the pan.  You may need the help of your fingers (a little more to sample!) or if you’re incredibly hygenic, use some wax paper to press the batter down.  Lastly, just for kicks, I sprinkled some toffee pieces before putting in the oven. 

img_1773

Cookies generally take about 10-12 minutes to bake alone, but I baked these bars for about 25-30.  Let them cool and then cut into squares, and then I decided to cut into triangles, just because, I thought it was prettier.

img_1775

Here’s another tip — if you want to keep your cookies fresh and moist longer, put a piece of bread in the container.  The cookies will absorb the moisture from the bread before drying out themselves. 

img_1776

Be sure to remove the stale piece of bread before serving or gifting though.  This batch is going to a group of hungry high school basketball players as a post-game treat, tomorrow.  Shh…

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Christmas Roundup Part II

Posted on January 1, 2009 by | Leave a comment
Happy New Year!  But in this post, it’s time for Christmas Eve.  A beautiful placesetting thanks to our mom (we ordered the linens from williams sonoma–12 days of christmas was the theme)

Christmas Eve Place Setting

And a delicious dinner, courtesy of my mother in law:  the eggplant and chard lasagna from Deborah Madison’s Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone.  Too bad it’s such a time-intensive recipe (many of the Deborah Madison recipes are:  not necessarily hard but lots of steps)–it’s so delicious.  Everyone has probably had a vegetarian lasagna with eggplant, but here the interesting touch was combining it with chard.  Also, the eggplant was sliced thin and roasted before assemblly (did I say a lot of steps?)  rather than just being chopped up which is what I’m used to seeing.  It was absolutely wonderful.  The colors were appropriate for Christmas (and also for the Italian origins of lasagna):  red, green, and white:

Possibly the best lasagna recipe out there (and I'm not a vegetarian).

Possibly the best lasagna recipe out there (and I'm not a vegetarian).

Finally a few kitchen odds and ends:

Butchering a chicken–it really is getting easier thoguh I don’t know if I can do it in 5 minutes just yet.  I do hope to make it second nature as it saves money (in constrast to buying the pieces separately or all chopped up) plus you get the carcass for making soup stock.  I also saved the chicken livers separately–one of those organ meats that I know Americans aren’t big on (I can’t say that this particular American necessarily is either) but that all my French and Italian cookbooks have loads of recipes for.  We’ll see.

Cock a doodle doo!

Cock a doodle doo! I'm using Mark Bittman's technique (whose book you can see in the background).

And finally for Santa:  Those navettes a la fleur d’oranger (orange flower water boats) from the Chocolate and Zucchini cookbook.  The best thing about making these was the perfume of the orange flower water as they baked.  It wasn’t an aroma you are used to in a kitchen–it was really like a perfume.  Especially in the middle of winter, it could really transport you:  the warmth of the oven combined with the scent of orange blossoms and you are in the mediterranean.  The cookies were OK, I liked them better right out of the oven when they were soft rather than once they had hardened (though you can apparently soften them right back up by popping them in the oven).  I may try them with rose flower water next time–don’t see why it shouldn’t work!
Navettes

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Christmas baking wishlist

Posted on December 18, 2008 by | Leave a comment

There’s more Christmas goodies on my wishlist than I could possibly ever make, but just to keep track, these are the things that are particularly interesting–(some of which must be made because ingredients have been purchased!)  Given that we’re set to have a big snowstorm, this seems to be a good way to be housebound.  (Although there are plenty of rather more urgent Christmas preparations that have to be done (no. 1–buy a tree! no. 2–assemble the guest bed! probably in the reverse order!) so again, this list is more aspirational than anything else). 

Breads–while I am not into baking (despite what this post may indicate) I do love breadmaking!  I haven’t done it in a while (knead for 10 minutes while pregnant?  I don’t think so) but now that I’m trying to get myself back in the kitchen:

  • Brioche (again…why do I love making brioche so?  Must be the butter content).
  • Some Italian christmas bread from Carol Field’s Celebrating Italy.  (I have not made much from this book but I love the premise–various festivals in Italy throughout the year and the foods that accompany the events.  What I really love is how each festival begins with a historical description of the origins of the festival and a discussion of how the food ties in.  There is a bibliography that looks something like you’d expect in an academic work!)  There’s quite a few bread recipes in here, some of which are quite complicated.  Still, the following look good:  the Pandolce Genovese, Natalizia, and Pinza della Befana (these are all of course from the Christmas chapter!).  I have a Kitchenaid mixer, and I intend to use it…

Cookies:

  • Speculaas (we bought a rolling pin mold in Munich–where else for Christmas knicknacks but Germany?–which still has to be used. 
  • Navettes a la fleur d’oranger–from the Chocolate and Zucchini cookbook.  I have a bottle of orange water (why?  I don’t know–it was for something out of Claudia) so this is a great way to use some of it.  It may be one of the main reasons I am making it…
  • Madeleines–planning on using this recipe.  I have a fair number of madeleine pans purchased in Paris (mainly because, they were cheap and it seemed like a good take home). I can’t say why these cookies (if they are cookies) attract me.  I don’t know if it’s the name that reminds me of the children’s books, if it’s the fact that they have been immortalized in classic literature (In Search of Lost Time–which I’ve never read, and given how long it is, never will–I lose enough of my own Time on a daily basis to go off searching for Proust’s), but I am intrigued!

And finally, as I mentioned in an earlier post, sassy radish’s cranberry orange cake with ricotta!

My shopping list is made (as part of the emergency run to the grocery store tomorrow AM before the snow hits)–so hopefully I’ll have something to show for it.

Speaking of snow, I hope that Karen is able to get off the west coast and over here to the east coast.  We have learned not to be optimistic when it comes to our family’s plane travel…but that would be a whole other post…

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