Shortbread

When thinking of treats to include with my homemade jam, I decided that shortbread was appropriate. Not only is it tasty on its own but it would be a nice platform for the jam.

I chose this recipe because of its simplicity. I wanted a recipe that used accessible ingredients and would come out right every time – a must when baking in bulk. I found the addition of almond extract very pleasant though it's more traditional and equally delicious without it.


Shortbread
Source: King Arthur Flour
1 cup (2 sticks) salted butter, at cool room temperature
1 cup confectioners' sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon almond extract (optional)
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

Preheat the oven to 300° F. Lightly grease two round 9" cake pans or line them with parchment, and grease the parchment. (I prefer my shortbread in rectangles rather than wedges and used two 8" square baking pans. The resulting shortbread was a bit too thick for my taste. I will use a larger square or rectangular pan next time. Also, I found that using parchment paper worked very well for preventing the shortbread from sticking to the pan.)

In a medium-sized bowl, beat together the butter, sugar, vanilla, and almond extract, then beat in the flour. The mixture may seem a little dry at first; keep beating until it comes together. If it absolutely won't come together, dribble in up to 1 tablespoon of water, until it does. This is a stiff dough.

Divide the dough in half, and press each half into one of the prepared pans, smoothing the surface with your fingers, or with a heavy-bottomed glass.

Use a fork to prick the dough all over; this allows any steam to escape, and prevents the shortbread from bubbling as it bakes.



Bake the shortbread until it's a light golden brown across the top surface, and a deeper golden brown around the edges, about 35 minutes.

Remove it from the oven, and immediately turn each shortbread round out onto a clean work surface.

Using a pizza wheel or sharp knife, cut each round into 12 wedges. (Do this while the shortbread is still warm; if you wait until it's cool, it won't cut easily.) Transfer the shortbread wedges to a rack to cool.

Homemade Christmas: Jam and Shortbread

Okay guys, this is the last Christmas post ... I promise! Um ... wait. Lemme double check. Okay, yeah. I really mean it.

Continuing on my homemade Christmas canning kick, I made blueberry jam, raspberry jam, strawberry jam, and peach butter. (For the jams, I just used the recipes that come with packages of liquid pectin and the peach butter, while tasty, didn't have the consistency I wanted so I'm not quite ready to share the recipe.) What started me on this kick, you ask? Well it was these new Ball canning jars! They're just so sexy, I had to use them for something!


To present my lovely homemade treats, I put together these gift baskets. Included in the baskets were the pretty jars filled with the jewel-colored jams, some loose leaf tea and homemade shortbread (recipe to be posted soon).


It seems that my family and friends certainly know my foodie ways. I received many a kitchen tool for Christmas and am having a blast putting them all to good use!

Matt's cousins also had some homemade gift giving in mind. We received this pretty jar filled with the dry ingredients for pumpkin bread – always a favorite!

So while it's overdue, I hope you and yours had a wonderful holiday season. I'm looking forward to a 2009 filled with great food!

Homemade Christmas: Dulce de Leche

This post is overdue – seeing as how it's January – but you'll forgive me, right?

Every year I make and give homemade treats for Christmas gifts. This year I decided to go on a canning kick. I wanted to give several different types of canned treats and set out to find a variety of recipes.

That's when I decided upon Dulce de Leche – a sweet caramel-like sauce made from milk. In researching which recipe to use, I came across three very different ways to prepare Dulce de Leche. I decided to test all three techniques before deciding which was the best for my gift-giving purposes.

Two of the recipes call for using (almost) nothing but sweetened condensed milk. The third seemed to be the most homemade and was the version I was routing for.

The first technique I tried seemed to be the most dangerous. I almost skipped this test all together but then changed my mind when I saw a recipe for this method on the Food Network site.

Dulce de Leche
Source: Gale Gand
1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk

Remove label from the can. Stand the can in a saucepan and add water to cover. (Note: Do NOT open or puncture the can in any way prior to cooking.) Bring the water to a gentle simmer and keep it there for 3 hours, adding water as needed to keep the can submerged. (WARNING: Please be careful and keep the can submerged otherwise there is a risk of the can exploding!)


Using tongs, carefully (it's hot!) remove the can from the pot and allow it to cool completely before opening. The milk will have transformed into a smooth, creamy, caramel-colored sauce, dulce de leche.

Transfer cooled Dulce de Leche to a mason jar and store, covered, in the refrigerator.


The second technique is a safer version of the condensed milk option which uses the oven instead of the boil-in-can technique.

Dulce de Leche or Confiture de Lait
Source: David Lebovitz, Adapted from The Perfect Scoop
1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
Sea Salt

Preheat the oven to 425° F (220° C).

Pour the can of sweetened condensed milk into a glass pie plate or shallow baking dish. Stir in a few flecks of sea salt.

Set the pie plate within a larger pan, such as a roasting pan, and add hot water until it reaches halfway up the side of the pie plate.

Cover the pie plate snugly with aluminum foil and bake for 1 to 1¼ hours. (Check a few times during baking and add more water to the roasting pan as necessary).

Once the Dulce de Leche is nicely browned and caramelized, remove from the oven and let cool. Once cool, whisk until smooth.

Store in the refrigerator.

The final technique comes from Alton Brown, the goofy guru of food science and host of Good Eats.

Dulce de Leche
Source: Alton Brown
1 quart whole milk
12 ounces sugar
1 vanilla bean, split and seeded
½ teaspoon baking soda

Add milk, sugar and vanilla bean to a large saucepan set over medium heat. Stir until sugar has melted then add ½ teaspoon of baking soda. Reduce heat to low and cook uncovered for 1 hour, stirring occasionally (the mixture may foam up a bit but that's okay).


After one hour, remove vanilla bean and continue to cook for 1½ to 2 more hours until mixture reduces to one cup and is the color of dark caramel.


Strain into a mason jar and refrigerate for up to four weeks.


So, after thorough testing, I determined that the best method for my gifted dulce de leche was Gale Gand's boil-in-can technique.

The baked version was not fool-proof enough for making in mass quantities – I clearly took it out of the oven too soon as the color had not gotten nearly dark enough.

The homemade stove-top version had quite an odd texture indeed. I'm sure this had something to do with my preparation as after nearly 2½ hours of cooking, it still looked like milk. I cranked up the heat until the mixture boiled then reduced and cooked for another 2 hours. This left me with a beautiful caramel color but a foamy and somewhat gritty texture. I would like to try this one again being sure to bring the milk to a boil before adding the baking soda.


So yes, while I was scared to pieces making the Gale Gand boil-in-can version, it came out nicely browned, thick and creamy. Plus, I could boil a few cans at a time making it ideal for making large quantities.

Now, while the boil-in-can method was my favorite, I'm sure all of these methods could have produced beautiful dulce de leche. I encourage you to try each and find your favorite.

Daring Bakers: French Yule Log

This month's challenge is brought to us by the adventurous Hilda from Saffron and Blueberry and Marion from Il en Faut Peu Pour Etre Heureux. They have chosen a French Yule Log by Flore from Florilege Gourmand.


Holy cow, what a challenge this yule log was! It had so many different elements, many of which I had never tackled before, that had to come together to form this beautiful dessert.

Besides being challenged by the recipe, I was also facing the issue of time. This month, we were allowed to post on any one of three days (thanks Lis and Ivonne!!) and even still, I'm getting my post in just under the wire.

Of course there was Christmas to deal with this month that took up a whole lot of my time, but there was another obstacle - an ice storm that left us without power for six ... count them SIX ... days. I had already begun my holiday baking by the time the storm hit and without power, I wound up having to throw away the entire contents of my refrigerator and freezer.

Seven garbage bags of food in the dumpster. What a crying shame! (Lovely image to share when you're expecting a beautiful dessert, no?)

I know, I know ... I was not alone in this storm and many others had it far worse than I did. I should thank my lucky stars that there was no damage to my house or car and that the power was finally restored in time to restart my holiday baking and get my gifts completed (again, in the nick of time - 4 a.m. on December 25!).

When I finally had the time to begin the challenge, I was daunted by the 18-page recipe. But I forged on and went shopping for the ingredients for the log. Two ingredients specified by the recipe were not available in my area but with recipes for each, I proceeded in making the missing ingredients.

This was my first mistake.

Missing ingredient #1: Praline paste
No problem, I thought. It's basically just a brittle that gets spun in the food processor until it becomes a paste.

Except it never became a paste.

I spun that crap around and around for what seemed like 45 minutes (with little breaks here and there for my poor old food processor) and it never changed beyond finely ground nut powder.

With advice from Linda, I added a few drops of vegetable oil. Then a few more. Then a few more. What the frick?! I must have added half a cup of oil before I got a paste. Finally - paste.

A lot of paste. What the heck do I do with all this extra paste?

If only I had seen earlier that Nutella is an acceptable replacement. I had a brand new jar sitting in my pantry the whole fricking time.

Missing ingredient #2: Gavottes or lace crepes
For this ingredient, the recipe specified that Corn Flakes, Rice Krispies or Special K could be substituted. But stubbon me said, "nah, I'll just make the gavottes with the recipe included in the challenge."

Um, yeah. So the lace crepe wound up thick and pliable instead of thin and crisp. In the trash it went and out came the Rice Krispies and Corn Flakes. Lucky I had them on hand (I usually don't).

So steps one and two were done - kind of - and I proceeded with the rest of the recipe.

Next up, step 3: Make the vanilla creme brulee insert.
Mixing this one up was no problem but when it came to pouring it in my mold, it seeped behind the parchment so when I unmolded it later, I lost a chunk to the mold.

My second issue with the brulee was in the cooking. Either the temperature was too low or the time was too short. Either way, I checked it after 1 hour - still liquid. I checked after another 30 minutes - still liquid. What the hell?

I looked to Alton Brown for answers and decided to crank up the heat for 30 minutes or so. Finally the stupid thing set ... um ... maybe too much. The very top of the brulee was overcooked but underneath was perfect. Screw it ... in the freezer it went!

Step 4: Dark Chocolate Mousse
My chocolate seized. Damn. I added more cream which smoothed it out some but not completely. Luckily, Julie had experienced the same thing and advised that I continue on. The chocolate smoothed out in the following steps and came out fine. Though my arm nearly fell off from all that pate a bombe nonsense.

Step 5: Praline Feuillete Insert
Frick, the chocolate seized again! What is it with me and chocolate? I thought we were friends. I continued on and wound up with a crumbly mess. I shaped it and froze it anyway. When it came time to cut it to size, it fell apart. I got one large piece in the mold and then poured the rest in.

Step 6 (isn't this thing done yet?!): Dacquoise
My supermarket doesn't carry almond meal so I made some in my coffee grinder - which worked perfectly. This step was not so bad except that I made my dacquoise too tall and then cut it too small. Gah.

Step 7: Dark Chocolate Ganache
I burned my caramel again - I'll get it right someday - but I had much better luck in adding the liquid to the hot caramel than I did last time. This time, I poured s-l-o-w-l-y and had no issue.

Step 8: Begin assembly (finally!)
The instructions said to line the mold with rhodoid - which is basically a plastic transparancy (remember those?) - or plastic wrap. Well I was fresh out of tranparencies (no, not really) and used the plastic wrap.

If you are brave enough to make this, go to the office supply store and buy some transparencies. If you don't and you just use plastic wrap, you'll have a lumpy bumpy log like I do.

The log was assembled and frozen until the next day when it was to be iced.

Step 9:Dark Chocolate Icing
The hardest part about this - well one of the hardest parts - was knowing when the icing was cool enough to use and not yet too cold to use. It had to be just the right temperature to pour and not clump up or run right off. The first go around, mine was too warm and just ran right off the log and pooled in the parchment below.

No biggie, I thought. I picked up the parchment, poured the excess back into my saucepan and let it cool a bit longer. Then I poured again, this time covering the top nicely but leaving mostly naked sides. So I poured the excess back into my saucepan and poured it over the sides. By this time, the icing had cooled off considerably and left me with an odd edge between the top and the sides. I considered leaving it until I noticed the partially naked side.

So, I made another batch of icing and did the whole thing over again. I finally got a decent coating on all sides and I popped that bad larry in the freezer to set up.

So how to decorate, I wondered. I considered doing chocolate ruffles but was so ready to be done that I gave up on the idea. I decided instead to just pipe a border along the bottom edge. I wanted a frosting that was dark and shiny like the icing and thought a whipped ganache would do the trick. Well, in the end, whipping the ganache lightened it up to about the same color as a chocolate buttercream ... but I didn't care. On went my border and I wound up with so much extra frosting that I did a top border too.


Finally, this sucker is done! It definitely tastes good - not too sweet - and I adore the flavor of the dacquoise.

Am I glad I stuck with it and completed the challenge? Absolutely. Did I wish I had pastry-queen Tartelette on speed dial? Oh yes. Will I make this again? Hells no.


If you'd like the recipe, visit Hilda's blog. And be sure to check out the blogroll to see the Yule Log trials and tribulations of the other Daring Bakers!

Ye olde piratey treat

In case you live under a rock, Friday was International Talk Like a Pirate Day. It comes around every September 19 and is a jolly good time for all.

It was also my office's second annual Pirate Day potluck. We all bring in a pirate themed treat and yell "Arrgh!" and such at one another. What fun!

This year I brought Caribbean Cupcakes, which I called Bahama Biscuits so as to disguise their identity from my cupcake-fanatic coworker.

For my Caribbean Cupcakes, I used a banana cupcake recipe and topped them with cream cheese frosting and sweetened coconut. The cake was dense and flavorful, similar to banana bread, and the frosting was easy and delicious. They were a hit with the scallywags aboard t'e ship ... err ... my co-workers.



Banana Cupcakes
Source: Cake Batter & Crumbs
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 cups self-rising flour
4 eggs
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 cup (about 2 large mashed ripe bananas)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 C). Place 18 paper baking cups in muffin pans. Cream together the butter and sugar until it is pale and fluffy. Sift together the flour and nutmeg. Lightly beat the eggs into a bowl. Slowly add part of the flour mixture to the sugar and butter and then alternate with the eggs until all of the flour and eggs are incorporated. Fold in the mashed bananas. Spoon the batter into the cupcake liners and bake for 20 minutes.

Cream cheese frosting
Source: Joy of Cooking as seen on Slashfood, posted by Sarah J. Gim
8 ounces cream cheese, cold from the fridge or softened at room temperature
5 tablespoons butter, softened
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups powdered sugar, sifted (I found this to be a little too sweet and will probably reduce the sugar next time.)

Beat cream cheese, butter and vanilla until combined. Gradually add powdered sugar and beat to combine.


Recently, I asked you for suggestions on how to transport my cupcakes without buying a cupcake carrier. Here's my solution:


I used a Sterilite Ultra·Seal 16.0 cup container. It held 12 regular-size cupcakes and didn't squish a single one!

The Cookie Quest, Part 2

A little while back, I told you about a treasured family recipe, Nana Cookies and my quest to get them right. As you can see, I did it!

While I only remember my grandmother making these, this was actually my great grandmother's recipe. I managed to copy this one down long ago but the last time I made it, they came out all wrong. I was so disappointed! I didn't know what went wrong as I had followed my grandmother's recipe card to the letter (just like she taught me to).

So I e-mailed my mother's cousin to see if she had a copy of the recipe. Indeed she did, hand written by Nana herself (my great grandmother). In comparing the recipes, there was a slight variation that made all the difference. My grandmother's card said shortening while my great grandmother's card said shortening (liquid Crisco). Ah ha! It looks like my grandmother had left the part in parentheses off of her own recipe card. So round two commenced. This time I followed Nana's recipe and voila, they came out beautifully.

The one thing I changed was the baking time. The first batch came out crisp, which is fine if that's what you're looking for. But as I remember them, they're supposed to be soft and chewy. So I consulted Grandma's recipe to see why.

Ahhh, Nana's card says to cook them for 10 minutes but Grandma's says 8. The next batch went in for 8 minutes exactly and, tada, they were perfect ... soft, chewy, spicy ... just like I remember.

I couldn't help but smile as I made these thinking about my grandmother, the woman that taught me so much about baking and life. She was truly an amazing woman and my hero. She always will be.


So this is the part where you get to read the recipe, right? Well, I'm sorry but this one will have to remain a secret. Since it is a family recipe, I think it must stay as such. I will be glad, however, to bake these for my friends and family for years to come. And I hope to one day pass it down to my children and grandchildren just as it has been passed before.

And now my dear readers, what are some of your favorite food memories? Do share!

The cookie quest

Some of my earliest cooking memories are of learning to bake with my grandmother, Pat. It was she who taught me the importance of following recipes precisely and measuring properly when it comes to baked goods. Christmas after Christmas, she would help me create cookies a pleanty to give as gifts to my family. Now that she is gone, I regret not saving her recipes so I am on a quest to recreate some of the ones I remember making with her.

Stained Glass Window Cookies
Stained Glass Window Cookies were light bar cookies with gumdrop slices mixed in. When they were baked, the gumdrops would melt and come out looking like stained glass windows. The cookies were like blondies but without the butterscotch flavor. The flavor was more like a sugar cookie.

My Google search for "stained glass window cookies" turned up something entirely different so I tried a different search and found the following recipe.

Gumdrop Bars
source: Razzle Dazzle Recipes
2 cups flour
1 cup chopped gumdrops
1/2 cup chopped pecans
4 eggs
1 tablespoon water
2 cups brown sugar, packed
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt

Mix together flour, gumdrops and pecans; set aside. In a medium bowl, beat together eggs and water. Add brown sugar and beat until it is just light. Beat in cinnamon and salt. Stir gumdrop mixture into the brown sugar mixture. Spread into a greased 15 1/2 x 10 1/2 pan. Bake at 375° F. until cookies are done, about 15 to 18 minutes.

For Icing: In saucepan, melt 3 tablespoons of butter over low heat. Remove from heat and add 1 teaspoon of great orange peel and 2 tablespoons of orange juice. Sift in enough powdered sugar to make a thin icing and blend until smooth. Spread icing over warm cookies and cut into bars.

Now, my grandmother's cookies didn't have pecans or icing, but I'll give this recipe a try and see how close it comes.

Whirligig Cookies
Whirligig Cookies are beautiful rolled and sliced chocolate and peanut butter cookies. I remember rolling out the two kinds of dough, rolling them up together and carefully slicing them into rounds. This was a bit laborious, but yielded beautiful results.

A quick Google search produced some recipes but so far, all call for melting chocolate pieces and spreading over the dough, not a chocolate dough. So, the search continues.

Nana Cookies
Nana Cookies are a soft and spicy molasses cookie. It was my great-grandmother's recipe, hence the name. This is one recipe that I do have, however, I cannot seem to get them to come out like Grandma's. My quest here, is to get these ones right!