Bakin-n-Bacon

Baking My Way Through Sweet Miniatures

I started this project over a year ago (!) and posted my results on the Cook's Illustrated Bulletin Board. I'll be posting future results on this blog, so wanted to let folks who don't read the CI board to be able to catch up. I'm posting a brief synopsis here, for the full text you'll have to visit thread on the CI bulletin board, here.

Inspired and awed by katiepie's sojourn through The Cake Bible, I have decided to bake my way through Flo Braker's Sweet Miniatures. There are 128 recipes in the book, and I don't know if I have the perseverance to do them all. I have numbered them as they are found in the book, and will be jumping back and forth between them.

Recipe #1: Cameo Shortbreads

This is a pretty standard shortbread recipe, calling for part rice flour and part unbleached AP flour. The rice flour is to aid in the sandy texture. One thing that is aggravating - some of the measurements have weights, but some don't. For instance, the AP flour was in cups and grams (lucky I got that digital scale!), but the rice flour was just in cups. Butter was in tablespoons and grams, and sugar was just in cups. Aaaaarrrrrgggghhhhh.....

The instructions ask you to roll the dough into 3/4 inch diameter logs, chill, and cut on the diagonal. These will be very small cookies indeed. (Duh, like maybe I should have guessed that from the book's title?) The dough came together very easily and seems to have a good texture. It didn't stick at all to the silicone mat I used to roll them out. (I highly recommend a silicone mat for rolling any type of dough.)

I sliced and baked these after letting them rest in the fridge all day. Right out of the oven they weren't that great, but improved substantially upon standing overnight. I thought they were kinda plain, so I sprinkled dried lavender on some before baking. My husband said the lavender flowers looked like rat poop (he is so suave), so on subsequent batches I crushed the flowers first. I really liked them with the lavender. A solid, tasty recipe, but won't knock your socks off.

Recipe #11, Peanut Butter Petal Cookies. I made this because it calls for a cookie press, and I am always on the lookout for a great cookie press recipe. This isn't it. The cookies pressed well enough, but there wasn't much peanut butter flavor. Plus, the cookies were so tender that the petals kept coming apart once baked. These cookies are topped with a drop of chocolate ganache piped into the centers. Or as Flo puts it, "the crisp peanut buttter 'flowers' are dotted with a 'stamen' of dark chocolate ganache." That's not really a stamen, but I won't get into floral reproduction here.

As an aside, I am discovering how hard it is for me to make a recipe exactly as written. I could tell these cookies would be lacking in peanut butter flavor, and I so wanted to change the proportions of ingredients. But I will keep soldiering on, following the recipes slavishly.

On to the Miniature Pastries section (the reason I bought the book in the first place). Recipe #69, Miniature Tartlet Pastry. This is the basis for most of the filled pastries in this section. I am happy to report it is a wonderful recipe! She classifies this as a "sweetened short pastry [rather] than as a cookie." It is buttery, tender yet crisp, and is an easy to handle dough. You can either roll it out or press it into the tartlet pans.

I used the tartlet shells as the base for Recipe #70, Carmel Carmenitas. They are filled with a caramel pecan buttercream, but I thought the recipe was too heavy on the butter. Then again, I'm not a big fan of traditional buttercreams. I made them again, this time reducing the butter by about half, and liked them much, much better. How can you go wrong with caramel and pecans?

I used a different method than she suggests for filling the tartlets. She says to scoop a small amount of buttercream onto a spatula and put it in the shell, using the spatula to shape the buttercream into a mound in the center. Then you are to slope the sides with the spatula and form a "crest at the top." WTF? I just used a large open star tip and piped the buttercream in a swirl. Much less work. Since the recipe makes 36 minis, I think it makes much more sense to do it my way. Of course, I am always right - just ask my husband .

Recipe #46 - Sesame Spice Chips
This recipe is under the "spicy" miniatures section of the cookies. It is a spice cookie that calls for light molasses. I don't buy anything with "light" in the name, so I subbed a bit of corn syrup + regular molasses. I used the variation where cookies are made into small balls, then rolled in sesame seeds. I adore sesame, so these appealed to me. They are quite good, and look pretty with the sesame speckles. The cookies are very thin and have a great texture - a nice crisp on the outside and chewy on the inside. They are going onto the holiday cookie tray for sure.

Lemon Meringue Tartlets - made the lemon meringue tartlets next. There is not enough filling to fill 96 tartlets, unless you want to give people a dime-sized bit of curd. I use slightly larger tartlets than she does, but I'll bet this would only fill about 24 of those. And the curd directions are vague. If you hadn't made lemon curd before, you probably would have ended up with a burned or curdled end product.

I had to vary this recipe a bit (so much for slavishly following it). There is no butter called for in the lemon curd! I just could NOT make a lemon curd without butter. It's a pretty decent curd recipe if you add butter, but otherwise I think it would be a bit thin. I have to confess I made a different meringue as well - I made an Italian meringue because I like them better than standard meringues.

Heavy Cream Flaky Pastry, #98. Given that this recipe only has one full turn (at least I think that's right - I get confused by what one turn is...), it was pretty flaky. It was pretty easy to make, just cut butter into flour, add heavy cream and knead lightly. Do one full turn and stick into fridge. I used it to make the following two recipes.

Miniature Caramel Cream Vol-au-vents, #101. These things are just too pretty. You take the dough, cut out scalloped circles, and indent a circle into the center. Once they bake, you pop out the center part (but not all the way to the bottom), and fill it with a thick caramel sauce. The caramel sauce recipe is good but not standout. It only has corn syrup, sugar and cream - no flavorings at all. I would add vanilla, rum or something to give the caramel a kick. The recipe calls for candied lilacs for garnish, which I skipped since I will never find those around here. These could use a pretty garnish, though - I was thinking smoked salt on the top might be an unexpected but tasty garnish. In the photo below, note how tiny these are. I used a 1 3/4" cutter, exactly what the recipe calls for. When the vol-au-vents shoot up, they shink quite a bit in diameter. These are just about an inch in diameter now. The coin in the photo is a nickel.

Fig Pastry Rolls, #102. Fig Newtons for grownups. These have a flaky crust instead of a cakey one, but still have a sweetened fig filling. The recipe calls for vanilla and lemon juice, and the lemon juice is definitely needed to give it lift. They are quite tasty - my DH loves them. In the background of the photo below is how they look before they are cut. For this recipe I have another gripe about unclear directions. I still am not sure exactly how I was supposed to spread the filling on the dough or how much the dough was supposed to overlap, but I muddled through.

OK, next recipe: #65, Chocolate Pistachio Cigarettes
These were as much of a PIA to make as I thought. The recipe is straightforward, but you are supposed to take 1/2 teaspoons of batter and spread them out into 1 1/2 inch squares, only 4 at a time, on a buttered Teflon baking sheet. Once baked, you roll around a dowel and let cool, then dip into chocolate then pistachios. The nuts are blanched to remove the skins, and then toasted and finely chopped. I ended up modifying the process a bit because otherwise it would take forever to make these.

Verdict? They look pretty cool and my DH likes them, but I will save them for a special occasion because they are quite labor intensive and I lost about 1/3 of the cookies to breakage and/or tearing.

I'm beginning to feel like this cookbook would be ideal for someone who didn't have to work, didn't have kids or pets, and had a maid and butler. I don't have the time and energy to do all of these precious little time consuming things. I am never going to be aghast again at the prices of miniature treats, that's for sure.

Recipe #63, White Blossom Circles. These are a chocolate shortbread with a white chocolate ganache used to put "blossoms" on top. Sounds great, doesn't it? They sucked. I actually threw some away because I just couldn't bring myself to eat them. The texture was not sandy like good shortbread, it was grainy. The taste was about as chocolate as a Tootsie Roll, meaning not very.

#22 Pistachio Buttons
These are pistachio "thumbprint" cookies with a white chocolate "butter," sprinkled with chopped pistachios and dried apricots. I liked the sandy texture of these cookies and since I looove pistachios, I really liked the flavor too. In fact, it could have been even more pistachio-y for me. I think for the holiday tray I might use dried cranberries instead of apricots for extra color. They would contrast nicely with the green of the pistachios.

My white chocolate "butter" broke, which has happened to me before in another recipe. I would almost rather just melt white chocolate and use that instead of mixing it with butter. I guess I don't pay enough attention to the white chocolate, which is much more temperature sensitive than dark chocolate.

This recipe is supposed to make 96 cookies but I got 75. I want miniature cookies, not nano-cookies!

Whilst making these cookies, I didn't swear much so they must have been pretty easy. I need to develop a rating system based on cussing so I can remember how easy or difficult a recipe is. This recipe only rated 1 son-of-a-bitch, which means it's pretty easy. The recipe uses the food processor instead of a mixer, and I appreciate that. You don't have to soften the butter so you can put it together quickly.

#55 Double Kisses - Difficulty Rating: 2 SOBs

This is a take on the old Hershey's Kiss cookies. It is a chocolate shortbread wrapped around a Hershey's Kiss. The dough comes together easily but I found it a little dry. It is cocoa, flour, sugar, peanut butter, butter and egg white. There is no salt or vanilla in the recipe and I found it pretty bland as written. You can't really taste the peanut butter. I made a few straight up and then put in a little Kahlua since the dough was really dry and cracking. When I tasted them side-by-side, I preferred the Kahlua version by a slight margin. ;)

The dough is formed into a circle in your palm and then wrapped around a kiss. This is the reason this recipe is rated as 2 SOBs. It wasn't difficult but took quite a long time. The unfortunate part of this recipe is the look of the kisses. They are a chocolate brown lump with a pointed tip. I half expected one of them to wave and say "Hi-dee Ho." For those that don't get that reference, they look like poo. What might look better is to leave out the cocoa for part of the dough and make a marbled effect. Or maybe swirl some colored icing around them.

#5 Drei Augen Difficulty rating: 1 SOB

This recipe is an almond enriched shortbread that is sandwiched together with a bit of red currant jelly. You cut three holes in the top cookie (Drei Augen means three eyes in German) so that the red jelly shows through. The top cookies are sprinkled with powdered sugar before sandwiching and the result is a pretty and quite tasty little cookie. The dough came together easily and rolled well. You chill the rolled dough for a few hours then cut and bake. Next time I will make the top cookies first because the dough started to warm up and made the tiny cutouts want to stick to the waxed paper. Also, the finished cookies are pretty fragile. You can't press the two cookies together, the most you can do is twist them a little to get them to adhere well. Mine took longer to bake than the recipe stated by quite a bit but overall, these are easy, tasty and attractive. I don't think they will make the cookie tray due to their fragility, though.

#24 - Meringue Bubbles Difficulty rating: .5 SOB

These little bites are a chocolate-flecked meringue "kiss" on top of a shortbread round. The shortbread has no flavoring agents, only butter, sugar, salt & flour. It was really bland. It definitely could use a little vanilla. Additionally, Flo has you underbake the shortbread rounds since you will be putting them back in the oven to dry the meringue. The trouble is, you only dry the meringue at 225 degrees, so the shortbread doesn't finish baking. Next time I will bake the shortbread until golden.

The meringue has finely grated chocolate folded in, so it doesn't look very chocolately but definitely tastes it. These things are really cute, but my piping skills need work! Only a few looked like a Hershey's kiss, which is the goal. Most looked more like the Capitol dome.

One last thing: you are supposed to roll the dough out to a six inch circle and cut out the shortbread rounds using the 'large side of a 1/2 inch plain decorating tip (such as Ateco #6).' Why doesn't she just say, 'cut the cookies out with a ___ diameter cutter?' I don't have an Ateco #6 and have no idea what size the non-business end is. Sheesh. Now in the recipe headnote she says it makes 1 1/4 inch cookies. Why not just say that in the directions too? However, there is no way in hell can you roll the dough out to a six inch circle and get 48 1 1/4 inch cookies. Do the math. Area of a circle = pi * radius squared, so .625 *.625 * pi * 48 =  58.875 square inches. 3 * 3 * pi = 28.26 square inches. Maybe she means do 2 6-inch circles. Even that is not enough. I just don't get it.

#65(?)Golden Almond Weave  Difficulty rating: .5 SOB

This is a bar cookie, a shortbread crust covered with whole almonds in a honey/sugar syrup cooked to soft ball stage, then baked until the almonds are golden. It's very basic and simple. It is OK but bland. There is no spice or flavoring agent in the sugar syrup. And it doesn't look like a weave either.

Wow, over one year and I've only made 16 recipes? I need to step up the pace in 2008!

 

Cake vs. Pie - The Debate

On the eGullet forums several months ago a debate ensued about which was better, cake or pie. I came down firmly on the pie side, where (as usual) I was in the minority. Since we are fast approaching an election year, I thought we should let cake and pie duke it out for themselves in a debate. I will act as moderator. One note: cheesecake asked to be allowed to debate since he is neither cake nor pie, but he was deemed to not have the fundraising levels necessary to participate.

After a coin toss, Cake is allowed to go first.

M: Cake, what do you have to offer the voting public? What makes you a better choice than pie?

C: I am the candidate for all people. My textures range from light and airy (to fit the blue states) down to moist and dense (surely a red state pleaser). There is a texture for every palate in America.

I clearly give the people what they want. They want the icing on the cake! They want to have the cake and eat it too! I offer a plethora of delectable icings, again with a range of textures and flavors to suit every mood and need.

I say to you, what do people celebrate with on special occasions? Have you ever seen a wedding pie or even a birthday pie? No! The people demand cake and I will give it to them all.

M: Pie, it's your turn. What makes you the superior candidate?

P: Cake says he is for everyone, but in reality he is only for the privileged elite - "Let them eat cake!" He claims to be all about texture, but I offer more texture than he can even comprehend. I can be firm, but loose if the situation calls for it. Cake is too stiff to be able to relate to the common man, but nothing is more homespun and American as apple pie. Does the song go "baseball, hot dogs, lemon cake and Chevrolet?" No, indeed. I offer a range of tastes for everyone, from the lowest shepherd to the elite chess player. I can contribute to more parts of the meal, too. A chicken pot pie on every plate! Cake cannot offer the substance needed for the main course, but I can be with people from the appetizer to the dessert. I believe the choice is easy.

M: Cake, there have been assertions that you are too dry. What is your response?

C: That assertion is only from those who choose to overbake me. If they would listen to my message and pull me out of the oven sooner, they wouldn't need to resort to using milk to wash me down.

P (interjects): Cut and run! Always wanting to pull out of the heat before the job is finished!

C: That's an interesting response from someone as flaky as you. You can't even make up your mind if you are dinner or dessert! Talk about waffling!

M: Let's please each take our turn. There will be time for rebuttal later. Pie, Cake brings up a point I wanted to mention. You have often been called flaky, and sometimes even downright nutty. Your response?

P: If being tender yet crisp is a crime, then I am guilty. I am a deep individual. And I believe that being nutty on occasion is just being human.

M: Cake, Pie has considers himself deep. Do you feel that you are as well?

C: Not only am I deep, but I have many layers. In fact, I  have many more layers than pie, who would collapse under the pressure.

P: My layers might not be as lofty but I have hundreds of layers in my crust alone.

M: Any last comments?

C: I am the all purpose candidate. I embrace layers of diversity and I've been a sponge soaking up the knowledge needed to be an effective leader. Throughout the years I have retained the specialness that makes me desired at every important occasion. I come in all sizes to meet the needs of any situation. I feel I can best expound on the values important to the nation. Pie lacks focus - he is trying to cover too many bases.

P: I cover more bases, but this is a diverse country. I can relate to everyman, and I remain humble. I can be tarted up for a special occasion, but let's face it - the main work to be done isn't going to be fancy, it's going to be grunt work. It's not for cupcakes (and need I even mention that Cake is the Devil's food?) The country can't be trifled with - let's buckle down and cobble together the best nation we can!

C: I just want to point out that I was the angels' food first and remain so to this day.

Bûche de Noël

Inspired by an eGullet demo, I thought I would try my hand at making a Bûche de Noël (Yule Log). I used a recipe from The Cake Bible by Rose Levy Berenbaum for the cake and the filling came from the Strawberry Cream Cake recipe of Cook's Illustrated (except I added Kahlua). I even went the extra mile and made meringue mushrooms. They were really easy and so impressive. The entire thing went so smoothly I could hardly believe it. I only had to swear once, when I was rolling the cake (it cracked).

The cake part is a chocolate sponge cake, which means that whipped egg whites provide all of the leavening - there is no baking soda or powder. Rose's recipe is almost a souffle since there isn't any flour, either. Next time I'll use a more traditional Swiss Roll recipe but I hadn't tried Rose's so I thought I would give it a whirl.

Most recipes instruct you to roll up the cake while warm and then unroll, spread on the filling, and re-roll when cooled. Rose says to just cool it in the pan and then fill and roll it. I was skeptical, but followed the instructions (for once). I should have followed my gut, since the thing cracked nearly to pieces when I was rolling up the log. Rose states that having a lower amount of sugar than is typical of a sponge cake keeps it from cracking. Liar, liar pants on fire. Well, I may have slightly overbaked it, which didn't help. But it wasn't at all dry, so I think that the recipe is flawed (it just couldn't be me!). I have made many pumpkin rolls before and I always have cracks (maybe it is me). I have friends who make perfect un-cracked rolls, but their cake is very rubbery and not pleasant to eat, so I'll stick with the cracks. I'm all about taste over appearance (which may explain some of the guys I've dated that my friends couldn't get at all. Or maybe I'm just weird).

One thing I would like to point out - the recipe calls for folding the egg whites into a yolk/chocolate mixture. A lot of people have problems with folding and end up with dense, rubbery sponge cakes. There are two things to do to avoid this. The first is to whisk in the first 1/4 to 1/3 of the whites into the batter until completely integrated, without worrying about deflating. This lightens the batter a little and makes it easier to fold in the remaining whites, which I do with a rubber spatula. The second thing to do it quit while you are ahead. By that, I mean don't worry about a few lighter streaks of batter. You can see by the photo that my batter isn't 100% homogenous. Some might argue that it won't bake up as attractively this way, and they may be right. However, it won't be heavy and dense either. Also, once the cake bakes the streaks generally are much less noticeable. I probably could have gone a couple strokes more here but erred on the safe side. The batter sat nice and high in my jellyroll pan so I was happy with it.

Rose has another annoying instruction in her recipe. When the cake comes out of the oven to cool, she has you sprinkle it with cocoa powder before laying a damp dishtowel over it. I know that the reason for this is to make sure the towel doesn't stick to the cake and pull out chunks when you remove it, but it seems that the main reason is to ensure that you won't ever be able to get your towel clean again. I think that it is unlikely that the towel will stick that much - next time I may try it without the cocoa powder, or just use the traditional powdered sugar (since you are rolling, filling and frosting it, the few white specks that might remain won't be noticed).

Once the cake has rested, you spread on the filling and roll it into a spiral. This was where the cussing occurred. The cake stuck a little bit to the greased and floured parchment (???), and it started to crack badly. I put the cake down, calmed myself, and used an offset icing spatula to gently loosen the entire cake from the parchment. I tried again from the other side, and it went a little better, but I still got cracks. However, I was very gentle in my rolling and managed to keep most of the filling inside of the cake, and it managed to maintain a spiral shape. I reasoned that the frosting on the outside would cover the flaws. Next I trimmed the ends because they were ragged, and cut off a 3 inch piece from one end on a diagonal, and set it on top of the log as the "knot."

I used a basic chocolate ganache (chocolate, cream and sour cream - the sour cream because I didn't have enough regular cream. It turned out pretty darn tasty) for the icing. Here is the roughed in icing. I set this in the refrigerator to firm up before adding the finishing touches.

Now on to the meringue mushrooms. Again, I followed instructions from The Cake Bible. I whipped the egg whites until frothy, then added cream of tartar and a little sugar (I think the tartaric acid helps the whites hold their shape and whip up higher, but you can omit it and still get good results). Rose calls for superfine sugar but I have trouble finding it here so I just used regular granulated. I use Domino sugar, which seems to be finer than other brands anyway, and it worked just fine. Once the whites held soft peaks, I added the rest of the sugar and beat to stiff peaks.

A lot of people have a hard time judging when something is at soft peaks or stiff peaks, so I thought I'd include a couple of photos. In each of these photos, I dipped the end of a whisk into the whites and pulled it out. You'll notice on the first photo (left) that the white drooped when I turned the whisk upright. The shape held but it slumped a little. If the peak disappears totally as you turn the whisk upright, then you aren't even at soft peaks yet. On the right, you can see that the peak held its shape and stayed in place as I rotated the whisk. One word of caution: it is possible to overbeat the whites and end up with a dry, useless product. It's best to err on the side of under-beating. If the whites start to lose their gloss, STOP! If you take them too far they will look curdled and will separate into ragged clumps. Properly beaten they are smooth and shiny. Since eggs are still relatively cheap, it's better to start over than to use over-beaten whites in a cake batter or souffle, where more expensive ingredients are just waiting to be ruined.

Once the whites were whipped, I put them in a piping bag with a 1/2 inch plain round tip and piped disks for the tops and little pyramids for the bases. I popped those into a low oven (200 degrees) for about an hour, or until I could just pull one off the silicone sheet without crushing the mushroom or having it fall apart (I always make extra because I ruin a few when testing.) A silicone baking sheet is the best thing to use because the meringues will stick to parchment or even a greased baking sheet. If you don't have a silicone sheet, I suggest using a plain, ungreased aluminum baking sheet and a thin metal spatula to help you remove them. You will probably lose a few, but you'll still get many usable pieces. My husband thought he had a better idea for the bases so you can see some cylinders on the right hand side (they didn't work). I left a little meringue in another piping bag with a small round tip to assemble the mushrooms. Here's how you do it. First you take a top and twist the tip of a sharp paring knife into the underside to make a small hole (be careful not to press hard or you'll come through the top). Basically you are scraping a hole rather than cutting one. Next, you pipe a drop of leftover meringue into the hole and insert a base. You set the mushroom back down on the baking sheet, tilting the cap of the mushroom if you like. Repeat with the remaining caps and bases. Return the meringues to the oven for another half hour or so, allowing the meringue "glue" to set and dry. Next you sieve some cocoa powder over them for the finishing touch. If you like you can turn them all over and sprinkle cocoa on the undersides as well (or if you want to be super cool, get an airbrush or paint brush and brush "gills" underneath. I'm not that cool).

As the meringues were drying, I put the finishing touches on the log. I used the tip of a small paring knife to make grooves for the bark, whipped up a quick American buttercream (butter, powdered sugar and a touch of milk with cocoa for color) and piped it in rounds on the "cut" pieces of log, then threw the mushrooms to it. I used too many mushrooms for it to be aesthetically pleasing, but what else was I going to do with them?

I thought that it all turned out pretty well for my first attempt. Of course, my experience with pumpkin rolls helped, but I was still pleasantly surprised at how well it looked (and tasted). It lasted about 15 minutes at the party I brought it to. Actually, it lasted about an hour because no one wanted to cut it. Then someone snuck in and got a piece of the top knot with a fork. Once people saw that it was no longer intact, they descended on it mercilessly.

Holiday Baking Bonanza

I've been gone for a few days, but I have a good reason. Two reasons, actually. The first is that I spent some time in the ER with my husband, who had to go in at 3:30 a.m. last Wednesday with a severe asthma attack. That kind of threw the week out of whack. He is doing better now and we're back on course.

But the main reason I've been absent is because I was working on my holiday cookie trays. It's become a tradition for me to make cookies for my coworkers and friends, the vet, the mailman, sanitation workers, and the list keeps growing every year (there are more doctors every year - bummer).

This year I found a few new recipes to use but of course I can't abandon the tried and true (I've been warned). Last weekend I made 3 batches of my BBB (best baking buddy) Marilyn's Toffee, and some excellent caramels, courtesy of another online baking friend, Pennie. I made two types of cookies the week before and froze them, but the bulk of the project came this weekend. What follows is a blow-by-blow account with photos. I wish I could say I was the author of all the recipes, but alas, I'm much more of a follower than a leader when it comes to baking. I've given credit for all cookies where I remember the source.

On Friday evening I cleaned the kitchen up really good and started my mise en place. That entailed making sure I actually had the nuts, butter,vanilla, flour, sugar, chocolate and ancillary ingredients needed for all recipes. Then on Saturday (after making a run to Circuit City to buy a new computer monitor since ours picked a most inconvenient time to die - grrrrr), the dough making began.

One cannot begin a baking odyssey without the necessary ingredients. The most important (in my opinion) is butter. I go through obscene amounts of butter on a daily basis, and for the holidays I'm even more decadent. Here is but a small part of the close to 20 pounds of butter I go through in my holiday baking and candy making ritual.

I shouted and stomped my feet at the beginning of the session to cause a mass exodus of felines from the kitchen. Then I was able to clean surfaces again and work in peace. My tirade must have been effective because I worked for several hours uninterrupted by the pitter patter of petite paws.

Now that I had all the ingredients out and ready to go, the production began in earnest. I made batch after batch, using my kitchen scale to speed up measuring, and wearing out the old KitchenAid (I mean that in a literal sense. I think I need to take it in for repair). The scope of this project always exceeds the time I have to complete it. I had about 16 recipes on my list, but I only made 12 (in addition to the toffee and caramels). I started out with some icebox cookies (so named because they have to be refrigerated to firm up before baking), Washboards (from Cook's Country) and Poppyseed Spirals (I know not where I got this recipe). Here are two shots: one of the poppyseed mixture spread on the dough before I rolled it into a spiral and another of the washboard logs being formed. After about 4 hours, all the dough (double batches for the most part) was in bowls or logs awaiting baking. Since we had a Christmas party to attend Saturday evening, the baking would have to wait until Sunday.

Bowls of batter (hmmm... according to Michael Ruhlman's The Elements of Cooking, they are actually dough not batter, but batter sounded better) lining the counter, I began the assembly line for baking. I have a double wall oven, one of which is convection. In the convection oven I can do three sheets at a time, but only two in the lower oven. Also, in the lower oven I have to swap out the trays midway through baking so everything bakes more evenly. In the convection oven, I do rotate the trays from back to front because it isn't 100% even, but I can leave them on the same rack.

Here's a shot of the assembly process. I have 8 half-sheet pans, tons of parchment sheets, several cooling racks and some big tubs to store the finished product. The sad thing is I own, and could easily use, a speed rack, which is one of those multi-tiered rolling racks you find in commercial kitchens, but I keep forgetting to get it out of the storage place. It holds more half sheet pans that I would ever use, but I would only use it this time of year so I'm not keen on dragging it out (it's lightweight but hard to move due to its size). I'm saving it for the next kitchen, if ever there is one. The best part is I got it for free. Well, sort of. About one a half years ago, I did some baking for a small coffee shop. I had great dreams about becoming a renowned baker and opening up my own place. To that end, I decided to buy a big oven - a really, really big oven. A local restaurant went under and I placed a bid on a double commercial Blodgett oven. To my surprise, I won the auction. Unfortunately, about 2 months later the coffee shop closed and I am stuck with half a ton of oven that sits in my husband's shop. It's free to a good home if anyone wants it. But you have to move it yourself.

But I digress (no surprise there). Baking continued for about 5 hours, give or take. After putting all of the cooled cookies into containers, I went to bed. The next morning (today), packaging began. The cookies for coworkers were first with the rest to follow in the next day or so (I don't want anyone to eat stale cookies!). This year I am using half-size steam pans from Sam's Club to package the cookies. I can't afford to do pretty boxes for everyone, although my close friends will get beautiful tins.

Here's the finished product. Clockwise in a spiral starting from upper left: Washboards, Peanut Blossoms (Hershey Kiss cookies), Oatmeal Raisin/Date (Cook's Illustrated), Peanut Butter (Cook's Illustrated), more Peanut Blossoms, Chocolate Chip (my adaptation of Mrs. Field's cookies), Cranberry Shortbread, Sesame Rings (from 12 days of Christmas Cookies at Food Network), Date Balls (although the way I make them they are more like Rum Balls), Lemon Cookies (with green sugar edges - Cook's Illustrated), Poppyseed Spirals, Triple Chocolate (from a tub - wait, there's an explanation. I had to buy something from the kid next door for his school project, and this was the least of all evils. Although I will jump off a bridge if everyone says those are their favorites), and Peppermint Bark (Martha Stewart). In the photo below you can see the Mazurkas (upper left - from 12 Days of Cookies - Food Network), which replaced the lemon cookies for that tray. Below that is the product as delivered. Next up - Marshmallows!!

Really Easy Frosting

So now you have made your really good cake (see previous post). Now you want to frost the cake, but please don't reach for a can of nastiness. Frosting is even easier than cake. Even if you backslide and make a boxed cake, please please don't use the canned frosting. (Side note: I use the term frosting and icing interchangeably, although I suppose there might be a difference. I just don't know exactly what that might be.) This recipe is technically a ganache, but that sounds hard, and it certainly isn't.

Chocolate Frosting

1 cup (6 ounces) chopped chocolate (semi-sweet to bittersweet) (You can use chocolate chips; I won't tell)
3/4 cup heavy cream (or whipping cream)
Optional: 2 teaspoons vanilla extract (or liquor or other flavoring)

Put chopped chocolate into a bowl. Bring cream just to a boil, either on the stovetop or in a microwave. Pour hot cream on the chopped chocolate. Let it sit for several seconds, then start stirring with a whisk or a spoon. It will seem all nasty, grainy and lumpy for awhile, but after a minute of stirring it will become smooth and silky. Once it's smooth, stir in any flavoring you want to use. If you are using good chocolate, you won't need to add a thing. Let the mixture cool until it's a good spreading consistency. That would be when you can put some on a spatula, spread it on the cake, and it holds its shape. Depending on the room temperature, that will take about 30 to 60 minutes. Resist the temptation to eat it all with a spoon. It's for the cake! Double or triple the recipe as needed.

Cake: Round 1 - Classic White Cake

Sorry for the delay in getting a recipe to you for really good cake. Heavy rain intruded on my basement and I've spent a lot of time with a shop vac and mop.

I thought about doing a pound cake first since to me that is one of the easiest cakes to make. The trouble is, my favorite recipe is for a bundt pan, not a loaf pan, and I need to scale it down to fit the loaf pan so folks don't call my a hypocrite for requiring special equipment. So I settled on a classic white layer-type cake. This cake is one of my favorites for its soft, moist texture. It makes great cupcakes too! This recipe is based on the Cook's Illustrated Classic White Layer Cake. I started with that recipe but wanted a softer texture, so changed it a little bit. The biggest change was to replace some of the butter with oil so the cake remains soft even when refrigerated.  You can make a sheet cake with this recipe, which makes it even easier.

Yummy White Cake

2 1/4 cups (9 oz) cake flour (you can use 2 cups bleached all purpose flour, but the texture won't be quite as delicate. Don't let it stop you, though! It will still be good!)
1 cup milk (whole is best, 2% will work fine), room temp
6 large egg whites, room temp
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups (12.5 oz) granulated sugar
1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon table salt
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened to room temp (about 65 degrees)
1/2 cup vegetable oil

This recipe fits two 9 inch round pans, but could easily be made in a 9 x 13 pan as well. I wouldn't recommend using 8 inch round pans because it might get too tall, but you could use 8 inch square pans if you have them. Or you could make 18-24 cupcakes!

Set oven rack in middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Spray two 9-inch round cake pans with nonstick cooking spray or smear with cooking oil; line the bottoms with parchment or waxed paper rounds. Spray the paper rounds with cooking spray or smear with oil. You can skip the paper rounds if you will serve from the pans or if you are making a 9 x 13 sheet cake.

If you have never separated eggs before, there are several ways to do it. The old fashioned way is to pour the yolk back and forth between the egg shell halves until most of the white is gone. Be careful not to break the yolk on the sharp shell. For this application, a little bit of yolk won't hurt a thing, though. (The FDA recommends against this practice due to salmonella risks. I continue to do it.) An alternative way it is messy but also works. Pour the egg into your clean hand, and let the white drip down through your fingers as you hold the yolk. You can also buy a tool to do it, but that's not necessary. Even with all the baking I do, I don't use one.

Put the egg whites, milk and vanilla into a small bowl or large measuring cup. Mix together with a fork or whisk (it doesn't have to be 100% blended, just mix it fairly well). Measure flour, sugar, baking powder and salt into a mixing bowl. Stir with a whisk or mix with a mixer for a few seconds to distribute the ingredients evenly. Add butter and oil and mix until the mixture gets crumbly and there are not any dry pockets of flour remaining.

Add about 2/3 of the milk mixture to the crumbs. Mix on medium high speed for about 1 1/2 minutes (or about 3 minutes if doing it by hand. I recommend a wooden spoon.) Scrape the bowl well with a spatula to make sure there aren't any dry spots remaining, then mix in the remaining milk mixture for about 30 seconds. Scrape batter into pan(s), spreading evenly.

If using two pans, make sure they have room around them (use separate racks if necessary, changing about halfway through baking). Bake at 350 degrees, checking after 20 minutes, for about 25 minutes. A 9 x 13 cake will take about 35 minutes; cupcakes will take 15-20 minutes.

Here comes part of the baking adventure where people seem to have a real problem. How do you tell when the cake is done? Many ideas abound, including using skewers, toothpicks, pressing on the cake with a finger, checking the color and even listening to the sounds the cake makes (yep, it makes noise) while baking. I tend to use a skewer or toothpick, taking the cake out when there are just a couple of small crumbs on the pick when removed from the center (check at an angle for maximum exposure to the cake). You definitely don't want to see any wet batter on the toothpick. One thing to make sure of is that the cake has not begun to pull away from the edges of the pans while in the oven.  The cake should only come away from the edges while it is cooling. If you see it starting to shrink in the oven, pull it out!

Let the cake(s) cool in the pan for about 10 minutes, then invert onto a cooling rack if you plan to make a layer cake. Otherwise, you can just let it cool in the pan. Uh-oh, now I gotta come up with a frosting recipe. Be back soon!

Five Minutes More, Five Times Better

Upon seeing all of the Sam's Club brownies, Keebler pie crusts and grocery store pound cakes at our office holiday party, I was disappointed. I understand that it takes a little time to bake, but it also takes time to go to the store! It probably takes more time to get your coat on, drive to the store, stand in line at the checkout, and return home than it does to make a pan of brownies or make a pound cake. What is exceptionally frustrating is that the same people who will go out of their way to make a savory dish the best it can be with good ingredients, good technique and attention to detail will just buy a Sara Lee pound cake. It makes me want to cry. Sniff.

Even Alton Brown, whom I generally admire, pissed me off a few days ago. He was going on and on about the best ingredients for a pie, and then, and then! he says "store-bought pie crust is just fine." WTF? Unless he shops at a store with magical pie fairies, the crap they pass off as pie crust is barely tolerable, let alone "just fine." But I'll save pie crust for another day. Let's stick to brownies and cake.

If someone does take the time to bake brownies or cake, they often use a boxed mix. I know, I know, they aren't that bad. But, if you compare it to syphilis, herpes isn't that bad either. You can do so much better, folks! What people don't realize is that it takes only a very few minutes more to do a cake from scratch than it does to use a mix. And it really does taste better. Waaaayy better. C'mon - do you think a Junior Hamburger from Wendy's is as good as the one straight from your grill? No? It's the same with cake - Pillsbury ain't got nothin' on a homemade cake.

I've heard a lot of excuses out there for not baking from scratch. "It's too difficult." "I don't have the equipment." "It takes too much time." "It's too much work." I believe I can counter those arguments. I really, really, would like to see people try something from scratch using my methods so they can see that it doesn't have to be difficult. I know they will like the results. Following are some excuses (mostly myths) and my rebuttals.

Myth: Baking from scratch is very difficult.
Truth: A simple sheet or pound cake or pan of brownies is not difficult at all and requires no more skill than making a boxed mix. Swear to Dog. If you are making a boxed cake mix, you have to measure (oil & water), mix and put the batter in a pan.  If you make a cake according to my instructions, you have to measure, mix and put the batter in a pan. Seriously. It the freakin' same skill set! You (yes you!) can make a cake that tastes five times better than a box, with only five more minutes of your time. It's a matter of method.

Many cake recipes are daunting. They have you cream butter and sugar for minutes on end and admonish you NOT TO UNDERBEAT! Then they have you add this, then that, then alternate, blah blah blah. If I had to do it that way I'd probably get a mix too. The truth is, there's an easier way. It's the method most bakeries use and it's call the hi-ratio method. I like to call it the 'cake mix method.' It's elegantly simple. Just as in a cake mix, you put all the dry ingredients together first and add in the liquid ingredients. Sound too good to be true? If you don't believe me, believe Rose Levy Berenbaum, author of The Cake Bible. She uses this method almost exclusively.

What you do is measure all the dry ingredients into a bowl, stir to combine, then add the (room temperature) butter and beat for about 1 1/2 minutes (hmmm...the same amount of time as for a cake mix). Then you add the rest of the liquid ingredients and beat until incorporated, pour it into a pan, bake and voila! Let them eat cake. Really good cake.

I'll bet there are many people who haven't had a scratch cake. They don't know just how good it can taste. Once you go scratch, you'll never go back.

Myth: I need special equipment to bake.
Truth: You probably already have everything you need. If you determine you like baking, you can buy all sorts of special equipment (I have!). But you absolutely don't need it. To make a cake or brownies you need a cake pan (or a loaf pan for pound cake). An 8 or 9 inch square or round pan, old, beat up and ugly will work just fine. I know - I baked a cake at my friend's house a few weeks ago, and she had a 40-year-old sort-of Teflon cake pan, and we made a great cake in it.  You don't even need a mixer, but if you are over 30 20 like me, your arms and shoulders will appreciate it. You need a mixing bowl, but if you don't have that why are you reading this blog? A kitchen scale is great, but you don't need it. You will need measuring cups (1/4, 1/3, 1/2 and 1 cup), and measuring spoons (this is one place you can't cheat and use an eating teaspoon). You can find those for about a buck at the Dollar Store. But I'll bet you have them already. A rubber spatula, whisk and/or wooden spoon will complete the necessities.

Oh, and you need an oven. A toaster oven will work in a pinch.

Myth: I need special ingredients to bake
Truth: Only one or two things are a bit specific. You will need baking powder (Rumford=best, Calumet or Clabber Girl=good) and baking soda. Other than that, you probably have the rest of the ingredients you need - flour (all-purpose will work for most applications but cake flour will take it to the next level), sugar, butter, oil and eggs. A flavoring agent like vanilla is nice too. (Psst - you can use liquor too. Pass it on).

Myth: It's going to take too much time.
Truth: Oh quit whining already. It will take about 5 minutes more to do it from scratch than from a box. We will use the magic of microwaves to make sure of that (although you don't need to have one! No excuses!). If you don't have a microwave it make take a few minutes longer. Sorry. Darn Luddites.

Okay, then, are you ready to bake? Here is an easy recipe that you can try right now. DO IT! DO IT! I'll post a cake recipe tomorrow.

Easy Brownies
Makes about 16 or 8 or 2, depending on how hungry you are.

6 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips (if you want to get fancy, use fancier chocolate and chop it up. But that takes work. Whatever you do, don't use Baker's brand baking chocolate. OK use it if you have it. But then buy some better stuff. You'll thank me later.)
8 tablespoons (4 ounces) butter (salted or not)
1 cup granulated sugar (use a couple tablespoons more if you have a sweet tooth)
3 tablespoons cocoa powder (you can omit if you don't have it)
3 eggs (large or medium. If you have extra large or jumbo, use 2)
1/2 teaspoon table salt (or 1/4 teaspoon if you use salted butter)
2 teaspoons vanilla (or 1 tablespoon rum, or Kahlua, or Cointreau, etc.)
1 cup flour (all purpose, bleached or unbleached) or 1 1/4 cups cake flour
(Measure flour by fluffing up the flour with a spoon in whatever container it's in, then scoop your measuring cup in and get it full (one fluid motion; don't jiggle it). Level off the top with a knife or your finger (I won't tell).) If you have a kitchen scale, measure 5 ounces of flour.)

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Butter (or use Crisco or Pam) a 8 or 9 inch square or round pan. The smaller the pan the thicker the brownies. Buttering the pan makes it easier to remove them. If you feel really frisky, line the pan with foil, leaving an overhang for easy removal. Butter the foil. But you don't have to!!

In a microwave safe bowl, nuke chocolate chips for 1 minute on high. Stir with a large spoon, and add butter (cold is fine, room temp, frozen, whatever). Nuke for another minute and stir again. If butter and chips aren't fully melted, just wait a minute. (Gosh, you're impatient!) If they still aren't melted, repeating nuking at 30 second intervals until they are (if it takes more than 3 minutes, your microwave sucks). Remember that carry over heat will finish the job if they are mostly melted. If you don't have a microwave, set a mixing bowl in a saucepan with simmering water. Don't let the bottom of the bowl touch the water. Add chips and butter to the mixing bowl and stir until melted. Remove from heat and continue.

Add sugar and cocoa powder, stirring until combined (I usually use a wooden spoon). Add eggs, one at a time and stir after each one. (It's easier to incorporate them that way. If you want to add them all at once, feel free.) Stir until the mixture is uniform. Stir in salt and vanilla or other flavoring.  Add flour and stir it in just until you don't see white streaks.

Scrape it out of the bowl into the pan and stick it in the oven (middle). Make sure to lick whatever you used to scrape, and the bowl too. Bake for 25 to 40 minutes (smaller pan = thicker brownies = longer time). Check on it after 20 minutes no matter what (in case your oven isn't exact). It's done when the it's puffed a little and there are a few cracks on the edges. Let cool (if you can) then enjoy!

Holiday Wreath Revisited

I have seen many types of edible wreaths featuring herbs and fruits, but after an idea was sparked on the Cook's Illustrated Bulletin Board, I decided to tackle meat as the medium. I'm not much of an artist, but gave it the ol' college try. I think it could be done better using different kinds of meats (more salami and other round shaped meats), but I was limited by our office holiday party needs and budget. So here is what I devised:
You will note the bacon bows. I did about as well with them as I do with ribbon or cloth bows, which is to say they sucked. Also, I didn't take these photos and other folks handled the trays after I dropped them off, so some shifting of the "berries" occurred. They looked a little better when I handed them off than when the photos were taken.

Everyone really like them and especially liked the fact that you could get just one piece of meat without a bunch clinging to it like when you purchase the trays from the grocery store. I would call these a qualified success. I may try again later with some different meat products and see if I can do better.

If you like Bourdain and Ruhlman...

...then check out this video from last night's Barnes & Noble talk: B&N Live. Pretty much what you would expect, and that's a "good thing."

I've been down for the past few days with a sprained ankle (stupid Christmas lights), so I haven't been doing much in the kitchen. I am about to place an order on Butcher-Packer.com for some pink salt and sausage casings so I can begin making BACON and sausages. My husband has agreed to build a curing closet in our basement so I can control the temperature and humidity. It may just be an old refrigerator that we convert, but something will be done so I can hang meat out of the reach of six cats. After bacon, I may try mortadella.

Before I get to the charcuterie, though, it's cookie time! I plan to make about 8 types of cookies, toffee, caramels, and marshmallows for my annual goodie bags that I give to friends (and use to suck up to others). The festivities will begin this weekend.

Bambi on the Grill

A deer friend (groan) brought me two large chunks of venison. He wanted me and my husband to smoke it. I'd heard that deer was too lean to smoke well, so I thought we better do some in a braise (cooking slowly in liquid) to make sure that all of it wasn't dry. Besides, I had only made venison once before and I wanted, like Stephen Colbert, to be able to lose twice.

Some people don't like venison because deer are so pretty. I never had that problem. In fact, when I watched the movie Bambi as a child I was rooting for the hunter (no, not really, but it makes for a good story).

The deer pieces were labeled - one was marked 'shoulder' and the other very descriptively marked 'chunk.' No, that wasn't a misspelling for chuck. Our friend got tired of cutting up the quarter he received and just hacked it into a few pieces.

I brined the parts overnight while I perused the eGullet thread on venison to get some ideas. I trimmed the shoulder and cubed the trimmings along with a chunk of the chunk and browned it in a Dutch oven. I added onion and carrot, then deglazed the pan with some dry sherry. I added some chicken broth and fresh thyme, then stuck the pan in a 300 degree oven with my fingers crossed.

While I was trimming the deer parts, I found that the venison didn't smell all gamey like the previous venison I had cooked. That was a bonus because that previous batch smelled a lot like oil paint. I know food is art, but that's a little too much.

The rest of the deer parts went into the smoker with trepidation. I figured the worst case scenario involved a call to Pizza Hut so what the heck. After struggling to maintain heat levels on a 35 degree day for two hours, I decided that would be enough smoke and transferred the venison to the oven, covered with foil.

Two hours later the moment of truth arrived. Luckily, it was a great success. The stew was flavorful and the meat fall apart tender. The smoked meat had a tremendous flavor and a thick smoke ring even if it was a tad dry. It was pretty tender, though - a lot more tender than I had hoped for. Whew.

After all was said and done, I had a great idea. The next time I do venison on the grill, I'll wrap it or lard it with bacon. That's the only way it could be better.