Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Chocolate Panforte Candies


I didn't know what to expect when I picked out these candies from a long long list of choices.  Panfor..wha?  I wondered.  I kinda knew, I kinda didn't, but I chose them anyways for my fifth week of Christmas cookies.  So I was surprised to find out how much I loved these dainty Italian candies!  (Panforte aren't candies, they're actually a really old (like 13th century old) Italian bread, but contain the same spices and nuts). Actually my sugar diet might have been temporarily postponed while I popped candy after candy into my mouth.  They've got crunch and chew, lots of spice and complex flavours and at the end of it all, a nice chocolate finish.  Picture it: seed-heavy chewy figs, crunchy toasty hazelnuts, a face full of orange flavour and a load of spices all dropped on top of a creamy, smooth chocolate disk.  Wham! I mean, come on! How can that not make you wanna gobble three...or five of them.  I'm going to be making a huge batch of these come Christmas, to share.  As an added bonus to all this wonderfulness (as if it weren't enough!) they were a cinch to make.  They took all of fifteen minutes from start to finish.  It's like aces in your back pocket when the Christmas invites start rolling in.  Gotta love it!
Baking notes:
-I chopped my figs much finer than quarters.  I was aiming for a more even distribution in the mix.
-It may seem like a lot of spice, but it totally mellows out.  Dump it in!
-I chopped my hazelnuts pretty fine as well.
-I never measure out orange zest.  I just zested the whole orange into the pot.

44/569

The recipe for Chocolate Panforte Candies can be found on the epicurious website.

Saturday, October 27, 2012

Halloween Candy Cake


So it's birthday season again, the part of our year when things get crazy.  Crazy in the best way possible of course.  Thanksgiving starts it off every year, then a birthday (that was Thursday), Halloween, three more birthdays, Christmas, New Years and two more birthdays, Valentine's day, another birthday and then things are finally over.  I love it each and every time.  We have something to celebrate every second week from now until March (and then the blues hit hard).  Luckily that means you can count on a lot of cakes and big desserts between now and then.  My pocket book will be crying before the end of all this, and maybe the sugar detox I was talking about the other day makes more sense now.   Get ready, it's celebration time!

Heather, who turned 17 on Thursday, got to pick her cake from a list of 132.  It was simple for her though, she saw the word Halloween and decided immediately.  (The girl loves Halloween, what can I say?)  It's perfect timing of course, little packages of candy are abundant in the stores right now, though with all the varieties of chocolate around you'd wonder why I couldn't find butterfingers for the life of me!  This cake is peanut heavy, which was perfect for us, we all love our peanut butter and could eat it forever.  There are Reese's peanut butter cups, Reese's pieces and Oh Henry's inside the cake.  Sugar overload? I think so.


Baking notes:
-I thought the actual cake was kinda weird.  6 eggs, 2 yolks and ground peanuts?  That's hardly a cake.  But I made it as directed and it worked alright.  You could feel the peanut-y crunch with every bite.  I only baked the cakes for 15 minutes instead of 20, and I still found them a little dry.
-I assembled the cake at home, wrapped it up and refrigerated it.  On the long drive to our destination the cake actually flipped over, but it was oddly unaffected.  I whipped the cream and decorated the cake just before we ate it.
-The layers were like this: peanut cake, peanut butter frosting, chopped peanut butter cups x4.  Then whip cream covering the cake, chopped peanuts on the sides and the reese's pieces and oh henrys for decoration.  Wow!

The recipe for Halloween Candy Cake can not be found online.

43/569

Thursday, October 25, 2012

Brown Butter and Peanut Brittle Ice Cream


Wow! We're burning through the book!  This is the forty-second recipe to come out of the kitchen, and what fun it's been!  It's about to slow down though, to a steady once a week for the 12 weeks of Christmas cookies series (with the exception of three upcoming birthday cakes).  I've decided in an attempt at pre-holiday sanity, that my body needs less sugar for the time being.  So I give you this recipe, the last sweet to come out of the kitchen before the big detox, (that I sent straight to my mother's house, where my brother went ga-ga) which was fan-freakin'-tastic!  With just one bite it was listed under faves, and the recipe tossed into my mental make again pile.  I suggest you get cracking on this recipe, you won't regret it!

Baking notes:
-My only complaint about the recipe is the gritty texture the brown butter leaves on your tongue.  It's a worthwhile compromise, and only the separated butter solids, but not perfect.
-I scrapped out and steeped a vanilla bean instead of the vanilla extract called for.  Bonus flavour points!
-I couldn't find peanut brittle for the life of me, so I made my own.  I adapted this recipe by subbing out sesame seeds and adding chopped peanuts, and leaving out the nutmeg.  It was nice to make the brittle without corn syrup.

The recipe for Brown Butter and Peanut Brittle Ice Cream can be found on the epicurious website.

42/569

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Cottage Cheese Rugelach with Walnuts

Week four, week four! How did that happen?  I left Shane a note on top of the cookie jar before he came home, it read "Eat as many as you want."  He read it as "Eat all of these in one night."  When I came home there were 14 less cookies in the jar. (I counted)  Seriously?  He must have loved them.  I know I did. (I ate one).  I've made rugelach before, but it's never been as great as I hope.  Usually the sugar is overcooked on the bottom and it's too hard for these teeth, or the pastry is too dry.  This time the cottage cheese kept it moist (and simple!).  There is a little crunch when you bite in and then a lot of nutty - caramelized sweetness, nothing remotely dry or over cooked.  Decadent, flaky and sweet.  These will be my new standard rugelach recipe.  Stoked!

Baking notes:
-I did everything exactly as outlined except: I used butter instead of margarine.  That was a given.  Please Bon Appetit, what were you thinking?!
-I baked the cookies for a little less time (about 2-3 minutes) and they came out perfectly.

The recipe for Cottage Cheese Rugelach with Walnuts can be found on the epicurious website.

41/569

Thursday, October 18, 2012

Cranberry and Lemon-Ginger Parfaits


I am a hurry up and wait person by nature.  I'm constantly in a rush for absolutely no reason.  Example: throwing pots and bowls around the kitchen in attempt to get everything done as soon as possible.  Why?  Just because I'm in a hurry.  I speed all the way to work and am 20 minutes early, every single day.  Why?  What if there was traffic?  I rush my husband out the door on our way to meetings and appointments, I can't be a minute late.  Instead we sit in the car for ten minutes twiddling our thumbs almost every time.  I don't know why it's ingrained in me to rush to and through everything, (I'm blaming this one on my mother.)  I found myself rushing through this recipe, getting my arms crossed in an attempt to speed through it.  Again, it was for no reason, I had no excuse.  So I slowed down, took my time and enjoyed the process.  In return the recipe worked beautifully and later that night Shane and I slowly savored our dessert.  (Well he ate it slowly, I plowed through mine like someone was going to steal it away.)

The layers in this parfait are mousse.  Parfait is a useless descriptive word in this case, it doesn't tell you very much at all.  They are light and airy, like munching on little clouds.  The dessert is perfectly balanced between lightly sweetened and naturally tart, neither one overbearing.  The ginger wonderfully compliments the lemon and gives a tiny bit of texture to the mousse.  Though the picture shows very little lemon mousse, there is actually a nearly equal amount. (Apparently I need to work on my layering skills!)  The layers are both lightened with whip cream and stabilized with gelatin.  I've found in my experience that though mousse made with gelatin set heavier, they last much longer and give the mousse a more luscious feel.  The results were terrific, I was very pleased.

Baking notes:
-Once again I made a half recipe.  This one was a little trickier due to the splitting of one egg yolk, but it's no matter if you make a full recipe.
-I thought the serving size was much too big!  I would cut down the portion by 1/3 for the dessert to be eaten comfortably.
-I didn't use cranberry liqueur in the recipe (though that sounds great!) and just substituted water instead.

The recipe for Cranberry and Lemon-Ginger Parfaits is not currently available online. (I always hate that.)

40/569

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Cranberry Orange Drop Cookies

The rain is sliding down the south facing window, the one above the white couch with the grey blanket that warms my feet.  The dog lays on the floor blissfully asleep until the heater blows on and his head lifts.  I feel the rain sprinkle onto my cheek through the screen on the open window when the wind gusts.  I reach up to close it and feel a little puddle of water.  It's our first rainstorm in our new place and we've yet to discover the patterns and tricks the weather will play.  A day as blustery and wet as this deserves the comfort of baking and the warmth of an oven, my comfort lies in the recipes I try.

It's only the first rain of fall but I'm dreaming of snow and crackling fires, cinnamon baking and songs to sing, it's week 3 of 12 weeks of Christmas cookies.  Today I make Cranberry Orange Drop Cookies, they're Christmas in a cookie for sure.  There are cranberries, a lot of them, and spices, there is ginger and orange and walnuts and pistachios.  They are comforting and warm, soft and pillowy, they are perfect for this day.

[update: butter ate all of these.  I had one.]

Baking notes:
-I made a half batch of this cookie recipe, and I ended with 19 cookies, 5 shorter than the 24 approximated.
-I used water because I didn't have orange juice on hand (I forgot that the orange I zested was full of juice)
-I measured out the cookies into rounded tablespoons but only baked them for 12 minutes instead of 18, which was plenty of time, I imagine they would have otherwise been quite burnt.

The recipe for Cranberry-Orange Drop Cookies can be found on the epicurious website.

39/569

Sunday, October 14, 2012

Cornmeal Pound Cake with Rosemary Syrup, Poached Pears, and Candied Rosemary

It's one of the first recipes you see when you flip through the book, and it's been haunting me ever since the project started.  I'm not sure why it nagged me so much, there doesn't seem to be anything overly special about it.   Maybe it's the candied rosemary?  That, and the fact that it has a picture, and most of the recipes do not.  I wonder if it would have stuck with me so much if there hadn't been a picture?  Anyway, I was looking for a project and my heart was set on this one.  After lunch I set about creating this dessert.

First there were vanilla poached pears.  I took my ripest pears, the ones that were on their way out, and cut them up into quarters.  They were too big to leave whole like the recipe called for, and frankly just weren't nice enough.  The poaching was easy and soon they sat cooling in the fridge.  While that was happening I made the pound cake, a half recipe mind you, in a tiny little loaf pan, the perfect size for two.  It's a cornmeal cake, both simple and easy.  Once the cake was in the oven and the pears were chilling, I candied the rosemary.  It was a much easier process than I anticipated.  I started the syrup and added my sad looking rosemary sprigs.  They cooked in the sugar for five minutes and almost right away took a quick dusting in superfine sugar.  The best part of the whole dish?  The rosemary syrup left behind!  Seriously, the syrup was so good I had it in my chai tea.  I'd make more just to have the syrup again!

It's safe to say I was a bit disappointed with the dessert.  All the opportunity was there, but I think it fell short.  The pears were okay, the pound cake was actually a nice texture. Unfortunately it tasted like nothing and the rosemary was so woody it wasn't actually edible.  The syrup was too reduced and constantly needed to be reheated to maintain a fluid consistency.  There were a few things I'd change to make them really sing.

Baking notes:
-I didn't use wine in my pear poaching liquid, I didn't have any one hand.  Instead I substituted apple juice and a tablespoon of triple sec.  Wine would have added another dimension altogether.  I also forgot to add the rosemary to the pot.
-My vanilla isn't very strong and the pound cake needed the flavour desperately.  Without good vanilla the cake tastes like very little.  I baked the pound cake in a half size loaf pan for 53 minutes.
-The candied rosemary was easier to make than I thought it would be.  Be sure to use young tender rosemary sprigs for the best texture.  The sugar used to coat the rosemary can be saved, with it's faint but delightful flavour, for another purpose.
-Next time around I would add a tablespoon more water to the syrup after I took the rosemary out to make it a little more useable.

The recipe for Cornmeal Pound Cake with Rosemary Syrup, Poached Pears, and Candied Rosemary can be found on the epicurious website.

38/569

Friday, October 12, 2012

Pumpkin Swirl Ice Cream Pie with Chocolate Almond Bark and Toffee Sauce


My brother asked me several weeks ago already, "can you pleeeease make me ice cream?"  The kid seriously loves ice cream.  But not with nuts, he won't eat those.  He won't even pick around them.  You add nuts to his ice cream and he's done.  I told him I would.  Something with caramel was what I promised.  And I fully intended to, I swear, but one day led to the next and before you knew it, three weeks had passed.  My brother's other favourite dessert is pumpkin pie.  The kid loves pumpkin pie.  He would eat it year round if I would make it for him.  And he'll gladly eat half a pie himself.  I decided to combine the two for our thanksgiving dinner and this was the result.  Pure deliciousness.

My grandparents dropped by as we were finishing our thanksgiving lunch, just in time for dessert.  This ice cream pie got rave reviews all around.  It's perfectly spiced, precisely sweetened, and oddly enough, wickedly appropriate for the hot thanksgiving day we were given.  The graham crumb crust shrunk, but was still good. The ice cream was marbled nicely with the pumpkin filling and the chocolate bark offered a nice crunch.  The toffee sauce was wicked, like sex on a spoon.  We were all thoroughly impressed.  I'd say the whip cream was optional, and I'm glad we opted not to.

Baking notes:
-As I said, my graham cracker crust shrunk, there was nothing left on the sides of the pan.  I'm not sure what size graham cracker it is referring to because mine (which I thought were a standard size) were clearly not big enough. I ended up adding a few more to the food processor and crossing my fingers.  (which clearly didn't work)
-I found the ice cream difficult to work with.  The recipe asks that you soften the ice cream in the microwave, but I don't have one, so I scooped it out in little scoops and tried to press them flat so they'd soften quickly.  I ended up quickly tossing it all together and pressing it into the dish and tossing it in the freezer hoping for the best.
-I couldn't be bothered to whip up the whip cream before we ate this dessert.  And maybe it's a good thing.  In my experience the whip cream eaten with the frozen ice cream causes the fat to stick to your mouth.  I find it unpleasant, but the contrast in textures would have been interesting.

37/369

The recipe for Pumpkin Swirl Ice Cream Pie with Chocolate Almond Bark and Toffee Sauce can be found on the epicurious website.

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Mixed-Nut Spiced Toffee


So you've heard of the project 12 weeks of Christmas cookies right?  The idea that you start now to freeze cookies, so at Christmas you can pull them out when you need them, thus eliminating stress during the holidays.  I've done the project before, but like last time I use it as an excuse to make cookies, not as a freezer stocking tactic.  What can I say, I love to bake!  Now you'll notice I'm starting a week late, that's because I wasn't sure I wanted to do this again, it seems waaaay to early to be thinking Christmas already.  But in flipping through the book I've decided there are more than enough recipes fitting for the holiday season that I could use an excuse to make.  And so here we are, Week 2 of 12 Weeks of Christmas Cookies(&Candy)!

I'm going to keep is short and sweet. This recipe rocks!  It's fairly easy, not too technical. It doesn't taste at all like the toffee you buy in tins, it's much, MUCH better.  It tastes unique, like something you've never had before, but all too familiar at the same time.  I really love it, and I know some lucky people will at Christmas time too!

Baking notes:
-I made a half batch, because no matter how good it is, there are still only two of us.  It was a very easy recipe to divide.
-My thermometer hovered around the 220 F mark for a long time, but eventually it did make it to 290 F.  Totally worth the 20 minutes at the stove.
-I used blackstrap molasses for a really dark intense flavour, and it came out amazing.
-I really can't get enough of this!

36/569

The recipe for Mixed-Nut Spiced Toffee is available on the epicurious website.

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Chocolate Chip Coffee Cake

We have very little counter space you see, and between the coffee maker and the dishes drying there was just no room for a cooling cake.  I placed the cake on a rack on the TV stand and went about my day.  We leave food out all the time and our dog never sniffs twice.  The cake was fine from it's low perch as we sliced little pieces off here and there, it's glaze dripped to the wood beneath it.

The next morning, thinking nothing of it, I brought Shane to the train station.  It's a six minute round trip journey.  When I came back into the house Butter slunk down onto his mat (the place we put him for discipline) licking his chops.  He knew he was in trouble before I knew what he did.  I looked around for vomit before I spotted the scene.  My pretty cake completely devoid of icing, mashed up against the TV with a picture frame sitting on top (he had pushed the whole thing back into it) and a good third of the cake missing.  I don't know what pushed him to eat the cake, I've never known him to eat my sweets.  (Corn thief he most definitely is.)  But this is his game, once every few months, after we've forgotten about a previous incident he'll strike again.  We'll up our vigilance for a few weeks before letting our guard drop again.  We forget, he attacks.  Needless to say the slobbery cake went straight to the garbage.

Luckily for me I didn't find the cake all that enjoyable anyways.  It thought it was bland and tough.  The only part I really enjoyed was the sugar craving it satiated.  Shane on the other hand liked it a lot, so I'll leave it for you to decide.

Baking notes:
-Even though I lowered the oven temperature to 325 and had the cake in for only an hour (instead of 68 minutes) I found it hard and dry.  I needed less time, but even then I'm not sure the very thick and hard crust on the outer edge would be better.
-I had to tent the cake for the last 25 minutes of baking because it was getting so dark.
-The cake itself had little flavour, it could have used a nice splash of vanilla or something.
-When I combined the icing sugar and sour cream I couldn't figure out how they were going to make something liquid, but I just kept stirring and oddly enough it eventually worked.
-I did love the walnut topping and could have eaten it all off the top (like my dog).

35/569

The recipe for Chocolate Chip Coffee Cake can be found on the epicurious website.

Monday, October 1, 2012

Italian Hazelnut Espresso Shortbread Cookies


You know, you could make almost any recipe in this book if you keep your pantry well stocked with nuts.  I've realized a recurring theme while flipping through the recipes, I've almost never got the appropriate type nut to make each recipe.  I've also noticed a lot of recipes calling for matzo meal and quick cooking tapioca, two things I've never had in my house, but who's absence has become glaringly apparent.  Come next payday my cart will be full with walnuts, pecans, pine nuts, almonds and hazelnuts, then I'll be set.

I had a few hazelnuts languishing in the bottom of my bulk basket and rescued them from a sad unnoticed fate by making these cookies.  Best idea of the week? You bet!  These cookies are so buttery and crisp, toasty and warm, I could gobble them up in no time.  This is the shortbread I dream of, I'd never known just how easy it was!  No chilling or rolling, just slap it all together in the food processor, knead it into a ball and press it into a pan.  Bake for 25 minutes and it's done.  Full of flavour and totally addictive.  It's a new favourite of mine!

Baking notes:
-I made a half recipe, which was very easy to do. (No splitting a single egg this time!)
-Everything went totally smoothly until I came back to the cooled shortbread two hours later.  While putting together the chocolate topping I failed to cut the recipe in half and ended up with an awful lot of chocolate.  I realized my mistake afterwards and covered the top of the cookies with chocolate, rather than drizzling it.
-Because I didn't drizzle the chocolate the cookies had to be cut again, which is why they look a little rough around the edges.  Follow the recipe and yours will look much better.

The recipe for Italian Hazelnut Espresso Shortbread Cookies is available on the epicurious website.

34/569