Unlike my last post, this one is for about something that is most definitely not good for your heart. Or your waistline. But here it is nonetheless:
A Buche de Noel!!!
Erik has been wanting to make one of these for a while now, and so we used his office's holiday party as an excuse to try this baby out. I will admit I had low expectations, because of all the steps and because you have to roll it, the prospect of which scared me just a bit. But I guess our success is a testament to the excellent recipes we used that it all turned out well. (Well, except for the first attempt at buttercream frosting...) In fact, the hardest part of this whole thing was finding the right sized cookie sheet! But we did, and so we proceeded.
Because all the recipes are already online, and because it's late, I will just post the links.
I started following the buttercream frosting recipe, which is sort of a classic French buttercream, and I'm not quite sure what I did, but something went wrong and my eggs fell out of emulsion, and so I had runny egg yolks and clumps of butter that would not blend. I didn't really want to try the same recipe again lest it fail a second time, so I turned to Ina Garten, the Barefoot Contessa for her chocolate buttercream recipe, which I just happened to see her make on her show the other day while I was elliptical-ing away. (Finding decadent recipes while on the elliptical seems to be my new thing these days). Anyway, the recipe worked like a charm and holy cow, but it is delicious! If you use this recipe though, cut it down to just a third, because that will make more than enough icing for a yule log.
(I also just noticed when I posted this link that I inadvertently used only half the amount of chocolate that I was supposed to, but to no ill effect....oh well!)
Next time I might attempt meringue mushrooms and save some frosting to make green leaves, but on this our first attempt we did basic. But I think it is going to mm mm good tomorrow!
Diet & lifestyle books are a dime a dozen, and sometimes you have to take what they say with a grain of salt. (I'm on a cliche roll here, any more I can throw in?). This past January my mom got into South Beach, and when she came to visit me over the winter she bragged that she hadn't had a piece of fruit since the New Year. I mean....okay, but is that even healthy? Meanwhile she was eating eggs, peanuts, and more red meat in a sitting than I eat in a week. I guess I shouldn't knock South Beach since I have never read the book. But no fruit? I live for fruit! So instead I will talk about a food guru that I have read and respect: Mark Bittman. Bittman's book Food Matters, which I mentioned briefly in my sweet potato soup entry, basically posits that both the planet and our bodies could be much healthier if we ate less meat and more fruits and veggies. He wasn't the first person to make either of these claims, but his was the first book that I read and took to heart, and it has changed the way I eat (plus it has about 75 recipes!). For example, I've only bought soda once or twice since January! (Apparently soda takes a lot of energy to produce). More to Bittman's point, however, I've gone from eating meat at nearly every lunch and dinner to eating meat only about half the days of the week (because meat industry = polution & high energy consumption). Sometimes it takes me a few more minutes to think of a balanced vegetarian meal instead of using the meat-vegetable-starch formula that I was raised on. (Or, when carbs went out of fashion, meat-vegetable-vegetable model). However, after nearly a year of less-meat cooking I have collected a few go-to veg recipes. In particular, I've really gotten into making my own bean burgers, which I think are tastier than many brands from the freezer section. The one I am going to share with you tonight is Black Eyed Pea Cakes, courtesy of Cooking Light (September 2008). This is also a recipe that uses chilis in adobo, and tonight will be using the same chilis in adobo that have been kicking around since I blogged about Radloff Salad With A Twist in September. I'm telling you people, I need more ideas for how to use that stuff up! But without further ado, the recipe:
Black Eyed Pea Cakes with Adobo Cream (Cooking Light, September 2008)
* 1/4 cup fat-free sour cream
* 1 teaspoon adobo sauce
* 1 15 ounce can no-salt-added black-eyed peas, rinsed and drained
* 1/4 cup dry breadcrumbs
* 1 tablespoon finely chopped onion * 1/2 teaspoon bottled minced garlic
* 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
* 1 large egg, lightly beaten
* 1 large egg white, lightly beaten (if things are dry--I usually skip it)
* 1 1/2 teaspoons olive oil * 1/4 cup (about 1 ounce) shredded Monterey Jack cheese
1. Combine sour cream and adobo sauce in a small bowl, set aside.
2. Place beans in a medium bowl; partially mash beans with a fork. Stir in the breadcrumbs, onion, garlic, cumin, salt, pepper, and egg. With clean hands, divide pea mixture into 4 equal portions, shaping each portion into a 1/2-inch-thick patty.
3. Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add patties to pan; cook 2 minutes on each side or until golden and thoroughly heated. Remove from pan; top each cake with 1 tablespoon cheese. Serve with sour cream mixture.
Check out that healthy pile of veg
Cooking Light suggests serving this with rice and tomato wedges dressed with vinaigrette. I like to make a more jazzed up salad based on a relish from In The Kennedy Kitchen, which incorporates finely diced red onion, avocado, tomato, and cucumber dressed with a simple balsamic, EVOO, chives and basil, salt & pepper. For a bigger meal cornbread (with or without jalapenos) can round things out nicely.
The use of the word "best" in the subtitle of this post has 2 meanings:
1. This is the most successful bread I've ever made--I didn't let it rise too long, causing it to collapse into a dense, flat disc, as I tend to do when making bread.
2. This is the best bread I've ever made, as in delicious. Soooo good.
I saw this beautiful braided loaf in last month's Cooking Light as part of the Thanksgiving special. A massive storm today kept me at home, so at last I had a chance to try it, and I'm so glad I did. All of the ingredients are things I keep in my pantry, (no shopping, hooray!) and it didn't have too many complicated rising/resting intervals, which are often my downfall.
The crash of pans from the kitchen soothes Erik to sleep
The only tricky thing was that the recipe formulated for a stand mixer with a dough hook which sadly I do not have (Santa?), so I kneaded it by hand for a good long while, which seemed to do the trick. The only suggestion I will make before giving you the recipe is that if you also have to knead by hand like me, add the walnuts in at the same time as the flour, because once the dough is elastic-y I didn't have the easiest time working them into the dough. I will also note that I have been completely unable to find whole wheat pastry flour, which it calls for, so I used plain old King Arthur whole wheat flour and I am completely satisfied with the results, so don't let that little detail deter you! And without further ado, I present you:
Braided Walnut Loaves (Cooking Light, November 2009)
1. Place oats in a food processor; pulse 8 times or until coarsely chopped. Combine chopped oats and 1 cup boiling water in a medium bowl; let stand 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
2. Dissolve yeast in 1/4 cup warm water in the bowl of a stand mixer; let stand 5 minutes.
3. Add buttermilk to oat mixture, stirring to combine. Stir in honey and oil. Add the oat mixture to yeast mixture; mix with dough hook attachment until combined.
4. Weigh or lightly spoon 13.5 ounces all-purpose flour (about 3 cups) and whole-wheat pastry flour in dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flours with salt. Add flour mixture to buttermilk mixture. Mix dough at medium speed 10 minutes or until smooth and elastic, adding remaining all-purpose flour, 1/4 cup at a time, to prevent dough from sticking to sides of bowl. Add walnuts; mix at medium speed just until combined.
5. Place dough in a large bowl coated with cooking spray, turning to coat top. Cover and let rise in a warm place (85°), free from drafts, 1 hour or until doubled in size. (Gently press two fingers into dough. If indentation remains, the dough has risen enough.)
6. Preheat oven to 400°
7. Punch dough down; divide in half. Divide each half into 3 equal portions. Working with 1 portion at a time (cover remaining dough to keep from drying), shape each portion into a 14-inch rope. Place 3 ropes lengthwise on a baking sheet coated with cooking spray (do not stretch). Pinch ends together at one end to seal. Braid ropes, and pinch loose ends together to seal. Repeat procedure with remaining dough to form another braid. Cover and let rise 30 minutes or until doubled in size.
My oven is a little...smaller...than most. Takes some creative positioning to fit 2 pans at once.
8. Spritz top and sides of loaves lightly with water from a spray bottle. Bake on center rack of oven at 400° for 28 minutes or until deep golden brown. Remove from pan; cool on wire rack.
I know, you're skeptical already. But it's true. I just made them, and they are delicious. I've never actually eaten mince before--I have only once been confronted with one mincemeat pie in my life time, and I'm not going to lie...I steered clear. It was at the annual Nantucket Historical Association Christmas party, which is done potluck-style. One employee spouse brought a massive, lasagna-sized mince meat pie beautifully with pastry spelling "NHA" on top. Points for creativity, but I couldn't tell if it was the kind of mincemeat with actual meat, the idea of which kind of creeps me out, so I didn't eat it.
However, my attitude towards mince changed last Sunday morning when I was elliptical-ling away at the gym while watching Nigella's Christmas Kitchen. Honestly, that woman can make dirty socks sound appetizing, and soon I found myself drooling over these adorable mini mincepies that she was making. Plus, cooking shows make everything look so easy, so immediately I thought, "I can do that!" The key to Nigella's mincepies is that she doesn't use meat. Her filling is fruity and boozy, and honestly, what better combination can you find? It's basically a glorified cranberry sauce spiked with port, brandy, and lots of spices and dried fruit. The crust, which was easy (and this is coming from a complete crust novice), is amazingly flaky, so these pies are in instant winner in my book. The only tricky part was tracking down the recipe online, and discovering that the whole thing is in ounces. F***ing ounces. Since Santa hasn't brought me a food scale yet (it's at the top of my list, though), I had to do a little bit of educated-guessing based on what I know from Cooking Light (which often gives weights & measurements for baked goods), and some internet conversions. However, internet conversions don't take food density into account, so I had to fudge things a little. But, given my delight with this recipe, I guess I didn't do too badly. I will give the BBC links for both recipes so that you readers who are food scale-equipped can just go to town, and I will also write out my measurement guesstimates. Prepare to be stunned by the deliciousness of these mincepies!
* Something just shy of 2 cups of all purpose flour (8 oz)
* 1/2 stick of unsalted butter (2 oz)
* 1/2 cup of vegetable shortening, aka Crisco, (2 oz)
* Juice of 1 orange (or some Tropicana...whatever ;) (about 1/4 cup)
* Pinch of salt
1. Sift the flour into a shallow freezer-proof bowl.
2. Pinch off bits of vegetable shortening and add to the flour. Dice the butter into small pieces and add to the flour. Toss to coat the fats.
3. Put flour mixture in freezer for 20 minutes.
4. Mix the OJ and salt in a measuring cup and place in the fridge.
5. After 20 minutes, place the chilled flour and fats into the bowl of a food processor. (If you only have a mini prep, like me, do this in 2 batches). Pulse a few times until the flour is in "porridge-like crumbs." Slowly dribble in the oj/salt mixture, still pulsing, until the dough just starts to come together. This step may not need all the OJ. However, if you need more liquid, use ice water.
6. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface. Using your hands, bring the dough together. Divide into 3 equal pieces and wrap each one in saran wrap and place in fridge for 20 minutes.
7. Working with one piece at a time, roll out the dough on a floured surface and using a floured rolling pin. Roll the dough so that it is thin but still sturdy enough to hold the filling--let's call it about 1/8 of an inch thick. Using a fluted pastry cutter 2 1/4 inches in diameter, cut out rounds of dough. Place rounds in mini muffin tins and gently press the dough into the cups, without stretching it.
8. Place about a teaspoon of mince mixture into the dough cups.
9. Roll out the dough scraps to a similar thickness and using a tiny star cookie cutter, cut out stars and place over the mince mixture. (See the special equipment list for where to order the right size cookie cutters, if you can't find them locally)
10. Bake in a 425 degree oven for 10-15 minutes or until crust starts to turn golden brown. Keep an eye on these, because they don't take long to cook.
11. Remove from pans immediately and let cool on a wire rack. Allow pans to cool completely before starting another batch.
* 2.5 oz dark brown sugar (a scant 1/3 cup)
* 2 fl oz ruby port (1/4 cup)
* 10.5 oz cranberries, fresh or frozen (about 2.5 cups)
* 1 tsp ground cinnamon
* 1 tsp ground ginger
* 1/2 tsp ground cloves
* 2.5 oz raisins (a scant 1/3 cup)
* 2.5 oz currants (a scant 1/3 cup)
* 1 oz dried cranberries (a scant 1/8 cup)
* the zest and juice of 1 clementine
* 1 fl oz brandy (2 TBS)
* a few drops of almond extract
* 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
* 2 TBS honey
1. In a saucepan over medium heat, dissolve the brown sugar in the ruby port.
2. Once the sugar has dissolved, add the cranberries, spices, raisins, currants, cranberries, and clementine juice and zest, and stir.
3. Bring the mixture to a simmer (medium-low heat) and cook about 20 minutes or until the cranberries are quite soft and the fruit has broken down and absorbed the liquid.
4. Allow mixture to cool slightly, and then stir in brandy, almond and vanilla extracts, and honey. Stir well with a wooden spoon to make a thick paste.
5. If you are not using the mince filling right away, put in sterilized jars and once cool, store in fridge for up to 2 weeks.
Obviously I made these before I got my hands on the right size cookie cutters, but still, if these things aren't the best little morsels you've ever tried, then all I can say is you're a Christmas Grinch!
I've been on a serious sweet potato soup kick recently. It started when I invented my own sweet potato and apple soup last spring, which I submitted it to Cooking Light for their reader recipe contest. I guess it wasn't a winner (in their book), although in their Thanksgiving issue there was a nearly-identical recipe. So I made it--it was fine, but I think mine is better. Then, last week Mark Bittman, who writes an excellent column for the NYTimes called "The Minimalist," had 101 suggestions for fairly easy Thanksgiving side dishes. One that caught my eye immediately was a Thai-style squash soup, which I just made, but substituting sweet potatoes for the squash. I really like Bittman's food philosophy and he has great ideas (check out his book Food Matters if you get a chance--it will change the way you eat.) However, he's definitely not a hand-holder when it comes to instruction. To illustrate this, I give you Thai Squash Soup:
"Simmer cubed winter squash, minced garlic, chili and ginger in coconut milk, plus stock or water to cover, until soft. Purée if you like. Just before serving, add chopped cilantro, lime juice and zest, and toasted chopped peanuts."
Quantities, you ask? No need! (Mark Bittman trusts our competence, apparently.) But, if you're the kind of cook that likes to have a little more direction, here were my quantities:
* 6 sweet potatoes (4.7 lbs, according to my grocery store receipt)
* 5 large garlic cloves
* 1 piece of ginger, slightly smaller than my thumb
* 1 jalapeno pepper, seeded (but in retrospect I could have left the seeds in, or used 2 peppers, to give it more heat. My soup didn't turn out spicy, just has a subtle jalapeno flavor. For more authenticity I might suggest some kind of Thai chili (see here), but in the Nantucket Stop n Shop, a jalapeno was the best I could do
* 1 can light coconut milk (found in the international aisle--A Taste of Thai and Thai Kitchen are 2 good brands, also Trader Joe's has their own store brand).
* The dregs of a carton of chicken stock--about 1/2 a cup. I would have used more if I had it
* Water--enough to cover the sweet potato
* Juice & zest of 1 lime
* About 1/4 loosely packed cup of cilantro
And there you have it. Just peeled and chopped the sweet potatoes, gave the garlic, ginger and jalapeno a rough chop, covered with liquid and simmered until the potatoes were soft. I would definitely suggest pureeing, because the coconut milk kind of separates and forms a weird foam on top when it simmers. Once it's all pureed together it's wonderfully smooth and can be seasoned to taste. Pureeing is also great because you can cut the potato (or squash) in large, uneven chucks and you don't have to waste time mincing the garlic and ginger. Once it's all pureed the texture and flavors will all be evenly distributed. And while we're talking about pureeing, let me put in my plug for using a real blender instead of an immersion blender. While the immersion blender is nice because you don't have to transfer soup and make multiple pots and bowls dirty, I just don't think it gives nearly as smooth & rich a texture as the blender can. But hey, that's just me.
While Bittman's soup is great, I wouldn't serve it on Thanksgiving, because the flavors don't totally mesh with many traditional dishes. However, my own Sweet Potato & Apple Soup would be perfect for Thanksgiving, or whenever. It is as follows:
Sweet Potato & Apple Soup (by Macy)
Makes about 8 cups of soup
* 3 medium-large sweet potatoes (about 3 pounds)
* 2 Tablespoons olive oil
* 1 medium-large white onion
* 3 medium-large Granny Smith apples (about 1 ¼ pounds)
* ½ teaspoon cinnamon, or to taste
* 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg, or to taste
* 1 32 oz. carton of chicken stock (or vegetable stock, for vegetarians)
* ¾ cup half and half (optional)
* ½ teaspoon Kosher salt and ½ teaspoon freshly ground pepper, or to taste
Preheat oven to 400°F. Scrub the sweet potatoes and poke each one several times with a fork. Bake potatoes in the middle of the oven on a foil-lined cookie sheet for one hour or until they are very soft and can easily be pierced with a knife. When the potatoes are cooked, remove from the oven and slice each one in half lengthwise and cool for a few minutes.
While the potatoes are baking, chop the onion to a medium dice. Heat the olive oil in a 3-quart sauce pan on medium heat. Add the diced onion, and sauté, stirring frequently until the onion is very soft and translucent, about 10 minutes. Meanwhile, peel and core the apples and chop to a large dice. When the onions are translucent, add the apples, cinnamon and nutmeg and stir a few times until the apples start to brown, just a few minutes.
Add the carton of chicken broth to the saucepan. Cover the saucepan and bring the broth to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for about 8 minutes or until the apples are very soft. Remove from heat and cool slightly.
Place approximately 1/3 of the broth mixture and one of the potatoes (remove skins first) into a blender. The potato skins should be quite loose and you can squeeze the potato flesh right out. Puree ingredients to a smooth consistency. Transfer the pureed soup to a mixing bowl and repeat until all the ingredients are pureed. If the ingredients are still quite hot when you are doing this step, remove the center piece of the blender lid and cover with a dish cloth while you're pureeing to avoid too much pressure build up/explosions.
Transfer the soup back to the saucepan and reheat if necessary. Season with salt and, pepper. If desired, stir in half & half, heating the soup gently until it is warm.
While Thanksgiving is always the time that I think most about sweet potatoes, these soups will warm you all winter long. Enjoy!
I don't have anything to blog about right now, but I did want to reiterate that it is cranberry season. And unlike many other fruits & veggies that have "seasons" (Tomatoes = summer, root veggies = winter, asparagus = spring, etc.) but can be found all year, cranberries really do only appear in the fall, since they're not exactly a greenhouse crop. This being Thanksgiving week, they're more obvious than ever in your grocery stores (and probably on sale, too!) So, if you love cranberries and cooking/baking with cranberries as much as I do, might I suggest that while you're out buying ingredients to make your own easy & delicious homemade cranberry sauce in the next few days, pick up an extra bag or two of these delicious berries and freeze them for use throughout the year. Freezing berries is so easy, and if you buy them in season & on sale, it can be more economical than buying packaged frozen ones. This is also a great trick in the summer with blueberries. (When they dropped to only $1.50/pint in June I stocked up and have been tossing them in pancakes, smoothies, you name it!)
The technique for freezing both of these berries is the same: rinse and dry the berries, then spread them out in a single layer on a cookie sheet. Place the sheet in the freezer until the berries are solid, a few hours. When they're frozen, transfer the berries to a Ziploc bag and keep them in the freezer. Thaw the necessary quantities as you enjoy cranberry breads, sauces, & more until next fall!
The other night I could not help but notice how cluttered my tiny little counter was becoming. While I was sitting at the dinner table I kept looking over and trying the mentally erase all of the things that had ended up there recently. Of course, there are some things that you just can't do much about: the spice rack, the microwave, the coffee maker, and the coffee grinder, which became a permanent addition when Erik decided to switch to whole bean coffee. Other than those things (which take up nearly half of the counter), I like to keep the rest of the space clear, because with 7 square feet (yes, I measured, and no, I'm not exaggerating) every inch counts. Nalgene can go in my work bag, travel mug can go in the cupboard, red wine...will drink soon, half a pound of cranberries as souvenir of the annual Cranberry Festival...must go. Clearly the solution is Cranberry-Orange Bread!
Nantucket has its own cranberry bogs in the middle of the island, and the harvest is celebrated each fall with a festival out at the bogs. I've been on island for five Cranberry Fests now, but this was the first time that I actually made the trek out to the bogs to see how it's all done. It was actually quite interesting. Once the bogs are flooded the berries some sort of picking tractor thing knocks the berries off the bushes.
The berries are partially hollow so they float to the top, where harvesters use these long flexible bands to corral the berries.
A vacuum then sucks them out of the bog up to a washer/sorter, after which they're shot into a truck. Often photos of cranberry bogs show a sea of red berries, but really that's only the reality once all the berries have been corralled into one area; when they first float to the top there is a lot more water than berries. While I was there I bought a pound (at a steep $5) to support Sustainable Nantucket.
The first half pound became homemade cranberry sauce which was so delicious that I ate it with spoon out of the container. I'll share that recipe as well, since it was ridiculously easy and totally beats canned cranberry sauce. The other half pound sat around for a while, and today met its match in a cranberry-orange bread, which may have been the first quick bread I ever baked. When I was in high school my boyfriend at the time gave me a copy of Christmas Cooking for Dummies. I'm sure there was some joke behind it, although I have since forgotten what it is. Since my family rarely prepares a Christmas dinner worth mentioning (half a chicken breast and leftover roasted veggies anyone?), I've never really had occasion to use it, other than to make the Cranberry Orange quick bread. I think the cookbook is still at my parents' apartment so I turned to my "basics bible"--Better Homes & Gardens Red Plaid Cookbook, and tweaked the Nut Bread recipe to make it Cranberry Orange Bread. While banana bread is always my quick & easy go-to quick bread, but this one even eclipses it for ease and few ingredients, since it only uses one leavener and no spices. And with only one egg and 1/4 cup of oil, it's even healthier (that's my positive spin--it would probably be more accurate to say "less bad for you"). I even refrained from adding chocolate chips (Instead I ate a handful. Naughty me), although I suspect that would be a fantastic addition to make this more of a dessert-y bread, since chocolate goes exceptionally well with both orange and cranberries.
So without further ado, the recipe:
Cranberry Orange Quick Bread (adapted from Better Homes & Gardens)
* 2 cups of all-purpose flour (or a combo of all-purpose & whole wheat if you like. I often replace just under half of the all-purpose with whole wheat for a slight health kick)
* 1 cup of sugar
* 1 tablespoon of baking powder
* 1/2 teaspoon of salt
* 2 teaspoons of finely grated orange peel (1 medium-large orange is perfect)
* 1 beaten egg
* 1 cup of orange juice
* 1/4 cup of cooking oil
* 1 cup of cranberries, coarsely chopped (or more...I used nearly 2 cups, just to get rid of them. A mini Cuisinart, such at the Prep or Prep Plus is a great tool for chopping the cranberries. Pulse a few times and voila, copped cranberries!)
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and grease the bottom and half inch up the sides of a loaf pan.
2. Mix together the dry ingredients and the grated orange peel in a large bowl
3. In a small bowl or in your liquid measuring cup combine the orange juice, egg and oil. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix gently until just combined.
4. Fold cranberries into batter and pour batter into prepared pan. Bake for 50-55 minutes until a wooden skewer inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean.
5. Cool and remove from pan. As with all quick breads, this bread is best if you wrap it up (once it's cooled) and store it overnight before slicing.
Basic Homemade Cranberry Sauce
The orange zest in this recipe adds that jenesaisquoi and sets it apart from canned cranberry sauce. This recipe makes about 2 1/4 cups of cranberry sauce. If that's more than you'll need, halve the recipe and use the other half of the cranberries for the bread.
* 12-ounce bag of fresh cranberries (available in most grocery stores this time of year)
* 1 cup of sugar
* 2/3 cup of water (replace some of the water with OJ if you like even more of an orange-y taste)
* zest of one medium-large orange (about 2 heaping teaspoons)
* 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1. Combine all ingredients in a heavy saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring often.
2. Reduce heat to medium low and simmer until most of the cranberries have burst, about 10-15 minutes.
3. Remove from heat. Cool and store, covered, in the fridge for up to a week. Enjoy!
Welcome to Macy Bakes! This food blog was born from a desire to share my favorite recipes--primarily but not exclusively baked goods--with friends, family, and any readers looking for new and delicious recipes to try at home. The recipes on Macy Bakes are fairly easy, occasionally nutritious, and always delicious!
