Quick Breads and Google Friend Connect

This month's Daring Bakers Challenge was on quick breads.  I was unable to participate because of travel and lingering illness, but please do check out the blog roll for a variety of delicious quick breads!

I wanted to take this opportunity to let you know that Google Friend Connect is disappearing as of March 1, at least for people who don't use Blogger.  Over the last five years, many of you have followed my blog this way.  I will not be creating a page in Google+ at this time, as I already have plenty of web presences to maintain online, even if that is what Google had intended.  If you are in the category of using Google Friend Connect but not Blogger, please continue to follow me by adding me to your RSS feed, following me in Facebook, or stalking me online. 

Back to quick breads!  While I didn't bake anything for this challenge, I have made many a quick bread in my time.  Some highlights:

• Chocolate Cinnamon Bread
• Cranberry Nut Bread
• Key Lime Yogurt "cake" with raspberry coulis
• Praline Banana Bread
• Pumpkin Nutella Bread
• Pumpkin Spice Bread with Maple Cheesecake Layer
• Vegan Banana Bread

Arroz Zambito

In my Around the World Reading Challenge, I read The Storyteller by Mario Vargas Llosa for Peru (you can read about it in my reading blog.) Much of the book takes place with the indigenous people living in the jungles of Peru.

I knew my Peruvian dessert would need to be something special. I was finding a lot of dishes with clear European influence, heavy on the dulce de leche, such as Suspiro a la Limeña, a very sweet meringue topped custard. This looks delicious, and I'd like to make it someday, but it did not seem quite unique enough. I also found a subset of anise-flavored desserts, which must be a Peruvian flavor profile, like the Turrón de Doña Pepa. Just looking at the picture made my teeth hurt. I started to talk to my friend Karen, who talked to her friend from Peru, and they suggested Arroz Zambito. The best recipe I found was over on the My Life in Peru site, where she explains the racial undertones to the word "zambito," but also states

"While it’s generally considered that the Spanish brought arroz con leche to Peru, the native Peruvians took the recipe and ran with it, turning it into something that is very Peruvian.  So if we can look past the racial connotations of the name, we can see how it perfectly fits, in this marriage of European and indigenous Latin American flavors."

This combination, of European and indigenous Latin American flavors, couldn't have been any more perfect to mirror the contrasts and conflicts in The Storyteller.


First I had to hunt down chancaca, a key flavor ingredient to the Arroz Zambito.  Chancaca, also known as panela, raspadura or piloncillo, depending on which part of Latin America you come from, is basically what is left after the moisture is evaporated out of cane sugar.  I had to go to a local supermercado to find any, but they had an entire shelf.  It is a hard block and has to be grated before use.  It doesn't just fall apart on its own, that's for sure.  I got worn out after 3/4 cup or so, so my Arroz Zambito may be a little less sweet than it should have been.  That's okay with me since I haven't been eating a lot of sugar lately!  The raisins, as they cook in the arroz zambito, get dark and syrupy too, so every time you bite into one it is like a pulse of sweetness.

The picture at the top is a bit misleading, because I left the rest on low heat, and more of the liquid evaporated, meaning it was a little denser than as pictured.  I think that's what you want - not soup, but a creamy mouthful.  I have no problem admitting that I was home sick yesterday, and made this for breakfast.  Can you have better comfort food than a warm, spicy, rice dish?  This isn't just regular rice pudding. The spices and panela/chancaca make a big difference in flavor and dimension.  I now have a half-block of panela left, and I may try this chancaca syrup.  

Arroz Zambito (recipe from My Life in Peru)

Ingredients:

• 1 quart (liter) of water
• 3/4 cup of rice
• 2 cinnamon sticks
• 6 cloves
• 1/2 cup of raisins
• 1 cup of chancaca (or panela, raspadura, piloncillo), grated
• 3 cans of evaporated milk
• 1/2 cup sugar
• grated coconut and powdered cinnamon for garnish

How to Make It:

1. Boil the rice in the water with the cinnamon sticks and cloves.
2. When the rice has absorbed all the water, remove the cinnamon and cloves.
3. Add the raisins, the chancaca, and the three cans of evaporated milk. (make sure it’s evaporated, not sweetened condensed!)
4. Let it simmer for about 15 minutes, then add the rest of the sugar. Continue cooking on low heat, stirring constantly, until the pudding is of a creamy consistency.

Serve in a bowl, sprinkled with grated coconut and cinnamon, if desired.
 

Cup-Cakin' in Dallas

Food trucks are trendy right now, but I don't have any in MY city, so it was still an inexperienced phenomenon for me.  Then I hit Dallas, Texas for the annual MOUG and MLA Meetings, where I was bound to connect with my BlogFan for Adventure #3.  I had done a little research, and other than a tortilla factory in a suburb that would have been impossible to get to without a car, none of the bakeries of Dallas were really calling my name.


Luckily, Emily (BlogFan) had also been doing some research, and had found a cupcake truck! The Cup-Cakin' Machine can be seen around Dallas, and you can always find their schedule by following them in Facebook or Twitter. That's what she had done, and on Thursday, they were in Thanksgiving Square, a short walk from the Fairmont Hotel. We braved the coldish weather for our cupcakes, and brought Sara along too.  It was too cold to eat outside, so we brought them back to the hotel.  (You can follow our previous adventures in Philadelphia and San Diego, and there will be more to come, as long as we are both music librarians!)


They had 6-8 flavors available that day, and I chose the triple chocolate threat. It was delicious - the cake part was moist and soft, and actually tasted like chocolate. The white chocolate buttercream was thick and sweet but not greasy, and the ganache on top was a nice touch. 

Do you have food trucks in your town?  Do any of them have BAKED GOODS?  If I had a food truck, I would do tea and scones....

Malva Pudding

This past week, I was reading Moxyland by Lauren Beukes for my Around the World reading challenge.  Beukes is South African and Moxyland is also set there.  As I researched desserts for South Africa, I was looking for something a little different this time - not something that had to be native but representative of the blend of cultures. 

I was torn between melktert (milk tart, like over on What's Gaby Cooking?) and malva pudding, both of which were absolutely everywhere.  Malva pudding has even been on Oprah, recreated for her by the famous Art Smith.  He is famous, I swear.  At least on this blog.  Then I came across this story about South African home cooking and comfort food on Honest Cooking, and that solidified my desire to make a malva pudding. 

Remember, there is a big difference between what Americans call pudding (a thick, set custard) and the rest of the world calls pudding.  In this case it is a moist cake, made moister by pouring a syrup over the top at the end of cooking.  This is apricot jam based, and every recipe I looked at was emphatic that it must be served with custard.  Luckily I still had some birds custard powder from the import store.  You can see in the picture that I've not exactly perfected it yet (mine is gloppy).

This was delicious, but I didn't come close to being able to eat one serving of it.  It is very rich, very sweet, and very very South African.

South African Malva Pudding (from Honest Cooking)
Serves 6-8

• 2tbsn unsalted butter
• 1 cup / 250dl sugar
• 2tbsn smooth apricot jam/preserves
• 2tsp white vinegar
• 2 cups/ 500dl flour
• 2 cups/ 500dl milk
• 2 eggs
• 2tsp baking soda
• pinch of salt

Syrup :

• 1 cup / 250dl sugar
• 1/2 cup / 125dl boiling water
• 3/4 / 190dl cup unsalted butter
• 1tsp vanilla extract

1. Pre-heat your oven to 180°c / 356°f and grease a 20cm square pie/baking dish.
2. In a large saucepan, melt the butter, sugar, apricot jam and vinegar together until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture is smooth. Remove from the heat and allow to cool for 5 minutes. Meanwhile sift the flour.
3. Alternating, add the flour and milk until the mixture is smooth and thick.
4. Add the eggs one by one, beating well after each addition.
5. Add the baking soda and salt and beat well.
6. Pour the mixture into your prepared baking dish and bake for 30-45 minutes until the pudding is dark and baked through (a skewer inserted should come out clean).
7. In a small sauce pan, heat the syrup ingredients and cook until all the sugar has dissolved.
8. Pour the syrup over the cooked pudding and allow to stand for 10 minutes before serving with custard. (In South Africa it would be a sin to serve this with anything other than UltraMel custard but you can use any custard you can find)

Po'e - Tahitian Fruit Pudding

This month for the Around the World challenge, I visited Tahiti by reading Frangipani by Celestine Vaite.  Two recipes come up for baked goods and desserts, at least in internet searching - coconut bread that seems to be a hotel or maybe French influenced tradition, and po'e.  I was very interested in po'e, which was described as a fruit pudding, typically served as part of the traditional tamara'a barbecues, after being baked in the fire pit.  A very poetic description of po'e within its meal context can be read on Islands.com.

The main recipe I found online for po'e is posted on The Polynesian Kitchen blog, and that is the one I used.  It is pointed out that traditionally this would be cooked wrapped in banana leaves, over a fire, but the recipe is adapted to the modern indoor kitchen.

Po'e is basically a fresh fruit, pureed and mixed with cornstarch or arrowroot, a bit of sweetener, and then baked.  It is served by being topped with coconut cream, and I found references online for serving it hot as well as serving it chilled.  The smell of my banana po'e was so enticing, there was no way we were going to wait for this to chill before trying it the first time!  On the French language blog La Cocinera Loca, you can see a wonderful photographic step by step demonstration, even if you can't read the directions.

I thought this was delicious, and different.  I love that you can do the same method with almost any fruit - I came across multiple mentions of pumpkin, yuca, and papaya variations.  

Po'e

4 to 6 servings

* Ripe bananas, peeled and cut into chunks -- 6-8 Bananas
* Brown sugar -- 1/2 cup
* Arrowroot or cornstarch -- 1 cup
* Vanilla -- 2 teaspoons
* Coconut cream -- 1 cup

Method

1. Preheat oven to 375°F. Puree the bananas in a blender or food processor. There should be enough puree to make 4 cups.
2. Mix together the brown sugar and arrowroot or cornstarch. Add this mixture and the vanilla to the bananas and process well. There should not be any lumps of starch. Adjust sugar to taste.
3. Butter a 2-quart baking dish and pour in the puree. Bake for 30-45 minutes, or until the pudding is firm and bubbling. Remove from oven and allow to cool. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until well chilled.
4. Cut into cubes and place into a large serving bowl or in individual bowls. Top with a dollop of coconut cream, a little more brown sugar and serve.**

Variations-

**Boil and Cook the Bananas on the stove until the fruit turns brown.  Add in remaining ingredients and stir until combined. Butter a 2-quart baking dish and pour in mixture. Bake for 30-45 minutes, or until the pudding is firm and bubbling. Remove from oven and allow to cool. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until well chilled.

** Try substituting papaya, mango, pineapple, canned Pumpkin or other tropical fruits for some of the bananas. Just make sure there is a total of 4 cups of fruit puree. Ripe plantains can also be substituted for the bananas. For juicier fruits, you will probably have to add more arrowroot or cornstarch.

Notes

* Coconut cream is the thick coconut milk that rises to the top of a can of coconut milk. Don't shake the can before you open it and you can skim it right off the top.

Caraway Seed Cake

In Dubliners by James Joyce, there is a story called Counterparts.  The main character, Farrington, moves in and out of pubs in Dublin.  As I was reading the stories in this volume, I started marking the food words that I hadn't experienced so I could research them later - barmbracks, blancmange, and then what is mentioned in this passage:

"The curate brought him a glass of plain porter. The man drank it at a gulp and asked for a caraway seed. He put his penny on the counter and, leaving the curate to grope for it in the gloom, retreated out of the snug as furtively as he had entered it."

While Joyce may have meant a literal caraway seed (this could be a drinking tradition), any search I did of "caraway seed" and Ireland brought me to a variation of the caraway seed cake!  I have had bread with caraway seed in it before, but never something sweet.  I'd already made soda bread in the past, and endless scones, so I was looking for something new to me.

Caraway seed bread may be new to me, but it isn't new to Ireland.  According to Imen over on the I Married an Irish Farmer blog, caraway seed cake is merely a variation of the Madeira cake, which dates back at least to the 18th century in Ireland.  The Maderia cake, really just a pound cake of sorts, is thought to have been developed to eat while sipping Madeira or port wine.  It is very much an afternoon tea type cake, and would have been far more likely to be consumed by women, in groups.  She has a recipe on her site, but I found a version I wanted to try over on Rosa's Yummy Yums.  Rosa is someone I've "known" for several years through the Daring Bakers, so I trusted her recipe!  The two recipes aren't much different - Rosa adds a bit of almond meal and uses orange zest for the lemon, while I went back to the lemon for a more traditional flavor profile.  We will just pretend that Rosa doesn't call this an English cake.  I'm sure it is impossible to keep delicious baked goods a secret for long anyway!

 

Caraway Seed Cake
A variation of the recipe on Rosa's Yummy Yums

Ingredients:
3/4 cup unsalted butter
1 cup granulated sugar
1 Tbsp lemon zest
1/2 tsp almond extract
3 eggs
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
2 Tbsp ground almonds (almond meal/flour)
1/3 cup milk or buttermilk
3 Tbsp caraway seeds

1. Cream butter, sugar, and zest.
2. Beat in almond extract and eggs, one at a time.
3. Blend dry ingredients together and add slowly to mixture, alternating with milk.
4. Stir caraway seeds in by hand.
5. Bake in loaf pan at 350 F, 50-60 minutes.
6. Let cool, slice, and serve!

It is my personal opinion that since this is so close to a pound cake, you probably want to serve it with something, like fruit and whipped cream or some kind of spread.  It could be that I'm just not pound cake's biggest fan.

I made this to accompany my Irish reads for the Around the World Challenge.  Both were easy reads, and recommended.
Dubliners by James Joyce (my review)
A Greyhound of a Girl by Roddy Doyle (my review)

Croatian Black Pepper Cookies (Paprenjaci)

This year, I am doing a reading challenge called Around the World in 52 Books with a group in GoodReads.  Making the list of what I wanted to read and hunting down the books online and in used book stores has been a blast, and I will be posting reviews in GoodReads and in my reading blog, Reading Envy.

Of course, reading 52 books didn't seem like enough.  I started to wonder if I could challenge myself to do a baked good from every country too.  Either a bread or a dessert.  I'm not sure I'll have time every week, but I'm going to try! 

Most of the time, I will hunt down a recipe before reading the selected book, but I might find myself changing my mind based on what is in the book.  I definitely did that this time around.  I was all set to make a Povitica, which is a nut bread prominent throughout eastern Europe, particularly the former Yugoslavia.  As I read The Tiger's Wife, I kept coming across mentions of pepper cookies in the beginning of the book.  I got curious, did some internet research, and I found such interesting anecdotes connected to paprenjaci that I changed directions.

The one recipe I find online was originally posted by a man named Nitko, who lives in Zagreb and seems to have posted many of his grandmother's recipes online.  These have been copied and reposted many other places on the internet.  His recipe for paprenjaci was promising, but contained lard, and everything was in grams.  I don't eat lard, and wanted a recipe I could share, so what you see below is my take, as close to the original as I could make it.

Croatian Black Pepper Cookies (Paprenjaci)

Ingredients

• 6 oz butter, at room temperature
• 1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp sugar
• 1 3/4 cup flour
• 1 tablespoon ground black pepper*
• 1 teaspoon ground cloves
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 2 tablespoons light honey
• 1 egg
• 1 1/4 cup walnuts, ground (measured first)
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Directions

Cream butter, sugar, and honey. Mix in egg. Mix in spices, then nuts and flour. Chill dough at least two hours. Roll out and use cookie molds or cookie cutters. Bake at 350 for 12 minutes.

* - These are pretty peppery.  Given the chance to make them again, I might do just 1 tsp.


According to WikiTravel, paprenjaci are said to reflect Croatia's tumultuous history because they combine the harshness of the war periods (pepper) with the natural beauties (honey). This fits right in with the story in The Tiger's Wife. Come read my review!

Holiday Cookie Redux

It turns out that I got so excited about my gingerbread trees with lemon icing, I forgot to talk about the other cookies I made for the holidays!

I made a new kind of swirl cookie, trying to top last year's orange-nutella pinwheels. I instead made Alton Brown's Chocolate Peppermint Swirl Cookies, but they weren't quite as good. The peppermint candies get too hot in the cookie and the carmelized sugar can overbake the cookie itself.

The chocolate crinkle cookies, or what my family always called "wagon wheel cookies," is just a recipe I make every year.  I absolutely can't celebrate December without them.

The best cookie, pictured up in the right corner, almost bland looking, may have been the best one!  Since it is a tweak on a Martha Stewart recipe, I'm including it here for your baking pleasure.

Cranberry Pistachio Icebox Cookies
 
3 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
3/4 cup pistachios, shelled (measure after shelling)
3/4 cup dried cranberries

Directions

Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. Beat butter and granulated sugar with a mixer on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture, and beat until combined. Stir in pistachios and cranberries.  Divide dough in half.  Form each half into a log, either a round or triangular shape.  Chill several hours.  Slice dough crosswise slightly thicker than 1/8 inch. Reshape if needed. Bake at 350 degrees on parchment-lined baking sheets until firm, 12 to 14 minutes.  DO NOT OVERBAKE!  The color will not change drastically when they are done. 

Looking Back at 2011

Resolutions are made to be broken!  In my case, resolutions are made to be gleefully ignored, stomped on, and tossed out the window the minute something shiny comes along.  So this will not be my wrap-up post detailing how I fulfilled my 2011 Culinary Resolutions.  Nope.  Move along.  Nothing to see here.

Okay, wait, come back.  Just for a bit.  Let's talk about what I did accomplish, what I've learned, and what tasty treats I've unleashed onto the world in 2011.  (That's more like it!)

Favorites of 2011
I went with a top 5.  I couldn't exclude any of these recipes, all of which were made for the first time in 2011.  These are JennyBakes approved, five-star, guaranteed recipes.  Each numbered item links directly to the recipe, so click away!

1. Gramercy Tavern's Gingerbread
I realize I just posted about this, but it was seriously good.  This is why holiday baking posts are so difficult; I find something we love that I have to make again, and I run out of space to make new desserts.  Add this one to the repeat pile!

2. Pumpkin Cinnamon Roll Pancakes
These were amazing and quite a visual treat, but the real reason they were on this list is that I started hearing about them at work.  One student said a professor talked about them in class, and another professor came into my office to thank me for the recipe.  (Hi friends!)  You know pancakes are good when they get brought up in music theory class!

3. Pistachio Cranberry Icebox Cookies
Ha!  When I first started this blog post, I realized I never ever blogged these, which explains why you see an early 12/31 post for Christmas cookies.  This was another recipe that I heard about for days after I brought them to work.  There were theories that I used fancy butter (nope, I always buy the cheap generic stuff!), and when I shared the recipe I got weird reactions like "I'll never be able to make them like you."  People.  Don't be afraid of baking.  They are just sugar cookies with stuff in them. 

4. Red Wine Chocolate Cake
The second recipe in my top five from the Smitten Kitchen blog (seriously excited to own her cookbook when it comes out!), and another cake with rave reviews.  In fact, this might be my personal favorite of the list.  I loved the way the red wine elevated the chocolate, and the texture of this cake was also fantastic. 

5. Rosemary Shortbread
I first tasted this at a work function (we have a lot of people who love to cook!), and I hearby apologize to shortbread for thinking I didn't like it.  This recipe proves me wrong.  I can still taste it ....

Oh how I've learned!
I may not have learned about fondant like I'd planned, but I did get a chance to meet a local chocolate maker and play with his chocolate in recipes.  That was a highlight of the year!  I also did a lot more alternative baking - vegan, gluten-free, and trying to make things set up with agar-agar.  I hope I can keep challenging myself to be more adept at those kinds of recipes, since there seem to be an increasing number of people who identify with those dietary choices.  

Gramercy Tavern's Gingerbread

Half of the recipes I mark to make later are from Smitten Kitchen, but I can't help it, that blog is amazing!

You can find the recipe to Gramercy Tavern's Gingerbread on the Smitten Kitchen blog, but I have a few things to say about it.

1. Make sure you heat the Guiness (stout) and molasses in a pan at least twice as big as the liquid.  Bringing those to things to a boil isn't the problem, but prepare for great fizzing explosions when you add the baking soda.  I destroyed an oven mitt on that step.
2. Do everything you can to grease the pan.  I listened and did butter + nonstick spray + flour and still lost a few chunks.  Those chunks were chewy and amazing, but there has to be a way to get it out cleanly.  
3. MAKE THIS TODAY.  You won't be sorry.  The end.

Daring Bakers December 2011 - Rye Sourdough Bread

Our Daring Bakers Host for December 2011 was Jessica of My Recipe Project and she showed us how fun it is to create Sour Dough bread in our own kitchens! She provided us with Sour Dough recipes from Bread Matters by Andrew Whitley as well as delicious recipes to use our Sour Dough bread in from Tonia George’s Things on Toast and Canteen’s Great British Food!

This was my first foray into sourdough bread making, and unlike most Daring Bakers months, I knew I could not procrastinate and make something the last day.  I actually began the starter, affectionately named Gertie, on the 16th or so.  I could post a picture of her here, but she is very sensitive to how she looks.  Just picture a gloppy, bubbly, tan mass, and there you go.  (Sorry, Gertie).  If I had been a better sourdough starter mother, I would have remembered to feed her after I baked her first loaf, but I failed.  It is just as well; this bread wasn't my favorite ever, but it is more of a taste thing.  I'm pretty sure the result is what I was looking for.  You can find the recipe on Jessica's blog, where there are also recipes for country wheat sourdough, and an interesting looking gluten-free variety with brown rice flour.

The second part of the challenge was to make something to put on a toast version of our bread.  With the cold weather and lots of time spent indoors during the holidays, Nathaniel and I had been craving Welsh Rarebit anyway, so even though I didn't challenge myself on that part, it was still delicious!  The dark, smoky, murky flavors of the Welsh Rarebit, created by the Worcestershire and ale, is a perfect pairing with a sourdough like this. 


I use Alton Brown's recipe, kind of. I was horrified at the idea of using cream instead of milk, when almost every recipe you'll find uses milk. There is already so much fat with the cheese and butter, that I just couldn't do it. With the milk, this recipe is quite rich, so I just can't imagine it any richer.  He also only called for 4 slices of toast, but this easily smothered 8 thick slices of the rye sourdough. 

JennyBakes Take on Alton Brown's Welsh Rarebit

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup ale
3/4 cup milk
8ounces (approximately 2 cups) shredded Cheddar
2 drops hot sauce
8 slices toasted rye bread

Directions:
In a medium saucepan over low heat, melt the butter and whisk in the flour. Cook, whisking constantly for 2 to 3 minutes, being careful not to brown the flour. Whisk in mustard, Worcestershire sauce, salt, and pepper until smooth. Add beer and whisk to combine. Pour in milk and whisk until well combined and smooth. Gradually add cheese, stirring constantly, until cheese melts and sauce is smooth; this will take 4 to 5 minutes. Add hot sauce. Pour over toast and serve immediately.

Happy Holidays!

Whatever holiday you celebrate, or if you simply enjoy your time with family, I hope you have a wonderful time!  Best wishes for 2012....

Happy Birthday!

Every Christmas Eve, we celebrate a birthday. Not Jesus! Nathaniel! His old standard used to be the mint chocolate chip roulade cake from Baskin Robbins, but as there aren't any left around these parts, and he is married to someone who likes to bake, I have done some experimenting the last few years.

This year he asked if I could also make the ice cream part. Usually I wimp out and buy good ice cream from the store - Ben & Jerry's, Haagen Daaz, whatever I know is good. After all, I've not had the best luck in ice cream making. Too icey, too eggy, too solid, not enough flavor, and so on. I was thinking back to the one time I was happy with what I made - the hazelnut gelato from the Ciao Bella book. I decided to make two kinds of gelato, and stack this cake high. One is the typical mint chocolate chip, and one is the reverse of that.

I started with the plain base and the chocolate base in the Ciao Bella book. After they had chilled, I stirred in 1 tbsp creme de menthe and 1/2 tsp peppermint extract into each (this sounds like a lot, and was a lot more than the recipe called for, but honestly I wouldn't have wanted any less!). When the ice cream maker started sounding like it was working hard, I dumped in whichever bits I was adding (chopped semisweet chocolate or mint chips). Then I put the mixtures into the same cake pans I'd baked the cakes in, to make it easy to put together.

This was delicious! It looks a bit unfinished, because I didn't ice it at all, but taste-wise it didn't need it. I used the Black Magic Cake recipe I found randomly online, and it was great.

Green Olive and Gruyere Loaf

I have tried making no-knead bread before, but was unhappy with the overly crusty nature of it. I've taken to watching Martha Bakes, despite the feeling that she could have been more original with her name. I mean, come on Martha. JennyBakes? Barbara Bakes? We've all been around, baking, longer than you. But anyway.

She had a bread episode where she made this marvelous looking green olive and gruyere no-knead bread, elegantly referred to on her website as "Olive and Cheese Loaf." It is DELICIOUS. A little salty. If I make this again I might rinse the olives more. It worked great, although I baked it in a springform, lacking a dutch oven pan I could put in the oven. Why can't it just go in a bread pan? I'm not sure....

Gingerbread Trees with Lemon Icing

If you've never had gingerbread and lemon together, you are missing out.  I love fresh gingerbread with lemon curd, and I wanted to try the combination in a cookie for the holidays.  I had seen a gingerbread tree cookie recipe on Martha Stewart's website, where she had these elegant lines of lemon icing with the clear sanding sugar, so I copied the idea!

I used Bakerella's gingerbread cookie recipe, because I originally planned to make the cute snowman heads.  I deemed them too time-intensive, this time around.  (They are SO CUTE though, please click on snowman heads to check them out!).

Since Martha gave me the idea, I used her lemon icing recipe.  These were a big hit! Definitely the best cookie recipe of the 2011 season.

Salty-Sweet

I blame the internet, again, for forcing me to make cookies when we already had Thanksgiving dessert laying around. And just like half the time, it was the couple at Two Peas and Their Pod who were to blame! Check out the recipe for Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars with a Salty Pretzel Crust that they posted over on TastyKitchen.com. They are salty, sweet, and chocolatey - a perfect treat.

Cranberry-Glazed Pumpkin Pie

Not someone who could just make one dessert on a holiday, even with only two of us, I snagged another recipe to try from the Thanksgiving recipe index over on The Bitten Word. The flavors are what drew me in - of course gingersnap, pumpkin, and cranberry are all holiday flavors, but together? Hmm, had to try it. (Suddenly, I am taken back to 2009, when a recipe with a similar idea drew me in, and I made the pumpkin spectacular pie. It also was a bit disappointing).

Disappointing? Well, yes. Part of it may be my failure, and possibly a lack of experience with home baked pumpkin, which I think has more moisture than canned. So while the edge of the crust was scorching, the middle still jiggled a bit. But I knew I had overbaked my pumpkin flan (see previous post) and didn't want a repeat of that! So I may have taken it out too soon. Then adding what is basically a homemade cranberry sauce to the top probably heated up the slightly undercooked area twice. Cutting a clean slice was a challenge. I also ran out of walnuts because I had to make the crust twice - the first time I read the amount of butter as 4 oz instead of 4 tbsp, which would have been a hot mess if it had ended up baked that way. So while I didn't have any walnuts to top the pie, I could still taste them cleanly in the crust, which was a nice antidote to the sweetness of everything else.

I think I'd need to try the recipe again before labeling it a failure. Honestly, I'm not a fan of pumpkin pie straight, so I liked the idea of an unusual crust and a tart topping. It did look pretty in the pan too.

Cranberry-Glazed Pumpkin Pie

Recipe from Food and Wine Magazine

Ingredients

Crust

• 8 ounces gingersnaps, crushed (1 1/2 cups)
• 1/2 cup walnuts
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Filling and Toppings

• 1 cup canned pumpkin
• 1/3 cup light brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 3/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• 3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• Pinch of ground cloves
• 2 large eggs
• 3/4 cup heavy cream
• 1/4 cup fresh orange juice
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• 2 cups fresh or frozen cranberries (8 ounces)
• 1/2 cup walnuts

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350°. In a food processor, pulse the gingersnaps with the walnuts until finely ground. Add the melted butter and pulse until the crumbs are moistened. Press the crumbs evenly into a 9-inch glass or ceramic pie plate.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk the pumpkin with the brown sugar, honey, ground ginger, cinnamon, salt, ground cloves, eggs and heavy cream. Pour the pie filling into the crust. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until the crust is deep brown and the filling is just set around the edges but still slightly jiggly in the center; cover the edge of the crust with strips of foil halfway through baking to prevent burning. Transfer the pie to a wire rack to cool.
3. In a medium saucepan, combine the orange juice with the water, granulated sugar and flour and whisk until smooth. Add the cranberries and cook over moderate heat, stirring, until the liquid is thickened and glossy and the cranberries just begin to burst, about 5 minutes. Carefully pour the hot cranberry glaze over the pie and refrigerate until well chilled. Sprinkle the walnuts on top of the pie just before serving.

Make Ahead

The pie can be refrigerated for up to 3 days.

Spanish Thanksgiving Feast 2011

Since we don't eat meat, Thanksgiving is always a fun adventure in cuisine we might not have tried before.  In 2009, we played with Native American ingredients.  2010 saw the first attempts at making tamales and other Mexican treats.  While Spain isn't far from Mexico, I'd been dying to try making paella. Armed with a paella pan actually purchased in Europe that I borrowed from a co-worker, I tackled the following menu:

Sangria
Mushroom paella
Pumpkin flan

I had this sangria recipe before, at a friend's house, probably for one of the international dinner nights she hosted.  I remember going there one day after work to drink the leftovers.  This sangria is not kidding around!  Orange juice, lemonade concentrate, brandy, triple sec, sliced lemon, orange, and lime, and maraschino cherries floating around in there.  I made it Wednesday afternoon and let it chill over 24 hours, which is essential for a good sangria.  The wine I used was a pretty full-bodied Bordeaux from Chateau Bel Air.  I know, I should have used Spanish red wine, but I had this on hand and it worked great.

The sangria recipe includes some optional ingredients - sugar, which I added because of all the citrus elements, but I don't really think it needed it.  It also says you can serve it with carbonated water, but I wanted it to drink more like wine and less like fizz.  I think that was a good decision.  I think if I had not cared about making it husband friendly, I might have made it more Thanksgivingesque by pouring cranberries into the glass.  Even if they wouldn't add flavor, they would look pretty!

Then on to the paella.  I had never made paella, largely because I kept reading that it isn't paella without the pan.  I'm lucky to work with a bunch of librarians who are also foodies, so when I sent out an e-mail asking if anyone had a paella pan, I was not disappointed.


As far as following the recipe goes, the first change I had to make was to find a substitute for chicken stock.  I originally purchased vegetable stock, but ended up using mushroom to really emphasize the flavor of the mushroom.  I do think that is why the saffron color is not as vibrant as it is in many paella pictures I've seen, since mushroom stock is around the color of beef stock, and tends to muddy up the color.  Taste-wise, the decision was a good one.  The recipe also called for ham, which I obviously wasn't going to use.  We had recently tried these field roast frankfurters, a vegan meat substitute, that were reminiscent to me of polish sausage I'd grown up eating.  While it might look like hot dogs in there, which would be unappealing, the flavor was much more complex.  I think having a protein in there really made the dish more of a meal and less of a side.  (After all, traditional paella is usually chock full of seafood and meat).  Since we go vegetarian but not vegan, I was still able to add the butter and manchego at the end.  You can't see them in the dish, but the final creamy and glossy texture is definitely due to those two ingredients, and the cheese adds an incredible flavor dimension.


The last recipe for the meal was a pumpkin flan. Is there anything more Spanish for dessert?  I had several different recipes bookmarked, one which called for cream cheese, but then on the 2011 Thanksgiving recipe index put together by the guys over on The Bitten Word, I found a newly published recipe for individual pumpkin flans from Bon Appetit. 

The recipe is great, flawless even.  This baker, on the other hand, is incredibly flawed.  I had exactly enough sugar on Wednesday night to make the caramel, so of course I completely destroyed it.  My brave and calming husband Nathaniel went to WalMart on Thanksgiving day to buy more sugar, and I tried it again.  And... again.  I finally figured out that I was being too timid; that the sugar really needed to be cooking on medium-high to get to that amber color without too much crystallization.  Or it could be that as I scrubbed the burnt sugar out of the pan the second time, I gave an edict to the evil kitchen god of caramel, my nemesis.  Whatever, it worked the third time, and the custard mixture was all ready to go in the fridge.

Unfortunately, that isn't the last time I was thwarted.  I was so worried I'd underbake that I overbaked these a tad.  You can see that above in the little dots.  So they ended up tasting a little eggy and not quite as creamy as they should have.  Definitely bake these closer to the 20 minute time than 25, I'd say.  And maybe remove them from the water bath earlier than I did.  Still, you could taste the subtle pumpkin and steeped spices, which paired nicely with the caramelized sugar, a light and not too sweet ending to a Spanish Thanksgiving feast!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Baking your own pumpkin

 
I've always wanted to try baking my own pumpkin, and finally got around to it this year.  There are plenty of sugar pumpkins for sale, so I just bought a cute one and brought it home.  I found recipes online where people suggested a baking/roasting temperature of anywhere from 300-450.  The part that made me skeptical is that all of them including roughly the same amount of baking time.  They can't all be right!  I picked somewhere in the middle and split the pumpkin in half (not easy using my dull knives; really need to get them sharpened), and put it cut side down on the cookie sheet.


As you can see, I probably let it go too long. The shells were completely hard and sunken in, and there was some sugar-char on the edges. Still, I scooped it out and stuck it in the fridge, forgetting the very important step of pureeing it before adding it to recipes. That just made it more difficult to incorporate into my recipes. Next time I'll know better. The color was definitely less intense than the canned pumpkin I can find in the stores, and that makes sense, considering that many of the canned "pumpkin" you find is actually squash of a different variety (usually hubbard, I think). Here's to actual pumpkin in pumpkin dishes! Stay tuned for how I used it. I still have half the pumpkin left after using it in two recipes!

Ultimate Pumpkin Waffles

I woke up this morning with pumpkin waffles in my head, although I'd never made any before.  The version in my head was quite decadent with candied nuts and whipped cream, but I did not have those things (veiled reference to So I Married an Axe Murderer, you have to see that movie if you haven't!). 

Like any other day with a good idea, the internet is my friend.  It is rare to find something that nobody else had thought of.  This is why I have not yet posted the red velvet pancakes in my head - they've been in other people's heads too!  In my searching, I came across an entire blog devoted to pumpkin waffles.  This blogger was not joking in her quest to develop a pumpkin waffle recipe!  I knew this was the one I had to try. 

You can find this recipe on the Pumpkin Waffles Blog, pumpkinwaffles.wordpress.com.  But since U.S. Copyright Law says that recipes can't be protected, I'm going to go ahead and copy and paste it here.  The original blog has great photographs of the steps.  If you make it, please head over to his/her blog and let him/her know how much you liked it.  That's what I plan to do!  This recipe isn't too sweet, the spices are nicely balanced, and you can actually taste the pumpkin.

Ultimate Pumpkin Waffles, from pumpkinwaffles

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup light brown sugar
• 3 Tbsp. cornstarch
• 1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 3/4 tsp. cinnamon
• 2 tsp. ginger
• 1/4 tsp. cloves
• 1/2 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg*
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup whole milk
• 1 cup canned solid-pack pumpkin
• 4 Tbsp. unsalted butter, melted and warm
*Grated and lightly packed into the spoon, use 1/2 tsp. Grated and loosely scooped, this is about 1 tsp. of nutmeg. If you have to use pre-grated, dried nutmeg, use 1/4 tsp.

Directions:
1. Lightly oil the waffle iron with vegetable oil, and set it to the desired temperature.
2. Combine brown sugar and cornstarch in a large bowl. Whisk together to break apart the cornstarch. Add the remaining dry ingredients, and whisk to blend.
3. Separate eggs: yolks go in a medium sized bowl and whites get set aside in a smaller bowl.
4. Add pumpkin and milk to the egg yolks. Whisk to blend and set aside.
5. Whip egg whites with a hand mixer on high until stiff peaks form - about 1 1/2 – 2 minutes. Set aside.
6. Pour melted butter into the yolk/milk/pumpkin mixture. As you pour, whisk to combine.
7. Add the pumpkin mixture to the dry ingredients, and mix them together until just combined. A little lumpiness is fine. That will smooth out when the egg whites are added.
8. Slide the whipped egg whites out of the bowl and onto the mixture you just prepared. Gently fold them in until no white bits are obvious.
9. Once the waffle iron is heated, you’re ready to pour the batter!