Gingerbread Stars with Royal Icing

I tried Donna Hay's recipe for gingerbread from Modern Classics Book 2. The cookies held their shape well and looked elegant topped with royal icing. I didn't care for the texture, but I liked the recipe enough to consider trying more iced cookies.

This recipe uses Golden Syrup instead of molasses, and the ground ginger flavor is strong and spicy. Here's the cookie recipe, if you care to try it.

I'd suggest finding a more reliable recipe for royal icing- the one in Modern Classics calls for way too much egg white.

Gingerbread Cookies
adapted from Donna Hay's Modern Classics, Book 2
125g butter, softened
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup golden syrup
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour, sifted
2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp baking soda

Preheat the oven to 375F. Place the butter and sugar in a bowl and beat with electric beaters until light and creamy. Add the golden syrup, flour, ginger, and baking soda and mix to form a smooth dough. Refrigerate for 10 minutes or until the dough is firm. Roll out the dough between sheets of wax paper to 1/4 inch thick. Place on baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until golden brown. Do not overbake!

Apple Rhubarb Pandowdy

Spring is here, and i'm feeling a renewed energy for cooking and baking. I've been revisiting old cookbooks, circling recipes I never thought i'd want to make. I've been checking out library cookbooks 30 pounds at a time, exploring topics like seasonal cooking, farmers markets, and kitchen gardens.

Rhubarb will be in season soon, and I'm trying to expand my repertoire ahead of time. I never had rhubarb until two years ago, so I find it particularly exciting. I love the tartness it adds, especially when combined with strawberries, apples, and other sweet fruits.

People have polarized opinions on rhubarb, which I don't find surprising. I really dislike rhubarb in a few cases:

1. The rhubarb flavor gets completely masked by sugar or orange juice/zest
2. The rhubarb is overcooked, stringy, and falling apart
3. The overall texture of the dessert is mushy and liquidy

Many fruit pies, cobblers, and crisps are plagued by similar problems. That said, a seasonal, ripe fruit dessert is heaven, and I think i'm getting the hang of picking desserts that suit my taste.

This pandowdy's flavor was so well balanced that I was willing to overlook the liquidy filling. The fruit is sweetened with maple syrup instead of sugar, and it's topped with a crisp, browned pie crust. The sweetener and spices are subtle, so the filling still tastes tartly of rhubarb and apple. A pandowdy gets its name from the "dowdy-ing" of the pastry crust:

dowdy–adjective
1. not stylish; drab; old-fashioned
2. not neat or tidy; shabby

If you wanted a more attractive dessert, you could bake individual servings in ramekins or teacups. I rather like its homey appearance though. The recipe says to serve this warm, but I also like it chilled, for breakfast. The baking time and quality of ingredients really affect the finished recipe, so try not to overbake!

Apple Rhubarb Pandowdy
adapted from Deborah Madison's Local Flavors

10 oz pie dough (enough to fit a 9 inch pie pan)
4 large gala apples, peeled and cored
1 pound rhubarb
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground allspice
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/8 tsp ground clove
2 tbsp all purpose flour
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 cup maple syrup
1 tbsp unsalted butter
cream or vanilla ice cream, for serving

1. Preheat the oven to 400F. Lightly butter a 2 quart square or oval baking dish (a 7x11 pyrex works well).

2. Quarter the apples and slice crosswise about 1/4 inch thick. Dice the rhubarb into 1/2 inch pieces. If the stalks are very wide, slice them lengthwise in half first. You should have 7-8 cups fruit. Toss the fruit with the spices, flour, and salt, then add the maple syrup and toss thoroughly. Distribute the fruit in the dish and dot with the butter.

3. Roll our the dough about 1/8 inch thick and cut it about 3/4 inch wider than your dish. Lay the dough over the fruit, tucking the edges into the fruit. Bake until the crust is light gold, 30-35 minutes. Lower the heat to 350F.

4. Remove the pandowdy from the oven and slice the crust into 2-inch squares in a crisscross fashion. Using a spatula, gently press down on the crust, allowing the juices to flow up and over it. Don't worry if there isn't much juice. Return the dish to the oven and continue to bake until the crust is really golden and glazed, another 20-30 minutes. Once or twice, brush the juices over the dough. Serve warm with cream or vanilla ice cream.

Buttermilk Loaf Bread

When I am sick, I like hot soup. I like comforting food that's easy to stomach. But what do you eat when you're homesick, heartsick, or suffering from a bad case of what should I do with my life?

Recipes can provide different kinds of comfort. One might trigger memories of family, holidays, or after-school lunches, while another might just salve a bad day with melted cheese and hot sauce. It's not stess-eating; it's food satisfying an emotional and physical hunger.

These days, i'm hungry for simplicity. My schedule gets hectic, life gets complicated, and I gravitate towards simple recipes with few ingredients. I've been thinking about bread, mostly, and its fundamental role in food culture and history.

This recipe for Buttermilk Bread isn't life-altering, but it's well suited to weekly bread baking. I eat it toasted with a smear of salted butter and homemade preserves. The preserves are simple too- a mix of fruit, raw sugar, and water. I'll post that recipe later.

I'm hoping to try more breads and jams/jellies/conserves/chutneys. It'd be nice to expand my repertoire before summer's here.

Buttermilk American Loaf Bread
adapted from Cook's Illustrated

3 1/2 cups bread flour
2 tsp table salt
1 cup buttermilk, cold
1/3 cup boiling water
2 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
3 tbsp honey
1 package (2 1/4 tsp) instant yeast

1. Adjust oven rack to low position and heat oven to 200 degrees. Once oven temperature reaches 200 degrees, maintain heat 10 minutes, then turn off oven heat.

2. Mix flour and salt in bowl of standing mixer fitted with dough hook. In 1-quart Pyrex liquid measuring cup, mix cold buttermilk and boiling water together (temperature should be about 110-degrees), add butter, honey, and yeast. Turn machine to low and slowly add liquid. When dough comes together, increase speed to medium and mix until dough is smooth and satiny, stopping machine two or three times to scrape dough from hook if necessary, about 10 minutes. Turn dough onto lightly floured work surface; knead to form smooth, round ball, about 15 seconds.

3. Place dough in very lightly oiled bowl, rubbing dough around bowl to lightly coat. Cover bowl with plastic wrap; place in warm oven until dough doubles in size, 50 to 60 minutes.

4. Form dough into loaf by gently pressing the dough into a rectangle, one inch thick and no wider than the length of the loaf pan. Next, roll the dough firmly into a cylinder, pressing with your fingers to make sure the dough sticks to itself. Turn dough seam side up and pinch it closed. Place dough in greased 9-by-5-by-3-inch loaf pan and press gently so dough touches all four sides of pan.

5. Cover with plastic wrap; set aside in warm spot until dough almost doubles in size, 20 to 30 minutes. Heat oven to 350 degrees, placing empty loaf pan on bottom rack. Bring 2 cups water to boil.

6. Remove plastic wrap from loaf pan. Place pan in oven, immediately pouring heated water into empty loaf pan; close oven door. Bake until instant-read thermometer inserted at angle from short end just above pan rim into center of loaf reads 195 degrees, about 40 to 50 minutes. Remove bread from pan, transfer to a wire rack, and cool to room temperature.

Chocolate Chocolate Chocolate.

I am sick of chocolate. I am still baking with it.

In the past month i've done a good deal of what I call educational baking. Baking for the sake of learning something new- whether it's a technique, a flavor combination, or a cookbook author's style. Here's some of what i've tried:

1. Chocolate Bread from Tessa Kirios's Apples for Jam


2. Chocolate Caramels from Scharffenberger's The Essence of Chocolate


3. Chocolate Souffle Cakes from Sara Foster's Fresh Every Day


4. Sour Cream Chocolate Cake Cookies from Dorie Greenspan's Baking From my Home to Yours

5. Chocolate Wafers (can't remember the cookbook)

6. Milk Chocolate Walnut Bars from Tish Boyle's Chocolate passion

The only recipe i'd make again is #3. I've probably made it 5-6 times already. I wanted to revisit it because the ingredient quantities are similar to those listed for this Gateau de Zoe, though the techniques are slightly different. It's divine, and i'll blog about it eventually.

Large quantities of all the other recipes went in the garbage. I don't want to rant about why they were bad. I'll just say they weren't worth eating. Big time texture and flavor issues.

Savory Breakfast Bread Pudding

I had people over for brunch on Sunday. My favorite brunch dishes are crowd-pleasers that practically cook themselves: baked oatmeal, yeasted waffles, baked french toast, breakfast strata, or roasted vegetables. Basically anything that can be thrown in a casserole and baked.

Make-ahead dishes let me spend more time socializing than cooking. Plus, everyone gets to eat at the same time, and no one's left waiting for something to finish frying in a skillet.

This time I decided to try a savory bread pudding. Bread puddings aren't an exact science. I usually tweak the recipes I try until I get the product I want. Here are a few of my notes:

Instead of using breakfast sausage, I substituted roasted and diced red peppers that had been dried on paper towels. Other vegetables can be substituted as well, but i'd avoid anything with a lot of liquid. I like thick bread puddings, so I used a large pot rather than a 9x13 pan.

For the bread, I used the "Country White" loaf from Allegro Hearth. It worked well, though a bread with slightly more structure might have been better. I love this bread- i'm pretty sure it's what they use for white toast at Coca Cafe, and it's one of my favorites. I started with a generous 6 cups of bread cubes, then poked more into the assembled dish until it looked like enough to eventually soak up all the liquid.

This is one of the best breakfast recipes i've made in a while. The herbs, mustard, and cheese complement each other well, and the flavors are fresh and bright. It's a rich, comforting dish with crusty golden edges that beg to be scraped out of the pan. I'm hoping to make it again soon, maybe with some asparagus or butternut squash.

Savory Breakfast Bread Pudding
adapted from Sara Foster's Fresh Every Day

2 tbsp unsalted butter, plus more for buttering the baking dish
1 large yellow onion, diced
1/2 pound breakfast or Italian sausage, removed from the casing (or substitute another vegetable)
4 cups spinach leaves, washed and drained (about 6oz or 1 large bunch)
2 1/2 cups whole milk
8 large eggs, lightly beaten
2 tbsp Dijon mustard
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
6 cups 1 1/2 inch cubes day-old country Italian or French bread
1 1/2 cups shredded Swiss cheese (about 6 oz)
1 cup grated parmesan cheese (about 3 oz)
2 tbsp chopped fresh thyme leaves
1 tbsp chopped fresh rosemary

1. Butter a 9x13 inch glass baking dish. Melt the 2 tbsp butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and cook for 3-5 minutes, until soft. Add the sausage and cook 4 minutes, breaking it up into pieces, until it's cooked through (if you want to substitute another raw vegetable, you can add it shortly after the onions, or mix in a cooked vegetable towards the end). Stir in the spinach and cook just until wilted, about 2 minutes. Remove skillet from the heat and drain off the liquid.

2. Whisk the milk, eggs, mustard, salt, and pepper together in a large bowl. Add the bread and stir to coat. Stir in the sausage, cheeses, thyme, and rosemary and pour into the prepared baking dish. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour or overnight.

3. Preheat the oven to 350F.

4. Twenty minutes before baking, remove the pudding from the refrigerator and bring to room temperature. Bake the bread pudding for 45-50 minutes, until it is puffy and light golden brown. Remove the pudding from the oven and let rest for 5 minutes before serving. Serve warm.

Savory Pecan, Parmesan, and Thyme Shortbread

Since I do more sweet than savory cooking, I tend to overlook cookbooks with few or no dessert recipes. That said, i've found great recipes in general cookbooks, usually by chance. A new item in the Carnegie Library will catch my eye and i'll flip though it. If I find an interesting recipe, i'll jot it down in my journal.

When I noticed this recipe for Savory Pecan, Parmesan and Thyme Shortbread, I thought it'd be a great addition to my current repertoire of small butter cookies. The shortbread are elegant, crisp, and packed with the bold flavors of cheese and fresh herbs.

Like the other shortbread i've made, these become quite bitter when over-baked. Bake the cookies until they're just golden at the edges. In the book, the photographed cookies were quite brown and the given baking time was 20 minutes. This was too long for small cookies, so i'd suggest checking them after 12-13 minutes. I only copied the ingredients and baking time/temperature from the book, so these directions are mostly from memory.

Savory Pecan, Parmesan, and Thyme Shortbread
loosely adapted from Outstanding in the Field by Jim Denevan

8 tbsp unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 tbsp chopped fresh thyme leaves
1/2 cup toasted chopped pecans

With a hand-mixer or spoon, beat the butter until smooth. Add the parmesan cheese and mix until combined. Add the flour, salt, pepper, thyme, and nuts, and mix until a cohesive dough just starts to form. Form the dough into logs or roll to 1/4 inch thickness between two sheets of wax paper. Chill for at least 1 hour. Preheat the oven to 350F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Slice the dough into 1/4 inch rounds or cut into shapes and place on the prepared baking sheet. Bake for 12-15 minutes, until lightly golden colored.

Thrift Store Finds: Enamelware

On Saturday, I decided to visit the South Hills and Avalon locations of Red White and Blue. It's a thrift store i've used for years to find vintage bakeware, melamine dishes, enamelware, polaroid cameras, roller skates, cheap vases, tablecloths, curtains, clothes arranged by color, and other funky bric-a-brac.

The last time I went there, I found an awesome dish set and a square tube pan. This time, I found some nice pieces of enamelware:





I have a thing for brightly colored enamelware. This pot's yellow lid caught my eye, and several women in the store mentioned they'd looked at it when I headed towards the checkout. The exterior needed some cleaning, but otherwise it looked new. I'll probably use it to make some baked oatmeal this Sunday.

The teapot is brand new and from Japan. It had the original care and cleaning instructions inside! For removing rust and stains/mineral deposits, it suggests boiling water with 2 tbsp baking soda and the juice of half a lemon for 45 minutes. I tried this technique on a badly tea-stained saucepot and it worked fairly well. Martha Stewart has additional guidelines on caring for vintage enamelware here here.

I highly recommend checking out Red White and Blue if you haven't been to one. They are massive!

Nibby Buckwheat Butter Cookies

Some cookies are best small. To be honest, i've never liked the big-as-your-head cookies found in so many bakeries and coffee shops. They often sacrifice good flavor and texture for size. I'm much happier with a good cup of coffee that has some dainty cookies perched on the saucer.

I liked these Sea Salt and Cocoa Shortbreads so much that i've been exploring other recipes for butter cookies. I love the crisp, crumbly texture that comes from proper mixing and the occasional addition of corn starch or gluten-free flours (they contribute to the "shortness" of the cookie).

These Nibby Buckwheat Butter Cookies were highly recommended by several bloggers, so I decided to try them. The original recipe is for slice-and-bake cookies, but I used a star shaped cutter instead. I used to think cut-out cookie required too much labor, but i've been more willing to make them since I started rolling out the soft dough inside of ziplock bags (a tip you can see demonstrated in this post).

I made a half-batch of dough, which still yielded plenty of small cookies. Since I was out of vanilla extract, I used the seeds from half a vanilla bean and saved the pod to make vanilla sugar. I also lightly toasted the cocoa nibs to improve their flavor, and sprinkled a little sea salt over the top of the dough.

The finished cookies are perfect for tea or snacking. They're not too sweet, and they're small enough that most people will happily indulge in a few. You can find Alice Medrich's original recipe here, courtesy of 101 Cookbooks.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

I borrowed Flo Braker's latest cookbook, Baking for all Occasions, a few weeks ago. I didn't get a chance to try many recipes before I had to return it, but I photocopied a few for future testing. The recipes are interesting- many of them have creative names and mix new flavors with old techniques (a streusel topped cake with fresh pineapple and hazelnuts, anyone?)

This recipe for a Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake caught my eye because it's simple, versatile, and yields a large quantity. It's basically a chocolate chip cookie dough that's pressed into a 9x13 pan and sliced into squares. Braker's book includes instructions for turning the same dough into individual cookies or chocolate chip biscotti.

For this recipe, it's important to use well softened butter. The goal is to incorporate as little air into the dough as possible to make the texture more like a cookie than a cake. The texture will also vary greatly with baking time- the cake becomes crunchier the longer you bake it. Nuts and chocolate chips play a big role in flavor, and you'll have very different results depending on what you use.

The finished bars aren't as rich tasting as some blondies or cookies. I'm interested in trying a variation using more brown sugar, or peanut butter. Both could lead to a chewier texture. I like using big pieces of chocolate for a nice visual and textural contrast. I used Nestle chocolate chunks for this batch, but any large chocolate pieces would work well.

These were a huge hit at work, and several people asked for the recipe. Over a few days, the texture improved and the cinnamon flavor became more pronounced. I only used 1/2 tsp cinnamon and the flavor was still quite strong. The bars are great snacks to have on hand and they keep for a relatively long time. I usually line the pan with foil so I can just lift the bars out when they're done.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake
adapted from Flo Braker's Baking for all Occasions

2 1/3 cups (300 grams) all-purpose flour
2/3 cup (130 grams) granulated sugar
2/3 cup (130 grams) light brown sugar
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon or 1/2 tsp ground cardamom (optional)
2 sticks (225 grams) unsalted butter, softened
1 large egg
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 cups (340 grams) semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup (115 grams) chopped walnuts, pecans, hazelnuts, or a combination
*You can omit the nuts and mix in an additional 1 cup (170g) chocolate chips

1. Center a rack in the oven and preheat to 350F. Have ready a 9x13 inch pan.

2. In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the flour, sugars, salt, cinnamon (if using), and baking soda and mix on the lowest speed just until blended. Add the butter and continue to mix until small, moist crumbs form that look similar to streusel, about 1 minute. Add the egg and vanilla and beat on low speed until the mixture begins to form a cohesive dough. Increase the speed to medium and add the chocolate chips and nuts. Beat just until they are incorporated- 20 to 30 seconds.

3. Spoon dollows of the thick dough evenly over the bottom of the baking pan with a rubber spatula. To distribute the dough evenly, lay a sheet of plastic wrap or parchment paper over the dough and pat it evenly with your fingertips.

4. Bake the cake until it is golden brown and feels more solid than soft when pressed in the center- 37-40 minutes. Be careful not to overbake- it will firm as it cools. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool in the pan for 30-35 minutes.

5. Slip a thin metal spatula between the cake and the pan and run the spatula along the entire perimeter of the pan. Lift the pan, tilt it slightly, and tap it on a counter to help release the cake. Invert the cake onto a wire rack and lift it out of the pan. Invert so it is right side up and let cool completely.

If serving within 2 days, wrap the cake in foil and store at room temperature. For longer storage, freeze for up to 1 month. Thaw at room temperature for about 3 hours.To serve, cut the cake into squares, rectanges, or sticks with a sharp knife.

Sea Salt and Cocoa Shortbread

I think culinary encouragement goes a long way, especially for avid bakers and food bloggers.

You reach a point where the learning curve plateaus and the people you’re feeding assume everything you create will be delicious and beautifully photographed. And believe me, it’s pretty disappointing when you spend hours preparing something, only to have a good friend pick at their plate and say polite things like “it’s okay” or “it’s pretty good” or “I’m just not that hungry.”

Furthermore, there’s a sort of social detachment that comes with increased culinary ability. Suddenly, people don’t want to share their cooking with you, or they preface edible gifts with statements like “I made you these cookies, but you probably won’t like them” or “here is this pastry, but it’s store-bought so you don’t have to eat it.”

So, it can be pretty tough when everything starts to go wrong. I found it very comforting that a bad week in the kitchen had Molly of Orangette on the verge of tears. Her description of failed dough as “oat-and-brown-sugar hummus” is priceless, and probably familiar to more than one baker.

One of the things I love most about food blogs is that sense of shared baking failure that follows a post like Molly’s. Suddenly everyone has a kind word and a story about flipping pancakes onto the floor, cleaning spilled batter out of the oven, or substituting/omitting ingredients with disastrous results. And, in many cases, people will share a fantastic recipe to compensate for the troublesome one.

I, too, have weeks where all recipes fail, and the possibility of baking something great is utterly squashed. I’ve been testing chocolate recipes for an upcoming presentation, and some of them were just terrible! Luckily, these sea salt and shortbread cookies turned out very well. They’re quite rich, and I think they’re best small, maybe served on a saucer alongside some coffee. The crisp, crumbly texture is addictive.

I roll out the soft dough inside of a gallon-sized plastic bag, chill it, and then cut it into shapes. It’s best to leave the bag open while you do this, so air can escape. Dorie Greenspan gives a good description of this technique in Baking From my Home to Yours, which you can view here.

Chocolate Shortbread with Cacao Nibs and Sea Salt
Adapted from Elizabeth Falkner’s recipe in The Essence of Chocolate

1 cup all purpose flour
¾ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
¼ cup + 2 tbsp cocoa nibs, crushed with a rolling pin
1 tsp fine or coarse sea salt (I used fleur de sel)
12 tbsp unsalted butter, at room temperature (don’t use cold butter!)
½ cup granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 325F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone mats.

Sift the flour and cocoa into a small bowl and whisk to combine. In another bowl, combine the nibs and sea salt.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar on medium speed for about 5 minutes, until light and fluffy, stopping occasionally to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl. Mix in the vanilla. Add half of the flour mixture and mix on low speed. Add the remaining flour mixture, stopping as necessary to scrape down the bowl. Once incorporated, mix on medium speed for 1-2 minutes, or until well combined. Mix in the nibs and salt. (The dough can be refrigerated, well wrapped, for up to 1 week, or frozen for up to 2 months).

On a lightly floured board or between two pieces of parchment paper, roll the dough into a square ¼ inch thick. Cut into 1 by 2.5 inch rectangles or other desired shape, and place on the prepared pans about 1 inch apart (they will spread a little).

Bake for 15 minutes. It is sometimes difficult to tell when these are done- one of the best indications is the smell of baked cookies in the air. When the cookies are nudged, they shouldn’t feel soft, but the bottoms should seem crisp. Avoid over-baking to avoid a bitter flavor.

Remove from the oven and transfer shortbread to a cooling rack to cool completely. The cookies can be stored in an airtight container for up to 1 week.