Cinnamon Shortbread

The first batch of holiday goodies went out to some family today. I know--a week before Christmas, and I am just getting started. I still have a couple packages to ship out and deliver, Winter Solstice coming up on Monday. Not to mention the cooking for the big day itself.
I am perpetually behind. But so are most of us this time of year, so I'm not going to worry about it too much. I won't be doing much relaxing, but who is?
My stepdad's mother's favorite cookie is shortbread. It originated in Scotland, and is prevalent today all over the UK. It's a really simple little cookie, and that means that it can be fantastic or terrible. It's not like a brownie or chocolate chip, where there's so much going on to distract you from bad texture or mediocre flavor. Nope--Just flour, butter, salt, and sugar make up these buttery, tender little wedges. They're meant to be slightly sandy and crumbly, and they melt in your mouth if done properly.
Being an ancient cookie, and also being used for so many things like cookie crusts and such, there were hundreds of recipes to choose from. Some used the traditional oat flour, most called for wheat, some recipes include cornstarch or other flours. The point of it is to inhibit gluten from forming--our little friend that gives bread its chew is the enemy of shortbread. Gluten forms when flour and water get together, making those elastic strands that trap bubbles and give rise to our baked goods. But if you use oat flour, or some other combination, you avoid this pretty effectively. Besides, it's historically accurate--Scotland, Ireland and the British Isles had more oats than wheat.
You know I'm all about history--and I'd have liked to have used the oat flour. But I neglected to decide on my recipe, and didn't have any on hand. I was making this after the kidddies went to bed, so I couldn't run out to Vons. I decided to use the recipe in one of my favorite cookbooks. Another thing that creates gluten is agitation, and that's why the traditional way a shortbread is made usually involved the biscuit or pie method. That's where you cut or knead butter directly into the dry ingredients. The fat coats the flour, preventing gluten from forming.
Well, my recipe had another method, and considering the tests this kitchen puts into their recipes, I decided to just go along with it.
Powdered sugar is beaten with soft butter until creamy, lightening the texture. Then dry ingredients--no leavening-- are beaten in. This particular recipe has so much butter it actually requires you to knead it for a minute, just so it will form enough gluten to hold together--because fat inhibits that, too. (Really, there's no chance these cookies will be tough or chewy.)
Then you pat it into a round, score it gently, and you can dock it with a fork, imprint very lightly with a pattern, which in hindsight, I should have done gently with cookie cutters. I did mine free-form with a decorative edge on some parchment, but forming it using the side part of a springform pan will get you a perfect circle. Sprinkle some sugar or cinnamon-sugar on top and bake low and slow until it's nice and crisp.
You are rewarded with an amazing little cookie. It smells heavenly, just buttery and delicious. I added just a touch of cinnamon to mine to add a bit of holiday interest, and it was totally divine.

Cinnamon Shortbread Cookies

11.25 oz (2 1/4 cups) all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon
2 oz (1/2 cup) confectioner's (powdered/icing) sugar
2 sticks (8 oz) unsalted butter, soft
cinnamon-sugar for sprinkling

Mix flour, salt, and cinnamon together in a medium bowl. In a mixer bowl, cream sugar and butter until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Turn mixer to low and slowly add dry ingredients, mixing about 30 seconds.
Turn onto lightly floured board and knead gently for a few minutes, until dough is vey smooth. Place onto a sheet of parchment and roll into a 9" circle--it will be about 1/2 inch thick. Flute edges, and/or press gently with a decorative pattern if desired. Score just the very top with a knife into 16 wedges, and sprinkle with cinnamon-sugar.
Refrigerate 20 minutes, and in the meantime preheat oven to 300.
Place in middle of oven, and bake 40-45 mins, til just barely browned. Immediately cut through scored marks with a sharp knife, and transfer to a rack to cool. Will keep about a week tightly wrapped.

BBA Challenge--(Amazing!) Italian Bread

Usually, when I buy a cookbook, I do so knowing that 80% of the recipes I will probably never get around to making. Oh, they may sound great, but I am so busy the best-laid plans don't always come together. The steak bought for a fabulous 10-ingredient Thai lettuce wrap will be scaled down to a quickly grilled entree. The gourmet chocolate will languish in the pantry until I finally get around to making that cake, and the the specialty flour will end up in the freezer for a month at least. Which is why I liked joining the Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge so much--I'm going through every recipe!
I lagged a looooong time in between French Bread and Italian Bread, meaning to make it at least three times before I actually did. (The bigas became pizza one night and bagels a second.) I don't know why but I assumed it would be a lot like the French Bread, even before I read the recipe. I should have paid closer attention. And oh, for those of you who don't know what a "biga" is, it's a type of starter-- dough you make before you start to make your bread, then let sit out for awhile before adding it to your final dough. A biga is a firm starter, with about 50-70% as much water as flour--50-70-% hydration, we say in breadmaking. It also has yeast, and that's it. It's what gives artisan bread its amazing flavor, that time put in for the yeast to grow, texture to develop, enzymes to do their thing, and the flavorful action to happen. (For a more detailed explanation of starters, click here.)
It was FABULOUS, people. I have tried many times to duplicate the oh-so-soft, pillowy "French" bread at my local Albertson's. If you've ever had it, you know what I'm talking about. Fresh from the oven and still warm, it tears apart and has just the perfect amount of chew, yet it's downy soft and ridiculously good. Sort of a soft, chewy crust, not a crunchy one. My husband and I can eat an entire torpedo in ten minutes flat....we're not proud of that.
This bread was the closest I have ever come to that loaf. Softened with milk and oil, given complex flavor and an open texture from a good starter, it has everything you'd want. Soft enough to make terrific sandwiches, firm enough to bake free-form into a rustic-style loaf.
The only thing I did differently to this loaf was with the starter. The instructions state to let it sit at room temperature for a few hours, then overnight in the fridge. Well, I waited until bedtime, then stashed it immediately in the fridge. Then let it sit out 4-6 hours when I got around to making it a couple days later. (I told you...I plan ahead, yet never seem to get anywhere.) So my biga was extra-ripe, one could say. So barring that, I follwed the instructions, and this time was rewarded with a delicious loaf with very little tinkering needed. (I made the first one last week and have another batch rising as we speak.)
As per the instructions of the challenge, I won't post the recipe, but I found out someone else did--the Smitten Kitchen. So here's the link--try it! Don't be intimidated by the steps, it's actually quite a flexible schedule, and it's so worth the results. Trust me. And this cookbook, with two recipes so far that I have made repeatedly, has now made itself worth every penny.
This post submitted to Yeast-Spotting.

Time Flies...

I can hardly believe almost an entire month has gone by without a post! I didn't mean to drop off the face of the Earth like that, I've just been busy and/or sick (sometimes at the same time) and needed a little break. Dinner for myself and my two older boys most evenings has been out of the pantry! I have a backlog of photos from a few things I have baked this month, and hopefully more to come. The irony is, of course, that I wait all year for this time of year to bake, and then when it rolls around I'm far too busy to lock myself in the kitchen and go through that pile of recipes like I want to. It may be time for a Mommy weekend, although I'm not sure I'm ready to let the husband take all three boys up to the in-laws. The little man is only 5 months old, after all. Wow...where did the time go?
Where to start? I made bagels a couple times, both plain and Cinnamon-Raisin-Walnut:



I made some Pumpkin-Spice Cupcakes with cream cheese frosting for an old friend:


...and some (healthier) Strawberry-Banana Muffins for my son to take to school. (I can't believe I haven't posted a Banana Bread recipe yet! Soon!)


An Apple-Pumkpin Pie, which I regrettably can't find the picture for.
I'll also wish everyone a belated Happy Thanksgiving--I was the only one around, herding 3 little boys and trying to cook a complete meal. Blogging was a bit out of reach!
There's my mini-wrap-up--I know it doesn't really count, as I haven't given you an recipe in awhile, but I have a few things I'm tinkering with. So I promise to start posting again. I have some Holiday favorites coming up soon.

Spice Cake with Apple Cider Buttercream

It's really here--the chill in the air, the crisp winds, the different position of the sun in the sky. Finally. It's time for roasted dinners, fires in the first fireplace I've had since I was a child, and cups of spicy apple cider.
It's also time to make all sorts of yummy, spicy, Fall-ish things, and Spice Cake is one of my faves. I tried a new recipe today, because it's a special day--the Irish/Celtic festival of Samhain.
Samhain was, of course, the precursor to Halloween. And yes, Halloween is over, but every year, about a week later, the sun's position in the sky becomes what's called a cross-quarter point--it's halfway between the Autumnal Equinox and the Winter Solstice. Without getting too deep into things, I'll relate to you that the ancients of many cultures believed these days (the other one being Beltane, in May) to be a time when the veil between the worlds of the living and the dead are thin, and communication is possible. Games of divination and fortune telling were common, as was honoring your ancestors, and doing your best to keep the baddies away. Apples, long a symbol of life after death and immortality, are always featured prominently during this time, as did other traditionally harvest-themed foods.
These days, it's seen as sort of a New Year's Day for some pagans--a chance to chuck the bad things that happened, look forward to the new year, make some goals and bring some luck your way.
Although for me this is not a religious celebration, I like to stay in touch with my Irish roots and observe the day's passing. I light a few candles and think about loved ones lost. I choose to do this on the cross-quarter day, keeping Halloween a fun, American-style holiday that's a lot about my kids--the same as Christmas.
And of course, as on every Sabbat I can, I bake. This year, a new Spice Cake recipe fell in my lap from one of my favorite recipe resources. It's not like so many I'd had before--not gingerbread-y, dense, and assertive with loads of molasses. This one was a butter cake, given a healthy does of spices and just a bit of molasses. One of the reasons for its wonderfully spicy flavor is tha the spices aren't just mixed in with the dry ingredients--they're heated with a portion of the fat. Not only does heating spices bring out their flavor, nothing carries the flavor better than fat. The spices infuse it, really waking up, and they permeate the entire cake. so much better. I have substituted some oil for part of the butter here for added moistness.
Light and fluffy, and frosted with an Apple Cider Buttercream, topped with crunchy toasted walnuts, this is a perfect fit for any holiday celebration--and easy enough for a weekday dessert, on the plainest of days.
For more info on Samhain, click here.

Spice Cake with Apple Cider Buttercream

Cake:
160g (1 cup plus 2 tbsp) unbleached AP flour
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp ginger
1/8 tsp cloves
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp kosher salt
pinch orange zest
1 egg plus 2 yolks, room temperature
8 tbsp butter, soft (65-70 degrees)
2 tbsp oil
1 tsp vanilla
175g ( 1 cup minus 2 tbsp) granulated sugar
1 tbsp molasses
1/2 cup (120g) plain yogurt

Prepare 1 9" cake pan with a parchment round, and spray with oil. Preheat oven to 350.
In a small saute pan, mix all spices with oil, and heat until warm. Let cool.
In a medium bowl mix together flour, soda, powder, orange zest and salt.
In a large mixer bowl, cream butter with sugar until very light and fluffy, 5 minutes. Add cooled spiced oil. With mixer on low, add eggs and yolks, scraping after each addition. Add vanilla. Add 1/2 of dry mixture, allow to incorporate, then add 1/2 of yogurt. Followed by half of dry mixture, rest of yogurt, and rest of dry mix. Beat on low until just blended, then remove from mixer and scrape a few times with spatula to combine. (My cake had a few too many holes!)
Spread evenly into prepared pan. Rap several times on counter to help eliminate air bubbles. Bake 18-22 minutes, until golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean. Cool in pan 5 minutes, then turn onto a rack to cool completely.

Apple Cider Buttercream (American Style)
1 8oz bar cream cheese, soft
5 tbsp butter, soft
3 tbsp apple cider jelly
pinch orange zest (optional)
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

Mix butter and cream cheese together til smooth. Add jelly, and powdered sugar, and zest if using, beat til smooth.
Garnish with chopped toasted walnuts, if desired.

Last year's Samhain--Spicy Apple Quick Bread

Butterscotch Krimpets Copycat...take two

Ah, the Tastykake. I married into a Philly family, and knowing about water bagels, Italian ice, street pretzels and cheesesteaks comes with the territory. Also these little regional snack cakes that everyone goes crazy for. It's a back-east version of a Twinkie or a Ding-dong, I'm told. Unremarkable, but people from back East swear by these things. I had one once...pretty much what you'd expect from a mass-marketed snack cake packaged in cellophane. What can I say? Guess you had to grow up there.
I gave up packaged pastry by the time I was out of high school. I have my husband mostly converted to preferring homemade, but you never can let go of your childhood treats completely. (Well, I can. My childhood treats were Quarter-Pounders and french fries...but that's another story.) This is the second time I have tried to duplicate his beloved Butterscotch Krimpet, and the second time I have used a King Arthur Flour recipe as my jumping off point. The first take (see it here) was based off of this recipe, which used a butter cake base. You know, the standard cake--cream butter and sugar, add eggs, milk, and your dry ingredients. It was a good cake, but not spongy and squashy like a Krimpet. The frosting also needed work--too sweet, too firm.
Second recipe I wanted to use their "Twinkling Good Snack Cake" copycat. It's the same thing, a spongy, soft cake. This time the base was a classic chiffon, which happens to be my very favorite kind of cake, both to eat and to make. Making chiffon is no harder than making muffins, where you add your wet stuff to your dry stuff, it just takes one little extra step--beating egg whites and folding them in. And since this cake is also leavened with baking powder, you don't have to kill yourself folding them in like it was neurosurgery. I mean, yes, please be gentle--but don't get stressed out.
This time I think it turned out much better. The cake is a classic chiffon--soft, springy, moist, and sweet. Definitely remininscent of a Twinkie, Krimpet, or Little Debbie. And to my delight, it held up perfectly well in a large cake pan, with no collapse. Chiffons are generally baked in a tube pan, so that the egg foam batter can crawl up the sides and achieve a better rise. This recipe, tweaked just a little, made a perfectly flat layer for my snack cakes. It is also a spectacular Chiffon, and I think I found my go-to.
The frosting was something else I wanted to re-vamp. Instead of adding supersweet melted butterscotch chips to supersweet powdered sugar icing, I made a "ganache" of cream and the chips. I was surprised that the texture was as nice as it was, considering the chips are nothing but hydrogenated oil, sugar, and flavoring. And no, I wouldn't usually touch them with a ten foot pole, but if you're replicating something with a commercial, fake flavor, you kinda have to go there.
I cooled the ganache and spread it on. Even at less than an even ratio, it was very thin and gooey at room tempeature. So I think I'll give you an adjusted recipe to account for it. I'm currently looking up a more authentic butterscoth icing, but this works well for now. Definitely butterscotch!

Butterscotch Krimpets

8 1/2 ounces (2 1/4 cups) cake flour
8 ounces (1 1/4 cups) granulated sugar, divided
2 1/2 oz (1/4 cup) dark brown sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3 1/2 ounces by weight (1/2 cup) vegetable oil
6 ounces (3/4 cup) cold water
7 unbeaten egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla
7 egg whites

Heat oven to 350.
Prepare cupcake liners, a large 13X9" pan, or snack cake molds with cooking spray and flour.
In a large bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, 1 cup white sugar, brown sugar, and salt. Be sure to get all the lumps out of the brown sugar.
Add oil, yolks, vanilla, and water, and whisk until just combined.
In a separate clean bowl, beat egg whites til foamy. Add remaining 1/4 cup sugar very slowly, then turn speed to high and beat until stuff peaks form.
Fold one-third of whites into batter. Then fold in remaining whites carefully, keeping batter as light as possible.
Pour into prepared pan(s) and spread evenly. Bake until done--about 18 minutes for cupcakes, 20 for a sheet cake. Cake will look golden brown, and have pulled back slightly from the edges of the pan--it will also apring back when touched and a toothpick will come out clean. Let cool in pan 5-10 minutes--the cakes will shrink back quite a bit from the sides, but shouldn't collapse. Let cool before frosting.

Butterscotch Ganache

6 oz cream
1 (11oz) bag butterscotch chips
Pour chips in medium bowl. Heat cream to boiling, and pour over top. Stir til smooth, and regriferate til spreadable, about 30 minutes.

Ooh La La! Daring Bakers Bake French Macarons

The 2009 October Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to us by Ami S. She chose macarons from Claudia Fleming’s The Last Course: The Desserts of Gramercy Tavern as the challenge recipe.

I'm going to apologize in advance for the lateness of this post. It's 10pm on posting day, and I have been ridiculously wasting time, reading entertainment gossip websites when I was supposed to be blogging. What I am about to confess will probably make you think less of me--but I'll say it. I have a morbid fascination with Jon and Kate. I know, I know...they're both terrible people and they've made a terrible mess of things, but I just can't look away! It's the worst train wreck I have ever witnessed, and I think it may change reality TV forever. Just trying to stay current, people. If Gloria Allred (herself a media whore) has become involved, you know it's a big hot mess.
So enough about my vices...onto the macarons. I was initially not excited at all when I read about the challenge. These have been on my list of things to try, since they seem to be pretty universally popular. And difficult to master, too--the right blend of crisp, chew, and soft is much-debated. But to be honest, I am not a huge fan of meringues. I don't like it on pies, I don't like meringue cookies or pavlovas. It's kind of lost on me, that texture. I've never eaten a filled French Macaron before--but from the looks of them, they're the fancy French uncle to Whoopie pies.
Also, I have made American-style coconut macaroons before--you know, they chewy, supersweet ones chock full of coconut and made with raw egg whites. I'm not a big fan of those, either, although my husband adores them. He'd never heard of a French macaro/on, and was curious.
I followed the recipe given, seemed to be as good as any. I did check out the highly recommended recipe from Tartlette, master of the macaron, and hers was a much different formulation--more on that later.
The given recipe calls for raw egg whites to be whipped with sugar to make a raw meringue, which is then folded with nut flour and powdered sugar and baked. It's a lot like a joconce, that French sponge cake used in the Daring Bakers Opera Cake challenge. Just without the fat. Upon putting it togther, I was encouraged, as I had loved the flavor and texture of the joconde.
I piped them--first in a flat spiral, since no instructions were really given on how to pipe if you'd never had one--and they were disappointingly flat. They looked nothing like the gorgeous photos I've seen of them. However, they were delicious. I let them brown and get a bit crisp, but still chewy and soft in the middle. Mmmmmmmmm. I was right. Made with both almond and hazelnut mea, lthey had that wonderful toasted-nut flavor like the joconde, but with a lighter texture. Nothing like the American macaroon, nothing like a pie meringue or meringue cookie. second batch (since in my crappy oven I can only cook one tray of things at a time if I want them to turn out right) I sort of mounded them, and got a little better shape, although I pulled them early and they didn't have that wonderful crispness of the first batch. Still mighty tasty--just ask my husband, he loved the soft ones.
Since the challenge also included filling the little darlings, I decided to stick to the hazelnut theme and crack open the jar of Nutella I've had sitting. Danger, danger..I had forgotten how much I love Nutella. And when I mixed it with an equal part of cream cheese to make my fillng....oh, mercy.
I'm not sure if I really loved the cookie, or if it was just really, really awesome in accompaniment with the Nutella. Because I'll eat a brick if you smear enough Nutella on it. I loved the sandwich cookie, thats for sure. My kids even loved them--so score on that one. (I ate quite a few, rationalizing that since the cookie was almost fat-free, spreading it thickly with the creamy chocolate wasn't that bad for me.) I have to tinker with this filling, though, perhas adding a bit of powdered sugar--the texture was odd whan I mixed them together. Maybe I just didn't mix them enough.
I didn't get the "feet" that are supposed to be a trademark with this cookie. Although I did learn that unless you grease even your silicone mat, they'll stick. Because I technically failed at this challenge, I do want to repeat it soon. I might use Tartelettes' recipe, though it starts with an Italian meringue, which is hot sugar syrup poured into whites, so it's essentally cooked before you bake it. I am sure I'll get a much dfferent shape and texture, so I am excited to try.
Besides, I have half a jar of Nutella left to go through.

Beautiful Burger Buns

At least, that's what King Arthur Flour calls them. I happen to agree--they're pretty damn good, actually, if a little difficult to photograph.
I was all ready with my biga to make the Italian bread in my Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge, when I ran out of time. (Shocking.) Then, I decided making burger buns would actually be easier than taking little three boys to the grocery store--yep, it actually is. The light bulb went off over my head, and I decided to incorporate my ready-to-go biga into the buns. Any time you can add any kind of starter you're guaranteed a lighter texture, more open crumb, and tender bread. Perfect for burger buns, which I like soft and squishy.
A biga, in case you're new to bread-baking, is a simple starter for yeast bread that is usually around 50% hydration. This means that there's half as much water in relation to flour--50g water to 100g flour, for instance. It's fairly stiff, but still quite sticky. Bigas have no salt (like their cousin the pate fermentee, or "old dough") but are kneaded fairly well prior to their rest. My biga is adapted from the Bread Baker's Apprentice, and is a pretty standard one. If you'd like to have more for another project, just increase the amounts evenly, so that the percentage stays the same. You don't need to use more than 1/4 tsp or so of yeast, though--I just used a very small amount.

I also make a version of these with no starter--check out my Honey Wheat Burger Buns.

Biga:
100g all-purpose flour
50g water
1/16th tsp instant yeast
Mix all ingredients together, and knead about 5 minutes, til dough is a little elastic. Place in an oiled bowl and leave at room temperature for 2 hours. Refrigerate overnight, and remove 1 hour prior to use.

Dough:
6.25 oz (175g) warm water
50g honey
1 egg
1 1/4 tsp salt
2 3/4 tsp instant yeast
2 tbsp (1 ounce) melted butter
350g all-purpose flour
50g white wheat flour
1 1/4 tsp kosher salt

Place warm water, yeast, honey, egg, and butter in mixer bowl. Break biga into small pieces, and add to mixture. Stir for a few minutes to loosen the biga. Allow to sit for 5 minutes.
Place dough hook on, if using stand mixer. Turn on low speed, and slowly add salt, and flours. Mix until a dough ball forms, and then increase to medium-low. Knead for 6-7 minutes, adding more flour by tablespoon if necessary to get a dough ball that is smooth, tacky, and clings just slightly to the bowl when the mixer is off. The dough should completely clear the bottom of the bowl when the mixer is on. Dough should pass windowpane test.
Return to oiled bowl, cover, and let rise about an hour, til doubled in size.
Deflate risen dough gently. Divide into 8 pieces (more or less depending on size desired) and shape into balls. Flatten slightly until an inch thick and about 3-4 inches across. Place on a greased sheet pan, and brush with melted butter. Cover and let rise another hour, til very puffy.
Preheat oven to 375. Bake buns (brushed with egg wash and sprinkled with sesame seeds, if desired) for 12-15 minutes, til golden. A thermometer should read about 195-200 degrees. Let cool about 30 minutes before slicing and serving.
My son declared these were "the best", and asked if I could make them every time we had burgers. This from the kid who complains about everything I put in front of him and never eats his bun--so you know they were tasty! Buttery, light, and definitely soft and squishy. My new favorite.

This post submitted to Yeast-Spotting.