Fall into Holiday Baking (aka How to Avoid Holiday Stress)

I started seeing Christmas decorations in the stores in August this year (i.e. craft stores in particular), which is pretty ridiculous in my opinion. I am definitely against Christmas commercialization by retailers, especially months before the holidays, but there are instances when it pays to get an early start for the holidays. And I'm talking about the annual baking extravaganza I perform every year. I know, I don't HAVE to do it, but as long as I can continue along with it and I feel up for it, I just keep on going.

I tend to stress out when I start my holiday baking, probably because I wait too close to the holidays to start it (usually right after Thanksgiving which is not enough time to bake, pack and mail out cookies). This year I promised it would be different. Here is it, the 3rd week of October and I am gearing up. Leaves are starting to turn here in Northern VA and I am making Christmas cookies! I have a few favorites I always make; this year I will continue that tradition and maybe try a few different ones too. But for sure, I will finish my baking before the end of the month, or the first week of November at the latest, and have them in the freezer so I can take them out the night before and start the packing and mailing.

One of my "Go To" cookbooks for holiday cookie baking is Rose's Christmas Cookies by Rose Levy Beranbaum.

 I have several recipes in this baking book I make for the holidays, including Lora Brody's Rugelach, which is a favorite of my family's and friends. But to start, I am making another favorite called Pecan Tassies. I have modified the recipe ever so slightly to save time....I use refrigerated pie dough from the grocery store, it is so much easier than making the cream cheese dough in the book. I just roll it out and cut it using a 2 1/8" round scalloped cookie cutter (another variation from the book; she rolls the dough into a ball and presses it into the muffin tin). I think the scalloped edge gives the cookie a more finished edge and looks a lot prettier. In the book, there is an option for adding a chocolate lace topping. Although I love chocolate, I think these are sweet enough without it, and of course I save a bit of time not adding it (especially when you are making 10-12 other varieties of cookies).

Based on PECAN TASSIES by Rose Levy Beranbaum, Copyright 1990 by Cordon Rose Inc.

Makes approximately 4 dozen tassies.

Equipment:
mini muffin tins (I used Wearever non stick, 2 tbsp capacity
round or scalloped cookie cutter,  2 1/8" or so

For the pastry:

I used Pillsbury Pie Crust
 
For the filling:
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1/2 cup golden refiner's syrup or dark corn syrup (I used Karo, but recommend Lyle's Golden Syrup if you can find it)
1/3 cup (firmly packed) dark brown sugar
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Pinch salt
1 cup pecan pieces or coarsely chopped pecans

Slightly roll out the pie crust pastry and cut circles out with the cookie cutter.

Just plain store bought pie crust pastry will do fine.

 

Roll slightly and cut out circles.

 

Lift the pie crust dough up and you have your circles. Roll the extra dough out and repeat.

Place the pastry circles in the mini muffin tins. I use the handle of a wooden spoon to slightly press the dough circle into the muffin tin and against the sides. If the dough be­comes too soft to hold its shape, refrigerate it briefly.  Be careful not to let the tin show through as the filling will stick to it. Set muffin tins on cookie sheets and refrigerate them while making the filling.

Place 1 oven rack in the middle of the oven. Preheat oven to 350°F. In a medium bowl, combine the filling ingredients except for the pecans and stir them together un­til well blended. Stir in the pecans. Spoon about 1 heaping tea­spoon of filling into the pastry, filling it but not touching any ex­posed area of the tin.

Ready for the oven.

 Bake for 25-30 minutes or until set but still soft in the centers.

For even baking, rotate the cookie sheet from front to back halfway through the baking period. Allow the tassies to cool on the cookie sheets on wire racks. The tassies unmold more easily when cool.

Allow the tassies to cool slightly and they will just slip out of the pan.

Store: In an airtight container at room temperature. Keeps: 2 weeks at room temper­ature.  These freeze beautifully!

Finally got a decent stacking cooling rack (by Wilton).

I want to eat all of them!

What is your favorite cookie to bake for the holidays?

My notes:

As you fill the mini muffin cups up, after a while you might notice the liquid filling becoming a little lacking in chopped pecans, you can add more pecans as you go to make sure each tin has a nice amount of chopped pecans in the sticky liquid).

I use a silicone baking mat on the bottom and a piece of waxed paper on the top when rolling the dough.

I brush the inside of the muffin tins with a dry pastry brush between batches just to make sure each tin is nice and clean from crumbs.

I got 32 pastry circles from one circle of pie dough. Yield from 2 batches  of the recipe was 8 1/2 dozen.

Don't overfill! The filling puffs up.

These look really pretty when you put them in a holiday-themed mini cupcake case.

Try not to eat too many of these while you are baking! Somehow I only ate two, I was trying to be good.

An Encounter with Jamie and a Bread Pud Recipe

I have been trying to find something different to do with the bananas that my husband asks me to always buy, but then ends up not eating. I am SO over banana bread and banana muffins. But how about this recipe for Bailey's and Banana Bread and Butter Pudding  I stumbled across while thumbing through Jamie's Kitchen cookbook by Jamie Oliver? 

I was lucky enough to meet Jamie Oliver many years ago when I was working for the Navy during a trip Miami. One of my co-workers and I went to lunch at the News Cafe in South Beach, and our waiter pointed him out to me. The waiter said I should go up and ask him for his autograph. I figured what the heck, all he can do is say no! In fact, Jamie was quite nice and his wife was with him and she saw my camera hanging from my purse and offered to take our picture together.

My encounter with Jamie Oliver at South Beach, FL, 2005

And I walked away with an autograph too.

Baileys and Banana Bread and Butter Pudding

Adapted from:  Jamie's Kitchen, A cooking Course for Everyone
                           by Jamie Oliver
                           Copyright 2002

Serves about 6 
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Ingredients:

1/2 a loaf pre-sliced white bread, crusts removed (I used an artisan Italian bread. I think 
  brioche or Panettone would work very well or any kind of "egg" bread).
4 tbsp butter, softened
 1 c  sugar plus 1 tbsp for sprinkling
seeds from 1 vanilla bean (I used 2 tsp vanilla bean paste)
4 large eggs
2 1/4 cups heavy cream
2  cups skim milk
1/2 c of Bailey's Irish Cream
4 bananas
1/2 c pecans
1/2 c mini chocolate chips
confectionery sugar for dusting, if desired

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Lightly butter the bread on one side, then cut each piece in half diagonally.
Whisk the sugar, vanilla seeds and eggs together in a large bowl until well combined, then pour in the cream, milk and Bailey's and continue whisking until smooth. Peel and roughly slice the bananas, then roughly bash up the pecans and chocolate, if using.

Rub the inside of a baking dish (roughly 25cm x 30cm) with a little butter, then layer up the bread (butter-side up), bananas, pecans and chocolate, if using, finishing with a final layer of bread (again butter-side up). Drizzle over the Baileys and custard mixture, then leave to stand for around 20 minutes, or until the bread begins to soak up the liquid. I did have leftover liquid, I should have stuck it in the freezer and made it into ice cream!

Layered buttered bread, bananas, pecans and chocolate chips.

Bailey's and egg custard mixture.

Ready for the oven after bread soaks up all the goodness.

Bake in the hot oven for around 35 minutes, or until set around the edges but still wobbly in the middle. I found it needed more time, I ended up baking it for about 50 minutes. I think maybe because I used a deep (souffle) dish.

 

 
Remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly, then serve as is. You can sprinkle some caster sugar over the top and blast with a pastry blowtorch to caramelize the top. I imagine you could also just place it under a broiler for a minute to get the same effect. Delicious served with vanilla ice cream. Instead, I made whipped vanilla cream and sprinkled it with chocolate chips to finish. Now I think I should have added some more Bailey's to that whipped cream!

Heavenly!

Great to make for a  pot luck for sure!

A recipe is a big hit when my husband has two helpings of it! This is a very satisfying dessert and will hit the spot, not to mention something different to do with ripe bananas! Enjoy!

Not Your Mama's Grilled Ham and Cheese!

My favorite lunch when in Paris is a Croque Madame. Basically this is the French version of a grilled ham and cheese sandwich, called a Croque Monsieur, with a twist. But it is oh-so-much better than our American grilled ham and cheese sandwich!

The Croque Madame is a Croque Monsieur sandwich topped with a fried egg. Picture two slices of toasted buttered bread surrounding ham and gruyere cheese and a little Dijon mustard,  covered in a cheesy Bechamel sauce,  popped under a grill until the sauce is golden and bubbling, with a fried egg on top. So delicious! 

Croque Madame, frites, salad, and a glass of French red wine. Perfect lunch!

I decided to try this version of the Croque Madame from Rachel Khoo. It is an easy way to experience the French déjeuner.

Croque Madam Muffins

Adapted from The Little Paris Kitchen, 120 Simple but Classic French Recipes
Rachel Khoo, Copyright 2012, Chronicle Books 

This recipe uses the bread as a muffin cup to hold the cheese sauce and egg. 
Preparation time: 20 minutes, Baking time 15-20 minutes.

Ingredients:

For the cheese sauce -

1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp all purpose flour
3/4 c plus 1 tbsp milk, lukewarm
1/2 tsp Dijon mustard
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 cup grated Gruyere cheese
salt and pepper

Melt the butter over low heat and add the flour and mix till you have a smooth paste. Take off the heat and let cool for 2 minutes, then gradually add the milk, beating constantly. Place the pan over medium heat and add the mustard and nutmeg and gently simmer for 10 minutes, stirring frequently to prevent the sauce from burning on the bottom of the pan. Once the sauce thickens, remove from the heat and add the cheese (reserving a little bit for the garnish). Season to taste with salt and pepper. If sauce is too thick, add a little milk.

For the sandwich - 

6 slices of white bread, crusts removed
3 tbsp butter, melted
2 1/2 oz ham cut into cubes of thin strips
6 small eggs

To assemble the sandwiches, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Flatten the slices of bread with a rolling pin, then brush both sides with melted butter.  Line a 6 cup muffin tin with the slices of bread, pressing the bread down with a small glass.

Divide the ham between the muffin cups followed by the eggs (if the eggs seem too big, pour a little of the white away before using). 

Put 2 tbsp of the sauce on top of each egg, then sprinkle with some of the reserved cheese and salt and pepper. Bake for 15-20 minutes depending on how runny you like your eggs. Serve immediately.

I served the Croque Madames for supper with Two-Way Potato-Leek Soup from yesterdays' blog.

It was a hit with my husband, so that means "Thumbs Up"!

It's Souper Tuesday!

A simple and satisfying soup on a fall day is one of life's pleasures.  This is an easy recipe for a delicious potato leek soup that you can make in the slow cooker. It requires only a bit of chopping of the vegetables and then pureeing at the end of the cooking time. This is going to go well with the Croque Madam Muffins I am going to serve for dinner tonight.

The recipe is called Two-Way Potato-Leek Soup from The French Slow Cooker by Michele Scicolone. It's titled Two-Way Potato-Leek Soup because you can serve it either hot or cold. I am always looking for easy slow cooker recipes and this one fits the bill. This is a rather complete cookbook of recipes from soups to desserts, including a chapter on souffles, quiches and other egg dishes you can make in a slow cooker.

Recipe based on Two-Way Potato-Leek Soup

The French Slow Cooker
Michele Scicolone
Copyright 2012 


Ingredients:

2 medium onions, sliced
2 medium leeks, trimmed, well washed and sliced
4 medium boiling potatoes, cleaned and sliced (I used Honey Gold)
4 cups broth (store bought okay); chicken broth, vegetable broth, or water. (I prefer to use chicken broth).
4 cups water
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1/2 cup heavy cream

In a large slow cooker, combine the onions, leeks, potatoes, broth and water. Add salt and pepper to taste. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours, or until the vegetables are tender. 

Let cool slightly. Transfer the soup to a blender or use an immersion blender to puree until smooth. Stir in the cream and taste for seasoning, adjust as necessary.  Serve hot or chill completely and serve cold.

Makes 6 servings.

Some variations:  

Serve hot or cold with chopped chives and a drizzle of creme fraiche or heavy cream. 

Serve hot topped with crumbly bacon or hot topped with crumbled blue cheese.

Some people may not know the proper way to clean leeks. It's easy! Click here.

You will love the velvety texture and flavor of this versatile soup, serve it cold in the summer or hot on chilly days.




 

The Little Paris Kitchen

The little Paris kitchen...yes, the kitchens are quite small in Paris (at least at the apartments I've rented there). But the amazing thing about Paris kitchens is, they may be small, but they have everything one can need. Take for instance, the little kitchen in my recently rented apartment on rue Broca, about a five minute walk to the lively rue Mouffetard (where one can walk on old cobblestones to fruit and vegetable stalls, butcher, charcuterie and cheese shops, confectioners, wine shops, boulangeries bursting with baguettes, croissants, sweet rolls and sandwiches, patisseries with tarts, cakes, macarons, cookies  and everything else you can imagine sweet).

Here is my little Paris kitchen:

This tiny space has everything you need to cook a gourmet meal!

 I was looking through the French cookbook section at my local library and I saw this book, The Little Paris Kitchen by Rachel Khoo.  After earning a degree in Art and Design, Rachel Khoo decided to follow her passion and she earned a pastry degree from Le Cordon Bleu. She has worked as a pastry chef, taught classes, wrote cookbooks, has her own tv show, and writes food columns, just to mention a few; she is just an overall amazing culinary star.

I recommend you visit her web page, Rachel Khoo. She also has two shows on the Cooking Channel, Rachel Khoo's Kitchen Notebook: London and Little Paris Kitchen: Cooking with Rachel Khoo.

This recipe in the book is called Boeuf bourguignon avec des quenells de baguettes (Burgandy beef with baguette dumplings). I did not make the dumplings (but wanted to). I was just too lazy to run to the store to get a loaf of French bread. Plus it needs to be somewhat stale. Next time I will make the dumplings  because I am sure they are yummy.

Boeuf Bourguignon 
Adapted from The Little Paris Kitchen, 120 Simple but Classic French Recipes
Rachel Khoo, Copyrigh 2012, Chronicle Books

2 lbs stew beef cut in 6 or so big chunks
3-4 tbsp all purpose flour

2 tbsp vegetable oii
5 oz bacon, cubed
10 button onions or shallots
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 bay leaf
a bunch of flat leaf parsley stalks
1 sprig each of thyme and rosemary
3 cloves (missing these, so I used about 1/8 tsp ground cloves)
10 peppercorns, crushed
2 c red wine
1 1/4 c water
1 tbsp tomato paste (out of this too, so I substituted ketchup)
pinch of sugar

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Dust the meat with  2 tbsp of the flour.

Heat the oil in a Dutch oven or oven-proof casserole over high heat and saute the meat in batches till brown. Remove each batch, then fry the bacon, onions, garlic, herbs and spices in the same pan until golden brown.

Return the meat to the pan and add the wine, water, tomato paste and sugar, scraping up the caramelized bits to add flavor. Cover, place in the oven and cook for 3 hours or until the meat is tender and almost falling apart.

Use something more hearty than this young wine (what I had on hand).

About 20 minutes before the meat was ready, I added cleaned button mushroom caps, baby white potatoes and blanched pearl onions.

Smelling good!

Served with a crusty baguette (or Red Lobster cheese biscuits in my case) this is a delicious and hearty one pot meal. If you want to, make the stew the day before serving to let the flavors develop. I was too impatient!

The sauce is very very delicious. Would be even better had I used a good burgandy wine!

You don't even need to thicken the sauce as it is just perfect having cooked and reduced over 3 hours of cooking. How easy! This is the perfect stew for a chilly fall evening. Add a nice green salad and a bottle of French red.  Fabulous!




 

The French Connection

I recently (Sunday) returned from a trip to France (Paris) and Germany (Stuttgart), and while trying to get back into the swing of things here in the US, I have been suffering from some serious French patisserie and confectionery withdrawal.

Luckily, before I left, I ordered a copy of À la Mère de Famille ("the mother of the family") from Amazon.  À la Mère de Famille is Paris' oldest sweet shop (founded in 1761) and has been in business for over 250 years. It has multiple locations in Paris and most recently, published their French cookbook in English.

 The cookbook features cakes and pastries, chocolates, candy making, jams and spreads, syrups, cookies, tuiles and meringues, frozen treats and candied fruits.

This is one of the easiest and quickest cookie recipes you can make, as it only requires 4 ingredients!

How easy can this be?

Almond croquants (croquant means "crunchy) are a crunchy almond and egg white cookie. The resulting baked cookie is a light, chewy, and (obviously) crunchy delight. 

Ooh la la!

You can add a bit of citrus zest or flavor the cookie batter with orange flower water, as suggested by the book, or you could also dip or drizzle the cookie in chocolate. I left these naked, but definitely will make them again with the above variations.

My take...as stated in the book, 10 minutes prep time, 15 minutes to bake...5 stars!

Recipe based on: Almond Croquants by À la Mère de Famille, Recipes from the Beloved Parisian Confectioner by  Julien Merceron, Chronicle Books, 2014 (English version).

Ingredients:
2 egg whites
1 c plus 2 tbsp sugar
1/3 c plus 1 tbsp all purpose flour
1 1/4 c sliced almonds

Adjust the oven racks to the upper and lower-middle position and preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cover baking sheets with parchment paper or use a silicone baking pad.

Batter: In a large bowl, add the sugar to the egg whites with a spatula. Sift in the flour. Gently fold in the almonds, being careful not to break them.

Careful, do not break the almonds!

 Using a tablespoon, place mounds of batter on the cookie sheet 2" apart.

I probably could have spaced these better.

Bake for 15 minutes until golden (my oven is quite accurate, but I only baked these for 13 minutes). Let cool before removing from baking sheet.

The recipe says the yield is 30 cookies; I used a tablespoon to measure and got 20 cookies. Perhaps I needed to level the tablespoon off a bit?

Sweet!

Perfect with a cup of café crème in one of my café au lait bowls found at the
Le marche aux Puces de Vanves (one of the flea markets) during my trip to Paris.

Reminds me of Paris.

This is a great recipe to make if you want easy preparation and quick gratification! 

If you have a chance, be sure to check out the blog, Paris Breakfasts. My best friend and I were lucky to meet Carol Gillott, the author of this blog, on our trip to Paris. Carol is a very talented watercolorist and she writes and paints about her life and adventures (especially food) in Paris. My friend and I were recently mentioned in her blog when we introduced her to City Pharma (a mecca for French beauty products) and when she introduced us to Les Deux Magots. You can read all about it here.





 

Have Your Cake and Eat a Cookie Too!

I have so many cookbooks, I have been trying to downsize. I will occasionally go through my collection and purge ones that I don't really use or need. This past cycle, I downsized most all of my cookbooks that did not have pictures (I am a visual person) and also alot of cake cookbooks because I have too many. During another purge, I got rid of most all of my paperback ones. If I can't sell them on Craigslist or a local yard sale Facebook page, I take them into my favorite used bookstore and trade them in for store credit. Yes, I ultimately end up using this store credit for MORE cookbooks, but I have become very particular about what I buy. It has to be a fantastic cookbook. Generally, I find myself gravitating towards international cookbooks or specific special interest cookbooks. Occasionally, I will find a potential cookbook, and then after rummaging through it, see that I am only interested in one recipe. So...this happened to me yesterday and instead of buying this cookbook I took a picture of the recipe. Does it seem unethical to do this, I wonder? Maybe. But I did it nontheless (and I did end up spending all my store credit, except for $1.87, which I gave to the person in the line behind me). You can see what I ended up with at the end of this entry.

Today's recipe I am sharing is called  Coconut Macaroon Cake  and comes from SAVOUR: Easy Stylish Entertaining by Mark Hirchowitz, Estelle Sacharowitz and Karen Alsfine.

I could have bought the book for only $10 (it was in like new condition) at the used book store and then resold it on Amazon (it starts at $21.86 used) but I really didn't want to be bothered. What drew me to this recipe was the picture.

Bootleg picture. Sorry for the poor quality.

Oh, it looked good! Picture a pretty yellow layer of pound cake covered on top with a golden, crunchy coconut macaroon topping. It looked too good not to try. So on the way home I stopped and got the necessary ingredients and made it that very same night. Here it is!

Coconut Macaroon Cake (adapted from Savour, Random House Struik, January 12, 2012).

Bottom layer:

175 g (6.2 oz) butter, softened
3/4 c. sugar
1 1/2 cake flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
4 egg yolks (reserve the whites for the top layer)
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 c whole milk

Top Layer:

4 egg whites
3/4 c sugar
2 1/4 c. desiccated coconut

1. Preheat oven to 356 degrees. Grease and flour a tube pan. (I think you could also use a round cake pan at least 3" high and 8" in diameter).

2. For the bottom layer, cream the butter and sugar. I used a hand mixer for this.

3.  In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and salt.

I have a flour sifter, but find a plain old sifter works the best .

 4.  Fold the dry ingredients into the butter mixture.

5.  Add the egg yolks, vanilla and milk alternately.

6. Spread the mixture in the bottom of the cake pan. Note: Try note to eat the cake batter, though it is quite delicious!

7.  Beat the egg whites till stiff (I used my bowl mixer for this). Gradually add the sugar. Then fold in the coconut by hand. Spread this on top of the cake batter.

Beat egg whites until stiff.

Coconut topping.

Ready and in the oven.

8. Bake in the oven for 5 minutes, then turn the oven down to 320 degrees. Cook another 45 minutes or until the coconut  is crisp. I baked it for about 38 minutes.

9.  Let cool, then remove from pan (I used the old trick of placing a plate on top of the cake pan, then flipping over the cake pan, then using another plate to upright the cake).

 10. Goes great with a berry coulis and/or whipped cream.

 Notes:

For some reason, this book starts out with the weight of the butter in grams (the publisher is from South Africa, so this probably why). I have a scale, so it was not problem for me. But for those of you who don't, 6.2 oz butter is a little over 1 1/2 sticks of butter. Nothing else in the original recipe is in grams.

The odd temperature of 356 F is because the recipe says to pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees Celcius. I converted it to Fahrenheit and also converted the final baking temperature of 320 degrees F (the recipe calls for 160 degrees C).

I am lazy when it comes to cracking eggs, and I don't want to take a chance and mess things up so I usually use my trusty egg separator:

Foolproof method to separate eggs

 For the cake flour I used this:

Now, you may ask, why use cake flour and not all purpose flour? On Joy of Baking it says that cake flour has 6-8% protein and is made only from soft wheat which is also bleached versus all-purpose flour which has 10-12% protein and is made from hard and soft wheat. Cake flour is good for making cakes and cookies where a tender and delicate texture is require. If you don't have cake flour on hand and want to proceed with this recipe, you can use this recipe for making your own cake flour.

 Dessicated coconut:

Desiccated coconut is coconut meat which has been shredded or flaked and then dried to remove as much moisture as possible. I used Let's Do Organic 100% Shredded Coconut Unsweetened). The recipe didn't say whether to use sweet or unsweetened, but I though using sweet would just be too much.

How much is a pinch? It's this (smile):

This is really an easy recipe. The cake is very light and airy and the contrasting crunch and chewiness of the coconut topping is really delightful. If you make a berry sauce to go with it, or perhaps drizzle some chocolate on the top it would make a very impressive dessert for family or friends. If you take this to a dinner party, I guarantee it will be a hit! And I can't see any reason why you can't have it for breakfast either (like I just did). If you love coconut macaroon cookies, you will love this cake!

Here are the cookbooks I bought with my store credit:

Should be named "Macarons" not "Macaroons". I cannot have too many macaron cookbooks (my 6th).

You can never have too many doughnut cookbooks either!

I am a sucker for holiday cookbooks. This is from the French chefs of La Madeline Restaurant.

I don't have any cookbooks on cheese making , now I do. Subject of next blog?

One last question....have you ever take any pictures of recipes in a bookstore? Is it "stealing"? Am I bad?