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Quince and Pear Sauce – Just in time for Chanuka

December 22, 2011 at 11:06 am | Posted in apple, Fruit, holiday, pear, quince | Leave a comment
Tags: apple sauce, chanuka, hannukah, latkes, quince sauce

This time I am going to be organized. I am going to post the holiday recipe before the holiday before the holiday is over, so that all you people can actually use it .

Recently I found myself with some quinces in my fridge. They were sending “Eat Me” messages and I really didn’t want them to go to waste. On top of that, I have been feeling rather lazy lately and all I want to do when I get home from work is – nothing. Yup, that’s right people, nothing. I just went through a crazy busy time at work while I covered for the two department heads (congrats to both – one on a baby girl and the other on getting married!) and after working anywhere between 10 and 15 hours a day – all I want to do is, yes you guessed it, nothing.

Chunky fruit sauce

Working against this force of laziness is Rocker Dude. Well, not exactly against it so much as diverting it to laziness of another sort. He keeps loading up episodes of our favorite tv shows on the computer for me to watch. We are trying to catch up on Chuck and keeping updated with The Big Bang Theory. And best of all, now that Shabbat ends early enough to actually do something afterwards, we have been watching movies again Saturday night. The other week, Rocker Dude sat me down and told me that it was time for me to watch Captain America. As our house is full of comic books, and Rocker Dude’s goal in life is to one day own all comic-related movies, it was obvious that when Captain America came out in the summer, he would be the first in line to see it. Well he wasn’t the first, but he made sure to see it shortly after it came out. I feel less strongly about seeing movies in theaters (it’s kind of a waste of money) so I waited until we had a copy of it before I saw it. Rocker Dude downloaded a copy (oh no he didn’t!) and has been waiting for a while to be able to watch it with me. Apparently now was the time.

I decided to not waste time (for once) and take advantage of the time that we would spend watching the movie. I took the two quinces that were getting old and lonely in the fruit bin and the red pear that was not quite sweet enough to be appetizing.

Quinces are notoriously hard to deal with – they are really hard – like a pain in the neck to cut and peel – and you can’t eat them without cooking them first. But, due to the fact that these quinces were a bit old, they had softened and I could peel them and cut them off the core pretty easily.

I cut the quinces up into chunks and threw them into a saucepan (I know, boiling on the fire is not technically baking, but it ends up as a dessert so it counts.) I peeled and cut up the pear and threw that in the pot. Added some water and boiled the fruit.

Then I sat down to watch Captain America.

About halfway through the movie (around the part where the Red Skull is revealing his plan to destroy the world) I remembered that the fruit was simmering on the fire. Whoops.

I quickly took it off the fire, drained out some of the extra liquid and mashed everything up. I guess if I was less lazy I could have thrown it all in the food processor and gotten a much smoother sauce, but again, lazy.

I added some cinnamon and some agave syrup (keep the glucose levels down). Then I let the sauce cool until after the movie was over.

Captain America saved the day but was frozen in a glacier and my fruit sauce was awesome.

So for all you people who are planning on having plain old boring apple sauce with their latkes this year during Chanukah – we at the Casa de la Smoj will be indulging in a different condiment this year. (If I have time to make more, I already ate the first batch. What? It was really small!)

Little Rocker the Chanuka Candle (from her preschool party).

Recipe (from what was left in my refrigerator):

fruit from the apple/pear family (apples (not red delicious), pears of different sorts, asian pears, quinces, etc.)
water for boiling
cinnamon
agave syrup or honey or brown sugar
nutmeg (optional)
allspice (optional)
cardamom (optional)

Peel and cut all the fruit into big chunks. Put them into a saucepan with enough water to come halfway up the pile of fruit. Boil for a while until everything is soft. Drain some of the water (leave a bit so that you have an easier time mixing). Mash the fruit and add the agave syrup/brown sugar/honey. Start with a little bit and taste the mixture to make sure that it is not too sweet. Then add the nutmeg, and/or allspice and/or cardamom. It’s probably a good idea to add some salt too, so that the flavor really pops.

Let it cool and then eat with your favorite latkes!

P.S. I made version 2.0 with quinces, pears, Jonathan apples and Yellow Delicious apples this week. Added some cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg and cloves. After cooking the fruit I blended it all with an immersion blender to make a smooth sauce – yum!

Apple Cranberry Pie

October 30, 2011 at 3:44 pm | Posted in apple, cranberry, Fruit, Pie | 5 Comments
Tags: apple, cranberry, pie, sukkot, thankgiving

I know it is a bit late, but I promised you all Apple-Cranberry Pie. So here it is. I had intended to make it for Sukkot, but transporting a pie on the bus to be eaten a few days later is just not a good idea. So I made it for Shabbat last week and it was delish.

Apple-Cranberry Pie

The reason it has taken me so long to make this pie is because we have been busy over Sukkot and just now are getting back to normal. Also, now that the holidays are over, people have come back from their travels overseas and we can see them again.

We spent most of the holiday in Jerusalem at Rocker Dude’s parents because they have a big sukkah and holidays are about family right? (Yes, yes, and food).

Being based in Jerusalem does have it’s advantages, though most of the attractions are outside the city. We spent Shabbat of Sukkot in Beit Shemesh at our friends’ parents and had a great time there. Thanks so much W.’s! The Little Rocker especially loved the little fish pond outside the house and had so much fun deciding which fish belonged to which families. (Because every family has a father, mother and one baby right?) Then on Monday we went to the Monkey Park in Ben Shemen. I’m not sure who was more excited to go – Rocker Dude or the Little Rocker. Rocker Dude has always had a thing for monkeys and somehow he managed to pass it on to the Little Rocker. We obviously made sure to bring Momo, her constant simian companion, so that he could meet his cousins. There was a section at the end where 30-40 squirrel monkeys were running loose all around the people walking through and the Little Rocker made sure to lift up Momo so that he could meet all those little monkeys. She was most excited when she saw a baby squirrel monkey riding piggy back on the mommy monkey – now she knows I’m not crazy when I want to carry her piggy back.

We spent the last day of Sukkot, actually Simchat Torah, at our friends in Ginot Shomron and had a wonderful time. The Little Rocker made sure to get her fair share of treats (though I have to admit that I hid most of them afterward when she wasn’t looking – saving them for prizes and things). There was even a small horse ranch outside the town and we took the Little Rocker to go and feed the horsies. She had a lot of fun, even if she fell down on a rock on the way and scraped her nose. And then we came back home – finally. It ain’t easy to be away for a week and living out of suitcases, but somehow we managed it.

We were invited out to friend’s for both Friday night and Shabbat lunch last week. Now that the Little Rocker is older and Shabbat comes in earlier, we can take her out at night and pretend that we have a life too . I was asked by H. to bring a dessert. Immediately I thought – “Apple-Cranberry Pie! This is my chance!” Now cranberries are usually a problem to find here in Israel as they are a cold weather fruit – something that doesn’t exist here (the weather I mean). When I looked at the recipe though, one of the comments made was that the filling had a lot of liquid and the author was worried that the crust would get soggy. So I decided that this would be a perfect opportunity to use dried cranberries – problem solved!

Instead of using the pie crust that came with the recipe , I used Dorie’s Good For Almost Anything pie crust recipe. I have used it before and we have an understanding. I will make a good filling for it and it will behave and stay light and flaky. It’s a mutually beneficial arrangement.

The cranberry layer

The hardest part for me is always making the crust. I love making pies and tarts but when I think about making the crust, all of a sudden I start getting lazy and I put off making whatever I was going to make. That’s the point when I rethink my plan of making a pie and start looking for one-step recipes that don’t require chilling. In my dream mansion (which will have a hover golf-cart so that we can get around all the land without messing up the gardens) I will have a huge freezer where I can make tons of pie dough and have it frozen in single-use size packages. Then I never have to feel lazy again. But until that magical future (hey – it could happen!) I just have to deal with what I have – i.e. a small freezer and no time. So last week, in order to prevent the Friday afternoon laziness, I made the crust dough on Thursday night. Go me! Advanced preparation – woo hoo! And then when I woke up on Friday morning, I had a crust that was ready to be rolled out and used.

The apple layer

I knew that H. and Y., well especially Y., like fruity desserts, so this pie would be perfect. The hardest part was waiting for the filling to cool before I could put it in the pie shell. I solved that problem by watching three episodes of Pan-Am. It is not such a bad show – kind of Mad Men-esque in that it takes place in the sixties and the characters do and say things that would get them sued today, but otherwise it is a lighter show. They don’t deal with some of the heavy things that Mad Men deals with. Of course, that may be because the show is only about 6 episodes in. Rocker Dude thinks that I only like fake shows, meaning shows that don’t make you think. But I ask you, does How I Met Your Mother really make you think? And besides, we watch Castle together and that makes you think, sort of. The point is, that by the time the three episodes were over, it was time to pick up the Little Rocker from nursery (her first day back after vacation) and when we came home, she helped me fill the pie and cover it with the top layer of dough. What a helper!

The pie baked really nicely and the crust came out nice and flaky and flavorful, even if I did use margarine instead of butter. Such is Jewish life.

Thanksgiving is coming up and I encourage everyone to try this pie for their Thanksgiving meal. It has the quintessential fall flavors of apple and cranberry and tastes delicious!

This recipe comes from Tracey of Tracey’s Culinary Adventures who took it from Cook’s Illustrated.

Recipe:

2 cups dried cranberries
1/4 cup apple or orange juice
1 cup (7 oz) sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup water
1 tablespoon cornstarch
3 1/2 pounds sweet apples (6-7 medium), peeled, cored & cut into 1/4″ thick slices
1 double crust pie dough (recipe here)
1 egg white, lightly beaten
1 tablespoon sugar in the raw

To make the cranberry filling: In a medium saucepan, combine the cranberries, juice, 1/2 cup sugar, 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the berries have plumped and absorbed almost all the liquid, about 10-12 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat, add the water, and let cool to room temperature, about 30 minutes.

To make the apple filling: In a large microwave-safe bowl, combine 1/2 cup sugar, 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon salt and cornstarch. Add the apples and toss to coat thoroughly. Microwave the apple mixture on high power for 8-10 minutes, stirring every 3 minutes with a rubber spatula, until the liquid is thick and glossy and the apples have started to turn translucent around the edges. Let the apple filling cool to room temperature. You can microwave the apples for less time if you want more of a bite to your filling. (Note: both fillings can be made up to 2 days ahead of time and refrigerated.)

While the fillings are cooling, preheat oven to 425 F. Place a rack in the lowest position and place a rimmed baking sheet on the rack. Roll one disk of dough into a 12-inch round on a floured surface. Line a 9-inch pie plate with the dough. Spread the cooled cranberry filling in the bottom of the dough-lined pie plate. Place the cooled apple filling on top of the cranberry layer, mounding it slightly in the center. Roll out the second disk of dough to a 12-inch round on a floured surface. Transfer it to the top of the pie plate. Use kitchen shears to cut through both layers of pie dough, leaving about 1/2-inch overhang. Fold the dough under itself so that the edge of the fold is flush with the outer rim of the pie plate. Use your fingers to create a fluted edge or use the tines of a fork to seal the dough. Brush the top and edges of the pie with the beaten egg white and sprinkle with the sugar in the raw. Use a sharp paring knife to cut slits in the top crust.

Bake the pie on the preheated baking sheet until the top is light golden brown, about 20-25 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 375 F and continue to bake until the crust is deep golden brown, about 25-30 minutes longer. Transfer the pie to a wire rack to cool for at least 2 hours before serving.

A Sweet Honey Cake for a Sweet New Year

October 10, 2011 at 10:40 pm | Posted in Cake, holiday, honey, rosh hashana, Uncategorized | Leave a comment
Tags: honey cake, rosh hashana

It is that time of year again. Rosh Hashana Yom Kippur and Sukkot – the fall holiday trilogy. We start with two days (except for this year when it was three) of honey cakes, pomegranates and apples in honey, spend one day fasting to make up for the intense food consumption (it totally does not make up for it – ask my scale) and then spend a week eating more honey related things, squashes and other fall favorites outside in our decorated mini-houses. Can you see the imbalance here? Too much food, hmm? Maybe we should throw in another fast day at the end or something. But then, we wouldn’t be real Jews if we didn’t eat our own weight in food during a holiday.

So in the spirit of the honey-drenched holiday, here is a honey cake recipe. I try new recipes every year looking for a moist, but not overly sweet version of the holiday favorite. Unfortunately Rocker Dude is not a fan of the honey cake and therefore will not help in taste testing. So no pre-gaming. We bake the cake for the actual holiday and hope for the best.

Honey Cake

Last year I made a honey cake that was loaded with liquid – juice and booze. It was delicious but a bit too sweet. So I searched the interweb and found another recipe that was purported to be lighter (due to whipped egg whites) and not too sweet. It was game time.

This cake is really easy to make – whip the egg whites first and then mix all the ingredients in a separate bowl. Fold egg whites into the other ingredients and bake. Even my mom would consider making this cake (my mom is a long-time champion of the one-bowl baking experience).

And the verdict: delicioso! (I have been watching waaaay too much Dora the Explorer.) Three days after baking, the cake was moist and light and not sticky. Two days after that it was just as good. There is still another week an a half before honey cake season ends for the year (it’s a very short season) – make this cake!

Honey Cake (from Allrecipes.com):

Ingredients

4 eggs, separated

3/4 cup white sugar

1 cup honey

1/3 cup vegetable oil

3 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

1/2 teaspoon ground allspice

3 teaspoons instant coffee granules

1 cup hot water

Directions

Mix coffee in hot water, and then cool.

Whip egg whites until stiff. Set aside.

In a large bowl, beat the yolks with the sugar until creamy. Add the oil and then the honey, beating after each addition. Beat until the mixture is smooth and creamy.

Sift and then measure 3 cups of flour. Combine with salt, baking powder, baking soda, and spices. Add these dry ingredients alternately with the coffee to the honey mixture, stirring only until blended. Do not overmix.

Fold egg whites into the batter in three additions. Pour into 2 greased 8 inch square pans, or one bundt pan.

Bake at 325 degrees F (165 degrees C) for 35 to 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of cake comes out clean.

The Best Checkerboard Cookies Ever!

September 16, 2011 at 12:57 pm | Posted in Chocolate, Cookies, sable, vanilla | 3 Comments
Tags: checkerboard, chocolate, Cookies, vanilla

The Little Rocker’s Birthday was this week and as a devoted mother I thought it my duty to make her a little party with the requisite birthday cake, etc. She actually had a party in preschool for which I brought a cake and goody bags, but we also decided to make a small thing at home for my friends (duh!). For this party, we decided to make cupcakes and checkerboard cookies.

The inspiration for the cookies came to me on Shabbat when I was browsing through the CIA cookbook Baking and Pastry with the Little Rocker. I saw the recipe for the checkerboard cookies and suddenly, the spirit moved me (a phrase my parents used to use when I wanted to bake). As the Little Rocker’s birthday party was coming up, it seemed an ideal opportunity to use the recipe.

Checkerboard Cookies

Let me tell you straight from the start – this recipe is a potchke- (Yiddish for a pain in the tuchus [Yiddish for behind]). Do not start it at 9 pm and expect to go to bed early! (I know this from personal experience.) But after tasting these cookies when they were done (at 12:30 at night) it was so worth it. This is basically a chocolate and vanilla sable cookie that melts in your mouth and could only be improved if I had used real butter instead of margarine.

The first thing I had to do was reduce the amounts in the recipe. This cookbook is really made for the professional pastry chef and the amounts correspond to that need. I don’t need 10 dozen cookies. All my hard work would go down the drain if all those cookies were lying around the house. I decided to cut the recipe in half to make life easier. Another fun difference in the cookbook is that all the amounts are listed in weights and not cups to make the measurements more precise (how many egg yolk is 227 grams?). So I decided that if the recipe would be professional then I would be professional and organize everything ahead of time – get my mise en place together before starting.

Here are the ingredients for the vanilla cookie dough:

Here are the ingredients for the chocolate cookie dough:

My mise was placed.

Notice that there is no leavening agent in either dough – no baking powder or baking soda – these cookies do not rise and that helps them stay together during baking.

Then you have to chill the dough until it is firm enough to roll out and not be sticky. I froze the divided dough to save time and went to shower and put the Little Rocker to bed – all hail multi-tasking!

Two dough squares, one vanilla and one chocolate.

The next step is to roll out the two chocolate rounds of dough and two of the vanilla rounds. Then brush water between the layers and gently press them together (vanilla, chocolate, vanilla, chocolate). And chill the dough again.

Brushing on the water,

and stacking the layers.

The next step is to slide the square of stacked doughs into thin long strips, cutting down through the layers. Then (I told you this was a potchke) stack the slices one on top of the other, flipping every other strip around so that the vanilla is on top of the chocolate, etc. (This is a lot clearer to see than to explain). I did three layers of strips, but I think you are supposed to be able to do four.

Stacks of alternating layers. Because the width of my layers was uneven, they colors were not 100% lined up.

Then (I’m telling you, these instructions just go on) chill the dough again. Meanwhile help your husband organize his comic books into the new comic book boxes that your brother almost violated by trying to pack up your parent’s house into them. These are also the same boxes that certain redheads that will remain unnamed, refused to take in her suitcase as she did not see the point of bringing empty boxes on a plane – see Certain Redhead, they are important!

After organizing a few hundred comics and opening up shelf space for hubbie’s new schoolbooks, go back to your chillin’ cookies (see how I made them cool there?)

Roll out the remaining frozen vanilla doughs into a thin rectangle. Lay one stack of layered strips on the vanilla dough and carefully roll it over so that the vanilla cookie dough covers the entire stack. Trim the excess and repeat with the other stacks of dough strips. I had extra vanilla dough (mostly because I did not divide the dough evenly into four sections – I probably should have done three sections? Not sure about that. Either way, I made a batch of regualr square vanilla sables with the leftover dough.

Now that your stacks are nicely stacked and wrapped and you are so proud of yourself for getting this far, you need to chill the dough again! By chance I happened to bake the scraps of the dough before the rest of it and I noticed that the dough melted into the pan and lost all its shape. It being already 11:15 or so, I was really hyper and started dancing around the kitchen before a weirded-out Rocker Dude trying to figure out what to do. Then it hit me – chill the dough! And with a fist pump and half-spin, I proceeded to put the cookies back in the refrigerator (my freezer was way too overpacked for this).

Ready to be baked.

After about 20 minutes, I took out the first stack and sliced it into cookies to be placed on the cookie sheet – another trick here – wipe off the knife after every slice to reduce the chocolate smearing into the vanilla – it’s not perfect but it helps a lot. Bake cookies for 15 minutes while preparing goody bags and washing the dinner dishes. Place on a cooling rack to chill again, and taste the most awesome cookies ever! The CIA sure does know how to bake!

Recipe (from Baking and Pastry: Mastering the Art and Craft):

Vanilla Dough:

501 g cake flour

400 g butter, cold, cut into small cubes

190 g confectioner’s sugar

pinch of salt

3 g orange zest, grated ( I used lemon)

113 g egg yolks (about 5)

5 mL vanilla extract

Chocolate Dough:

210 g cake flour

43 g cocoa powder

150 g butter, cold, cut into cubes

95 g confectioners’ sugar

1.5 g orange zest, grated ( I used lemon)

pinch of salt

55 g egg yolks (about 3)

2.5 mL vanilla extract

To make the vanilla dough, sift the flour. Cream together the butter, sugar, salt and orange zest in a mixer, about 8 minutes. Gradually add the egg yolks and vanilla, mixing until fully incorporated after each addition and scraping down as needed. Mix in the sifted flour until just incorporated.

Divide the vanilla dough into four pieces. Form each piece into a square and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate the dough until firm enough to roll (or freeze if you are in rush).

To make the chocolate dough, Sift the flour and cocoa powder together. Cream the butter, sugar, orange zest and salt together, about 6-8 minutes. Gradually add the egg yolks and vanilla, beating well after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Mix in the dry ingredients until just incorporated.

Divide the chocolate dough into two parts, form each into a square and refrigerate until firm enough to roll (or freeze).

On a lightly floured surface, roll out one piece of vanilla dough into a 6×4 inch rectangle that is about 1/4 inch thick. Set aside. Roll out a piece of the chocolate dough to the same dimensions. Brush the vanilla dough lightly with water and gently press the chocolate layer on top of the vanilla square. Repeat with another vanilla piece and another chocolate piece. You should have four layers all together.

Wrap the layered dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate or freeze until firm.

Trim the edges of the layered dough to even them out. Cut the square into stacks about 1/4 inch thick. Then 4 layers on top of each other (I did only three), alternating them so that the doughs form a checkerboard.

Roll out one piece on vanilla dough to about 1/8 inch thickness. Brush the vanilla dough with water and place one of the slacks on the dough. Gently roll up the vanilla dough around the stack, pressing lightly on each side so that the doughs stick together. Smooth the overlap and cut off the excess dough. Repeat with the remaining stacks.

Refrigerate all the stacks until firm. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F or 177 degrees C.

Slice each stack into cookies, about 1/4 inch thick, wiping down the knife between each slice. Place the cookies on a parchment paper lined cookies sheet and bake for about 15 minutes until lightly browned. Transfer to racks and cool completely.

Hello World! And a “healthier” option

August 24, 2011 at 8:17 pm | Posted in banana, millet | 2 Comments
Tags: banana bread, healthy, millet

Hello peeps! Remember me? So it’s been like, I don’t know, 8 months or so since my last post. All was going well until routine blood work showed high sugar (you can only guess where that came from). So after my mom scared me with insulin dependence I put a full stop to baking. Nada, nothing at all. And here we are – 25 pounds lighter with a better appreciation of how much I should eat versus how much I want to eat.

Not to say that I was unaware of what was healthy and unhealthy before, you couldn’t grow up in my house and not know (my mom swears by whole wheat and eats oatmeal for breakfast everyday – anything else is too sweet or salty), I just didn’t care. Young people think they will live forever right?

For a while, I thought about making this blog into a sugar-free or low glycemic index blog until I came to the realization that baking without sugar is just not worth it. Sometimes I wonder whether people who say that healthy baked goods are delicious, are just saying it and don’t actually believe it. Though, truth be told, I made Rocker Dude’s favorite cinnamon swirl cookies with Splenda and they came out delicious (really!).

I can’t promise that I will keep up a regular correspondence with you, world, but I will do my best and hope to post more delish things on a steady basis.

I was catching up on my favorite bloggers today and I saw Joy the Baker’s post about whole wheat millet banana bread. I love banana bread, though Rocker Dude hates anything flavored banana, besides bananas. I bought some millet a couple of months ago to try in a recipe (which failed – back to my healthy things can’t taste that good theory). I don’t want to throw it out because I am trying to be less wasteful in an effort to save money, but I had no idea what to do with millet. It is actually a seed (don’t tell Rocker Dude but it is most commonly found in birdseed – shhhh), but it has a lot of vitamins and good stuff so I wanted to use it. Joy has never steered me wrong before, so I had to try this recipe.

Organic Millet from the health food store.

The Little Rocker and I have been spending a lot of time together lately. Her daycare ended on August 8th and now she is home. The expectation in this country is that all parents will take off in August so there is no point in having daycare (or vice versa – it’s really a chicken and egg situation). Unfortunately, August is reporting season for second quarter earnings so I can’t take off, and Rocker Dude is trying to prepare for the coming school year, so he can’t entertain her too much. As a result, the Little Rocker has started joining me at work. She finds it really exciting, and I can keep her occupied with my endless supply of highlighters and Post-its. Also, having the Wonderpets on the laptop doesn’t hurt at all.

The Little Rocker at work. I hope we have stock in the Post-it industry.

Usually, after lunch, I bring her to meet Rocker Dude (living 15 minutes from the office has its perks) and then he takes her home for her nap. Unfortunately every time I send her off she starts crying and wants to stay longer with me. It practically breaks my heart, though I know she is exhausted and will calm down in a few minutes. So when I come home from work I want to make up for that. Today I came home and told her that we would be making cake together. She got very excited – two of her favorite things, cooking/baking and cake. Lately she has been a real help in the kitchen. I recently taught her how to peel (without going near her fingers obviously) and she peeled all the carrots for the chicken soup on Thursday night. So tonight, she did the mixing. She helped me pour everything in and mix it up. When I got the banana bread in the oven, she immediately asked to eat it (I guess they don’t teach physics to 2 year olds).

Healthy Mush

After getting ready for bed, we both sampled the banana bread and I have to say that Joy was right – this is delicious! You don’t even taste the millet at all, it just adds a bit of crunch.

Whole Wheat Millet Banana Bread

Here is the recipe from her site. Now don’t all go assuming that I will be posting only healthy options on this blog, I still think that healthy foods are just not as good, but I will try!

Whole Wheat Millet Bread (from Joy the Baker):

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly

1/2 cup canola or vegetable oil

1 cup light brown sugar, packed

1/2 cup granulated sugar

4 large eggs

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

3/4 cup buttermilk

4 medium bananas, mashed

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 cup raw millet, rinsed

Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour two 8×4 inch loaf pans and set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together butter, oil, sugars, and eggs. Beat until thoroughly incorporated. Whisk in the vanilla, buttermilk, and mashed bananas. Set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together flours, salt, baking soda, and cinnamon. Stir in millet. Create a well in the center of the dry ingredients. Carefully pour the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients. Use a spatula to fold the batter together.

Divide the batter between the two prepared baking pans. Bake for about 1 hour, or until a skewer inserted into the center of the bread comes out clean. Remove from oven and allow to cool in the pan for 15 minutes before inverting onto a wire rack to cool completely. Banana bread will last, well wrapped at room temperature, for up to five days.

Back to Baking – Maple Tuiles

December 8, 2010 at 8:42 am | Posted in Cookies | Leave a comment
Tags: maple, tuesdays with dorie, tuile

I know everyone, it has been quite a while since I last posted. Blame it all on the companies who have to report their third quarter earnings. Hey, it’s not my choice to work 11 hours a day! Why does every company in the world have to do it all at the same time??? Oh wait, I think there is some international law about that. Oh well. Either way, the month of November has been a bit crazy and I haven’t had time to bake, let alone blog about it. I hope that you loyal readers have not yet given up on me, I will provide sweetness and happiness for all!

But in order to get back on the wagon, I have made this week’s TWD recipe. I know that I am doing this at the very last minute (I even prepared a lot of this post ahead of time so that I could do the baking all the way until the end). We are in the middle of Hannuka, the Festival of Lights and Fried Foods (okay the second part is not the official name, but it might as well be). In the span of a week, I have made two kinds of doughnuts (overcoming my fear of deep-frying), fried potato latkes, and eaten about five different varieties of sufganiyot (originally jelly doughnuts, but today, they fill them with all sorts of things like pastry cream, mango cream, almond cream – cool stuff). So yeah, fried foods. I actually read an article that says that the average Israeli gains about 5 lbs. during the holiday of Hannuka. So I’m average, big whoop.

Since the holiday started on November 30th, we have had two parties at our house and other related celebrations. Rocker Dude has been off from work as the public schools have vacation for the whole week of the holiday. The Little Rocker has off on Thursday, so we will all be home and spend quality family time together. Rocker Dude will be sleeping late (as he has done all week, the Little Rocker will be coloring on any surface her crayon can get to and I will be wiping up after her in between cooking for Shabbat. And then we will go to the park if it doesn’t rain (please let it rain!!! We need it really badly!!!!).

So back to the whole baking thing, remember that? This week’s recipe was chosen by Hindy of Bubie’s Little Baker. She chose Translucent Maple Tuiles and I am very excited to make them.

I have never made cookies like this before and since I am all about trying new things, hey why not?

The batter keeps in the refrigerator for a week, so I made the dough after our party on Monday night and then made the cookies on Tuesday night after work (hence the late posting). It was really easy to mix up. I just used a spatula and mixed everything in a bowl.

Ingredients for the batter.

After reading the comments that other people made, I knew to space the little balls of dough really far apart. These cookies really spread, as much as I spaced them, they still ran together.

Spaced cookies

And this is what they looked like after 7 minutes in the oven:

Cookies baked and ready to shape

Dorie says to wait only about a minute before removing these cookies from the cookie sheet to shape them. I found that it was too soon, and the cookies completely smushed and I couldn’t get them back to their previous glory. So I waited a little longer, and then I could get them off the sheet and over the rolling pin. Though perhaps because I used margarine instead of butter (like I always do) or maybe because I used imitation maple syrup and not the real stuff (which is prohibitively expensive as it has to be imported from the US and Canada) they stayed soft and did not hold their curved shape. So we have flat tuiles.

Maple Tuiles

I tried some of the mess-ups and they were absolutely delicious, I can’t wait to eat these with a nice bowl of ice cream – yum!

You can find the recipe on Hindy’s site here, and see what other TWD bakers did here.

P.S. sorry for the late posting, due to our internet upgrade, we had no internet last night, so I had to wait until I got to work to post it. But yay for faster internet for the same price!

Daring Bakers make Blueberry Donuts

October 28, 2010 at 9:21 am | Posted in blueberry, buttermilk, donuts | 2 Comments
Tags: blueberry, buttermilk, Daring Bakers, donuts

Well, actually they made donuts, but I decided to make blueberry donuts because Rocker Dude loves blueberries and blueberry flavored things.

I have to admit that I almost forgot to make this month’s recipe, or to be more precise, I forgot that the month was almost over and that I had to get my act together. I saw lollcakes post her donuts and that reminded me to get my tuchus in gear. I knew that I was not going to have enough time to make the yeast donuts even though I really wanted to, so I looked up the buttermilk donut recipe and had Rocker Dude buy all the ingredients.

After having my dinner stolen by the Little Rocker (she decided that mine was more interesting than hers, though I think that grilled cheese is better than falafel – but I’m no judge), I got to work. The dough was really easy to put together, though I had to add a bit more flour to compensate for the addition of the blueberry pie filling.

Adding the blueberry to the dough.

I was wary of deep-frying, 24 years of “Do not fry – oil is bad for you” being ingrained in y head by my mother is not easy to overcome. But maybe a vestige of my teenage rebelliousness came through and I decided not to bake these donuts but to venture into the world of deep-frying. I filled up a pot with lots of canola oil (also going against years of being taught to only use olive oil), stuck in the thermometer and waited for it to heat up. Of course while I was cutting out the donuts, the oil got too hot and then I had to let it cool down a bit, but eventually we got it to the right temperature. I did have some trouble keeping it at that temperature, but all the donuts cooked really nicely, without tasting greasy (from the oil being too cold) or being undercooked on the inside (from the oil being too hot). I was also a bit worried about the amount of flour that I was using to keep the donuts from sticking to the counter, but it all fell off once I put the donut in the oil.

One side being cooked

And the other side.

The Little Rocker loved the munchkins that I made as well (donut-holes for anyone who doesn’t know Dunkin’ Donuts). She was already in pjs but she wanted to see what I was doing. There was no way that I was going to let her near hot oil, so I gave her a munchkin instead. Then she came back and had another one. And another one. And then I told her that she could have more tomorrow and time for bed.

Waiting to be fried

We finally had Star Trek Night again last night after it being canceled for various social activities, and the donuts were the perfect snack. We have now seen 12 episodes of Enterprise, only 720-something episodes left to go until we finish all the Star Trek series. Our kids might be married before we finish.

The finished product - blueberry donuts

I am glad that I took the first step into the world of deep-frying, though I definitely won’t make it a habit, it’s such a waste of oil. But now, I can make sufganiyot for Hannuka! And Rocker Dude does so love his sufganiyot (though I still have horrible flashbacks from a sufganiyot contest in seminary where 5 18-year-old girls attempted to make sufganiyot ***shudder***)

The Little Rocker's Breakfast

I may not have time to make the yeast recipe for donuts this month, but they will definitely be tried in the future!

Blog-checking lines: The October 2010 Daring Bakers challenge was hosted by Lori of Butter Me Up. Lori chose to challenge DBers to make doughnuts. She used several sources for her recipes including Alton Brown, Nancy Silverton, Kate Neumann and Epicurious.

Old-Fashioned Buttermilk Cake Doughnuts:

Preparation time:
Hands on prep time – 25 minutes
Cooking time – 12 minutes

Yield: About 15 doughnuts & 15 doughnut holes, depending on size

Ingredients
Sour Cream ¼ cup / 60 ml / 60 gm / 2 oz
All Purpose Flour 3 ¼ cup / 780 ml / 455 gm / 16 oz + extra for dusting surface (if making blueberry donuts, add about another 1/2 cup)
White Granulated Sugar ¾ cup / 180 ml / 170 gm / 6 oz
Baking Soda ½ teaspoon / 2.5 ml / 3 gm / .1 oz
Baking Powder 1 teaspoon / 5 ml / 6 gm / .2 oz
Kosher Salt 1 teaspoon / 5 ml / 6 gm / .2 oz (If using table salt, only use ½ teaspoon)
Nutmeg, grated 1.5 teaspoon / 7.5 ml / 9 gm / .3 oz
Active Dry Yeast 1 1/8 teaspoon / 5.6 ml / 3.5 gm / .125 oz
Buttermilk ¾ cup + 2 Tablespoon / 210 ml / 225 gm / 7 ¾ oz
Egg, Large 1
Egg Yolk, Large 2
Pure Vanilla Extract 1 Tablespoon / 15 ml
Blueberry Pie Filling 1/2 cup
Powdered (Icing) Sugar ¼ cup / 120 ml / 65 gm / 2.3 oz (Used for decorating and is optional)

Directions:

In a small stainless-steel bowl set over a pot of gently simmering water, heat the sour cream until just warm.
Heat the oil to 375°F/190°C.
Over a large mixing bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt, nutmeg; make a large well in the center. Place the yeast in the well; pour the sour cream over it. Allow it to soften (if using packed fresh yeast), about 1 minute.
Pour the buttermilk, whole egg, egg yolks, and vanilla extract into the well. Using one hand, gradually draw in the dry ingredients. The mixture should be fairly smooth before you draw in more flour. Add the blueberry pie filling. Mix until it is completely incorporated. The dough will be very sticky. Wash and dry your hands and dust them with flour.
Sift an even layer of flour onto a work surface. Don’t be afraid to use a lot of flour. You don’t want the doughnuts sticking to your counter. Scrape dough out of bowl onto the surface; sift another layer of flour over dough. Working quickly, pat dough into an even 1/2-inch (12.5 mm) thickness. Dip cutter in flour and, cutting as closely together as possible, cut out the doughnuts and holes. Place holes and doughnuts on a floured surface. Working quickly, gather scraps of dough together, pat into 1/2-inch (12.5 mm) thickness, and cut out remaining doughnuts and holes.
Drop three to four doughnuts at a time into the hot oil. Once they turn golden brown, turn them and cook the other side. Cooking times may vary, but with my oil at 375 °F/190°C, I found they only took about 20 to 30 seconds per side.
Once cooked, place on a baking sheet covered with paper towels to drain.

Sift powdered sugar over doughnuts and serve.

Where has all the rum gone?

October 27, 2010 at 2:12 pm | Posted in Cake, Chocolate, prunes, rum | Leave a comment
Tags: Cake, chocolate, prunes, rum

In the spirit of the Top Chef Just Desserts episode a couple weeks ago, I have also flambeed my dessert. The competitors had to make a dessert inspired by the Lucient Dossier experience, it’s basically like cirque de soleil with fire.

This is the first time that I have ever flambeed something and I was very excited. I was imagining something like they do in Top Chef with big flames, so I tried to prepare accordingly. In the end it was not as dramatic, though when I saw what they did on Top Chef Just Desserts, I realized that perhaps flambeing food as opposed to pastry might be very different, or perhaps wine flames more than liquor.

We took this dessert to our friends A. and E. (our Star Trek buddies). I was given a request to make something chocolatey, as A. is not so into fruit desserts, or peanut butter for that matter. I looked through Dorie’s cookbook for something interesting and I came across this cake. It is supposed to be made with Armangnac, but I haven’t the faintest idea what that is, so I used rum because rum goes well with the prune flavor.

Whisked eggs and sugar.

I thought that adding prunes instead raisins was different and I agree with what Dorie said about prunes getting a bad rep. Everyone always associates prunes with old people and babies (yet another similarity between the two groups, hmmm) and they are really delicious even by themselves. People just need to give them a chance.

Chocolate mixture

I made the flambeed prunes earlier in the day and then made the rest of the cake later (you have to wait for the prunes to cool anyway).

Lightening the cake with the egg whites.

The cake came out nice and chocolatey-dense with a delicious chocolate glaze. I let the glaze cool a bit before spreading it on the cake so it came out more like icing. The prunes added something different to the cake that made it different from any other chocolate cake, something memorable.

Chocolate Glaze

The final pictures were taken by E. as I was unable to take pictures of the finished product before we ate it – she enjoyed it too!

Chocolate Rum Cake - before (photo credits to E.)

Chocolate Rum Cake - after (photo credits to E.)

Recipe (adapted from Dorie Greenspan’s Baking: from My Home to Yours):

Cake:

2/3 cup finely ground pecans or walnuts

1/4 cup flour

1/4 tsp. salt

12 moist prunes, pitted and cut into bits

1/4 cup plus 3 tbsp. water

1/4 cup rum

7 oz. bittersweet chocolate, chopped

1 stick (8 tbsp.) unsalted butter or margarine, cut into 4 pieces

3 large eggs, separated

2/3 cup sugar

Glaze:

3 oz. bittersweet chocolate, chopped

3 tbsp. confectioners’ sugar

3 tbsp. unsalted butter or margarine, at room temperature

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Butter an 8 inch springform pan, fit the bottom with a round of parchment paper and butter the paper. Put the pan on a baking sheet lined with parchment or a silicone mat.

Cake: Whisk together the nuts, flour and salt.

Put the prunes and 1/4 cup water in a small saucepan over medium heat and cook, being careful not to scorch the fruit, until the water almost evaporates. Pull the pan from the heat and pour in the rum. Stand back and set it aflame with a match. When the flames die out, transfer the fruit and any remaining liquid to a bowl and let cool.

Combine the chocolate, butter and remaining 3 tbsp. of water in a heatproof bowl. Heat in a microwave on medium strength in 30 second bursts until the chocolate and butter are melted.

In a large bowl, whisk the egg yolks and sugar together until they are thick and pale, about 2 minutes. Switch to a rubber spatula and, one by one, stir in the chocolate mixture, the nut mixture and the prunes with any leftover liquid.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, beat the egg whites until they hold firm and glossy peaks. Stir about 1/4 of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture to lighten the batter, then gently fold in the remaining whites. Pour the batter into the prepared pan.

Bake the cake for 25-32 minutes, or until it is puffed and a thin knife inserted into the center comes out streaky. Let cool on a rack for about 10 minutes, then remove the cake from the pan, and continue to cool until the cake has cooled completely. Place a piece of foil or parchment paper under the rack to catch drips.

Once cool, if the cake has crowned, take a serrated knife and gently even the top, using a sawing motion. Turn the cake over on the cooling rack. The flat bottom will become the top of the cake.

Glaze: Melt the chocolate in a microwave on medium heat. Slowly stir in the sugar and then the butter or margarine. Stir until you have a smooth glaze.

With a long icing spatula, pour the glaze over the top of the cake, allowing the excess to run down the sides of the cake. Use the spatula to smooth the top of the cake if necessary. Let the glaze set at room temperature.

If you would like the icing to be more like a frosting, let it cool a bit before spreading it over the cake. Make decorative swirls in the icing once it is on the cake.

Pie Crust

October 26, 2010 at 10:00 pm | Posted in crust, Pie | Leave a comment
Tags: fruit pie, pie crust

Here is the basic recipe for an awesome pie crust that can be used for just about anything:
from Dorie Greenspan‘s Baking From My Home to Yours

For a 9 inch Double Crust

3 cups all purpose flour
¼ cup sugar
1 ½ tsp salt
2 ½ sticks very cold unsalted butter, cut into tbsp size pieces
1/3 cup very cold vegetable shortening, cut into 4 pieces (or use margarine for both the butter and shortening)
About ½ cup ice water

Margarine for the pie crust.

Put the flour, sugar, and salt in a food processor fitted with a metal blade, pulse just to combine the ingredients. Drop in the butter and shortening and pulse only until the butter and shortening are cut into the flour. Don’t overdo the mixing- what you’re aiming for is to have some pieces the size of fat green peas and others the size of barley. Pulsing the machine on and off, gradually add about 6 tbsps of the water- add a little water and pulse once, add some more water, pulse again and keep going that way. Then use a few long pulses to get the water into the flour. If, after a dozen or so pulses, the dough doesn’t look evenly moistened or form soft curds, pulse in as much of the remaining water as necessary, or even a few drops more, to get a dough that will stick together when pinched. Big pieces of butter are fine. Scrape the dough out of the bowl and onto a work surface.

Pie crust dough ready for refrigeration.

Divide the dough in half. Gather each half into a ball, flatten each ball into a disk and wrap each half in plastic. Refrigerate the dough for at least 1 hour before rolling (if your ingredients were very cold and you worked quickly, though, you might be able to roll the dough immediately: the dough should be as cold as if it had just come out of the fridge).

Ready to be rolled out

To Roll Out the Dough: Have a buttered 9 inch pie plate at hand.

You can roll the dough out onto a floured surface or between sheets of wax paper or plastic wrap or in a rolling slipcover. If you’re working on a counter, turn the dough over frequently and keep the counter floured. If you are rolling between paper, plastic or in a slipcover, make sure to turn the dough over often and to life the paper, plastic, or cover frequently so that it doesn’t roll into the dough and form creases.

If you’ve got time, slide the rolled out dough into the fridge for about 20 minutes to rest and firm up.

Butter a 9-inch deep-dish pie plate (I use a Pyrex pie plate). If you want to use a standard 9-inch pie plate, just reduce the amount of filling by about one quarter.

Rolling out the dough

Working on a well-floured surface (or between wax paper or plastic wrap), roll out one piece of the dough to a thickness of about 1/8 inch.

Flouring the dough

Fit the dough into the buttered pie plate and trim the edges to a 1/2-inch overhang. Roll the other piece of dough into a 1/8-inch-thick circle and slip it onto a baking sheet lined with parchment or a silicone mat. Cover both the circle and the crust in the pie plate with plastic wrap and refrigerate for about 20 minutes, while you preheat the oven and prepare the filling.

Pressing the dough into the pie plate.

Add your filling, lay the top crust and crimp as you like. Make sure to cut steam slits in the top crust. Brush with a little milk or cream and sprinkle some sugar on top.

Bake at 425 degrees F for about 15 minutes, and then lower the oven to 375 degrees F and bake the pie for another 50-60 minutes. If there is a fruit filling, it should be bubbling.

After about 40 minutes in the oven, if the top crust looks as if it’s browning too quickly, cover the pie loosely with a foil tent.

Transfer the pie to a rack and let it rest until it is only just warm or until it reaches room temperature.

Tuesdays with Dorie: All-American All-Delicious Apple Pie

October 26, 2010 at 9:40 pm | Posted in apple, Fruit, Pie | 1 Comment
Tags: apple pie, tuesdays with dorie

I am so behind on my posting, and I apologize to everyone out there. Things have been busy at work and even busier at home. I have been involved in planning three different wedding-related celebrations, we went to one wedding and still have two more this week. It’s a busy time, and I have been baking, I promise, I just haven’t had time to post it. So let this post be the first drop in the bucket.

A little apple pie

This week’s recipe was the All-American Apple Pie. It was chosen by Emily of Sandmuffin. She chose it because she loves apple pie. Of all the fruit combinations in the world, I LOOOOOOOVE apple pie! I think that apples are my favorite fruit to bake with and I love baking with fruit. I was looking forward to this recipe as soon as it was chosen, and I finally made it last week.

Margarine for the pie crust.

Rocker Dude had been nudging me for a while saying that I haven’t ever made a pie with a lattice crust and why haven’t I made one and is it because I can’t make one. After reminding him that I have made pies with a lattice crust before (he still doesn’t believe me), I decided that just to prove him wrong, I would make this pie a lattice-topped pie.

Pie crust dough ready for refrigeration.

I made this pie a week and a half ago, on Friday, so because Little Rocker came home from daycare early and I needed to entertain her, I decided to make this a joint project and we had a ton of fun with it.

Ready to be rolled out

I made the dough while she was napping, so it was all ready to be rolled out when she woke up. For her birthday, J. and M. had gotten her a mini kitchen set – but with real tools, not toys. It has a mini whisk, a mini rolling pin, a measuring cup, a mini sifter and some little cookie cutters. I gave the Little Rocker a 4 inch pie plate and we were in business.

Rolling out the dough

We rolled out the dough together, and made sure there was enough flour.

Flouring the dough

Then we placed the bottom crust in the pie plate and put it in the refrigerator while we got the filling ready.

Pressing the dough into the pie plate.

I did not have tapioca, and I had no idea where to get some, so I just added some cornstarch to the mix. This is the first time that I have used lemon zest in an apple pie, but I can promise that it won’t be the last (even though Rocker Dude complained that he could taste lemon and it made the pie too tart).

Apple filling

We filled the crusts with the filling, and then I rolled out the top crust. I cut it into lines, and the Little Rocker helped me put the “stips” on the pie. We crimped the edges and then went to work on her little pie.

Elephant Cookies

We rolled out a top crust and carefully pressed it over the apples. Because there was some extra dough, and the Little Rocker has developed a total obsession with elephants (or ephelants), I used one of her new cookie cutters, which conveniently was an elephant, and we made little elephant cookies. Some we put as decoration on top of the crust and the others we baked plain.

Pies ready to be baked!

The pie came out looking beautifully. I got to prove to Rocker Dude that I could make a lattice-topped pie and the Little Rocker got to make her own little apple pie. Okay, I will admit, she didn’t really eat the pie, she just gobbled down all the elephant cookies while doing her elephant impression – it was really cute!

The Little Rocker is a little possessive of her apple pie.

This pie tasted delicious. The apple filling wasn’t gooey and it didn’t make the pie crust soggy at all. Unlike commercial apple fillings, you really taste the apple and it makes eating the pie so much more enjoyable.