Alpha Bakers -- Peppermint Sprinkle Cake

I can't pretend that I was really into this one. White cake, white frosting, unnecessary peppermint...Not really my style, but I made it and lived to tell the tale, and also made a fabulous and epic cake that was my style. Here's a note or two about both! The cake above is an egg white butter cake, flavored with peppermint oil. I think I overbaked it slightly, but I didn't even taste it, because...I don't like peppermint flavored things, unless they're breath mints.

I made a half recipe of the cake, which filled two six inch pans very well, and then intended to make a half recipe of the frosting, using a halal bar of aerated white chocolate I'd been given by a very nice library patron. Turned out the bar, because it was filled with air, was very light indeed and I was only able to make .26 times the frosting recipe (a white chocolate custard buttercream), so the filling was a bit sparse, though I did add some jam. Instead of the recommended candy canes, I decorated the cake in Christmas cookie sprinkles that were lying around, and it looked right sweet. I took it in to work, took it downstairs, and never heard another word about it, although I assume it got eaten. Everything does here.

I was happy that the cake base was an all egg white one, as I have a lot of leftover egg whites on hand from making the cake pictured below, a Christmas day princesstarta. Princesstarta, which is essentially a trifle in cake form, covered with a marzipan lid, is one of my favorite cakes both to make and to eat, and it was a triumph. In past years I've used different combos of recipes to make this cake, which is very forgiving, but this time I went straight Mary Berry and the results were excellent.

Alpha Bakers - Raisin Walnut Christmas Bread

Tucked in between the corners of this weekend, which included a joyful and tearful run-in with Tevye and Co. in the searing and sweet Broadway revival of Fiddler on the Roof, teatime with kids and LEGOs, and a few hours of Sunday overtime, were a few little Christmas activities. Most notably, the baking of Rose's Cranberry Walnut Christmas Bread. This bread sounded so festive that I was imagining something of a quick bread with sharp pops of fresh cranberry and chunks of ginger, maybe even white chocolate. When I realized that I was looking at a simple yeast bread, I had to reboot and revise a bit, using all AP flour instead of the WW flour called for, and adding raisins instead of the dried cranberries I had not bought.

Everything else went smoothly, though. I appreciate the step of incorporating the fruit soaking liquid (to which I added a shot of Campari to acidify those sweet raisins) into the dough--bread dough is always my catchall for whatever bits of liquid (sour milk, ginger beer, beer, mushroom broth) are lying around waiting for a purpose, and this recipe has that tendency built in.

Rose recommends a 3-day preferment to enhance the flavor. I didn't have time for that, nor did I throw in a little sourdough, which would in retrospect have been a good idea, but I did give the dough a second rise in the refrigerator overnight, which helped some with development. The final loaf had a nice crust and crumb, and good spring. It wasn't my favorite bread ever (breads with lots of nuts in always taste a little peanut-buttery to me), but it made for a sturdy lunch with some good butter on.

Alpha Bakers -- Spritz Butter Cookies

Buttery, simple, soft, and pretty. Rose's Spritz Butter Cookie recipe, with just the right touch of almond and softening cornstarch, is always reliably excellent. I've always wanted to mess with the flavoring on these a bit, so if I make them again this season I'll do that, but for now their basic reliability, style, and deliciousness will do. I didn't have any Jelly Tots, which one Alpha Baker used instead of glace cherries, so I used some fairly fancy and expensive Luxardo cherries, and they were...very good.

Finally, these long-keeping cookies rewarded me with one more amusement, filed in the 'toddlers have no skills at all' category, as I watched my friend's two year old son attempt to eat one face on, aiming his teeth directly at the center of the cookie rather than going in from the edge. These are the jokes, people.

Alpha Bakers -- Golden Orange Panettone

Shortly after Christmas, someone brought a commercial panettone to my office. It was one of those breads in a box that line the top shelves and promotional racks of supermarkets everywhere, and that I rarely consider buying because they have candied peel in them and are stale. This one was not stale. This one was soft and delicious and I ate it by the fistful, ignoring whatever lunch I had brought. I put it down next to the Chocolate Cuddle Cake and laughed inwardly at the success of my decoy as I ate all the panettone. 

Then I checked the Alpha Bakers baking schedule. The next decoy was on me. Rose's version of panettone uses a biga (a stiff pre-ferment) to intensify the flavor of the dough. While this means starting the bake a few days earlier, it's anything but difficult to make. I'm pretty used to refrigerated rises and long baking runs from my various sourdough adventures (and in fact I baked my first sourdough in a while in tandem with the panettone), so as far as I'm concerned all went well. Then the mixing. These soft doughs really are so different when you have a strong mixer. Just throw it all in and whip, and no hour-long slow sighing over a knead. I had some candied orange peel left over from last year's fruitcake (that wasn't supposed to have candied orange peel in it), so in that went along with some dried prunes and dried cranberries. In retrospect, I wish I'd added some candied ginger as well. 

The only thing that was a little rushed for me was the bake itself--I was leaving for Boston the next day and had to get it done, well after midnight. Because of that, the final proofing was a little less thorough than I would have liked, and thus my cross on top wasn't pretty and the oven spring came close to a blowout. Inside, though, the crumb was consistent and light. There has been a lot of discussion about proper flours to use for some of the newer formulae in The Baking Bible. I take the flour suggestions as recommended and use my judgement, which is pretty well honed after years of bread baking. I don't always expect the exact same results that Rose predicts, but I appreciate knowing why she's made her choices and what the rationale behind each one is. Baking, like cooking, is a dialogue, and a participatory one. And panettone is delicious, although I don't really like candied orange peel and next time would probably leave it out. Then it's just basically brioche, I guess. I'm down for that. I think I've mentioned on this blog before that one of my favorite things ever is to sit down with a large loaf of squashy bakery challah and dip it into a bowl of milk. Brioche works too.

Alpha Bakers - The Ischler

A trusted authority once assured me that Christmas Eve is for Cookies. If we extend the Christmas Eve framework to encompass the month of December (and as everyone knows, we do), then yesterday was a true expression of the dream (everything is awesome).

EVERYTHING IS AWESOME!!!! (sorry, finally watched the LEGO Movie last night and even though it's a giant commercial, it is pretty good, and that song is insidious in the highest degree)

 

But why is this Jew making Christmas cookies? Well, I'm sure you caught the part about cookies.
And also, why not? And also, some really great people came over to make them with me. The cookie team assembled at 10:30 AM, and by 4:30 PM we were...almost done. If you're tired of me being so frantically cheery, here's where you get your kicks, because we definitely hit cookie burn-out before stuffing all the cute little bags, and if I had to cover myself in relentless holiday cheer on the regular I would be Not Happy. I do love most of the trapping of Christmas, but like any oversold quantity, it's easy to get overloaded, especially the day after the dreaded SantaCon*.

Still, with all that, cookies are wonderful and so is spending time with wonderful people and listening to music I haven't heard in ten years, and so we baked all day. What did we make, oh lucky landlords and co-workers of the world? Biscotti, gingerbread, bergamot caramels, and the glamorous sandwich cookie known in Rose-land as The Ischler. I like a cookie with a title--it has a bit more weight than just 'oatmeal raisin' or 'brandy snap.' You know right off the bat that this cookie is an institution with the full weight of the treasury behind it.

It's also a very classic Rose Levy Beranbaum cookie, with the flavors of Eastern Europe hard by (the original inspiration is Hungarian, I believe). A buttery almond cookie, sandwiched with a layer of thick ganache and a layer of apricot levkar (I used some thick preserves). I had made these before as part of the Beta Testing for this book, and they were a pleasure and a joy both times. The dough is a little sticky but not to the point of absurdity, and the flavor combination is up my street as well (would you ever guess that I too am an Ashkenazi wonder, Rose?). Also, they just look so pretty and stick so well.

Sometimes I'm the lone ranger of baking, putting in long hours with just the oven and the television, but yesterday I was joined by some of the best people in the world. Above is A's first encounter with the stand mixer, and she loved it, especially when she got to give the call on how fast it should spin. In the space of a few weeks she's gone from someone who can say a few words when prompted to someone who can carry on whole conversations with content, and it changes everything. That and the fact that she has one of the all-time best personalities in the history of all-time best people makes her a very welcome guest.


























I like these big people a lot too. So much. I can't give out the recipe for The Ischler (shhh, it's here), but here's the recipe for the biscotti, courtesy of Nicola, A, and Eileen, one of the best bakers I know. It's possible I've posted these before, but they bear repeating. They are a treasure, people. Make them now.

Christmas Bread

This was the bread that I brought for Christmas with Matt's parents. It's Rose Levy Berenbaum's mushroom bread from The Bread Bible, and it has duxelles in it. Duxelles are chopped mushrooms sauteed in garlic and butter for a long time. The idea was that if I baked it in a coffee can it would take the shape of a mushroom. Sort of. Um.

It was very good, and better toasted. The mushroom/garlic flavor wasn't pronounced-maybe next time I would use a mushroom broth instead of the water to intensify.

Bless Us, Every One

Last year, I 'ruined Christmas'. At least, I did get on an airplane and fly off to East Africa. Wearing a Santa hat. This year, I tried to make it up--with a sugary, boozy, Stollen recipe courtesy of Jörg at Kiss  + Cathcart, who made a lovely one a few weeks ago and inspired my first tangle with candied peels of any kind. Christmas Eve, Jill has told me many times, is for cookies, but I think Stollen will do. Especially as I hear it was a favorite with Freud. 


I've left the recipe largely in the form I received it in, because it has nice little bits of German and very direct instructions. I did make a few adaptations, which are noted. Can't vouch for its keeping qualities yet, but it was very nice out of the oven. Maybe I'll wrap one up to give to my landlord, who just sent me a mass Christmas text with more words than I've ever heard him say at one time.

Stollen
Jörg's sister, lightly translated by Jörg Thoene.
(half of this recipe made two of respectable size. all notes except those marked with my initials, are original)


Zutaten (Ingredients):
500g Flour
250g Butter
250g Sugar
250g Quark – or that yogurt cheese we talked about (I used plain yogurt-KS)
3 Eggs
200g ground Almonds
125g Korinths - Raisins
100g Lemon Peel (candied)
100g Orange Peel (candied) (Lemon and orange peel can be replaced by dried, cubed apricots)
vanilla extract ( 1tablespoon?)
baking powder (1.5 tablespoons)
Rum
almond extract (1 tablespoon?)
lemon extract or simply lemon juice from 1/2 lemon
some pinches of mace


Soak dried fruit in enough rum to cover for at least 30 mins (I used a mix of whiskey and Campari -KS), make dough out of all other ingredients and add the fruit+rum (just realized I left out the mace--I think it should go in -KS).


Enough for 2 large Stollen but can also split into 3-4 smaller units.
Preheat oven to 250 C (480 F), put in the Stollen and reduce heat to 180 C (350) and bake for 45 mins - 1h.
Brush the Stollen immediately with lots of melted butter and cover with a thick layer of confectioners sugar.
Tastes good once cooled off, but even better after storing in aluminum foil for about 2 weeks in a cool environment.
"Viel Spaß beim Backen und Essen!"

Family Winter Holiday Macarons

Happy Chanukah!
Or as my friend Stacey would say, Happy Family Winter Holiday!

I love Chanukah, and have already had two latke parties to go to, which is a very good thing. Fried potatoes are excellent. Chanukah is also a great time to remember that one man's religious extremist terrorist is another man's Maccabee. (The way most people tell it, the Maccabees were fighting for their own right to religious expression, which had been outlawed, rather than trying to impose on others, but the point is historically dicey.) Just makes you think.

But when I think, I like to think about light. And miracles. Two years ago on Chanukah, crushed and lonely, I bested my better judgment and called Matt and asked him to tell me again about his theory of the third night. He believes that there is a tipping point for miracles, the moment when the miracle hits the mind, when it starts to dawn on everyone that this is more than just some high quality oil or a really good rainbow. He was surprised to hear from me (maybe) but he told me all he could, and when I asked, promised to round out the religious instruction with a multi-borough Christmas tree tour.

Somewhere in the cold wind and rain and snow of that winter, another miracle happened, and we found ourselves able to find each other again. Christmas and New Year are special times for us--fraught with darkness and fear and light and miracles.

This year, I'm leaving town for both holidays, flying on Christmas day to see my little sister in Uganda, where it's hot and modest. I won't be back until mid-January. Part of the trip anxiety, or just my wish to cram everything in, has been an immodest amount of cooking and baking. (I have to leave Matt well-fed, don't I? Actually, I know he's looking forward to a little unsupervised time to get to know the kitchen.)

I made lasagne and spanikopita, braised ribs and roasted chicken, and produced a large number of cookies. There were world peace cookies and there were NY Times chocolate chip cookies, and then there were these:
These are gingerbread macarons, from Tartelette. Macarons are notoriously temperamental to make, and the proper hard shell with a little fuzzy 'foot' on the bottom can be hit or miss. In fact, the first time I made this recipe, which mixes ginger, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg into the dry ingredients, the taste was great but the shape was a flop. (No disrespect to Tartelette, I have a feeling my conversions were off.)

I re-made the recipe the following morning using the recipe I've had best results with, David Lebovitz's. I just omitted the chocolate powder and didn't replace it, helping the dough to remain a little wetter. These held their perfect shape and I filled them with gingerbread buttercream. I brought them to one of the aforementioned latke parties and one guy fell for both kinds, exclaiming over and over that they were different, but he liked both.

Today, I mixed it up a little, and made plain nutmeg macarons with a filling made of cream, chestnut jam from Chile (thanks Miriam), and the leftover gingerbread buttercream. Here they are:
They look just like little UFOs, don't they?
The filling was great, and as a bonus, they are gluten-free, so I can give them to my aunt.

I love sweet things in my mouth and sweet things in my life. These are the dark days of the year, but I feel very lucky and well lit.

Tuesdays with Dorie: Grandma's All Occasion Sugar Cookies

I haven't disappeared nor stopped baking--it's just been a rough week. I'm popping typhoid pills and running benefits, and that's just the beginning. I'm also leaving for Uganda on Christmas day, so things are busy around here, but with school wrapping up this week I have a little breathing room.
In between all the running around, I made these Tuesdays with Dorie cookies. Grandma's All Occasion Sugar Cookies are very buttery, though if I remember rightly, there's also an egg in there somewhere. The recipe offers the roll-out option or the slice and bake, which I went for. I flavored them with Meyer lemon zest and froze them in a log, then rolled them in sugar and cut them out.
I think they're more elegant this way. Especially with Christmas sugar. On Friday, Nicola and Jill and I will reprise the second annual holiday cookie baking extravaganza. Now with more caramel.
Matt's been hugely supportive during my disaster-laden busy weeks, which sadly even encompassed his birthday, and he was very supportive also about these cookies. I'm always surprised when my chocolate lovers really embrace a plain cookie, but I shouldn't be surprised about Matt, he also loves ginger things and plainish coffeecakes. On the Venn diagram of our intersecting tastes, these cookies were almost perfectly centered. They'd take very well to more flavorings, but there's nothing wrong with them plain and simple.