Ipso Fatto

For Fans of Steamed Pudding: Cranberry Spice Cake

littlebakerbunny@yahoo.com (Littlebakerbunny) — Fri, 25 Feb 2022 09:37:00 -0500

Around Thanksgiving, I stocked up on fresh cranberries without having a solid plan for how I was going to use them. I know you can freeze cranberries, but freezer space is always at a premium at our house. So I looked for some fresh cranberry recipes and decided to try Karen DeMasco's Cranberry Spice Cake.

I've made a lot of cakes and desserts with fresh cranberries, and I don't think I've ever made one that uses finely chopped cranberries -- but this recipe calls for cranberries (fresh or frozen) that have been run through the food processor. Other than that, the recipe is straightforward. You combine flour, baking soda, ground cardamom, cinnamon, and salt in one bowl; combine sugar, dark brown sugar, oil, eggs, lemon zest, orange zest, sour cream, and vanilla in another; alternately add the flour mixture and apple cider to the sugar mixture; and fold in the chopped cranberries.

I baked the cake in a parchment-lined pan and while it was still warm from the oven, I topped it with a glaze made from powdered sugar, lemon zest, lemon juice, and salt. I waited until the glaze was the set and the cake was completely cooled to cut it.

The texture of this cake really surprised me. While the headnote says that the cake is "very moist, perfect for fans of steamed pudding," I would describe this cake as not just moist, but wet and heavy. The chopped cranberries had a ton of moisture in them, and I found the wet texture in the finished product unappealing. If I hadn't made this cake myself, I might have assumed it had been steamed. The recipe instructs you to store the cake at room temperature, but I found that I preferred it chilled, when the texture was firmer and seemed less wet.

The flavor of the cake was lightly spiced and pleasantly citrus-y, and my favorite part was the zingy lemon glaze. The cranberry flavor was less pronounced than I had expected, I think because the cranberries were chopped so small. I liked the idea of a cake with cranberries and citrus and spice very much -- but wasn't a huge fan of the wet finished product.

Recipe" Cranberry Spice Cake" by Karen DeMasco, from Fine Cooking.

Thanksgiving Desserts, including an Emergency Backup: Pumpkin Tart with Cranberry-Pomegranate Glaze and Cranberry Fool Chocolate Tart

littlebakerbunny@yahoo.com (Littlebakerbunny) — Thu, 3 Feb 2022 08:40:00 -0500

A friend kindly invited us to his family's Thanksgiving dinner last year, and their Thanksgiving meal is serious business -- the amount of planning and effort that goes into its high-level execution is remarkable. I offered to bake something and decided to make Caramel Apple Tartelettes and a Pumpkin Tart with Cranberry-Pomegranate Glaze. The tartelettes came off without a hitch.

The pumpkin tart seemed straightforward. There's a graham cracker crust (graham cracker crumbs, sugar, melted butter, and salt) that you press into a tart pan; bake until golden; and sprinkle with chocolate that you melt and spread into a thin layer. I own a lot of fluted tart pans, but I often use straight-sided cheesecake pans with removable bottoms for tarts with crumb crusts because the absence of nooks and crannies generally makes it easier to remove the tart from the pan.

I popped the chocolate-coated crust into the fridge while I made the filling, which is a mixture of pumpkin puree, milk, eggs, maple syrup, salt, vanilla, and pumpkin pie spice. I poured the filling into the crust and baked the the tart until the filling was puffed and set. The instructions say that when the tart is cool enough to handle, you should loosen the ring from the pan bottom to make sure it isn't stuck. Despite my thinking I was so clever by using a straight-sided pan, the sides and removable bottom of my pan were firmly cemented together and absolutely wouldn't budge. I tried to run a sharp knife around the edges of the pan and even that was nearly impossible, and I ended up breaking off all of the crust that extended above the filling. The whole thing looked like a disaster. I finally managed to pry the sides of the pan off, but the tart was still stubbornly adhered to the pan bottom.

I was in too deep to turn back, so I went ahead to finish the tart. I topped it with a cranberry glaze (a mixture of pomegranate juice, cornstarch, cranberries, and sugar that is cooked and put through a sieve) and pomegranate arils. The tart looked pretty but I was really concerned that the crust would remain stuck to the bottom and that dinner guests would end up having to eat just pumpkin filling and glaze scooped up with a spoon. I didn't want to take a chance on a total disaster, so I made a last minute emergency backup dessert: a Cranberry Fool Chocolate Tart. In short, it's a chocolate cookie crust filled with cranberry whipped cream (heavy cream whipped with sour cream, with a semi-pureed mixture of cranberries cooked with maple syrup and orange zest mixed in). After the tart is set, you garnish it with pistachios.

The cranberry fool tart was pretty and I really liked the not-too-sweet flavor of the light-textured whipped cream. That said, the dessert was so light that I felt like it was missing something. I mean, it was basically a cookie crust filled with whipped cream. While it was nice to have a less filling dessert after a big meal, in other circumstances I think this tart might leave people unsatisfied.

When it came time to cut the pumpkin tart, the first few slices did get mangled and lose their bottom crust, but I was able to get the later slices out intact. It was basically a dressed up pumpkin pie and I particularly liked the sharpness of the glaze -- but I thought the chocolate was a little out of place. I like pumpkin + chocolate, pumpkin + cranberry, and cranberry + chocolate. But I think the combination of all three was just a little too much, although the chocolate definitely did succeed at sealing in the crust and preventing it from getting soggy. If I made this tart again, I think I would use white chocolate or caramelized white chocolate instead, or maybe even milk chocolate.

I wasn't totally happy with the way my tarts came out, but the dinner was outstanding and our hosts and the other guests were warm and utterly charming. I still have so much to be thankful for.

Recipes:

"Caramel Apple Tartelette," "Perfect Tart Dough," "Caramel Sauce," and "Streusel" from Standard Baking Co. Pastries by Alison Pray and Tara Smith.
"Pumpkin Tart with Cranberry-Pomegranate Glaze" by Susan Spungen.
"Cranberry Fool Chocolate Tart" by Karen DeMasco, from Food & Wine.

Heirloom Elation : Apple Brownies

littlebakerbunny@yahoo.com (Littlebakerbunny) — Thu, 20 Jan 2022 01:25:00 -0500

One of my friends makes the most delicious apple pies. Not only has he mastered the art of a flaky crust, but he also goes out of his way to get great heirloom apples. I have access to a lot of different apple varieties at farmers markets here in DC, but there are some types he regularly uses that I have never seen in this area. This year my friend generously shared with me several varieties of apples that he brought back from Charlottesville: Albemarle Pippin, Arkansas Black, Esopus Spitzenburg, and Ashmead's Kernel. Of those, all of them were new to me except for Arkansas Black.

I decided to use some of the Albemarle Pippins (along with some Calville Blancs I still happened to have on hand) to make Amy Traverso's "Apple Brownies." While I automatically associate the word "brownie" with chocolate, these bars are chocolate free. The recipe specifies an 11-inch by 7-inch pan. I actually own a pan that particular size, but I multiplied the recipe by 1.5 and used a 13-inch by 9-inch pan instead.

To make the batter, you beat melted and cooled butter with sugar and an egg until pale; add diced apples and walnuts; and incorporate the dry ingredients (flour, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, and salt). When I transferred the batter into the parchment-lined pan, it looked like a pile of apples and nuts with just the tiniest amount of batter.

The batter expanded in the oven to completely envelop the fruit and form a solid, golden brown top. The bars were extremely moist -- with the fruit tender but not soggy -- and had a compact but not overly dense texture. They cut cleanly and were easy to handle. I could not believe how freakin' delicious these were. They were super apple-y, with richness from the walnuts, the perfect amount of cinnamon spice, and well-balanced sweetness. This bar was so simple and yet so completely satisfying. I had an emotional reaction to eating a piece -- it made me feel comforted and contented, like receiving a warm hug. I can't say how much the quality of the apples I used is responsible for the outstanding result, but this was one of my favorite apple desserts ever. I don't think that "brownie" is the best descriptor for these bars, but I don't know what other name would do them justice.

Recipe: "Apple Brownies" from The Apple Lover's Cookbook by Amy Traverso, recipe available here from Martha's Vineyard magazine.

Mix, Press, Bake, and Slice: Double Ginger Shortbread

littlebakerbunny@yahoo.com (Littlebakerbunny) — Tue, 18 Jan 2022 21:59:00 -0500

I'll make just about anything with ginger, but the reason I decided to try Helen Fletcher's "Double Ginger Shortbread" was the pan she recommends for the recipe: a 13-inch by 4-inch rectangular fluted tart pan. I own this exact pan but rarely get to use it, so I was happy to be able to put it to use. (If you don't have this pan -- which I would assume would be the case for most folks -- you can just bake the shortbread in a 8-inch square pan. Or you can double the recipe and bake it in a 13-inch by 9-inch rectangular pan, which is what I do with David Lebovitz's Ginger Crunch recipe that he bakes in the same rectangular tart pan.)

This recipe is easy and the ingredient list is short. You beat softened butter with brown sugar (I used dark) until light and fluffy; add flour and ground ginger; and incorporate chopped crystallized ginger. I also added a little salt, even though the recipe doesn't call for any. I pressed the dough into the tart pan (that I had lightly coated with baking spray) and sprinkled on coarse sugar before baking.

The slab of cookies released cleanly from the pan after it was cool and I was able to neatly cut the cookies crosswise into slender slices. I liked these cookies a lot. They were chewy, which was an unexpected but very pleasant surprise. I assume the brown sugar is responsible for the chewiness, and it also gave the shortbread a more interesting, warm flavor. The generous amount of crystallized ginger and coarse sugar contributed additional textural contrasts. And while Fletcher advises that these cookies should be "made days ahead of time for the flavors to mature," the cookies tasted great and had a delicious, vibrant ginger flavor when freshly baked. Fletcher says that the cookies will keep well for weeks, so I wish I had been able to keep them around to see how the flavor changed over time -- but they didn't last long in our house!

Recipe: "Double Ginger Shortbread" from Craving Cookies by Helen S. Fletcher.

Previous Post: "From the Land Down Under: Ginger Crunch," January 22, 2013.

Cider, Yes -- Doughnut, Not So Much: Apple Cider Doughnut Loaf Cake

littlebakerbunny@yahoo.com (Littlebakerbunny) — Mon, 17 Jan 2022 23:03:00 -0500

To me, when I see a baked item described as a "doughnut," it means one of two things. Either: 1) it's baked in a doughnut pan, so it has the torus shape of a doughnut; or 2) it has the plush, soft texture of a doughnut. If you're lucky, it means both. So when I saw Sarah Jampel's "Apple Cider Doughnut Loaf Cake" recipe, I had a very specific idea of what the end product should be: the flavor and texture of a cider doughnut in loaf form.

The recipe calls for you cook down cider to reduce to 50% of its original volume, but I decided to just to use Wood's Cider Mill boiled cider. It's reduced to one-seventh of its original volume, but I always have it on hand and I figured that it would both save time and create a more intense cider flavor in the finished product. To make the batter, I whisked eggs with sugar until pale; gradually added in melted butter; and alternately incorporate the dry ingredients (flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda, kosher salt, cinnamon, and grated nutmeg) and the remaining liquid ingredients (sour cream, boiled cider, and vanilla). I poured the batter into a parchment-lined 9-inch by 5-inch pan to bake.

The loaf baked up with an almost completely flat top. While it was hot, I poked holes all over the top of the loaf with a skewer and brushed on more boiled cider. I let the loaf cool briefly before turning it out of the pan, brushing the top and sides with a mixture of boiled cider and melted butter, and coating the loaf in a mixture of sugar, cinnamon, grated nutmeg, and salt.

I waited until the cake was completely cooled to slice it and I could see that the boiled cider I had brushed on while the loaf was hot had settled in right at the top of the cake; perhaps I would have gotten better absorption with less concentrated cider. The loaf had the flavor profile of an apple cider doughnut, with my favorite part being the top of the loaf that was soaked in cider and coated with crunchy cinnamon-sugar. However, while the loaf was moist, it was not soft or plush; the texture was average. This cake was fine, but the texture was quite disappointing.

I wouldn't make this recipe again because I think there are better options available. If you are in the mood for something that delivers both the flavor and soft texture of a cider doughnut, I would recommend either Samantha Seneviratne's Apple Cider Whoopie Pies, or Erin McDowell's Baked Apple Cider Doughnuts.

Recipe: "Apple Cider Doughnut Loaf Cake" by Sarah Jampel, from Bon Appétit.

Previous Posts:

"Fabulous for Fall: Apple Cider Whoopie Pies," November 23, 2019.
"A Breakfast Mixed Bag: Baked Apple Cider Doughnuts and Whipped Cream Scones," May 11, 2019.

Caramel Through and Through: Black Tea Blondies with Caramel Swirl

littlebakerbunny@yahoo.com (Littlebakerbunny) — Sun, 16 Jan 2022 19:26:00 -0500

I don't type out recipes in my blog (I mean, I'm an attorney, so there is that whole copyright thing), but I do try to link to websites that have reprinted recipes with the author's permission. Sometimes the recipes are reprinted in very random places. When I made Benjamina Ebuehi's Lemon, Ricotta, and Thyme Mini-Loaves, I found a copy of the recipe printed in the Minneapolis Star Tribune. But that find included a real bonus, because the Star Tribune printed several other recipes alongside it, including one for "Black Tea Blondies with Caramel Swirl" from from Tartine: A Classic Revisited. I still had some Earl Grey tea leftover after making Yossy Arefi's Chewy Earl Grey Sugar Cookies and the idea of combining tea and caramel seemed so intriguing, so I had to give the recipe a try. (And while I own the first Tartine cookbook, I don't own the Revisited one, so I wouldn't have come across this recipe otherwise.)

First I made the caramel sauce. You cook sugar, water, corn syrup, and salt until the mixture is amber; add a mixture of warm cream and vanilla bean seeds; whisk until smooth; add lemon juice; let the caramel cool briefly; and add butter. The blondie batter is simple. You combine melted butter with brown sugar, vanilla, and salt; add eggs one at a time; and mix in flour and ground Earl Grey tea leaves. The recipe says you should pour the blondie batter into a buttered glass baking dish, but I never bake in glass, so I used a parchment-lined 9-inch by 13-inch metal pan instead.

As I drizzled the caramel sauce on top of the batter I started to wonder if something was going terribly wrong. There is a photo of these bars in Imbibe magazine, and you can see small swirls of caramel neatly marbled into the blondie batter. I seemed to have way too much caramel. I debated what to do. The recipe doesn't say anything about reserving any of the caramel sauce to use later, so I assumed that I should use all of it. I used it all, but then I ended up with what was essentially a thin layer of caramel covering the entire top surface of the blondie batter. I tried to marble the caramel and batter together with a knife, but I still ended up with mostly just caramel on top. I crossed my fingers and put the pan in the oven.

When I took the bars out of the oven, they looked absolutely nothing like the Imbibe magazine photo. There was caramel bubbling up all around the edges and when the blondies were cooled and I took them out of the pan, I discovered that a good amount of caramel had migrated to the bottom (see photo below of the the underside of a slice). Thank goodness I had lined the pan with parchment, or I never would have been able to get the bars out intact. I think I definitely screwed something up somewhere, but regardless, the end result was absolutely delicious.

I could taste a bit of bergamot in these bars, but I think the tea flavor came across as something unusual but unidentifiable to my tasters. No one could tell they were made with black tea, much less Earl Grey specifically. But the chewy caramel bar was a hit. My experience with this recipe reminded me a lot of what happened when I made Mike Johnson's Espresso Caramelitas, where I similarly had a surfeit of caramel that sank to the bottom of the bars. And while I'm convinced something went wrong with both recipes, I thoroughly enjoyed my results with that recipe and this one.

A colleague (who loved the bars but had guessed that the bars were made with ginger, not black tea) asked me for the recipe so that she could make it for a cookie exchange. She had some trouble with the recipe and sent me a message afterwards that said in part: "I believe this recipe was developed by the big guy. Meaning Satan." (Emphasis in original.) On a more upbeat note, my friend's aunt (who had stashed her bars in the freezer) wrote a very kind note after I told her that the bars she was raving about were made with Earl Grey: "Earl Grey and caramel, genius, in 80 years on this earth I have never tasted the like. I will limit myself to one bite per day until it's gone."

Recipe: "Black Tea Blondies with Caramel Swirl" from Tartine: A Classic Revisited, by Elisabeth

Prueitt and and Chad Robertson, recipe available here from Imbibe magazine (without ingredient weights) or here from the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

Previous Posts:

"Like a Citrus Snickerdoodle: Chewy Earl Grey Sugar Cookies," December 18, 2021.
"If I Did Something Wrong, Do I Want to Be Right?: Espresso Carmelitas," August 27, 2021.

Gingerbread in a Soft (or Chewy!) Cookie: Chocolate Chip Molasses Ginger Cookies

littlebakerbunny@yahoo.com (Littlebakerbunny) — Fri, 14 Jan 2022 23:55:00 -0500

I love ginger, and I have never understood why ginger-chocolate chip cookies are not more prevalent. The combination of ginger and chocolate is so good. Edd Kimber's "Chocolate Chip Molasses Ginger Cookies" looked delicious, but I was initially deterred by the text in the headnote describing these cookies as "soft." I interpreted that to mean "cakey," which is my least favorite cookie texture. But the headnote also says that "if you are one of those people that prefer a chewy gingerbread cookie you can use a 50/50 blend of plain and bread flours," so I decided to give that a go.

You start out by heating the butter with molasses and brown sugar (I used regular brown sugar instead of muscovado) until the butter melts and the sugar is dissolved; letting the mixture cool; and whisking in eggs. You combine the remaining ingredients (all-purpose flour, bread flour, baking soda, salt, freshly grated ginger, ground ginger, cinnamon, and freshly grated nutmeg) in a separate bowl; mix in the melted butter-egg mixture; and stir in chocolate (I used Cacao Barry Guayaquil Extra Bitter 64% pistoles). I used a #24 scoop to portion out the dough and got 32 cookies from a batch. I chilled the cookies for a few hours before rolling them in demerara sugar and baking them.

My first pan of cookies hardly spread at all, so I flattened subsequent pans of cookies before baking, which helped a little. But my cookies looked nothing like the ones pictured with the recipe, which look like they spread quite a bit. As I was trying to diagnose the reason my cookies weren't spreading, it occurred to me that I might have made an error as I was making the batter. I made a double batch of these cookies very late at night. It's possible I forgot to double the amount of leavening. Regardless, my compact, fat cookies were quite tasty. They had the flavor of gingerbread spice, were chewy (not cakey!), and the dramatic crunch from the demerara sugar was fantastic.

That said, I would have preferred if my cookies had turned out like the one's pictured on Edd's website. I may have to give this recipe another try when I am laser focused and can make sure that I don't make any mistakes!

Recipe: "Chocolate Chip Molasses Ginger Cookies" from Edd Kimber.

Small, Rich, and Vibrant: Lemon, Ricotta, and Thyme Mini-Loaves

littlebakerbunny@yahoo.com (Littlebakerbunny) — Tue, 11 Jan 2022 00:56:00 -0500

I have so many cake pans that they are stored in my kitchen, on shelves in the attic (thank goodness we have a large finished attic accessible through fixed stairs), and in numerous bins in the basement. From time to time I've downsized my collection, by giving pans away to friends or donating them to charity. Fortunately, for some reason I held onto a pan with eight mini-loaf cavities that turned out to be perfect for Bejamina Ebuehi's "Lemon, Ricotta & Thyme Mini-Loaves."

This recipe is simple and doesn't require a mixer. You rub lemon zest into sugar until the sugar is moist and fragrant; stir in chopped fresh thyme; add oil, ricotta cheese, and eggs; and incorporate flour, baking powder, and salt. I divided the batter between the eight pan cavities, which I had buttered and lined with parchment paper.

The cakes released effortlessly and just fell out of the pan. After they were completely cooled, I dipped the top of each cake in a glaze made from lemon juice and powdered sugar and garnished it with a sprig of thyme. The cakes were adorable and had a vibrant lemony flavor with a nice touch of thyme; the lemon-thyme pairing is a good one. The ricotta made the cake rich and moist but I couldn't taste it in the finished product.

This recipe give you eight delightful little cakes for very little effort. They would make lovely gifts, but no one could blame you if you wanted to keep these delicious beauties all to yourself!

Recipe: "Lemon, Ricotta & Thyme Mini-Loaves" from The New Way to Cake by Benjamina Ebuehi, recipe available here from the Minnesota Star Tribune.

Previous Post: "Just Peachy: Peach Cake with Lemon and Thyme," August 23, 2021.

What Happens When You Make a Cake Like a Scone?: Cranberry and Candied Ginger Buckle

littlebakerbunny@yahoo.com (Littlebakerbunny) — Sun, 9 Jan 2022 19:32:00 -0500

I can't remember where I came across the recipe for a "Cranberry and Candied Ginger Buckle" from Milk Street, but I love candied ginger in basically anything, so I made the buckle back in November when fresh cranberries were plentiful.

The method for this recipe seemed quite unusual to me. It's a butter cake but you don't use the creaming method to make the batter. Instead, you use the food processor to cut the cold butter into the dry ingredients. You pulse cold cubed butter with flour, sugar, cinnamon, and salt in the food processor (I added a little extra salt because I was using unsalted butter instead of salted); take out all but 165 grams of the resulting crumb mixture and put it in a large bowl (the portion you take out will be used for the cake; the portion still in the food processor will be used for the crumb topping); and pulse brown sugar, sliced almonds, and more cold cubed butter into the crumbs in the food processor to complete the topping.

To finish the batter, you whisk together eggs, sour cream, and vanilla; add the mixture to the reserved flour-sugar-butter crumbs in the large bowl; and fold in cranberries and diced candied ginger. I could see small butter clumps in the finished batter, which I spread into a parchment-lined pan. Then I sprinkled the crumb topping over the batter and baked the cake until golden.

This cake looked good when I sliced it, with each slice filled with a generous amount of ginger and cranberries. But when I took a bite, I thought the cake was terrible. The texture was dry and crumbly and just awful. It reminded me a bit of the texture of a scone -- which makes a lot of sense, since you also make scones by cutting cold butter into the dry ingredients. But even if I were to consider this a scone, it was a bad scone. The crumb topping was unremarkable.

I couldn't get over how bad the texture was and I would not recommend this recipe to anyone. The recipe headnote says that this recipe is loosely based on a recipe from Rustic Desserts by Cory Schreiber and Julie Richardson. The original recipe has you cream butter and sugar like any normal person who likes moist cake. It's beyond me why anyone would decide that this food processor method is a good idea, but it's definitely something I'm never doing again.

Recipe: "Cranberry and Candied Ginger Buckle" from Milk Street.

Fresh or Freeze-Dried, for Now or Later: Raspberry Amaretti

littlebakerbunny@yahoo.com (Littlebakerbunny) — Sat, 8 Jan 2022 23:48:00 -0500

I recently got a copy of Nadiya Bakes by Nadiya Hussein and the first recipe I decided to try from the book was the "Raspberry Amaretti Cookies." They are amaretti with freeze-dried raspberry powder in the batter, and a whole fresh or freeze-dried raspberry tucked inside.

The recipe is straightforward. You beat egg whites until stiff; fold in sugar; and incorporate almond flour, ground freeze-dried raspberries, and almond extract. I used a #30 scoop to portion out the dough and got 22 cookies from a batch, very close to the stated yield of 20. I wanted my amaretti to have a longer shelf life, so I wrapped each portion of batter around a freeze-dried raspberry (if you use fresh fruit, the cookies should be eaten "straightaway") before coating each cookie in powdered sugar.

The cookies spread a little and developed attractive cracks during baking. The pink color of the cookie was mostly camouflaged by the powdered sugar until you bit into one and could see the interior. These cookies were terrific -- they had a nice firm crust, a very chewy interior, and a strong almond flavor with a light touch or raspberry. I was a little disappointed that the whole freeze-dried raspberry inside the cookie didn't have much impact -- and as you can see in the photo above, the raspberries ended up off to the side inside being in the center. I am tempted to see if stirring a bunch of whole freeze-dried fruit into the batter would work to boost the raspberry flavor, or perhaps just putting multiple freeze-dried raspberries in the center instead of just one. I can see how a fresh raspberry would definitely be superior flavor-wise, but I almost never have the opportunity to bake something that will be consumed right away, so it's not a practical option for me.

Even without using fresh fruit, this dainty cookie packed a lot of flavor. And somehow the fact that it's pink made it extra adorable. I would be happy to bake these again.

Recipe: "Raspberry Amaretti Cookies" from Nadiya Bakes by Nadiya Hussein, recipe available here from Food52.

Marvelously Maple-y: Glazed Maple-Pecan Cookies

littlebakerbunny@yahoo.com (Littlebakerbunny) — Thu, 6 Jan 2022 08:42:00 -0500

When I saw the photo for Carole Walter's "Glazed Maple-Pecan Cookies," I didn't think they looked particularly impressive, but I figured that a maple cookie was perfect for fall. And I love a slice-and-bake cookie that can be prepped in advance.

This recipe requires both a food processor and a mixer. You use the food processor to blend together white sugar, dark brown sugar, and maple flavoring (I get mine from Beanilla). Then you switch to the mixer: you beat softened butter until creamy and gradually add the maple sugar; add an egg, maple syrup, and vanilla; incorporate flour, salt, and baking soda; and mix in chopped toasted pecans. You form the dough into logs and chill them until firm. I left my dough in the fridge for 24 hours.

The next day, I sliced the cookies and baked them until browned. My logs of dough were perfectly round after chilling (I had put cake rings around the logs to preserve their shape and prevent the bottoms from flattening out), so I was a little irritated that the cookies became misshapen during baking and ended up with irregular edges. While the cookies were hot from the oven, I brushed on a warm mixture of powdered sugar and maple syrup. The maple glaze set shiny and hard, without any trace of stickness. But my small saucepan of glaze started to harden and crystallize as I baked multiple pans of cookies (I made a double batch of cookies, so I was baking cookies for a while), and even re-warming the glaze or trying to thin it out didn't do much good. The cookies toward the end got a messy coating of gloppy, more opaque glaze that didn't look great.

However, all of the cookies tasted fantastic and their understated appearance undersells how delicious they are. The cookies were packed full of maple flavor, and the combination of maple and pecans was so natural and lovely. I wouldn't say I'm a huge fan of maple, but I couldn't get enough of the maple in these cookies. The cookie was satisfyingly firm, and the glaze added a nice punch of additional sweet maple flavor. The cookies also kept very well for days. I liked these cookies so much that I made them again for my holiday cookie boxes. (And I learned my lesson -- I baked multiple batches of the cookies for my holiday boxes, but I made only one batch of maple glaze at a time so that it wouldn't harden before I could brush it onto the cookies.)

There are probably the most maple-centric dessert I've ever tasted. I definitely think it's worth it to get some good maple flavoring if you make this recipe, because I know from experience that it can be difficult to get a strong maple flavor with just maple syrup alone. I'm guessing that these cookies could make a maple fan out of anyone.

Recipe: "Glazed Maple-Pecan Cookies" by Carole Walter, from Fine Cooking.

Autumn Enchantment: Apple Cake with Sage Caramel

littlebakerbunny@yahoo.com (Littlebakerbunny) — Wed, 5 Jan 2022 09:37:00 -0500

Benjamina Ebuehi says that her Apple Cake with Sage Caramel "couldn't be more autumnal if it tried," so it seemed like a perfect project for an early November bake. It's an apple cake topped with cream cheese-sage caramel frosting, finished with more sage caramel, dried apple crisps, and fresh sage.

The cake batter includes a homemade applesauce you make by cooking peeled, chopped apples with a little water until softened, and then mashing the fruit lightly with a fork. I wish the recipe had provided a volume measurement for the amount of applesauce you're suppose to have, because obviously your mileage can vary depending on the size of your apples (the recipe simply calls for "2 apples of your choice" without specifying a weight). I doubled the recipe (which is written to be baked in an 8-inch square pan) to bake it in a 9-inch by 13-inch pan, and I used four small Braeburns that had a total trimmed weight of about one pound.

Once I made the applesauce, the batter came together quickly. I whisked eggs and sugar until pale and thick; slowly added in oil; and incorporated the applesauce, vanilla, flour, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon. The recipe doesn't include salt, but I added a pinch. I poured the batter into a parchment-lined pan to bake and let the cake cool completely in the pan.

To make the sage caramel, first you steep fresh sage in heavy cream and strain out the sage. Then you heat sugar until it melts and turns amber; add the sage-infused cream; bring the caramel to a simmer; remove the pan from the heat and add salt; and let the caramel cool. The sage flavor of the caramel was subtle, but detectable, and I liked it quite a lot. You mix some of the cooled sage caramel into a cream cheese frosting (a mixture of butter, powdered sugar, and cream cheese). The frosting recipe calls for 180 grams of cream cheese, so my double batch should have used 360 grams. But I figured that I might as well use two full bricks of cream cheese (454 grams), so I multiplied the frosting recipe by 2.5 instead of just doubling it.

To assemble the cake, I turned the cake out of the pan; spread on the frosting; drizzled more sage caramel sauce on top; and decorated the cake with apple crisps (very thinly sliced apples dried out in a low oven) and fresh sage leaves. Even though I thought my apple crisps looked more like mushrooms than apples, I was enthralled with the appearance of the finished cake. To me it evoked a romantic forest setting, and I thought it was gorgeous. The recipe also calls for a garnish of walnuts, but I was making the cake for someone with a nut allergy, so I just left them off.

I trimmed off the edges of the cake to get a clean appearance and was able to snack on the trimmings before I delivered the cake to a friend. The cake was moist and somewhat rustic with chunks of apple in it, because my applesauce was not completely smooth. But the cream cheese frosting is what stopped me in my tracks. It was rich and so incredibly delicious, with the glorious combination of slightly astringent cream cheese and earthy, salty-sweet sage caramel. And as you can see from the photo, the ratio of frosting to cake was high, so eating this cake felt quite indulgent. I loved everything about this cake and thought it was a showstopper. And I might start upgrading the cream cheese frosting on other cakes and cupcakes to this sage caramel-cream cheese version. Fall is my favorite season of the year and this cake embodies the enchanting spirit of the season.

Recipe: "Apple Cake with Sage Caramel" from The New Way to Cake by Benjamina Ebuehi.

Previous Post: "The Savory Sablé: Brown Butter and Sage Sablés," January 3, 2021.

A Cookie, A Bar, or a Petit Four: Almond Raspberry Bars

littlebakerbunny@yahoo.com (Littlebakerbunny) — Mon, 3 Jan 2022 23:51:00 -0500

Helen Fletcher says that her "Almond Raspberry Triangles" were one of the most popular petit fours at her bakery, but points out that they can be served as cookies, bars, triangles, or petit fours. The bars have raspberry jam sandwiched between a shortbread crust and a flourless almond topping.

The crust is simply a mixture of flour, sugar, and butter that can be made in a mixer (with softened butter) or a food processor (with cold butter). You press the crust into the bottom of a lined pan and bake it until golden. You spread raspberry jam on top of the crust, and I made one batch with raspberry preserves and another batch with black raspberry preserves. You make the topping in a food processor by grinding toasted almonds with sugar (I just used almond flour); and adding eggs, an egg white, salt, Amaretto, vanilla, almond extract, and melted butter. You spread the topping over the jam and bake the bars until the top is golden brown and set.

I cut my bars into rectangles and they were quite thin. They also were not as study as I was expecting. The recipe headnote says that the bars ship and travel well, but my crust was a little crumbly and I would not attempt to mail these bars. While I love black raspberry preserves, I think that the more vibrant flavor of the red raspberry jam worked better (you can see both varieties in the photo above).

I liked the combination of almond and raspberry in these bars, but something about them left me unsatisfied -- they seemed unsubstantial and lacked any distinctive texture. The top layer was a bit soft and damp, but I believe it was fully cooked. Perhaps I would have viewed these bars differently if they were cut into very small squares and presented as a petit four. But as a bar, I enjoyed them but wouldn't make them again.

Recipe: "Almond Raspberry Triangles" from Craving Cookies by Helen Fletcher.

Big Crumbs Make a Big Impression: Big Apple Crumb Cake

littlebakerbunny@yahoo.com (Littlebakerbunny) — Sun, 2 Jan 2022 23:52:00 -0500

The pandemic has changed up my farmers market schedule -- I no longer frequent the downtown markets that were convenient to my office, as I haven't set foot in my office since March 2020. While there are still plenty of markets in upper Northwest DC that are easy enough for us to get to, I've also started occasionally visiting a market in Arlington, VA; I recently stumbled upon it because it's close to the house of friends I often visit during the weekend. It turns out that one of the vendors at the Arlington market is an orchard in MD that has an excellent selection of apples -- and it's the same orchard that has a stand at the mid-week market closest to my office where I regularly purchased apples. And so this is a long way of saying that I was finally able to get a hold of Calville Blanc apples again in the fall after not having a source since the 2019 season.

With my Calville Blancs in hand, I decided to use them in the "Big Apple Crumb Cake" from Smitten Kitchen. This cake has three components, but the recipe is straightforward. You prepare the apples by coring and slicing them (I also peeled mine first), and tossing them with lemon juice, cinnamon, and sugar. The crumbs are a mixture of melted butter, brown sugar, sugar, cinnamon, kosher salt, and flour. And to make the cake batter, you beat softened butter with sugar until fluffy; add an egg, sour cream, and vanilla; and incorporate flour, baking powder, and salt. You pour the batter into a parchment-lined pan; tessellate the apples on top of the batter and pour on any cinnamon sugar liquid formed from the apples; and sprinkle on the crumbs.

The recipe says the cake can be baked in an 8-inch or 9-inch square pan. I tripled the recipe, baking a double batch of batter in a 9-inch by 13-inch pan and a single batch of batter in a USA Pan biscotti pan. The interior dimensions of the biscotti pan are 12-inches by 5.5-inches, meaning its volume is virtually identical to a 8-inch square pan. I like being able to mix up the shapes of cakes and bars.

I liked being able to cut the cake that I baked in the biscotti pan into slim fingers; every slice was identical and you could see the tidy layer of apples between the cake and the crumbs. The crumbs in this cake were perfect -- distinct and varied in size, crunchy, and buttery. The cake was plush and the cinnamon apples were a nice addition -- although in retrospect I wish I had cut the apples a bit thicker, because I would have like a bit more apple flavor. But I have no complaints about this cake -- every component was delicious and the generous amount of those wonderful crumbs made a lasting impression.

Recipe: "Big Apple Crumb Cake" from Deb Perelman of Smitten Kitchen.

A Few Lovely Bites: Pear Financiers

littlebakerbunny@yahoo.com (Littlebakerbunny) — Sat, 1 Jan 2022 20:50:00 -0500

After picking up some beautiful Bartlett pears at the farmers market, I looked for a pear recipe in Nicole Rucker's fruit-focused Dappled cookbook and found her "Pear Financiers." The recipe seemed like a great way to use the pears, as well as a good opportunity to use my new USA Pan brownie bite pan. I do own some silicone financier molds but I really dislike baking in silicone.

This recipe comes together quickly and the batter doesn't require any resting time. You mix sugar with flour, almond flour, and salt; add egg whites and honey; slowly stream in cooled browned butter; and beat the batter until it's thick and glossy. I used a #40 scoop to portion out the dough into the cavities of the brownie pan (I had enough batter to make 33 financiers, so I bake two batches seriatim since I only have one 20-cavity pan ) and placed a cube of Bartlett pear in the middle of each financier. I sprinkled the tops of the cakes with sugar before baking.

These little cakes were delightful. They were soft and buttery, with a firm and flavorful outer crust, and a nice crunch from the sugar. The creamy pear inside was delicious. I think the small size of the cakes sets up the perfect ratio of pear to cake, and even though each cake was only a few bites, each bite was just lovely.

Recipe: "Pear Financiers" from Dappled by Nicole Rucker.

These Monsters are Softies: Monster Cookies

littlebakerbunny@yahoo.com (Littlebakerbunny) — Mon, 20 Dec 2021 23:56:00 -0500

I was planning to make Shauna Sever's "Monster Cookies" for Halloween, because her recipe uses Reese's Pieces instead of M&Ms, and of course the Reese's color scheme screams Halloween. But two days before Halloween I heard a loud crash outside. After running to the window, I saw power lines down in our neighbors yard. Moments after that, our power went out. It was raining and the wind had taken down a massive oak tree at the end of the block -- thankfully just grazing the closest house, ripping off the gutter but otherwise causing only relatively minor roof damage -- taking the nearby utility pole with it, as well as damaging the pole across the street. We didn't have power for more than 24 hours. Even after the power came back on, it took us a while to sort through the items in the fridge and replenish what wee had to throw out. So I didn't get my act together to make the Monster Cookies until after Halloween.

This recipe does require at least four hours of chilling time, so it requires some advance planning. You beat melted and cooled butter with dark brown sugar, granulated sugar, corn syrup and vanilla; beat in eggs, followed by creamy peanut butter; add in old-fashioned oats, flour, baking soda, and salt; and stir in Reese's Pieces and chocolate chips (I used Callebaut 2815 57.9% callets). I chilled the dough for a few hours and then portioned it out with a #24 scoop, getting 42 cookies from a batch.

I loved the textured tops of the cookies, with the chocolate chips and Reese's Pieces adding some great color. The cookies were extremely chewy, hearty, chocolatey, and peanut buttery -- really, it was an all-around terrific cookie. The only thing I didn't love about them was that the outer crust and the edges of the cookie were quite soft -- there was no crisp exterior. It's been a long time since I've made the Monster Cookies from Baked: New Frontiers, but they're fairly similar with regard to the ingredients and their proportions. I seem to recall that the Baked cookies have a chewy interior but a firmer exterior. I like textural contrasts, so my personal preference would be for crisp edges whenever possible -- and perhaps I could have achieved that if I had baked my cookies longer. But I still enjoyed every soft, chewy bite.

Recipe: "Monster Cookies" from Midwest Made by Shauna Sever.

Previous Post: "The Cookie That Has Everything: Monster Cookies," August 24, 2010.

Chocolate Chip on Top, Caramel Party on the Bottom: Egg Yolk Chocolate Chip Cookies

littlebakerbunny@yahoo.com (Littlebakerbunny) — Sun, 19 Dec 2021 23:49:00 -0500

When I found myself with some extra egg yolks on hand, I decided to try Erin Clarkson's recipe for "Egg Yolk Chocolate Chip Cookies." I was surprised when I read through the recipe to see that the cookies include chunks of homemade caramel, because usually that is the sort of thing that merits a caramel reference in the recipe name (like Erin's recipe for Salted Caramel Snickerdoodles or Edd Kimber's Brown Butter Salted Peanut Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookies, which both similarly include chunks of homemade caramel). This is a small batch recipe with a stated yield of only 12 cookies.

To make the caramel, you melt granulated sugar in a pan, cook it until it turns dark amber, pour it out on a silpat- or parchment-lined sheet to cool, and chop it into chunks. For the cookie dough, you brown butter and let it cool; whisk in brown sugar, granulated sugar, egg yolks, and vanilla; add in flour, baking powder, baking soda, and kosher salt; and stir in chocolate and the caramel shards. I chopped a Ghiradelli 72% bar for the chocolate. I used a #30 scoop to portion out the dough and got 14 cookies from a batch. When the cookies were fresh out of the oven, I sprinkled on some Maldon salt.

From the top, these just looked like chocolate chip cookies, and I loved the way that that Ghiradelli chocolate melted into large puddles. But when I took a bite, I thought that the most prominent flavor was the caramel, with the chocolate taking a backseat. The caramel -- which was hard and brittle before being added into the dough -- became softer and chewy during baking, and the texture was incredibly enjoyable in the cookie (as was the caramel flavor, of course). I've included a photo of the undersides of the cookies below so you can see just how much caramel there was.

These were terrific cookies and I really liked them, but to me they seemed more like caramel cookies with chocolate chips, instead of chocolate chip cookies with caramel. My husband thought that this was just perfect, and objectively, there's nothing wrong with having caramel cookies with chocolate. But I felt there was too much caramel.

I think part of the reason the amount of caramel didn't delight me is that it didn't comport with my expectations -- going back to the fact that these are described as just chocolate chip cookies in the recipe name. Personally, I prefer Edd Kimber's Brown Butter Salted Peanut Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookies. They are quite similar in many respects. But while Erin's cookies have a caramel to chocolate ratio of 6:5 by weight, Edd's have a caramel to chocolate ratio of 2:3. I liked having the caramel in a supporting role, and Edd's cookies also include salted peanuts, which makes the experience of eating one seem a lot like consuming a candy bar. I would definitely recommend both recipes, though -- you just have to decide what you want more of, caramel or chocolate!

Recipe: "Egg Yolk Chocolate Chip Cookies" from Erin Clarkson of Cloudy Kitchen.

Previous Posts:

"Chewy Caramel for the Win: Brown Butter Salted Peanut Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookies," March 6, 2021.
"You Really Can Add Salted Caramel to Anything: Salted Caramel Snickerdoodles," May 15, 2020.

Like a Citrus Snickerdoodle: Chewy Earl Grey Sugar Cookies

littlebakerbunny@yahoo.com (Littlebakerbunny) — Sat, 18 Dec 2021 23:52:00 -0500

A fellow baking enthusiast on Instagram was kind enough to draw my attention to Yossy Arefi's recipe for "Chewy Earl Grey Sugar Cookies" in The New York Times, mentioning that they seemed like something I would like. She was absolutely right and I immediately added them to my to-bake list.

I used Earl Grey tea bags for the recipe. I cut open enough tea bags to yield a tablespoon of Earl Grey, added the tea to some butter, and heated the mixture until the butter started to bubble around the edges. After cooling the butter slightly, I transferred it to the bowl of my stand mixer; added brown sugar, salt, orange zest, and sugar; mixed in an egg and vanilla; and incorporated flour, baking powder, and baking soda. I used a #24 scoop to portion out the cookies (getting 19 cookies from a batch) and rolled each one in granulated sugar before baking.

My first pan of cookies didn't spread much in the oven, so I started flattening the dough with my hand before baking and I liked the results much better. In the photo above, you can raised ridges on some of the cookies that were created from the imprint of my fingers. I loved these cookies. Even though they didn't have any cream of tartar, they read to me like a snickerdoodle -- a hefty sugar cookie with a crisp exterior and chewy interior.

I'm not certain if I would have been able to identify the Earl Grey as an ingredient just from tasting a cookie. I don't drink tea very often, but of course I'm very familiar with Earl Grey and I think that bergamot oil and Earl Grey have very distinctive flavors. But here where the tea was combined with orange zest, I thought it just came across as a general citrus flavor. I know that bergamot is a citrus fruit, but for some reason I have never thought of Earl Grey as citrusy; I've always considered it to be more floral in character. But however you might describe it, I thought this cookie was delicious.

Recipe: "Chewy Earl Gray Sugar Cookies" by Yossy Arefi, from The New York Times.

Some SponCon Is Awesome: PBJ Jammy Dodgers

littlebakerbunny@yahoo.com (Littlebakerbunny) — Fri, 17 Dec 2021 04:01:00 -0500

Lyle's Golden Syrup is something I keep on hand at all times, or at least I try to. I noticed over the spring and summer that it mysteriously disappeared from shelves in grocery stores, except for one local grocery that still sold golden syrup in tins. I know beggars shouldn't be choosers, but I really hate the metal syrup tin. I literally need a screwdriver to pry off the lid every time, it's impossible to pour out the syrup without having it drip back onto the tin, and the lid ends up getting bent out of shape. I was hoarding my last plastic squeeze bottle of Lyle's until I managed to bring a few back from California in October, after I found them at Bristol Farms while I was visiting my parents. Thankfully, the golden syrup shortage now appears to be over -- in the last few weeks the plastic bottles have reappeared on shelves and I now have an excessive number of them stashed in my cupboard.

I was flush with syrup and it was perfect timing when I saw a sponsored recipe from Lyle's Golden Syrup pop up in my Facebook timeline: Peanut Butter and Jelly Jammy Dodgers. Normally I wouldn't get that excited about a sponsored recipe, but I clicked through and realized that the recipe was developed by Edd Kimber (and the recipe is also on Edd's website). I trust Edd a lot more than I would trust some nameless recipe developer in the Tate & Lyle test kitchen (or maybe the American Sugar Refining test kitchen, as ASR -- the same company that owns Domino and C&H -- now owns Tate & Lyle).

Jammy dodgers are shortbread sandwich cookies filled with fruit jam. This PB&J version has peanut cookies (made with ground nuts) sandwiched around a peanut butter filling, raspberry jam, and chopped peanuts. You make the cookie dough in a food processor by pulsing salted peanuts with a little flour until finely ground; adding more flour, sugar, and salt (note that there is a typo in the recipe on both the Lyle's website and Edd's website -- neither one tells you when to add the sugar); pulsing in cold cubed butter; and adding a mixture of egg, egg yolk, and golden syrup. You wrap the resulting dough in plastic and chill it before rolling it out.

I rolled the dough to a thickness of an eighth of an inch and used a 2.75-inch round cutter to cut out the cookies, removing a circle of dough from the center of half of the cookies. The dough was sticky and uncooperative. Whenever possible, I avoid using any flour at all when I roll out cookie dough. Usually rolling the dough between two pieces of parchment paper is sufficient to keep it from sticking, but this dough was so sticky that I had to repeatedly flour the dough and the parchment I was rolling it on. Fortunately I didn't have any problem gathering up and re-rolling all of the scraps multiple times, so there was no wasted dough. I ended up with 64 cookies, enough to make 32 sandwiches. I did not bother chilling my cut cookies before baking.

The peanut butter filling is a mixture of softened butter, smooth peanut butter, powdered sugar, golden syrup, and salt. I put the filling into a pastry bag with a large plain tip and piped a fat ring of filling on the underside of each of the cooled solid cookies. Then I filled the center of the ring with raspberry jam, tossed on a few chopped salted peanuts, and added a cookie lid that had been sprinkled with powdered sugar.

I was so pleased with the way these cookies came out. The dough held its shape very well during baking. The cookies were elegantly thin and delicate looking, and uniform in size and shape, without an air bubble to be seen anywhere (I was worried about air bubbles because they can form when you re-roll dough scraps, especially scraps that have been coated in flour). Most of all, they were freakin' delicious. The cookies were firm, crisp, and didn't get soggy; I stored the cookies in the fridge and they tasted great cold. The peanut butter filling was rich and smooth and delivered the clear flavor of peanut butter without the heaviness or stickiness. The PB&J aspect of the cookie came through bright and clear, and the sharpness of the raspberry jam was just lovely with the filling and peanut cookie. The bits of chopped nuts in the middle were a nice textural bonus.

I've got nothing negative to say about this cookie and I wouldn't change a thing. I'm still generally quite skeptical about sponsored content (I mean, I am an advertising attorney, after all!), but this little bit of sponcon Edd Kimber turned out for Lyle's is pretty awesome.

Recipe: "PBJ Jammy Dodgers" by Edd Kimber.

Can You Have Too Many Sprinkles?: White Chocolate Birthday Cookies

littlebakerbunny@yahoo.com (Littlebakerbunny) — Thu, 16 Dec 2021 03:51:00 -0500

I still work from home 100% of the time, and I miss my wonderful colleagues tremendously. Not just the countless daily casual interactions we used to have in the office, but also the times when we would gather together to celebrate milestones. It's always sad to say goodbye to a colleague at a going away or retirement party, but having these parties over Zoom seems so inadequate. While agency-wide parties are definitely out, some folks have been willing to organize and host smaller gatherings (outdoors, of course) to send off colleagues in person. For one of these bittersweet occasions, I decided to bake Buttermilk By Sam's White Chocolate Birthday Cookies. I mean, if a whole mess of rainbow sprinkles can't make people feel happy, what will?

This is a small batch recipe with a stated yield of eight cookies, but I tripled it. Surprisingly, it doesn't require a mixer. You melt butter with brown sugar and white chocolate in a bowl set over a pan of simmering water; cool the mixture until just warm to the touch; add salt, imitation vanilla, and an egg yolk; fold in cake flour; baking soda, sprinkles, and white chocolate; and chill the dough briefly before scooping it out. I used Callebaut Velvet callets for the white chocolate and I made my own mix of sprinkles by combining rainbow jimmies and several different colors of confetti sprinkles.

I used a #24 scoop to portion out the chilled dough and got 24 cookies, so I hit the stated yield on the nose. I wanted sprinkle overload, so I also dipped the top of each cookie in more sprinkles before baking. My cookies spread quite a bit and ended up fairly thin and golden brown. They had a crisp exterior and a chewy interior, and they were a big hit at the party. But I think I overdid it with the sprinkles, because even though I loved the way the cookies looked, you could actually taste the sprinkles -- and let's face it, sprinkles don't taste good. If you want a funfetti vibe and vanilla box cake flavor, this might be the cookie for you.

And of course I didn't let the three egg whites I had left over go to waste. I made a triple batch of Buttermilk by Sam's Small Batch Double Chunk Cookies, with Valrhona Caramelia caramelized milk chocolate. I thought they were the natural complement to the birthday cake cookies, and not only because making both recipes at the same time is an efficient use of eggs. I figured that between the birthday cake cookies and chocolate chunk cookies, I could offer something that would appeal to everyone.

Recipe: "One Yolk, Eight White Chocolate Birthday Cookies" from Buttermilk by Sam.

Previous Posts:

"Funfetti in Bar Form: Birthday Cake Blondies," December 6, 2021.
"One Egg White = Seven (or Eight!) Amazing Cookies: Small Batch Double Chocolate Chunk Cookies," April 23, 2021.
"Sparkle and Joy: Vanilla Bean Sprinkle Sugar Cookies," December 11, 2020.
"Holiday Party Small Bites: a Trio of Cake Truffles, Berry Meringues, Stamped Citrus Shortbread, and Peanut Candy Shortbread," January 7, 2020.
"Liam Turns Ten: Baller Birthday Sheet Cake and Chocolate-Glazed Peanut Butter Mousse Cake," October 6, 2019.
"Baked Sunday Mornings: Baked Ultimate Birthday Cake," May 10, 2015.
"Imitation is the Clearest Form of Flattery," April 24, 2012.

I Should Lay Off the Almond Extract: Cherry Coconut Almond Cake

littlebakerbunny@yahoo.com (Littlebakerbunny) — Wed, 15 Dec 2021 03:48:00 -0500

Cherries, coconuts, and almonds are three of my favorite things, so making Yossy Arefi's "Cherry Coconut Almond Cake" was a no-brainer. The only problem was that the recipe didn't make it to the top of my to-bake list until long after cherry season was over. But the recipe says that you can use fresh or frozen cherries (tart or sweet), so I used frozen sweet cherries.

This is a one-bowl recipe that doesn't require a mixer. You whisk eggs and sugar until pale and foamy; add buttermilk, oil, vanilla, and coconut extract; and incorporate the dry ingredients (flour, almond flour, unsweetened shredded coconut, and baking powder. You spread the batter in a parchment-lined pan; scatter the cherries on top; and sprinkle on sugar (I used coarse sugar), sliced almonds, and more shredded unsweetened coconut before baking. I keep coconut extract on hand but use it sparingly since sometimes it can come across more like suntan lotion as opposed to actual coconuts. So instead of coconut extract, I added almond extract. I love almond extract and have a habit of adding it to anything with almonds, even when the recipe doesn't call for it.

The cherries sank into the cake during baking, so they weren't visible until I sliced the cake. The cake was tender and fluffy, but I think I accidentally turned it into an almond cake. Maybe just this one time I slightly regret adding almond extract, because the cake was so almond forward that it was hard to taste the coconut. Also, I don't think that frozen fruit was a good choice. The fruit was very soft, and I think the cake would have been better if I had used fresh, firm, Bing cherries. (Even though the headnote says that tart cherries and sweet cherries are equally good for this recipe, I think I would give the edge to sweet cherries just for their firmer texture.)

This was a good cake. But if I can restrain myself from undisciplined almond extract usage and wait until cherries are back in season, I'm confident it will be better next time.

Recipe: "Cherry Coconut Almond Cake" from Snacking Cakes by Yossy Arefi.

Pumpkin Spice Season is Calling: Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bars

littlebakerbunny@yahoo.com (Littlebakerbunny) — Tue, 14 Dec 2021 02:02:00 -0500

After being reminded that I should use my set of Heilala flavored vanilla extracts, the pumpkin spice vanilla seemed like it should be next on the list, because fall baking season was in full swing (this was back in late October). So I made Sabine Vernier's Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bars.

The recipe is quick and easy. You cream room temperature butter with brown sugar until fluffy; add an egg and vanilla, followed by pumpkin puree; mix in the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, kosher salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, allspice, and cloves), and stir in chocolate. I used a bag of Ghiradelli milk chocolate chips. I transferred the batter to a parchment-lined 9-inch by 13-inch pan to bake.

Erin Clarkson described these bars as "a tiny bit fudgy" on her blog when she shared the recipe, but I thought that these bars were basically just a very short pumpkin cake with chocolate chips. A tasty cake, to be sure -- but still, a soft pumpkin-spice cake without any hint of fudginess (hopefully I didn't overbake them). While I enjoyed the bars, I didn't find them particularly interesting and I couldn't help thinking that a cream cheese frosting would be a really good addition. I am glad I used milk chocolate in the recipe. I generally prefer dark chocolate, but I think that milk chocolate also has its time and place, and here the milk chocolate complemented the pumpkin and spices without competing with them. I can't say for sure how much the pumpkin spice vanilla added to the flavor of the end result -- but these bars will definitely hit the spot if you're looking for a pumpkin-spice fix.

Recipe: "Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bars" from The Chocolate Addict's Baking Book by Sabine Vernier, recipe available here at Cloudy Kitchen.

A Classic, Updated: World Peace Cookies 2.0

littlebakerbunny@yahoo.com (Littlebakerbunny) — Mon, 13 Dec 2021 02:13:00 -0500

My husband recently gave me a copy of Baking with Dorie for my birthday, but I got a sneak preview weeks earlier when King Arthur Baking Company published Dorie Greenspan's recipe for World Peace Cookies 2.0 on its website. Of course I'm a fan of Dorie's original World Peace Cookies, and I couldn't wait to see what she had done to update such a classic.

The original World Peace Cookie is a straightforward chocolate sablé: butter, sugar, brown sugar, fleur de sel, vanilla, flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and bittersweet chocolate chunks. The revised version includes rye flour, cocoa nibs, freeze-dried raspberries, and a pinch of Espelette pepper. That all sounded great except for the pepper, which scared me a little -- so I decided to leave it out.

Making the dough is straightforward. You cream softened butter with sugar and brown sugar; add fleur de sel and vanilla (and the pepper, if you're using it); incorporate all-purpose flour, rye flour, Dutch cocoa, and baking soda; and mix in broken freeze-dried raspberries, cocoa nibs, and chocolate chunks. I used a chopped Ghiradelli 60% bar for the chocolate. Right before I made these cookies, I happened to notice my set of Heilala flavored vanilla extracts that have been sitting neglected in the cabinet. I received it as a reward after backing Heilala's Kickstarter campaign to bring their flavored extracts to market, and I keep forgetting that I have them. But I decided to use the berry vanilla extract in this recipe. It was quite fragrant, and the dough had a noticeable berry aroma as I formed the it into a log that I chilled overnight.

The next day when I sliced the dough it was well behaved and didn't crack. I sprinkled the cookies with Maldon salt before baking, and the cookies held their shape well during baking. I liked the little specks of raspberries visible on top. The cookies were terrific, although I was surprised that they were chewy and not sandy at all. They had rich chocolate flavor, a nice kick of a raspberry (I don't know how much the berry vanilla extract contributed to the "berry-ness" of the cookies, but they continued to exude a chocolate-berry aroma even after baking), a hard crunch from the nibs, and just the right amount of salt. I wouldn't have known there was any rye in these cookies just from tasting one. I also would not have recognized this cookie as a riff on the original World Peace Cookie, but I don't really care -- I'm just grateful that Dorie Greenspan continues to share her baking gifts and wonderful recipes with all of us!

Recipe: "World Peace Cookies 2.0" from Baking with Dorie by Dorie Greenspan, recipe available here from King Arthur Baking Company.

Previous Post: "Can Chocolate + Salt Change the World?: World Peace Cookies," April 2, 2011.

Clara Turns Eight: Mint Chip Ice Cream Cake

littlebakerbunny@yahoo.com (Littlebakerbunny) — Sat, 11 Dec 2021 14:27:00 -0500

I'm always happy to accomodate requests from the guest of honor when I make a celebration cake. Thankfully, I've been lucky so far and no one has asked for anything unreasonable. When my friend's daughter Clara turned eight, she requested an ice cream birthday cake with vanilla cake and mint chip ice cream. I immediately said yes even though I've never made an ice cream cake before. I figured it couldn't be that difficult -- you just need a cake and some ice cream, and I know how to make both of those things.

As I thought more about the cake, I decided to also add a chocolate sauce component. I used Jeni Britton Bauer's "Lady Cake" and "Runny Chocolate Sauce" recipes, and a mint chocolate chip ice cream recipe from The New York Times.

I made the ice cream mixture first. The recipe requires a lot of mint leaves (more than four ounces) and I couldn't find any mint at the farmers market. So I decided to get mint from Amazon Fresh (we have a physical store within walking distance of our house and I like buying my groceries in person), as they sell reasonably priced 3-ounce clamshell containers of organic spearmint. You steep the mint in heavy cream; strain out the mint; add sugar to the cream and bring it to a simmer; add in a tempered mixture of egg yolks and sugar; cook the mixture until it thickens; put it through a sieve; let it cool; and then chill it until cold. My custard had just a tinge of pale green color from the mint.

This mint chip ice cream isn't just mint-flavored ice cream with chocolate chips. It's mint-flavored ice cream with fresh mint-chocolate chips, something I've never seen before. To make the mint chips, you melt bittersweet chocolate and spread it out over a sheet of parchment paper; lay a single layer of mint leaves over half of the chocolate; and fold over the sheet of parchment paper to enclose the mint between two layers of chocolate. You chill the chocolate in the fridge to set and then chop it. While many of my chips remained intact with mint hidden inside, quite a few split open, exposing the mint.

I also baked the cake and made the chocolate sauce while the custard was chilling. The sauce is a mixture of water, sugar, and Dutch cocoa powder that you bring to a boil and then take off the heat before adding unsweetened chocolate. You are supposed to run it through a food processor until it's smooth and glossy; I used an immersion blender.

The Lady Cake is a yellow cake that you can make with cake flour, whole-wheat pastry flour, cornstarch, or grluten-free flour. I honestly had no idea that you could just make a cake with just cornstarch, but the headnote says that cornstarch creates a "killer fine texture, with tiny little holes in the crumb and a caramelized flakiness on top." I used cake flour because I wanted to stick with what I know. You cream softened butter with sugar until thick and pale; add the eggs and vanilla; and alternately add in the dry ingredients (cake flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt) and sour cream. I baked the cake in a parchment-lined 9-inch and split it into two layers once it was cool.

I assembled the cake in an 8-inch cake ring and I trimmed the cake layers to fit into it. I placed one cake layer in the bottom of a the ring and spread on some runny chocolate sauce. Then I froze the ice cream in my ice cream maker, folding in the mint-chocolate chips at the end. There were so many mint-chocolate chips that I didn't use them all. I took ice cream directly from the ice cream maker -- while it was frozen but the consistency of soft-serve -- and spread it on top of the cake layer and chocolate sauce in the ring. Then I added the second cake layer, spread on more chocolate sauce, and added more ice cream. Finally, I added more chocolate sauce and mint-chocolate chips to top it off. I put the assembled cake in the freezer overnight.

The next day I delivered the cake and advised our friends that they should run a kitchen towel under hot water, wring it out, and wrap it around the cake ring to warm it up a little and help release the cake from the ring. It was apparently still quite a struggle, and in retrospect I probably should have lined the cake ring with acetate to make it easier to remove the cake. Regardless, I thought the cake looked terrific.

The cake was fantastic. The biggest surprise to me was the ice cream. I absolutely loved it, but it was very herbaceous and Clara's sisters at first thought it was basil flavored. It definitely did have a basil character to it, so much so that for a moment I honestly wondered if someone at the Amazon produce warehouse had slipped some basil into my containers of mint. The flavor of basil does have a mint-like component, but I had never thought about mint tasting like basil. Maybe it was just the particular variety of spearmint I used, but whatever it was, the flavor of the ice cream was really unusual and memorable, in the best possible way. I'm delighted with the way this ice cream cake turned out!

Recipes: "Lady Cake" and "Runny Chocolate Sauce" from Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream Desserts by Jeni Britton Bauer; and "Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream" by David Carmichael and adapted by Melissa Clark, from The New York Times.

Previous Cakes for Clara:

"Ipso Fatto Instant Photo: Clara Turns Seven! [Homemade Strawberry Cake and Super-Thick and Fruity Food Processor Whipped Cream," November 22, 2020.
"Clara Turns Six!: King Arthur Flour's Classic Birthday Cake," December 3, 2019.

Bring the Heat: Hermit Bars

littlebakerbunny@yahoo.com (Littlebakerbunny) — Wed, 8 Dec 2021 23:59:00 -0500

I had never heard of Helen S. Fletcher until one day her cookbook Craving Cookies literally showed up on my doorstep -- a kind gift from a friend who shares a love of baking (thank you, Raylene!). I decided to dive right into the book, starting with Fletcher's recipe for "Hermit Bars." I know hermit bars are a thing, but I've somehow been baking for more than 25 years and never made them before.

To make the batter for these bars, you cream softened butter with brown sugar until light and fluffy; add eggs, followed by molasses; and incorporate the dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, baking powder, ground ginger, coarsely ground black pepper, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and salt). I spread the batter into a parchment-lined 9-inch by 13-inch pan to bake. The recipe says that the edges of the baked bars will be higher than the center and that you should immediately flatten the edges with an offset spatula when you take the pan out of the oven. The edges of my bars were slightly taller than the middle, but when I tried to press them down, they bounced back. So I did not manage to get a completely level top.

After the bars were completely cool, I added a glaze made from lemon juice and powdered sugar (and I added a bit of salt). It set firm. The recipe headnote says that Fletcher always tops the glaze with confetti quins or nonpareils for crunch. I would have done the same, but I was serving these bars at the same time as Mike Johnson's birthday cake blondies, and I thought that offering two items with rainbow sprinkles would be excessive.

While I can see how a little added texture would be welcome, these bars were wonderful just as they were. I'm not exactly sure what the texture of the bars was supposed to be, but mine were more like cake than a bar. Perhaps I overbaked them a little, but even just as a short piece of cake, they were very satisfying. The spice level was intense and the flavor profile was different from a typical spice cake or cookie. I think the black pepper in particular made a big impact, adding a completely different dimension of heat and depth. The lemon glaze was the perfect topping, adding a burst of bright citrus that cut through all of the spice. Next time I'll add sprinkles!

Recipe: "Hermit Bars" from Craving Cookies by Helen S. Fletcher.