WHAT’S HOT

This section, “What’s Hot”, is where I will archive the posts that originally appear on the Home page under What’s Hot Now.

February 17, 2012

Trends are Not All Bad – Especially When They Involve Salted Caramel

The National Association for the Specialty Food Trade (NASFT) annual Fancy Food Show is held twice a year, but the summer event is the biggie. This is where industry insiders go to see, smell and eat the trends – and several years ago salted caramels popped up all over the show – and subsequently all over the U.S. and beyond! Every chocolatier and candy maker from coast to coast seems to have a version. Some are better than others, and this is true whether we are talking about actual candies, sauces or bonbon fillings, but certainly the concept of a salt enhanced caramel is a fabulous one. The salt acts both as a counter balance and an enhancement for sweet caramel and I can’t get enough of this taste sensation.

And so this brings me to another recipe from the February 2012 issue of Bon Appetit – Banana Cream Pie with Salty Bourbon Caramel. If the name of this dessert doesn’t grab your attention, I don’t know what will. The crust is peanutty and rich. It’s filled with layers upon layers of vanilla pastry cream and sliced ripe bananas. Whipped cream crowns the top and the salted Bourbon caramel can be drizzled on top (like in the pic) or served alongside. (Don’t worry, the caramel recipe makes more than what is shown in the photo. I just didn’t want to drown the pie. I did that off-camera when it was time to eat).

I have to admit that I doubled the butter in the crust by mistake, but it still worked so I went ahead with the rest of the recipe. I brought this to a party with a few desserts and this one was positively attacked. For me it’s the combination of salty and sweet, crunchy and creamy, light and rich all in once dessert that makes this irresistible. 

February 12, 2012

Moon Pies – Beyond Graham Crackers

The February issue of Bon Appetit has this luscious picture on the cover of a crunchy fried chicken leg. It looks so positively crackly and crispy that I can hear the sound. The fried chicken article is awesome and recommends the use of a cast iron pan, which I heartily agree with, but, what I want to bring to your attention is a recipe for moon pies, specifically the Chocolate Oatmeal Moon Pies that have come our way via Chef Stephen Stryjewski of Cochon in New Orleans, LA. The classic moon pie is a sandwich of graham crackers and marshmallow cream, the whole dipped in chocolate. This rendition is somehow homey and yet over-the-top at the same time; it was a huge hit at a Super Bowl party. I made them once as is, with dried cherries and pecans, and another time with raisins and walnuts. Both fabulous. They are popular in the south and we had a North Carolinian at the party who said they were the best she had ever tasted which I took as a huge compliment. BTW moon pies are sometimes thrown by “krewes” at Mardi Gras. I have to tell you that this version might leave a bruise. They are pretty hefty – in a good way.

A couple of notes on the original recipe: I used table salt, not kosher, in same amounts and it was fine. Also, I used a #40 Zeroll scoop (my fave) to dole out the batter. Recipe says to pull them out of the oven while still soft in the center; be sure to heed that advice. They firm up tremendously upon cooling. Also, I went overboard with the marshmallow and initially used more than a tablespoon between the cookies. Foolish me. I should have known our test kitchen was spot on. Mine were really tasty – but then after they sat around for a while, the cookies started sliding off of one another. Stick with the 1 tablespoon. PS: I refrigerated these overnight in an airtight container and that worked perfectly for munching the next day.

February 9, 2012

Not a Mere Trifle

Back in early January I was invited to a Twelfth Night Party hosted by a friend. The invitation said desserts and libations would be provided (it was not a potluck), but the hostess said that she would never turn down a dessert from me. (Another friend of mine said my desserts were “grandfathered” at any party and trump any directives in an invite, which I found amusing).

I got to thinking….well, a twelfth night cake would be awfully literal, so I scratched that idea pretty quickly. The hostess is a writer (as would be many of the guests) so I started thinking literary and with Shakespeare and England coming to mind I immediately thought of trifle.

Trifles are fabulous party desserts. (If you are going to any group Valentine’s Day parties, this would be a great dessert to bring). They are best assembled at least a day ahead – and many of the components can be made days before that. They serve a crowd and if presented in a classic trifle dish, they make a show-stopping statement on the table. At its most traditional a trifle is comprised of sponge cake or pound cake, sherry, fruit or fruit preserve (usually a “red” fruit such as raspberry), pastry cream and whipped cream. The thing I love about trifles, from a recipe developer’s perspective, is that they are so easily varied: all you need is a cake, pastry cream, something fruity (optional), a liqueur (optional) and whipped cream. After that, adding nuts or texture is up to you, too. Sky’s the limit. And making them ahead is not only possible, it is downright recommended! The flavors and textures meld during an overnight sit in the refrigerator.

I decided to cruise the internet for some ideas and landed upon an Epicurious.com recipe called Almond Sherry Christmas Trifle (but keep reading for my version pictured above). I always trust their recipes as I know first hand that they have gone through a thorough testing.

It had the flavors I wanted but I immediately made some changes. First of all, I have my own tried and true pastry cream, so I knew I would use that and I doubled the candied almonds. Also, the recipe called for two 15 x 10-inch pans. I wanted to re-configure the original recipe to fit into standard half-sheet pans. I was ready to begin. Please note that the recipe is based on the original at Epicurious.

First order of business was to re-do the cake component. I have to warn you that it requires almond paste, and being an almond paste fan, I always have it around. This will most likely be a special purchase for you. (Use American Almond brand –and not the kind that comes in the tube from the supermarket, which is beyond dry). I increased the original amounts and it worked well. Sour cherry preserves will be a special purchase item too; luckily Smucker’s has a great one that is readily available in the supermarket. Put sliced almonds and golden sherry on your shopping list too.

The party was lively and fun and the trifle was a huge hit. Truth be told, it was a bit sweet for my taste. Next time I will use a dry sherry, but if popular opinion counts for something, make it as is. Here is my version of Sour Cherry Trifle with Candied Almonds and Sherry.

February 2, 2012

The Obligatory Heart Shaped Dessert

I don’t mean to sound grumpy. In all seriousness, there are certain holidays when I like to get corny. If it’s Halloween, I’ll be thinking orange and black; no St. Pat’s day is complete without an Irish soda bread and when it comes to Valentine’s Day I think about chocolate, hearts and the colors red, pink and white. This year I was inspired by Disco Dust. “What’s this?” you might ask. Well, it’s an edible glitter that is so over-the-top, so sparkly, that it out glitts (yes, I made that word up) any edible glitter that ever existed before. There is a lovely color, that is sort of pink, sort of white, kind of iridescent with a hint of gold that just screamed PUT ME ON A HEART SHAPED DESSERT. When I am moved by an ingredient, I follow through. There’s no use arguing; it will niggle my brain until the creative idea comes to fruition. Here’s how my 2012 Valentine’s Day recipe was born.

My book, Cake Balls (Harvard Common Press) is in production and will launch in the fall. I’ve been itching and twitching to bring you those recipes and pictures, but you will have to wait (publisher says so). Well, since I am impatient I decided to cheat a little bit , so I created a Valentine’s Day cake ball – I mean cake heart – just for you. With a little bit of lemon, a lot of white chocolate, and in this case, an overdose of glittery Disco Dust (in a color called “Pink Rose”, found at New York Cake & Baking Supplies), my White Chocolate Lemon Hearts were born.

One caveat: I had been told that the brilliant, sparkly qualities of Disco Dust are hard to capture in photographs, so when preparing these hearts, I was quite liberal with the application. I thought they looked charming in person and true-to-life in the picture, so I figured – job well done. Then I took this platter of hearts to my writer’s group Friday get-together. This crowd is always appreciative of the free eats. One by one, person after person selected a heart and took a bite. As I looked around at their faces, I saw glitter –everywhere! On cheeks, and stuck to lips. Embedded in moustaches and crowning noses and fingertips. The fingers were a problem. I mentioned to everyone that they were now festooned (I was quite embarrassed) and as they tried to rub the specks away, their fingers simply transferred more glitter to this spot and that. This is a warning to you. Your friends might not be so forgiving, unless they have a sense of humor (like my crowd) or are little kids – and then they might just squeal with delight.

January 23, 2012

Pumpkin Cobbler – A Quick, Easy Alternative to Pumpkin Pie

OK this recipe needs help. It has a visual image problem. We all know what pumpkin pie looks like. It aint fancy, but we know that its humble looks support a creamy, tasty classic. How about pumpkin cobbler? Well since you’ve probably never seen one before you don’t know what to expect. Look at this below:

Pockets of creamy pumpkin and buttery brown sugar/walnut streusel woven throughout tender cake. You simply scoop it up to serve – so truth be told it doesn’t look like much on the plate either. Right about now you might be thinking, WOW Dede you aren’t exactly selling me on this dessert. But if you could just scratch and sniff, if you could taste the contrasting textures and flavors of this dessert, you would be a convert. The nuts are toasty, the brown sugar lends a butterscotch flavor, the pumpkin evokes pumpkin pie, the cake is tender and the whole is unlike anything you have ever had.

So do not judge by looks alone. I brought this to an annual potluck and several friends came bounding up to me with expectation in their eyes asking “Dede, what did you bring? Did you bring that chocolate cake?” On the table was a very over-the-top cake that someone brought from Whole Foods. Layers of chocolate cake, chocolate mousse, fresh raspberries, white and dark chocolate curls all over the top. In short, the kind of dessert they were used to me bringing. “No, that isn’t my cake. I brought the pumpkin cobbler,” waving over to the dessert above. Expressions sank, eyes fell. Disappointment hung in the air. And people weren’t being subtle about it. I guess it’s my fault; I had trained them to expect Excess. But one bite and then you will see what I love about this dessert.

It is also ridiculously easy to make. If you have a party to go to and don’t have much time, consider this recipe as a lifesaver. I have included a second photo below which shows the cobbler before baking. You can see the pockets of pumpkin a little more clearly. (The white part is the batter, which bakes up golden). I first published this recipe in my book Bake it To The Limit, but since then I have come to like doubling the streusel.

If you like pumpkin desserts, try my Pumpkin Cobbler on a cold fall or winter day.

January 20, 2012

People constantly ask me this question. The most challenging time was when I was working on my two wedding cake books (Wedding Cakes You Can Make and The Wedding Cake Book). You would think that baked goods are always welcomed, but trying to give away 12-inch and 14-inch cake tiers is a bit awkward. But I digress…..on a typical week I have batches of cookies and brownies and these are easy to share. My local Apple computer folks, my veterinary office, my gym friends, my webmasters and my car mechanics are the most likely recipients. The gym people are funny. Some give me the hairy eyeball if I do bring in baked goods and others are pissy if I don’t! (I like the latter ones more; they’re my kind of folk).

I handle larger desserts such as cakes, pies, tarts and the like a little bit differently. I often time the recipe development of those to go along with potlucks, parties and such, so that I have a more formal venue to bring them to. 

Recently I knew I had a dog club meeting coming up and everyone was encouraged to bring dessert, as the club was providing the other food and drink. (For those that are interested you can see some of my dogs on my dog-blog Legacybts.blogspot.com). I wanted something portable and I was in a pie mood…

And then it came to me….I hadn’t made this pie in a while…chocolate chip cookie-esque crust, deep, dark, rich chocolate pudding filling, espresso whipped cream and a shower of chocolate shavings on top. Reminiscent of comfort-food diner pies but elevated with the best chocolate and cocoa – and the hit of espresso keeps it from being too sweet.

I love the flavors of chocolate and coffee together and I also love contrasting textures within one dessert – and this dessert offers it all. The crust is buttery and cookie-like, the filling dense and creamy and the topping is light and billowy with the bitter edge of espresso. It also serves up very easily and beautifully. You know how when you cut into pies and the slices are messy, messy, messy? I swear to you that the above slice was the First slice out and this works every time with this pie. As with many of my recipes, I name it to truly represent what it is: Espresso Black-Bottom Pie in a Chocolate Chip Cookie Crust. The pudding filling, by the way, is great on its own in pretty glasses or cups.

January 17, 2012

Alice Medrich’s “My Chocolate Chip Cookies”

Chocolate, dogs and cookbooks. These are my addictions and I am not sure which order to put them in. Depends on the day. Today let’s focus on chocolate – chocolate chip cookies to be precise. I am a sucker for trying out new recipes and I decided to give Alice Medrich’s recipe a spin. She calls them “My Chocolate Chip Cookies” and they are from her newest book, Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy Melt-in-Your-Mouth Cookies, which came out in November 2010.

At first glance, the recipe is fairly straightforward as far as ingredients are concerned, but Alice puts her personal stamp on this classic with specific techniques that insure, as she puts it, “crisp caramelized edges and rich chewy centers”. Those words are what drew me to try her version because that is exactly how I like my chocolate chip cookies.

Alice calls for unbleached all-purpose flour, which is my go-to as well for chocolate chip cookies. She recommends equal parts brown and white granulated sugar but the recipe simply states 3/4 cup (5.25 oz.) brown sugar and does not specify light or dark. In her Ingredients section she clearly states recipes can work with both light and dark and that it is a personal taste preference. While this is true I would like to know what she prefers here (note to self – email Alice and ask. I’ll let you all know when I hear). As a default, I used light brown sugar. She lists a full teaspoon of salt, which I knew I would like, as chocolate chip cookies come alive with a nice dose of it. Alice likes to use melted butter (unsalted) as it adds to the chew factor – and also makes the dough very easy to make. She also recommends a rest in the frig, preferably overnight, but 1 or 2 hours will do. The last detail is her recommendation for using ungreased cookie sheets (just like the original Toll-House recipe).

Now, I make a living out of dissecting recipes. LOL that sounds so clinical. Let’s re-state that and call it studying recipes. As I mentioned, at first glance, this looks basic – there is butter and sugar and eggs and some chips and nuts etc. But truly, so many recipes are like this. (Think about how unwavering most pound cake recipes are). And yet, they all yield different results and it is due to the attention to detail of the recipe writer. (Or, maybe the writer is not specific at all and you are left to your own devices, in which case it can be hit or miss).

With Alice’s sure hand, if you follow her directions, you will get the cookies that she promises – with those “crisp caramelized edges and rich chewy centers” I was yearning to cram in my mouth.

When I test a recipe for the first time, I always prepare it as written – to the letter. In this way I can assess whether I like or not, and can think about ways I might like to tweak it.

I made Alice’s recipe as presented, choosing Valrhona Equitoriale 55% semisweet chocolate and pecans as my chocolate and nuts of choice. I chilled/rested the dough for 2 hours. I hadn’t baked cookies on a naked pan in ages (being a fan of parchment paper). When the dough is in direct contact with the pan (I use heavy-duty half-sheet pans), the bottoms of the cookies get a more direct blast of heat and the sugar in the cookies caramelizes and gives you that wonderful crisp, almost butterscotch-like quality. As with any cookie where you want to retain some chew, you must not overbake. Just as Alice describes, you must pull them from the oven when the cookies are golden brown around the edges but still soft in the center. She suggests to pull them when they “no longer look wet on top”. The downside to using naked pans is the clean-up (with parchment, I do not have to wash pans every time). Also, if you do not remove the cookies from the pan while they are still a tad warm, they can stick to the pan. You can still get them off with a good metal spatula, but you might loose a few crisp edges.

They were a hit so I made them again, this time adding dried cranberries too. Check out Alice’s original recipe for (in her words) “My Chocolate Chip Cookies” but if you want to make them as pictured below, use 3/4 cup pecans halves, coarsely chopped, 1 1/2 cups chocolate chunks (I used Valrhona Extra Bitter this time) and 3/4 cup dried cranberries. These are mine, below.

The book is packed with over 350 pages of recipes divided into chapters labeled Crispy; Crunchy; Chunky; Chewy; Gooey; Flaky and Melt-in-Your-Mouth along with chapters on Ingredients, Equipment, and one called Components, which includes some basic recipes used repeatedly throughout the book (that would be great to have in your repertoire), such as Spiced Sugars, Vanilla Dulce de Leche, Lemon Curd, Buttercreams, fillings of all sorts, Shortbread Crusts and a Mock Puff Pastry. There are color photos throughout and each chapter beckons with its promise of textural delights.  

January 13, 2012

I had bought a large jar of salted dry roasted peanuts to have on hand for pad thai; I don’t make the dish very often and the jar was going to be hanging around for a while if I didn’t figure out another use for the nuts and baking with them was the natural next step. (I always make Nina Simonds Pad Thai, by the way. It’s a fabulous and easy recipe).

So much of what I bake involves chocolate – and no one ever complains – but I was feeling like I wanted to make a non-chocolate cookie. I thought, why not make a peanut butter cookie, with an extra dose of peanuts and add some toffee and a bit of salt? I had the toffee bits in the pantry. All systems go.

I have a long history with peanut butter cookies and have written about that in a story called Gone But Not Forgotten. It’s about a childhood cookie experience that I am still trying to recapture. As an adult and recipe tester I have made many a peanut butter cookie. Some of the recipes use hydrogenated peanut butters (like Skippy or JIF), while others use natural peanut butter. I had a large jar of natural in the cupboard so that was what was going to be used this time.

The recipe is fairly straightforward: butter, natural peanut butter, brown sugar, vanilla – all the PB cookie standards. I knew I wanted salt in there, so the fact that the peanuts that I had on hand were salted was perfect. The toffee bits I like to use are Heath English Toffee Bits ‘O Brickle. Make sure you buy the Bits of Brickle and not the Milk Chocolate Toffee Baking Bits. These latter ones are like crushed Heath bars: milk chocolate on the outside and toffee on the inside. While they would be a delicious addition, in this instance I was looking for the “plain” toffee bits. 

Another caveat is that since natural peanut butters can truly vary (some are very oily – others very dry), you might get slightly different results from mine. I have tested this recipe with both Smucker’s and Teddy Bear brands with good results. Don’t use the natural peanut butter that you grind in the store. I find these to be coarser and usually too dry. Look at the image below. The ground-in-store is on the left, the commercially prepared natural peanut butter is in the middle (this is the one you want for this recipe) and the Skippy type is on the right. Yes, that one looks smoother, but it is packed with hydrogenated oils.

Once you have the right ingredients, the recipe will be a breeze. The slightly chewy, slightly crunchy toffee bits play off of the sandy cookie texture very nicely. If you like, you can add a few grains of coarse salt to the tops of the cookies before baking. Voila! Peanut Butter Toffee Cookies. 

January 3, 2012

You know I am a chocolate fiend and what you may not know is that I try to eat very little gluten in my day-to-day life. Long story short, after I had been working as a pastry chef for about 10 years (this was back in the early 90s) I began to have some, ahem, issues with my digestion. Turns out that I had developed a gluten intolerance. My theory is that after years of eating so much gluten every day and even breathing it in (flour flies everywhere in the bakery), my system simply said Enough!

Well, I bake for a living so something had to be done and I wasn’t ready to give up traditional recipes. I have found a balance that works for me. If I do not eat gluten daily, I am able to taste when I recipe test. I can even occasionally eat a piece of pizza – and sometimes I am OK, and sometimes not so much.

But enough of my personal digestion issues….this cookie Happens to be gluten-free but it appeals to any and all chocolate lovers. It is rich, chocolatey, chewy, with a very satisfying mouth-feel. When I was teaching at the King Arthur Baking Education Center, I spied these cookies in the bakery case in the store. They looked dark and big and thick and chewy and then – dun dun dun dun – they told me they were gluten-free! I had to try one and it satisfied on every level, texture and taste.

Lucky for all of us, King Arthur has published the recipe, so the recipe is not “new”. I just want to popularize it as much as possible because it is So Good and deserves to be in your repertoire. The gluten-free aspect is truly an aside. The heft and chewiness and deep, dark flavor is what you want in any kind of chocolate cookie. Period. 

There are a few variations. You do need Dutch-processed cocoa (I like Bensdorp or Varhona), along with egg whites, confectioner’s sugar, vanilla (gluten-free if you are so inclined), salt and espresso powder. The variation they serve in the store includes chopped walnuts and I think they add immensely to the overall interest of the recipe. Another variation uses part black cocoa, which is available through King Arthur. It has the color and flavor of an Oreo cookie and is the darkest of the dark – a great product to have around and play with in the kitchen. (It is typically used as a substitute for just part of Dutch-processed cocoa in a recipe, as they recommend in that particular variation of this recipe). In the photo the cookies on the left were made with part black cocoa.

If you are a chocolate cookie lover and want to try something deliciously different, head to the kitchen and try these Flourless Fudge Cookies.

December 26, 2011

In my candy book, A Baker’s Field Guide to Holiday Candy & Confections, there is a recipe for Double Chocolate Peppermint Bark. It was an obvious inclusion to me since this kind of chocolate bark is everywhere this time of year. You’ve seen it in catalogs like Williams-Sonoma and even Trader Joe’s has a version – its a combo of dark and white chocolate with crushed red-and-white peppermint candy on top. This is a cookie version of that candy and dare I say that I like it even better that any store-bought! For one, you get to choose your chocolate and I choose Valrhona Extra Bitter for the dark and Ivoire for the white. With chocolate like this you can’t go wrong! The cookie is slice-and-bake and the dough is ridiculously easy to handle. Make a double batch and keep a log in the freezer for last minute cookie needs. I call them Peppermint Bark Cookies and they are a great way to use up all the candy canes from your tree. I couldn’t just choose one photo, so you get two.

December 22, 2011

A Low-Fat Cookie? We Can All Use Some of Those This Week

Well, sort of fat-free. The chocolate chips and walnuts have a bit of fat, but they are nestled inside a fat-free meringue, which of course, is made from egg whites and sugar….totally low-fat compared to most holiday cookies. Which is why I like to include these amongst the array of buttery, sprinkled and gingery cookies. They are also one of the very first cookies I ever learned how to bake, so they hold a special place in my heart and I have written down the story. It details a nice mother/daughter baking/bonding drama and its called Nothing Like the First Time.

As long as you make sure not to let any egg yolk get into the whites and to use a scrupulously clean bowl, your meringue will whip up nicely. I hope you enjoy these very easy, sweet and (kinda) fat-free Chocolate Walnut Meringues.

December 21, 2011

Xmas Morning….What’s for Breakfast?When I was growing up, we woke up at 6 or 7am every Christmas morning so that we could get to the mountain to ski. My Dad was a ski instructor, and in fact, had met my Mom in a chair-lift line. I learned to skin while I was still in diapers. I don’t think I ever believed in Santa (we opened presents the night before). The point is that I didn’t grow up with memories of a classic Christmas morning, so I have been able to invent that meal over and over as an adult to suit my desires. It varies every year, sometimes fancy, sometimes simple, but baked goods always factor into the mix. 

These Gingerbread Muffins are fabulous, whether served with a simple hot beverage or as part of a larger array of food. For the holiday, why not go all out and include the crystallized ginger and the optional Cream Cheese Frosting. Make them the night before, or prep the dry mix the night before so that they get into the oven quickly on Xmas morn.

December 19th, 2011

In the world of food we have Butterball turkeys and butterball cookies; you know, they also go by the names Mexican Wedding Cakes, Russian Tea Cakes and such. Round, covered with confectioner’s sugar, crumbly, rich, buttery, filled with ground nuts, my friends and family expect them during the holidays. A few years ago, when I was working on Unforgettable Desserts, I decided to branch out, and instead of using walnuts, pecans or almonds, I tried pistachios. Instant hit. The flavor and unexpected delicate green color added new dimensions to this old favorite. Try my Pistachio Butterballs if you are a fan of the more traditional versions. I think you will be a convert.

PS: the dough freezes very well. I often bake half, then store the other half (already rolled into balls) in the freezer in an airtight container. Just defrost in refrigerator overnight.

December 16th, 2011

I got an email today from a fan who had been using my Classic Rolled Sugar Cookie recipe from A Baker’s Field Guide to Christmas Cookies…problem was she had been accessing it from my old site, which is now gone. So she requested the recipe ASAP and I am more than happy to comply! I am here for you, my fellow bakers. It is a very basic recipe, with no baking powder or soda, so the cookies stay nice and flat. All the better for decorating! Make sure to bake similarly sized cookies on the same pan so that they bake evenly. The photos feature my brilliant daughter’s work.

And as an added bonus, one of my favorite Holiday images below:

December 14, 2011

It was my pleasure to teach two sold-out classes at the Baking Education Center in Norwich, VT in the beginning of December. (I’ll let you know when I am re-booked with classes. We are strategizing now). You probably know that I use King Arthur all-purpose flour as my go-to flour. Well, King Arthur is much more than flour! In addition to their wonderful website, where you can order everything from cookie cutters, to high-quality tools, chocolates and cocoas to dough enhancers, they also have a cafe, a brick-and-mortar store and their Baking Education Center. Their classes are so popular that they are building an even bigger, better school at this very moment. 

The class was filled with enthusiastic students from several New England states (and one student who flew up from Virginia!) and we made several cookies from my Baker’s Field Guide to Christmas Cookies. The Night Before Christmas Mice are always a hit as were the Sherried Mini-Fruitcakes. I love a good fruitcake as long as its GOOD fruitcake. What makes a fruitcake good to me? Well, first you have to start with really high quality dried and candied fruits. Do not pick these up at the supermarket. King Arthur has a great product – their European Mixed Peel, which includes candied lemon, orange and citron peel. Then in addition to other fruits, such as tart dried cherries, golden raisins, figs and dates, there has to be very little batter, a huge amount of your chosen fruit and then several soakings in alcohol, such as Sherry. Several. Soakings. Not. For. Kids. What’s not to love? The ones in the book use mini-muffin tins and they are little fruity Sherry bombs of deliciousness. 

We also made Swedish Ginger Snaps. These are gingery, thin and crispy with additional flavors of cardamom and orange. I love their flavor and they are very easy to roll out as well, which is always helpful. Make sure to have edible gold powder on hand to paint them as I have in this photo….makes them extra special. I like Beryl’s Antique Gold Lustre Dust.

December 12,

Do Thumbprint Cookies say “Holidays” to you?For some reason I associate thumbprint cookies with the winter holidays, which is kind of funny because they are truly a year-round cookie. Why restrict them to certain months? Indeed, you can probably tell from the photo that I took it outside in the bright late summer sun. Perhaps one reason they are popular at this time of year is because they are a great family baking recipe – the kids are home from school and their little fingers are perfect for poking the indentations. You can also vary the recipe easily by using different jams, jellies and preserves. If you know you are going to Aunt Sally’s house and she loves raspberry, but the next night is the office party and the boss loves marmalade, you can make one batch, split it in half and you will be all set. The pic shows the cookies made with walnuts, but you can use pecans if you prefer. If you make these Thumbprint Cookies let me know what filling you used…fruit jam, Nutella, lemon curd….get creative.

December 9, 2011 

These are one of my favorite winter holiday cookies for so many reasons. They are rich and buttery, and a bit crumbly from the ground almonds. They are delicate and fancy and my recipe ups the vanilla quotient by incorporating vanilla bean into the dough as well as the sugary topping. My topping, by the way, combines granulated sugar as well as confectioner’s sugar, which is another little twist. I also love their shape, which is a nice addition to the cookie tray that usually has lots of flat round cookies! Enjoy baking my Vanilla Crescents, originally from A Baker’s Field Guide to Christmas Cookies.

November 28, 2011

In thinking about what would be my first post, my mind went back to the beginning. Well one of my “beginnings” at any rate. In my career and learning process of baking and cooking, there are certain people and books that have been hugely influential. Maida Heatter looms large for me. Her books were some of the first that really inspired me to bake. Her descriptions of flavors are so vivid, I can taste her descriptions in my mind – and sends me running to the kitchen to try them myself.

I lose myself in her books (I have them all) and read and re-read her recipes, her headnotes, gaze upon the covers and the line drawings created by her daughter. I can read her books like a story front to back and then start the story again. Her book covers are full color, filled with desserts, sometimes with her smiling and standing among them. The back flaps usually have a map that tells you what desserts are on the cover. They show outline drawings of what’s photographed on the cover with numbers attached and then you flip back and forth and figure out what #5 is and what #17 is. It might sound like a pain, but I always thought it was fun. You get to discover what each item is, slowly, a dramatic big reveal…like when you get a chart with a box of chocolates. The insides of the books have no color pictures, which might seem lackluster, but her writing more than makes up for this design, as do her powerhouse flavors…which is what I like. If I am eating chocolate, I want it to hit me over the head.

Which leads me to a cake of hers I want to introduce you to. This is an unabashed, dense, huge, dramatic, rich, over-the-top chocolate cheesecake. Expensive to make and worth every penny. It’s called Rum and Espresso Chocolate Cheesecake and it is from her book, Maida Heatter’s Best Dessert Book Ever.

Below is my own well-worn copy.

There is a photograph of it on the back cover (it’s #4 amongst the 34 desserts packed onto the groaning table of sweets). It doesn’t look like much. Just huge and chocolatey. But believe me, if you like chocolate and you like cheesecake YOU HAVE TO MAKE THIS CAKE! Wait until you have a crowd to feed – it goes a long way. This is the kind of cake that will establish you as the dessert doyenne or dean of your world and your friends will swoon. Like serious, eyes rolling back in the head, “this is better than sex” kinds of responses.

So, there are two treats in store for you. Reading the writing of one of our greatest dessert authors and then getting to eat the result. Begin the indulgence here with the Rum and Espresso Chocolate Cheesecake recipe. This recipe was “Hot” the first time I tried it over 10 years ago and it has stood the test of time. Enjoy.