I confess that I have to ease back into regularly scheduled posting today. That post-holiday haze – the feeling of lazy contentment lasts for at least a day after stuffing yourself with a huge dinner, cookies, candy canes and hot chocolate, opening presents and chatting with those close to you – is not only tough to shake, but is actually pretty enjoyable. I’m moving the holiday chatter here, to virtual friends and readers.
Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve pointed out a few foodie gifts and gadgets that I liked as potential holiday gifts – and potential is what they were. I know I’m not alone in saying that I was surprised (and pleased) with some of the gifts that I received. New measuring spoons and spatulas are absolutely what I needed, even though they didn’t actually make it on my (metaphorical) wish list. A new kitchen was on my wish list…. and it didn’t turn out quite as I had expected. Observe:
This is a kitchen island Christmas ornament from Hallmark, posed with my mobile phone so that you can get an idea of scale. It’s nearly complete – minus major appliances – but fully stocked with pots, utensils and a full vegetable collander. It’s so cute that I can’t complain that Santa didn’t quite get it right. I’ll just be more specific next year.
Hallmark puts out lots and lots of collectible ornaments every year catering to specific interests and hobbies. A few seasons ago, they started offering baking/cooking ornaments and, not unexpectedly, family members started buying them for me. This year, they have grilling and cooking/kitchen ornaments, but I think my favorite is the one pictured above, which is from last Christmas. The ornament is a tree-shaped shelf stocked with a tiny dutch oven, bundt pan, pot holder, whisk and spoon. Adorable and seasonal, isn’t it?
Hope everyone is having a wonderful Christmas and wonderful baked goods to go with it! Spend time with family and friends or just relax and take it easy. I know I will!
Brown Edge Butter Wafers are pretty much exactly what they sound like: thin cookies with brown edges and a white center. They’re not made with browned butter or anything unusual like that. The color around the edge actually comes from the caramelization of butter and sugar in the oven – and these cookies have quite a lot of butter in them.
The dough is very easy to make and takes only a few minutes to whip up. Once made, the dough should be either frozen or chilled until very firm before you work with it again; the high proportion of butter in the cookies makes the dough a bit tricky (it gets very, very soft) to work with when it is at room temperature. The dough should be formed into logs before freezing to make it a snap to slice off cookies and lay them out on a baking sheet when you are ready to go. The dough can also be kept in the freezer for up to a few weeks before use.
The finished wafers are thin and very buttery. The edges are a bit crisp, but the centers are deliciously chewy – and remain that way even after storage. Sweet but not too sweet, the cookies could easily be served with lemon curd or as an accompaniment to some other dessert (ice cream, etc.) if you feel they’re a bit too plain on their own. The color of the cookies’ edges are the best indicator of that they’re done during baking. Try not to let them get too dark in the oven, as they will continue to cook and firm up while they cool on the baking sheet.
The green design on the cookies is nothing more than colored dough that I swirled into the white dough. I’ve made spirals and checkerboard patterns with cookie dough before and for this batch I wanted to try my hand at doing something more interesting. By “interesting,” I mean “abstract” because the design clearly isn’t anything more than a green swirl. But there is nothing wrong with a swirl, especially when it turned out to make the cookies look quite festive. Feel free to play with your dough by mixing in a generous amount of food coloring to a portion of the main recipe, or simply leave the cookies plain for a simpler and more traditional look.
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Mocha is the grown-up version of hot chocolate, simply hot chocolate enhanced with a shot of coffee to make the flavor darker and to give the drinker a little more of a pick-me-up than chocolate alone can provide. It’s a relatively simple drink and you wouldn’t think that it could sustain an entire cookbook – but it can and does in Michael Turback’s new cookbook, Mocha.
The small, single-subject cookbook is only about 130 pages long and is devoted to this drink. Now, it doesn’t have just one recipe for a mocha that is dragged out to cover many pages. The book is divided up into several sections: drinks, cocktails and desserts. It also starts off with a chapter discussing why coffee and chocolate make such a good match. The recipes are well-written and, often, quite decadent. They use high-quality, high-flavor ingredients to create some familiar and unusual combinations, like a Chocolate Espresso Martini and a Black and White Espresso Milkshake. The book doesn’t simply stop with the drink recipes, howmany are quite ever. There are lots of recipes for mocha-drinking accessories – candies, like marshmallows, and desserts - that either use mocha themselves or just pair perfectly with it. For instance, you’ll find White Cardamom Marshmallows and Chocolate Chip Donuts.
The recipes in the book were provided or adapted for it by chefs, pastry chefs and chocolatiers (their location/shop is noted at the beginning of each recipe) from notable places around the US. Some of the drinks have won prizes for taste and composition at international barista. As such, the drinks and desserts in this cookbook are not the quick-and-easy type, but more involved and designed to produce the best possible flavor experience. It’s worth the effort to try some of the drinks (don’t worry, even the very complex ones are not difficult to follow) and other desserts, especially if you also like the coffee+chocolate combo.
From time to time I’ll go back through my archives and update some of my older recipes. I actually have many recipes that I remake on a very regular basis, and I like to be able to add a new picture or two to a post with a less-than-perfect picture when I can. These two recipes – Orange Cranberry Bread and Pear Clafoutis – are special to me at this time of year because I tend to make them at least once during the holidays. I’ve updated the recipes slightly and both photos are brand new, so take a peek at the revised versions if you’re looking for a way to use up a bag of cranberries or some just-ripe pears in the next couple of weeks (or tomorrow, if you’re feeling motivated).
