Archive for November, 2010
The holidays are a time of good spirits, great food and wonderful gifts. The gifts aren’t a requirement, of course, but there is a lot of satisfaction in seeing the look on the face of a loved one when they open up that package and smile with joy. And the shopping itself can be fun, too. Since we’re baking oriented at Baking Bites, here are some great gift suggestions for the baker in your life.
Bakers tend to like to share their creations, so a new cupcake carrier can actually be the perfect gift. They enable you to store baked goods in an airtight container, keeping them fresh, and they make it easy to transport goodies from place to place. A Collapsible Cupcake Carrier is not only a great carrier, but it doesn’t take up much storage space when it is not in use.
The Cooknook Cookbook Holder is something both bakers and cooks can appreciate. This holder mounts under a counter so that you can have your recipes at eye level. It also has a magnetic board to which you can attach recipe cards, notes or printouts from your favorite blogs. Like the cupcake carrier, it also collapses when not in use so it doesn’t take up much space.
If your baker is also a food blogger, then they probably have an eye for photography as well as for baking. The Food Stylist’s Handbook is a great resource, as well as an interesting read in general. It is sure to inspire bloggers to get their cameras out. And The Camera Lens Mug is just as good of a gift for the foodie photographer. The mug looks and feels like a real dSLR camera lens!
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I drink a lot of coffee and I also bake with it on a regular basis. I have more than one coffee maker and this is for good reason: each of them has its own purpose, even though they all make coffee. Traditional pots brew enough for a crowd, or multiple cups when you know that you’re going to need that extra caffeine. Espresso machines take a little more time and finesse, but there is no other way to make a good latte. Instant coffee is great for baking and Starbucks Via is good both for baking and when you’re on the go. It might not seem like there is room for yet another type of machine, but Keurig manages to fit right in there perfectly.
Keurig makes one-cup coffee brewers that use tiny K-cups, small cups that have both grounds and a small coffee filter inside of them. When you pop one into the machine, hot water shoots through the filter and produces a fresh cup of coffee in less than a minute. It’s a neat design because the coffee is vacuum sealed in its little container and isn’t exposed to the air until it goes into the machine, which helps keep the coffee fresh tasting. The machine is great when you typically make just one cup of coffee at a time and don’t need a whole pot on a daily basis, and if you do drink a lot of coffee, it’s nice to have the option for a quick cup at your desk or in the middle of the afternoon without brewing a whole pot or running out to the coffee shop (not to mention that it’s also less expensive!).
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Sufganiyot are a type of jelly filled donut that are traditionally served around Hannukah, a holiday that bases many of its most popular foods on frying. The sufganiyot are not much different than any other jelly donut. They are made with a fluffy yeast dough, deep fried and then injected with a generous amount of jam or other fruity fillings. Although deep fried donuts are delicious, and it is definitely not a bad thing to indulge in them from time to time, it’s nice to have an alternative to deep fried balls of dough. In light of this, I turned the Jelly Donut Muffins from The Baking Bites Cookbook – which are similar to my Sugar Donut Muffins – into Bite Sized Jelly Donut Holes, or Baked Sufganiyot.
These little donuts are the size of a mini muffin or cupcake and they’re baked in a mini muffin tin. The batter is not made with yeast, but is a buttermilk batter that makes a cake-like donut. The baked donuts are rolled in sugar then filled with a little bit of jam before serving. Sugar forms a slightly crisp, sweet coating on the outside of these bite-sized treats and really gives them the feel of a donut.
You can use any kind of jam or jelly that you like in these. Most of the sufganiyot I’ve had – and most jelly donuts, come to think of it – have a generic, cherry pie-like “red” filling inside. I opted for a dark raspberry jam to keep the coloring consistent, but a flavor like apricot, blackberry, strawberry or anything else would do just as well. These are best when they’re fresh, but they’ll keep well in an airtight container for a day or so if you want to bake them up in advance, too.
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Everyone likes desserts, even chefs known for their more savory dishes, like Michel Richard. His book, Sweet Magic: Easy Recipes for Delectable Desserts, is filled with recipes for all kinds of desserts, from American-style brownies to richer, traditionally French desserts.
The book is divided up into only a few sections, which might seem as though it would make it difficult to find a particular recipe on a particular topic. This might be the case if you’re simply thumbing through the pages for random inspiration, but the fun part of this cookbook is in the writing that accompanies each of the recipes. They describe what makes each dessert special to the chef – or what might make it especially good to you. The text makes the cookbook read almost like a storybook, so it is enjoyable to read from start to finish for pure entertainment, as well as for dessert inspiration. The recipes are very well written, with detailed instructions, and are easy to follow along with. They range from fairly complex, to fairly simply – and even a few tips for making great things in the microwave, which you probably wouldn’t expect from a French chef!
The only things you might miss in this cookbook are the photographs that add color and mouthwatering illustrations of dishes in so many cookbooks these days. There are few illustrations in here and they are just that: illustrations. This does add to the character of the book and makes for lovely overall presentation, but it is nice to see those photos – especially for some of the more unusual desserts that you might not already have a clear picture of in your mind. Otherwise, the book is easy to use and a lack of photos isn’t going to stop you from picking out dishes you want to make as you read through.
I always have cranberry sauce leftover after Thanksgiving. I usually make a batch or two of homemade sauce, and I often buy a jar or two just in case I need some more. It’s not that I think that anyone is going to gorge themselves on cranberry sauce at dinner and I’ll run out, I just like to have the leftover sauce around for other things. For instance, you can’t serve a plate of reheated turkey and stuffing without a little cranberry on the side, can you? But there are many other great ways to use up that sauce, so if you’re like me and still have a half of a container sitting in the fridge, try one of these:
- Cranberry Swirl Pumpkin Bars with Cream Cheese Frosting. These easy to make pumpkin bars have cranberry sauce swirled throughout to give them extra moistness and lend a sweet-tart taste to the spicy cake bars. It’s a great overall contrast and a nice new way to enjoy the cranberry sauce.
- Turkey Cranberry and Brie Panini. Although it is also a good way to use up Thanksgiving leftovers, this toasted sandwich is so delicious that you might crack open a jar of cranberry sauce just to make it. The brie is rich and creamy, and the cranberries are the perfect contrast to that flavor.
- Cranberry Sauce Cobbler. Add a little bit of cranberry sauce to your favorite cobbler recipe – whether it is cherry, apple, pear or Blackberry Cranberry Sauce Cobbler – to mix things up a bit. There are so many other fruits that go well with cranberries and fruit cobbler recipes are very forgiving about the exact quantity of fruit that goes into their fillings. Try adding a half cup of cranberry sauce to start with, bringing in color and flavor!
- Cranberry Swirl Bread. No recipe needed for this idea, because you start with whatever your favorite muffin or quick bread recipe is. Make your regular banana bread loaf (or try mine) and instead of pouring all of the batter into a loaf pan, pour half in and then add a layer of cranberry sauce before adding the rest of the batter. This will give you a great swirl that is tasty with banana breads, ginger breads and all kinds of coffee cake.
- Cranberry Barbecue Sauce. Again, this is a recipe where that sweet-tart flavor can really shine. I usually make this cranberry barbecue sauce with fresh cranberries, but you can start with the sauce instead of using fresh berries and sugar (which just makes more sauce!) and create a very flavorful, seasonal base for a homemade barbecue sauce that is tasty on just about anything.
