Holiday Baking Extravaganza

It goes without saying that the end of the semester up here in the prov was downright obscene -- but! -- by December 18th I was all done and ready to start on my christmas baking list. But before that could happen, I made a little trip to my hometown and saw my parents for an early birthday, since they had gotten me a KitchenAid Artisan stand mixer and knew I would want it for the many dozens of cookies about to be churned out from my little oven.

So, I'll admit. Maybe this delightful piece of machinery got me a little too excited, and maybe I had to eventually -- after two straight days of 8-hour shifts in the kitchen -- cut down the list of goodies I wanted to have for my holiday tins. Maybe that happened. But, by some stroke of holiday good fortune, I still managed to stuff those tins full of a myriad of all things sweet and wonderful:

including...

Dark chocolate Pomegranate truffles

White chocolate & Whisky Pistachio truffles

Chocolate-dipped Orange and Vanilla Madeleines

Brown Sugar and Cinnamon Palmiers

Cocoa-Roasted Hazelnuts

Oatmeal and Apricot Cookies with Roasted Almonds and White Chocolate

Almond Biscotti

But you know, that wasn't the end of it. I actually still had it in mind to bake last year's hit, Cranberry Swirl Pecan Cheesecake with Gingersnap Crust, for Matt's family's Christmas Eve party [which was, as always, insane], and an Eggnogg Bundt cake for my family's Christmas dinner. And would you believe it? Not only did I finish everything, but that Eggnog cake might have been one of the prettiest things that's ever come out of my kitchen.

There were a few other fun treats that got made during the whirlwind three-day holiday baking marathon, but those are for another post. I hope everyone had a great holiday, as I know I did!

Eggnog Bundt with Eggnog Buttercream

I found this recipe through Foodgawker when I was strapped for ideas for something my family might like. It was originally for cupcakes, but made just enough batter for my bundt pan. The recipe is super easy, came together in no time, and all I had to get from the store was eggnog!

3 eggs

1 1/4 cups sugar

1/2 cup canola oil

2 tsp. vanilla

1 cup eggnog

2 cups flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/3 tsp nutmeg [I probably used more like 1/2 tsp, since I'm a huge nutmeg fan]

The assembly could not be simpler:

-Preheat the oven to 350.

-Butter and flour your baking medium [either 16-18 cupcakes or bundt pan. Or two 9-inch cake pans, I bet]

-Sift together the dry ingredients.

-Beat together the wet ingredients [sugar, vanilla, eggnog, oil, and eggs]

-Add the dry to the wet in 3 doses.

-Pour into the pan and bake for about 30 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean. Or until a rogue french-fry on the bottom of your oven sets off the fire alarm for your entire building, and you have to go out to the firemen in your snow boots and bright green apron to explain to them that you're pretty sure the fire axe and oxygen tanks are unnecessary. Whoops!

Eggnog Buttercream

I've been using the same buttercream recipe that I found at Crepes of Wrath for a year now, and I don't think you could ever convince me to switch. It takes five minutes to make, and you can customize the flavors to suit your recipe and taste easily.

3 cups confectioner's sugar

3/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

1 tsp vanilla

2-3 tbs eggnog [normally milk]

1/2 tsp nutmeg

3/4 cup chopped pecans, for garnish

3/4 cup halved fresh cranberries, for garnish

Beat together the butter and sugar, add vanilla, and slowly add the milk until the frosting reaches desired consistency. I like mine nice and moist [sometimes I add a tablespoon or two of whipping cream to get that whippy texture], and extra fluffy. Cool the cake completely before frosting.

How I may have -almost- burned the building down...

Two blog posts, two days in a row? Crazy, right? I know, I know. I have one giant Greek exam between me and Christmas cooking baking bliss, but I figure dire studying calls for rewards. I mean, really, I was studying before 10am this morning.

A week or so ago I found the time to sneak away from the books and do a little Christmas shopping, and I found a lovely cookbook in the bargain bin at Barnes&Noble that was all chicken recipes. Since it was only five bucks, and was from the same publisher as the cookbook that gave birth to my famous Madeleines, I had to buy this. And subsequently, make the Majorcan Chicken recipe. Because nothing says "Majorca" like Rhode Island in the middle of December.

Now, this chicken was pretty fabulous, it's true. But the best part, really, was roasting my own red peppers for the recipe. Fun AND delicious. Honestly, I don't know why I haven't been roasting red peppers over the open flame of my gas stove whenever studying starts getting me down... And now you can, too!

How to Roast your own Red Peppers at Home:

This could not be easier...

1. Purchase peppers. As many as you like! I may go out and buy a whole bunch, roast them, and save them in olive oil. For things like homemade hummus, paninis, chick pea salad... oh my...

2. Remove any stickers and wash the peppers. Make sure to dry them thoroughly.

3. Prepare a zipper storage bag to receive peppers.

4. Turn your burner on high. [you must have a gas stove to do this. Sorry to those of you using electric.]

5. Using tongs, place the pepper onto the burner. Rotate every 30-45 seconds, until most of the surface is blistered and charred, and the flesh feels tender.

5a. Ignore my messy stovetop. It's been pretty busy around here...

6. Place hot pepper into bag and close most of the way [if you close it all of the way, the steam may actually fill the bag and pop it.]

7. Allow the peppers to cool to room temperature in the bag, then remove and using your fingers and/or a knife, fork, spook, spork... peel off the skins. If there are stubborn bits, just given them a good scrape. I found that running the pepper under the faucet to rinse them off was also helpful. Warning: this is probably going to get messy.

8. Slice open the pepper, remove the seeds and ribs. Cut into strips or dice.

9. If you want to save your peppers, put them in a mason jar with olive oil. You could even add some herbs and garlic to be really fancy. Come to think of it-- great gift idea!

Nota Bene: You're going to want to use metal tongs. Otherwise,

you may just melt the plastic parts of yours, then place them on a towel,

and get fuzz permanently melted into them.

Just saying. It could happen to someone.

The most epic Apple Crisp

Can we talk about something? More to the point: can we talk about how graduate school is, well, hard? Seriously, folks, final exams seem to have fallen upon us like a sack of bricks. But, amid all the hustle and bustle [and by hustle and bustle I guess I really mean "sitting at a desk 24/7"], the rest of the Brownies and I managed to throw together the first annual Post-Thanksgiving Thanksgiving. And it was fabulous. Sadly, I didn't get any pictures of the delicious fare -- the most delicious herb-stuffed turkey I have ever eaten, mushroom stuffing, indian-spiced butternut squash with apples -- except for this apple crisp. This apple crisp wasn't just yummy, it was necessary. Because, let's be honest, when you're knee-deep in graduate school-sized exams, all you really want is a bowl of the most comforting dessert ever created, and some of the most awesome friends to get you through that harrowing first semester.

Now, the original recipe is located here, at a food blog that has never steered me wrong. I stepped the recipe up a bit by adding some roasted almonds and vanilla because, well really, when did cranberries, almonds, and vanilla ever not taste fabulous together?

I doubled this recipe and used at 9x13 dish -- but unless you're also feeding a small army of starving Classicists, the original measurements are given below. Vanilla ice cream most definitely suggested.

Vanilla-Almon Cranberry-Apple Crisp

adapted from Annie's Eats

2.5-3 apples [I suggest Granny Smith, but any firm apple will do], cored, peeled and sliced

2/3 cup cranberries [fresh or frozen]

1 tbs. granulated sugar

1 tbs. brown sugar

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/8 tsp. nutmeg

1 tbs. melted unsalted butter

for the crisp:

1/2 cup plus 2 tbs. flour

3/4 cup quick-cook oats

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar, packed

6 tbs. melted unsalted butter

1/2 cup chopped roasted almonds

Preheat the oven to 350F.

In a bowl, combine the filling ingredients. In another bowl, mix together the dry ingredients with a fork, then add the butter and stir with a wooden spoon [or your hands! :D] Pour the apple mixture into a buttered 8x8 dish and then sprinkle the crisp evenly over the top. Don't press down on the crisp, or it won't get all crumbly and delicious.

Bake for 35-40 minutes, until the fruit is bubbly and the crisp is golden.

Serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and your favorite Classicists!

Once more in the blogosphere

A certain friend of mine over at the ever-tantalizing In Memory of Our Feelings called it to my attention that, in fact, I have done zero blogging since Labor Day. And since I know he's not talking about delicious baked goods, it brought to mind some good old-fashioned literature that I translated way back in April or May [when I was still in Germany and had the time and appropriate level of reclusiveness to swim in a sea of Bélance] that I actually had a feeling of a few weeks ago at a party. So enjoy Part II : Return to the Shadow from René Bélance's Épaule D'Ombre [for Part I : Vertigo]

II. Return to the Shadow

every veil around the dissolute echo

every chance around the past glimmer

every crucified attraction

in the complacent ocean

suggesting the appeal to a reanimated voice

you can dive into the outline of the shadow

in the moving basin of an eye wrought with fever

that calls for the affair of indefinite fingers

there is, in the lost soul,

that old-fashioned palpitation

the finger of a witch doctor

will only auscultate with contempt

the sacrificial waters of extinguished candles

asexual

they will no longer be evoking after the forgotten rites

in the outpouring of ecstatic windows

it leans against the fringes of your fresh young face

a dissected cushion

that caresses the damp armor

that suits itself for the copulation

of your mood with the dawn

of your smile, traversing the fog

with the fire

of your key-turning finger

of one luck of praise with the wonder of high waves

of your step of reversible sponging

that puts a sign on every page

of ancient scripts blurred by blood

of the chasers of mnemonics

silence.

i repeat the sigh of disaffected symbols

the declaration of transitory fragrances

there is in the tortured soul

that indecipherable palpitation

the backwash of a wild gesture

of the first splashes of opaqueness

of the nights of catastrophe or phantasmagory

of the sea, covered with bereavement

the first symptoms of a twin layer

a chimaera born to expectation

and based on an accretion of movements

echoes of bruised escape

i will pour out like a drink a night of scandal

a cocktail of blood and slumber

in a glass of heartache

with my leaves that are crushed for a bath

with my sun lit up

which burn up the scent of sacrifice

i come back into the ancient altars

where the signs drive to a dance of crowned testaments

i take up once more the path of the iniquity of mystery

where they ought to form my ways

where it ought to filter the color of my mirth

or keep the ocean like a doll to be cradled

in anticipation of the upheavals of the seasons

the brooding sea of calcified stars or of treachery

i will not walk upon the waves

with a flower, wild and bare, in my eye

i will inhabit some part, in the contempt of the sand

a deserted tavern or arbor

my deaths are the oath

that the echo will be pure and the tumult without allotment

an angel in the chaos and in joy

and by absent-minded pity

you are able to course through the cynicism of sleep

the ocean blooms [hatches] in my clammy palm

like a pasture for the enraptured blindness of oil

the earth moves in your manes

like a reptile, lovely and blood-stained

to foresee your entry into the mirror you wed

where your arms and legs shake themselves with your ecstasy

you can dare to take back all of those vows.

[June 16 1945]

THE Labor Day BBQ

The Labor Day BBQ was the brainchild of a few of the guys and was absolutely fantastic. Nothing says, "I'm starting grad school in two days" like a ton of tasty food, amusing party music, card games and coming home at 2am. Really.

So I made a pretty lovely little balsamic-roasted red pepper-tortellini pasta salad for this party, but that wasn't my crowning achievement. I also made what quite possibly may replace Oreos in my house [after we finish the huge box of them we got at Sam's Club....] and also may be just about the easiest dressed-to-impress cookies ever.

I found this recipe for making cookies out of box cake mix months ago, while I was in Germany, tooling around my favorite food blogs. I knew I wanted to try it because the original I saw at Crepes of Wrath had a recipe using Spice Cake mix, and I happen to know a strapping young lad who loves him some Spice Cake. So when I was strapped for ideas for something easy yet awesome to bake for the BBQ, I decided to whip these up. The best thing, really, is that the possibilities with these little sweeties are endless. Next time, I am totally making Funfetti cookies...

Cake Mix Cookies

makes 3 dozen cookies, or 18 sandwiches

For the cookies:

1 box cake mix, any flavor [for the oreo-alikes, I used Dark Chocolate Fudge]

1/2 cup [1 stick] unsalted butter, room temperature

1 egg, room temperature

Mix the ingredients together thoroughly with a hand mixer.

Take tablespoon-sized dollops of the batter and roll into little balls in your hands.

Place a cookie sheet and press down slightly.

Bake for 10-12 minutes at 350.

Remove and allow to cool COMPLETELY.

Fill if desired.

For the buttercream filling:

3 cups confectioners sugar

3/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

1 tsp. vanilla

2-3 tbs milk

Cream the butter and sugar together with a hand mixer.

Add the vanilla.

Add the milk in small doses until the icing becomes light and fluffy.

Chill for 30 minutes.

You can obviously really play with the flavors here. I love it!

Classy Cookies for Classy Folks

So, thanks to the very sudden onset of graduate school and inherent clamor [i.e. diagnostic exams], I've seriously been slacking on the blogosphere. But, no worries. I am back. With a vengeance. As evidenced by these most fabulous cookies. Also, the free time I find myself with today since I am stuck in bed with a cold that will not relent, missing my first-year orientation and fabulous, cloudless weather...

Thanks to one of my most beloved mentors and her lovely daughter, I found myself in possession of what is probably the most expensive thing in my kitchen: a Williams-Sonoma nonstick Madeleine pan. You know, Madeleines. Those delicious cookies that are said to be like lady-fingers, but are about a hundred times more awesome. It also just so happened that shortly after returning to the U.S. I found a neat little British baking cookbook at Border's for six bucks. And it had a Madeleine recipe. The rest, of course, is history.

I have made these cookies about 5 times in the past two months. Everyone loves them. I've mixed it up by using different citrus zests and different extracts. But last night was out of this world. You see, last night was a sweet little shindig put on by the second-year grad students for us newbies, and I knew I had to cement my reputation as THE baker extraordinaire. So it had to be Madeleines, not only because they rock my world and I had to give a nod to my French pride, but also because Matthew's aunt returned from a recent trip to Africa bearing gifts of African vanilla extract, and it got me thinking...

And thats how these little beauties happened: Orange-Vanilla Madeleines dipped in semi-sweet chocolate. These cookies sound and look complicated, but it really only took me a little over an hour to make them, and that was due in great part to my only having one Madeleine pan.

Madeleines [from The Essential Baking Cookbook, Bay Books, 2000]

makes 12 cookies

1 cup flour, sifted very well

2 eggs, room temperature

3/4 cup fine granulated sugar

6 oz. unsalted butter, melted and cooled

1 tsp + 1 tbs orange zest

1 tsp vanilla extract

4 ounces semi-sweet chocolate, melted

After melting the butter, add the 1 tsp zest and extract to the warm liquid, to let the flavors bloom a bit. In a heat-safe bowl over a double-boiler, beat the eggs and sugar until thick and pale yellow, about 2 minutes. Remove the bowl from the heat and continue beating until the mixture is cooled and increased in volume, also about 2 minutes. I use the whisk attachment to my hand-mixer, but if you don't have this, it will still work fine. Add the butter and flour at one time, and gently mix. Try your best to get everything well incorporated without beating all of the air out of the eggs. Spoon the batter into a greased and floured Madeleine pan. I use my quarter-cup scooper, and it fills about 2.5 molds. Bake for 10-12 minutes at 350, remove gently [I use a tiny spoon] and allow to cool. Meanwhile, melt your chocolate chips over a double boiler. When the cookies are cool enough to handle, use a knife and spread the chocolate over the flat side of the cookies. Sprinkle with the 1 tbs zest and allow the chocolate to set.

These. Are. Fabulous. I may even make some more today, since they were devoured at the party and I only got one that I saved myself before we left!

What's up, Providence?

1. Streetsweepers? Like, lots of them. Every night. In front of my livingroom.

2. Organic and/or hydroponic foods.

3. Bad driving.

4. Opera-singing neighbor!

5. Temperamental locks.

COMING SOON: MADELEINES! [as soon as I get a zester up in my new apartment!]