Christmas Cookies
It's beginning to smell a lot like Christmas! It's almost semi-miraculous since the cold-from-hell had made my sniffer almost worthless. But Christmas Baking waits for no man, so Typhoid Timmy headed in to the kitchen with Victor to make a batch of Aunt Emma's Apricot Cookies.
This was supposed to be the weekend Gino and Elizabeth baked cookies with us, but they wisely chose to stay out of the quarantine area. There will be more cookies and other years.
(And yes, the hands were washed often and no sneezing or coughing over the cookies occurred.)
Victor had made the apricot filling yesterday and made the dough this morning. My job this year was to roll and cut. It's the easy part.
The dough was perfect. Very easy to roll and cut.
Victor did the filling and forming. Definitely the more labor-intensive part of the job. I know. It's the job I usually do. he had me roll this year. I immediately agreed!
Aunt Emma's Apricot Cookies
Filling:
- 1 pound dried apricots, chopped fine (soaked overnight – we soak in apricot brandy!)
- 3 cups sugar
- grated lemon rind (we use about a tablespoon – the amount was never specified)
Drain apricots. Place in saucepan with lemon rind, sugar, and water to cover. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and cook until water is absorbed. Be really careful — it burns easily. Cool.
Dough:
- 2 pkg dry yeast
- 5 cups flour
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1/2 pound lard (Yes, lard. Shortening just doesn’t cut it.)
- 4 egg yolks
- 1 cup sour cream
- 1 shot whiskey
- Juice and rind from 1 lemon
Proof yeast with 1 tsp sugar and 1/4 cup warm water. Cut lard into flour, as you would for a pie dough. Make a well in the mixture and add all the other ingredients, including yeast.
Work dough with your hands and form into a ball. (Don’t overwork. Use a light hand.) Refrigerate overnight.
Roll cold dough to about 1/8″ thick. Aunt Emma would cut the dough into triangles, place a scant teaspoon of filling at the wide end, then roll up and shape into a crescent similar to a croissant. It takes a bit of practice. The easier way is to cut squares, fill, and fold over. Cut into 2″ squares or circles. Place scant teaspoon of filling, fold and seal. Shape into crescent.
Bake at 325° until golden brown on lightly greased sheets or ungreased parchment paper. (Investing in a box of parchment paper is the only way to fly!!)
Cool completely and dust with powdered sugar.
And since we were low on bread, I baked a loaf of the no-knead bread from my Mom's cook book that I made last week. It was really good and this one looks to be just as good - if not better!
Lemon Polenta Cake
Today has been a non-stop cook-and-bake day at our house.
I baked bread and a fruitcake, and Victor made pasta for tomorrow and a Lemon Polenta Cake for dessert tonight!
Gastronomic heaven.
The Lemon Polenta Cake comes from the Food Network's Nigella Lawson. He saw her make it on TV and decided we needed one. This is further proof that a well-stocked larder always comes in handy. We had the ingredients in the house.
And OMG! Am I glad we did! This is G-O-O-D!!!
Lemon curd in cake form is a perfect description. It is lemony-tart, moist but not wet or under-cooked, and it has a perfectly luscious texture.
Everything about it is good.
I am seriously resisting going back for more.
Lemon Polenta Cake
Nigella Lawson
Directions
This cake is a sort of Anglo-Italian amalgam. The flat, plain disc is reminiscent of the confections that sit geometrically arranged in patisserie windows in Italy; the sharp, syrupy sogginess borrows from the classic English teatime favorite, the lemon drizzle cake. It is a good marriage: I love Italian cooking in all respects save one - I find their cakes both too dry and too sweet. Here, though, the flavorsome grittiness of the polenta and tender rubble of ground almond meal provide so much better a foil for the wholly desirable dampness than does the usual flour.
But there is more to it than that. By some alchemical process, the lemon highlights the eggy butteriness of the cake, making it rich and sharp at the same time. If you were to try to imagine what lemon curd would taste like in cake form, this would be it.
Although I am greedily happy to slice and cram messily straight into my mouth, letting damp clumps fall where they will, this cake is best eaten - in company at least - with spoon and fork. Either way, consider it a contender for teatime comfort and supper-party celebration alike.
Ingredients
Cake:
- 1 3/4 sticks (14 tablespoons) soft unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing
- 1 cup superfine sugar
- 2 cups almond meal/flour
- 3/4 cup fine polenta/cornmeal
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder (gluten-free if required)
- 3 eggs
- Zest 2 lemons (save the juice for the syrup)
Syrup:
- Juice 2 lemons (see above)
- Heaping 1 cup confectioners' sugar
Special Equipment: 1 (9-inch) springform pan
For the cake: Line the base of your cake pan with parchment paper and grease its sides lightly with butter. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Beat the butter and sugar till pale and whipped, either by hand in a bowl with a wooden spoon, or using a freestanding mixer.
Mix together the almond meal, polenta and baking powder, and beat some of this into the butter-sugar mixture, followed by 1 egg, then alternate dry ingredients and eggs, beating all the while.
Finally, beat in the lemon zest and pour, spoon or scrape the mixture into your prepared pan and bake in the oven for about 40 minutes. It may seem wibbly but, if the cake is cooked, a cake tester should come out cleanish and, most significantly, the edges of the cake will have begun to shrink away from the sides of the pan. Remove from the oven to a wire cooling rack, but leave in its pan.
For the syrup: Make the syrup by boiling together the lemon juice and confectioners' sugar in a smallish saucepan. Once the confectioners' sugar has dissolved into the juice, you're done. Prick the top of the cake all over with a cake tester (a skewer would be too destructive), pour the warm syrup over the cake, and leave to cool before taking it out of its pan.
Make Ahead Note: The cake can be baked up to 3 days ahead and stored in airtight container in a cool place. Will keep for total of 5 to 6 days.
Freeze Note: The cake can be frozen on its lining paper as soon as cooled, wrapped in double layer of plastic wrap and a layer of foil, for up to 1 month. Thaw for 3 to 4 hours at room temperature.
This is definitely going into the dessert rotation!
Christmas Fruit Cake
It's beginning to smell a lot like Christmas!
While we're not doing the mega-baking of years past, I do have to make a few things for the holidays - and fruitcake is really one of my favorites.
I know.. I know... Fruitcake has a really bad rap. Many moons ago I started making an Apricot and Macadamia Nut Fruitcake just to ease folks back into the mood. The past couple of years I've abandoned all pretense and have gone for the real McCoy.
This year I made one fruitcake. Just one. And as soon as it is completely cooled it's going down into the basement until Christmas.
It's an easy cake to make - and well worth the cost of ingredients.
While there are often very traditional dried fruits used. I chose what we had in the house already. 8 cups or so of dried and candied fruit and a hefty cup of nuts.
Mix 'em up.
Christmas Fruit Cake
- 2 cups mixed diced glacéed fruits
- 3 cups golden raisins
- 1 cup dried cranberries
- 1 cup dried cherries
- 1 cup dried apricots, chopped
- 3/4 cup rum
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp nutmeg
- 1 tsp ginger
- 1/2 tsp cloves
- 1 cup butter, softened
- 1 cup packed brown sugar
- 5 large eggs
- 1 cup almond meal
- 1 1/2 cups chopped assorted nuts
- 1/4 cup peach jam mixed with 1 tbsp rum
In a large bowl combine all of the fruits with the rum and let macerate overnight.
Line the bottom of a well-buttered 9 1/2-inch springform pan with a round of parchment paper and butter the paper. Into a small bowl sift together the flour, the baking powder, and the spices.
Cream together the butter and the brown sugar until the mixture is light and fluffy and beat in 4 of the eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition.
Drain the fruit mixture well and mix the juices into the batter.
Stir the flour mixture into the batter, one fourth at a time, stir in the fruit mixture, the almond meal, and the nuts, stirring until the mixture is just combined, and turn the batter out into the prepared pan.
Put 2 loaf pans, each filled with hot water, in a preheated 300°F. oven and put the springform pan between them. Bake the cake for 1 hour, brush the top with the remaining egg, beaten lightly, and bake the cake for 1 hour more. While the cake is baking, in a saucepan melt the peach jam with the remaining 1 tablespoon rum over moderate heat, bring the mixture to a boil, and strain it through a fine sieve into a bowl, pressing hard on the solids.
Cool cake in the pan on a rack for 30 minutes. Remove from pan. Brush the top of the cake with glaze.
The cake will keep, covered, for 6 months.
Pear and Raisin Pie
I had a craving for a pear pie yesterday. I hadn't had one in a long time and decided I was going to bake one when I got home from work. I broke down and bought a frozen pie crust.
I don't know why I do this stuff. I should know better. I'm always disappointed. It's not that this particular crust was bad. It wasn't. It just wasn't all that good.
And then there's the time-factor. Folks talk about a frozen crust being this big time-saver. Well... I guess it is if you planned the pie days in advance, thawed the crust in the refrigerator and pulled it out and filled it with your jar of pre-made pie-filling it may be a time-saver, but what about if you decide you want to make a pie today? Or, right now?
It's a different story when you're waiting (and waiting) for the dough to thaw enough to unfold it. And after two hours on the counter it's still going to break into quarters no matter what, so out comes the rolling pin to put it back together.
The pie could have been made, baked, and cooled by the time the damned dough almost thawed.
Time-saving, indeed.
And I really am beginning to think that even a bad homemade crust is going to taste better than a store-bought.
They just do.
So while the pie shell may have been a bit disappointing, the filing was superb. Very simple, yet richly flavored. Boiling down the pear nectar really concentrates that pear flavor and a bit of lemon juice adds the tartness to offset the sweet.
Really good.
The recipe is based upon a Bon Appetit recipe from years ago.
Pear and Raisin Pie
- 1 cup pear nectar
- 1 cup raisins
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 cup cornstarch
- juice of 1 lemon
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp ginger
- 3 lbs pears, peeled, quartered, cored, cut crosswise into 1/4-inch-thick slices
Pie pastry for double crust
Preheat to 400°. Prepare double crust according to your favorite recipe. (see below fr mine)
Boil nectar in heavy medium saucepan until reduced to 1/3 cup. Pour into large bowl and mix in raisins. Cool. Mix in sugar and remaining ingredients, then pears.
Spoon filling into crust. Seal top crust to bottom crust. Cut slits in top crust to allow steam to escape.
Bake pie until pears are tender, about 1 hour. Cool.
And make a pie crust.
Pie Crust
This may be the easiest pie crust in the world! Try it with 2/3 butter and 1/3 (not shortening) if you have it available.
- 2 cups flour
- 1/3 cup pastry/cake flour
- 2 sticks butter, frozen
- pinch salt
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 1/2 cup ice water
Using a food processor, add flours, salt, and sugar. Pulse to mix.
Chop up frozen butter and add. Pulse until butter is incorporated and mixture looks grainy.
Slowly add ice water and pulse until mixed.
Turn out onto counter. Press and form mixture into two disks . I usually use right away, but you should really wrap it in plastic and refrigerate about an hour to allow the flour to properly absorb the water and to relax the gluten.
Roll out crust and place in pie plate. Crimp edges and fill.
Apple Cranberry Phyllo Rolls
This one got away from me. I really didn't plan to make two huge phyllo rolls. But when you have a one-pound box of frozen phyllo dough thawed, you use it. It's not like it's going to be any good next week.
So... I made two huge phyllo rolls.
And my-oh-my did they come out good! We're definitely set with desserts for a while.
I love phyllo but just don't use it enough. It's good savory, it's good sweet. You can fill it with absolutely anything.
This recipe came about because I had just picked up a couple of apples at the store and had a bag of cranberries sitting in the 'fridge. The phyllo has been in the freezer for a couple of weeks. Time to use stuff!
Buttering every other phyllo layer gives it a bit more substance - and actually cuts down on the calories considerably. Not that I did it for that reason... I wanted a bit more chew in the center and a bit less crumbly. I should freeze one for Thanksgiving...
Cranberry Apple Phyllo Rolls
Makes 2
- 1 tbsp butter
- 5 apples, peeled, cored, and chopped
- 1 cup fresh cranberries
- 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp allspice
- 1 1/2 cups finely-chopped walnuts
- 1/2 cup demerara sugar
- 1 stick butter, melted
- 16 sheets phyllo dough
Preheat the oven to 350. Combine the apples, cranberries, brown sugar and spices in a heavy covered skilletand cook for about 10 minutes or until tender. Cool to room temperature.
Mix walnuts and demerara sugar.
Layer 2 sheets of the phyllo on table and brush with butter. Sprinkle with walnut and sugar mixture. Repeat three times for a total of 4 2-sheet layers per roll.
Heap the apple mixture along (one end if square, long end if rectangular) of the phyllo dough. Carefully roll up, enclosing filling. Place seam-side down on baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
Brush top with butter and sprinkle with additional demerara sugar.
Bake for 35-40 min minutes. Cool and slice.
Seriously. I have two. I need to freeze one!
Pumpkin Cupcakes
Our sister-in-law Marie's birthday was Friday. We've reached the point where we don't really celebrate them. A phone call, a message on Facebook... Very 21st century.
But at the same time, a bit of real-time recognition is always nice.
Pumpkin Cupcakes seemed to fit the bill, today.
If we had baked a whole cake it would have been greeted with heartfelt thanks and a demand to take half of it back home with us. Cupcakes were the perfect idea.
I decided we needed to be seasonal. I had a pumpkin cake recipe I hadn't made in years and lots of homemade pumpkin butter.
As I was getting ingredients together, I realized we had no white sugar in the house! Victor had used the last of it for the peanut butter cookies. I had put it on the shopping list - but hadn't yet gone shopping.
I had plenty of brown sugar so I decided to make a substitution. I've baked long enough to know when ingredients can be changed out and when they can't. I had pretty much made up this recipe in the first place, so I felt comfortable making the change.
And it worked just fine - maybe even better. They came out with a really nice pumpkin/spice flavor.
Pumpkin Cake
Cake:
- 2 1/4 cups cake flour
- 2 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp ginger
- 1/4 tsp allspice
- 3/4 cup Pumpkin Butter
- 1/3 cup vanilla yogurt
- 1/3 cup honey
- 1 tbsp vanilla
- 3/4 cup butter
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 3 large eggs
Frosting
- 8oz cream cheese, room temperature
- 1 stick butter, room temperature
- 2 cups powdered sugar (or more)
- 1/2 cup Pumpkin Butter
Make cake:
Preheat oven to 350°. Line cupcake pans with paper holders. Sift flour and next 5 ingredients into medium bowl. Whisk pumpkin, yogurt, honey and vanilla in small bowl to blend. Using mixer, beat butter in large bowl until fluffy. Gradually beat in sugar. Beat in eggs 1 at a time. Mix dry ingredients into butter mixture alternately with pumpkin mixture.
Fill cupcake tins about 2/3 full. Bake about 25 minutes. Cool.
Make frosting:
Beat cream cheese and butter together. Add pumpkin butter and mix well. Add powdered sugar and mix until creamy. Add more sugar, as necessary, to gain desired consistency.
I used large cupcake liners and got 20 cupcakes. Using standard liners would net 24 cupcakes.
And look what Victor just brought home from Marie's!
She made us Caramel Apples!
There is no shortage of desserts tonight at our house!
Peanut Butter Cookies
I can't imagine what it would be like to be married to someone who never cooked. Who never ventured into the kitchen except to get ice. It's just so outside my realm of experience.
My mom cooked the majority of meals in our house growing up, but my father definitely did his share of the cooking, too. He was a San Francisco Fireman. He knew his way around a kitchen and didn't fear for his masculinity if he was seen at the grocery store or cooking for his family. His veal cutlets and dirty potatoes were legendary. And those Sunday morning eggs fried in bacon grease.....
::sigh::
Okay, so he wasn't always the most health-conscious of cooks. He was definitely role model, though. A really good role model. I learned a lot from him.
Fast-forward a few years and imagine my joy walking into the house after work and seeing Victor in the kitchen making peanut butter cookies. It's slightly chill outside, but the minute I walk into the house I'm enveloped in warmth and the smell of baking peanut butter wafting through the house.
My stomach started smiling before I did - and I started smiling immediately!
By choice, I do most of the cooking at home. I really do enjoy it. But I also love it when Victor gets into the kitchen - especially when it's unexpected... like coming home to peanut butter cookies in the oven. No matter what sort of day it has been, all is immediately right with the world.
Yes. It is definitely great to share the cooking chores. Especially when there are cookies involved!
His recipe was adapted from an old, battered copy of the Better Homes and Gardens Cook Book.
Peanut Butter Cookies
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup chunky peanut butter
- 1/2 cup butter, softened
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
- 3/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 egg
- 1/2 tsp vanilla
- 1-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup peanuts
Directions
1. In a large mixing bowl beat peanut butter and butter with electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add granulated sugar and brown sugar, baking soda, and salt. Beat until combined, scraping sides of bowl occasionally. Beat in egg and vanilla until combined. Beat in as much of the flour as you can with the mixer. Stir in any remaining flour. Add the peanuts. Cover and refrigerate dough about 1 hour or until easy to handle.
2. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Shape dough in 1-inch balls. Place balls 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Flatten the cookies by making crisscross marks with fork tines, dipping fork in sugar between flattening each cookie. Bake about 8 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Transfer to wire racks. Cool. Makes about 3 dozen cookies.
Perfect Pumpkin Pie
Pumpkin Pie. One of my all-time favorite breakfasts. Ah... er... I mean... desserts. With whipped cream, of course.
Victor actually prefers his pie without cream. I don't get it. I am of the opinion that the pie is merely a vehicle to bring the whipped cream to the mouth.
But it's a win-win for me. I get all the whipped cream!
I've been making this particular pie for a while. Secret ingredient is a 1/4 cup of maple syrup. It really adds a subtle flavor. I like.
And the pie crust is homemade, of course. This is enough for two crusts.
Crust:
- 2 cups flour
- 1/3 cup pastry/cake flour
- 2 sticks butter, frozen
- pinch salt
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 1/2 cup ice water
Using a food processor, add flours, salt, and sugar. Pulse to mix.
Chop up frozen butter and add. Pulse until butter is incorporated and mixture looks grainy.
Slowly add ice water and pulse until mixed.
Turn out onto counter. Press and form mixture into two disks . Wrap in plastic and refrigerate about an hour to allow the flour to properly absorb the water and to relax the gluten.
Roll out crust and place in pie plate. Crimp edges and fill.
The filling can be made with a can of pumpkin, but it really is better with fresh.
Pumpkin Pie Filling
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup maple syrup
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
- 2 large eggs
- 2 cups fresh pumpkin puree (or 1 15 oz can)
- 1 can (12 fl. oz.) evaporated milk
Preheat oven to 425°. Beat eggs, sugar, maple syrup, and spices in large bowl. Add pumpkin amd mix well. Gradually stir in evaporated milk.
Pour into pie shell. Bake at 425° F. for 15 minutes. Reduce temperature to 350° F.; bake for 40 to 50 minutes or until knife inserted near center comes out clean. Top with whipped cream before serving.
It is so easy to make and so good you may just be tempted to have some for breakfast!
Pear Pastry
Since we can't be at AT&T Park watching the game live and eating garlic fries, we needed something to start tonight's baseball game. We keep seeing our former season ticket seats... It is such an awesome ball park. I miss those seats. Those were fun days.
But I digress...
I picked up a couple of great-looking pears yesterday, thinking they would lend themselves to a fun dessert. They did - except I didn't make the dessert!
We had puff pastry in the freezer...
Victor peeled and cubed the pears and coated them with maybe a quarter-cup of sugar. Into a skillet they went with a tablespoon of butter, a bit of flour, cinnamon and nutmeg.
When they caramelized a bit, he added a splash of apple cider and let that cook down.
Onto the pastry, folded up 2 sides, and baked at 425° for about 15 minutes.
Yum.
Bananas Foster Bread
I was looking at some pretty ripe bananas yesterday. Really ripe; as in use them right now or throw them away really ripe.
I decided to use them.
Fortunately, the latest issue of Cooking Light magazine was sitting here. The cover picture was - banana bread.
Banana bread is one of those things I just tend to throw together. I've made it enough times over the years that I have a recipe memorized. But... I'm always willing to look at ideas.
There was a recipe for a Bananas Foster Bread that looked promising. Cook the bananas with some butter, brown sugar and brandy before mixing everything together? Sounds like a plan.
I tweaked the ingredients a bit (what a shock!) by adding wheat bran in place of ground flax seed and lots more spices. We ended up with a really good dessert - and possible breakfast!
Bananas Foster Bread
- 2 cups mashed ripe banana
- 1 cup packed brown sugar, divided
- 5 tbsp butter, melted
- 3 tbsp brandy or dark rum
- 1/2 cup vanilla yogurt
- 2 large eggs
- 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup wheat bran
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp allspice
- 1/4 tsp ginger
- pinch nutmeg
- Cooking spray
Glaze:
- 1/3 cup powdered sugar
- 1 tbsp butter, melted
- 1 tbsp brandy or dark rum
1. Preheat oven to 350°.
2. Combine banana, 1/2 cup brown sugar, butter, and brandy in a nonstick skillet. Cook over medium heat until mixture begins to bubble. Remove from heat; cool. Place banana mixture in a large bowl. Add yogurt, remaining 1/2 cup brown sugar, and eggs. Beat with a mixer at medium speed.
3. Combine flour, wheat bran, soda, salt, cinnamon allspice, ginger, and nutmeg. Add flour mixture to banana mixture; beat just until blended. Pour batter into a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350° for 1 hour or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Remove from oven; cool 10 minutes in pan on a wire rack. Remove bread from pan; place on wire rack.
4. Combine melted butter, brandy, and powdered sugar; stir until well blended. Drizzle over the warm bread.
It may be the first time I haven't used walnuts or pecans in my banana bread. It worked quite well without them, but would work equally well with. Add 'em if ya have 'em.
And the glaze really makes it special. That little amount of butter with the brandy made for the perfect finish.
Moosewood Muffins
Sh-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h! Don't tell Diane, but I made muffins to bring into work for her birthday tomorrow.
Banana Nut. From the Moosewood Restaurant Cooks At Home Cook Book. It's a great recipe, really versatile, and pretty much never-fail.
Just to make them slightly more decadent (they are for a birthday girl after all!) I dipped the warm muffin tops in melted butter and then rolled them in cinnamon sugar. Yum.
Here's the recipe. As it states, the wet/dry ingredients are just the base for the muffins - it's not a plain muffin. You have to keep reading and make one of the variations.
Have fun!
Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home
Muffin Madness
Basic Wet Ingredients
- 2 large eggs
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 3/4 - 1 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Basic Dry Ingredients
- 2 cup unbleached flour (I use whole wheat)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
Preheat the oven to 350°.
In a large bowl, mix together the eggs, oil, brown sugar, and vanilla. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt, and any spices your variation calls for. Stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until just combined, being careful not to overmix the batter Fold in the additional ingredients called for in your variation.
Spoon batter into oiled standard muffins tins and bake for 20 to 25 minutes until puffed and golden brown. (If you are using mini-muffin tins, bake for 10-15 minutes.) A knife inserted in the center should come out clean.
Additional Ingredients:
The basic wet and dry ingredients are not intended to be a recipe for plain muffins; always choose one of the variations.
- Apple muffins: Add 2 cups of grated tart apples and 1 teaspoon freshly grated lemon peel to wet ingredients and 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon to dry ingredients. If you like, fold 1/2 cup of chopped walnuts or pecans into the batter
- Banana muffins: Add 1 1/2 cups of mashed ripe banana to wet ingredients. If you like, fold 1 cup chopped nuts and/or 1/2 cup of chocolate chips to batter.
- Blueberry - lemon muffins: Add 1 1/2 cups of fresh or frozen blueberries and 1 tablespoon of freshly grated lemon peel to wet ingredients.
- Zucchini muffins: Add 2 cups of grated zucchini to wet ingredients and 1 teaspoon of cinnamon and 1/2 teaspoon of ground cardamom to the dry ingredients. Fold in 1/2 cup of raisins or currants and 3/4 cup of chopped nuts if you like, into the batter.
Happy Birthday, Diane!
Pane Pugliese
Victor's making his Monday Masterpiece, so I've baked a loaf of bread to go along with it.
The Pane Pugliese is a rustic bread from Puglia. Puglia is Italy's heel - and the perfect accompaniment to tonight's pasta sensation!
The bread calls for a biga - a starter - that needs to be made the day before.
This recipe comes from The Italian Baker by Carol Field. It's one of the few cook books we didn't get rid of a few years ago. I've been making this particular bread forever - and really do like it.
Pane Pugliese
- 1 packet dry yeast (or 1/2 package fresh yeast)
- 1/4 cup warm water
- 3 cups water; room temp
- 1 cup biga
- 7 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tbsp salt
Proof the yeast in the warm water. Add 1 1/2 c water and the biga, mix till blended. Add flour and salt, mix till dough comes together and pulls off the sides of the bowl. Knead 3-5 minutes in a mixer, longer by hand. Dough will be very soft and elastic. Let rise about 3 hours, shape into 2 small round loaves or 1 big flattish one. If you have baking stones, place loaves on baking peel or on baking sheets sprinkled corn meal. Let rise about 1 hour. Preheat oven to 450°, and 10 minutes before baking flour the loaf tops and dimple them with your fingers. Bake 50-60 minutes for big loaves, 30-35 minutes for small. Tap the loaves to test for doneness (hollow=done) and cool on a rack.
And the biga. I would imagine it could stay in the 'fridge and just keep adding to it as I used to do with my starters years ago.
The bread is wild. It rises wild, it bakes wild. It really has a mind of its own. One of the reasons I really like it. The unpredictability is what makes it fun.
Biga
- 1/2 tsp active dry yeast (or 1/10 package fresh yeast)
- 1/4 cup warm water
- 1 1/4 cup water (room temperature)
- 3 3/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
Stir the yeast into the warm water and let stand until creamy – about 10 minutes. Stir in the remaining water and then the flour, one cup at a time.
Mix with the paddle attachment on the mixer at the lowest speed about 2 minutes.
Remove to a slightly oiled bowl, cover, and let rise at cool room temperature for 6 to 24 hours. The starter will triple in volume and still be wet and sticky when ready. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.
I made one loaf and froze the rest of the dough - as well as the biga.
Ready to go into the hot oven!
This bread is stellar! It is really crusty with a great interior.
I can't wait for dinner!