MangiaMore: a DOLLOP of dough

RER 12.23.12

Sometimes just a spoonful can save a life. Sometimes just a teaspoon (or tablespoon, depending) is all you need. Sometimes two heaping teaspoons can make all the difference in the world, especially if they are sweet, delicious, tangy, textured and baked. Now that's what I'm talking about, doughy drop cookies. This is the third category of Christmas cookies that we make and indulge in (heavily) every year, along with those addictive roll out recipes and mini bars of joy. Check out the little dollops of doughy goodness we made this year...

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Almond Cookies
When I was younger, I had a super amazing math teacher, who on the outside seemed strict and sarcastic, but on the inside she was truly a kind person pushing her students to their greatest potential. To help the push and ease the pain, during exams she would feed us with brownies and cookies. The recipe for these almond cookies come from her. After asking, she typed out the recipes she used for her cookies and that is what we use now (we even still have the paper...somewhere). She made this recipe with walnuts, but we use almonds. There is definitely a different taste (the walnuts feel a little heavier), but the cookies all in all are delicious and rich. The chopped (fine or not so fine) add a great texture and a kind of meatiness that generally accompanies nuts. Maybe that makes me feel less guilty about stuffing my face with these cookies, they are nutritional.

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1/2 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup white sugar

1 egg

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup ground almonds

2 teaspoons amaretto liqueur

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Preheat oven to 400 degrees

In large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. Beat in the egg, amaretto, and almonds. Gradually mix in the flour until well blended. 

Drop by teaspoonfuls 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets.

Bake 5 to 8 minutes in the preheated oven, or until cookies are lightly colored. 

Recipe from my middle and high school Math Teacher, Ms. Couturie.

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Lemon Ricotta Cookies
Now, when I was studying in London, one of my amazing flatmates introduced me to this recipe. We have kept in touch since our time in the UK (more than two years ago), and because I was so enamored with the cookies she made for us, I asked her for the recipe. She just told me to google "Giada Lemon Ricotta." Ok. Easy. Months later, while getting cozy watching the Food Network, it dawned on me that Giada is the Giada De Laurentiis. I am not always a fan of her show "Everyday Italian," but my family is obsessed with these cookies. Both my sister and my boyfriend love and request these cookies all year round. So with leftover ricotta and a little lemon zest, these cookies were added to the roster of our Christmas Bake-a-thon this year. Smiles all around. These cookies are easy, though a little time intensive (they have to sit on the cookie sheet for a while after baked), are like fluffy muffin tops, drizzled with a tart yet sweet glaze. They are always moist and most often addictive.

RER 12.21.12

Cookies
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 (15-ounce) container whole milk ricotta cheese
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1 lemon, zested


Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl and set it aside. In another bowl, combine the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Then beat in the eggs one at a time until incorporated. Add in the ricotta, lemon juice, and the zest and mix to combine. Finally stir in the dry ingredients.
Line the cookie sheets with parchment paper (they get sticky). Spoon the dough (2 tablespoons) and leave space in between each cookies because they really spread.
Bake at 375 degrees for 15 minutes. Once finished leave the cookies on the sheet for another 20ish minutes (I usually do not wait so long... who can? They are delicious).

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Lemony Glaze
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1 lemon, zested

Mix all three ingredients and stir until smooth. Spoon the deliciousness onto the cookies and use the back of the spoon to spread the glaze. Let the glaze harden for about 2 hours (another agonizing wait).
Recipe from foodnetwork.com


What kind of dollops of dough do you enjoy in the holiday season? These kinds of drop cookies are super great all year round, with an incredible variety and range.

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12.30.12 

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MangiaMore: set the BAR

RER 12.28.12

Not only do we like to roll out (Christmas cookies, that is), we also make bar cookies, layered, filled, and topped with delicious goodies that only mean the holidays. Each of the bar cookies we make, Lemon Squares, Cranberry Bars, and Seven Layer Bars, remind me of memories or someone special. I love these kinds of cookies because they are super easy, super quick, with a pretty high yield to effort ratio. They mostly involve slapping some kind of crust at the bottom of the pan, filling up or layering on the delicious ingredients and throwing it in the oven. What's not to love?

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Lemon Squares
These little lemony treats were a favorite of my grandmother. She would request them every year, and my sister and I would answer the call. Sometimes it even required us to make a double batch to accommodate the demand. Now, it is my boyfriend who favors Lemon Squares (he likes most anything lemon), so it continues to be a must. They are tangy, rich, buttery and sweet, and the floating coconut adds a hearty texture. Delicious and addictive. They may be my favorite this year.

basic scottish shortbread crust
1 1/4 cups of flour
3 tablespoons sugar
1/2 cup butter

In a bowl, mix four and sugar. Cut in butter until mixture resembles fine crumbs.

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coconut- lemon squares
1 recipe basic scottish shortbread
2 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons flour
1/4 teaspoon lemon peel
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup coconut 

Prepare the basic scottish shortbread crust. Press the mixture into the bottom of a 9x9 inch pan and bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.
In a bowl beat eggs until they are foamy. Add the rest of the ingredients except the coconut, and beat the mixture until it is slightly thickened. Stir in the coconut. Pour the lemon mixture on top of the already cooked crust and bake 20 to 25 minutes more until golden brown. Top with powdered sugar, though this is optional.
Recipe from Better Homes and Gardens Creative Ideas: Christmas Cookies 1990

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Cranberry Bars
My family fondly calls these bar cookies "Cranberry O Bars," because they are absolutely amazing. They are sweet and the cranberries bring a little bit of tartness, and they are so chewy the bars are almost like candy. These cookies came from a recipe that my Aunt gave us years back. These cookies became a staple in our house at first taste. Remember how I used the left over cranberries after Thanksgiving here... this is the full recipe!

cranberry sauce
4 cups fresh/frozen craberries
2 cups of sugar
1/3 cup Brandy

Place cranberries in a 9x13 baking dish and sprinkle with the sugar. Bake for 1 hour at 300 degrees. After removing the pan from the oven stir the cranberry mixture and then stir in the Brandy. Store in jars or containers in the refrigerator. Makes 3 cups.

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cranberry bar cookies

1.5 c oats
1.5 c flour
1.5 c brown sugar
1 tea baking powder
1 c softened butter

1 cup of Cranberry Sauce

Blend the dry ingredients with the butter until the mixture is crumbly. Press about two thirds of the oat mixture in to the bottom of a 9 inch square pan (we usually do a 9x13). Add the cup of cranberry sauce to coat the oat crust. Sprinkle the remainder of the oat mixture over the cranberry layer. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Let cool completely before cutting the bars.

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Seven Layer Bars

These Seven Layer Bars or called Magic Bars, come in many different varieties and combinations, but they all have the same main components; graham cracker crust, sweetened condensed milk, chocolate chips, nuts and coconut. You can add and subtract as much as you want. 

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I tend to subtract, using far less chocolate chips that prescribed. And my mother, who is a chocolate lover despises that I do that. One year, there was the battle of chocolate chips when making these sweet goodies. I put as many chocolate chips as I deemed necessary, and as I was baking the cookies, I had the control, until my mother came in and saw the paucity of chocolate. She grabbed the bag, and doused the already completed cookies with an alarming amount of chocolate chips (well, at least to me). And from that year on, I have been careful (and wise) to add more chocolate chips. These sticky sweet bar cookies are basically the only cookies we make during Christmas that add a chocolate punch. I am not fond of chocolate, but sometimes a little chocolate does add some special cheer. Check out Eagle Brand's recipe for these sweet textural adventures. 

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What kind of bar cookies do you make during the holidays or even all year round? I am always open to suggestions for sweet thangs. Help me set the bar and mangia more!

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12.28.12

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MangiaMore: ROLL out

RER 12.21.12

My family is all about the Christmas cookies. I can remember making them with my mom and my sister in childhood; battling the Sprtiz cookie gun, getting sprinkles and frosting everywhere, eating massive amounts of raw dough, even having friends over to help create. My mother does not participate as much and my sister and I have kind of stolen the show. But it is a fun tradition to uphold. Here are two recipes that we do almost every year. Get ready to roll out, the dough that is (unless you eat too many of them if you know what I mean...). The ever popular Sugar Cookie and the misunderstood Gingerbread Man.

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Sugar Cookies

1/3 cup shortening

1/3 cup butter

¾ cup sugar

1 egg

1 tablespoon milk 

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 cup flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

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Mix butter and shortening until soft. Add half the flour and the remaining ingredients until well combined. Then stir or even beat in the rest of the flour. Divide the dough in half, cover, chill for 1 to 2 hours (even over night is fine).
Lightly flour surface roll each slab of dough to 1/8 inch thick (or your desired thickness). Cut into fun shapes. Add sugars or decoration if that's your style.

Bake at 375 degrees for 7 to 9 minutes. Cool on a wire rack. Decorate when cooled if desired (pretty cookies may or may not taste better).
Recipe from Better Homes and Gardens Creative Ideas: Christmas Cookies 1990

RER 12.23.12

Gingerbread Men

3 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly milled black pepper

8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter
1/4 cup vegetable shortening
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar

2/3 cup  molasses
1 large egg

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Sift together the first group of dry ingredients. Beat together the butter and shortening until soft, add the brown sugar, until light in texture and color. Beat in the molasses and the egg. Finally gradually stir in the sifted dry ingredients (preferably with a wooden spoon). Divide the dough in half, cover, chill for 3 hours (again over night is fine).
Lightly flour surface roll each slab of dough to 1/8 inch thick (or your desired thickness). Cut into fun shapes (or men... but gingerbread tastes pretty much the same in any shape).
Bake at 350 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes. Cool on a wire rack. Decorate when cooled if desired (frosting, sprinkles, you know the deal).
Recipe from Foodnetwork.com

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The frosting I use for either of these cookies involves just eyeballing milk, powdered sugar, and food coloring, until the desired texture.

I love these recipes for roll out Christmas cookies, because it makes baking an event, an experience, and a ton of fun.

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12.27.12

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photo op: CHRISTMAS day

RER 12.25.12

Christmas is always pretty low-key at my house, meaning we do not have a lot of people over, not a ton of chaos, or dress up for dinner. It is usually small and quiet (except for Muppet Christmas Carol soundtrack and chewing). Just because it's toned down, doesn't mean we slack on the food or snacks. In fact, spending time gathered around the snackies, the cookies, or the dinner table are the best parts of Christmas at our house. It always involves a lot of laughs, cheese, sing-a-longs, and butter (stay tuned for some of my favorite Christmas cookie recipes and memories).

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I love the holiday season, the smells, the sounds, the food, the people. It truly is the most wonderful time of year! Happy Holidays!

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12.26.12

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not just nourishment: a BEAUTIFUL disaster

RER 12.17.12

You know all those sayings; “don’t judge a book by its cover” or “looks can be deceiving” blah blah blah…. But this cake was absolutely beautiful. I’d say it is one of the best looking cakes I have ever participated in (other than a Harry Potter themed one we made for a family event years ago). It stood four layers tall and stately, smooth and well frosted, round, and pretty close to an aesthetic miracle for my baking skills. I was excited and impressed. It was a great group effort with my sister.

It was another day, another birthday, and that meant, another cake. Just what felt like a few days before, I went on a baking adventure, making my first chocolate cake. And it was to die for. Most everyone voted for a repeat for this next birthday, but I wanted to try something new.

Yellow Cake, chocolate whipped cream topping, and chocolate frosting (with a hint of coffee)… sounds delicious.

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We decided on a Smitten Kitchen yellow cake, after sifting through the plethora of recipes for yellow cake. Some had a gazillion egg yolks rendering them mildly impractical. This was a really good option for us (by us, I mean, me and my sister). Plus, I have always wanted to try one of her recipes and I have never made a yellow cake (which contrary to popular belief is not the same as white cake… more on this another time).

It was not a terribly difficult recipe, including most all of the things one expects in a cake (butter, sugar, eggs, butter/milk, cake flour…etc.). I read the instructions carefully, because there is nothing worse than messing up a birthday cake. The recipe called for a lot of beating; creaming the butter and sugar, mixing in each egg individually, stirring until the milk was combined, adding in the dry ingredients in three parts, each time more mixing. I am not one to always follow recipes to a T, but I wanted this birthday cake to turn out extra great (and the pressure was on considering the success of my last cake).

Once beaten to oblivion, the batter looked and tasted pretty normal, delicious in fact. It had a hard time baking, but I am beginning to think the oven here is a little temperamental and petulant. The whole question of when to take out the cake  is always a tumultuous one. No one wants an over done cake, the dryness suffocating and crumbly (well at least that is not my idea of a delicious birthday cake). And this time there was a lot of back and forth, peeking and toothpick sticking. But finally, we made (well I made) up our minds and pulled it from the oven. Only time would tell how done (or undone) the cake was.

AJR 12.17.12

As usual, I wanted to be a little fancy, just more as an exploratory element. So we decided to frost our inner layers with a chocolate whipped cream kind of topping to keep it light ish. Though I never made this kind of filling, it was easy to whip up (pun intended). It was just cocoa powder, powdered sugar and heavy cream, and a lot of love from the hand mixer. It also turned out magnificent, smooth, creamy, luscious and chocolaty, like a pillow.

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The frosting for the outside of the cake was part of a recipe I investigated in for my previous cake. This frosting involved chocolate, instant coffee and an egg yolk. We did not have all the appropriate ingredients, but we played around with what we had to recreate the recipe as best we could. The texture was a little interesting because of our melted chocolate substitute, which was a little concoction of the cocoa powder, sugar and vegetable oil that my sister manipulated for our use. And the inventive mixing of our double brewed sip of coffee instead of the “hottest tap water” mixed with instant coffee paid off too. The frosting was strong and delicious, sweet but also very adult at the same time, perfect for the cake recipient.

RER 12.17.12

It was even a piece of cake (pun also intended), to split this bad boy into four layers. My sister expertly applied the whipped chocolaty goodness in between each layer, adding just the right amount to prevent spillage. And then all was left was frosting, and even that went smoother than expected. In the end it was a beautiful cake, on the outside at least. We both were anxious; she about the whipped icing seeping into the cake or causing some sliding, and me, I was worried about the whole thing (as usual).

It was such a pity that the beautiful cake was a disaster on the inside. My cautious and literal interpretation of the yellow cake recipe might have been the downfall of the pretty birthday cake. The texture of the four layers of cake was completely off.  Just from the moment we cut the cake it was obvious. My sister and I did see some signs we were not expecting throughout the baking process.  Beating the batter to death resulted in what looked like curdling when the buttermilk was added (though this was mentioned in the recipe).  The recipe also mentioned to tap the pans before putting them in the oven to minimize those pesky air bubbles, which we did, but they failed to go away. Another warning sign was when we split the layers. There were tons of little pockets and tubes from the air.  I guess we thought nothing of it, until the moment of truth came, the tasting.  It was gummy and chewy, dense and grainy, essentially inedible. The cake tasted fine, the flavors were there, the yellow color was present, but the texture made all of us want to run the other way.

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“Should we just throw it out?” I asked. Silence.

I took that as a unanimous and resounding yes, so we started to pick at it. I went right for all the little sprinkles (which I put on similarly to how the yellow cake was decorated in Smitten Kitchen, it was so pretty).

While deconstructing the cake, scraping off frosting and, squeezing out whipped cream, mom busted out the giant Joy of Cooking, and researched the flaw of the cake. We found that the grainy texture was a case of over beating, which may have caused the oils in the butter to separate and play silly games with the other ingredients.

After that, the remaining three fourths of the cake was dumped in the almost empty garbage can, making a depressing thud.

AJR 12.17.12

I am still bummed about the cake.  But hanging out, baking, dancing, stirring, mixing and singing with my sister was really fun. It was an experiment and group project that made us giggle and alternate micromanaging. I always enjoy baking time with my sister, even though we tend to butt heads, it’s friendly banter and somewhat expected. This cake baking time made me look forward even more to our annual Christmas Cookie Bake-a-thon which is upon us(butter is softening at this moment).

No but really, I am still bummed and disappointed about this cake. I have never made anything that terrible that it needed to be directed to the garbage can so quickly. But in the end, it is a lesson learned which could only help improve my baking skills. Every experience is a learning experience, I like to think. We are not always perfect (or our cakes or food experiments), nor are we meant to be. In our own ways we are all beautiful disasters…

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12.18.12 

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photo op: CHRISTMAS party

RER 12.14.12

Every year my boyfriend's family has a huge Christmas party blow out. The family goes all out preparing, decorating and celebrating. This was my second year going and helping out and it was tons of fun, with a ton of people and a ton of food... Check out some of the spread.

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I had so much fun, munching and socializing. Christmas parties like these make me even more excited about the holiday season and holiday treats!

RER

12.16.12