Gingerbread Pancakes for Christmas morning

This is a special treat for a special day.  Well worth the indulgence.  But I did make a few adjustments, shown in italics and strikeout.

Here's what I used:

1 cup whole wheat flour
1½ 1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 1 teaspoon ground dried ginger

1 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 egg

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 cup molasses

1½ 1 cup water
1/2 cup milk

Whisk the flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, ginger, and cinnamon in a bowl; set aside. Beat the egg in a separate mixing bowl with the vanilla and molasses until smooth. Whisk in the water and milk until completely incorporated. Stir the flour mixture into the molasses mixture until just combined -- a few lumps are okay. Heat a lightly oiled griddle over low heat. Drop batter by large spoonfuls onto the griddle, and cook until bubbles form and the edges are dry. Flip, and cook until browned on the other side. Repeat with remaining batter.

Some people complained that these were thin, but mine turned out fluffy and spongy and delicious. I'm not sure if it made any difference, but I did let the batter sit for about 5 minutes before cooking on a very low flame (rather than medium-high, as the original directions instructed.)  It's also likely that the thirstier whole wheat flour soaked up more liquid and so contributed to a thicker pancake.

Conclusion:  Excellent! Definitely a keeper. I had them with cream cheese and maple syrup, but I would like to try creating a cream cheese based syrup.

Recipe: Grandma's Gingerbread Pancakes via allrecipes

Spiced Pecan Twist

Sunday morning -- start it with this spicy, twisted sweet bread.  It's soft and crispy, sweet and fragrant.  It has a consistency much more like a scone than a bread.  In fact, it's pulled together just like a scone, differing only in the shaping. As a loaf, however, the result is less crispy crust and more fluffy interior.

This is quite sweet, with sugar in the dough, the filling, and the glazes.  Personally, I don't see the point of both an apricot jam glaze AND a lemon glaze,  and I'm not sure either is necessary since the dough receives an egg wash.  I recommend the apricot for a less sweet touch, but in that case it should probably be eaten the same day as the jam is sticky and will soften the crust.  The lemon glaze adds a nice citrusy flavor, but no need to drape it on.   You could also easily reduce the sugar in the dough, if desired.

This was a little tricky to make -- there were no photos and the directions were a bit scant.  She offers that you can make one large loaf or two smaller ones, but then gives directions for only one variation without telling you which that is.  I had halved the recipe, and as it was had the dough rolled out into about a 14" square before I checked the measurements:  25 cm, which is just under 10".  Oops.  And of course, I didn't know if that was for the full recipe or only half.  Considering the small size of the recommended square (which would have left my dough fairly thick), I determined her continued directions must be for the half-size loaf.

I didn't want to gather up the dough and re-roll it to the proper size, so I charged ahead and waited to see how it would work out.  My finished log was only about 2" in diameter, but once sliced and twisted I was able to sort of squish it up a bit to about 10" long.  This gave the dough room to rise, but might have caused the layers to blur a bit more during baking than if the twist had been tighter.  (Another disadvantage to the lemon glaze is that it obscures the pretty layers.)

I used the original recipe as a guideline for the total quantity of spices, but used a 2:2:1:2 mix of cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg, and Chinese 5-spice (which is somewhat anisey, though mine was old and low in flavor.)  I also used about half whole wheat flour in the dough.

This bread is quite rich with all the butter and sugar, so plan your accompaniments accordingly.  Simple scrambled eggs and dark coffee would go nicely.

For the filling:
42g plain flour
25g dark brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cardamom
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon Chinese 5-spice
1/8 teaspoon salt
20g butter, soft
1/2 cup pecans, broken pieces
1 egg white

For the dough:
190g plain flour
100g whole wheat flour
30g caster sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
35g butter
1 egg yolk
100ml milk

For the egg wash (optional):
1 egg mixed with 1 tablespoon water

For the apricot glaze (optional):
1 tablespoon apricot jam

For the lemon icing (optional):
1/3 cup confectioner's sugar
Zest of 1/2 lemon
1/2 tablespoon butter, melted
Hot water, added a teaspoon at a time until you get the desired consistency

For the filling, whisk together the flour, brown sugar, and spices in a small bowl; blend in the butter. Add the egg white a little at a time.  (If you are not using the egg wash, reserve a small amount of this egg white, about 1/2 teaspoon, to secure your log roll.) Stir well until you have a smooth, creamy paste and set aside.

Sift together the flours, sugar, baking powder and salt together in a mixing bowl. Rub in the butter until you have a soft crumb texture. Whisk the egg yolk and milk together and pour slowly into the dry ingredients, mixing all the time. Your dough should be smooth, light and very soft. Heavily flour your work surface and tip the dough onto it. Sprinkle with a little more flour and very gently knead for a few seconds, pulling the edges of the dough towards you, working in a circular motion until you have a neat ball of soft dough. Roll out your dough to about a 10" square. Spread the filling over the dough with a palette knife, leaving one inch untouched along the far edge. Sprinkle the pecans evenly over the filling.

Starting away from the clean edge, roll up the dough into a log. Beat your egg for the egg wash (or use your reserved egg white) and brush the clean edge. Secure the roll closed with the egg wash strip underneath the roll. With a sharp knife, cut through the center of the roll lengthwise, leaving one inch at the top still adjoined. Rotate the halves outward to expose the layers, then wrap them loosely around each other about two times to form a twisted strand. Secure the end by pressing lightly with your fingers.  If using, brush all over with the egg wash. Move to a lightly greased baking sheet and bake for 30-40 minutes at 375F.

Make the lemon icing by whisking together the confectioner's sugar, melted butter, lemon zest and a little hot water until you have the desired consistency. Leave to one side.

Once the bread has come out of the oven, dollop the apricot jam in a few spots and allow it to soften, then brush thinly over the hot loaf.  Allow to cool on a wire rack. When cooled, drizzle the icing decoratively over the loaf.

Conclusion:  This was somewhat fussy, but worth the effort for a special breakfast or brunch.  Be cautious with the sugar layering -- it can overpower the flavors of the bread without necessarily adding to the whole.  Next time I would probably limit the topping to a light, decorative drizzle and call it good, but all options are provided here.

Original recipe:  Cinnamon and Pecan Twist Bread via Food Network UK

Cinnamon Cream Cheese Pound Cake

The only pound cake I knew as a child was the frozen one that came in a box.  It's still a favorite, I must admit -- or at least it is in my head.  My memories from childhood are of an intensely buttery, dense cake with a soft, dark crust that needed nothing else.  I was never satisfied with the thin, 1/2" slice I was doled out.  (It was a small cake, and a big family.)  So to be honest, I was somewhat disappointed the first time I had homemade pound cake.  It was too sweet, not buttery, and had a weird, crunchy crust.  I've had several different recipes, and they were all pretty much the same.  What's with that top crust that doesn't quite attach to the cake, anyway?

Enter:  this one.  Perhaps it's the cream cheese that makes the difference.  All I know is this cake is moist, buttery, not too sweet, with the added warmth of cinnamon.  I doubled the spice, which made it clearly a cinnamon cake, but I think the original version with just a light touch would be lovely as well.

No crunchy, crumbling crust here.

The recipe is very easy, though a little time-consuming with all the mixing involved.  (You don't want to take this on without modern conveniences.)  Aside from the increased spice, the only other change I made was to use whole-milk Greek yogurt instead of buttermilk, thinned down with some skim milk.  It seemed to work out fine.  This recipe made a large cake that was perfect for the company potluck holiday lunch.

Conclusion:  Delicious.  Fine plain, but would be extra special served with a tangy cranberry/pear compote and a dollop of whipped cream.

Recipe:  Cinnamon Cream Cheese Pound Cake  via Evil Shenanigans

December ABC challenge: Hot Buttered Soft Pretzels

Anything that starts with "hot buttered" in the description has got to be good, right?  I mean, you've got bread, you've got butter, and you've got salt.  It's hard to go wrong.

I've been a soft pretzel junkie since I can't remember when.  For years, whenever I was in Santa Barbara, I'd go out of my way to visit this little hole-in-the-wall bakery just to buy their soft pretzels.  These things were the best I've ever tasted!  Bavarian style, they were fat and soft in the middle, while the arms were thin and chewy.  I'd buy a half dozen, which lasted me only a couple days.  (It was the most I thought I could get away with before they'd lose their remarkable texture and flavor.  I limited myself to eating only two a day.)  Then one day I stopped by and found the shop gone.  I don't know what happened to them.  I didn't know the name, so I couldn't even look them up to see if they'd simply moved.  I've searched Santa Barbara bakeries since then but to no avail.  Those amazing pretzels are gone forever.

I never even thought about making my own at home. I thought there was a big, complicated process involved -- the shaping, the boiling vats of toxic fluid, the special salt...  Besides, I was getting to an age when I really couldn't afford to be eating large wads of white dough.

Consequently, I approached this month's challenge with a little trepidation.  The recipe sounded pretty easy, and it turned out to be just that.  I suppose the only question was exactly what texture the dough should be.  The recipe called for it to be "soft, smooth, and quite slack."  It was a very dry day here, and I'd used part whole wheat flour, so I found myself adding more and more water as I kneaded, the dough seeming to be drying out before my eyes.

Fun with bread ropes!

In the end, perhaps my dough was a little too slack, because the pretzels were very flat on the bottom.  But the dough was easy to work with and the pretzel knots came together nicely.  I made them Bavarian style like the ones I used to buy -- fat in the middle and skinny (well, I tried) on the arms.  (The arms on these aren't nearly as thin as I was aiming for.)  The baked pretzels were about 5" across.

With luck, the fat middles will break open a little during baking.

I wasn't happy with the whole wheat addition.   In most baked products I don't even notice a difference, but it was very detectable in these.  Soft pretzels need to be plain white flour.  There's no getting around it.  They also lacked the smooth, shiny exterior that a pretzel should have.  Still, the texture and flavor was good.

Crispy on the outside, soft on the inside.

Conclusion:  These were very easy and very good, but I'll have to keep up the search for the ultimate soft pretzel.  If I weren't on a quest, I would stick with this recipe, as there really is nothing bad about it.  But next time, regardless of the recipe, I'll make them larger around so I can get those arms thinner!

Recipe:  Hot Buttered Soft Pretzels via King Arthur Flour

Cranberry Orange Quickbread

  

Update:  I cut this recipe in half and it baked nicely in a 7x3-inch loaf pan in about 35 minutes.

I cut this recipe out of a magazine years ago and it's since become one of my holiday standards.  It's a fairly sweet, dense loaf that's very easy to prepare -- most of the ingredients will already be on hand.  Though I haven't tried it with dried cranberries, I'm sure it would work, but you wouldn't get that nice, tart bite that fresh cranberries give.  Wrapped up in pretty paper, it makes a great hostess gift.

1½ cups fresh or frozen cranberries, coarsely chopped
1 cup granulated sugar, divided
2 tablespoons butter
3/4 cup evaporated milk
1/4 cup orange juice
1 large egg
3 cups all-purpose flour (or substitute up to half with whole wheat flour)
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon powdered ginger
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
grated peel of 1 large orange

Heat oven to 350 F.  In a small bowl, toss cranberries with 1/4 cup of the sugar; set aside.  Melt the butter in a medium-sized bowl (I like to use a 2-cup Pyrex measuring cup); add the milk, orange juice, and egg and whisk thoroughly to combine.

Into a large bowl, sift flour(s), baking powder, baking soda, salt, and ginger; whisk in the remaining 3/4 cup sugar.  Add the nuts, orange peel, and reserved cranberries and stir to combine. Add the milk mixture and stir just until blended.  The batter will be thick.  (If you used whole wheat flour, you might need to add a couple tablespoons of water.)

Pour batter into a greased 9 x 5 x 3-inch loaf pan and bake for 1 hour, or until pick inserted in center comes out clean.  Cool bread in pan for 5 minutes on a wire rack, then remove from pan to cool completely on rack.  Serve with whipped cream cheese.

One of the prettiest loaves I've made.   If you want to dress it up
with a drizzled glaze, I recommend reducing the sugar by 1/2 cup.

This is a very festive bread and perfect for the holidays.

Apple Muffins I

It's apple season, so it's the perfect time for this recipe.  (I labelled it as "I" because I have another apple muffin recipe that I might post eventually as "II".)  As it happened, I had just picked a couple Granny Smiths from a local tree, and this was a great use for one of them.

The original recipe for these muffins call them "doughnut muffins" -- that is, just like doughnuts only baked in a muffin tin.  While delicious, these are not nearly as dense as a doughnut.   (For muffins that really do taste like doughnuts, try this Pumpkin Ice Cream Muffin recipe.)  I confess, I made quite a few modifications, so perhaps that's the culprit.

For starters, I didn't want a full batch.  (It would make about 20 regular muffins.)  I  really cut it down and went with 1/4 of the recipe, which gave me 5 moderately-sized muffins.  I was out of milk, so I substituted heavy cream  and omitted the oil.  As usual, I also substituted some of the white flour for whole wheat. Here's what I worked with:

1/2 cup diced (small) apple, unpeeled
1/4 cup apple cider
3 tablespoon butter (softened)
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon dark molasses
1 medium to large egg
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 tablespoons heavy cream
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/8 cup whole wheat flour
3/8 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon each ground nutmeg, ginger, cloves
butter and cinnamon-sugar to top

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease or line a muffin tin. Peel and core apple, and cut into small chunks. In a small saucepan, combine apple and cider, and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer until apples are cooked down to an almost applesauce-like consistency. (You can mash them if they don’t break up as much as you’d like. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugars until well-combined. Add eggs, vegetable oil, vanilla and milk and blend well. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices until well aerated. Add flour mixture to wet mixture a little at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl occasionally. Divide batter among the muffin tins, filling each almost all the way to the top. Bake 8 minutes*, or until lightly browned and springy to the touch, and a wooden skewer inserted into the center comes away clean. Dip the top of each muffin into cider quickly, shaking off excess, and then into cinnamon sugar to coat.

*8 minutes for a mini muffin tin; for a standard muffin pan, it will probably take 12 minutes, 16 for jumbo. Be sure to keep an eye on them, because ovens may vary slightly.

 
Generally, I followed the directions as given (except I ended up cooking all the liquid out of the apples.  Oops.)  The original  recipe doesn't tell when to add them to the batter; I made sure they were cool enough not to cook the egg, then added them slowly to the wet mixture.  I then gently stirred in the combined dry ingredients.  I baked them for 23 minutes, but you should start checking them after 15 minutes.  While still warm, I spread a little melted butter on the tops and then dunked the tops into cinnamon sugar.

Conclusion:  These were a little fussy with all the ingredients and the extra step of cooking down the apples, but they were really tasty.  Not at all doughnut-like, but soft and light -- the perfect muffin texture.  I highly recommend a tart apple, because it gives a wonderful tang that contrasts nicely with all the spices and the sweet cinnamon-sugar topping.

Original recipe:  Mini Apple Cider Doughnut Muffins via Fia's Maine Kitchen

Autumn Pear Pie

This pie has all the traditional flavors for a Thanksgiving dessert while having something just a little different:  pears instead of apples!  The original recipe calls it Pear Butterscotch Pie, but I think that is a misnomer.  There is no butterscotch in it, and nothing that really would create that flavor.  But the butter and sugar and spices all make for a wonderful combination.

I didn't know I was going to make this until the day before, and as everyone knows you can't buy ripe pears.  So they were still pretty crunchy, and that didn't cook out of them.  (That surprised me.)  Consequently, I think the 1/6 slices were a bit fat for the pie, and would prefer 1/8 or thinner.  (In fact, I did cut most of the pears into eighths.)

This recipe could easily handle apples instead of pears, or a combination would be nice!

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar

2½ pounds firm-ripe pears (Bartlett or Anjou, about 5) peeled, cored, and cut into 6 wedges

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

 

Double recipe all-butter pastry dough (recipe follows)

1 tablespoon unsalted butter, cut into bits

1 large egg beaten with 1 tablespoon warm water

1 tablespoon granulated sugar

Put a baking sheet on middle rack of oven and preheat oven to 425°F.  Whisk together flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt, then whisk in brown sugar, breaking up any lumps. Gently toss pears with brown sugar mixture, lemon juice, and vanilla and let stand 5 to 15 minutes to macerate fruit.

With such large pear slices, you want to make sure
to fit them together snugly.

Roll out 1 piece of dough (keep remaining disk chilled) on a lightly floured surface with a lightly floured rolling pin into a 13-inch round. Fit into a 9-inch pie plate. Roll out remaining piece of dough into a 13-inch round. Reserve scraps.  Transfer filling to shell. Dot with butter, then cover with pastry round. Trim edges, leaving a 1/2-inch overhang (reserve scraps). Press edges together to seal, then fold under. Lightly brush top crust with some of egg wash, then cut 3 (1-inch-long) vents.  Roll out 1 piece of dough (keep remaining disk chilled) on a lightly floured surface with a lightly floured rolling pin into a 13-inch round. Fit into a 9-inch pie plate. Roll out remaining piece of dough into a 13-inch round. Reserve scraps.  Transfer filling to shell. Dot with butter, then cover with pastry round.

Ready for the oven!

Trim edges, leaving a 1/2-inch overhang (reserve scraps). Press edges together to seal, then fold under. Lightly brush top crust with some of egg wash, then cut 3 (1-inch-long) vents.  Roll out dough scraps about 1/8 inch thick and cut out leaf shapes with cutters (or a knife). Arrange decoratively on top of pie, pressing gently to help them adhere. Lightly brush top crust and cutouts with some of egg wash and sprinkle with granulated sugar.  Bake pie on hot baking sheet 20 minutes. Reduce oven to 375°F and bake until crust is golden and filling is bubbling, 40 to 45 minutes more. Cool to warm or room temperature, 2 to 3 hours.

Dough
2½ cups all-purpose flour (not unbleached)
2 teaspoons sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 sticks (1 cup) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
9 to 12 tablespoons ice water

Whisk together flour, sugar, and salt in a bowl, then blend in butter with your fingertips or a pastry blender (or pulse in a food processor) just until most of mixture resembles coarse meal with small (roughly pea-size) butter lumps. Drizzle evenly with 9 tablespoons ice water and gently stir with a fork (or pulse in food processor) until incorporated.  Squeeze a small handful: If it doesn't hold together, add more ice water 1 tablespoon at a time, stirring (or pulsing) until just incorporated, then test again. (Do not overwork mixture, or pastry will be tough.)  Turn out mixture onto a lightly floured surface and divide into 8 portions. With heel of your hand, smear each portion once or twice in a forward motion to help distribute fat. Gather dough together with scraper and press into a ball, then flatten into a 6-inch disk. Chill dough, wrapped in plastic wrap, until firm, at least 1 hour.  (Makes enough for a 12-inch single-crust galette or a 9-inch double-crust pie.)

So much for the decorative cutouts.

Conclusion:  This was delicious and I would make it again, but I would be sure to have sweet, ripe pears.   I would also increase the amount of spice mix, add a little more salt, and cut the pears into thinner slices.

Recipes:  Pear Butterscotch Pie  (Aug 20, 2009, Sept 2009 issue) and All-Butter Pastry Dough (Aug 20, 2004, Jan 2003 issue) via Epicurious

Pumpkin Raisin Muffins

1 ⅓ cups whole wheat flour

2 2/3 cup all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon*

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/2 cup raisins

1/4 cup toasted and chopped walnuts or hazelnuts

1 cup pumpkin purée

2 eggs

1/2 cup milk

1/4 cup melted butter

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Butter a muffin tin.  Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, brown sugar, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg into a large bowl. Stir in the raisins, set aside.  Toast the walnuts and hazelnuts in a pan on the stove top stirring frequently just a few minutes. Be careful not to burn the nuts. If using hazelnuts, rub toasted nuts in a tea towel to remove skins. Blend in a food processor until fine. Whisk into flour mixture.  In a separate bowl, beat together the pumpkin purée, eggs, milk, and butter. Fold into flour mixture until combined.  Divide among 12 muffin cups, filling each tin about 2/3 full. You may have enough for an additional muffin or two. Or just make giant muffins.  Bake for 25-30 minutes in the center of the oven until well risen and golden, and a knife inserted into the center comes out clean.  Leave in muffin tin for 1 to 2 minutes then transfer to a wire rack.

The batter was very thick, so I filled the muffin cups and they came out a nice size.  The directions called for cinnamon, but no quantity was provided; I used 1/2 teaspoon.

Conclusion: These were very good.  They were only mildly sweet, so I made maple syrup butter to go with them.  The nuts were not apparent. (Perhaps it should be ¼ cup of each?)  

Recipe:  Pumpkin Raisin Muffins via Stir It Up!