Grain-free Acorn Squash Muffins

I'm a little done with this same flavor behind all these grain-free bread products, all made with almonds.  I suppose I might feel the same way if I'd never had wheat products and suddenly all my breads were made with it.  It's my new normal.  <sigh>

That said, these were tasty.  I reduced the sweetening to a soup spoon's scoop of honey and added a little maple flavoring, although I wish I'd used molasses instead.  These are best still warm.  They're very delicate while warm, so a bit testy getting out of the pan, but nothing a chopstick and finger nails couldn't handle.

Here's what I used:

1 cup roasted acorn squash puree
1 cup unsalted almond butter
2 eggs
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 heaping soup spoon honey
1/4 teaspoon maple flavoring
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
2 teaspoons turmeric
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon cloves
3/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar

Preheat oven to 350F.  Lightly grease a muffin or cakelet tin.  Mix all the ingredients until well-blended and pour immediately into the prepared pan.  (If using a cakelet pan, fill no more than 2/3 full.  Rap sharply on the counter a few times to release air bubbles and settle the batter fully into the pan.)  Bake for 18-20 minutes for cakelets -- may need a few more minutes for full-sized muffins.  Allow to cool in pan until easy to handle but still warm, then remove carefully. Yields 16 moderately-sized cakelets, 24 short ones.

Conclusion:  These were tasty, but with the same texture and background flavor as other almond-based baked goods, which just isn't the same.  I think I'll ditch the maple flavoring next time and use molasses instead of honey.  That will give a little more flavor to hopefully counteract the almond butter.

Original recipe:  Paleo Acorn  Cakelets via Enjoying This Journey

Meyer Lemon Tart

There's an old saying:  when co-workers give you lemons... make lemon tart!  Or something like that.

Someone brought a huge bag of lemons to work, all bumpy, sooty, and misshapen.  A big sniff of the contents revealed the distinct orange of Meyer lemons.  Having been invited to a dinner of tikki masala and palak paneer the following day, I decided to make a fresh lemon tart for dessert.

I'd seen this video on YouTube of a British lady making a classic lemon tart, and the impression was that she was the Queen of Lemon Tarts.  It turned out to be Mary Berry on the heels of a Great British Bake Off.  It was a video more for entertainment than instruction, and her results were different from mine.  For example, her crust dough was butter yellow.  Also, she ended up with exactly a pint of filling, which fit perfectly in her 9-inch pan (of course), while I had more than a pint, and extra filling, even though I was using a 9.5-inch pan.  Granted, my measurements had to be adjusted slightly for the conversions, and of course eggs come in different sizes, but it shouldn't have made much of a difference.  The magic of Hollywood.  (Paul Hollywood, hahaha... get it?  Okay, never mind...)

The other big mystery is that everyone knows cream will curdle in lemon juice, and yet here we are mixing the two.  She doesn't say anything about it.  I ended up with large globs of curdled cream, and had to pull out the electric mixer to break them down.  The final product also had a somewhat curdled texture, which I was not anticipating.  (I wanted something very smooth, more like lemon curd.)

About the ingredients:  Meyer lemons are not as acidic and have an orange flavor, so the tart will be less tangy, like an orange/lemon cross.  Double cream has a higher fat content than heavy cream -- there is no widely-available commercial equivalent in the U.S.  According to Mary, using granulated sugar in place of caster sugar (which has a slightly smaller grain size) will give a rough surface.  Indeed it did.  There must be something else causing the difference, because I completely dissolved the sugar in the solution, so grain size wouldn't have had an effect.  It's the froth that causes the rough surface texture, but I don't know what is making the froth.  I added a little salt not only to brighten the lemon flavor but also to balance the sweet richness of the dessert, and I lessened the sugar in the crust slightly.  Other recipes call for up to 1/2 cup more sugar in the filling -- I found this plenty sweet as it is, especially since Meyer lemons aren't as tart.  In fact, I would prefer this with regular lemons in order to give it more zip.

Here's what I used:

For the pastry

175g/6oz plain flour
25g/3 2 tablespoons confectioner's sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
100g/7 tablespoons cold, unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon cold water

In a food processor, combine flour, sugar, salt, and butter and process until no butter pieces remain.  Add egg yolk and water and process until it comes together in a ball.  Knead lightly for a few seconds and shape into a disk.  Place a 9-inch tart base on a non-stick surface (such as parchment or a pastry cloth) and sprinkle with flour.  Roll out the dough on top of the base to about 1/8" thick, extending about 2" beyond the base edge.  Flip the edges to the center and move the base with the pastry into the tart pan.  Lift the pastry edges back up and press dough firmly against the sides of the pan.  Allow the excess dough to fold over the outside pan edge.  Prick dough lightly all over, line pan with foil, and fill with baking beans.  Bake on a cookie sheet at 200C/400F for about 10 minutes.  Remove tart from oven, remove foil, and trim edge of pastry.  (You can leave the pieces on the sheet to finish baking, for later snacking.)  Return to oven for another 10-15 minutes, until pastry is completely dry.  Allow to cool.  Reduce oven to 160C/325F.

For the filling
5 eggs
225g (1 cup) caster granulated sugar
zest of 4 lemons
150ml (2/3 cup) lemon juice (from 4-5 lemons)
1/8 teaspoon salt
125ml (1/2 cup) double heavy cream
confectioner's sugar, for dusting (optional)

In a bowl with a pour spout (I used my 4-cup liquid measuring cup), whisk eggs and sugar together until smooth.  Add zest, juice, and salt and mix until well combined, then whisk in cream.  With the tart pan still on the cookie sheet, place on the oven shelf.  Stir the filling contents, then pour filling into tart pan and bake for about 35 minutes -- it should still have a wobble in the middle.  Leave to cool in tin for about 10-15 minutes, then remove from tin and cool completely.  Refrigerate for several hours before serving.  Best served cool, but not right out of the refrigerator.

Conclusion:  Good.  Not great.  Whenever I have lemon something, I expect a great tangy impact, and rarely receive it.  This was no exception.  That was partly due to the use of Meyer lemons, so it's not a fair criticism.  I still have issue with the texture, though, and I don't know if that was my inexpertise or the recipe.  (I blame it on the curdled filling.)

Original recipe:  Mary Berry's Lemon Tart video with Paul Hollywood (from which I transcribed the recipe) or her written recipe for Tarte au Citron via BBC Food.

Cardamom-Semolina Shortbread Cookies

I so wanted to like these.  Shortbread is my favorite cookie, and cardamom my favorite spice.  But alas, it wasn't to be.  I didn't think it was possible to have too much butter in a cookie, but these have it.  Not only was the dough (call it more of a batter) extremely soft and sticky, the cookies themselves tasted downright cheesy.  You can't even taste the cardamom or orange-flower water due to the overpowering butter taste. It lingers on the fingers long after the cookie is gone.

Speaking of orange-flower water, I take great exception to anyone who suggests orange extract or orange liqueur as a suitable substitute.  Obviously these people are just making stuff up.  Sure, you could substitute those other items, but you might as well be substituting cinnamon, or anise extract, or black pepper for that matter.  Orange extract has a concentrated orange oil flavor; orange liqueur has a sweet, less-concentrated orange oil flavor.  Orange-flower water tastes NOTHING like orange oil!!  The best substitution to retain the flavor profile would be another flower water or flower extract.  Another clue that this author didn't know what he was putting together was the quantity.  I suspected that a measly 1/2 teaspoon wasn't going to have an effect.  I even doubled it, and it is still undetectable.  (I hate it when people just make stuff up.)

So the butter quantity was off, the flavoring quantities were off....  What went right?  Well, I liked the addition of semolina flour.  It gave a grainy, sandy texture and helped (along with all that butter) to create a very delicate cookie that melts in your mouth.  However, I recommend finding a happy medium and reducing the butter to about 1½ cups.  (If you choose to use salted butter, as I did, that will also help to balance the salt quantity.  A cup of salted butter has too much salt for this recipe, so stick with unsalted if you use the full amount.)  These cookies also lend themselves nicely to the use of cookie stamps, so if you have a pretty one, use it!

I should mention that I also greatly reduced the sugar, just for personal preference.  After making these delicious Brazilian guava cookies that used only a tablespoon of sugar per cup of flour, I will seriously rethink sugar quantities from now on.

Here's what I used:

1½ cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup semolina flour (pasta flour)
1¼ teaspoons ground cardamom, divided
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons sugar
2 large egg yolks
1/2 teaspoon orange-flower water, orange extract, or orange liqueur (such as Cointreau)

Whisk all-purpose flour, semolina flour, and 1 teaspoon cardamom in a large bowl; set aside. Using an electric mixer, beat butter, salt, and 3/4 cup 2 tablespoons sugar in a large bowl until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes. Add egg yolks and orange flower water and beat to blend. With mixer on low, add dry ingredients and mix just to blend.  (It will be sticky.)  Place dough on a large sheet of parchment paper. Using paper as an aid, roll up dough into a 1 1/2-inch diameter log. Wrap in plastic and chill until firm, about 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 350°. Mix remaining 1/4 cup sugar and 1/4 tsp. cardamom in a small bowl. Slice dough into 1/4-inch-thick rounds. (If using a stamp, cut slightly thicker so that the cookies are about 1/4" thick after pressing.)  Dip 1 side of each round in cardamom sugar and arrange, sugar side up, on 2 large baking sheets. Bake until golden brown and firm, 20-25 minutes.  (The thinner cookies I made baked for only 13 minutes.)  Carefully transfer cookies to a wire rack; let cool.



Conclusion:  There are lots of delicious shortbread cookie recipes out there, and lots of delicious cardamom recipes as well. I recommended a pass on this one.


Recipe:  Cardamom-Semolina Shortbread Cookies via Bon Appétit





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Mexican Orange-Cornmeal Sandies

I had a few egg yolks to use up, left over from last month's ABC angel food cake challenge, and with the magic of the interwebs, it wasn't hard to find a suitable recipe.  Most of the posts for this cookie called for chopped walnuts.  One called for ground walnuts (and I wonder how that might turn out -- probably adds a little more texture), but I opted for the chopped pecans since, pecans being a product of New Mexico, it stayed with the theme better.  (I have no idea what supposedly makes these "Mexican".)

Many cookie recipes these days call for unsalted butter.  I find that using unsalted butter with salt added separately results in the salt being more noticeable in the final product, like tiny bursts on the tongue.  Sometimes this is a desired effect, such as with these digestive biscuits.  But generally, I prefer the more homogeneous taste that salted butter gives.  If the recipe calls for unsalted butter, I simply eliminate a proportionate amount of added salt to compensate, such as I did here.  (There's about 1/2 teaspoon of salt per stick.)  These cookies spread quite a bit, so choose your cutter appropriately.  A 2" cutter spread to 2.5", and a 2.25" cutter spread to 3".

Here's what I used:

2 cups flour, plus extra for rolling dough
1/2 cup finely ground yellow cornmeal
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 egg yolks
1 tablespoon freshly grated orange zest
1 teaspoon orange extract
1/4 cup (about 1 oz.) toasted, finely chopped pecans
4-6 ounces (up to 1 cup) semisweet bittersweet chocolate (see Note)

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cornmeal, salt, and baking soda; set aside. In a bowl of an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat butter until creamy, about 1 minute. Add sugar and beat until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add egg yolks, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add orange zest and orange extract and beat until thoroughly combined.  Reduce speed to low and add flour mixture, mixing until just incorporated. Stir in pecans. Divide dough in half, shape into disks, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 30 minutes.

When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees.  On a lightly floured surface with a lightly floured rolling pin, roll dough to 1/4-inch thickness. Using a cookie cutter, cut out dough and place cookies 1 inch apart on prepared baking sheets.  Repeat with remaining dough, gathering up scraps, re-rolling and cutting until all dough is used. Bake until lightly golden brown, about 10 to 12 minutes. Remove from oven and cool 2 minutes before transferring cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.

In a double boiler over gently simmering water, melt chocolate. Partially dip cooled cookies into melted chocolate, allowing excess to drip back into saucepan. Of course, you can decide how chocolaty you want these to be and dip deeply or just trim the edge.  Allow chocolate to set, about 1 hour.  (Chill if necessary.)

Note:  Chocolate chips are not recommended for this.  They are intended to hold their shape when melted, and therefore do not become as liquid as baking chocolate.  You can use them, but expect a thicker chocolate coating that you will have to spread like frosting, which might look a little rough.

Conclusion:  These are very sweet, and intensely orange, but a nice combination of flavors.  The cornmeal gives them that "sandy" texture.  The nuts are not noticeable.  They taste like Christmas, especially I think if they had more nuts and less chocolate.  (See my Christmas version here.)  But I also wonder how they would taste with a little cayenne!  <Grins evilly>

Recipe:  The original recipe seems to be from Family Circle magazine's Holiday Cookie Cookbook insert, December 1986, but the earliest on-line version can be found at India Divine or, with the pecans, at the Star Tribune.

Goiabinha (Brazilian guava cookies)

A bit behind my time, but in celebration of the World Cup I thought I'd make something Brazilian.  They do a lot with guava paste and butter cookie dough, and after looking through LOTS of recipes I finally settled on this one.  I like that the dough isn't very sweet -- sort of like a butter pie crust -- which I thought would be a nice contrast to the sweet guava jelly.

These cookies are also called beliscão, or "pinch", for obvious reasons. Seems a little... I dunno... aggressive, for a cookie.  How about "hugs"?  Or "wraps"?  Anyway...

I couldn't find a pre-packaged guava paste such as this one:

or this one:

I ended up buying it in bulk from the fresh serve counter in a Mexican grocery store, but it still contained the seeds and some skins.  (It even still had one whole fruit in it.)  So I melted it down and sieved out the seeds as best I could -- a few got past me -- then let it firm up again in a dish.  A very sticky and messy procedure, I might add. And it ended up a little TOO firm -- even after baking, it still has crisp, clean edges.  (It's supposed to soften and ooze into the space prettily.)

The recipe had to be translated from Portuguese -- although the ingredients seem straightforward, the directions were a little scant.  Therefore I made an executive decision and revised the directions to provide clarification, and in the process changed the sugar types.  (I think sprinkling granulated sugar on cooled cookies will result in a lot of sugar all over the counter and not much else.)

Here's what I used:

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons granulated or powdered sugar*
150g (10½ tablespoons) cold butter
3+ tablespoons of cool water
150g (a little less than 1 cup) of firm guava paste
powdered sugar

Preheat the oven to 350º F.  Cut the guava paste into 36 strips (about 0.4" x 0.25", and about 2.25" long.) In a food processor, pulse the flour with the butter and 2 tablespoons of sugar until evenly crumbly. Sprinkle on the water and pulse again until it forms a smooth dough, adding a little more water if necessary.

On a floured surface, roll out the dough thinly, to about 1/8".  (If it's too soft to work with, shape into disks, wrap tightly, and refrigerate for an hour.)  Cut out discs with a 2¾" round cutter, gathering the scraps and repeating until you use all the dough. Arrange a strip of guava in the center of each disc and cover by folding the sides over the guava and pinching together slightly to close.  (Or simply overlap the edges.  Either way, you might need to moisten the edge with a little water if the dough has dried.)  Arrange the cookies on a greased baking sheet and bake for 17-20 minutes or until golden brown, rotating the sheets midway.  Let cool, then sprinkle with powdered sugar.  Makes 36 cookies.

*The recipe on the Claudia web site now (as of October 2023) shows 1 cup of sugar, which would give the dough a sweetness level more like a regular cookie and less like pie crust.



Conclusion:  Delicious!  A buttery shortbread cookie wrapped around sweet, floral guava.  This is the kind of cookie that you could eat one right after the other.  To make them truly pretty, it would take some practice and more familiarity with the characteristics of the guava paste under heat.  These could have used more visible guava filling (it's such a pretty color), perhaps slightly more quantity.  But too much and it would melt out of the crust! This is a keeper.

Recipe:  Biscoito goiabinha via MdeMulher Culinária (now Claudia)