Spicy Gingerbread Trees

 In my hunt for the perfect gingerbread cookies, I'm trying this Saveur recipe.  The base of this is very similar to the winning gingerbread cookie by Erin Campbell in the Food Network Holiday Baking Championship Season 1, but much more highly spiced.  In fact, this has more spices in it than any other recipe I've looked at.  I was a little concerned, but I like spicy gingerbread, and these are mostly for me.

The recipe is quite fussy in that the dough needs to be chilled once (it was very soft), then you roll it out and chill it again, then you cut it and chill it again... and lots of sheets of parchment paper. I get annoyed by these recipes that require you to chill a whole baking sheet.  I don't have that kind of room in my refrigerator or freezer!  It's always a hassle. So if you want the exact directions, please refer to their recipe page. And ironically, although the description states that "the additional protein in the bread flour helps to retain gingerbread’s sharply cut shapes," the photo on the recipe page shows cookies with typically rounded edges.  (There's also supposed to be a photo of mini gingerbread houses, but I'm getting a video for some savory casserole in its place.  Way to go Saveur.)

I made slight modifications in the recipe, shown in italics and strikeout.  Here's what I used:

12 tablespoons (1½ sticks) unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
3/4 cup unsulphured molasses*
1 large egg, at room temperature
1 tablespoon whole milk
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 cups bread flour (11-13% protein)
1¹/₂ cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon anise seed, ground

In a mixing bowl, cream the butter and brown sugar until smooth, 3–4 minutes. Add the molasses and continue mixing until smooth, scraping down the sides and bottom of the bowl occasionally. Add the egg, milk, and vanilla and continue mixing until homogeneous, about 2 minutes more. In a medium bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients; add to the butter mixture and mix on low speed until completely blended. Divide the dough into two equal halves and, on a lightly floured sheet of waxed paper, press each half into a 1-inch-thick rectangle. Wrap each tightly and refrigerate until firm, at least 1 hour or up to 3 days.

When you're ready to bake the cookies, roll the dough out to between 1/8" and 1/4" thick, depending on your preference and the handling of your dough.  Chill between activities as necessary for ease of handling, which might mean placing the rolled dough and/or cut cookies in the refrigerator or freezer for several minutes.  Bake at 350F for 8 to 10 minutes, depending on the thickness and preference for soft or crisp cookies.  (For soft cookies, the edges should be semi-firm but the centers still soft.)  Cool on baking sheet for about 5 minutes, until quite firm, then move to a wire rack.

*Saveur used regular molasses in their modified version of the original recipe.  This would make their cookies sweeter.

                        

I was undecided whether or not to add the cardamom (because I think it gets lost in spice mixes), but in the end I did.  I wasn't sure whether I liked the addition of anise seed, but eventually I forgot it was there.  I sifted my flour before I measured, which I think had me using less flour than the recipe should have had because my dough was so soft.  I refrigerated it for two days, but my dough was so soft right out of the refrigerator I didn't need to let it sit on the counter as directed in the original recipe.  Throughout rolling and cutting, I chilled the dough as needed; sometimes I needed to chill between actions and sometimes not. 

I rolled the first batch to 1/4" thick, or perhaps a little thicker, and baked them on an air-bake pan for 8 minutes -- they were underbaked.  The trees deflated, leaving the surface crinkly, and the larger house pieces were still raw in the middle.  They also cracked on the edges when I tried to recut them after baking.  The rest of the cookies were baked on a standard cookie sheet, which worked much better.  The thicker ones I baked for 9 minutes and they turned out well, but after that I rolled them thinner. 

      

Conclusion:  True to the originator's word, these cookies stayed soft!  Amazing, since there was only butter, no shortening.  Not too sweet, and nicely spiced.  I found a few of these forgotten in the cupboard months later and they were still just as tasty.  I craved them after that.   These might have to become a personal winter staple.

Recipe:  "Spiced Gingerbread Cookies" from The Cookie Book by Rebecca Firth
Another tempting recipe of hers to try is Spiced Chewy Molasses Cookies!

Pecan Fruitcake

 
I have my own fruitcake recipe that I've created over many years of tweaking, but it involves a lot of ingredients and bother, which I just wasn't up to.  Fruitcake should be started months in advance, so if I was going to get it made, I needed something relatively simple.  As the saying goes, done is better than perfect.  I was happy to try something different, especially since I have the recipes from Truman Capote's famous cousin, the Fruitcake Lady.  (This, however, is not the recipe of Capote's A Christmas Memory fame, made by another of his relatives, Nanny Faulk, better known as Cousin Sook.) 

I made these loaves at the end of September, then let them mellow in a cool room until December, occasionally dousing them with brandy.  For two moderate loaves, here's what I used:

2 cups sifted flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt
2/3 cup butter
3/4 cup sugar
3 eggs
1 cup dried apricots, softened in boiling water, drained, and cut into small pieces
1 cup coarsely chopped pecans, toasted
1 cup golden raisins
1 slice chopped, candied pineapple (or 1/3 cup of candied tidbits)
grated rind of 1 lemon
grated rind of 1 orange
1/2 teaspoon almond extract

Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt.  In a bowl, cream butter well and gradually add sugar, beating the mixture until it is smooth.  Add eggs one at a time, beating well in between.  Stir in the flour mixture thoroughly, then the fruit, nuts, and rind until well distributed.  Grease one 9” x 5” loaf pan lined with parchment and oiled.  Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top.  Bake in a slow oven at 325^o F for about 3 hours.  Allow to cool briefly, then remove from the pan, peel off the parchment paper, and cool completely on a rack.  Store in an airtight container and allow to mellow for several months.  From time to time, soak a cheesecloth in brandy or wine and wrap around the cake.

I divided the batter in half and baked it in two, 7 x 3-inch pans, which I greased, lined with parchment, then greased again.  I baked them for an hour and 45 minutes; they seemed overdone, very firm, so they might have been better removed after 90 minutes.

Candied pineapple
1 12-oz can of pineapple tidbits
1 cup sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt, or to taste
drizzle of corn syrup

Drain pineapple bits and add enough water to the juice to make two cups.  Over medium heat, dissolve sugar into juice mixture; add pineapple bits, salt, and syrup and stir to combine.  Boil for 15 minutes, then reduce the heat to a low boil and cook for 30-45 minutes, checking often.  When pineapple is translucent, strain and lay out pieces on a silicone mat to dry.  Reserve syrup for another use.

 

 

Conclusion:  I'd been pretty excited about this and had waited with great anticipation.  Perhaps that's why I ended up disappointed.  It was tasty, just not what I'd been expecting.  It wasn't as rich and buttery as I'd thought it would be, and I couldn't even taste the brandy.  Overbaking might be partly to blame.

Recipe:  Pecan Fruitcake via Fruitcake:  Memories of Truman Capote and Cousin Sook by Marie Rudisill

December ABC challenge: Dirty Chai Earthquake Cookies

The challenge theme this month is spices.  I wasn't necessarily looking for a spice cookie, but I happened upon this recipe, which had rave reviews.  Terrible name, but it seems "dirty chai" is a particular type of drink in which a shot of espresso is poured into a cup of spiced chai.  (Why not just make spiced coffee???)  And the "earthquake" part is from the cracks in the sugar coating.

It's a small recipe, so I made the whole thing, which is supposed to make only 2 dozen cookies.  The only change I made was an adjustment of salt, using salted butter, which I countered by reducing the salt in the ingredient list but ultimately resulted in a higher salt content than the original recipe, and I substituted out malted milk powder.  Here's what I used:

1/2 cup unsalted butter (1 stick)
1 tablespoon finely ground coffee (not instant)
2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted then measured (255 grams)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 1/4 teaspoon kosher fine sea salt
1/2 teaspoon finely ground black pepper
2 large eggs
3/4 cup light brown sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract or paste
2 tablespoons malted milk powder, such as Carnation brand malt syrup
1/4 cup granulated sugar, for rolling
1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar, sifted, for rolling

Brown the butter in a small saucepan over low heat, swirling and stirring occasionally, until nutty brown, 5 to 6 minutes.  Pour over the espresso/coffee in a small metal bowl and stir to combine.  Set aside to cool, stirring occasionally.  Sift together the flour, baking powder, ginger, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, salt, and pepper; set aside.  With an electric mixer, combine eggs, and light brown sugar in a medium bowl and beat on medium speed until well combined and slightly paler, about 3 minutes, scraping bowl as needed.  Add the vanilla and malt syrup to the butter mixture, stirring to combine, then add that to the egg mixture and mix on low speed until combined.  Add the flour mixture, then mix again on low until combined.  Transfer dough to a resealable glass or plastic container and chill thoroughly, at least 2 hours and up to 3 days.

Heat oven to 350 degrees.  Put granulated sugar and confectioners’ sugar into two separate bowls.  Portion dough into heaping tablespoons (about 25 grams each); roll into smooth balls and drop a few at a time into the bowl of granulated sugar, rolling to coat.  Transfer to the bowl with the confectioners’ sugar and roll gently, coating well and place in freezer until firm, about 10 minutes.  Place on a greased baking sheet, flattening slightly (if you want a less domed cookie) and bake until cookies are still quite tender (they will firm up as they cool), 12 to 14 minutes.  Let cool a few minutes on the baking sheets and transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

The dough sat tightly covered in my refrigerator for 3 days before I baked off half of it; that resting time should have really improved the flavor and enhanced the spices, but it didn't seem to.  I did find the cookies dry; they might be less so if I used an air-insulated pan.

My scale wasn't working, so I couldn't measure out 25g of dough.  I was further confused by the instructions to use a "small" cookie scoop or a heaping tablespoon.  I have a SMALL cookie scoop that's about a teaspoon, and another that's about a tablespoon -- obviously I don't call the larger one the "small" one.  I used the tablespoon-sized scoop and heaped the dough in to round it out so it made something resembling a sphere and didn't bother to roll it any better than that-- they came out about 1.25" in diameter (and went straight into the sugar.)  Perhaps they were a little too small, because they were quite firm at 12 minutes.  (I can't believe some people baked them for 15 minutes and more... then complained they were dry.)

Some people had trouble with the crusts not "cracking", and one piece of advice was to coat them heavily with the powdered sugar.  I think that probably just makes the cracking more prominent for appearance, but likely doesn't affect the tendency to crack or not crack.  And the last thing these needed was more sugar.  However, I followed that advice, unfortunately, as it was too much sugar in the first batch.  I used a lighter touch with the next batch and also experimented with other coatings:  coarse sugar, nonpareils, and none.

Obviously, nothing gave the intended effect other than the heavy powdered sugar coating.  The light sugar coating looked sad.  The coarse sugar looked okay -- the nonpareils not so much, and the plain were downright unappetizing.

Conclusion:  I'm not a fan of sugar-coated cookies, but I thought the dough was going to be less sweet with these so it would be okay.  It was not.  My initial impression was that, if I focused, I noticed the spice flavors, but if I didn't it just tasted sugary.  I didn't detect browned butter at all.  After I'd swallowed the last bite, I detected heat, probably from the pepper, and then coffee (perhaps from a stray ground), both mild. No other spice stood out, they all melded together in a pleasant warmth; it just wasn't enough to counter the sugar.  In the end, I decided this tasted a lot like a cinnamon cake doughnut and so tried it dunked in coffee.... Delightful!  But only as originally prepared, with the crisp, sugary crust.  Any other preparation or technique fell short.

Recipe:  Dirty Chai Earthquake Cookies via NYTimes Cooking 

November ABC challenge: Pumpkin Fruit Bread

This month's challenge was pumpkin. There are a LOT of pumpkin recipes out there to choose from, many of which I've saved to make "one day." To add to the fun, I saw this at the checkout stand and made the spontaneous purchase (setting me back $13, I might add. Seriously?) I even marked a few recipes to try.

Then I remembered I had this little booklet, at least 20 years old, from the experts themselves...

 

I looked through that and found this curious recipe for fruit bread made with yeast, yet prepared more like a quick bread.  So many pumpkin recipes are just iterations of the same three or four recipes -- this was completely different, so I wanted to try it.

I cut the original recipe in half, using the ingredients exactly as the original, but I simplified the preparation.  I hesitated about using cardamom because, although I love it, I find it's wasted when paired with any competing flavors.  I should have followed my instinct, as I couldn't detect it in the final product (and I'm not sure it would have been a good pairing anyway.)  The changes shown in the recipe below (in italics and strikeout) are suggestions for future use.

1¼ teaspoons active dry yeast
2 tablespoons warm water
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup uncooked rolled oats
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom ginger or cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons honey
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
2 tablespoons packed light brown sugar
2 tablespoons orange juice concentrate
3/8 cup (6 tablespoons) chopped dates (and/or cranberries or tart cherries)
3/8 cup golden raisins
3/8 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped

Proof the yeast in the water along with 1/2 teaspoon of the honey (or just use sugar). In the main mixing bowl, combine the flours, oats, spice, and salt; set aside. In a small saucepan, combine the rest of the honey, pumpkin, brown sugar, and orange juice concentrate and heat until very warm, but not hot. (It shouldn’t scald your finger.) Add it to the flour mixture, along with the yeast mixture, and mix well. Add the fruits and the nuts and stir to combine. Spoon into a greased loaf pan. (Original recipe calls for an 8 x 4-inch pan.) Cover and let rise for 30-50 minutes, or until doubled. Bake at 325F for 35-40 minutes (original recipe is 50-60 minutes), or until toothpick comes out clean. Remove from pan and cool on wire rack.  Recommended:  serve toasted with a cream cheese spread.

Since this isn't like anything I've ever made before, I'm not sure if my results were what they were supposed to be, but I suspect they were a little off.  The "dough" was actually a thick batter -- very unusual for a yeast bread -- but since the instructions were to "spoon" it into the pan, I expected that.  With all the moisture and the sugar and the fruit, I'm surprised this rose at all.  It did, barely, but didn't puff up like a yeast dough. It retained every dent and peak as when it started out, and with no skin I certainly couldn't do the finger-dent test to see if it was proofed enough.  As it was, I let it rise well over an hour and hoped for some oven spring, but that didn't happen either.

Since I was using a smaller pan (I used a Wilton 4-ounce round baking pan), I wasn't sure about the baking time, and to be honest, now I can't quite remember how long I let it bake.  I think I checked it around 35 minutes and, although it seemed firm and probably would have passed the toothpick test, it felt so heavy and dense that I put it in for another 5 or so.  (I even rapped on the bottom, but I'm never confident about what a "hollow" bread loaf would sound like.)

The final bread appears to have risen enough, but the texture still seems off.  (By appearance more than feel.)  It looks to me as though the dough was too wet, and I don't like the way the oats leave little dry-looking white marks.  (With all that moisture, I'm surprised they didn't just dissolve into the batter.)  I'm thinking maybe adding the oats to the wet ingredients and letting them soak up some of that moisture might help.  Mostly, though, the flavor needs help; there were too many dull, anti-umami flavors.  Everything was earthy:  the pumpkin, the cardamom, the whole wheat, the raisins, the walnuts, and especially the dates!  (Every time I bake with dates, they get a slightly unpleasant taste to them, almost bitter, even though the dates themselves were fine.)  I would use ginger as the spice, or cinnamon (but only if absolutely necessary) and add some tart fruits.  I'd also chop the dates into smaller pieces, about 1/4 inch, so no bite had too much.  I think this would add a nice contrast to the other earthy flavors.

Toasting this bread made all the difference in the world, and adding the cream cheese spread also really improved it.  I just mixed cream cheese with a tiny bit of orange juice concentrate and some sugar, but here's the suggested recipe in the booklet, halved:

Cream Cheese Pumpkin Spread
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1½ tablespoons powdered sugar
1 teaspoon orange zest

Conclusion:  I enjoyed this, but I'm not sure I'd make it again.  I was disappointed at first, but toasted and eaten with the sweetened cream cheese spread, it was very nice, with a crackly crust and a good bite.  It reminded me a lot of this Chocolate Cherry Pecan Bread.  But I would definitely make changes to the ingredients to brighten up the flavor a bit.  As it's an easy bread to make, it's worth trying again for that experiment alone.  This is not a very sweet bread, so it might also be good with a semi-firm cheese.

Recipe:  Oats 'n Fruit Wheat Bread via Libby's Favorite Pumpkin Recipes