Rolling in Dough

Buche de Noel - December Daring Baker's Challenge

When we were in France for Christmas a few years ago, I noticed the Buche de Noel phenomenon. They were simply everywhere. Besides being in the window of every pastry shop we passed, I saw them at the grocers, in department stores and at restaurants. Pretty log shaped cakes, decorated with mushrooms and snow. I began to wonder if the Buche de Noel was to the French what Fruitcake was to Americans - found everywhere, but really eaten and enjoyed by no one. I (being the ambitious and over promising baker that I am), of course vowed to try to make a Buche de Noel of my own for the next Christmas. And the one after that. And the one after that one. Making the promise was easy, but somehow actually beginning the rather daunting challenge of filling and rolling the cake, frosting the stumpy part and making mushrooms had always been pushed off of top of the priority list in the rush of Christmas preparations. Until this year. The monthly Daring Bakers challenge, chosen by the lovely Lis of La Mia Cucina and Ivonne of Cream Puffs in Venice, was of course the Buche de Noel, the perfect challenge for Christmastime. I was excited, but a little apprehensive. Could I roll the cake? Can I make meringue mushrooms? Will anyone want to eat it? Well, now that I have a Yule Log under my belt, the answers to those questions are yes, no and yes. I have learned to roll a cake (Hooray!), my meringue mushrooms looked like bird droppings (Ick), and I'm serving it tonight at the huge Christmas Eve Fish Fest with Mike's family. With 20 people here for dinner and dessert, surely someone will try a piece.

                               

Many thanks to the Daring Bakers, now over 300 strong, whose constant challenges and support have greatly enhanced my baking this year. Can't wait to see what's ahead for the new year. Merry Christmas! 

Swedish Apricot Nut FruitCake

Is there a food that needs a image makeover more than the much maligned Fruitcake? I can't say that it's reputation is undeserved - the only kind of fruitcake most people have ever come into contact with is the heavy dark loaf reeking of alcohol and dotted with mystery bits of blue, yellow and red "fruit". The kind with the unlimited shelf life that is better used as a doorstop than served with tea. A generally bad present to give or receive and often regifted to some other unsuspecting soul. Here in Colorado, on the day after Christmas there is actually a traditional Fruitcake Toss, where the unlucky recipients of spooky fruitcake can bring their unloved loaves out and catapult them across a field. So in honor of the Festive Food Fair hosted by Morsels and Musings, I have decided to take on Fruitcake - the most traditionally festive holiday food that everybody hates.

                                        

I found lots of recipes, many of them with directions that include things like "soak cake in rum each week for 3-4 months" and "allow cake to ripen 1-2 months". Ick. There had to be a better, more appetizing way. Finally, I came across a recipe for Swedish Apricot Nut Bread - a golden colored fruitcake that sounded like something you may actually want to eat. My Grandmother always said that something couldn't taste bad if it only had good things in it. This makes sense, and should therefore apply to fruitcake too. Cake made with orange juice, lemon zest, apricots and walnuts - all things I know and love - had to taste good. I mixed it up, substituting the brandy in the recipe for Calvados, baked it and left it to "mellow" in a Calvados-soaked towel overnight. I was greeted this morning by a delicious, light, moist, fruity and not at all scary golden fruitcake, flecked with bits of Calvados-infused apricots and walnuts. Just the thing to enjoy with my early morning coffee and a vastly tasty improvement over the mystery loaves. I might even give a couple of cakes away - but I think I will rename them if I do. I'm not sure that the dark name of Fruitcake can be overcome, and I'd hate to have them show up at the Fruitcake Toss.

Please check out all of the Festive Food offerings at Morsels and Musings Festive Food Fair, a global celebration of traditional holiday foods and drinks we all love and cherish!

Swedish Apricot Nut Bread (Fruitcake!)

from Visions of Sugarplums by Mimi Sheraton

1 cup dried apricots

1/2 cup Calvados or Brandy

1 cup sugar

2 tablespoons softened butter

1 egg, lightly beaten

zest of one lemon

1/2 cup strained orange juice

2 cups flour

2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup chopped walnuts

Soak apricots in Calvados or brandy for 2-3 hours. Drain, reserving 1/4 cup of the liquid. Cut each apricot half into small bits. Cream sugar and butter until light and fluffy. Add egg and lemon zest and beat until mixture is smooth and well blended. Add reserved Calvados and orange juice. Sift flour with baking powder, soda and salt. Resift into batter gradually, stirring well between additions. Fold in nuts and apricots. Butter and line an 8" loaf pan or 4 mini pans and pour in batter. Let stand for 20 minutes. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven until the tops are golden brown and a tester comes out clean - 1 hour for the 8" loaf pan and 40-45 minutes for the smaller pans. Turn out of the pans while hot, peel off paper and let cool on a rack. Wrap in Calvados infused towels and let mellow or 24 hours before cutting. Store in an airtight container. The cake should improve with age.   

Hazelnut-Raspberry Tortlets

I love cake, but I wish people would either bake their own, or buy one from a nice bakery, rather than getting one of those store bought sheet cakes with whippy mystery frosting that appear at so many gatherings. It always seems to be served as sort of an afterthought, like they got a cake just because they thought they should have one, but didn't want to put too much effort into it. My mom is hosting a baby shower tomorrow, one of those occasions when the whippy sheet cake afterthought typically makes an appearance. Given my stance on sheet cake and since she is serving lunch, we opted instead for something small, like petit fours. Just a bite or two of something sweet and delicious to finish the lunch with. I volunteered to take on the project. 

I came home and dug out the cookbooks. The only recipe I could find for petit fours was in the Martha Stewart Baking Book. Accompanying the recipe was a picture of her petit fours - spectacular and brilliantly done, and her directions made it all seem so easy (this is, of course, the problem with Martha Stewart. She makes everything look so simple and easy to accomplish, but somehow that never turns out to be the case). I showed Mike the picture. He laughed and wished me well. Hmmm.... Back to the cookbooks.

I came upon a recipe for a hazelnut-raspberry torte in the Williams-Sonoma Kitchen Library Dessert book. This sounded delicious, looked like something I actually had a shot at duplicating, and would be easy to make into individual servings. I got to work. The cake has a ground hazelnut base, lightened with egg whites. I baked this in a jelly roll pan to create lots of surface area and when it was cooled, I cut out small rounds with a cookie cutter. Early this morning, the kitchen was quiet except for the soothing sound of a cat purring nearby while I sugared raspberries, melted chocolate for the glaze and assembled the tiny cakes. I left them on the counter so the glaze could harden while I took a shower. When I came back to the kitchen, to my horror, one of the other cats was standing in the middle of my tortlets. I lunged for her and she took off across the pan, leaving a trail of smashed cake, raspberries and chocolaty cat prints through the kitchen. I managed to catch the pan before it hit the floor, but the tortlets on it were a total loss - an unkempt pile of chocolate and cake carnage. Unbelievable. Well, I'll take what's left of them. They taste elegant and amazing - moist, light nutty cake topped with a dark chocolate glaze hiding a subtle raspberry flavor and fragrance, finished with a sugared fresh raspberry. Thankfully, there's not even a hint of the trauma their friends suffered, and more importantly, they aren't sporting even a bit of cat hair.

Hazelnut-Raspberry Tortlets

10 oz. Hazelnuts, toasted and skinned, cooled

13 oz. sugar

2 oz.  flour

6 eggs, separated, at room temperature

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 1/2 oz. butter, melted and kept warm

1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar   

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 10-15 jelly roll pan, and line the bottom with parchment paper. In a food processor, combine the hazelnuts, 5 oz of the sugar, flour and salt. Process to grind finely. Set aside. In a large bowl, whisk the egg yolks and the remaining sugar until blended. Set aside.

In a bowl, beat the eggg whites and cream of tartar on the high speed of a mixer until stiff peaks form. Set aside. Whisk one-third of the nut mixture into the yolks, then fold in one-third of the egg whites. Repeat in two batches. Do not overmix. Pour into the prepared pan and smooth the surface. Bake about 20 minuutes, until a toothpick inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean. Let cool on a wire rack in the pan until completely cool.

Invert on a work surface and peel the parchment paper. Using a cookie cutter, cut out small rounds about 1 1/2 in diameter.

Sugared Raspberries

1 egg white

Superfine sugar

I made these by putting a raspberry on the eraser end of a pencil, and painting it with the egg yolk. I ground sugar in the coffee grinder to make it superfine, sprinkled it on the raspberries and let them dry on a wire rack.

Bittersweet Chocolate-Raspberry Glaze

4 oz. heavy cream

3 oz. seedless raspberry jam

8 oz. bittersweet chocolate, chopped

In a heavy saucepan over medium heat, combine the cream and jam. Bring to a simmer and reduce heat to low. Add the chocolate and whisk until melted and smooth. Remove from heat and let stand about 10 minutes, until glaze is thick but pourable. 

Assemble your torlets, pouring some glaze over each one and smoothing it out with a offset spatula so it drips down the sides. Finish each one with a sugared raspberry. Let the tortlets sit for about an hour to let the glaze harden. These can be stored in the fridge in hot weather, but the cool air may dull the glaze. If so, hit them with a blast from a blow dryer just before serving. Keep the cats out of the kitchen.    

1917 Old-Fashioned Pound Cake

Finding myself with some unexpected and treasured time alone in the kitchen this week, waiting for my bread to rise (see Pane Francese post), I thought it might be a good time to bake something sweet.  I began the cookbook search and settled on a recipe for Old-Fashioned Pound Cake, published in 1917 in my Ryzon Baking Book. I wondered how old the recipe had to be for it to be considered "old-fashioned" in 1917. As part of the Vintage Kitchen Challenge, I'm determined to cook pretty much as they would have when these cookbooks are published, and after two recipes, all I'm really sure of is that I am a complete wuss. This recipe calls for 5 eggs to be beaten until they are "very light". It did ask me to use an egg beater, which I don't own, so I got to work with a wire whisk, thinking that my Kitchen-Aid stand mixer probably was not part of a typical kitchen in 1917. I whisked away until my arm had a knot in it, maybe 2 minutes in, switched hands, switched hands again and again and again. I decided that I would whisk for 10 minutes, all the time wondering if I was going to start resembling Popeye after a few weeks of vintage baking. All I would need is an anchor tattooed on my forearm and I'd be all set. Ten painful minutes later, my eggs were lighter, I'm not sure I would call them "very light", but they were going to have to do.

This is an unusual recipe in that the first step is to cream the butter with the flour. I have creamed lots of butter with sugar and sometimes eggs, but I had never seen a recipe where butter and flour were used together like this and it was kind of difficult to get the lumps out once the eggs were added. The recipe also called for Orange Flower Water, which I actually had in the cupboard, but had never used. I liked what it added though, more of a fragrance than a flavor. Light and elegant, like something you might be served at a formal tea party.

This is a terrific recipe. Lightly sweet, with a tight crumb, it is a great summertime snack. It was wonderful with ice cream and tonight I'm going to  grill some slices to eat with fresh peaches for dessert.
I'm liking the Vintage Cooking, maybe I'm on to something here.....

Old Fashioned Pound Cake

from the Ryzon Baking Book, published 1917

2/3 cupful (51/4 ounces) butter

2 level cupfuls (1/2 pound) flour

1 level teaspoonful Baking Powder

Pinch salt

1 cupful (1/2 pint) eggs - 5 eggs usually fill a cup, measure before beating

11/2 level cupfuls (12 ounces) sugar

2 tablespoonfuls orange flower water

Cream butter with flour. Add baking powder and salt to eggs and beat them until very light with an egg beater. Add sugar gradually, and beat well. Add egg mixture to creamed flour, using a wooden spoon, until all is mixed. Add orange flower water, and beat thoroughly with long, light strokes. Turn into a greased and floured shallow cake tin, and bake in a moderate oven for one hour.

Sufficient for one cake ( for ten to twelve people)

Coffee Crumb Cake

When I set out to bake something out of a vintage cookbook, I expected to find a few differences, mostly in flavor and methods of preparation. I was wrong. My ancient cookbooks are filled with head scratching directions like "add 1 gill of milk", "add the weight of 4 eggs of flour", and simply "bake in a moderate oven". Ok, I don't know what a gill is or how much 4 eggs weigh, and while I can guess what a moderate oven might be, I have no clue as to how long it might take to bake this item. I also encountered the puzzling statement that "After a very little experience the heat of the oven can easily be judged by simply feeling it with the hand". I clearly did not have enough respect for the talented cooks who came before me.

I decided that a coffee cake might be a nice place to start, but finding a recipe proved to be a bit of a challenge. Finally I located one in the Ryzon Baking Book, a cookbook complied by the Ryzon Perfect Baking Powder Company in 1917. The introduction states that "every one of the prize selections was carefully tested by actual baking", which is a good way to test recipes, much better than simply guessing whether or not it works. So, fortified by the knowledge that I was using a recipe that had actually been tested, I began. I creamed butter with a wooden spoon - vintage style - no stand mixer for me, added sugar, sifted flour, figured out what a gill of milk was and popped my lovely vintage coffee cake into the oven. I set a antique egg timer for 20 minutes and waited.

The coffee cake smelled heavenly and tasted just as good. This isn't a very sweet coffee cake, and it has the weight and density of a corn bread with a nice sweet bite provided by the crumbly topping. The recipe calls for a much smaller ratio of butter and sugar to the flour used than in most of the other recipes in my contemporary cookbooks - 2 Tablespoons of butter and 3 tablespoons of sugar compared to at least a whole stick of butter and a cup of sugar in other recipes. This tastes very much like a cake you might find in Europe, compared to the almost sticky sweet pastries we have become accustomed to in America. I wonder if the limited use of the more expensive ingredients was due to price at the time, or if people really just ate differently and through time our palates have changed (not necessarily for the better). I'm intrigued by the differences and can't wait to investigate further. Meanwhile, enjoy this - it's fantastic!

New Year's Money Cake

I don't remember how long ago I began making the Money Cake. It started one year when Mike was having a career crisis, and I had read that in Greece, New Year's is celebrated by baking a St. Basil's cake with a coin hidden inside. Whoever found the coin was reputed to be the recipient of joy and prosperity throughout the year. I figured that a little supposed divine intervention might help Mike's state of mind, so I decided to bake a St. Basil's cake of my own. I alone knew where the coin was placed, and lo and behold-Mike was the one to receive the lucky piece. He couldn't have been more pleased and was certain that he was destined to have a great year because he found the coin. And actually he did. That year was the turning point for his business. A coincidence? Maybe, but he believes in it.

Through the years, I have continued to make a Money cake each New Year's. They have changed a bit. I began to make the cake based on something we wanted to accomplish or someplace we wanted to visit. I began to use a French franc for the coin (doesn't everybody want to go to France?). Last year we had hopes of fitting in a trip to Germany, so I made an Apple Strudel with an Euro in it. And all through the years, we have never again found the coin on the first night. We eventually uncovered it of course, but it wasn't nearly as magical as finding it on the first night.