Gifts from the Kitchen

One of the satisfying things about baking is that you know that you can make delicious treats to give away to family, friends and neighbors. This is especially true at Christmas time because home made goodies are usually far better than the overpriced cookies and sweet breads that you are encouraged to buy for Christmas gifts.

This year some of the things that I had hoped to make and bake ahead of time were scotched by a week in bed with a winter cold/flu. Fortunately  I was able to bake some sweet tea breads for our neighbors. There won't be any photos of sliced breads, but I do have one of them wrapped up ready to gift.

The breads I baked included three small loaves of Tea Brack with warm spices, raisins and candied orange and lemon, a large and a small loaf of cranberry orange walnut bread, and a large and small loaf of cherry chocolate pecan bread.

There is a link to the tea brack bread (above) and below are the recipes for the other two kinds. Truthfully, for the two breads below you can mix and match the dried fruit and the nuts used as long as you keep the proportions and keep the same measurements of the other ingredients. I've made it with apricots and pecans, too, and that was delicious as well.

Happy baking and Happy Holidays!

Cranberry Orange Walnut Loaf

a variation of a recipe in Dorie Greenspan's marvelous Baking: From my home to yours

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 sticks (8 oz.) unsalted butter, at room temperature
3 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature
3/4 cup (packed) light brown sugar
4 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup dried cranberries, dusted with a bit of flour 
1 teaspoon freshly grated orange zest
1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Butter a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan, dust the inside with flour and tap out the excess. Put the pan on an insulated baking sheet or two regular sheets stacked on on top of the other.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt.

Working with a stand mixer and paddle attachment, beat the butter and cream cheese on medium speed until very smooth, about 2 minutes. You can do the same thing using a hand mixer and a large bowl.

Add the sugar and beat until the mixture is light and fluffy, another 3 minutes or so. Add the eggs one at a time, beating for 1 minute after each addition, then beat in the vanilla. The batter may look curdled (mine did), but don't worry, it will come together after you add the flour mixture.

Reduce the mixer speed to low and mix in the flour mixture, mixing only until they are incorporated. Using a rubber spatula, fold in the cranberries, orange zest and walnuts. (This step is important. Folding in the fruit and nuts makes for a lighter loaf than adding them with the mixer would.) Turn the batter into the pan.

Bake for 40 minutes. Cover the top of the loaf loosely with a foil tent and bake for another 40 minutes or so (total baking time about 1 hour, 20 minutes), until the top is honey brown, bumpy and cracked and a thin knife inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean. (Since I used one 8 x 4-inch pan and one very small pan, it took about an hour for the larger pan and 40 minutes for the smaller pan.)  Transfer the pan to a rack and cool about 10 minutes before turning the loaf out of the pan, then cool to room temperature right side up on the rack.

Cherry Chocolate Pecan Loaf

a variation of a recipe in Dorie Greenspan's marvelous Baking: From my home to yours

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 sticks (8 oz.) unsalted butter, at room temperature
3 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature
3/4 cup (packed) light brown sugar
4 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
1 cup dried cherries (chopped if very large), dusted with a bit of flour 
1/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips or chunks
1 cup coarsely chopped pecans

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Butter a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan, dust the inside with flour and tap out the excess. Put the pan on an insulated baking sheet or two regular sheets stacked on on top of the other.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt.

Working with a stand mixer and paddle attachment, beat the butter and cream cheese on medium speed until very smooth, about 2 minutes. You can do the same thing using a hand mixer and a large bowl.

Add the sugar and beat until the mixture is light and fluffy, another 3 minutes or so. Add the eggs one at a time, beating for 1 minute after each addition, then beat in the vanilla and almond extract. The batter may look curdled (mine did), but don't worry, it will come together after you add the flour mixture.

Reduce the mixer speed to low and mix in the flour mixture, mixing only until they are incorporated. Using a rubber spatula, fold in the dried cherries, chocolate chips or chunks and pecans. (This step is important. Folding in the fruit and nuts makes for a lighter loaf than adding them with the mixer would.) Turn the batter into the pan.

Bake for 40 minutes. Cover the top of the loaf loosely with a foil tent and bake for another 40 minutes or so (total baking time about 1 hour, 20 minutes), until the top is honey brown, bumpy and cracked and a thin knife inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean. (Since I used one 8 x 4-inch pan and one very small pan, it took about an hour for the larger pan and 40 minutes for the smaller pan.) Transfer the pan to a rack and cool about 10 minutes before turning the loaf out of the pan, then cool to room temperature right side up on the rack.

The Fragrance of Gingerbread Scones

 Sweetie and I visited our daughter, son-in-law and grandson last weekend and had such a great time. It was rainy but that meant that baking gingerbread scones with Raine was even nicer since the warm spices of gingerbread scones gave a wonderful holiday spice fragrance to the whole downstairs.

I used a recipe off the internet and stayed pretty close to it, although I increased the cinnamon to 1 teaspoon, but everyone agreed that another 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon would have made the scones even better. They did taste better the next day, so perhaps in another day they would have been just right without more cinnamon, but scones are best right after you bake them, usually, so I'm going to write up the recipe with that extra 1 teaspoon.

These are lovely scones, just a bit crumbly, enriched with molasses as well as brown sugar, plus the spices of winter. Half of them were given a drizzle of icing and even Sweetie, who had asked for a drizzle-free scone but tried one with the drizzle, agreed that the drizzle improved them, so go for the drizzle!

Gingerbread Scones

by Liren Baker of Kitchen COnfidate Blog

Ingredients

For the scones:

• ▢2 1/2 cups

  all-purpose flour


• ▢1 tablespoon baking powder
• ▢1/2 cup brown sugar
• ▢1 teaspoon ground ginger
• ▢1 1/2 teaspoons

  ground cinnamon


• ▢1/4 teaspoon salt
• ▢1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
• ▢1/2 cup unsalted butter very cold, cut into small pieces
• ▢2 large eggs
• ▢1/2 cup buttermilk, plus 2 tablespoons for brushing the scones
• ▢1/4 cup molasses
• ▢2 teaspoons sparking sugar 

For the glaze:

• ▢1/2 cup confectioner’s sugar or more, depending on consistency, sifted
• ▢1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• ▢1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ▢Pinch ground cloves
• ▢1/4 cup maple syrup

Instructions

For the Scones

• In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, ginger, cinnamon, salt and cloves. Using a pastry cutter, cut the butter into the flour mixture, until you have coarse crumbs. This can also be done with two knives or a food processor.
• Whisk the eggs lightly and combine with 1/2 cup buttermilk and molasses. Add to the flour mixture and stir until just moist. The dough will be sticky.
• On a well-floured surface, turn the sticky dough out and knead very lightly until the flour is fully incorporated into the dough. If the dough feels too sticky, lightly add more flour as you shape the dough. Form the dough into a disk about 7-inches in diameter and 3/4 inch thick. Cut into 8 wedges and place the scones on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a silicone mat.
• Place the scones in the freezer for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 400° F.
• Once the scones are chilled, lightly brush with remaining buttermilk. Stir together the sparkling sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle over the scones. Bake for 20 minutes, or until puffed. Transfer to a wire rack.

For the Glaze

• Whisk together the confectioner’s sugar, ginger, cinnamon, and cloves. Stir in the maple syrup, whisking until smooth. If you find that it’s too thick, add more maple syrup or a few teaspoons of water. If you find that the glaze is too thin, add a little more powdered sugar. Drizzle over or dip the scones and set on the wire rack.

A Winter Cold

Wish I had that baking angel doing Christmas baking for me!

That rain that I was hoping for (in my last post) is making a lot of noise outside, mostly because there are also high wind gusts. We should get a good soaking...something like three inches tonight and Saturday.

I wouldn't mind usually, but I have been laid up with a bad winter cold for the better part of a week and now that I'm feeling a little better I was hoping to go tomorrow to get a Christmas tree. Looks like it will be Sunday instead, when the rain should be gone. I haven't been out of the house in days...starting to get cabin fever or something.

One of the nasty things about this cold is that I had major brain fog. Not only couldn't I do simple things like write Christmas cards, I couldn't even figure out how to get started doing that...couldn't contemplate starting to figure it out. Of course there were plenty of days of constant nose blowing, more days of deep, wet coughing, lots of days with naps...and I don't usually do naps...and no appetite. 

Guess you can tell that this isn't going to be a cheery post about baking Christmas cookies, right? The one piece of good news (other than getting more rain) is that they delivered our new refrigerator today. Fits perfectly, makes less noise than our old fridge, but otherwise is less than exciting because it's almost identical to our old fridge. Turns out that enclosing the fridge with cabinets overhead and a wood panel below the cabinets, with walls on two other sides and a doorway right where the fridge is makes it almost impossible to purchase another brand or size of fridge. Fortunately I liked the old one and like the new one...and it was on sale.

Hope that you, dear reader, are cracking on with Christmas baking even if mine has to wait a bit yet.

Happy Friday the 13th! 

Hoping For Rain

When we travel to Washington state at this time of year we almost always get some rain, but here in Northern California it's sometimes hard to believe in the 'rainy season'. We did get a lot of rain in November, but December, so far, has been dry and is supposed to stay dry for the next week or two. Fingers crossed that the rain comes for a few days mid-month and then stops for the Christmas holiday...but that's not a sure thing, either.

For a number of years I've checked out the pyracanth shrub berries each fall to see if I can guess how wet a winter it will be overall. It seems to be a fairly good harbinger. In the years when there are lots of berries packed onto the branches we have a wet winter and in the years when the shrubs have berries spread apart on the branches and a smaller number of berries we tend to have a dryer winter with less rain overall.

This year the berries are packed (see photo above), so I expect that by March we will have had a good wet winter. Check back in March and see how we did!

Cooking and baking recipes will be suspended for a few days but then I expect to post some pie made with one of the grandsons...probably on Monday or Tuesday.  

Gingerbread and Cranberry Flavors in a Tart

Perhaps it's boring, or maybe just traditional, but I love having pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving. One of my sisters has her birthday close to Thanksgiving and her favorite pie is pecan. Those are the two pies that I make most often at Thanksgiving time.

This year Sweetie and I were invited to join friends in Healdsburg for Thanksgiving and I offered to make the dessert. Imagine my surprise when the hostess asked that it not be pumpkin. At first I was going to go with the second usual pie, but then I made one for a birthday gift for my sister, so I was open to the idea of something different.

In the Washington Post there was a recipe that was new to me, sounded delicious, and seemed like it would make a festive dessert for the Thanksgiving feast. It's a Gingersnap crusted Cranberry Tart. Sweetie loves gingersnap cookies and I had just bought a bag of fresh cranberries, plus some oranges, so I had most of the items needed. I did have to purchase some fresh ginger for the filling but otherwise I was good to go.

This is a wonderful tart! The nice thing is that you can bake the crust the day before and the filling gets cooked on the stovetop and doesn't need to be in either the oven or the fridge on Turkey Day, so it's a great one if you are cooking a lot of the meal in your kitchen. It is really impressive, delicious, and tart enough that it's refreshing at the end of turkey dinner with all the trimmings. Surprisingly, it also goes well with a spicy red wine.

As with most recipes, it's good to read this through at least once, and to have all of your ingredients prepped before you start. The filling part is given before the crust part, so if you are making the crust the day before, help yourself and print it out, then highlight the crust ingredients and instructions.

Hope you enjoy this as much as our Thanksgiving crew did! I skipped the cookie-fruit crumble topping and just added some whipped cream decor as I served each piece. Easier and everyone seemed to enjoy it that way.

Cranberry Tart With Gingersnap Cookie Crust

By Aaron Hutcherson   in The Washington Post
Servings: 8 (makes one 9-inch tart)

Ingredients

For the cranberry curd - make the morning of serving day- very early

·         1 pound (455 grams/4 cups) fresh or frozen cranberries

·         1 1/4 cups (250 grams) granulated sugar

·         Finely grated zest and juice of 1 orange (about 1 tablespoon zest and 1/2 cup juice)

·         One (2-inch) piece fresh ginger, peeled and thinly sliced

·         Pinch fine salt

·         3 large egg yolks

·         2 teaspoons cornstarch

·         4 tablespoons (55 grams) unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces and at room temperature

For the gingersnap cookie crust - can make one day ahead of serving day

·         8 tablespoons (113 grams/1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature

·         1/4 cup (55 grams) packed dark brown sugar

·         1/4 cup (50 grams) granulated sugar

·         1 large egg yolk

·         2 tablespoons molasses

·         1 3/4 cups (220 grams) all-purpose flour

·         2 teaspoons ground ginger

·         1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

·         1/2 teaspoon ground allspice

·         1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt or table salt

For the cookie-fruit crumble (optional) - make while filling is setting up

·         1/2 cup (50 grams) crumbled gingersnap cookies

·         1/4 cup (50 grams) diced crystallized ginger

·         1/4 cup (50 grams) diced candied orange peel

Directions

Time  -Active: 30 mins     Total: 3 hours 30 mins

1.     Step 1

Make the cranberry curd: In a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, combine the cranberries, sugar, orange zest and juice, ginger and salt and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Adjust the heat to maintain a very gentle simmer, cover and cook until all the cranberries have burst and started to shrivel, about 10 minutes. (I found that with fresh cranberries that it took longer than 10 minutes.)

 2.     Step 2

While the cranberries cook, in a small bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and cornstarch until smooth. Transfer the hot cranberry mixture to a heatproof blender. Immediately add the yolk mixture, cover loosely (see Notes), gradually increase the speed to high and blend until smooth, about 1 minute. Let the mixture cool, uncovered, in the blender until a skin forms and it registers 120 to 125 degrees on an instant-read thermometer, about 1 hour 30 minutes. Make sure that you have soft butter ready.

3.     Step 3

Make the gingersnap cookie crust: In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and brown and granulated sugars on medium-low speed until smooth, 2 to 3 minutes.

4.     Step 4

Increase the mixer speed to medium, add the egg yolk and molasses and mix to combine. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl thoroughly. Add the flour, ginger, cinnamon, allspice and salt and mix on low speed until fully incorporated and the mixture looks like crumbly cookie dough, about 1 minute.

5.     Step 5

Turn out the dough into a 9-inch tart pan with a removable bottom. Use your fingers to press it evenly across the bottom and up the sides. Loosely cover with a kitchen towel or plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes and up to overnight.

6.     Step 6

When the crust is ready to bake, position a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees. Dock the crust across the bottom with a fork and blind-bake (without pie weights), until evenly golden brown, 20 to 22 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely before adding the filling. (I lined the tart bottom with foil, shiny side down, that I had coated with a thin layer of butter - on shiny side - after docking crust bottom, but before baking. When I removed crust from oven, I used the foil to press down on the bottom of the crust since it had risen some during baking. Then I removed the foil and returned crust to the oven for 3 minutes, then removed from oven and cooled it.)

7.     Step 7

When the cranberry puree has cooled, add the softened butter and blend until fully combined, about 30 seconds. Pour the puree into the crust and smooth with an offset spatula into an even layer. Let the tart sit at room temperature for at least 2 hours.

8.     Step 8

Make the cookie-fruit crumble: If desired, combine the cookies, crystallized ginger and candied orange peel in a medium bowl and sprinkle all around the edge of the tart. Slice into wedges and serve at room temperature.

Substitutions

Dark brown sugar >> light brown sugar.
Gingersnap cookies >> graham crackers.

Notes

If you’re not sure your blender is heatproof or you don’t have one, you can use a heatproof food processor or immersion (stick) blender instead. To use a heatproof food processor, transfer the cranberry mixture to the bowl of a food processor, add the yolk mixture and process until smooth, about 1 minute. To use an immersion blender, add the yolk mixture to the cranberries in the pan and puree until smooth, about 1 minute. Be careful not to splatter the hot cranberry mixture. With either method, let the mixture cool, uncovered, until a skin forms and it registers 120 to 125 degrees on an instant-read thermometer. After the mixture has cooled, add the butter, as directed, and puree or blend again. If desired, strain the mixture through a fine-mesh strainer, pressing the puree through with a rubber spatula, before transferring to the crust.

When blending the hot puree, be careful to not fill the blender pitcher more than halfway. Remove the center ring from the lid and place a kitchen towel over the opening as you blend. This will allow steam to escape and protect you from splatters.

 

Make ahead: The crust must be refrigerated for at least 30 minutes or overnight before blind baking. The baked crust can be allowed to cool completely and stored loosely covered at room temperature 1 day in advance.

Storage: Leftover tart can be covered and refrigerated for up to 3 days.