Birthday and Valentines Fun

 In my world, a holiday or life event is a reason to bake. Since I'm doing less of that all the time in an effort to eliminate excess calories, having two dates back to back to bake for has been fun, exhausting, and calorie-laden, but full of joy.

For my birthday I not only baked, but I also braised lamb shanks for dinner. The good news is that it can be done ahead, so I did. The lamb was uber-local...thanks AM and G!...and delicious. You can find the recipe HERE.

For the birthday cake I made one of my favorite chocolate cakes, the Queen Mother Cake. Because there are only two of us, I made it in two pans...a 6-inch springform and a heart shaped 9-inch. As it turned out, I was so full from the lamb shanks dinner, which also included steamed rice and fresh asparagus, that we had the birthday cake on Valentine's Day after Sweetie's fire board meeting.

It was one of the best cakes ever. It was super moist inside, covered in decadent ganache, and a smaller portion than usual but just the right amount. If you look closely at the photo, you will see that, contrary to popular opinion, I'm not perfect and I can and do make a ganache that isn't perfectly smooth...although it was delicious.

The second cake was served the next day to friends at an afternoon tea party.

For my Valentine, I made, at his request, a Lemon-Lime Tart, but we saved it for Thursday evening when our daughter and fiancé' arrived.  We are all happy with pies and tarts. This one is a lemon-lime one and I'll post, with the recipe, soon. Next sister down also gifted me with an amazing cookbook with recipes for making geometric inspired pies and tarts. Will post about that, too, soon.

Focus

People make jokes about 'senior moments' when we forget something that we are sure we know or should remember, or we walk into a room but forget why we were going there. I'm not sure that you even need to be a 'senior'. With life seeming to be busier and busier all the time I bet that too much to do and to remember is all that is needed.

It happens to me more often lately and I'm not really alarmed because I figure the 'hard drive' is just filling up. The occasional lack of focus is more worrisome to me...forgetting that I have something in the oven for example can have very unfortunate consequences. This is not a new problem. I was well known as a child as the one who always burned the last sheet of cookies. I guess as the last sheet went in I turned my attention to other, more immediate, things and so those last cookies lost importance.

A recent result of lack of focus had nothing to do with baking cookies. After work on Friday I came home and my focus was clearly on something in the living room because I turned out of the hall into the living room....all except my right food which stay solidly on the floor and pointing the way I HAD been walking. This led to my knee being asked to do the impossible so it rebelled...now I have a knee injury that will probably take a while to heal and it messed up my birthday and Valentine's plans...a tea party for women friends. I'd gotten my tea pots out and made cute goodie bags with flower seeds and candy hearts and valentines on the front, plus baked a few cookies.

Which brings us back to cookies...wasn't that where we wanted to be anyway? For the tea party I had already made some Spritz cookies with a cookie press. Yes, I still have one of those. If I followed the organizers' dictum that anything not used in the last 3...or 5...or 7 years...then the press would be long gone. Being a bit of a pack rat, especially where baking things are concerned, I still had the cookie press and all of the discs for it carefully stored in a gallon Ziploc in the bottom back corner of my baking drawer.

I used to make Spritz cookies as a child...and burned the last sheet of them most likely...and one of the things I remembered is still true. Sometimes the dough needs more flour than the recipe calls for. I usually put about a cup of the dough into the press to try it out. This time I scooped out the squished dough three times before I achieved the right consistency and consistency is crucial when you are pressing dough through shaping discs.

First I made white flowers with yellow centers. Starting with white dough makes it lots easier to add more flour...no color streakiness. The yellow centers were achieved by putting about 2 tablespoons of dough into a sandwich size Ziploc bag, adding 3 drops of yellow food color, then kneading the color into the dough in the bag. A small snip off the end of the bag lets one use it as a pastry bag and pipe the yellow dough into the center of the white flower shapes.

After the flowers I made dark pink hearts...after all Valentine's Day is a day for hearts and flowers! Here the key is to find the right amount of twist to give the cookie press handle to turn out a heart shape that is a full shape but not too full. Once I figured that out the rest was easy.

If you don't have a cookie press and want to make these cookies...the texture and flavor are a really nice light butter cookie delight...you could shape balls in your hands (quickly because the dough melts easily) and then roll the balls in colored sugar or other decorations, then bake.

Happy Valentine's Day! Hope you get lots of hearts and flowers and love!

Spritz Cookies
For making with a cookie press
recipe from the Christmas Cookie Deck by Chronicle Books

1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp almond extract
2 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
dash of salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a bowl, beat the butter until creamy. Gradually add sugar and beat until light and fluffy.
Mix in egg and vanilla and almond extracts. Add flour and salt mixing until smooth.
Pack dough into a cookies press fitted with a star or ridged tip or any desired design. Press out dough onto greased baking sheet.
Bake for 8 to 10 minutes or until edge are lightly browned. If a 1-inch wide ridged cutter is used, immediately cut strips crosswise on the diagonal to make 1 1/2 -inch-long cookies. Transfer to racks to cool. Makes about 6 dozen.

Sweets for Your Valentine

My birthday comes near Valentines Day, so I have a special fondness for the holiday. I love heart shaped cakes and cookies, red and pink and lilac...although mostly not together. Romantic movies like Sleepless in Seattle and Notting Hill where, despite the odds, the girl gets the guy in the end are never too sappy for me to watch again. Fluffy romance novels provide reading without any effort at all...and sometimes that's exactly the kind I need...hearts and flowers and an inevitable happy ending.

Life is a bit more messy. There is no inevitable happiness...you get lucky if you find relationship happiness and then you put effort into keeping it. Even with effort sometimes the happiness slips away like water down the drain.

I wish I had words of wisdom that would give the secrets to keeping it, but I don't. I am still often mystified when my Sweetie bears the brunt of my temper and yet still loves me even though cross words really hurt him. He is still amazed when I laugh at his jokes...sometimes jokes I've heard a few times before, but they still bring true laughter...how fun is that? When you have the benefit of over 30 years with the same partner and have weathered the ups and downs that all relationships seem to bring, it's time to be grateful...and I am.

If you are thinking about Valentine's Day and want to surprise your sweetie with an unusual bread then you have come to the right place.

This may not lead to wild monkey love…or it may…but rest assured, this coffee cake is a winner, especially if you like coconut and raspberry flavors.

Traditionally Monkey Bread is made with small balls or pieces of dough dipped in butter and rolled in cinnamon sugar, with some nuts sometimes thrown in. It is delicious but can be super sweet if a lot of the cinnamon sugar is used. But you can monkey around with the flavors and ingredients if you want to.

I gave sweetie the option of the traditional flavors or of this version. He chose the coconut raspberry combo. It is a little more complicated (not much) and is more subtle…doesn’t hit you over the head with a blast of spice or sugar…but it is charming. The tint of pink that the coating takes on makes it just right for Valentine’s Day.

I made the dough and held it overnight but you could make it the same day if you plan on serving it in the late afternoon or in the evening. Getting all those chunks of dough dipped and then dipped in the coconut takes some time. My dough also took longer than average to rise because it is stormy here and chilly…and perhaps because I used all sour dough starter and it sometimes is slower than if I beefed it up with a little dry yeast.

If you used quick rise yeast and if your kitchen was warm and if you started at 8 am, this could be ready by lunch time.

Unlike the traditional version, this kind doesn’t have as much gooeyness to it, but it is a great flavor combo with the coconut, raspberry and almond flavors playing off the sweet yeast bread. Some people like to ice their Monkey Bread once it has cooled slightly, but I served it the way it came from the oven and everyone wanted seconds, so I think icing is delightful, but optional. If you use icing, you may want to tint it pink with some food coloring to make it even more of a Valentine delight.


Coconut Raspberry Monkey Bread
Makes 1 Bundt or coffee cake Variation on recipe from Marcy Goldman of BetterBaking.com
Dough:
1 1/3 cups warm water
4 1/2 tsp instant yeast
3 tbsp sugar
2 tsp salt
5 tbsp butter, melted
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1-2 cups bread flour

Note: I used 1 cup sourdough starter and 1 cup warm water instead of the amount of water and instant yeast given above. I added less than 2 cups bread flour, trying to keep the dough soft and with not too much flour.

Filling:
1/2 cup melted butter
¼ cup coconut milk (I used the canned Thai style, unsweetened)
½ cup seedless raspberry jam, melted and cooled a little
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
1 cup grated coconut (I used ½ cup fresh grated and ½ cup sweetened shredded coconut)
1/2 cup whole almonds, chopped

Optional Icing:
2 cups confectioners' sugar
2-3 tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla

1. Dissolve yeast in warm water with 1 tbsp of sugar for 2-3 minutes. Add in melted butter, remaining sugar, salt and the all purpose flour. Mix it in by hand or using a dough hook until it forms a soft mass, adding bread flour as needed to form a soft dough, not too much flour! Let rise, covered, in a warm place for 30-45 minutes until almost doubled.

2. Make coating: Put melted butter in a bowl and stir in the coconut milk. In another bowl, mix melted raspberry jam and the corn syrup. Sprinkle 2 tablespoons raspberry mixture and half the almonds into a well greased and floured Bundt pan or Monkey Bread pan. On the counter, gently deflate dough and divide into 1/2" pieces. Roll into balls. Mix the melted butter mixture with the raspberry mixture and stir well to combine. Place the coconut in a shallow bowl. Dip balls in raspberry butter mixture, then roll in coconut. Layer them in the prepared Bundt pan. Sprinkle remaining chopped almonds over the dough balls halfway through the layering. My Monkey Bread pan from King Arthur only needed two layers to use all of the dough. Cover with plastic wrap; let rise about 1 hour or until doubled in size.

3. Bake at 350 degrees F for 30-35 minutes until golden brown. Cool 15 minutes in pan then invert. Cool 20 minutes. If desired, while bread is cooling make the icing: In small bowl, combine icing ingredients until smooth. Drizzle over slightly cooled bread. Serve at once.
Verdict: I like the contrast between the tang of the sourdough bread and the sweetness and richness of the butter/raspberry/coconut/almond combination. If I did it again I might make the dough balls smaller and use more raspberry jam, pouring some straight melted raspberry jam directly over the first layer of dough balls. That would mean setting aside some raspberry jam and not adding it to the butter mixture. This might give it a bit more of the ooey-gooey factor that was missing with this recipe. Adding some mini chocolate chips could be fun, too…I mean, when is it a bad thing to add chocolate?

I’m sending this over to Susan at Wild Yeast for this weeks’ Yeastspotting event. Check it out! You might get lots of Valentines ideas.

Hog Heaven

Way back in the early days of our dating, somehow Sweetie and I adopted cute piggies as personal symbols for our love for each other...might have had something to do with the fact that we both loved to eat.

Recently in art class we were given the opportunity to decorate a heart shaped box for Valentine's day. I ended up with a box graced by two cute pink pigs along with a band of color and some dots in shades of green, pink and blue to go witht he illlustration of the pigs. Then I cut out the box and put it together, ready for today, Valentine's Day.

I wanted to have a little treat for him in the box and very soon decided that bacon and chocolate truffles would be just the thing.

Now I'd never made any truffles with bacon and wasn't sure if it would work, but I had to try.

The bacon flavor with the strained heavy cream is very subtle. Next time I think I'll not strain it, just make sure that the bacon is finely chopped.

Sweetie was duly impressed and we shared a Bacon Bittersweet Truffle with our coffee this morning. I also had oatmeal, so it wasn't too decadent. Just enough :)


Bacon Bittersweet Truffles

2 strips bacon, cooked crisp, cooled, crumbled
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoons maple syrup
12 oz bittersweet or semi-sweet chocolate chips

Heat the bacon and heavy cream over low heat until just simmering. Turn off heat, stir to mix well, and let steep for ½ hour. Strain the cream mixture through a fine mesh strainer. Use the bacon in the strainer for another use or discard.

In a microwave safe bowl, mix the flavored heavy cream, maple syrup, and chocolate.

Microwave on half power for 1 minute. Stir the mixture Return to the microwave.
Repeat the microwaving the same way, stirring each time after 1 minute at half power, until mixture is smooth and all the chocolate has melted.

Chill the mixture, covered with plastic wrap, at least one hour or over night.

Scoop 1 “ rounds of the mixture a onto waxed paper lined cookie sheet. Refrigerate 1 hour.

Roll the balls in unsweetened cocoa (as I did) OR
dip in 1 cup chopped bittersweet chocolate that has been microwaved in a bowl, 1 minute at a time at half power, until melted, but add 1 tablespoon of shortening to the chocolate before starting the microwave process. If dipping the truffles, remove from the melted chocolate with a fork, transfer to the wax paper lined cookie sheet, and let cool completely by chilling for at least ½ hour.

Note: The bacon flavor is subtle, mostly in the aftertaste. If you want a stronger bacon flavor, don’t strain the mixture. Your truffles centers will be chewier that way, but have more bacon flavor.