Author: Amy

Sugar Cut-Outs: Rabbits

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Easter!  For this cookie recipe, please see sugar cut-outs.

Decoration

  • Single recipe Zella’s icing
  • Brown gel food coloring
  • Blue liquid or gel food coloring
  • Pink flower-shaped sprinkles

Prepare icing and reserve about 1/4 cup for white and blue details.

In your mixing bowl, tint icing brown using gel food coloring.

Frost rabbit bodies brown, leaving the tails bare.

Fit a pastry bag (or sandwich-sized plastic bag) with a large star tip; fill with small portion of white icing and pipe on tails.

Replace the star tip with a plain round tip and pipe a small circle for the eye.

Tint remaining icing blue; fit a pastry bag or sandwich-sized plastic bag with a small round tip and pipe on eye detail.

Press one pink flower-shaped sprinkle on each rabbit for the nose.

Allow icing to harden before storing.

 

 

Raspberry Almond Shortbread

 

 

 

 

 

Shortbread is a great cookie, and this thumbprint version is very easy to make, despite its somewhat fancy appearance.  The dough is basic; you could probably use any flavor jam or preserves for the thumbprint, and the almond glaze is optional.

Shortbread

Ingredients

  • 1 cup butter, softened
  • 2/3 cup granulated sugar
  • ½ teaspoon almond extract
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • ½ cup seedless raspberry jam
  • Almond glaze (see recipe below)

Preparation

In a mixing bowl, beat butter on medium speed for 30 seconds.

Add granulated sugar and ½ teaspoon almond extract and beat until combined.

Beat in flour.

Cover and chill dough for about one-half hour, until easy to handle.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Place raspberry jam in a small bowl and stir it slightly to make it easier to spoon.

Shape dough into one-inch balls and place on an ungreased cookie sheet about two inches apart.

Use your thumb to make an indentation in the center of each cookie.

Spoon about one-half teaspoon of jam into each indentation, filling it completely.

Bake 10-14 minutes, until edges are light golden brown.

When completely cool, drizzle with almond glaze.

Almond Glaze

Ingredients

  • 1 cup powdered sugar
  • 2-3 teaspoons water
  • 1 ½ teaspoons almond extract

Preparation

In a medium bowl, combine powdered sugar, 1 teaspoon water, and almond extract.

Add enough of the remaining water to make a drizzly consistency.

Drizzle over cookies and allow glaze to harden before serving.

Nut Roll Update

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just a brief update from the nut roll front.  Using the same recipe as last time, I successfully baked three nut rolls without them splitting open!  While one roll did split, I’m very happy with this outcome. Apparently so is Millie, my dog, who can be seen peeking up at the counter in the photo above.

This time, I used a few new tricks, including:

  • Using the paddle attachment to mix my dough;
  • Kneading the dough for about nine minutes, rather than the standard six to eight;
  • Rolling the dough to approximately 10×10;
  • Using much less filling, perhaps a quarter-cup, in each roll;
  • Pricking the tops of each roll with a fork to vent the steam;
  • Brushing each roll with an egg wash of one whole egg mixed with water; and
  • Perhaps most importantly, baking two of the rolls in lightly greased loaf pans; these definitely held up better than the two rolls that were baked on baking sheets.

Stay tuned for more adventures in nut roll!

 

Flourless Chocolate Cake

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our fun with interfaith baking continues, as both Passover and Easter are upon us!  I’m no Torah scholar, so I’ll leave the explanation of the symbols, foods, and rituals of Passover to the fine folks at www.chabad.org.  As a baker, though, I can speak to the creativity that Passover requires; observant bakers turn to matzoh meal, potato flour, and all manner of unleavened ingredients to produce cakes, cookies, and other treats for this special time of year.

Tomorrow night, Mike and I will celebrate the beginning of Passover with a Seder, and for the next eight days, Mike won’t eat chametz, or anything that contains leavened grain, like bread, cereal, pasta, even beer.  I don’t abstain from chametz for two reasons; as a Catholic with Eastern European roots, Easter bread is an important component of my faith tradition, and (to be totally honest) I’m nowhere near disciplined enough.

This cake is an excellent flourless option for Passover; it is very rich, so I recommend slender slices served with fresh whipped cream.  You can omit the espresso powder if you don’t have it and use unsweetened American-style cocoa powder instead of Dutch-process, but if you’d like to stick to the traditional recipe, you can get both ingredients from King Arthur Flour; Williams-Sonoma also carries Dutch-process cocoa.

A note about the chocolate glaze: mine didn’t turn out as smooth as I’d like, which means I need to spend more time stirring it once the chocolate has melted to make sure all of the tiny bits of chocolate are incorporated evenly.

Cake

Ingredients

  • 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
  • ½ cup butter
  • ¾ cup sugar
  • 1 teaspoon espresso powder
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 3 eggs
  • ½ cup Dutch-process cocoa powder

Preparation

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Grease a round cake pan; line with parchment paper and grease the parchment.

Cut butter into chunks and combine with chocolate chips in a medium-sized microwave-safe bowl.

Microwave in 30-second intervals until butter melts and chips become very soft, stirring after each interval.  Stir to melt chips completely and transfer to a mixing bowl.

Add sugar, espresso powder, and vanilla and beat until just combined.

Add eggs and beat until incorporated.

Add cocoa powder and beat until just combined.

Gently pour batter into pan and bake for 25 minutes, until the top of the cake has formed a crust.

Cool in the pan for 5 minutes; loosen edges with the tip of a knife and invert onto a cake stand or serving plate.

Allow to cool completely before glazing.

Garnish with toasted sliced almonds, if desired.

Chocolate Glaze

Ingredients

  • 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
  • ½ cup heavy cream

Preparation

Combine chocolate chips and heavy cream in a saucepan and heat until cream is very hot, but not simmering.

Remove from heat and stir until completely smooth.

Pour over cake, allowing to drip over the sides.

Allow the glaze to harden for several hours before serving.

Oh, how I love cookbooks…

Last weekend, while visiting family in Ashton, Maryland, I flipped through the Back in the Day Bakery Cookbook and knew instantly that I had to have it.  Back in the Day Bakery is actually located in Savannah, Georgia, and it will definitely be on my list of places to visit should Mike and I ever travel there.

I spent a good part of the drizzly Saturday afternoon reading recipe after recipe, making mental notes of which ones I wanted to try.  My first experiment will be the cinnamon-sugar doughnut muffin, which I cannot wait to bake after I get through my Passover/Easter projects.  Other gems on my list are a lovely lemon loaf, sweet potato cupcakes, chocolate mint cookies, and buttermilk chess pie.

I own 30 cookbooks; of those, 13 are specifically dedicated to baking.  I’ve been fortunate that both Mike and my sister-in-law Kristin tend to give me cookbooks for my birthday and holidays; I’ve amassed quite a collection varying from the sophisticated tastes of Martha Stewart to Warren Brown’s fun, quirky United Cakes of America.

Please share with me – what is your favorite cookbook, and which ones should I add to my collection?

 

Almond Cookies

 

 

 

 

 

Meet my favorite cookie ever.  All I need is a cup of tea, a plate of these, and I’m in heaven.

This recipe is another gem from my grandma Zella; it is simple, with only five ingredients, and the cookies have a slightly crumbly texture reminiscent of biscotti.  They pair very well with coffee or tea, and yes…I have eaten them for breakfast.

Ingredients

  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 ¼ cups shortening
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 teaspoon almond extract
  • 3 ¼ cups flour

Preparation

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Measure out flour into a medium bowl and set aside.

In a mixing bowl, cream together sugar and shortening.

Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each.

Add half the flour, along with the almond extract, and beat to combine.

Add the remaining flour and beat until well combined.  The dough should be soft, but easy to roll into balls.  If your dough is too soft or sticky, add one to two tablespoons of additional flour to achieve a firmer texture.

Using a small cookie scoop, scoop out dough and roll into balls.  Place on an ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake for 15 minutes, or until light golden brown.

Cool on a wire rack.

Vanilla Buttercream

 

 

 

 

 

Vanilla buttercream is the little black dress of the baking world.  It goes with everything, from a chocolate birthday cake to a strawberry-filled almond wedding cake.  You cannot go wrong with this smooth, mellow, just-sweet-enough frosting.

Ingredients

  • 1 cup butter, softened
  • 3 to 3 ¼ cups powdered sugar, sifted
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • 1 to 2 tablespoons vanilla extract
  • 2 tablespoons milk

Preparation

Place butter in a mixing bowl and beat for a few minutes using the paddle attachment.

Add 3 cups powdered sugar.  With your mixer on low, incorporate the powdered sugar into the butter.  (Hint: I find that placing a kitchen towel over the mixer during this stage prevents a powdered sugar blizzard.)

Increase speed and add 1 tablespoon vanilla, salt, and milk.

Beat for 3 minutes, then taste.  If you’d like a stronger vanilla flavor, add the second tablespoon of vanilla, along with the additional ¼ cup of powdered sugar.  Beat until combined.

For thinner buttercream, add additional milk, one tablespoon at a time, until you reach the desired consistency.

Lemon Vanilla Glaze

 

 

 

 

 

Glaze icings pair well with dense cakes, like pound cakes or butter cakes.  They’re very easy to make and embellish; you could use orange juice as an alternative to the lemon juice below, or omit the citrus and stir in some cocoa powder for a chocolate glaze.

The most important part of a glaze icing is its consistency, which needs to be thin enough to drizzle, but thick enough to set.  Remember that you can always add more liquid to make the icing thinner, so start with the smallest amount and gradually stir in more liquid until you’ve reached the desired consistency; if you do add too much liquid, add one additional tablespoon of powdered sugar at a time to thicken it.

Ingredients

  • 3 cups powdered sugar
  • 2 tablespoons lemon juice
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 2-4 tablespoons water

Preparation

Combine powdered sugar, lemon juice, vanilla, and 2 tablespoons water in a large, 4-cup glass measuring cup.  Continue adding water, 1 tablespoon at a time, until you reach the desired consistency; glaze should be drizzly, but not too thin.  Pour or drizzle over cake, allowing glaze to drip down the sides.

Cream Cheese Frosting

 

 

 

 

 

Cream cheese frosting is a classic companion to carrot cake and red velvet cake, but it can certainly be used for a variety of cakes or cupcakes.  I’m not sure who decided that blending cream cheese with powdered sugar, butter, and vanilla extract would be a good idea, but thank goodness they did, eh?

Ingredients

  • 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
  • 1/2 cup butter, softened
  • 4 cups powdered sugar
  • 2 1/4 teaspoons vanilla extract

In a mixing bowl, cream together cream cheese and butter.

Add powdered sugar, one cup at a time, beating after each addition.

Add vanilla and beat well.

Store frosted cake or cupcakes in the refrigerator to be on the safe side.  We are talking about cream cheese, after all.

Nut Roll

 

 

 

 

 

Food is a powerful link to heritage and cultural tradition.  My paternal grandparents, Andy and Zella Kozusko, prepared many Slovak and Hungarian foods at holidays, and while I refused to eat pig’s feet, hrudka (eggs and milk cooked together to make a sort of “cheese”), and hard-boiled eggs soaked in beet juice, I always loved nut roll.  Zella made nut rolls and poppy seed rolls each Christmas and Easter, and I planned to use her recipe, which called for fresh yeast, for this baking adventure.  I did a bit of reading about fresh yeast, and learned the hard way that when the yeast experts say fresh yeast is highly perishable, they really mean it.  The cake I bought went moldy in less than a week, even though it wasn’t anywhere near its expiration date.  Oh well.

Since I had plenty of active dry yeast, I found another recipe online and used jars of nut filling instead of making my own from scratch.  While these turned out to be very tasty, all but one of my four rolls split while baking, oozing filling out the sides.  Next time, I think I’ll make my own filling, not roll the dough as thin, and not spread the filling on as thick.  I also hope to learn the secrets of perfect nut roll preparations from a friend of my mom’s who bakes them each Christmas with his family, which Mike jokingly called my “nut roll internship.”  I can only hope!

Ingredients

  • 6-7 cups flour
  • 3 tablespoons sugar
  • 2 packages active dry yeast (1/4 ounce each)
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 8 ounces sour cream
  • 1 cup butter, softened
  • ½ cup water
  • 3 eggs, lightly beaten
  • 3 jars nut filling

Preparation

Grease a large bowl and set aside.

In a mixing bowl, combine two cups flour with the sugar, yeast, and salt.

In a medium saucepan, combine butter, sour cream, and water.  Heat to 120 – 130 degrees, then combine with flour mixture and beat for two minutes.

Add ½ cup flour and eggs.  Beat for two minutes.

Using a wooden spoon, stir in enough flour to make a soft dough, then turn onto a floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about 8 minutes.

Place in greased bowl, turning over once to coat, and let rise until doubled in size.

Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Punch dough down and divide into four portions; form each portion into a ball, then press it down and roll it into a 12×12 square.

Spread each square with a thin layer of nut filling, leaving an edge of about 1 inch on each side.  Roll up into a log, pinching the seam to seal it and carefully tucking the ends under.  Place seam-side down on the baking sheet.

Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size; I preheat my oven while the dough is rising to help it along.

Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes, until lightly browned.

Cool on parchment on wire racks.