Caramel Apple Hamantaschen

This past weekend was the Jewish festival of Purim, and hamantaschen are the traditional Purim treat. I’ve made them before, in poppy seed, raspberry, and apricot varieties, but never really found a recipe that I loved.

Last week at work, my friend Inbal mentioned a recipe she’d seen for hamantaschen with apple filling, kind of like little cookie-sized apple pies. This sounded delicious to me, so I went in search of a recipe and found this one from Tori Avey. I adapted it slightly to use my own recipe for buttery hamantaschen dough, and Mike proclaimed these cookies the best hamantaschen I’ve ever made. While this filling isn’t like pie filling, it is absolutely delicious. Thank you, Inbal, for this great idea!

Ingredients

For the filling

  • 5 Granny Smith apples
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 3/4 cup water
  • 1/3 cup dulce de leche

For the dough

Note: Depending on the size of your food processor, you’ll need to make two separate batches of dough because all of the ingredients won’t fit (especially in a standard, 7-cup food processor like mine). 

Preparation

To make the filling:

Peel and core apples, then shred them into fine shreds using a hand grater or your food processor fitted with a shredding blade.

In a medium saucepan, combine water and sugar. Bring to a boil, then add apple shreds and cook on medium heat for about 40 minutes, stirring occasionally. The mixture will thicken and start to look like thick applesauce and will clump together when you stir it.

Remove from heat and stir in dulce de leche. Allow the mixture to cool, then chill for at least 1 hour before using. I chilled mine for a few days because I didn’t get a chance to make the dough until last night.

To make the cookies:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line several baking sheets with parchment paper.

Roll out dough to about 1/8 inch thickness and cut into 3-inch circles using a cookie cutter or drinking glass.

Place circles on your cookie sheet, and using the tip of your finger, lightly brush the edge of each circle with water; this will help the dough stick when you form the triangle.

Place about 1 teaspoon of filling in the center of each circle. Fold the bottom up, then fold in the two sides to make the triangle, gently pressing the corners of the triangle to close them and leaving just a bit of filling exposed.

Bake for 15-17  minutes, until cookies are a light golden brown.

Remove from oven and cool on the baking sheets for a few minutes, then place on a wire rack to cool completely.

Store in airtight containers at room temperature for up to 3 days.

Makes about 48.

 

Buttery Hamantaschen Dough

Last night I tried a new recipe for hamantaschen dough, and it just didn’t work out. Fortunately I’d made a decent dough once before, and I realized that all it needed was a bit of orange juice to make it less crumbly and easier to handle. Since I’d already zested my orange, I just cut it in half, juiced it, and used the freshly squeezed juice in the dough as well.

The recipe below would make enough for about 24 cookies, cut with a 3-inch cookie cutter or drinking glass.

Ingredients

  • 1 cup butter, cut into small pieces, softened
  • 2 egg yolks*
  • Zest of 1 large orange
  • 1 cup powdered sugar
  • 2 ¼ cups flour, plus a few more tablespoons for kneading
  • 1/8 teaspoon salt
  • About 1 1/2 tablespoons orange juice

*Not sure what to do with your leftover egg whites? Make almond clouds or cocoa meringues. 

Preparation

Combine butter, egg yolks, orange zest, flour, and salt in a food processor.

Pulse until dough comes together; it will be crumbly.

Add orange juice, about 1/2 tablespoon at a time, and pulse as best you can until the dough becomes smoother – at this point it will probably become difficult to pulse because it will have bunched up on one side of your food processor. That’s okay.

Scrape out the dough from your food processor bowl and turn it onto a lightly floured surface. Knead very gently, adding a few more tablespoons of flour, just until the dough comes together and is no longer sticky.

Wrap dough in plastic wrap and chill in the freezer for 15 minutes before using.

What to Do with Leftover Canned Pumpkin

I bake with pumpkin year-round, so canned pumpkin is a pantry staple. It’s rare for me to find a recipe that uses a whole 15-ounce can (let alone the 29-ounce cans I buy during the fall), so I’m always on the hunt for ways to use up the leftovers.

Canned pumpkin will last for about 5-7 days in the refrigerator once it’s opened, so I usually end up baking two pumpkin-themed recipes back-to-back. If you don’t need both recipes for yourself, you can always share with your colleagues or neighbors; it’s rare for me to encounter someone who doesn’t like pumpkin, but I guess you never know!

As I find more recipes, I’ll add them here, but this is a good place to start! Happy baking!

1/2 cup (4 ounces)

2/3 cup (5 1/3 ounces)

3/4 cup (6 ounces)

7.5 ounces (half a 15-ounce can)

1 cup (8 ounces)

1 1/2 cups (12 ounces)

15 ounces

 

What to Do with Leftover Filling

Sometimes, you’ll have leftover filling from cookies or cakes. What should you do with your filling? In some cases – like that of lemon curd or dulce de leche – you can just eat it with a spoon. But what if your filling needs to be baked, or would be better put to use in another treat? As a super-thrifty baker, I always advocate repurposing your filling so you don’t waste ingredients or money, and I found one very simple way to do so.

Yesterday I made a big batch of pecan rugelach and had about 1/3 to 1/2 cup of pecan filling left over (I didn’t measure it exactly). I decided to bake it into what I call crescent cupcakes, which are based on the Easy King Cake Cupcakes I made for Mardi Gras and are very easy to assemble. You may need more tubes of crescent rolls depending on how much filling you have left, but you can always bake any unused rolls as you would normally and serve them with dinner.

Ingredients

  • 1 regular-sized tube PillsburyTM crescent rolls
  • Leftover filling (I had about 1/3 to 1/2 cup)
  • 1/2 cup powdered sugar
  • Dash of cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon water

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place 4 cupcake liners into a cupcake pan.

Unroll the tube of crescent rolls and divide the roll into four rectangles. Press the perforated edges together to seal.

Divide your filling evenly between all four rectangles, leaving a border around the edges.Fold the top of the rectangle down toward the middle, then fold the bottom of the rectangle toward the middle, letting the dough overlap. Fold the right side in toward the middle, then the left side.

Place rolls spiral-side up in cupcake wells and bake for 18-22 minutes, until golden brown.

Remove from cupcake tin and cool completely before glazing.

To make glaze, combine powdered sugar and cinnamon (or whatever spice you like) in a small bowl. Add water 1/4 teaspoon at a time to reach a thick glazing consistency; you don’t want the glaze to drip down the sides. Glaze each treat and allow glaze to set before serving, or serve warm if you prefer.

Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 days; after that, they get stale.

Makes 4.

Gold Coin Cookies

Basic cookie dough recipes, like the one below, offer great flexibility. You can tint the dough whatever color you like, add other flavors of extracts, roll it into a log for slicing and baking or roll it out for cutting, and decorate the finished product however you like.

I honestly can’t remember where I got this original recipe, but it’s incredibly easy to make and bake and came in very handy for my St. Patrick’s Day-themed gold coin cookies, which are destined for my goddaughter Maureen and her family along with some other loot. Be sure to chill your dough for at least two hours so it’s easy to slice.

Ingredients

  • 2 cups flour
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/8 teaspoon salt
  • 3/4 cup butter, softened
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • Wilton Golden Yellow food coloring
  • Gold or yellow sugar sprinkles, for rolling (I used both)

Preparation

In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside.

In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla extract and beat until well-combined, scraping the sides of your bowl frequently.

Add flour in three batches, mixing well after each until a soft dough forms.

Add food coloring and tint to your desired shade.

Turn dough onto a very lightly floured surface and knead it slightly to make sure all of the food coloring is well-distributed and the dough is smooth. Roll into a 12-inch log.

Place sugar sprinkles on a rimmed baking sheet and carefully transfer the log onto the sprinkles, rolling it back and forth to coat.

Wrap log in plastic wrap, slide it onto a baking sheet, and chill for at least 2 hours.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line several baking sheets with foil or parchment.

Remove log from fridge and discard plastic wrap. Slice into 1/4 inch slices and place on baking sheets about 2 inches apart.

Bake for 9-11 minutes, until tops are set. Remove from oven and cool on baking sheet for about 4 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.

Makes about 40 cookies.

Easy Dulce de Leche

For a very long time, I’ve wanted to make dulce de leche using sweetened condensed milk. If you’ve never had this amazing treat, think of a super-soft caramel-like substance that comes straight from the kitchens in heaven. Dulce de leche (say it out loud: dul-say de lay-chay) is an amazing confection found in South American cuisine, and in the United States, in treats like cheesecake and ice cream.

The “real” way of making this confection involves heating milk and sugar and slowly cooking it over the course of several hours. But if you don’t have, say, four to five hours to stand by the stove and stir your milk and sugar, you can go the easy route, as I did here. And yes, that’s a pig timer on my counter in the photo to the left. I bet he’d like this treat.

What You’ll Need

  • 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk
  • Large soup or stock pot
  • Enough water to cover the can by at least 2 inches

What You’ll Do

Remove the label from the can of sweetened condensed milk.

Place the can on its side in the bottom of a large soup or stock pot and fill with lukewarm water.

Bring water to a boil, then turn down the heat and continue to simmer for 2-3 hours. VERY IMPORTANT: check your water level every 30 minutes and make sure it’s at least 2 inches above the can. If not, add boiling water to the pot and continue cooking. I simmered my dulce de leche for about 2 1/2 hours.

Remove the pot from the heat, and carefully remove the can from the water. Place on a wire rack to cool completely. BEWARE: do not try to open the can while it’s hot. The dulce de leche could explode out of the can, causing goodness knows what kind of injuries. Nobody wants to have to go to the emergency department because they couldn’t wait until their dulce de leche cooled completely, right?

Once the can is cool, pop it open and pour your dulce de leche into a container to store it in the fridge for about 1 month.

 

Pumpkin Pecan Streusel Bread

I need to write one blog post that lists everything you can do with different quantities of leftover pumpkin. Earlier this week I made ginger pumpkin bread, and I had about 1 cup of pumpkin puree left over. This pumpkin pecan streusel bread offered a great way to use it in a Lent-approved treat (I’ve given up cookies and cake).

I love streusel on quick breads, and it’s very easy to make, but you could certainly leave it out if you wish. Next time I make this bread, I might forgo the streusel and chop the pecans finely, then mix them into the batter. Don’t skip the allspice drizzle, though – it adds a nice flavor and texture to the top of the bread. If you don’t have allspice, a cinnamon drizzle would be just fine.

Ingredients

For the streusel topping

  • 4 tablespoons flour
  • 3 tablespoons light brown sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 3 tablespoons cold butter, cubed
  • 1/2 cup chopped pecans

For the bread

  • 1 2/3 cups flour
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, plus an extra dash if you like
  • 1/2 teaspoon allspice
  • 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
  • 8 tablespoons melted butter
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 cup pumpkin puree

For the allspice drizzle

  • 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
  • 1/4 teaspoon allspice
  • 2-3 teaspoons water

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease an 8 x 4 loaf pan or spray with baking spray.

Make the streusel: in a small bowl combine flour, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Using a pastry cutter or two knives, cut in the butter until the mixture looks like coarse crumbs. Stir in pecans; set aside.

Make the bread: In a large bowl combine flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, allspice, and nutmeg.

In a separate, medium-sized bowl whisk melted butter, eggs, and pumpkin puree until well-combined.

Add pumpkin mixture to dry mixture and stir to incorporate so that no dry streaks remain.

Spoon about half the batter into the loaf pan, spreading evenly with a rubber spatula. Pour about half the streusel mix over the first layer, then carefully top with remaining batter. I use a spoon to sort of “float” the rest of the batter on top of the first streusel layer in blobs, then spread the blobs together/out with a rubber spatula. Top with remaining streusel.

Bake for 45-60 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean. Remove from oven and cool in loaf pan for about 30 minutes, then remove from pan and place on a wire rack.

Cool another 15 minutes, then make the drizzle: in a small bowl, combine powdered sugar and allspice. Add water 1 teaspoon at a time, stirring until you have a smooth, thick drizzle. Pour drizzle into a medium-sized zip-top bag; snip the corner, then pipe drizzle over top of bread.

Allow to cool completely before serving; store well-wrapped at room temperature for up to 4 days.

Ginger Pumpkin Bread

ginger-pumpkin-breadPumpkin isn’t just for fall, you know. The availability of canned pumpkin puree makes pumpkin-themed baking a year-round endeavor for me. Take this ginger pumpkin bread, for example.

This recipe is adapted from one I found in the Better Homes & Gardens Baking Book, for ginger pumpkin muffins. I didn’t feel like making muffins today, so I turned the recipe into a quick bread, which required just a few adjustments. According to the folks at Cooks Illustrated, you can convert most muffin recipes into quick breads by lowering the baking temperature by 50 degrees and extending the baking time to about 60-70 minutes. I did just that for my bread, and it turned out very well – the ginger and pumpkin balance each other very well, and the streusel adds a nice crunch to the top.

Ingredients

For the bread

  • 2 cups flour
  • 2/3 cup packed light brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon ginger
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 3/4 cup pumpkin puree
  • 8 tablespoons butter, melted
  • 1/2 cup sour milk*
  • 2 eggs

*To make sour milk, place 1/2 tablespoon vinegar in a glass measuring cup and add enough milk to equal 1/2 cup total. Stir; let stand for 5 minutes before using. 

For the streusel

  • 3 tablespoons flour
  • 2 tablespoons light brown sugar
  • 2 tablespoons butter, cut into small cubes
  • 3 tablespoons chopped pecans

For the drizzle

  • 1 1/4 cup powdered sugar
  • 1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/8 teaspoon ginger
  • 2 teaspoons water

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease an 8 x 4 loaf pan or spray with baking spray.

In a large bowl, combine flour, brown sugar, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, and salt.

In a medium bowl, combine pumpkin, melted butter, eggs, and sour milk; mix until well-combined, then add all at once to the dry mixture, stirring until no streaks of dry ingredients remain.

Make the streusel: in a small bowl, combine the flour and brown sugar, then cut in butter until the mixture looks like coarse crumbs. Stir in pecans.

Pour batter into prepared loaf pan and top with streusel.

Place loaf pan on a rimmed baking sheet and bake for 40 minutes, then add a foil tent to the top to prevent the streusel from burning. Bake another 20 minutes and check to see if the bread is done by carefully inserting a cake tester into the center of the loaf. The cake tester should come out with just a few moist crumbs when the bread is done; if necessary, bake another 7-10 minutes.

Remove from oven and allow to cool in the loaf pan for about 30 minutes, then gently run an offset spatula around the edge of the loaf and remove it to a wire rack to cool for another 20 minutes.

Make the drizzle: combine powdered sugar, cinnamon, and ginger in a small bowl and add 1 teaspoon of water at a time until you reach a thick drizzling consistency. Pour drizzle into a small zip-top bag, snip off the end, and pipe drizzle onto bread while it’s still warm.

Allow to cool completely before serving.

One-Bowl Brownies

one-bowl-browniesI imagine that one-bowl recipes evolved out of necessity, with a busy baker looking to cut down time on dish washing. When you live without a dishwasher as I do, you welcome such recipes, especially when you also only need one measuring cup, one spoon, and one spatula for them.

This original recipe came from a box of Baker’s Unsweetened Chocolate, which I usually have on hand in my pantry cabinet. I adapted it to include walnuts and chocolate chips for some fun texture, but you could certainly leave them plain if you’re not a nuts-in-brownies kind of person. While I’m not longer able to eat chocolate because of migraines, I continue to bake with it for my friends and family. Sometimes, simply breathing in the delightful scent of cocoa is all you need.

Ingredients

  • 4-ounce package Baker’s Unsweetened Chocolate
  • 12 tablespoons butter, cut into tablespoon-sized pats
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 cup flour
  • 1 cup chopped walnuts
  • 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9 x 13 baking pan with foil, extending over the sides, and spray the foil with baking spray.

Roughly chop chocolate and combine with butter in a large microwave-safe bowl. Microwave in 1-minute intervals until the butter and chocolate are completely melted, stirring frequently.

Add sugar and stir to combine; the texture will be sandy, and that’s fine. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each. Add vanilla and stir to combine.

Stir in flour, then walnuts, then chocolate chips. Using a rubber spatula, pour batter into prepared pan and smooth out the top.

Bake for 30-35 minutes, until a cake tester comes out with just a few fudgy crumbs; be careful not to over-bake.

Cool completely in pan, then lift out using the foil as handles. Cut into 24 bars.

Note: you’ll want to use a small offset spatula to separate the bottoms of the brownies from the foil after you’ve cut them. Next time, I’ll add a fine layer of sugar to the bottom of my pan to help keep them from sticking. 

King Cake Cupcakes (Easy Version)

king-cake-cupcakesEvery year before Mardi Gras, I think: this year, I’ll make a king cake. If you’re not familiar with the king cake, it’s a traditional treat associated with Mardi Gras, or Fat Tuesday, the day before the somber, reflective season of Lent begins. King cake involves brioche and a filling of some kind, and because I do so little work with yeast, I always decide to forego the king cake for another year.

This year, I went an easy, semi-homemade route for these king cake cupcakes. They’re adapted from a recipe that I found at Crave. Indulge. Satisfy., and I would definitely do a few things differently next time, like waiting for them to cool completely before glazing them with icing, and greasing my cupcake tins instead of using paper liners (because warm cupcakes + glaze icing + paper liners = a gooey mess). The recipe below is written how I’d recommend you bake it, based on my trials last night. To me, they taste like a delicious Pillsbury treat (not that there’s anything wrong with that), but if you’re going for a more traditional king cake flavor, you’ll want to bake the real thing.

Ingredients

  • 6 tubes PillsburyTM crescent rolls
  • 1 1/2 cups packed light brown sugar
  • 2 teaspoons cinnamon
  • 1 cup chopped pecans
  • 3 cups powdered sugar
  • 3 tablespoons milk
  • Purple, yellow, and green sugar sprinkles

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease two 12-count cupcake tins.

In a medium bowl, stir together brown sugar, cinnamon, and pecans; set aside.

Unroll one tube of crescent rolls at a time and divide the rolls into four rectangles. Press the perforated edges together to seal.

Place 2 tablespoons of filling down the center of each rectangle, leaving a border around the edges. Fold the top of the rectangle down toward the middle, then fold the bottom of the rectangle toward the middle, letting the dough overlap. Fold the right side in toward the middle, then the left side.

Place rolls spiral-side up in cupcake wells and bake for 18-22 minutes, until golden brown.

Remove from oven and allow to cool in pans, then remove to wire racks.

Once cupcakes are cool, make glaze; combine powdered sugar and milk in a medium bowl and mix until completely smooth.

Working with about 3 cupcakes at a time, pour glaze over cupcakes and sprinkle with purple, yellow, and green sugar. If you try to glaze all of the cupcakes at once, the glaze will harden before you can get the sprinkles on. Continue glazing and sprinkling until all of your cupcakes are done.

Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 days. Makes 24.