ring-a-lings

Rememberance of things past -- not just for madeleines...

2011-11-09T08:51:00.000-08:00

I moved recently and while I was unpacking the million plus cookbooks that I seem to own, I came across my battered pink floral metal recipe box that I have had since I was eight years old or so. Every time I move, it moves with me even though I haven't used any of the recipes in years. I just can't seem to part with it.

Remember recipe boxes? Most were the size of a standard index card. The cards were often printed with "From the Kitchen of" then a blank space for you to fill in your name.

Stained recipe cards in no particular order are crammed into this box. I remember laboriously copying down recipes from anywhere I could find them and in some cases, cutting out the recipes from the back of the Hershey Cocoa Tin or whatever cake mixes we had on hand -- Duncan Hines cake mix seemed to be a favorite of my mom's judging from the recipe cards -- and gluing it on an index card.

Family recipes for cream puffs, ringalings, and buckeyes are in there but so are those recipes from my mom's depression era childhood such as Wacky Cake as well as recipes that were famous during my 1960/1970s childhood such as Sock-It-To-Me cake. Convenience foods were the mark of a modern homemaker then so cans of soup were used in casseroles and cake mixes as an ingredient were the height of sophistication.

My childhood was a bit chaotic and I can just see myself carefully transcribing recipes on each card and then alphabetizing each one. I even filled in how many servings the dish would serve. Order prevailed at least in this small area of my life.

The box also contains recipes from my two sisters -- just in case I forget what their writing looks like -- the "from the kitchen of" space is filled in with their names.

But no cards in my mom's handwriting. She was a busy mom to five kids who also worked full-time so I wasn't surprised but it did make me sad. It would have been great to have a few of her recipes in her writing and better yet, to have some of her commentary about the recipes.

I flipped through her favorite cookbook, the 1963 edition of McCalls, that became mine when she passed away, and found only one comment in the margin of a recipe for Lemon Meringue Pie that simply noted, "not good" and to use a recipe from advice columnist Ann Landers instead. She helpfully crossed out the recipe in the book and pasted a now very faded Ann Landers recipe for Lemon Meringue Pie from her hometown newspaper.

Hilarious.

Later in her life my mom wanted to develop a family cookbook. She typed each recipe on her computer -- her word processor as she called it -- and assigned a name by each recipe of her three daughters so we could contribute recipes. The cookbook never came to be but I do have that list of recipes.

Looking at that battered recipe box made me think of my own daughter and nieces. And I felt a longing to write down in my still pretty legible handwriting some of our favorite family recipes. The ones I want them to remember and create for their own families -- the chocolate chip coffee cake I make at Christmas, those ugly peanut butter blossom cookies that they crave and even my mom's recipe for ringalings that I have made my own.

These recipes can't be found on any Internet cooking site or in cookbooks because they have been modified through the years just for my family and their changing likes and dislikes.

This longing became an actual to do after a recent visit to Omnivore Books in San Francisco for the book launch of the Omnivore's Recipe Keeper by owner Celia Sack.

I've long been a supporter of Sack's bookstore as my growing cookbook collection shows -- and this is yet one more reason to head to her compact shop that is chock full of all the latest cookbook releases as well as vintage goodies.

The name says it all -- this recipe organizer provides storage for your own hand written recipes, sturdy folders for tucking away that recipe you might not be ready to commit to but want to try, handy charts and in keeping with Sack's vintage book bent, charming vintage art.

And in an inspired twist that years from now might also be considered vintage, she has included handwritten recipes with commentary from some of the luminaries from the food world today including New York Times writer Frank Bruni and pastry rock star, David Lebovitz.

Now I have a better place for those stained recipe cards from my childhood as well as a place to write down my own creations (ipie!) for my daughter and other family members.

A Keeper indeed.

Pie it Forward: ipie in the Wall Street Journal!

2011-08-24T11:22:00.000-07:00

"My father has Alzheimer's, these pies will go to his helpers as a thank you for all their help."

"The pies are for my mother....my husband........"

I received quite a few notes like these after my ipies (individual pies) were featured a few weeks ago in the Wall Street Journal. I had recently started shipping my little fruit pies out of my local area -- the SF Bay Area -- and that had caught the attention of a reporter at the WSJ.

What was also mentioned in the article was how I was inspired to create ipies during my mother's descent into Alzheimer's disease. As a result, part of the proceeds from ipie sales will be donated each year to the Alzheimer's Association.

I truly believe that my endless testing and researching of my little pies during that stressful time got me through it. And it helped me to honor the life of one talented baker.

So I guess I believe that pie is optimistic. I've started saying, "a mother, a daughter and a rolling pin, let's flatten Alzheimer's Disease." Of course I know what serious business this fight against Alzheimer's is -- but if I can fuel that fight with pie well, I'm going to do it.

Of course I was thrilled to have the attention and the resulting boost in business but what meant even more to me was the emails and notes I received from customers sharing with me a little bit about their journey with a loved one suffering from Alzheimer's Disease. I was honored that they would share their stories with me.

Time to pie it forward.

Are you made for Fire and Ice?

2011-07-19T13:36:00.000-07:00

There are many ways to cope when life gets you down.

Some people shop, some eat, exercise or talk on the phone. We all have our little ways we pick ourselves up and keep going.

Baking is of course one of my favorite ways to relax -- especially if I’m baking for someone else.

But I also have a tendency to buy lipstick. If my finances are in good shape, I might spring for an expensive slick tube of lip lacquer with a sexy French name from a high-end make up company. But a tube of lipstick from a drugstore brand can do the trick of a pick-me-up just as well as the expensive brand.

A glance into my makeup drawer reveals the evidence – dozens of tubes wait their turn by the makeup mirror. Nothing like snapping off the cover of a fresh tube of lipstick with its perfect point not yet marred to make me feel like life is still full of perfect possibility.

As the founder of Revlon, Charles Revson, famously said, “In the factory we make cosmetics, in the store we sell hope.”

I think part of the reason I buy lipstick is because it is one of the few cosmetics my mom used. She had beautiful skin and for years did without foundation. And I never saw her wear mascara or eye shadow.

But she always wore lipstick and she was loyal to one brand and one color for most of her life: Fire and Ice by Revlon.

I used to sneak into her bedroom while she was at work and slip on her high heels and smear her lipstick not so perfectly on my lips.

Revlon introduced Fire and Ice in 1950 when mom was a young woman of 21 who was about to be married. The color is red but not too bright of a red – what the efficient makeup counter sales women call a “warm” red.

But the Revlon ad slogan in 1950 said it best, “Are you made for fire and ice?” I’m sure my mom who was brought up in a very small Indiana town thought it was the height of sophistication.

A couple of weeks ago I had a chance to combine both my coping techniques of lipstick indulgence and baking.

As I’ve mentioned in this blog, my childhood home in Indiana had two beautiful cherry trees in the backyard. My mom and I baked pie after pie, cobbler after cobbler and put up many jars of jam with the seemingly endless fruit from these trees. These were sour cherries and while we thought they were wonderful to eat, we didn’t consider them to be rare.

When I moved to Northern California I quickly discovered that the local growing season for sour cherries is about two weeks long -- rare indeed.

This season I was lucky enough through my weekly (sometimes daily) patronage of a local farm stand to be notified when the local sour cherries arrived.

I quickly bought all they had and baked them into the pies I sell at the local farmers’ market. My customers who grew up in the Midwest and East Coast were as excited as I was to have them available.

After I had baked the last pie, I found that I had a few sour cherries left. I had been invited to a BBQ that same evening and wondered what I could make with so few cherries – I just couldn’t bear to waste any of them. They looked so beautiful in their white mixing bowl. In fact, they look like….well… fire and ice!

Whoa. The fire and ice image led me to ice cream which naturally, led me to David Lebovitz, ice cream master.

His cookbook, The Perfect Scoop, had just the recipe I needed, Sour Cherry Frozen Yogurt. Super easy recipe with really just three essential ingredients – sour cherries, sugar and whole milk yogurt. I needed one pound of sour cherries but even though I had a bit less than that, I forged ahead.

The finished yogurt was just bursting with flavor – sweet and sour with a smooth finish. In other words, sugar, sour cherries and yogurt. I had a bit less than three cups and I had about 15 people I needed to share it with so I started looking for a perfect complement to the sour cherry yogurt.

Cherry and chocolate came to mind and I knew that I had to make one of my favorite and easiest chocolate cakes – Chanterelle’s Chocolate Souffle Cake from the cookbook by Lori Longbotham, titled, Luscious Chocolate Desserts. This recipe is adapted from Staff Meals from Chanterelle – the now closed and much loved NYC restaurant. The alternating layers of cocoa powder and confectioners sugar on top of the finished cake truly make the cake “stunning” as Lori described it.

The guests at the dinner party obviously thought so as I wiped up the remaining drips of yogurt and wiped away the chocolate crumbs. I think I had, as Revson used to hope his lipsticks would, "turn the right head and lend a touch of class."

Pucker up.

photos by Scott R. Kline

Puff Mommy

2011-05-17T08:55:00.000-07:00

As Mother's Day approached this year, my husband and daughter asked me what I wanted to do that day.

I must admit that I had forgotten all about Mother's Day.

Normally my siblings and I would spend a few weeks prior to the big day brainstorming for gift ideas for our mom. Then the men in our family would do the cooking and we would all gather for lunch or brunch.

Not having to do the meal planning or the dishes made it a very special day indeed.

My mom passed away in February 2009 and I know it is just a "Hallmark" holiday but I must say it is still very strange not to have a mom to honor on the second Sunday in May.

When I was a kid I used to write her mash notes of the roses are red violets are blue nature. When I was able to save up my pennies I would try to find the mushiest card I could find with as much glitter as possible on it.

But we have been without her now for numerous holidays and family gatherings. She missed my daughter's 18th birthday and she will miss her upcoming high school graduation. We couldn't share the good news of college acceptances or the still strange to me news of my daughter's latest tattoo.

And no matter what event we are gathering for, I always wonder what dessert she might have brought to share with all of us.

This year there are no plans to gather as a big group to celebrate the day. Several of those husbands are ah, shall I say, no longer welcome at gatherings and many of the kids are away at college.

But she was on my mind as my husband and daughter picked my brain for gift ideas. I started to wonder what dessert my mom might like for me to make for her on her special day. I have posted several stories about some of her signature desserts such as ringalings and buckeyes.

It occurred to me that there was one dessert I hadn't thought about in a long while -- cream puffs.

I did write about making eclairs for the first time and how I realized that they were really just a fancy cream puff! And I had to laugh when I had my first profiterole -- a cream puff with ice cream. And for $8! My mom would have laughed her head off.

You don't find many recipes for cream puffs in recently released cookbooks although they do seem to make a comeback every decade or so in cooking magazines.

But my mom made cream puffs often -- for Christmas, Easter Brunch or for a Sunday dinner. Using packaged convenience products like cake mixes were considered very modern in the 1960's and 1970's when I was growing up so my mom used Jello pudding mixes to fill the cream puffs with vanilla or chocolate pudding.

I wasn't particularly fond of them; I found the texture and taste to be a bit bland. And I was pretty sure my husband and daughter would turn their noses up at a dessert that looked like it was something served at a ladies tea. Give us a ringaling or buckeye instead.

But what if I punched up the taste a bit? I quickly considered and dismissed several filling ideas including green tea, coconut, lemon and coffee as too fussy.

When I finally decided on Nutella -- the hazelnut and chocolate spread that I consider to be one of the finest examples of European junk food -- I knew I had a winner. And Nutella is also a modern day convenience food -- another nod to my mom.

Since this quest was in honor of my mom, I used her cream puff recipe from her much thumbed through and splattered cookbook -- the 1963 edition of McCall's Cookbook.

This cream puff recipe is very simple -- just four ingredients: butter, flour, salt and eggs. And no elaborate technique or fancy pastry bags required. If you own a tablespoon and a saucepan you are in business.

The only change I made was to make mini puffs -- or little puffs as they are called in McCall's Cookbook. I used my smallest cookie scoop to place about a teaspoon of dough on my cookie sheet.

For the filling I made a vanilla pudding (or pastry cream) but added two tablespoons of Nutella to the warm milk mixture.

So on Mother's Day 2011 I had a bit of my mom with me as I munched on a cream puff as I headed out the door to a SF Giants baseball game with my husband and daughter -- the perfect Mother's Day.

Food Bloggers Bake Sale This Saturday in SF!

2011-05-10T10:22:00.000-07:00

The date is fast approaching for the second annual SF food bloggers bake sale.

The bake sale benefits Share Our Strength whose goal is to end childhood hunger in America. Last year we raised $1650 for this cause!

This year the event will be held on Saturday, May 14, from 10-6 p.m. at 18 Reasons in SF. The organizers also hope to add a second location. Please see the official site for the SF bake sale for more information.

Unfortunately I can't be there this year as the Palo Alto Farmers' Market reopens that day for the season and I will be there selling my little pies -- ipies!

Please come out and support this great cause and get a bit of sweetness for your efforts!

Spring is in the Air: Lavender and Lemons

2011-04-26T08:55:00.000-07:00

The first market vendor I met on my first day selling ipies (individual pies) at the Palo Alto Farmers' Market was Charlie.

In fact, he was my first customer!

He is always willing to lend me anything I forget or to find something that will steady a wobbly table.

One morning he even gave me those heat packets that you can put in your pockets to keep you warm on those early, cold December mornings at the market.

I'm not sure why he had those packets though -- Charlie almost always wore shorts and a polo shirt no matter the weather. If he did pull out a jacket, I knew I was in for a very cold day!

Charlie Opper and his wife, Linda Barrett, own Cache Creek Lavender, a small organic family run farm located in Rumsey, California in the Capay Valley. In 1997 they began growing lavender and now sell fresh lavender flowers and their own hand crafted lavender soaps, creams and bath salts. All organic. They sell their products on their website as well as at several farmers' markets. You can read a bit more about them on the Palo Alto Farmers' Market website.

One slow morning at the market, I noticed that Charlie also had culinary lavender -- dried flowers that are safe to use in both sweet and savory dishes.

I was excited to try my hand at baking with lavender since it wasn't an ingredient I had grown up baking with -- so of course Charlie handed me a bottle, refusing to take payment.

Well, that has been quite a few months ago now but with the winter weather slowly giving way to oranges and lemons on my trees and the plum tree in full blossom, I began to consider what springtime treat I might create.

As I considered the ingredients in my pantry, I spied the culinary lavender in its cork topped bottle.

With all the beautiful lemons now available, I started my search for a recipe that combined lemon-lavender. Springtime allergies must have plugged my brain as well as my nose because I spent quite a few hours searching for a recipe on various cooking websites but nothing struck me as quite right. I was surprised by how many recipes called for lemon extract instead of fresh lemon juice.

Finally I came to my senses and started combing through my rather large cookbook collection.

And of course, right where I should have looked first is where I found the perfect recipe, Deluxe Lemon-Lavender Mail-a-Cake, from Flo Braker's most recent cookbook, Baking for All Occasions.

Braker gave the cake this quirky name because she developed this recipe for her mother -- she wanted a sturdy cake that she could mail to her mother for her mother's birthday.

Braker even gives instructions for how to package the cake for mailing!

The cake uses both lemon zest and lemon juice so it had that extra zing that I wanted. And the recipe called for a tablespoon of lavender flowers. The finished cake had a lovely texture and a heavenly scent.

After the cake cooled, I drizzled a lemon glaze over the top then dusted it with powdered sugar. The wet glaze really helped the sugar to set. I topped it all off with a few sprinkles of lavender flowers.

The cake tasted great that night but the flavors improved even more by the next day. And of course, as its name indicates, this is a great cake to pack up for a picnic or even to serve at Easter or a springtime brunch.

Coconut: Beauty or Beast?

2011-04-12T08:52:00.000-07:00

Coconut -- that much maligned ingredient seems to be having a do over or perhaps a makeover.

Oil, shredded, water, extract -- all forms of coconut seem primed for a comeback of sorts.

I first noticed coconut popping up in articles that proclaimed coconut to be the new trendy drink -- available now! -- on supermarket shelves.

Then articles describing that most Midwestern of desserts -- the coconut macaroon -- started appearing with recipes "from the archives". Recipes for coconut cream pie soon followed.

But I knew coconut was really having its moment when writer Melissa Clark wrote about coconut a few weeks ago in her New York Times Good Appetite column with the headline, "Once a Villain, Coconut Oil Charms the Health Food World."

An endorsement indeed!

I have found that most people either love or hate coconut. Although I'm a fan, my husband and daughter are not. So coconut desserts seldom make an appearance at our house.

But along with the spritz cookies on the cookie platter at our holiday gatherings were always coconut macaroons. When my mom passed away, my sister shouldered the responsibility for both the spritz and the macaroons so I feel obligated to have them at least once a year (what a hardship!).

I must admit though, those macaroons are lovely, large sugar bombs!

The typical ingredients in a coconut macaroon from the Midwest include sweetened condensed milk, sweetened shredded coconut, egg whites, vanilla extract and salt. Much like this recipe from cookbook author Ina Garten.

Sweet and simple indeed!

But really, with all those egg whites, a coconut macaroon is really just a meringue cookie. Is there a need for the sweetened condensed milk AND sweetened shredded coconut? Perhaps a less sweet cookie would continue to encourage a macaroon comeback.

In fact, in searching through some of the vintage cookbooks I own, I found that many older recipes for coconut macaroons used either sugar or powdered sugar instead of the condensed milk but all still used the sweet shredded coconut.

I had recently made the national dessert of New Zealand, lamingtons, which use dry (sometimes called desiccated) coconut. Perhaps I could swap out the sweet shredded coconut for the dry.

I continued my cookbook trawl and came upon just the recipe I wanted from the latest offering from blogger, cookbook author, ice cream expert, etc. etc, David Lebovitz's, Ready for Dessert.

His recipe adds a few more ingredients than the typical macaroon recipe -- honey and flour -- and substitutes sugar and unsweetened shredded coconut for the condensed milk and sweetened coconut.

He combines all the ingredients together in a large saucepan then dries the mixture out over low heat.

I didn't form my dough into small pyramids like he did but instead used my smallest cookie scoop to form small cookies. After they had baked and were cool, I dipped a few in bittersweet chocolate.

Even with the addition of the chocolate, these macaroons were far less sweet than the cookie of my childhood. Addictive really. I usually only ate one macaroon from the Christmas cookie platter but I ate two of these in a flash.

This coconut macaroon recipe from David Lebovitz's blog is similar to the one in his new book.

And best of all, several non-coconut lovers gobbled them up as well. Which makes me think that it wasn't the coconut they disliked, just the overwhelming sweetness of the cookies and perhaps even the gooey texture.

So I'm happy to say that coconut appears to have made a comeback -- even at my house.

Online Bake Sale for Japan!: UPDATE!

2011-04-11T22:12:00.000-07:00

***update! we made more than $8,000! Thank you everyone! And high bid on ipies was $110! Thank you thank you! Pie people are very special people!***

(this is a post from my pie site -- the ipie store)

In Indiana where I grew up , baking was often the language we used to communicate with each other.

Owe someone an apology? Bake them brownies. Someone you know not feeling so well -- a nice pudding would make them feel better. New job? Baby announcement? Almost any occasion called for hauling out the mixing bowls and butter.

And now, if only I could bake ipies for the people of Japan to feed their hunger and their souls I would do it.

I can't of course but perhaps indirectly I can make it happen.

Well, you can.

ipie is teaming up with a growing list of food bloggers to raise money for Japan via an online bake sale.

The auction is the brain child of Sabrina Modelle who writes the tomato tart blog.

The bake sale will be held, auction style, on her website on March 30^th. We will be donating to Second Harvest Japan, a food bank in Japan.

Sabrina has a list of participating food bloggers on her site. Although the auction doesn't start until March 30 -- Sabrina will be previewing what will be available.

So, please check out her site and on March 30, please bid on ipies or some other yummy goodie.

Here is more information about ipie and what I will be offering for the auction:

ipie will offer six ipies with either a classic apple filling or a pear honey filling.

An ipie is an individual fruit filled double crust pie about the size of a cupcake. I sell my ipies at the Palo Alto Farmers' Market and by special order.

I can't ship out of my local area but I would be happy to deliver them to you if you live in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Please email me if you have any questions -- an email link follows the ipie photo.

Feel free to leave a comment or click here to email me!

Brown Sugar Pound Cake: Why do you taste so good?!

2011-03-22T08:41:00.000-07:00

I follow a short list of food sites and blogs. It's great fun to see what the trends are in SF, L.A. and New York. One of my favorites to follow is the food section of the L.A. Times newspaper. I really enjoy following the adventures of their test kitchen.

Each Friday they pick a cooking project for the weekend. In mid-February I was pleased to see the weekend project was a Brown Sugar Pound Cake with Caramel Glaze. This recipe was named one of their best recipes from 2007.

Like many people, I love caramel. So I'm always scanning cookbooks and blogs for recipes with caramel as a main ingredient.

One of my favorite recipes is the Caramel Cake with Caramelized Frosting adapted by the very talented chef Shuna Fish Lydon from (of course!) a recipe from Flo Braker.

This cake has incredible depth of flavor. But it isn't the quickest or easiest cake to bake. In fact, Shuna even includes a tutorial on her blog for those that want to attempt baking this cake. I took advantage of that tutorial when I made the cake for the first time for a baking challenge in 2008.

I never fail to get a request for this recipe when I make it for friends. And it never fails that most are a bit intimidated by the complexity of the recipe.

So after scanning the L.A. Times recipe I was pleased to see that it was a pretty easy recipe that didn't require an instant read thermometer and boiling sugar!

This recipe is based on one from Southern Cakes: Sweet and Irresistible Recipes for Everyday Celebrations by Nancie McDermott.

And that reminded me that I also owned a "southern" baking book. But although I love the personal stories weaved with the recipes -- I hadn't baked anything from it because the author didn't specify how she measured her flour. A vital piece of information!

The book is Sweets: Soul Food Desserts and Memories by Patty Pinner. And I was very excited when Pinner responded to a message about how she measures flour that I sent to her via Facebook with the answer I was looking for -- dip and sweep. I'm excited to try Pinner's version of Brown Sugar Pound Cake although it is slightly different from the L.A. Times version. She also has a recipe for Caramel Cake that I want to try.

And I was excited that Pinner has started a blog called domestic geisha where she continues to give her readers stories and recipes.

But back to the L.A.Times recipe -- it came together quickly and easily and was delicious. The only thing I would change next time I make it is to smooth the icing over the cake after I let it drip down the sides. The drips looked cool until they hardened then it just looked messy and uneven. The icing dries almost immediately so I used an icing spatula that I ran under hot water to even it out.

So not only was the cake delicious, but thanks to the L.A. Times test kitchen, I won't have to worry about giving a tutorial with the recipe.

From Dud to Stud: Ginger-Chocolate Cookies from Sunset Cookbook

2011-03-08T08:16:00.000-08:00

Like many families during the holidays, we have a cookie exchange. I always make the family favorite -- Peanut Butter Blossoms -- as well as one new one. This year I made the Ginger Chocolate Cookies from the new Sunset Cookbook.

I have long been a fan of anything by Sunset Magazine. Growing up in Indiana -- Sunset Magazine represented all that was good and golden about California. I collect Sunset Cookbooks from the 1960s and am always thrilled when I find one for sale in my local used bookstore or library.

So I was excited when Sunset announced that they were coming out with their first cookbook in quite a while. And in what seemed like just a matter of months, it was in bookstores.

And what a beauty it is. I can't imagine how it was put together so quickly -- it has over 1,000 recipes and covers everything from artichokes to wine and everything in between.

I heard food editor Margo True speak about the new book at Omnivore Books on Food and was excited to try one of the cookie recipes for the Christmas cookie platter.

So imagine my disappointment when the Ginger-Chocolate Cookies turned out to be inedible. The recipe calls for 2.5 tablespoons of ground ginger. That's a lot but I forged ahead. I tested one before leaving for the festivities and found the ginger to be overpowering. I chalked it up to my wimpy Indiana taste buds and brought them anyway.

Unfortunately, the guests must have also found the ginger to be too much because most of the cookies were left on the platter and the rest were partially eaten and tossed.

And the taste wasn't the only thing that wasn't right with this recipe -- the entire recipe was difficult to make -- the dough wouldn't roll into balls and the dough was too sticky to flatten with a glass as instructed.

Normally I would make them again until I got the recipe to my liking but given that it was the holidays, I just didn't have the time. I must admit it put a damper on my enthusiasm for the cookbook.

But thanks to the first Bakers Dozen event of 2011, I was able to give them another chance.

The topic of the February meeting was Holidays Chapter Two and we were invited to relive the holidays by baking something we really loved, or didn't get to make or maybe make something we wanted to improve upon. We would all taste the goodies then in our meeting tell the story behind what we brought.

Well, you can guess what I decided to bring.

First I checked out the Sunset Magazine website to see if perhaps there was a typo in the recipe -- perhaps the amount of ginger was given incorrectly. I then sent an email to Margo True asking her the same question.

No response from True and the recipe I found online was identical to the one in the book.

Time to tinker! This time I made the cookies using only half the ginger -- 1.5 tablespoons. Still a lot but perhaps would give the cookies the zing editors intended but not be so overpowering.

I also used a tablespoon cookie scoop and flattened each cookie with the palm of my hand. Instead of rolling each cookie in sugar, I sprinkled course sanding sugar on the top of each cookie.

They were delicious. I could now taste the bittersweet chocolate that had been totally overshadowed by the ginger. And they were good looking as well!

I brought my beauties to the meeting and they were almost completely gone by the end of the meeting.

I must admit though that I was a bit embarrassed as I related my story about the cookies in front of the membership when I found that another baker was present that day and she was employed by Sunset Magazine in their test kitchen!

She was very gracious and mentioned that she did remember that particular cookie not being her favorite when it was being tested.

Whew! But I made a new acquaintance and now have a new favorite cookie that might get another chance at the cookie platter next year.

A Brownie Walks Into A Bar: Alice Medrich's Latest Book!

2011-02-24T14:41:00.000-08:00

Reliability in baking is everything. I own a LOT of baking books. And believe it or not, I actually use most of them. I tend to have favorite recipes that I rely on in each cookbook -- cookies from one, cakes from another.

But there are a few cookbooks that are my "go to" books for any baking occasion or baking question.

Any cookbook by Flo Braker or Cindy Mushet's Art & Soul of Baking fall into that revered category.

And now I think I might add one more cookbook to that short list -- the latest cookbook from Alice Medrich called, "Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy - Melt-In-Your-Mouth Cookies. I love that title -- it's so very comforting.

Although I have certainly known about Medrich and her famed chocolate truffles that were the cornerstone of her long closed chocolate dessert shop, Cocolat, I've yet to own one of her seven (!) cookbooks.

Medrich has been baking and teaching for many years and like Flo Braker, worked with Julia Child.

I recently met Medrich when she spoke about her new book at Omnivore Books on Food in San Francisco.

And as I listened to her speak, I felt I had met another kindred baking spirit. I also felt fortunate that her new cookbook contained updated versions of some of her classic recipes such as her famous bittersweet brownies.

Medrich is exacting as all bakers must be but also loves to experiment and think out of the box to come up with great tips and tricks. For example, I get annoyed trying to melt chocolate or butter over a saucepan of barely simmering water. I always seem to burn myself or feel like a klutz -- especially when I'm using an instant read thermometer.

Medrich has a great solution -- she uses a wide skillet with a bowl set into the simmering water -- so easy and it works.

And I love the tone of her writing voice -- for example, when she is talking about baking many trays of cookies at one time she says, "repeat the performance until you drop or all the dough is used up -- whichever comes first."

I also like how this book holds the novice baker by the hand but gives the more experienced baker new baking tricks.

Medrich's cookie book features about 15 brownie recipes. And each recipe seems to use a different mixing method. Sometimes she calls for using an electric mixer versus the usual mixing by hand or cold eggs or even to beat the eggs and sugar with the salt. All result in brownies with a slightly different texture. Leave it to Medrich to give even the humble brownie a bit of a twist.

I'm looking forward to trying them all.

But first up -- I had heard about her classic bittersweet brownies and this book features an updated version of that recipe. I was anxious to try it and I had my opportunity when the Super Bowl conveniently presented the opportunity to have a party.

And to add to the fun, we had guests visiting from the Midwest. When I grew up in the Midwest, we made our brownies from cocoa powder -- Hershey's cocoa powder. Those brownies were cake-like and definitely not fussy or fancy.

To make it a bit more even, I used Ghirardelli Chocolate -- bittersweet chocolate bars and their unsweetened cocoa powder. It was especially relevant given that we had taken our visitors to Ghirardelli Square the night before the party.

Medrich's New Bittersweet Brownies were a vision of crackly goodness and the Cocoa Brownies were smooth and fudgy.

I cut both pans of brownies into small squares and piled them high on two separate cake stands. I encouraged the guests to try both and let me know which one they preferred.

The result -- the cocoa powder brownies were preferred by all the Midwesterners and by most of the teenagers who had grown up in California. My daughter liked the Cocoa Brownies so much I made them for her birthday the following week.

I preferred the Bittersweet Brownies as did most of the adults from California. Although I will always have a soft spot in my heart and stomach for my own cake-like, cocoa powder brownie recipe from Indiana.

I guess I'll always have a bit of Indiana in me.

ringalings will return!

2011-01-25T13:06:00.000-08:00

I know that photo is of a donut -- specifically an amazing chocolate donut with a rose water glaze from dynamo donuts in San Francisco -- but my next post will be all about cookies!

So check back in early February! I'll meet you back here!

Pies and Pumpkins!

2010-11-19T08:20:00.000-08:00

It was one of those beautiful, warm, November days in Northern California that make me totally forget those harsh Indiana winters of my childhood.

Even though I had baked Friday night for the farmers' market and had sold ipies all morning at the market, instead of feeling like I wanted to flop on the couch and stay there -- I just had to take advantage of the beautiful weather.

And since my motto is to always: eat more pie, what better place to visit than Pie Ranch in Pescadero -- a quick jaunt over the mountains to the coast.

With the top down on the Mini Cooper and a large Starbucks coffee in the cup holder, I headed to the ocean.

The fields were still full of pumpkins but I could see the Christmas tree farms starting to take over and claim their season.

It was a bit hazy at the coast but still warm. The air smelled like brussel sprouts, artichokes and salty sea air -- almost like being at the farmers' market but without the ocean.

Pie Ranch is so named not only because the land is triangular shaped, but also because it is a place for "pie in the sky" thinking regarding social change. Pie Ranch is a working farm and is dedicated to hosting youth from regional high schools to participate in farm-based programs and activities.

But best of all they raise the animals necessary and grow all the crops necessary to make a pie!

They sell their goods to farm stands as well as to two bakeries in my area -- Mission Pie in San Francisco and now Companion Bakers in Santa Cruz.

Old school sandwich board signs announcing "pie and coffee" clued me in that I must be getting close. Their farm stand is actually a beautiful old barn a few miles from the historic town of Pescadero.

Inside, Megan and Lizzie were further proof of my claim that "pie is optimistic" -- they cheerfully greeted each customer and were quick with offers of help in selecting the right pie -- which after all is a critical decision at any time.

I had on my ipie cap and Lizzie recognized me from the Palo Alto Farmers' Market -- she works for a local farmer -- Green Oaks Creek Farms -- who also sells at the market.

The pies that day were baked by Companion Bakers. I actually thought the pies on display were fake they were so beautiful. Offerings included cranberry pear with a beautiful lattice crust, pumpkin pie with a crumble topping and a prebaked pie shell filled with the last fruits of the season -- strawberries and blueberries.

I picked out a small strawberry mini Galette and a very cute Pie Ranch t-shirt which was emblazoned with Eat Pie across the back -- kindred spirits!

On the way to Pie Ranch I spied a small table set up on the side of the road with a sign proclaiming Local Honey. I hoped they would still be there on my return trip.

And I was in luck -- Wayne and his son Dillan were doing a brisk honey business. Turns out they are part of a co-op that help local beekeepers gather and sell their honey. He offered tastes of eucalyptus, lavender and orange honey. I bought a large jar of the orange blossom.

As I tasted and chatted, I found out that Dillan helps his dad sell honey each weekend because he is saving for a new car. He currently owns a Hornet (not kidding). His dad was enthusiastically also trying to sell bags of bee pollen extolling its healing properties for everything from weight loss to sexual dysfunction (!).

On my way home I detoured from the ocean highway through the small town of Half Moon Bay. In one of the local bakeries I came across a cookie that I haven't seen in awhile -- a pumpkin cookie.

And how appropriate in the land of pumpkins! After all Half Moon Bay is known for its Pumpkin Festival held each October and now in its 40th year.

Pumpkin cookies are similar to big soft sugar cookies but are jazzed up with spices generally found in pumpkin pie with a texture somewhere between a cake and a cookie.

Once home I scoured my extensive cookbook collection for a pumpkin cookie recipe to try. I was surprised to find that most modern cookbooks lack a recipe for this homely cookie. I then turned to my older cookbooks and found that recipes for the lowly pumpkin cookie was a regular in The Joy of Cooking, The Fannie Farmer Baking Book and Maida Heatter's Book of Great Cookies. Later, I also found a recipe in the 2001 cookbook by Nancy Baggett, All-American Cookie Book .

It was interesting to note that the recipe for pumpkin cookies was often next to recipes for pineapple cookies and banana cookies -- also cookies you don't see much anymore.

These cookbooks all described the cookie in similar ways but I think I liked Marion Cunningham's description from her Fannie Farmer Baking Book, "Thick, soft, substantial and inexpensive." Not that's my kind of cookie!

It was also interesting to note that these cookies were known as "rocks" -- not because they were hard as a rock but because of their shape. And this batter takes well to add-ins -- pecans, cranberries, etc. Most of the cookies were iced with either a cream cheese or simple confectioners sugar glaze.

Although I am a fan of plain, old-fashioned cookies, I wondered how I could modernize this cookie from our past. Then I thought of the honey I had just purchased as well as all of those pumpkins I had seen.

I decided on pumpkin seeds (pepitas) candied with some of the honey I had bought with a bit of cinnamon added. I put together a batter using the pumpkin rock recipe from The Fannie Farmer Baking Book as my guide and added the cooled candied pepitas to the batter.

Delicious! But of course, I fiddled a bit more with it -- I tried different shapes by using a cookie scoop and then a pastry bag to pipe the batter. I even added a cup of chocolate chips to the batter.

But in the end my simple Pumpkin Rocks with Candied Pepitas was the winner.

Candied Pepitas

2 TB butter

1 cup of raw, shelled pepitas

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 TB honey

1. Melt butter in saucepan over low heat

2. Mix pepitas and cinnamon in a small bowl then put in saucepan

3. Saute for 3-4 minutes until pepitas are brown

4. Add honey and saute one more minute

5. Turn out in one layer onto cookie sheet and let cool

Baking and Baseball: Can of Corn or Torture?

2010-10-18T15:02:00.000-07:00

"Statistics are to baseball what a flaky crust is to Mom's apple pie."
(harry reasoner)

It's baseball playoff season and as a S.F. Giants fan, I've been struck lately by how much baking is like baseball.

Sometimes you hit a home run and sometimes it is just pure torture. And there is the every day grind of trying to perform at your highest level and more often than not, falling short.

I've been testing a lot of recipes lately and there is nothing like paying for big talent (ingredients), putting in lots of batting practice (test after test) only to lose the game (an inedible mess).

But what is there to do but start over again, maybe change your batting line up and get to work. And even after the worst kitchen disasters, there is generally either something learned (measuring accurately matters!) or an actual win (let's eat!).

I certainly am a believer that just as in what is called small ball in baseball -- working the count, stealing base, bunting when your manager asks you to, is more effective although not as exciting as long ball -- the big home run. So, researching recipes, talking to baking experts, making sure your equipment works, putting in the time to test, test and test, is going to be the norm -- not the first time success we all wish would happen.

In fact, one of my favorite stats in baseball is how many times you can actually lose a game and still have a winning season. As legendary baseball hitter Ted Williams once said, "Baseball is the only field of endeavor where a man can succeed three times out of ten and be considered a good performer."

And even though he is an L.A. Dodger lover, I agree with long-time Dodger manager, Tommy Lasorda, when he said, "No matter how good you are, you're going to lose one-third of your games. No matter how bad you are you're going to win one-third of your games. It's the other third that makes the difference."

I recently had the amazing opportunity to be interviewed for an article in Oprah Winfrey's O Magazine about my individual pies (ipies). The reporter asked me how many ipies I had tested before I had a success. As I did the math I was astounded that the number was about 1200 ipies over a five month period! That's a lot of pie!

But I didn't think it was out of the ordinary for what I was trying to accomplish -- the reinvention of the pie.

The article was also about the reinvention of my career -- finding your "true calling" as O Magazine called it. I feel like the time I spent in my "former" life was my time in the minor leagues -- all if it helped prepare me to pursue my passion of writing, baking and teaching -- the major league of my life.

I knew I had to keep practicing, show up every day and wait for talent, luck and hard work to all come together for a win.

I find career inspiration and root for those players that have struggled for years -- maybe even out of baseball (Pat Burrell) or claimed off waivers (Cody Ross) or never made it to a playoff season after more than ten years in the major leagues (Aubrey Huff) than those that didn't have to struggle for their position on the team (Barry Bonds).

As Andres Torres, the feisty outfielder for S.F. said of his friend and teammate Pablo Sandoval the struggling third baseman for the Giants, "He's doing a great job," Torres said. "I told him to be positive. Every day we're going to battle to win. Forget about concentrating on what happened before. We've got to go out and play every game hard. That's the key for us."

I love that every day in baseball is a new day -- a chance to forget about the errors of yesterday and start fresh -- just like in baking.

Karen's Apple Pie

Karen works at my favorite cafe -- Cafe Borrone. I've been known to have breakfast, lunch, wine time and dinner at Cafe Borrone all in one day. Karen is a manager there and is always cheerful and willing to help -- even early in the morning.

I was talking to her one day about baking and the next time I saw her, she gave me her recipe for her favorite apple pie. I thought it would be a good addition to this article -- you know, baseball and apple pie are made for each other right?

Well, little did I know that this recipe of hers would prove my point about trying over and over again to get a recipe right.

The crust in this recipe is oil based. An oil crust is easy to put together and if you don't bake pies a lot -- you don't need to worry about all the so-called rules of pastry: don't overwork the dough, keep it chilled, worry about the weather and so on.

I don't find an oil crust to be a flavorful as a butter or cream cheese crust but I wanted to give her recipe a try.

What a mess. For the life of me I couldn't get the crust to roll out and not fall into pieces. I made it twice and I tried all my tricks. So much for the ease of an oil crust!

I had already made the filling so I was determined to find an oil crust that would work. I turned to one of my classic cookbooks -- As Easy As Pie by Susan Purdy. Her oil crust was similar to Karen's recipe but Purdy's recipe called for more flour and less oil. The resulting crust was easier to roll out between sheets of waxed paper and had a velvety texture compared to the sandy texture of Karen's recipe.

I rolled it out and fitted the bottom crust into my mom's faded pink pie plate. So far so good. I piled the filling high and tried to fit the top crust over the filling but it tore and looked terrible.

So I patched and pulled the crust the best I could and put it in the oven.

It wasn't the prettiest pie I had ever made but the teenagers that devoured it were not judgmental in the least.

(can of corn: an easily caught fly ball)

photos by Scott R. Kline photography

A Burning Love

2010-08-03T09:17:00.000-07:00

I've hesitated to write about this because break ups are always hard. Sometimes it is best to let some time go by to let the wound heal. “Time heals all” as the old saying goes.

But the saying is true and the hurt feelings aren't as painful two months later. I guess that is one benefit of growing older -- you've had a few close calls in the past.

In May when I moved it meant the end to a pretty steady relationship. My friend was young, sleek, warmed up quickly and was pretty even tempered. All qualities you look for in a relationship. It didn't mind when I spilled things on it. But neglecting it could cause quite a blow up. We had three years to get to know each other. Sometimes it would be fickle and what worked before now didn't work. But we were made for each other.

Prior to this three-year relationship, I had a relationship with twins. Don’t judge. Both had electric personalities. And when one was occupied, it was great to have a second just waiting for me.

We had quite a run of it the three of us – five years. But then it was time to move on.

Those relationships were nurtured when I was in my 30s and 40s. In my younger days I often didn't even know the name of my friend. I just needed it to be functional and be there when I needed it. By then we had a baby and I didn't have time to spend on nurturing relationships.

It was even worse when I was right out of college – I neglected my relationships and often didn't even come by to say hello more than a few times a month. I was busy building my career and didn't have much time for hearth and home.

Perhaps as psychiatrists often claim, the way we treat our relationships are formed early in life. And maybe that is true. I do seem to have a vague memory of begging my friend to make soup with me. I think I made up the soup just to feel more confident and to spend time with it – I think it was raisin soup. Not a big seller. I was whiny and demanding. But then years would go by and I wouldn't give it another thought.

Since that early time I've had relationships where there were ah, “functional” issues and sometimes age was just too big a factor to overcome. I even tried to really bond with one by making a Thanksgiving turkey with it but it wouldn't shut up and the turkey was almost ruined.

My latest relationship is quite a bit older than my others. Maybe 30 years older. I groaned when we met but somehow I saw potential. I now know that first impressions can be false. I called up others who knew it better and found out how to make the relationship work. I spent more time on this relationship than on any of the others. Trying to figure out how to make things click between us. It was moody and inconsistent. It takes its time in warming up to me. Sometimes I think it is ready but it isn't. It still is all of those things but we seem to have established a truce. I’m more patient than I was in my younger days and relationships are more critical to me. You might say I depend upon them now.

I’m talking of course about that most serious of relationships – the one between a baker and her stove.

What did you think I was talking about?

Back Home Again

2010-07-20T08:25:00.000-07:00

A visit to my home state of Indiana is always like a trip back in time. Time seems to move more slowly there. The summer days are hot and humid and this time, stormy. The mosquitoes have landing gear and my hair well, let's just say the flat iron was useless.

But the days also seem longer than normal and I seemed to have plenty of time to search out the best sweets in the area.

While we were visiting, we took a side trip from the family farmhouse in Culver, Indiana to the big city of Chicago which is about two hours north. The chaotic freeway system hasn't improved much since my childhood and by the time we got to our hotel, I was in urgent need of a cupcake to calm my nerves.

Luckily, our hotel, the Hotel Burnham -- another lovely vintage building revitalized by the Kimpton Hotel Group -- was not only a few blocks from Millennium Park, but also a short distance from Sugar Bliss Cake Boutique -- a jewel box of a cupcake shop offering traditional cupcakes but with a twist -- how does lemon drop, orange creamsicle, or banana banana cupcakes sound to you?

The compact shop also offers breakfast cupcakes for those bleary-eyed morning commuters. I know an apple cinnamon, cranberry orange, blueberry vanilla or berry berry breakfast cake would brighten my morning! But breakfast cupcakes aren't the only different twist this group puts on its cakes, the shop also offers 6" cakes and shots of frosting for those of you who need an extra rush of sugar. I'm glad owner Teresa Ging left the world of finance and joined the sweet world of sugar!

Sufficiently revived, we strolled the few blocks to Millennium Park where we were impressed by the Frank Gehry's designed concert pavilion and the nearby aptly nicknamed "bean" -- the Cloud Gate elliptical sculpture by artist Anish Kapoor. It was another hot day and we enjoyed watching the kids splash in the Crown Fountain by spanish artist Jaume Plensa. Although I thought it was a bit creepy to have the kids watched over by two 50 foot glass block towers that projected video images of a variety of Chicago residents -- the kids didn't seem to mind.

The next morning we headed to the Farmers' Market in Daley Center Plaza. It was an amazing site to see the beautiful produce displayed amidst all those concrete buildings. I especially liked how Picasso's 50 foot tall untitled sculpture seemed to keep a safe watch over the market.

At the market I was happy to meet Ivy Tack owner of uppercrust pastry and her beautiful mother selling Ivy's pies and other goodies. Ivy, who had started college intending to be a surgeon, became a different kind of cutter -- a pastry cutter and we are happy she did. Her butter crust pie pastry wrapped around a sour cherry filling was amazing.

Of course a trip to Chicago wouldn't be complete without the traditional munching of popcorn from Garrett Popcorn. I prefer the sticky caramel corn. There seems to be a Garrett's shop on almost every corner -- I couldn't walk more than a few blocks before I was tempted by the smell of corn being popped and coated with some delicious concoction. We stopped in for a "small" bag of caramel corn to munch on as we headed to the Museum of Contemporary Art. This museum is a bit overshadowed by the Art Institute of Chicago but it is definitely worth a visit. And it is also worth the trip just for the Wolfgang Puck restaurant that is part of the museum.

Our traditional sightseeing completed, it was now time to hunt down a few bakeries that spiked my interest when researching my trip to the windy city.

Being from Indiana and as a pie baker, I was excited to check out Hoosier Mama Pie Company. I've been following owner Paula Haney on Twitter for awhile and I was excited to hopefully meet her and to taste her pies.

Her shop is located in a very old neighborhood known as Ukrainian Village west of Chicago's downtown. I think this area is now trying to reinvent itself as West Town.

Her shop is a small slice of real estate along Chicago Avenue. We could see Haney in her pink chef's jacket in the back assembling her pies and laughing with her staff. As the counter staff got busy, she came up to help out so I got to meet her. It was fun to chat with her -- she obviously loves what she does for a living. And her strawberry pie with a butter crust was delicious!

Our next stop was to Cookie Bar located in the Lincoln Park area of Chicago. A few blocks from Hoosier Mama Pie Company but economically a world apart! I felt like I was in chic Santa Monica -- high-end designer shops lined the streets and lots of beautiful people strolled down the street. So Jeff and Joe, two escapees from the Los Angeles entertainment industry, knew what they were doing when they located and recently opened their cookie shop here.

Their shop has a cool retro 70s look -- I particularly liked the disco ball hanging from the ceiling. Although they have humorously dubbed their shop a bacon free zone -- alluding to the lengths some bakeries will go to distinguish their cookies -- they still manage to offer traditional cookie offerings as well as cookies with a bit more zip such as lemon ginger and raspberry chocolate. Check out their website if you want a good laugh.

Fearful that I might be the cause of Chicago losing its nickname as the city of big shoulders to being called the city of big stomachs, I left a few bakeries on my list to check out on my next visit.

As we headed back to the quiet of the family farm, I almost ran off the small two lane road when I saw a sign for Kountry Barn Bakery. I did a quick U-turn and headed down an even smaller lane to check out yet another bakery.

And I'm glad I did! What a great find. The owner Eileen Mullet was taking a nap after pulling an all-nighter baking pies for the various farmers' markets that she sells at. Her very capable young daughters Vonda and Alisha manned the store while she slept.

They generously agreed to give me a tour of their kitchen and chatted happily about how they help their mother bake. I was impressed by their maturity and was amazed at how they didn't seem to mind being left in charge on a beautiful summer's day.

But I was even more impressed by the goodies in the bakery case. We picked another sour cherry pie to try along with a dozen butter horn rolls. I couldn't resist the rolls -- my mom had made many a butter horn for Sunday dinners when I was growing up. And the prices were very small town -- $3 for a dozen butter horns and the 9" pie was only $7!

They don't have a website but here is a link to their address.

One bite of the sour cherry pie and I was transported back to my own childhood. I've written before about how I miss being able to bake with sour cherries -- we just don't get many of them in the San Francisco Bay Area. Although I wasn't able to verify with the baker, the crust tasted like the crust my mom would bake using Crisco as her shortening.

It was a lovely way to end our sweet journey back to our childhood.

ringalings will be back!

2010-06-16T17:21:00.001-07:00

I'll be back in July with more stories and photos!

In the meantime, if you live near Palo Alto, California, come see me at the Palo Alto Farmers' Market on Saturday mornings.

You can check my ipie site to see what dates I will be there.

The photo is of a blueberry ipie -- yum!

Beranbaum and a Bake Sale: Alchemy in Action

2010-04-23T07:54:00.000-07:00

"Bakers are born, not made. We are exacting people who delight in submitting ourselves to rules and formulas if it means achieving repeatable perfection"
Rose Levy Beranbaum

Last week I was fortunate to be not only in the company of master baker and cookbook author Rose Levy Beranbaum, but also dozens of talented bakers from San Francisco and the surrounding Bay Area.

The week started with a gathering of the Bakers Dozen in San Francisco at Foreign Cinema Restaurant. Thanks to Baker Dozen member and baking goddess Flo Braker, we were gathering to hear Beranbaum, author of The Cake Bible, The Pie and Pastry Bible and other masterpieces speak about her latest book, Rose's Heavenly Cakes.

And not only did we get Rose, but we also got someone who mostly remains behind the scenes but is well known to bakers who follow Beranbaum's every step, her assistant, Woody Wolston.

But before we heard Beranbaum speak, we first got to sample a variety of cakes from her new book.

This seemed like a good idea to me when the organizers of the event requested that members pick a recipe to bake from a list they had compiled from her new book and to bring it to share before the lunch and meeting.

I picked the Hungarian Jancsi Torta -- a flourless cake made primarily with nuts and meringue.

It was only when I was parking for the event that I realized just who would be tasting my cake: ROSE LEVY BERANBAUM! And not just Rose, but many of the leading bakers in the U.S.! I must be crazy!

I looked at the cake sitting next to me on the car seat and thought briefly about not bringing it in. Then I decided to at least taste it. Although it may not look as good as a cake made by Beranbaum or the other master bakers in that room, at least it did taste good.

So my cake (with a bit of a gap in it) and I headed into the restaurant where I hoped I could slip it onto the cake table unnoticed. Of course being all about baking meant that there was practically a receiving line for the cakes. But no one mentioned the gap in my cake and minutes later it was devoured. No traditional appetizers for this bunch!

I even received a compliment on my cake from Rose and Woody who had piled their plates with a slice of each cake and were taking small bites of each one. Of course, I just might have put them on the spot...

After our cake tasting we all crowded into an adjoining room that had been set up for the high priestess of cake to preach to her choir.

The front of the room had already been set up with a plain chocolate cake with all the supplies to glaze it at the ready.

Rose wanted to share with us the story behind the glaze that adorns the Bernachon Palet D'Or Gateau on the cover of Rose's Heavenly Cakes and to demonstrate how easily and beautifully the glaze covered the cake.

The story was almost like listening to a good detective yarn as it involved a trip to Japan, the secrets of a special sugar, a recipe for lacquer glaze, a longing to make it but a fear of failing, a chocolatier in Dallas and finally, a trip to France.

Rose is an engaging speaker and it was enthralling to hear her stories about the many interesting people she has met during her baking career and to hear her humanize these luminaries for us.

Makes me almost hope that her next book is a memoir and not a baking book -- almost.

I don't think I was alone in wondering if we could skip lunch or at least eat it at our seats so she could talk for a couple more hours.

If you follow Beranbaum's blog, you know she and Woody are always discovering new techniques and tips that they then generously share with the baking community.

In addition to encouraging us to make the lacquer glaze, she also wanted to share with us their discoveries about how different types of flour give different results in cake baking. It is an involved discussion so click this link to read more about what they call Flour of Power.

That's just one more reason why Rose is so adored by bakers -- she doesn't hesitate to update even her own methods if she or one of her readers finds a better or just another way to make one of her recipes even better.

As riveting as all this discussion of technique was, I think the most important thing I heard Rose say that day involved how she defines what it means to be a baker.

Rose related a story about how she always felt that her husband was putting her down on some level when he would tell her that he thought of baking as alchemy and her as an alchemist.

She told us that one day during a presentation she was making in New York, she talked about her thoughts on baking and science vs alchemy. Her husband happened to be present at the meeting and later told her that she had misunderstood him. He in fact meant it as a compliment when he called her an alchemist because in his mind, she wasn't just spouting unproven scientific theories but was actually using science to perform the "experiments" and to then 'enchant and transform' the world of baking.

I sat up and took notice of this because I also often feel that baking isn't looked upon as a creative endeavor. But it is this combination of science and magic that helps us create our own masterpieces -- or edible art, as I like to call my creations.

Rose's words inspired me the rest of that week as I prepared for the First Annual Food Blogger Bake Sale that was to be held on 4/17 in front of Omnivore Books on Food. On that day, bakers across the U.S. would be holding bake sales to raise money for Share Our Strength -- a national organization dedicated to ending childhood hunger.

Beranbaum would also be speaking at Omnivore Books later that day so we bakers anticipated a large crowd of Rose's faithful to be tempted by our goodies.

After the torrential rains of the prior weekend we were happy to see the sun shining brightly in the Noe Valley neighborhood of San Francisco where Omnivore Books is located.

The beautifully packaged baked good were indeed a sight to behold. There is definitely not a lack of baking talent in the SF Bay Area.

I brought my individual pies -- ipie -- with blueberry filling.

I was happy to see lead organizer Anita Chu of dessert first again and to meet her significant other, Mike. We called him Mike the money man as he manned the cash box that day.

I met many bakers and bloggers that day including Lisa of lisa is bossy, Shauna Webb of piece of cake and Katie Rutledge of i'd of baked a cake. All not only talented bakers, but also caring and goodhearted women.

Please see Anita's post about our great day for a complete list of the bakers who participated.

And this cake! Rachel Boller of milk glass baking baked and donated this amazing cake. It was snapped up within seconds. The cake was such a towering masterpiece that a box to fit it couldn't be found so I actually carried it to the buyer's house who lived nearby!

Later we found out from Anita that we had raised $1,650 for Share Our Strength that day. A sweet day indeed.

When I got home after that exhausting but fun day, I thought about another thing that Rose had said earlier in the week about bakers:

"We don't need to be competitive with each other -- there is room for all of our voices."

And on 4/17 we were heard loud and clear.

So, as Rose also said, "Let us all continue to be alchemists and 'enchant and transform' our world."

First Ever National Food Bloggers Bake Sale: April 17!

2010-03-30T07:44:00.000-07:00

I'm very excited to participate in the very first National Food Bloggers' Bake Sale!

This Bake Sale is part of the Great American Bake Sale which was created by Share Our Strength, a national organization dedicated to ending childhood hunger.

Gaby of What's Gaby Cooking came up with the idea to mobilize food bloggers and very wisely asked cookbook author and food blogger Anita Chu to lead the charge in organizing food bloggers in San Francisco and the Bay Area for this worthwhile cause.

On April 17, bake sales will be held across the U.S. as we try to reduce this unbelievable fact: almost one in four children in America face hunger -- that's nearly 17 million children!

The Bake Sale will be held at the amazing Omnivore Books On Food (thank you Celia!) in San Francisco on Saturday, April 17 from 12 pm -3 pm.

I will be offering ipies in the very seasonal filling of blueberry! So come out and support this worthwhile cause, meet some of your favorite food bloggers and see what kind of goodies they have whipped up for you!

As a special bonus, cookbook author and master baker Rose Levy Beranbaum will be speaking about her latest baking bible, Rose's Heavenly Cakes at Omnivore Books on Food from
3 pm -4 pm that same day.

So consider it a triple treat: goodies, cookbooks, and Rose Levy Beranbaum!

Poofy Woolly Biscuits: Lamington Love

2010-03-13T10:22:00.000-08:00

A friend of mine is from New Zealand and as I tend to do, I asked her what her favorite sweet treat from childhood had been.

Without hesitation and in that very cool accent of hers she answered, "Lamingtons."

Of course I love it when I have never heard of a dessert -- it sets my inner Sherlock Holmes at the ready.

I've written before in this blog about taste memories and just how hard they are to replicate. This particular treat also fell into that additional category of sweets much like medialunas or kolaches that are typically bought at a bakery instead of made at home making it harder to find a recipe.

A Lamington is a square piece of cake dipped in chocolate icing and rolled in dessicated coconut (very finely ground coconut). Lamingtons are typically eaten at breakfast and teatime.

And just why is it called a Lamington? What is known for certain is that Lamingtons are named after Charles Cochrane-Baillie, 2nd Baron Lamington. Lord Lamington, A British Subject, was Governor of Queensland (a state in Australia) from 1896-1901.

But just as in the creation of the Dundee Cake, Lafayette Gingerbread or Banbury Tarts, the way the dessert came into being is the subject of several different legends.

One story is that Lamington's chef was called upon to provide a dessert to Lord Lamington's guests on short notice. Having only sponge cake left over from the day before -- he improvised with ingredients he had on hand and created the Lamington. Other stories state the dessert resembles the hat favored by Lord Lamington and yet another says the cake was accidentally created when one of Lord Lamington's cooks dropped sponge cake into a bowl of chocolate. The cook then rolled the cake in coconut to make it presentable to Lord Lamington and his guests.

Unfortunately, Lord Lamington wasn't as fond of them as the rest of the nation and referred to the dessert Lamington as those "bloody poofy woolly biscuits." But then again, that could also be legend and not fact.

But of course, it doesn't matter what the creation story is but rather how this humble dessert became the flagship dessert of a nation: in 2006 the Lamington was inducted into the National Trust of Queensland's list of Heritage Icons (it is in good company -- anzac cookies and vegemite are also on that list) and each year on July 21, Australians celebrate National Lamington Day.

And yes, even though this is considered an official Australian sweet, New Zealanders also claim Lamingtons as their own dessert even it is isn't a Heritage Icon of New Zealand.

But probably even more indicative of how Lamingtons are part of the fabric of Australia and New Zealand, is that it is the primary treat sold at most bake sales. In fact, bake sales are typically called Lamington Drives.

Depending on what cookbook or Internet site you look at, the cake part of a Lamington is butter, sponge or pound cake.

And as often happens with a dessert, variations are bound to happen. Some bakeries split the Lamington in half and add jam or custard between the layers. Others have the audacity to cover the cake in pink icing before rolling them in coconut.

But my friend only had disdain for those impostors.

In her opinion, the Lamingtons she found only on trips back to New Zealand were large -- about three inches square -- a yellow cake that she called squishy and were dipped in chocolate.

She encouraged me to give them a try saying that her young son would be so excited to have them again having been introduced to them on a recent trip to New Zealand with her.

In my quest to find a recipe for Lamingtons, I was a bit frustrated to find that most recipes started with the instructions to "first, buy a sponge cake at the bakery."

Not very helpful. The first few recipes I came upon that didn't instruct me to buy the cake were for a simple butter cake. Turns out there is also a special Lamington pan that is used to bake Lamingtons. This pan is 7x11-inches. Of course, I didn't have a Lamington pan so for my tests I used a 9x9 square pan.

I thought it would be easy to give my friend a taste of home. I put together a simple butter cake, mixed together an icing of cocoa powder, milk, butter and confectioners sugar, got out the coconut and assembled.

The process was quite messy but easy. I boxed up my beauties and took them to my friend for a taste test.

She eyed them critically. "The coconut is too big and the chocolate icing isn't dark enough," she said. She took a bite.

"Nope, cake isn't squishy enough," she said.

She told me next time I saw her that her son wouldn't even try them because they didn't "look right."

This Lamington Love was serious business.

Her comment that the cake wasn't squishy enough made me wonder if I should have used a sponge cake. But her description of the cake didn't match my idea of a sponge cake -- American or French.

So I did what most people do these days when they need an answer -- I twittered about my quest.

I knew I had several followers from New Zealand and thought they might be able to help. And I wasn't disappointed. I even had one follower promise to send me her mum's recipe.

During my search I also noticed that the photo on the cover of Karen DeMasco's new book, The Craft of Baking, looked familiar. I quickly turned to that recipe and yes, it was for Lamington Cupcakes. Could a Lamington trend be brewing?! Unfortunately her recipe was a butter cake.

In the end, after I waded through all the ideas and suggestions, I discovered that there is such a thing as an Australian sponge cake. And here are the main ingredients:
self-raising flour, all-purpose flour, corn flour, sugar and eggs. No butter.

The first time I made the cake using a butter cake recipe, it was really difficult to cut the cake in to even and nice looking squares. This time I froze the cake after it was cooled. The next day I trimmed the edges and cut the cake in to nicely shaped squares.

I mention this because believe it or not, my friend said that these Lamingtons were pretty darn close to the Lamingtons she had back home. And her son loved them. Her only comment was that they tasted like day old Lamingtons. Not a bad thing but the cake was not as squishy as it should be. So perhaps if I had only refrigerated the cake for a few hours instead of freezing it, my squish factor would have been higher.

The exacting baker in me wanted to make these several more times until my friend said those magic words, "these are just as I remember them." But I think I had come as close as I could get without the pan and the ingredients that could only be found or perhaps better said, understood, in New Zealand and in the exact bakery where the Lamingtons of my friend's childhood were purchased all those years ago.

Sugar Cakes and a Valentine

2010-02-24T07:43:00.000-08:00

I'm always happy when a sugar cookie holiday rolls around.

You know, those occasions when it is time to break out the sprinkles and cookie cutters.

From the time my daughter was very small, we enjoyed baking and decorating sugar cookies for not only the typical sugar cookie holidays like Valentine's Day or Christmas, but we also took every opportunity to make up our own special occasions to break out the cookie sheets.

We weren't fans of icing but we did eventually branch out beyond colored sugar to the fancy shaped sprinkles.

My daughter would take about five minutes per cookie putting each individual grain of sugar on the cookie but maybe it just seemed that way to her overly efficient mother.

The days of her helping decorate sugar cookies are long gone but I still can't let a holiday go by without breaking out the cookie cutters. And I'm always on the lookout for unusual cookie cutters -- I just snagged a cookie cutter in the shape of a martini glass from Surfas Restaurant Supply in Los Angeles that I will use at our next cocktail party.

And yard sales are a surprising source of fun cookie cutters. I'm always amazed at the unopened boxes of cookie cutters I find at yard sales. I always imagine that the owner in a fit of baking optimism bought them but lost their enthusiasm when faced with the actual task of pulling out ingredients and mixing bowls. Of course, I have to give them a good home. The most unusual box of cutters I have come across is of vegetable shapes -- I especially like the celery shaped one...

Our sugar cookies were always thicker than the typical sugar cookie -- we don't like them crispy but instead as soft as possible. I keep an eye on the timer and take them out when the bottoms are just barely starting to turn brown.

I do this because despite the thousands of sugar cookies that I must have baked over the years, I've yet to find a sugar cookie that resembles the one I had growing up in Indiana.

My mom worked full time and had five children so she often found herself doing her grocery shopping on a Friday night.

I would often accompany her on these shopping trips before I turned into a teenager and stopped leaving my room. My reward for tagging along to keep her company was one gigantic sugar cookie from the grocery store bakery. And this was in the days before serving sizes got out of control.

This cookie was a beauty. As I said it was large -- about five inches wide. It was snow white, about an inch thick in the middle tapering down to 1/2 inch at the edge. I would usually break it in half so I could get to the center part right away. The center was puffy soft, and seemed to evaporate on my tongue with only the crumbs as evidence that there had been a cookie consumed.

As a grownup I would often spy a cookie that resembled it in a bakery case but I was always disappointed by the taste and texture of that impostor. Nothing could approach the softness and slightly tangy flavor of this sugar cookie.

But then (thanks to Celia Sacks of Omnivore Books on Food in SF) I came across Marcia Adams' classic cookbook, Cooking from Quilt Country: Hearty Recipes from Amish and Mennonite Kitchens. In this classic cookbook Adams shares family recipes from the Indiana Amish and Mennonites.

And there it was, just like that -- Big White Soft Sugar Cookies -- yes, that is the actual name of the recipe!

Adams described these cookies, "It comes very close to those cookies of our memories -- white, soft and cakelike, with just a touch of nutmeg."

The final evidence was when she said, "The cookies should be just barely done -- still almost white. If they are golden, you have left them in too long."

Now that I knew what I was looking for I started finding similar recipes: The All-American Cookie Book by Nancy Baggett has a recipe for Pennsylvania Dutch Soft Sugar Cookies and Anita Chu in her book, Field Guide to Cookies, gives us Nazareth Sugar Cookies (as in Nazareth, Pennsylvania), a "soft and fluffy sugar cookie."

The recipes were similar in that they all made a cakelike and saucer-sized sugar cookie and most required that the dough rest overnight. The recipes differed in a few ingredients with the biggest difference being in the choice of either sour cream or buttermilk.

And although I don't remember it, it appears to be traditional to decorate the sugar cakes with a raisin in the center.

I used a combination of several recipes to come up with my own. I no longer needed them to be saucer-size but it was fun to make a few large and some more the size of an espresso saucer instead.

I was a bit nervous as I waited for them to bake. But they tasted just as I remembered. Although I don't think my daughter or husband thought they were that special -- I actually think they thought they tasted rather bland. But that is the beauty of a memory -- it belongs to the one looking back after all.

And now I want to remember Dorothy Hanna, my mom and the inspiration for this blog. She passed away a year ago this month. She is missed.

Mom, thanks for the sugar cookies but most of all, thanks for the sweet memories.

Bakers Dozen Meeting: Gluten Free Doesn't Mean Taste Free

2010-02-16T09:15:00.000-08:00

A large gathering of the Bakers Dozen members and guests gathered last week at the Foreign Cinema Restaurant in San Francisco to hear two experts speak on a very timely topic -- gluten-free and allergy-friendly baking.

Professional food writer Jackie Mallorca and nutritionist and writer Bonnie Presti spoke to the group about celiac disease, gluten intolerance and dairy, soy and egg intolerance and how as bakers, we are well positioned to use our exacting skills to service this growing market.

Celiac disease is a genetic autoimmune digestive disease that basically means the body attacks itself every time a person with celiac diseases consumes gluten -- the protein found in wheat, barley and rye. Left untreated, celiac disease can lead to malnourishment as well as other diseases such as cancer.

According to the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness, one in 133 Americans has celiac disease. The disease doesn't discriminate; it affects all races, genders and ages.

Unlike celiac disease, food intolerance doesn't involve the immune system. So while not dangerous, food intolerances can make you just as miserable.

While celiac disease and food intolerances are not new, awareness has been growing over the last decade with 500,000 new celiac diagnoses expected to occur in the next five years (also according to the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness).

The Fancy Food Show held in San Francisco in January called gluten-free foods one of the top food trends of 2010.

So gluten-free has gone mainstream. There is no cure for gluten intolerance but completely eliminating gluten from the diet can reverse the damage done to the digestive system.

And according to Jackie Mallorca, the solution lies in the kitchen.

As a professional food writer, Mallorca had authored or co-authored many cookbooks including one on French patisserie and another on bread baking.

So she said it came as quite a shock when she discovered she was a food writer with celiac disease. She said, "As I had absolutely no intention of giving up good food, I acquired a lot of funny flours and set to work."

Now she feels having celiac has given her a built-in alarm system for avoiding junk food because gluten-free foods are typically fresh and minimally processed.

Mallorca noted that gluten-free foods, especially baked goods, may have once been for the "counter-culture" or "the hippies" but the good news is that many gluten--free products are now available in grocery stores.

But, she insists, the best place to prepare gluten-free foods is still in your own kitchen.

She began with the food she feels we all identify with and craves the most, our daily bread.

She related her humorous efforts in trying to create bread without gluten that met her exacting taste standards only to end up with bread that was dry, crumbling and inedible.

She said, "My first effort at bread baking resulted in a loaf that was smaller when it came out of the oven than when it went in!"

She persevered and Mallorca has now written two cookbooks on this topic: The Wheat Free Cook and her latest, Gluten-Free Italian. More information about Mallorca can be found on her website, glutenfreeexpert

If Mallorca presented the reserved, sophisticated face of the gluten-free movement, then writer and nutritionist Bonnie Presti is the movement's cheerleader.

Dynamic and energetic, Presti has made it her life's mission to help others with food allergies and gluten intolerance by developing nutritional programs to meet their goals.

"Having celiac disease or other food intolerances is like a repetitive stress injury to your body," said Presti.

Presti was diagnosed with celiac disease and intolerance to soy, eggs, dairy as well as other foods.

As did Mallorca, instead of feeling sorry for herself, she got to work developing recipes. She returned to school to earn her certification as a nutritional educator.

These days Bonnie can be found working with patients in her office in Sunnyvale to develop individualized nutrition programs as well as lending her nutritional expertise to schools and corporations.

One of Presti's greatest joys is to take favorite recipes and make them gluten-free like her family's favorite snickerdoodle recipe or her mother's recipe for honey cake.

But in a comment that had many of us in the room laughing out loud, she said she has given up trying to make an angel food cake egg free!

She has just released the second edition of her cookbook, Allergy-Friendly Cooking. More information about Presti can be found at her website, thesensitivediner

Both Presti and Mallorca fielded numerous questions from the audience. A reoccurring question was the cost of the various speciality flours used in gluten-free baking.

While acknowledging that gluten-free baking was expensive, both Mallorca and Presti encouraged the bakers to considered gluten-free baking as a growing market for our products and services.

Kara Lind, owner of Kara's Cupcakes, agreed that gluten-free is a growing market for her cupcake business. She noted that as a result, she has decided not to charge a higher price for her gluten-free cupcakes.

Another frequently asked question concerned how to keep gluten-free products fresh. Both speakers agreed that gluten-free products were best consumed the day they were baked and went stale faster if stored in the refrigerator. Presti did note though that gluten-free foods not containing eggs would keep fresh a few days longer in the refrigerator.

As bakers, we all have a bit of the chemist in us. Gluten-free baking gives us another opportunity to tinker with our recipes and perhaps to bring some sweetness back to someones life that thought they had to give up baked goodies.

In the next few weeks I will be writing about my own adventures in gluten-free baking.

Until then, here is a recipe Rum-Raisin Genoa Cake from Jackie Mallorca's Gluten-Free Italian Cookbook. She gave me permission to share it here. They taste amazing.

Rum-Raisin Genoa Cake
Serves 8

1/3 cup (2 ounces) raisins

2 tablespoons dark rum

9 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus extra for pan, softened

3/4 cup sugar

3 large eggs (room temp)

1 cup (4 ounces) almond meal (room temp)

2 tablespoons (1 ounce) potato starch

Confectioners' sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease the sides of an 8-inch square cake pan with butter, line the bottom with parchment paper, and butter that as well.

Combine the raisins and rum in a small saucepan and heat gently, stirring, until the liquid almost evaporates. Remove from the heat and let the raisins cool to lukewarm.

Beat the butter and sugar together until creamy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating after each addition. Add the vanilla and salt. Blend the almond meal with the potato starch and beat in. Fold in rum-soaked raisins.

Spread the batter in the prepared pan. Bake for about 30 minutes, until risen and golden-brown and an inserted toothpick emerges clean. Place the pan on a wire rack and let the cake cool for ten minutes. Unmold, peel off the parchment paper, and let the cake cool completely, right side up.

When ready to serve, cut into 16 bars, but do not separate.

Dust with confectioners' sugar and then transfer the bars to a plate.

Who You Calling Baby Cakes?!

2010-02-10T16:25:00.000-08:00

A lot of the inspiration for my baking projects comes from my background as a Midwesterner.

But this Indiana baker has been influenced by my more than 25 years of living in California and the access that has given me to new trends in the pastry arts and to the talents of all the many baking pioneers that live in the San Francisco bay area.

So I find it great fun to give traditional childhood desserts a makeover.

And maybe it is the down economy and the resulting urge to consume comfort food that has made this a growing trend in the pastry world.

For example, recipes in the February issue of Sunset Magazine draw upon our love for traditional desserts such as chocolate cream pies, ice cream sandwiches and chocolate mousse but makes them a less guilty pleasure by presenting them in bite-size and miniature versions.

And bakery owners and cookbook authors Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito gives us the vanilla cream cake we crave but their version uses malt ball powder and tastes just like our beloved Whoppers Malted Milk Balls candy. I'm also a big fan of their root beer Bundt cake.

The February issue of Bon Appetit features that star of many childhood favorite treats -- milk chocolate. In these recipes milk chocolate is used in desserts that give it a more sophisticated image or, as writer Rochelle Palermo puts it in her article, "a childhood favorite grows up."

I like the many possibilities presented by that idea of a childhood favorite all grown up. Some of my greatest baking pleasures come from giving someone a favorite dessert from childhood. But a dessert that is perhaps a bit more grown up like a freshly baked chocolate chip cookie with just a bit of espresso mixed into the batter to give it a more nuanced flavor.

During my recent red velvet cake experiments, I was thrilled to see that Rose Levy Beranbaum had included the Tomboy Cake -- a signature dessert of one of my favorite San Francisco bakeries, Miette Patisserie -- in her latest masterpiece, Rose's Heavenly Cakes. Unlike most cakes that typically bake in a standard 9-inch cake pan, this recipe calls for a 6x3-inch pan.

This dark chocolate cake is sliced into layers and sandwiched with vanilla buttercream. It is adorable (childlike) and elegant (grown up) at the same time. This photo is from the Miette website.

These recent articles and cookbooks recently inspired me to not only try the recipes, but to also experiment with different size baking pans as well as flavor combinations.

Of course, it can be frustrating to try a recipe in a different sized pan than the author specifies in a recipe -- after all, the author tested and retested the recipe for that pan size so you and your finished dessert would get rave reviews.

But sometimes authors will give alternate choices, like in Flo Braker's essential, The Simple Art of Perfect Baking, where she specifies one type of pan size for the recipe but gives alternatives in the margin for other sizes in case you want to experiment. She does all the work for her reader!

Several of the baking "bibles" offer invaluable charts that help a baker calculate what pan to use if they should veer off the beaten pan path. Of course, Rose Levy Beranbaum's Cake Bible and Rose's Heavenly Cakes offer expert guidance but I also find myself turning to Cindy Mushat's The Art and Soul of Baking to help me puzzle out the correct pan size.

I belong to the Bakers Dozen professional group and every few months the question about how to substitute pan sizes comes up. This link was recently given as a good place to start.

But really bakers, sometimes you just have to experiment and take a chance. That is part of the fun after all.

Maybe try a favorite recipe that doesn't rely on pricey ingredients or on a time-consuming procedure like whipping egg whites just right.

I started with a favorite but very basic snack cake recipe -- old-fashioned gingerbread -- that can be made quickly with ingredients that I bet are sitting in your pantry right now.

I had purchased four 4x2-inch round cake pans for my experiment. I quickly made the gingerbread batter and had enough to fill three of my pans to various levels -- half full, 2/3 and 3/4 full.

I didn't change the oven temperature called for in the original recipe but after the first 20 minutes of baking, I did start peeking at them to check their progress.

When you are experimenting with pan sizes it can be hard to test for doneness. One easy way to tell is to use an instant thermometer, a method I learned from Rose Levy Beranbaum. The range you are looking for is 190-205 degrees.

Two of the cakes had an interesting belly button-like formation on the top. No matter -- it could be easily covered up with a caramel sauce or some other sort of topping. Since I had made three cakes and they all looked a bit different, I knew what I needed to adjust to get the look I wanted next time.

The day before my experiment I was lucky enough once again to be presented with a big bag of Meyer lemons.

Of course my cute gingerbread baby cakes gave me the inspiration to use the lemons as a topping for the cakes. Ginger and lemon are one of my favorite combinations.

Then I thought of the Miette Tomboy cake. What if I sliced the baby cakes into several layers then spread Meyer lemon curd between the layers and on the top?

Well, the result was a childhood favorite with a grown up twist -- a lemon twist.

SF Ferry Bldg: Protestors, Walking Sausages and oh yeah, Lots of Artisan Treats

2010-02-03T09:40:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite places to visit in San Francisco is the Ferry Building.

Sure, I love the bustling outside Farmers' Market but I really enjoy browsing the food merchants inside.

Lately there have been various news reports about possible cracks in the foodie fabric of the Ferry Building as some long time tenants are priced out and are moving out -- despite the well-publicized original philosophy of the Ferry Building property managers to nurture local food vendors and give them an affordable place to do business.

I felt the need to reassure myself that the beloved Ferry Building was still a vibrant place to visit despite the turmoil.

So, one very rainy day last week I headed to the Ferry Building to get my fix of sweets and to see what was new. There always seems to be new products to check out at the existing tenants venues or a temporary kiosk with an enthusiastic staffer giving out product samples.

And I love talking to the merchants about how they got into their chosen ventures.

Little did I know all the obstacles I would encounter in my journey from car to foodie destination.

First of course there was the rain -- buckets of it. Once I put my head down and headed into the wind and rain, I realized that the roads, sidewalks and just about every available space to walk was taken up by a very loud and aggressive crowd.

Seems it was the anniversary of Roe versus Wade that I had waded into.

As I made my way through the crowd I couldn't help wondering why some people think that screaming into another person's face would make that person change their views. One of life's many mysteries I guess.

I also had to side step the man in the Aidells sausage costume protesting (very politely) the controversial decision by Cuesa, the group who runs the Farmers' Market, to refuse to allow the Aidells Sausage Company to continue to sell their meat goodies at the market. Some believe the banishment is because Aidells has gotten a bit too successful and are no longer considered a local vendor but instead is a national brand. Check out this link for more information on that debate.

All this controversy made me long for sweets -- I might have to have several macarons or a bomboloni (or two) to calm down.

The first vendor I encountered when I finally emerged from the outside elements was a small kiosk manned by the Mariposa Bakery Company, a local baker of artisan crafted, gluten-free goodies.

Their brownies, breads and cinnamon rolls were flying off the shelves.

I chatted with owner Patti Crane who happened to be hovering nearby that day. She was excited about her new spot at the Ferry Building.

Mariposa was also playing host that day to a book signing event: Jackie Mallorca, author of Gluten-Free Italian, was patiently signing books and answering lots of questions about gluten-free cooking.

Gluten free baking has become a hot topic among bakers these days. It is really a challenge to develop baked goods that have the same consistency in crumb and flavor as gluten-based products.

Just try some of the gluten-free products made by non-artisan bakers available in your local grocery store. Actually, you don't need to taste them -- just pick up a gluten free loaf of bread or a cinnamon roll -- they weigh a ton.

It is really hard to obtain that melt in your mouth quality or light as a feather consistency that is the goal of most bakers.

But more on this timely topic in another post.

On February 9 the Bakers Dozen organization will be hosting a luncheon to discuss gluten-free baking at our next meeting at the Foreign Cinema Restaurant in San Francisco. Both Jackie Mallorca and nutritionist Bonnie Presti will be on hand to answer all our questions.

I will be covering the meeting for the Bakers Dozen and will post a summary of the meeting on this blog as well as on the Bakers Dozen members site.

As I've mentioned in a prior post, I always head first to the merchant selling bomboloni -- doughnuts to us non-Italians -- before they sell out.

I Preferiti di Boriana offer many products from Tuscany -- wines, cheeses, etc. but I go for the bomboloni. As I made my usual selection of one raspberry and one custard bomboloni, I noticed a pastry that I hadn't seen on previous visits.

Sfogliatelle. As I inquired about what this was, the people in line behind me offered their own rapturous reviews of this little pastry.

Sfogliatelle means many layers or leaves. This shell shaped pastry is made from phyllo dough and is filled with orange flavored ricotta filling. I thought they looked like miniature lobster tails.

I chose one of the small sfogliatelle amid choruses of "you will be sorry you didn't get the big one" ringing in my ears.

As I strolled down the main hallway munching on my Italian pastries, I met a representative of the California Coffee Cake Company handing out samples from their small kiosk.

Founder and pastry chef Nancy Lee Hawkins has turned her passion for coffee cake into a thriving business. Her employee was frantically trying to keep up with the demand for the walnut spice coffee cake samples from the coffee cake deprived crowds. Nancy sells her cakes and mini loaves at Ferry Building market place vendor Village Market as well as at other local markets. She recently opened her first retail location nearby at the Westfield San Francisco Centre.

The next new vendor I encountered manning his small table was Bruce from CJs Stix. This company makes pretzel sticks dipped in chocolate and rolled in English toffee. Bruce was handing out samples of the company's latest product extension -- bite sized pretzel nuggets. CJs Stix are sold at the Ferry Building merchant Farm Fresh to You as well as at other markets throughout the U.S.

Bruce is a charming and energetic spokesperson for the company, which happens to be a true family business. Owner Cheryl Jagoda ha enlisted her dad Bruce, plus her mom and husband to create another San Francisco success story.

It was fun to meet the new merchants and to see the vitality and creativity of some of San Francisco's best food entrepreneurs.

But no visit to the Ferry Building would be complete without a stop at one of the first tenants, Miette Patisserie.

I've taken a baking class from owner Meg Ray and I admire both her business and baking prowess. Today I bypassed my usual choices of shortbread and cupcakes and went right for the French macarons.

As they are in many bakeries, the macarons are displayed in tall glass candy jars. And they were a spot of bright color on this rainy day.

I chose two basic flavors -- chocolate and vanilla. I'm taking a class in March from Helen Dujardin -- macaron goddess and writer of the baking blog Tartelette -- on how to make macarons and in the name of research, I've been sampling as many macarons as I can.

As I left the Ferry Building the sun was trying to throw some sunshine over this beautiful city. I felt a bit sunnier myself as I was now reassured that the spirit of independent food merchants remains strong at the Ferry Building.

You Say Sherbet I say Sherbert: We All Say Yum

2010-01-20T09:57:00.000-08:00

I love the idea of hostess gifts. It's so retro. I imagine a scene from the 1960s with a woman answering the door in her billowing hostess pants outfit to receive a bottle of wine or flowers from her guests.

I have received some interesting hostess gifts including a bottle of my favorite wine with the date of the dinner party inscribed in glittering silver pen. Another friend brought a box of note cards featuring the vibrant pastel pastry paintings of Wayne Thiebaud.

Recently I received a very simple hostess gift. A friend bought a gift bag filled with Meyer lemons from her garden. As I set the bag aside, I was already thinking about what I could bake with them as the main ingredient.

Since lemons last for quite awhile on the kitchen counter, I didn't feel rushed to use them as I would another edible gift.

Citrus fruit has always seemed so exotic to me -- even after all these years of living in California. I don't think I had tasted a lemon or lime until I moved here as a young adult. Even oranges were considered exotic -- every Christmas each of us kids would find an orange in the toe of our Christmas stockings. Sounds very Little House on the Prairie now!

I certainly had never heard of a Meyer lemon. It still seems amazing to be able to open your back door and have lemons, limes or oranges available for the picking.

Winter is peak time for Meyer lemons in California. Meyer lemons were brought to the U.S. from China by agricultural explorer (what a great title) Frank Meyer in the early 1900s. The Meyer lemon, which is a cross between a lemon and a sweet orange, became a popular tree to grow in California until the 1940s when it became responsible for a virus that was killing all citrus trees. Most of the Meyer lemon trees were destroyed and didn't make a comeback until a virus-free selection was developed in the 1950s.

Compared to its lumpier cousin, a Meyer lemon has a smooth, thin skin and is almost a canary yellow.

Its reputation as a favorite among foodies was cemented when it was popularized by Alice Waters at Chez Panisse restaurant in the 1970s during the California cuisine revolution. Lindsey Shere, the founding pastry chef at Chez Panisse was known to use Meyer lemons in her desserts. Her Meyer lemon ice cream was a favorite of diners.

Reading about Lindsey Shere inspired me to use Meyer lemons in some sort of frozen delight. I could use a "lighter" dessert after these past months of cakes and cookies.

It seemed fitting then to use a recipe by Shere's protege -- pastry chef and ice cream master David Lebovitz.

I decided ice cream was still a bit too rich for what I had in mind but his recipe for sherbet in his book, The Perfect Scoop, sounded just right.

It also made me nostalgic.

As a kid growing up in Indiana, my mom used sherbet as bribery to get us to visit the dentist. I know it is a bit ironic to use a sugary treat in connection with a dentist visit but I think my mom thought it was a healthier choice.

After the dentist we headed to Rexall -- the corner drugstore for cones of sherbet. I asked for either green (we never called it lime) or orange.

And in the area of Indiana where we lived, we pronounced it sherBERT as in Bert and Ernie.

You don't hear much about sherbet in California but its close relative, sorbet, seems to be a standard dessert item on almost all restaurant menus.

In The Perfect Scoop, Lebovitz has this to say about sorbet vs. sherbet, "The difference between sorbet and a sherbet can be elusive. Technically, sorbets are never made with milk or cream, and sherbets often have milk or buttermilk added. But these definitions are not set in stone, and I've seen the terms used interchangeably, even by professionals."

Using my Meyer lemons, I adapted Lebovitz's Lemon Sherbet recipe.

The resulting sherbet was fragrant and light -- a refreshing way to begin a new year no matter how you pronounce it.

For Royalty of Every Age: Shortbread

2010-01-14T07:56:00.000-08:00

When my daughter was very little, her favorite cookie was shortbread. This, of course, was before she discovered the magic of chocolate and way before the wonders of the peanut blossom cookie was revealed to her.

She had her first shortbread cookie from the bakery case at our local market. I think the beauty of the cookie caught her eye. The scalloped edges and the sprinkles of sparkly and brightly colored sugar made the cookie look like it was meant for a princess. And the Disney princess stage was in full bloom in my little darling.

From then on most trips to the grocery store started with one shortbread cookie handed over the counter in its little white bag meant just for her.

Of course I didn't go to the grocery store every day and children must have their regular cookie intake so I was happy to come upon a shortbread cookie recipe in one of the parenting magazines that seemed to be my main reading material in those days.

I thought of this memory as I was planning a party during the holidays. I already had a chocolate cake and a lemon tart on my menu. I like to have both ends of the taste spectrum represented for my guests. But I wanted just a little bit of something sweet for guests to nibble on with their coffee if they didn't want a slice of something bigger.

I had been rereading More Home Cooking by Laurie Colwin at the same time I was mulling over my dessert choices.

In her essay titled, Butter, Colwin tells the reader of her passion for shortbread, "I would rather eat shortbread than any cake or cookie in the world. I would turn my back on a chocolate truffle or a banana split for one piece of crisp, melting shortbread. It is the essence of butter."

The idea of some short of shortbread cookie struck me as just the right choice for my third dessert offering.

In pastry, the word short refers to a tender, crumbly texture caused by the high fat content of the dough -- shortbread has a high ratio of butter to flour.

Shortbread is also usually flat due to the lack of any type of leavening in the batter. Shortbread is very similar to the classic French butter cookie, sables, except that sables have an even richer taste because the dough includes eggs. Many of the traditional shortbread recipes use rice flour but unbleached all purpose flour can easily be substituted.

In the Field Guide to Cookies, Anita Chu states, "the round shape (of shortbread) came from old (Scottish) pagan beliefs; the round shape scored with lines was meant to symbolize the sun, and shortbread was used as an offering at the end of the year."

I liked the idea of shortbread being my offering at my end of year party!

But most of the recipes I had for shortbread were either very plain or were the base for some other ingredient to shine -- like raspberry jam.

I wanted something sophisticated but not camouflaged.

Then I received an email from baker Susan Spungen. I had recently read an article by her in More Magazine that was called, Cookies for Grownups. In this article Spungen, who created the food for the recent movie, Julie and Julia, had taken many traditional cookies and had given them a bit of a twist. For example, cardamom cookies, double-ginger chocolate chunk cookies and yes, a shortbread cookie she called espresso shortbread.

I had emailed Susan because More Magazine hadn't included her instructions on how to measure the flour in her recipes. And after learning the hard way, I won't attempt any recipe unless I know how the flour is to be measured.

I found her website and dashed off an email. And to be honest, I didn't really expect to hear back from her.

But in a true professional manner and much to my pleasant surprise, she answered my question right away (spoon and sweep).

That decided it then -- espresso shortbread would be my cookie choice for my very grownup party.

Of course I would use a scalloped cookie cutter but instead of sparkly sprinkles on the outside, these cookies would have espresso sprinkles on the inside. Perhaps what a Disney princess would have first thing in the morning before putting on her crown and making her list of good deeds to do that day. I know I certainly need my coffee before putting on my crown every morning!

But this time I would be putting on my New Year's Eve party hat and bidding farewell to another year.

Seeing Red: Cupcakes and Sunsets in Los Angeles

2010-01-08T08:56:00.000-08:00

There is nothing like a road trip -- especially after the hectic holidays.

This week we headed back to the Los Angeles area to take in a few museum exhibits and (of course) to check out more sweet shops.

After viewing the Irving Penn photo exhibit at the Getty Museum and swooning over the L.A. skyline at night, we headed to our hotel for a late check-in.

The Hotel Palomar, owned by the Kimpton Group, is known for its quirky interiors and overall playful approach to the hotel scene. Last time I stayed in a Kimpton Group Hotel, we were offered a plate of warm chocolate chip cookies as we checked-in. Sadly, no cookies at this check-in but the hotel (almost) made up for the loss with free cocktail coupons.

The next morning we headed to the Eagle Rock neighborhood -- the latest "fringe" neighborhood to become somewhat gentrified in L.A.

We decided on Auntie Em's Kitchen in Eagle Rock for breakfast. Described by the blog, Eat: Los Angeles, as "essentially L.A.", I had first read about this snug cafe months ago in an article praising not only its cupcakes, but also its French toast. And the French toast was indeed delicious. No pats of butter or pools of syrup topped the diagonal slices of brioche but instead honey and oranges gave the dish a hint of sweetness.

We snagged one of their mini red velvet cupcakes to feast on later as we headed to our next stop.

I had been looking forward to seeing the Wayne Thiebaud exhibit at the Pasadena Museum of Art. I'm a big fan of his pastry paintings but hadn't seen his very vertical paintings of San Francisco or any of his early paintings from the 1940s.

It seemed fitting after viewing all those paintings of cakes to search out a few pastry shops.

Sunday in Pasadena isn't exactly bustling but we were lucky to find Dots Cupcakes open in Old Town Pasadena and ready to serve us as many cupcakes as we could consume.

We selected two mini cupcakes: Fleur Del Sel and red velvet. We decided a taste test between Auntie Em and Dots red velvet cupcakes must be held!

The Auntie Em's cupcake with its bright red cake and swirl of frosting looked like a practiced home cook had baked it for a party. By contrast the Dots cupcake could have been in a Thiebaud painting -- it was certainly a work of art with its tiny swirl of vanilla cream cheese frosting topped by a delicate frosting flower. The cake was more dark red than the Auntie Em cupcake.

Both cupcakes were tender and not dry -- often an issue with red velvet cakes.

A quick call to both bakeries confirmed that while both cakes are a buttermilk chocolate cake, red food color is used to enhance the natural reaction between the buttermilk, vinegar, baking soda and cocoa powder.

Obviously Auntie Em uses a heavy hand with her red food color!

But despite its homely and homey appearance, the cupcake from Auntie Em's Kitchen was the winner -- its cake was just a bit more tender and flavorful than the Dots cupcake.

Although red velvet cake is often thought of as a traditional southern dessert, many of my fellow Midwesterners would disagree with that assumption.

In fact, before I left on my road trip, my sister-in-law and fellow Midwesterner requested that I bake her a red velvet cake for her birthday. But despite being from Indiana, I didn't have a red velvet cake recipe and didn't have time to find one for her big celebration.

I must admit that I always thought of the red velvet cake as a novelty cake and had never been motivated to perfect a recipe for this cake. Making a cake with a bottle of red food color seemed wrong somehow.

When the cupcake craze hit and red velvet cake became a measure by which cupcake shops were compared, I still wasn't motivated to try my hand at baking the cake.

And then Rose Levy Beranbaum released her latest bible -- Rose's Heavenly Cakes. To my surprise, in her introduction to Rose Red Velvet Cake, she had similar feelings about this cake:

"I long resisted the charms of this cake, believing it to be merely a layer cake tinted red with a bottle of food coloring. But when several people on my blog sang its praises, I decided to investigate it more thoroughly. It turns out that there is more to this cake than its shocking color."

Beranbaum goes on to create a cake that she liked so much -- she put her name on it!

So what exactly is the background of this crowd-pleasing cake?

According to Cooks Illustrated, the word velvet that always follows the red in red velvet cake refers to the cake's texture as well as distinguishing it from what a classic devil's food cake, which is sweeter and more spongy.

According to the blog, The Joy of Baking, "even though the original red color of the cake was supposed to have been achieved by the reaction of vinegar and buttermilk with the cocoa powder, it is no longer the only reason for its bright red color."

In fact, my research found that now most recipes for red velvet cake include red food color as a standard ingredient to enhance the red color of the cake. So while traditional red velvet cake recipes always included vinegar, buttermilk, baking soda and cocoa powder as standard in its ingredient list, some newer recipes are simply a devil's food cake with red food color added to the batter.

In Beranbaum's recipe, she does away with the baking soda and the vinegar and uses baking powder with the buttermilk to create a tender cake.

Red velvet cake is also typically prepared with oil, not butter. Beranbaum also messes with that tradition by using both oil and butter to create a more flavorful cake.

So, according to Beranbaum, she has turned the traditional red velvet cake recipe on its head by eliminating the traditional ingredients of baking soda and vinegar and by using both oil and butter to create a cake which is tender and has a great taste.

I had to bake this cake to see if Beranbaum had truly improved this classic.

Following Beranbaum's always exacting guidelines, the cake was indeed a thing of beauty.

But how did it taste? The cake had a tender and delicate crumb unlike any red velvet cake I had ever tasted. I didn't top the cake with the white chocolate frosting Beranbaum suggested. I instead used a vanilla cream cheese frosting since that is the type of frosting traditionally used on a red velvet cake.

The cake's red color was indeed a vibrant red. While the cake and its nail polish hue seemed a bit out of place in January, it would look appropriate at Halloween, Christmas and of course, on Valentine's Day.

But more importantly, it would look just right set aglow with birthday candles.

Comfort & Joy: Happy New Year!

2009-12-29T12:36:00.000-08:00

This week many people will be making a self-improvement list for 2010.

But I won't be making any resolutions for 2010.

As did many other people, I have found this year to be filled with turmoil.

In fact, it seemed like the entire year was one long resolution -- I resolve to get through 2009!

This week I find myself thinking about things that I don't want to change -- things that bring me comfort and joy.

I came to this realization as I prepared my menu for a New Year's Eve supper with a few friends.

Normally, I can't wait to try out new recipes -- especially desserts.

But this year I find myself making a shopping list for dishes like beef stew, biscuits and chocolate cake.

Comfort and Joy.

I also find myself pulling out my brownie recipe more and more -- especially this week.

I have made it so many times I can make this recipe with my eyes shut and my wooden spoon tied behind my back.

I like to call them Boyfriend Brownies.

Brownies are often the first sweet a girl makes for her sweetie.

Growing up, I used the recipe on the back of the Hershey Chocolate tin. Yes, it was still made of metal then. And the lid wasn't plastic but a metal oval. When I was really little, my mom would give me the empty tin to use as a piggy bank. The coins made a very satisfying clink as they hit the bottom of the tin.

Later, I baked brownies using Katherine Hepburn's brownie recipe after reading the essay about it by the writer who died much too young, Laurie Colwin. Colwin wrote about this recipe in her collection of essays, More Home Cooking.

If you love brownies, you have strong opinions on what you think makes a perfect brownie. Some love nuts or other additions to their batter, some use gourmet chocolate and some prefer brownies with a cake or fudge-like texture.

I still prefer to use Hershey's cocoa powder and I like them plain -- no additions.

And as Colwin best described it in her essay, "I myself like brownies that are what I call slumped and the English call squidgy, which means slightly undercooked but not quite runny in the center."

I agree.

These days I use a recipe my mother-in-law gave me more than 20 years ago. I still have the chocolate stained slip of paper she wrote it on during a long ago visit. I bake them quite a bit less than my mother-in-law specifies so that they are "slumped."

I can have them mixed and out of the oven in 20 minutes. As soon as I hear a few teenagers come through the door, I start melting the butter.

They are great eaten right out of the pan but can also be dressed up with powdered sugar and a fancy platter. I also might serve them with caramel sauce and bit of ice cream on the side.

But the best part of this recipe is that it makes a great back up plan. There has been more than one fancy dessert gone astray where I've quickly mixed up a batch and served them to my unsuspecting guests.

Comfort and Joy indeed!

Boyfriend Brownies

Adapted from a recipe by Marrianne Scotten

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Melt
1 stick of unsalted butter (1/2 cup)
with
3 Tablespoons of cocoa

Remove from heat and add
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
1 cup of sugar
3/4 cup of flour (spoon and sweep)
1/4 teaspoon salt

Pour into 8-inch round or square pan

Bake for 18-20 minutes.

How To Make A White Christmas

2009-12-21T08:03:00.000-08:00

No matter what the temperature is outside this week -- my kitchen will be tropical.

This week I will bake at least 15 Christmas cakes for family and friends as well as several types of cookies for the family cookie platter.

As I bake, I will think of each person who will receive the treat. It is my meditation time.

This year after more than a decade of making my traditional Christmas cake, I will be making a few of them a bit differently. Several of my friends and family members are gluten intolerant. After many trials and lots of errors, I've developed a flour mix that works in this Christmas cake so that it actually still tastes good.

I was very happy to offer someone their chance to once again eat a favorite sweet.

Every year I also try out a new cookie recipe. I still hadn't chosen one until just a few weeks ago. One afternoon I decided to head up to St. Helena in the Napa Valley for a quick road trip. This time of year is so beautiful up there and I needed a break.

No trip to St. Helena would be complete without a trip to the Model Bakery. This bakery has been part of the downtown scene for more than 80 years. They make the best ginger molasses cookie I have eaten - it is soft in the middle with a chewy edge - heaven.

As I strolled down the street admiring all the festive shop windows, I remembered that the test kitchen for the Los Angeles Times had just published the recipe for the Model Bakery molasses cookie. That sealed the decision - this cookie would share the Christmas cookie platter with the Peanut Butter Blossoms that I make each year.

I don't bake fancy or decorated cookies. I generally like to bake homey cookies with big flavor - like the ginger molasses cookie. So I had never mastered my mom's Spritz cookies. These buttery cookies were always her contribution to the family Christmas cookie platter. Since my mom had been in poor health for several years, one of my sisters had generously assumed the family tradition of baking the Spritz cookies each Christmas.

This year will be the first Christmas without my mom; she passed away in February 2009. This year I was determined to master this cookie.

My mom tried to encourage me one year by buying me my own cookie press. It remained unused in the back of my kitchen pantry until I finally gave it away.

Any cookbook with a Spritz recipe will warn the baker that getting the dough out of the press is the hardest part of making these cookies and that had certainly always been my experience. These recipes recommend making sure the dough is at just the right temperature although they never actually give a temperature range in their recipes.

Last week my sister generously gave up an afternoon to show me how to be one with the cookie press and to show me her secrets for getting the dough out of that device of the devil!

In memory of my mom, I turned to the cookbook she used the most for all her cooking and baking for the Spritz recipe: the 1963 edition of the McCall's Cookbook.

Spritz cookies are made from a simple butter dough that is pushed through a cookie press fitted with decorative disks. The resulting Christmas trees, wreaths, snowflakes and flowers are then decorated with gumdrops, red hots and sprinkles.

My mom would save white shirt boxes from her job at J.C. Penny's to package the dozens of Spritz cookies she baked each Christmas. As a child, I always thought the cookies looked like pieces of jewelry nestled in their white jewelry boxes.

Most recipes consist of just a few ingredients: flour, salt, sugar, butter, egg yolk and vanilla. Some recipes also add baking powder. Although my family prefers the plain butter dough, this type of dough adapts well to other flavorings like almond or peppermint.

I mixed up two batches of dough the night before my cookie tutorial - one of the plain butter dough and the second of a chocolate dough. Anita Chu's Field Guide To Cookies had suggested combining the two doughs in the cookie press for a marble effect. That sounded fun and not too far of a departure from the traditional family offering.

My sister was patient with me as she showed me how to work the cookie press. Turns out she gets just as frustrated with the process as I do but for the sake of that Christmas cookie platter, she has sacrificed her sanity each year to make them for the rest of us.

We decided to see if we couldn't come up with a way to ensure each cookie came out of the press easily (almost) every time. It was a fun couple of hours as we tried all kinds of experiments with the dough. In the end, we made an interesting discovery - despite what the cookbooks tell you, it really doesn't matter what temperature the dough is as long as you avoid the two extremes of too warm or too cold.

The real secret is to chill ungreased cookies sheets before trying to coax each gem out of the cookie press.

No go forth and press on!

Oh yes, and Happy Holidays!

"Unless we make Christmas an occasion to share our blessings, all the snow in Alaska won't make it white."
Bing Crosby

Do, or Do Not

2009-12-17T07:46:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I long for the days when ignorance was bliss -- before we all knew that sunburns and cigarettes could kill us.

I'd kill for a good doughnut.

Ok, maybe those three things aren't exactly equal on the scale of vices but seriously, who doesn't love a good glazed doughnut or a bite of a doughnut just dipped in cinnamon sugar?

And my preference leans toward the yeast doughnut, not those heavy cake-like numbers.

In my hometown in Indiana we pretty much excelled in frying just about anything. In fact, the Indiana State Fair is certainly a candidate for the fried food hall of fame: fried strawberries, fried green beans, fried snicker bars and even deep-fried Pepsi.

If it can be breaded it can be fried. Not a bad motto to live by.

So I should be forgiven if I mourned the passing of each of my favorite food groups from my life once I moved to California and became enlightened to the horrors of the fryer.

But still, the doughnut never left my mind.

Because I give myself free reign to try all foods when travelling, I've encountered some pretty spectacular doughnuts across the world. Of course these treats go by much better names than the American word for fried dough.

In Italy we fell in love with ciambelle. We had rented a small apartment in Rome near the Piazza Farnese. Each morning we walked to our corner cafe. The first morning we saw the businessmen leaning against the bar sipping their cappuccino or espresso and eating what looked like a filled doughnut.

We asked the incredibly chic and snooty cashier what the name was of this breakfast treat and she said, "ciambelle." Of course, we didn't pronounce the name exactly right and every morning she would correct us as we asked for a jambelle.

But that turned out not to be a problem. In fact, by the end of our visit the not so snooty cashier would smile when she saw us coming -- knowing we were about to butcher her beautiful language asking for this delicious treat.

In other parts of Italy they call a similar treat bomboloni. I have been fortunate enough to find two shops in the San Francisco Bay Area where I live that sell them. One is in the beautiful S.F. Ferry Building. They only have a few each day so I always head there first.

The other is a small cafe in Palo Alto that sells bomboloni on Saturday nights only. Not a bad reason to venture out.

And in Los Angeles, the Three Square Bakery in Venice makes a German version of a doughnut called a Berliner. They only offer this treat on Fridays.

It seems a limited time offer lessens the guilt.

But doughnuts were not in short supply in my childhood home.

Despite working full-time, my mom routinely made doughnuts for her five kids. She thought nothing of mixing together a batch of dough and frying them up for us.

One of my sisters still fondly remembers watching my mom slip each piece of dough into the frying pan and waiting and watching until she turned the doughnut over to brown on the other side.

I remember the doughnut holes the best -- I always wanted to shake them in the brown paper bag filled with cinnamon sugar.

And perhaps the best part of making doughnuts is that they really don't keep well. You just had to eat them right away or they became greasy and heavy.

It probably isn't too surprising that when I was pregnant, my craving was for doughnuts -- the glazed ones.

And no wonder one of my daughter's favorite treats is a glazed doughnut. I routinely buy them for her each week as I'm shopping for groceries. Nothing like a cold glass of milk and a glazed doughnut after a hard day of teenage drama.

A long time ago I had acquired a doughnut pan for making baked doughnuts. I enthusiastically followed the recipe that had come with the pan. I couldn't wait to try them.

But they looked and tasted like what I imagined my dog's doughnut shaped chew toy to taste like: blah.

But now that my craving was growing, I either needed to find or develop a baked doughnut recipe.

Many of the recipes I found weren't really doughnuts but rather were cupcakes that resembled doughnut holes that once baked, were rolled in butter then cinnamon sugar.

I came across quite a bit of positive Internet chatter over the Baked Doughnut Recipe developed by Heidi Swanson of the website 101cookbooks.

I was all set to try it then I remembered to check The Breakfast Book by cooking legend and Bakers Dozen founder, Marion Cunningham. Sure enough, she had a recipe for baked doughnuts.

The recipe couldn't have been easier -- it mixed together quickly, the dough had to rise for only one hour and it took just ten minutes to bake each batch.

I even got to use the doughnut cutter that my mom used all those years ago -- thankfully one of my sisters had grabbed it while we were closing down my mom's house. It is a very retro cutter -- it has the piece for the doughnut hole attached to the middle of the bigger cutter, you can choose to leave it in or twist it out if you are baking cookies.

The doughnuts were delicious. But you really can't compare a baked doughnut to a fried one. It is just too different. They taste and have the consistency more of a cinnamon roll than a light as air fried doughnut.

And then I thought about the person that the recipe had come from and I adjusted my attitude.

As food writer Jeffrey Steingarten described her in his essay on making pie crust in his book, The Man Who Ate Everything, "Marion is a calmly fanatical believer in simplicity..."

And according to cookbook author, David Lebovitz, Marion "didn't suffer fools gladly.."

In other words, I think Marion would tell me that if I wanted a doughnut that tasted like the ones I remembered from my childhood to quit messing around with imitations and make the real thing.

Thanks for the reminder Marion. And I will use your recipe.

Even the Dalai Lama Can't Resist This Christmas Cake

2009-12-02T09:47:00.000-08:00

Dundee Cake. Now why was that written on my clipboard? I was back at the farmers' market selling my ipies. As I mentioned in my last post, I keep a clipboard nearby so I can take notes about the different pie stories and dessert memories customers share with me.

But I didn't remember speaking to anyone about Dundee Cake. Intrigued, I looked it up once I got home and found that it is a popular cake similar to a fruitcake served throughout the United Kingdom -- primarily during the Christmas season.

And like the Lafayette Gingerbread, its creation involved yet another story that supposedly took place in the 1700s!

This time the location was Dundee, Scotland in 1797. There a Spanish ship carrying oranges sailed into a fierce storm. The ship took shelter in Dundee Harbor. Its cargo included Seville oranges, which were then purchased by a Dundee grocer named James Keiller.

Seville oranges aren't your typical sweet orange -- they are bitter. Mrs. Keiller decided to boil the oranges with sugar and the resulting product became known as Dundee Orange Marmalade.

But what about the cake? Most likely Mrs. Keiller created the cake so there would be something to spread all that lovely marmalade on. The marmalade is also used as a glaze for the cake. She created the concentric circles of whole blanched almonds on top of the cake to distinguish a Dundee Cake from other fruitcakes.

Mrs. Keiller obviously had quite a talent for marketing.

Both the marmalade and the cake became famous through the United Kingdom and continue to be extremely popular today.

I must admit I'm not a fan of fruitcakes. The cakes I have had the misfortune to taste have been very dry and the fruit overly chewy. The experience led me to almost believe that old joke by comedian Johnny Carson that there really is only one fruitcake in the world and it keeps getting passed down from one family to the next each Christmas!

And I don't think Italy's Panettone or Germany's Stollen taste much better. So I wasn't too motivated to experiment with Scotland's Dundee Cake.

But all this reading about Christmas cakes did get me thinking about my family's own Christmas cake tradition. I hadn't actually thought of the cake I make each Christmas as an official Christmas cake. But I guess it really is.

At least it is certainly an American version of what I think a Christmas cake should be: cinnamon and chocolate are important ingredients in this cake!

I'm not exactly sure when the tradition started. At least ten years ago -- maybe more -- I came across a recipe in a cookbook for a Chocolate Chip Coffee Cake. I decided I would bake one for each family and give them out when we gathered for Christmas Eve.

Now, I have a large family so that often meant at least ten cakes. But my family loved the cake so the Chocolate Chip Coffee Cake has become an annual Christmas tradition.

Then I thought how nice it would be to make each neighbor a cake. And the cleaning lady, dog sitter, dry cleaner, hair cutter......

My Christmas cake production was a bit out of control. And no, it hasn't changed -- I still bake at last 20 cakes during the Christmas season. Nothing like the smell of cinnamon and chocolate to get me in the Christmas spirit!

So maybe I should give the Dundee a try. Maybe it would become a favorite cake, maybe even a tradition.

There are many recipes claiming to be the original Dundee Cake recipe. All are pretty similar in that they use raisins, spices, and some type of candied fruit. Most also include a small amount of whisky. My 1959 edition of the Fannie Farmer Cookbook has a Dundee Cake recipe that includes almonds in the batter as well as on top of the cake but interestingly, no whisky.

I came across a few recipes that called for sultanas -- a very exotic sounding ingredient, which I found out, is another name for golden raisins. I think I like the name sultana better!

In the end I used a recipe from the May 2004 issue of Bon Appetit Magazine. The recipe dresses up the small town Dundee Cake by including a sauce made of (of course) orange marmalade, whisky and orange sections.

Imagine my surprise when I found out that the James Keiller & Son Company (no credit given to Mrs. Keiller though) still makes the original orange marmalade! Of course I had to buy a jar to use in my Dundee Cake.

The cake uses almost a cup each of sultanas, dark raisins and dried currants so the batter was extremely thick. I hoped my Dundee didn't turn into a hockey puck.

But the finished cake was anything but heavy. Yes, it was a dense cake but the texture was crumbly but still moist because of all that fruit.

It was also delicious and addictive. I couldn't stop shaving off bits to nibble on. It was also a beautiful cake and wouldn't look out of place on a dessert or breakfast buffet.

Now I can understand why according to the Europe Intelligence Wire Service, when the Dalai Lama visited Scotland in 2005, he expressed his hope that he would be able to enjoy a slice of the "rich, fruity cake." It seems the Dundee Cake was a favorite of his!

Of course a Dundee Cake was quickly dispatched to His Holiness and we can only assume he was deeply contented.

Lafayette, We Are Here!

2009-11-23T07:40:00.000-08:00

One of the things I enjoy most about selling my ipies at the farmers' market is the chance to talk to people about what kind of pie they love and their childhood memories of pie.

Pie talk invariably leads to a discussion of other kinds of favorite desserts. I keep a clipboard close at hand so I can make a quick note of desserts that people tell me I just have to bake.

One day at the market I met Helen, a beautiful woman with a southern accent that was as sweet as honey. She was an elderly woman and had grown up in North Carolina. She always had a rolling cart bursting with fresh bread and colorful produce. And she always bought an ipie from me to eat while she shopped.

She told me I just had to try a gingerbread cake that she was fond of and that was a tradition where she had grown up to eat on New Year's Day. She said it was called Lafayette Gingerbread. Now the tradition during my childhood on New Years Day was to eat cooked cabbage so this was a tradition I could easily make my own!

I've baked quite a few gingerbread cakes but hadn't heard of Lafayette Gingerbread. Helen said it was an old recipe from the 1700s and legend has it that it was served to General Lafayette (French hero of the American Revolution) by George Washington's mother, Mary Ball Washington, at her home in Virginia.

That is typically all you hear of the legend but if you remember your American history, you might remember that before he was General Lafayette, he was Gilbert du Motier, marquis de Lafayette.

Lafayette came to America at the age of 19 and was instrumental in convincing France to send aid to the fledgling American republic. He became an unpaid volunteer of the Continental Army under George Washington and distinguished himself not only on the battlefield, but also as a loyal friend to Washington. Congress gave him the title of Major General.

George Washington came to consider him as a son and Lafayette named his son Georges Washington with George Washington serving as his godfather.

So, no wonder George Washington's mother named the cake in his honor. But not only cakes are named in his honor, numerous streets, parks, colleges and cities were named in his honor including the town of Fayetteville, North Carolina. But of course the most important place to be named after him is West Lafayette, Indiana, home of my alma mater, Purdue University.

And just as important as the towns and parks were the sweets named in his honor. In addition to that famous gingerbread, other desserts named after the General include Lafayette Pie, Fayette Pudding and Lafayette cakes.

I asked Helen if she had a family recipe that she would share with me and she sheepishly admitted that she uses a recipe from Saveur Magazine!

The recipe for Lafayette Gingerbread from Saveur was typical of recipes of that era in that it called for numerous spices, citrus and dried fruit.

According to Mark Zanger, author of The American History Cookbook, "We imagine early American food as being very plain but, in fact, given half a chance, people still had a lot of the medieval British taste for a lot of spices and herbs."

And with two tablespoons of ginger among other spices, this recipe promised to be medieval indeed!

My house smelled like Christmas as the cake baked. The bite I took made my mouth zing -- the ginger was too overpowering to me. But other tasters with more "medieval British tastes" than me, really liked the flavor.

The same day I baked the cake I was also experimenting with my new ice cream machine. The same machine I had recently dragged to a book-signing event at Omnivore Books on Food in S.F. where cookbook author and ice cream master David Lebovitz nicely agreed to autograph the lid with his sharpie!

I had decided to make the salted caramel recipe that I had recently seen in an issue of Gourmet Magazine. I tried a scoop of the finished ice cream on the gingerbread. What a great combination. The caramel mellowed out the ginger in the cake and gave it a rich salty flavor.

And being from France but obviously a big fan of America, I think General Lafayette would have appreciated the sophisticated addition of salted caramel ice cream to a very American gingerbread.

Robot, Pistol and Kolache: What will those Czechs Think of Next?

2009-11-16T07:23:00.000-08:00

About a year ago I read a story in Gourmet Magazine by Jane and Michael Stern of Road Food fame about kolache, sweet yeast buns that originated in the Czech Republic. The word kolach is loosely translated to mean cake.

I always enjoy the articles by the Sterns but this one was of particular interest. I have a good friend who left the Czech Republic when she was a young girl.

She and I share a passion for breakfast pastries. We figure if we are going to treat ourselves it should be coffee cake and croissants and not a huge dinner.

But I had never heard her pine for kolaches or for that matter, mention them at all.

When I asked her if she had ever had them she said, "of course." Turns out kolaches in Czech Republic are as ubiquitous as doughnuts in the U.S.

But similar to doughnuts and even to medialunas – the small, sweet croissants I fell in love with in Buenos Aires, kolache are a treat that is generally picked up at the corner bakery in any Czech town and not made at home.

Well, not now anyway. My friend quickly produced three Czech cookbooks with at least ten different recipes for making kolache. It seems there are as many different ways to fill and shape the buns, as there are ways to spell and pronounce its name.

Later that summer after my friend returned from a trip to Prague, she showed me numerous photos of kolache and none of them looked the same (and what a good friend to snap photos of baked goods for me while on a vacation).

The cookbooks were fun to look at (even the ones written in Czech) but what I was really excited about was the chance to bake with her family friend, Monika. Turns out her friend who is now in her eighties lived nearby and my friend was certain she would love to bake with us and show us how to make kolache.

I quickly sent Monika a copy of the kolache article from Gourmet Magazine and a note saying I looked forward to meeting her in a few months. She couldn’t meet with us any sooner given her busy social and travel schedule!

In the meantime, I set about learning all I could about kolache.

As I mentioned above, kolache are a sweet yeast bun. They can vary not only in size and fillings but also in the spelling of its name. I've seen the name spelled kolache, kolace, kolach, kolatchen and kolacky. I’ve also seen them called Bohemian, Festival and Moravian Buns.

(I also found it hard to find a consistent answer to what is the plural and singular of this treat. So, for purposes of this post, I’m going with kolache as the plural form and kolach for the singular!)

The traditional fillings are prune, apricot, poppy seed and cheese. They look very similar to traditional American danish in that a yeast dough is topped with a small circle of filling.

But most American danish have a bit of toughness or snap to the dough. A properly made kolach is all about tenderness.

As the name implies, the articles Michael and Jane Stern write for their Road Food series focus on one particular place in America where they have found a unique food or a traditional food that has frequently had an American spin put on it.

Now you can find savory Kolache stuffed with pork sausage and even jalapeños and kolache topped with all kinds of fillings including strawberry and blueberry.

After reading in their article about the obsession Texans have for their kolache, I also found a cookbook written by the Czechs of Nebraska that included numerous kolache recipes. There is also a huge population of Czechs in Iowa as another cookbook attests to.

And Montgomery, Minnesota considers itself to be the “Kolachy Capital of the World”!

How did all these Czechs get to the Midwest? A bit of research found that immigration to the U.S. peaked in the 1900s as many Czechs were lured to the U.S. by the promise of uncultivated land in America, specifically in Texas, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa and Nebraska. And as had many immigrant populations before them had done, they brought their food traditions with them.

And that’s also why many of my older cookbooks include at least one recipe for Kolache, including the Joy of Cooking. The kolach recipe in this cookbook is referred to as Kolatchen and calls for the more traditional fillings of prune and apricot.

Armed with this knowledge, I was ready to bake with Monika. But then sad news, Monika had injured her shoulder and was out of kolach baking commission for a while.

I decided I couldn’t wait to bake a batch so I started looking for a modern recipe for kolache.

Once again, cookbook author and master baker Flo Braker came to my rescue with a simple and straightforward recipe called, Bohemian Kolaches, from her latest cookbook, Baking For All Occasions. Other kolach recipes I found made them seem daunting to make – almost as if you had to grow up at the knee of a Czech grandmother to learn the secrets of how to shape the dough.

Not every baker likes to work with yeast dough. It is time consuming and getting the dough the right consistency can be tricky. But I can’t think of any cookie or cake that can match the smell of yeast bread baking.

One of the things I liked about Braker’s recipe is she acknowledges how time consuming working with yeast can be by offering the option of refrigerating the dough for several hours and up to a day. This cooling of the dough also had the added benefit of letting the dough develop more flavor and because the dough is so soft, refrigeration makes it easier to handle.

Braker also offers a recipe for the traditional kolach fillings – prune or apricot. I chose apricot.

Braker’s gift as a baking instructor shines in this recipe as she clearly sets out each step in the process. The filling of the buns looked to be challenging but Braker suggests a simple solution – buy a tart tamper.

This nifty and inexpensive little device is typically used to make miniature tart shells. In this recipe it is used to make an indentation in the dough. This makes it easier to have the filling stay where it is supposed to and gives the buns a professional look.

My finished kolache got the thumbs up from my friend and from her mother. But I would still like the opportunity to bake with Monika. The pinching and pulling of each piece of dough into a smooth ball was not easy. It would be helpful to watch someone who has made many kolache do it.

And something about reviving a recipe that used to be a standard item made by every home cook is appealing to me. My mom routinely made doughnuts at home while I was growing up. Kolaches are definitely not as messy to make as doughnuts but they still certainly take time and effort to put together.

But just as the Czech language gave us the words Robot and Pistol, they also gave us this very appropriate saying:

Bez práce nejsou koláce

Translation: There are no cakes without work (or no pain, no gain!)

REDRum(ford)!!

2009-11-09T07:39:00.000-08:00

Just about the time I lost my cookie mojo, I also thought I had the biscuit blues.

Luckily, I was so focused on my chocolate chip cookie disaster that I didn't have time to investigate the mystery of the no longer towering treasures of flaky goodness.

Lucky because it took only a few sentences by food scientist and cookbook author Shirley Corriher at a recent Bakers Dozen meeting to put me back on the tall and narrow biscuit path. A few words by food scientist and author Harold McGee at that same meeting added a bit of reassurance as well.

In the Midwestern town where I grew up, we were geographically close enough to both the northern and southern parts of the state that you had your choice of flaky or fluffy biscuits. Flaky biscuits are high rising towers and fluffy biscuits are soft mounds. Just like the type of fat you use in your pie crust, your preference was probably determined by what was served at your dinner table.

For me, it was flaky biscuits. The biscuits my mom often stirred together to serve with her creamed chicken were tall and flaky but they also looked a bit like the Leaning Tower of Pisa. So maybe they weren't picture perfect in the looks department but I always liked how the slope gave me a perfect lever to open up the biscuit for a knob of butter.

Most southerners prefer the fluffy biscuits, which require soft flour like the famous White Lily brand. This low protein, soft flour encourages a tender, cake like texture.

No cake like biscuits for us though. We used "strong" high protein all-purpose flour. This flour ensured a chewier and crispier biscuit but without any sacrifice of the flaky interior.

Besides the difference in flour, there are also strong preferences in the type of fat used -- butter or shortening.

I once substituted butter for the Crisco shortening we traditionally used but the sacrifice in height and texture made it a stranger -- Crisco it had to be. After all, I would soon be slathering the biscuit in butter anyway!

We also didn't use buttermilk -- an exotic ingredient in my childhood home. Our recipe was a basic baking powder biscuit recipe calling for all-purpose flour, salt, baking powder, shortening and milk. This recipe can be found in countless cookbooks for the beginner cook and in classic home cookbooks. Part of the appeal of the recipe is that it can be mixed together quickly and in one bowl.

A few weeks ago we had gotten an early rainfall and the house was feeling very cozy. I decided some homemade chicken soup and biscuits were just the ticket for dinner that evening.

I quickly stirred a batch of biscuits together. My dough was a lovely mass of stickiness -- perfect texture. I think rolling the dough can make the biscuits tough so I gently patted the dough into a circle -- adding just a pinch of flour to the breadboard to get a nice smooth circle.

Twisting the biscuit cutter into the dough instead of making one sharp punch probably caused my mom's lopsided biscuits. I cut them close together to generate fewer scraps. I then like to place them close together on a cookie sheet -- this keeps them moist and gives them each other to lean on as a support when they start to rise. Although you could space them one inch apart and this would just give you a crustier and drier biscuit.

The finished biscuits were a disappointment. Instead of my towering treasures they were now small, hockey puck like mounds of dough. Edible yes, but barely. Of course, butter saves most things and it was certainly the savior that night.

A memory tugged at me as I reviewed whether I had done anything differently this time when I put the biscuits together. I realized that last winter the same low rise had happened to a batch of biscuits the few times I had made them during that busy winter.

Now, as I sat listening to Shirley Corriher and Harold McGee talk about the ongoing difficulties bakers have with baking soda and baking powder, I hear Shirley say an interesting thing that made my ears perk up.

"I'm a lazy cook," Corriher said. "It often takes me a bit before I get my cakes in the oven. Therefore I need to use a baking powder that does its magic primarily in the oven and not while sitting on my counter waiting to be baked."

And then her words that solved my biscuit mystery, "Avoid Rumford Baking Powder, it creates 60% of its bubbles in the first two minutes!" proclaimed Corriher.

What??

No wonder my biscuits were flat. Of course I knew that baking powder is what gives the nice rise to baked goods by introducing carbon dioxide into the batter and I also knew that there were different categories of baking powder: single, double, and fast-acting. Most grocery store brands are double-acting.

What I didn't realize is that although Rumford advertises itself as double-acting it in fact acts more like a single-acting baking powder. According to Corriher, Rumford gets most of its rise as soon as it is stirred into the batter and just a bit more in the oven. True double-acting baking powders give more oven rise.

I had grown up using Clabber Girl Baking Powder. In fact, it is produced in my hometown of Terre Haute, Indiana! It wasn't until recently that I realized that more serious bakers preferred the Rumford brand so of course, I had to switch to that brand. Later I found out that the makers of Clabber Girl also produce Rumford.

One of the reasons it appears that Rumford is preferred is that it is an all-phosphate baking powder -- it contains no aluminum.

This aluminum-free claim became a rallying cry several years ago as worries that excessive amounts of aluminum in the diet may contribute to Alzheimer's disease.

But according to Harold McGee, "You get more aluminum from eating a pickle than you do from eating half a cake."

Clabber Girl contains an acid that dissolves rapidly in liquid and an acid that does not dissolve until the batter reaches a higher temperature in the hot oven -- hence the double-acting label.

In her cookbook, Bakewise, Shirley Corriher has an excellent chart of Reaction Times of Leavening Acids During Baking. I also came across a great post on the different types of baking powders and their reaction times on the blog, thefreshloaf. Check out both of these if you want to find out more about the magic of baking powder.

I believe that just like measuring flour correctly (please buy a scale!), knowing what is in your baking powder is just as critical.

I also now know why some of my recent baking efforts didn't have the nice rise that I had expected from past efforts. Rumford literally was bursting my baking bubble(s)!

I'm back to being a Clabber Girl!

Beauty In the Eye of the Beholder: A Cookie Only A Mother Could Love!

2009-11-03T07:13:00.000-08:00

When my husband and I were first married and moved from Indiana to California, his mother still sent him care packages even though he wasn't in college anymore.

Cookie care packages. Actually, primarily one type of cookie.

At that point in my life, I didn't really have much time for baking beyond the occasional chocolate chip cookie so I was glad he was getting his fix.

The cookie she sent him was quite a humble little thing -- not attractive by any stretch of the imagination. And the fact that they usually arrived in many broken pieces didn't matter to him at all.

As the years went by, his mom had less time to make his favorite cookie so I assumed the cookie mantle.

This unattractive and humble tribute to all that is American about milk-and-cookie-time after a hard day at school is none other than Peanut Blossoms. The blossom part of the name makes it sound like a beautiful cookie now doesn't it?

In reality it is a Hershey Kiss set into the middle of a partially baked peanut butter cookie then baked a few minutes more to meld kiss and cookie together. A mouthful of peanut butter and chocolate very much like a very tall Reese cup.

And the origin of this family favorite? Just like ring-a-lings, Peanut Blossoms were also an entrant in a Pillsbury Bake-Off Contest. This time the year was 1957 and was created by Freda Smith of Gibsonburg, Ohio. I guess I shouldn't be surprised given that both of our moms were from the Midwest and were housewives during the 1950s but still, I think it is one more reason for our compatibility!

The Pillsbury Bake-Off Cookbook noted that sometimes this cookie is also called Brown-Eyed Susans but I think the Peanut Blossoms moniker is more fitting. Something about that pointy Hershey kiss makes the eye reference a bit jarring!

So, I gamely made this reminder of his childhood for every Christmas cookie platter.

Each year at the holidays, my large family would gather for our annual cookie bake. Although we now bring our finished cookies to our Christmas Eve gatherings, in the early years we would actually bake and exchange the cookies at one of our houses the week prior to Christmas. It was a flour and sugar fueled afternoon and it was a lot of fun.

In the beginning, I couldn't see how my humble cookie could compete with the beautifully decorated sugar cookies or laboriously piped Spritz cookies that were my mom's claim to cookie fame. How could a cookie that took so much less time and effort and was ugly to boot share the same cookie tin?

But I baked them each year although I made sure to bake a second cookie selection in an attempt to deflect from my ugly duckling cookie. But Peanut Blossoms were always a constant.

I think my family took them to be polite and they made their way into the trash once they were home!

But then an interesting thing happened: children. Once my siblings and I started having kids, the cookie exchange got bigger in scope and definitely a lot messier!

And the kids LOVED Peanut Blossoms!

And not just the cousins but in confirmation of the magic of genetics, my daughter shares her father's love of Peanut Blossoms. It is her favorite cookie.

These cookies also make an appearance at another time of the year other than Christmas -- October 24. See, one of my nieces loves them maybe even more than my daughter.

I bake them for her on her birthday each year. Not sure how this tradition started but it makes me happy to do it for her. She is one of the more quiet members of our large family. We don't talk a lot or are overly demonstrative with each other but we share a quiet compatibility. I like to think she knows I accept her just as she is and that I would show up if she needed me.

That might be a big burden for one humble cookie to bear but when she is off to college next year I have a feeling I'll be mailing a few care packages.

Peanut Blossoms

Typical of a cookie that has been around for so many years, many different recipes exist. The biggest difference is usually the choice between shortening and butter. The original recipe used shortening but I now use butter. I think it makes for a richer flavor but either one works.

This recipe is from the 1998 cookbook, FamilyFun's Cookies for Christmas. They also have a recipe on their website but it is different from the one in the cookbook. The only change I made is that I don't roll the dough balls in extra sugar before the first bake. I think it makes the cookies too crisp.

Peanut Butter Sealed with a Kiss

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour (spoon and sweep)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 9-ounce package chocolate kisses, unwrapped

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Cream the peanut butter, butter and sugars. Add the egg and vanilla.

Sift the flour, salt and baking soda together. Combine with the peanut butter mixture.

Shape the dough into 1 1/2-inch balls. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet about 2 inches apart.

Bake for 8 minutes, remove from the oven, and press a chocolate kiss into the center of each cookie. Bake for another 3 minutes.

Cool on a wire rack. Makes 40-50 cookies.

Lost and Found: Cookie Mojo!

2009-10-29T13:38:00.000-07:00

Mojo: urbandictionary.com:
Self-confidence, Self-assuredness. As in basis for belief in ones self in a situation.

I had been in such a pie baking frenzy (ipie, that is) that I hadn't been baking much else lately. But then I volunteered to bring cookies to a luncheon.

Not a big deal despite how busy I was. My go-to dessert in situations where I want to bring something special but don't have a lot of time is to bring a towering tray of my chocolate chip cookies.

I know, I know -- chocolate chip cookies don't usually fall into the oohh and ahhh category of baked goodies.

But through the years I had perfected this particular recipe. For people who tasted them for the first time, they quickly became a requested item. For those who had tasted them before, they were met with many happy smiles.

I often used them as edible thank you notes!

My daughter even used them as currency at school (and sometimes still does)!

I started freezing balls of cookie dough so I could quickly bake one or two in case of cookie emergencies like a bad day at work or unexpected guests.

I don't describe all of this to be boastful but so that when I say I lost it, the true loss is realized.

So, let me say: I lost it.

Not the recipe, my cookie mojo.

Several weeks before the luncheon I noticed I was running low on frozen cookie dough so I quickly stirred a batch together. I don't use a recipe anymore since I long ago memorized the simple ingredient list and instructions.

I usually bake a few of the cookies for my family to enjoy that day and then freeze the remainder.

I slid a few cookies onto a cookie sheet and popped the sheet into the oven.

Not knowing of the impending doom that was about to befall me, I innocently went about my morning chores as I waited for the timer to beep.

The cookies looked pretty good as I pulled them out of the oven - the dough had set around the edges but there was still a yummy softness in the center of each cookie. The top of each cookie was evenly browned.

But not on the bottom. As they cooled I took a look at the bottom of the cookies.

Burned!

It took me two more batches before I realized that something more was going on than just burned cookies. In fact, something was terribly wrong!

I had lost my cookie mojo!

And I wanted it back. Quickly. Not just because these cookies had become such a critical part of my baking identity, oh no. Let's just say that life had become a bit uncertain in these dire economic times and I didn't think I could bear for one more thing I relied on to be unchanging to be castaway.

Ok, perhaps that is unfair to put all of that emotion on a simple cookie but there you go.

Being of the test kitchen mindset, I got to work. All other baking projects were put on hold.

I decided that there were only a few variables that I needed to check:
Oven temperature
Cookie Sheet
Ingredients
Technique

Just a note about the weather, I didn't consider the weather to be the cause because during the weeks I tested and retested these cookies the weather didn't experience any real swings in humidity or temperature.

So since I knew my ingredients and techniques hadn't changed, I investigated the first two -- oven temperature and my baking pans.

Baker, know thy oven. Not having the oven at the correct temperature is generally the culprit in underdone or overdone baked goods. Long ago I bought an oven thermometer and I automatically slap it into my oven whenever I turn it on. I'm always surprised at the difference between when the light goes out indicating the correct temperature on the outside oven dial and what temperature the oven thermometer actually registers.

My usual method is to bake one cookie sheet at a time on the center rack. I rotate the cookie sheet halfway through the cooking time.

Many of the cookbooks I consulted recommended baking two sheets at a time with the oven racks on the upper and lower middle positions. Then bake reversing position of cookie sheets halfway through baking -- from top to bottom and front to back. Sounded exhausting.

Perhaps something had changed with my oven. I bought another thermometer (just in case) and tested the temperature. Then I baked a few cookies (I started only baking a few at a time given all my tests!) using the rotating method and different rack position. Still burned.

Perhaps my reliable but very old cookie sheets needed replaced? I'd been using rimless insulated cookie sheets for years. Did I detect a bit of warping?

Here again, cookbook authors differed in their opinion on what cookie sheets delivered the best results. The choices and combinations seemed endless: rimmed half-sheet pans, rimless pans, pans with one rimmed side only, double-thick insulated, dark sheets, shiny light-colored sheets, and so on.

One option that sounded intriguing was to double pan the cookie sheets together. Perhaps it was BOTH my oven temp AND my cookie sheet that were the problems??

I quickly put a couple of dough balls on the cookie sheet, set it on another cookie sheet then started the oven rack and rotating dance. I think my poor oven never got to one steady temp!

But still no change.

I was out of control. My family started to tiptoe around me as I continued to pull two cookies out of the oven, look at them, snarl, then toss them in the trash.

I even started questioning my technique after all of these years of using the same method. I remembered an article in The New York Times where writer David Leite reported on crucial elements to turn out the perfect chocolate chip cookies. I tried some of the ideas in the article but none of them made much of a difference.

But then I noticed something that hadn't caught my attention before about the cookies -- they weren't exactly burned on the bottom -- it was almost as if there were a windswept pattern of brownness. Some cookies looked like they had dark brown and light brown stripes! And the entire cookie looked not burned but more golden brown than usual.

Now this was really getting strange!

I surfed the Fine Cooking website -- this site has great baking tips and techniques. Nothing-new here.

I logged on the King Arthur Flour live chat online and chatted with a woman about my cookie dilemma but she was stumped. She very nicely said she would check with their test kitchen and send me an email later with their suggestions. And she actually did send me an email later that same day which I thought was very cool. Their suggestion: double pan your cookie sheets.

Oh well. I decided to take a cookie break for a few days and think through all my testing and what I had learned.

And that turned out to be what I had forgotten. Did I ever mention that I'm a big fan of Sherlock Holmes?

Let's just say that I forgot what his creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle had to say:

"...when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."

I went back to my ingredients. And there it was. All I had to do was test my theory.

As we all know, baking soda is a type of chemical leavener that gives baked good their desired rise. It reacts with acids to create carbon dioxide gas which create the lovely bubbles that make our cakes and cookies rise.

The types of acids that baking soda neutralizes includes sour cream, buttermilk, honey, brown sugar, cocoa and molasses.

Most cookbooks tell you to measure baking soda carefully because if you use more than can be neutralized by the acidic ingredient, you can end up with a soapy or metallic tasting cookie with a coarse crumb.

But baking soda not only neutralizes acidity, it enhances the BROWNING of a batter -- like a gingerbread or carrot cake batter.

The sugar in my recipe is primarily brown sugar.

Could it POSSIBLY be that I hadn't measured my ingredients carefully enough and had used too much baking soda? Had this recipe become so known to me that I was no longer as exact as I should be?

Had I forgotten what Rose Levy Beranbaum had said:
"Bakers are born, not made. We are exacting people who delight in submitting ourselves to rules and formulas if it means achieving repeatable perfection."

Well, yes, as it turned out.

So I measured each ingredient carefully. I baked a batch.

They were beautiful -- top and bottom. I baked a few more batches just to be certain.

While I was glad I had figured out the mystery and had my cookie mojo back, I felt chastened.

A few days later an email popped into my inbox from a fellow member of the Bakers Dozen organization. Seems this baker had a recipe that he made all the time and all of a sudden it wouldn't work anymore.....

The emails back and forth from the bakers trying to help him out reassured me and reminded me that we bakers never stop learning (and relearning).

But what really reassured me happened just this week at a Bakers Dozen meeting. Food scientists and authors Shirley Corriher and Harold McGee were the featured speakers.

Before the formal presentation began, I asked Harold McGee for his thoughts on the evils of baking soda. He laughed and said that because baking soda gives so much trouble to so many bakers that both he and Shirley Corriher were going to open their presentation with a discussion of baking soda! Cookbook author Flo Braker had organized this event and had specifically asked them to talk about baking soda.

And in fact McGee spoke not only about the more common problems associated with baking soda -- soapy taste, coarse crumb, but he also talked about the overbrowning of batter that can happen.

Corriher added "baking soda (over leavening) is the cause of most baking problems!"
She also agreed "there is a humbling experience for every cook just around the corner!"

Come to think of it, how did I ever come to underestimate that little orange box? After all, a product that is used to soak up odors in my fridge and garbage disposal, used as a cleaning product for my bathroom, makes my stomach feel better and my teeth whiter must be one powerful product!

So I think there should be a campaign to have a warning label put on each box of baking soda:
"proceed at your own risk -- not for sissies!"

Stress Cannot Exist in the Presence of Pie!

2009-09-30T17:17:00.000-07:00

As I flip to the first page of my notebook, I note that it all started in early January 2009.

The "it" being my obsession with pie. And not just your usual 9-inch pie.

Small pies. Pies about 3-inches in diameter.

My mom, the inspiration for this blog, had been hospitalized after a fall.

Each night after visiting her, I found myself heading to the kitchen first for a glass of wine then reaching for the flour and butter and my favorite rolling pin.

I'm not sure why I reached for the cupcake pan instead of the faded pink pie plate that had been hers before we moved her to the Alzheimer's facility.

Somehow I felt the need to reinvent the pie.

Month's later people would ask me if I became obsessed with pie because I was simply tired of all the cupcake shops that had opened nearby or of reading about the latest cupcake craze in almost every food magazine and newspaper.

Maybe. But although not a fan of the three-inch high frosting on some of these cupcakes, I actually do like them. And I admire the cute shops and acknowledge all the work that had gone into testing those recipes and opening those shops.

My first attempts at putting dough in muffin pan and filling with fresh peaches, and a bit of ginger were not attractive although tasty. The bottom of each pie had big dimples as though I had pushed my finger into the bottom while they baked.

As January turned into February, I tried all kinds of crimping to the edges of the pie: checkerboard, flute, point and scallop, among others -- because I'm a double-crust girl at heart. Nothing against crumb toppings or pumpkin pie but double-crust will always be my first choice.

Some of the crimping looked good but others simply failed and my top crust popped off the bottom crust like a jack-in-the-box albeit with oozing peach juice instead of a clown.

I experimented with different sized cookie cutters -- I wanted my final product to be about 3-inches in diameter but that meant starting with either a five, four or 4.5-inch cookie cutter. I tried all the combinations.

I haunted cooking stores and checked out every pie book from my library.

In mid-February, my mom passed away. As we dealt with all the details of dealing with my dad, organizing her service, etc., my pie experiments stopped.

But I didn't quit thinking about them. In odd moments I would research pie on the Internet or browse my local bookstore.

In April, I began to fill the notebook again.

Now I began to focus on perfect cooking times, different fillings, the perfect crust.

I decided I wanted people to be able to eat the pie as they would a cupcake -- straight out of the bag without a fork and plate.

That meant a sturdy dough that wasn't all butter or shortening but yet still flaky and tender.
The perfect dough ended up being a combination of butter and cream cheese.

For awhile I tried different combinations of flour but then decided I wanted to make the recipe accessible to all and not dependent on hard to find specialty flours.

I tried to eliminate the gap between the top crust and my fruit fillings. Sometimes I was successful, sometimes not. Organic fruit seemed to cook down the most. I turned to the experts to find a solution including Rose Levy Beranbaum and Shirley Corrihe r as well as the online chat help at the King Arthur Flour Company!

I tried their solutions but in the end, decided that I would mound the fruit as high as possible, stretch the top crust over it and be done with it. My testers liked that they could bite into the pie without fruit squirting all over the place.

In June I contacted the farmers' market in Palo Alto. This market is one of the premier markets on the San Francisco Peninsula with its primary focus on agriculture. But they do have a few bakers and other specialty products in the market.

Many board meetings and taste tests later; they invited me to join the market in September. After suffering through the food safety exam required by the county and my hunt for a commercial kitchen, I was in business.

So, let me introduce individual pies or as I named them, ipies. You can see more about my adventures at the farmers' market at theipiestore.com

I've really enjoyed talking to folks at the market about their favorite pie memories. I notice that most people walk up to my stand and announce that they are a pie person. I love that.

It is almost like a code word that helps me to identify them and actually, it kind of does. It tells me a lot about them. It tells me that they are optimistic at heart because I believe pie is optimistic.

And as I learned over these long and fun months of testing and retesting,"stress cannot exist in the presence of pie" as declared by playwright David Mamet and confirmed by me.

Popovers: A Lot of Hot Air

2009-09-09T07:05:00.000-07:00

I had quite the urge to bake popovers last week. Maybe it was the slight chill in the morning air that spelled the end of summer or maybe it was just my love of slathering butter on baked goodies but I had the urge to revisit a treat that I hadn't had for quite some time.

I remember looking forward to lunch at Neiman-Marcus a few years ago when I learned that popovers were always served at lunch. And not just any popovers but GIANT popovers.

Unfortunately, although they did have an impressive height, those dried out shells were not related to the popovers of my memory. The popovers I craved were tall yes, but the crisp exterior hid a custard interior that cried out for butter and sometimes jam as well.

Growing up, my mom would make popovers for the big meal of the week -- Sunday dinner. Sunday dinner was generally served around 1 p.m. on Sunday and the quantity of food prepared would ensure leftovers for the week -- even in my large family of seven.

I think part of what made popovers so special is that they really don't wait for anyone -- once they are out of the oven, they need to be consumed fast. They deflate quickly and lose any crispness that they might have had. Sure, recipes will instruct you to make them ahead for your dinner party then re-crisp them in the oven but trust me, the results dim next to popovers right out of the oven.

Mom baked them in clear custard cups set on a rimmed baking sheet. And she made just the basic popovers -- no fancy add-ins like Gruyere cheese or chives like you see in some cookbooks. Once they were ready, we all had to sit down immediately before their high hats deflated. I think there was a bit of the showman in my mom. We loved them though -- my brother and I could put away at least five each of those custardy goodies.

But big midday Sunday dinners don't happen at my house and fancy weeknight dinners don't happen much either. But I didn't want to wait for a special occasion to make them.

But one of the other great things about popovers is they are just as much at home on the breakfast table as on the dinner table.

And although popovers look like they are really hard to make -- nothing could be further from the truth -- although it is nice to blush and say, "oh it was nothing" when your dinner guests gush compliments at their appearance at your dinner party.

In fact, most popover recipes consist of just five ingredients -- flour, salt, eggs, milk and butter. It is hard to believe that a thin batter from just those four ingredients can pop up in the oven to almost triple their original height without help from any leavening agent.

The height is thanks to the steam released during baking to make what is really just a giant bubble.

Since I didn't have my mom's original recipe, I thought I would just pick a recipe from one of my many cookbooks. The first recipe I found looked pretty good but I kept looking. Then I felt like I was back in school trying to solve one of those horrid word problems (you know, "if a train leaves the station at 9 a.m and......) as I realized all the different variables that were possible.

It seems beyond those simple ingredients, almost every cookbook and every cook will give you "the secret" on just how to bake the combination of those simple five ingredients in order to achieve the maximum height.

Unfortunately, I found that the secret was different for each cook. The secret could be:
•only use a hot oven
•only use a cold oven
•start with a blast of heat in a hot oven then turn down to moderate oven
•preheat not only the oven but also the pan
•put batter in a cold pan
•all ingredients at room temperature
•it doesn't matter if the batter is chilled
•use a blender
•don't use a blender -- mix batter gently just until combined
•bake 50 minutes
•bake 20 minutes
•use a special pan made just for popovers called a popover plaque or gem pan
•use a muffin tin, no special pan needed
•only use whole milk
•use bleached flour
•let the batter stand for one hour
•use the batter immediately

You get the general idea!

As Dr. Seuss so eloquently put it in his poem, My Uncle Terwilliger on the Art of Eating Popovers,: "To eat these things, said my uncle, you must exercise great care."

Eating? Well, what about BAKING them?

Well, in the interest of once again enjoying popovers (and because I love a challenge) I tried five different batches of popovers using a combination of the above variables.

But although (most) of my popovers tasted good, they had no pop at all. Plus I had a hard time getting them to even pop out of the pan!

After scraping the last batch out of the muffin tin with the aid of elbow grease and an SOS pad, I decided to take charge and make up my OWN criteria.

Because I wanted to make these as a breakfast treat during the week, I needed a recipe that would be quick to mix and bake. To protect my sanity, I decided that my popover recipe had to have the following criteria:
•preheated oven
•no preheated pan
•ingredients would be chilled and sometimes I would even make the batter the night before then give it a quick whisk in the morning
•no special popover pan
•use unbleached flour because I always have it on hand
•use 1% milk or whatever I had on hand -- and I rarely had whole milk in the fridge
•no longer than 25-30 minutes to bake

I had glanced at the popover recipe in The Baker's Dozen Cookbook but dismissed it because the author used vegetable oil instead of butter -- that sounded unappealing to me. The recipe also called for vanilla which was unusual in a popover recipe.

But then I read the complete recipe again and read these words by well-known baker John Phillip Carroll who had created this particular recipe for this project, "The eggs and milk can be chilled or at room temperature; use unbleached or all-purpose flour. These variables won't make any difference in the popovers." And while he advocated the use of a popover pan he said, "don't let the lack of a pan stop you from bringing these delicate puffs of pastry into your life."

I liked his attitude!

And so using my criteria and his recipe, I had the chance once again to be a magician with only a few ingredients and a hot oven.

(and they really do look amazing baked in a special popover pan if you want to splurge for one!)

Angel Food Cake: Snow White Perfection

2009-08-26T12:49:00.001-07:00

Not long ago I asked a friend who had a birthday coming up if he was excited to dig in to his special birthday cake. When he looked puzzled, I said you know, the one you had for each and every birthday when you were growing up and now that you are married, the one your wife bakes for you each year.

He looked at me like I was crazy. He asked me what I was talking about – he sometimes had a cake but often he didn’t even have a cake on his special day.

I thought EVERYONE had their very own special birthday cake that was baked just for them to celebrate their birthday.

Now, I don’t mean an individual cake meant to be eaten only by them.

What I mean is the same type of cake that they had YEAR after YEAR after YEAR on their birthday that was then poked with candles, lit on fire, then shared by all.

For example, my mom always baked an angel food cake for my birthday. And not just any angel food cake – my cake had been baked with confetti sprinkles folded into the batter so each slice included an exploded rainbow of color.

And each of my four siblings had their own special cake.

Having our own special birthday cake became yet another way we labeled each other in my family like being left handed or the one with the green eyes or the one who is best at card games or who could sew the best.

I knew this wasn’t just special to my family because my husband’s birthday cake while he was growing up was always, as he puts it, “white cake with white frosting” – he didn’t specify what type that white frosting was but I get the general idea.

But maybe it was a quirk of growing up in the mid-west as we both had. We certainly love our regional dishes -- I was particularly fond of pork tenderloin sandwiches.

But then I found out that the favored birthday cake of my sister-in-laws husband who grew up on the east coast is banana whipped cream cake. That cake is truly unique. Here is how my sister-in-law described the recipe:

“You take 2 8-inch rounds of yellow cake and slice them down the center. Whip cream with sugar and a little vanilla and then slice several bananas. Layer the cake with bananas and cream then cover it with the whipped cream. It tastes the best the next day after it has sat in the fridge overnight.”

Not exactly a gourmet cake but I have actually tasted that cake and it is pretty darn good! But this cake didn’t make the cut on a technicality – this cake was made for all family birthdays – not just her husband’s birthday.

One has to wonder how those cakes became identified with a specific kid. My mom loved to bake and here was yet another way she could indulge her passion. I certainly didn’t know that angel food cake was my favorite when I was only a year old. As I got older and also became passionate about baking, I often wondered why my mom who was such an accomplished baker would always use a cake mix when she baked cakes.

I never got to ask her but my guess is that at the time she was baking, cake mixes where seen as the modern way to bake cakes.

So, while she labored over her other creations – ring-a-lings, pies, homemade noodles, etc., she looked to Betty Crocker and Duncan Hines to celebrate birthdays.

But our special birthday cakes came to an end as the monster known as Alzheimer’s swallowed up my mom.

So there have been a few years where I also didn’t have my special birthday cake made by my mom and it has been a long time since I have bought a cake mix.

I didn’t intend to resurrect the angel food cake tradition but over the last few months the thought of making one has tugged at my thoughts.

In April, at the Baker’s Dozen Anniversary Celebration, we were asked to bring a recipe from the Baker’s Dozen Cookbook to help celebrate the day.

I decided to bake an angel food cake using Flo Braker’s recipe from the Baker’s Dozen Cookbook.

My finished cake looked ok and tasted ok but I was finding it hard to remember why I liked it so much.

As I mentioned in my post about the Baker’s Dozen celebration, Flo Braker commented that the photo in the Baker’s Dozen cookbook was not of a cake that she had baked. Actually, she said, “not that ugly brown thing!”

According to Braker the exterior of an angel food cake can be snowy white – as white as the interior.

Since my finished cake was certainly brown, I desperately hoped that she hadn’t seen it yet. I vowed then to try to bake one that was as snow-white and as tender as she said it should be.

Over the next few months I asked other baker’s their thoughts about brown angel food cake vs. snow-white angel food cake. Not surprisingly, most had never thought of angel food cake as any other way other than with the brown exterior.

Maybe I heard wrong – I decided to double check with Evie Lieb of The Chocolate Cake recipe fame and who had been at the same table when Flo Braker made her statement.

Evie confirmed Braker’s statement and pointed me to an article on the Fine Cooking Magazine's website that included detailed instructions on Braker’s technique for baking the perfect angel food cake.

Then I had the good fortune to actually run into Braker at our local farmer’s market. She confirmed that it was possible to bake an angel food cake that would “slip out of” its brown exterior – the brown crust would be left behind in the tube pan.

And finally, my birthday was fast approaching. Time to bake an angel food cake.

Although the recipe has only seven ingredients and comes together quickly, this is a cake that is all about technique. An angel food cake is a type of sponge cake – in contrast to butter cakes.

According to Flo Braker in her book The Simple Art of Perfect Baking, “ The methods for making these cakes are unlike those used to make butter cakes. The egg is to the sponge cake what butter is to the butter cake, and making a perfect sponge cake depends on how well you whip the eggs to create what is known as a foam.”

In the Baker’s Dozen Cookbook, Braker outlines the techniques that will result in a delicate and tender cake. I highly recommend checking out her recommendations in that cookbook as well as her articles on this subject online at the Fine Cooking Magazine website.

Probably the most important technique that I hadn’t paid much attention to was the temperature of the egg whites – Braker recommends 60 degrees instead of the room temperature 70 degrees that most cookbooks recommend.

According to Braker, “You want whites that are whipped to the optimum, but not necessarily the maximum, capacity. Angel food cake needs a smooth, shiny, and soft meringue that will incorporate easily with the other ingredients, leaving room to expand in the oven.”

Bottom line, stiffly beaten egg whites are too stiff to be folded correctly into the other ingredients.

For the first cake I made I left the egg whites out in the mixer bowl for one hour. I had a hard time getting them to 60 degrees because of the weather that day. The second time it only took a half hour. So, keep checking the temperature with an instant read thermometer after about 15 minutes.

But, now for the hard part – getting the brown exterior to stay in the pan.

According to Braker, the trick is to leave the cake upside down on a bottle or on the pan’s feet at least four hours or overnight if possible – not just for a few hours as most recipes state. Then, turn the pan right side up and run a thin knife around the edges. Don’t worry about the center tube. Turn the pan on its side. Tap the pan on the counter and rotate. Then carefully tap the bottom of the pan and release the cake.

Both my test cakes came out almost completely white -- if not snow-white, certainly closer to white than brown. What didn’t come off I could easily rub off with my fingers. This was a beautiful cake and because I had followed the other techniques, the cake almost melted in my mouth.

The reason I made a second cake was not so much to perfect my technique although that was certainly a factor. I needed my confetti! I gently folded in sprinkles into the batter. You could just see a hint of the sprinkles on the exterior of the cake as it slipped out of the pan.

And on the inside? Well, happy birthday to me.

In Search of Lost Time -- Memories and Taste

2009-08-15T11:12:00.000-07:00

After I wrote about inheriting my Grandmother's cookbook, The Household Searchlight Recipe Book, I received an email from Judy in Oregon:

"That was one of two main cookbooks my mother used and from which I learned to cook. I am now 63 years old and have not seen that cookbook for over 40 years, but there is one recipe I truly miss and would love to have again."

"It's a one-crust pie made with sour cream and has a streusel top crust as I remember. It is so-o-o-o-o-o-o good!"

Judy was hoping I could send her the recipe fro Apple Cream Pie that she had such fond memories of baking and eating.

I turned to the pie section but no apple cream pie recipe was listed. But then I checked out the index and found it listed under Special Suggestions at the end of the cookbook -- go figure. But I was relieved; I didn't want to disappoint Judy!

I emailed her the recipe and then checked in with her a few weeks later. I wanted to see if it was as good as she remembered:

"I made the pie the next day and it was fabulous. I've had other sour cream apple pies through the years, but never as good as that one. Making that pie again took me right back to my youth and the cooking I used to do on our 1950s GE Pushbutton Range."

I was glad to help Judy relive a cherished taste memory. This got me wondering about just that -- taste memory or to use the term coined by Marcel Proust as he munched on those madeleines, involuntary memory (sounds better in his native French: souvenir involontaire).

I often wonder what will be the dishes from her childhood that my daughter will remember when she is older. Will she crave the chocolate chip coffeecake that we always make on Christmas morning? Or will it be the endless batches of my chocolate chip cookies that she often uses as currency at school? I often find myself wondering as I bake if this pie or cake will become a favorite.

That's part of the fun of baking and the challenge as well.

For me the taste of a ring-a-ling brings memories of Sunday mornings in the house where I grew up. For my sister, the perfect coconut macaroon evokes memories of Christmas mornings and for my sister-in-law, it's a sugar cream pie that transports her back to growing up on a farm in Indiana.

And it isn't just the taste that can transport us back to another time. In an article for The New York Times Magazine, cookbook author and food writer Molly O'Neill said, "Indeed, taste summons memory, but context imbues it."

So it isn't just the taste of the ring-a-ling that makes up my good feeling it is the ability of that taste to transport me back to the kitchen in my childhood home where I'm standing on a stepstool watching my mom fill and shape yeast dough into ring-a-lings while the smell of cinnamon and baking bread fills the air. It is the smell of the honeysuckle outside the window that drifts in as we bake and the hot and humid air that hangs heavy around us.

The context of that taste memory makes it a cherished memory. And in the same way, Judy remembered more than just how good that pie was, she was transported "right back to my youth and the cooking I used to do on our 1950s GE Pushbutton Range."

In a piece for The New Yorker, cookbook author Madhur Jaffrey relates a question posed to her husband who is a musician, "Can you hear the music as you read it?" In a similar way, even thought it was decades before I made my own batch of ring-a-lings, my taste memory had recorded much of what I needed to know to recreate them.

My grandmother used to wear an apron that almost looked like a dress. It completely covered her from the neck down -- it resembled a hospital gown with its full coverage in the front and exposed back. These aprons always had a flower pattern -- usually an explosion of wildflowers. The edges were often trimmed in white rickrack (talk about memories -- where did that word come from!)

I found just such an apron one day as I was poking around a vintage clothing store. It only seemed appropriate to wear this apron as I used my Grandmother's cookbook to make Judy's cherished Apple Cream Pie.

Like many older cookbooks, this one assumed that you grew up at your Grandmother's knee making these recipes. As such, a general assumption of baking knowledge was assumed. The recipe didn't elaborate on many of the details. For example, no mention of size or type of pan to use, no details on whether the butter for the topping should be soft, firm or melted. And bake in a hot oven then a slow oven? Huh? And is the pastry shell prebaked or partially baked? And how should I know when it was done -- what should I look for at the end of the baking time?

But I used my memories to assemble and bake the pie. I did know what to do simply because I did help my mother bake. My souvenir involontaire kicked in.

The day I baked the pie it was way to hot to be baking pies and apples weren't exactly in season but I didn't want to wait any longer to make Judy's pie. I decided to stay in the spirit of the book and use the book's recipe for piecrust. It was a standard shortening crust and was called simply, Plain Pastry, in the cookbook.

The finished pie was truly as fabulous as Judy promised. It reminded me (taste memory) of the apple puffed pancake my husband bakes every Christmas morning.

I would not have made this pie if I hadn't received that email from Judy. I'm of the two-crust pie with a fruit filling camp. But this pie was irresistible. It tasted even better right out of the fridge and it only got better the next day as the flavors deepened.

This pie would be right at home on the Thanksgiving buffet next to the pumpkin pie. The melding of sour cream and apples baked into a custard then topped with a buttery cinnamon streusel is a taste memory that will linger long after the pie was gone.

Apple Cream Pie

Mrs. Roy B. Olsen, Driscoll, N.D.

From The Household Searchlight Recipe Book, versions 1931

(no changes made to recipe. Use whatever piecrust you prefer)

2 cups finely chopped tart apples
3/4 cup sugar
2 Tablespoons flour
1 cup sour cream 1 egg, well beaten
1/2 teaspoon vanilla flavoring
1/8 teaspoon salt

Combine sugar and flour. Add cream, egg, flavoring and salt. Beat until smooth. Add apples. Mix thoroughly. Pour into pastry-lined pie pan. Bake in hot oven (450 degrees) 15 minutes; reduce heat to 325 degrees and bake 30 minutes. Remove from oven.
Combine 1/3 cup sugar, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/3 cup flour, and 1/4 butter or butter alternate. Mix thoroughly. Sprinkle over pie. Return to oven. Bake in slow oven (325 degrees) 20 minutes.

The Buzz Is On!!!

2009-08-08T09:41:00.000-07:00

In May I received a “save the date” email from the Bakers Dozens membership for upcoming field trips and other meetings.

This year the summer field trip for the bakers would be at Marshall’s Honey Farm in Napa Valley.

Not being a big fan of honey, I didn’t really take much note of the field trip. Sure, I had a plastic bottle shaped like a bear in my pantry.

My husband was the one who liked honey – he put it on his peanut butter sandwiches. Sometimes I would buy a jar of unusual honey, like white honey, to put in the toe of his Christmas stocking.

Instead I noted the October meeting on my calendar since it would be with authors Harold McGee and Shirley Corriher. Now, that was a meeting I didn’t want to miss.

But then a strange thing happened. I started noticing one article after another on honey and bees.

The first article I noticed was an announcement of a shop that had just opened in June in San Francisco. This shop is called Her Majesty’s Secret Beekeeper. Owner Cameo Wood is an urban beekeeper and her shops carries not only honey, candles and other honey related products, but she also offers some most unusual classes including how to get started in becoming a beekeeper.

Hmm, urban beekeepers? Sounded like crazy talk. But I vowed to check out her shop. Being an avid Sherlock Holmes fan, I liked the name she had given her shop.

Then in early July, Florida became the first state (and actually probably the first in the world) to regulate honey. The regulation prohibits any additives, chemicals or adulterants in honey produced, processed or sold in Florida, which is a big producer of honey.

Regulate honey?

It seems that children’s toys and pet food from China aren’t the only products that this government produces that can make us sick. The claim is that honey is being shipped to the U.S. from China and other countries that are full of additives and much worse.

Then I heard about an upcoming PBS show on bees called “Silence of the Bees.” Like many, I had heard that the honeybee population was on the decline but I had chalked it up to another bad thing caused by global warming.

But it turns out that the disappearance of the honeybee is a mystery that Sherlock Holmes would have relished.

According to an article in Environmental Nutrition, it all started in the fall of 2006 when beekeepers around the world reported that honeybee colonies were mysteriously missing large number of bees. In 2007 the mystery was given the name of colony collapse disorder. According to this article, “colony collapse disorder is a syndrome characterized by the disappearance of all adult honey bees in a hive while immature bees and honey remain. “

The PBS documentary, while not putting its finger on one reason for the collapse of the hives, did identify several possible causes including new pathogens and pests in our environment as well as the push to use hives to supply pollination services.

Hoping to help the bees recover and in the interest of riding the trend of all foods being as local as possible, some chefs are actually raising their own bees.

An article in Caterer and Hotelkeeper noted that the Royal Lancaster hotel in London installed beehives on its roof in an effort to reverse the worldwide decline in honeybees. The hotel, situated next to Hyde Park, is an ideal stomping ground for the bees to flourish. And of course the restaurant in the hotel is looking forward to the use of all that honey produced by the hive.

Closer to home, two chefs in the Washington, D.C. area are also tending to their own hives.

It seems that foodies as well as the mainstream press are all on the bee bandwagon.

In the Atlantic Magazine, writer Ryan Bradley has been treating his readers to the saga of his parents in their new role as urban beekeepers.

And in a recent article for the Los Angeles Times Magazine, writer Amy Seidenwurm talks about her adventures in beekeeping and how she was able to use the honey to create a honey driven menu for the exclusive, “Friends Cook at Canele Restaurant “ gig.

The day of the tour at Marshall’s was grey and chilly – a typical summer morning in northern California. The farm is located on the outskirts off the Napa Valley – I must have passed it numerous times on my way to the wineries. As I pulled into the dirt lane that I assumed must be the parking area, I noticed two or three ramshackle buildings – none of which I thought could be the heart of an artisan honey farm.

About 40 of us bakers shivered in the gloom as we waited for owners Spencer and Helene Marshall to begin their talk and tour. Kittens that must have been only a few weeks old threaded their way through our group. I picked up one of the kittens and nuzzled its fur – honey – the kitten smelled like honey!

As I have found over and over again in meeting with small business owners in the food business, Helene and Spencer are very down to earth and passionate about what they do and the product they make.

They gave us the history of how they started their business and how grateful they are that after all these years -- the foodie spotlight was on honey. As Helene put it, “there is a new appreciation for ingredients in our own backyards.”

Their farm has about 600 hives in 70 different locations. They have been around for many years – they provided honey to Postrio restaurant when that restaurant first opened their doors and delivered honey to Whole Foods when it was just a local grocery store. They use no chemicals or antibiotics on their hives.

Helene said that they think of themselves almost as modern day cowboys as they herd their hives around California to assist farmers in pollinating their crops. But they are adamant in not overly stressing their bees by constantly moving them outside of California to various farms as other beekeepers so often do. They agree that these pollination trips might be one of the possible factors in the colony collapse disorder.

We toured the farm including the shed where they remove the wax from the combs, spin the combs and drip the honey into a bucket to be put into small stainless steel vats. Each vat has a different type of honey.

Then it was time for the tasting and also food pairing. As I mentioned, I wasn’t a big fan of the taste of honey so I didn’t intend to taste too much honey.

But then I tasted the orange blossom honey and then the blackberry honey.
Turns out my notion of what honey should taste like was limited, to say the least.

I tasted wildflower, alfalfa, almond blossom, and clover honey among many others.

The food pairing included a fragrant blue cheese topped with a bit of honeycomb all on a rice cracker -- an easy and tasty appetizer. I commented to Helene that I would love to buy some of their honeycomb but had missed out on the limited amount offered for sale that day.

Helene asked me to follow her to the honey-processing shed. She pulled out another honeycomb, asked me how much I wanted and cut a chunk right off the comb.

It doesn’t get much more local than that.

When I returned home, I searched my cookbooks for a recipe that would highlight the flavor of the orange blossom honey I had brought home.

The Honey Peanut Wafers from The Modern Baker by Nick Malgieri was just the right vehicle. These thin and sticky cookies were chewy and full of the great taste of my honey - the honey that Spencer had filled a jar with from one of the vats, screwed on a lid and slapped on a label indicating the varietal -- just for me.

A few days later I visited the Santa Monica Farmer’s Market. I couldn’t resist chatting with Bill Lewis, beekeeper and owner of Bill’s Bees. I told him about my tour and how I was a converted honey lover. He seemed gratified not only that I knew a bit about the work involved in keeping bees, but also that I understood his passion for beekeeping. By the way, L.A. Magazine named Bill’s honey Best Local Honey in 2008.

Somehow I don’t think it will be too much longer before we start seeing more chefs keeping their own hives and see honey identified by place of origin and type on menus.

And of course I have to say that when that happens, it will be BEE-UTIFUL! Had to say it.

Daring Bakers Challenge: Marsh(mallow) Madness

2009-07-27T14:54:00.000-07:00

The July Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Nicole at Sweet Tooth. She chose Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Cookies and Milan Cookies from pastry chef Gale Gand of the Food Network.

The Bakers were given the option to make both the Marshmallow and Milan cookies or just one of the recipes.

With the completion of this challenge, I’ve been a member of the Daring Bakers for one year.

And what an educational and sweet year it has been.

I’ve piped dough for éclairs, sweated through a layer cake with five different complicated steps, stretched strudel dough and learned about Bakewell Tarts and murder.

Probably the challenge that was the most fun was learning to toss pizza dough!

Several of the recipes became favorites, like the caramel cake, and some were best forgotten, like that layer cake.

And it has been fun to see how differently the other bakers approached each challenge. It often seemed that the more than 1000 members had that many different ways to interpret each challenge.

For this month’s challenge, I chose to focus only on the Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Cookies. I was excited to try my hand at making marshmallows. Making marshmallows has become the latest bakery treat but I hadn’t yet attempted to make a batch.

I flipped through a few of my newer cookbooks and was surprised to find only one or two that had recipes for making marshmallows. I plan to try both the recipes by Dorie Greenspan in her book, Baking: From My Home to Yours and also the recipes by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito in their recent book, Baked: New Frontiers in Baking.

I had to go all the way back to my cookbooks from the 1940s and 1950s to find recipes for making marshmallow.

It appears that once technology made it possible for marshmallows to be commercially produced in 1948 and became available as a standard grocery store product, it was no longer considered a skill cooks needed to have in their repertoire.

These cookies are also called Mallows by the host of this challenge but when I was growing up, we called them Mallomars.

Introduced in the U.S. in 1913 by Nabisco, a Mallomar is a graham cracker cookie topped with marshmallow then dipped in dark chocolate (the Nabisco description says “enrobed in chocolate!”).

Similar cookies have been around for hundreds of years. Many countries have their own version. Most likely the first “mallomar” was created in Denmark.

The cookie base in this recipe was more shortbread in consistency than graham cracker. I would be happy just having them on their own with a cup of tea.

The marshmallow component was the hard part of this challenge and my kitchen and almost every utensil shows traces of my efforts (not to mention my hair and clothes).

I had thought that the marshmallow would be made in a pan then cut to fit the cookie base. But of course that would have been too easy.

The recipe called for the ingredients to be whipped to stiff peaks then piped from a pastry bag onto the cookie paste. Not easy and very messy.

But it worked ok. But I hadn’t factored in Mother Nature.

As all bakers know, one of the most important ingredients in any baking project is the weather. A change in humidity or too hot or cold weather can alter any baking result.

In this case, although I live in Northern California where we don’t really have too many hot days or any humidity to complain about, this particular day was hotter than normal and there was a slight humid feel to the air.

So while the marshmallow did set up pretty well – not great though, the chocolate that I then dipped each cookie into did not.

Then I discovered an interesting fact about Mallomars – Nabisco considers them a seasonal product. Mallomars are only available from October-April then they disappear!

It appears that many people across the country anxiously await the appearance of that yellow box in their grocery stores.

Even amazon.com shows the Mallomar as a product you can order online but if you try to order them now, they show as currently unavailable. The product description on amazon says, “product sensitive to heat”. You can even sign up to be notified when the product is available.

An article from the New York Times in 2005 titled, The Cookie that Comes Out in The Cold, focuses on the reappearance of this treasured cookie when the cold weather hits.

There are also numerous fan websites dedicated to singing the praise of this humble cookie. Movies, TV and print have all paid homage to the Mallomar.

I had no idea the Mallomar inspired such rapture and frenzy in its dedicated followers. I personally was a pink Sno-Ball fan…

So now it makes more sense to me why my cookies failed.

But of course now I want a box. I wonder if there is a limit to the number of boxes you can order on amazon………

Sour Cherries: Rare as Rubies

2009-07-22T07:07:00.000-07:00

It all started with an email.

The email was from a fellow member of the Baker’s Dozen that was sent to the general membership. Jennie Schacht from Schacht & Associates wanted to know where oh where she could get fresh sour cherries in the SF Bay Area.

I read her email then followed the thread of responses with growing interest. I had no idea how hard it was to find sour (also called tart) cherries in this area.

I had no idea because having grown up in the Mid-West, finding sour cherries wasn’t a big deal. And for me, it was especially easy because we had a cherry tree in our back yard!

Every springtime our cherry tree would be thick with white blossoms foretelling the bounty we would soon harvest. And every June we would have Montmorency sour cherries – baskets and baskets of them.

My mom, who worked full time, had quite the difficult time keeping up with the harvest. Having grown up during the Great Depression, it went against her thrifty nature to waste anything.

As the youngest of five, the best way to get some of her time was to bake with her on her rare day off. And bake I did – pies, cakes, cookies, -- many a Sunday was spent rolling dough.

She would put up jars and jars of cherry jam. She would make lots of cherry pies. And when she was overwhelmed with too many cherries, she would make cherry cobbler.

I know that depending upon where you live or where you grew up, there is more than one definition of what makes something a cobbler as well as differing opinions on how to make a cobbler.

All I know is that in my house, cobbler was something that was made in a glass casserole dish that measured 9x13 and had a top crust only; no bottom crust. The crust was basic pie dough made from Crisco.

I guess this must have been my mom’s version of pie fast food – a way to use up a lot of cherries with a minimal amount of effort.

I ruined many a shirt pitting those cherries. I look liked I’d been shot – my shirts were scattered with brown stains. I didn’t wear an apron because she didn’t – I don’t remember why she didn’t but to this day, I often don’t realize I’ve forgotten to put on one of my many aprons until I’m covered in flour (or worse).

So, back to that email from Jennie. Her recommendation on how to score sour cherries in the SF area is to keep your eyes out for the cherries at your local market or ask one of the farmer's at your local farmer's market to hold some for you when they come in.

I checked with two local organic farm stands near me. The produce manager informed me that the season this year for the cherries was only about two weeks long and they sold out immediately. The local season is usually mid-May to early June.

Two of the gourmet grocery stores near me had the same response. At one of the fruit stands, I asked about a wait list for next year and was met with a long silence, then a nod and an offer to come see him next year so he could put me on the list.

I felt like I was making a drug deal.

I hadn’t made a cherry pie or cobbler in years – probably because of all those cherry pies in my past. I usually opted for a peach pie during the summer and apple in the fall.

But now I just had to make a cherry cobbler. But where to find cherries? And did they have to be the rare sour cherry? Is that the only cherry that would do? What about frozen or canned cherries from other cherry producing states?

Most bakers like to use sour cherries in their baked goods. These cherries are called Montmorency as I mentioned above. But some bakers like to use the sweet cherries, which are called Bing cherries. Bing cherries are easily found at grocery stores and farmer’s markets. There are of course many other types of cherries such as the Rainier cherry with yellow and reddish skin and the Royal Ann variety that are mostly used for maraschino cherries. But it was the rare and elusive sour cherry that I sought.

And as Matthew Amster-Burton put it in his May 2008 article for Gourmet Magazine, “they’re lovely, fleeting, and very expensive, like a pony. I’ve routinely spent $50 on them.”

If I had a back yard I would be planting a Montmorency tree right now. And in fact, that is what Jenni told us she was going to do. I will be sure to introduce myself to her at our next meeting!

In her book, The Pie and Pastry Bible, Rose Levy Beranbaum recommends that if you are unable to find fresh, local cherries, to get them from American Spoon Foods located in Michigan.

If Beranbaum says it is ok to use frozen or canned, who am I to argue??

Some markets carry frozen cherries from Michigan, Washington and Oregon – the primary states for cherry production. But most of the cherries were sweet cherries, not sour and I was too impatient to order them online.

But then I remembered the cherry strudel I had made for a recent Daring Baker’s Challenge. I hadn’t paid too much attention to the filling since the real challenge had been in making strudel dough. I had used canned cherries from Oregon Fruit Products. They were nothing more than fruit packed in water. No additives. And this time I noticed that the label declared that the cherries were Montmorency cherries. They were about $6/can.

I thought of my mom as I rolled out the pie dough and fitted it over my filling in my seldom-used 9x13 casserole dish. I put my own twist on the cobbler while remaining true to her original recipe.

For the crust I used Crisco but also added a bit of butter. For the filling I primarily used the sour cherries and a small amount of their juice, which I had thickened with a bit of cornstarch. I had decided to add some sweet Bing cherries to my cobbler --- also from Oregon Fruit Products -- so I added just a small amount of sugar to my filling. And in a nod to all those baking days with my mom, I didn’t wear an apron – but of course I didn’t have to pit those cherries either!

As it baked, my house was filled with the familiar scent of pastry dough and bubbling cherries. I wished that my mom were still alive to enjoy it with me. But like the rare Montmorency cherry, I didn’t know she would leave so soon.

Yes! We have no bananas

2009-07-15T07:37:00.000-07:00

I was very annoyed the other day. I was feeling very virtuous, very shall I say, victory gardenish.

I had purchased bananas at my husband’s request. His intentions were good – he wanted a healthy snack to grab and instead of Oreos but somehow the Oreos often won the battle.

So now I had brown bananas drooping over the fruit bowl. Some looked like they had the banana version of the measles.

I decided to make banana bread with the abandoned bananas. But all the recipes I have call for the addition of an acidic ingredient: usually buttermilk but sometimes yogurt or sour cream. And I didn’t have any of these.

So now I was annoyed.

Banana bread becomes less virtuous not to mention less convenient if you have to drive to the store for buttermilk.

While I sometimes have sour cream in the fridge, I rarely have buttermilk or plain yogurt. And I know it is a real time saver and an economic choice but I dislike using powdered buttermilk. It just seems wrong to use an instant mix in a cake made from scratch.

All of this got me wondering about why I had to use buttermilk or equivalent at all. I mean, who decided that anyway?

I decided to burn off my annoyance by pouring through my cookbooks for a recipe that didn’t call for an acidic ingredient in its banana bread. I wanted to use the milk that I always I had in the fridge, which was generally 1% milk.

I didn’t find any recipes.

Time to experiment!

My first attempt at banana bread using milk was a dismal failure. The cake had a nice slick finish but had a metallic taste to it.

I had forgotten that the role of baking soda in a cake is to mellow out the acidic ingredient whether it be buttermilk, chocolate, yogurt or sour cream. In this case I had used the baking soda but it didn’t have a job to do.

But did I really need the baking soda if I wasn’t using an acidic ingredient? Could I just leave it out and rely on baking powder for the rise I needed?

According to Shirley Corriher in her latest book, BakeWise, the answer is yes:

“Many baking recipes call for both baking powder and baking soda (chemical leaveners that give cakes the rise they need instead of yeast). This may seem redundant since they are both essentially baking soda, but there can be reasons to use both. Baking powder is very reliable. It never leaves a soapy aftertaste because it contains exactly the right amount of acid for the amount of soda and most baking powder is double-acting, meaning it releases carbon dioxide both immediately in the batter and later in the hot oven. But if a recipe contains a considerable amount of an acidic ingredient such as yogurt or sour cream, a little soda may be added in order to neutralize some of the acidity. However, I am a strong believer in creating more acidic batters and doughs. I tend to avoid soda altogether or use it in very small amounts.”

So the baking soda was kicked to the curb.

I did find a small amount of sour cream hiding in a container way back in the fridge so I tried that next. The sour cream gave the cake a fuller, richer flavor but it made for an unattractive, dark crust.

Now I was on a real quest. I decided to make my own banana bread rules:

•Use non-acidic ingredient for the moisture. In my case I would use 1% milk
•Make it low fat by using vegetable oil instead of butter. That way I also didn’t have to remember to soften the butter!
•No loaf pan. I hated how often the middle of the loaf was often under baked. Baking in an 8 or 9-inch pan also let me have a cake that would bake in 35 minutes versus an hour.
•Leave out the baking soda and let the baking powder do the job of making the cake rise.

But of course now I was out of bananas! Usually I’m trying to find just the right bunch, the one that has a few bananas ready to eat now as well as ones that will be ripe later in the week. But now I was the shopper looking for the black and speckled bananas. I got quite a few strange looks as I dug through the banana pile.

My first attempt using my rebel banana bread rules was partially successful. The cake had a nice rise, good finish and nice texture. But it didn’t have the rich taste I was used to in banana bread. It needed the buttermilk.

As I pondered how to pump up the flavor, I remembered the cupcake baking class that I took with Anita Chu, cookbook author and food blogger, at Tante Marie cooking school in San Francisco a few months ago

In her class, we had experimented with infusions to add another flavor dimension to the cupcakes.

Since I think of banana bread as a breakfast or afternoon snack that I would enjoy with a cup of coffee, I decided to meld those flavors together.

I heated a bit of milk and added instant espresso (I ALWAYS have instant espresso in the cupboard!) to the milk. After the granules had dissolved, I took the mixture off the heat to steep.

The resulting cake was delicious. The banana flavor was enhanced by a hint of coffee. And you could easily increase the amount of espresso for a more pronounced coffee flavor.

My husband cut wedges and slathered peanut butter on them for a mid-afternoon protein pickup. Of course, that added calories to my low-fat offering but it seemed a better alternative to those Oreos!

As good as that cake was, I wondered if there was a way to make the flavor a bit more complex without using butter or other high fat ingredients.

The next version I made, I mixed in a cup of chocolate chips. Not a lot but enough to give my cake a more sophisticated taste and perhaps do away with the slather of peanut butter. I could have reduced this to ½ cup. With the addition of the coffee and now the chocolate, my bread had a rich mocha taste.

Now, as the song says, I've Got the Yes! We Have No Bananas Blues!

The Low-Fat, No Baking Soda, No Buttermilk
and No Loaf Pan Banana Bread

1/3 cup milk

1 teaspoon to 1 Tablespoon instant espresso – I use the Medagliadoro brand (to taste)

2 large Eggs

¾ cup of sugar

1 cup to 1.5 cups mashed rip bananas – about three or four ripe bananas

1 Tablespoon vegetable oil

1 Tablespoon vanilla extract

231 grams flour (buy a scale already!)

2 teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

½ to 1 cup chocolate chips (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray 8x2 round cake pan with cooking spray.

Heat milk on low heat with instant espresso until dissolved. Remove from heat to let the mixture steep.

Beat eggs and sugar in bowl of electric mixer using paddle attachment until thick and light, about five minutes.

Mix in bananas, milk mixture, oil and vanilla and blend well.

Sift together flour, baking powder and salt. Add to batter and mix only until blended. Remove bowl from mixture and give the batter a few turns with a wooden spoon to ensure all the dry ingredients have been integrated.

Pour into prepared pan and smooth top.

Bake until golden brown and tester inserted in center come out clean, about 30-35 minutes.

Cool in pan on wire rack. Once cool, release from pan.

Nun's and Roses

2009-07-01T07:33:00.000-07:00

Like most bakers, I tend to read cookbooks like they are novels: word-by-word,
page-by-page.

Last week I read a cookbook that I had recently inherited from my mom. It was her mother’s cookbook and so I felt they were both with me as I read the recipes. It was a pleasant feeling. I felt that I was paging through a family scrapbook as I realized that several favorite family recipes had come from this cookbook.

The name of the cookbook is The Household Searchlight Recipe Book first published in 1931 by The Household Magazine. Ethel Wilson, my grandmother, had inscribed her name inside the front cover in 1940.

In the Foreword the publisher outlines their mission. A mission that takes the reader back to not exactly simpler times in American history but certainly a time in our history where a woman’s role was seemingly clearly defined:

“The Household Searchlight is a service station conducted for the readers of The Household Magazine. In this seven-room house lives a family of specialists whose entire time is spent in working out the problems of homemaking common to every woman who finds herself responsible for the management of a home and the care of children.”

I would have liked to visit that seven-room house.

The recipes were contributed by the readers of The Household Magazine as well as others developed by the magazines' “food specialist” as well as by food manufacturers (could this be an early example of product placement?).

As I turned to the section dedicated to cakes, a recipe called Nun’s Cake intrigued me. The recipe was submitted by Mrs. C. E. Beam of Statesville, North Carolina and the subhead of the recipe notes that it is a “Prize Winning Recipe.”

As I looked over the ingredient list, the cake appeared to be a type of seed cake popular in the British Isles. But the seed in this cake are caraway seeds. Caraway seeds are not typically found in most modern day seed cakes; most seed cakes are now made with poppy seeds. I tend to think more of sturdy dark breads when I think of baking with caraway seeds.

I decided to poke around a bit online on the Infotrac databases as well as on online sites to see what I could find about seed cakes.

I found that seed cake was a general term for a cake served to celebrate the spring sowing of wheat or to celebrate the autumn harvesting of the crop starting in the 16th century. The cake got its name not from containing seeds but from the occasion upon which it was served. It appears that early seed cakes were more of a typical fruitcake or even a simple and plain pound cake.

Although caraway seeds are not often used now in cakes, they were used quite frequently in all types of baking in the 16th to 18th centuries. Seeds cakes often pop up in literature -- seed cakes are mentioned in both The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien as well as in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales.

Early seed cake recipes didn’t use sugar but instead used yeast in the form of ale to raise the cake. Modern recipes of course now use baking powder and baking soda as leavening agents.

The other interesting ingredient for this Nun’s Cake is rose water. I have used rose water in Middle Eastern baking – see my post on making Syrian bread – but haven’t seen it used in this type of cake.

According to reporter Patricia Mack in a 1997 newspaper article titled “Flower Power” published in The Record a New Jersey newspaper, “It (rose water) is a very exotic and very ancient ingredient. The use of floral waters in cooking dates from the Middle Ages. Orange blossom and rose were the most commonly used extracts, which along with elderflower, gained popularity in the 17th century.

Rose water was also frequently used in baking in Western Europe and in the U.S. until the use of vanilla flavoring knocked it out of favor in the 19th century.

But my search for other recipes called Nun’s Cake turned up no other recipes other than the one in my cookbook. In fact, several other recipe sites use this recipe word for word -- right down to calling it a Prize Winning Recipe but the recipe is attributed to someone other than Mrs. C. E. Beam. Often the recipe was attributed to a grandmother or my dear mother but not to Mrs. C. E. Beam.

There actually was one exception – I did find a recipe for Nun’s Cake from The Art of Cookery made Plain and Easy by Hannah Glasse and published in 1747. I love how it is written:

A Rich Seed Cake, called the Nun's Cake.

Take four Pound of your finest Flour, and three Pound of double refine'd Sugar beaten and sifted, mix them together, and dry them by the Fire till you prepare your other Materials; take four Pound of Butter, beat it with your Hand till it is soft like Cream, then beat thirty-five Eggs, leave out sixteen Whites, and strain off your Eggs from the Treds, and beat them and the Butter together till all appears like Butter. Put in four of five Spoonfuls of Rose or Orange-flower Water, and beat again; then take your Flour and Sugar, with six Ounces of Carraway Seeds, and strew it in by Degrees, beating it up all the time for two Hours together. You may put in as much Tincture of Cinnamon or Ambergrease as you please butter your Hoop, and let it stand three Hours in a moderate Oven. You must observe always in beater of Butter to do it with a cool Hand, and beat it always one Way in a deep Earthen Dish.

Doesn’t sound that plain and easy to me!

But the following recipe is definitely easy but not plain tasting. When I tasted it, I thought that I was glad I had tried it but that I wouldn’t be making it again. But then I found myself breaking off bites and nibbles during the evening. My guests had the same reaction – they politely said it had an interesting taste as they moved on to the brownies on the tray but then I saw them coming back to the seed cake. My husband spread blackberry jam on slices. I could easily see slices spread thickly with peanut butter or even chocolate ganache. You could even make it fancy by serving slices with grilled peaches.

So, thank you Mrs. C. E. Beam – your Nun’s Cake is one habit I will keep.

Nun’s Cake
(Prize Winning Recipe)

(edited only slightly from original recipe wording)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees
Butter a 9x5 loaf pan

1 Cup Butter

1 ½ Cups Powdered Sugar

5 Egg Yolks

2 Egg Whites

¾ Cup Milk

3 Cups Cake Flour (sift then measure)

2 ½ teaspoons Baking Powder

¼ teaspoon Salt

3 teaspoons Caraway Seed

2 teaspoons Rose Water

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
(the original recipe calls for cinnamon flavoring. I used ground cinnamon)

Cream butter.

Add sugar and yolks of eggs and beat thoroughly.

Stir in unbeaten whites of eggs and beat mixture.

Sift flour, measure, and sift with baking powder and salt.

Add flour mixture alternately with milk to first mixture.

Sprinkle in caraway seed, beat well and add rose water and cinnamon.

Pour into prepared pan.

Bake for approximately one hour.

Daring Bakers Challenge: Tarts, Puddings and Murder

2009-06-27T07:28:00.000-07:00

The June Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Jasmine of Confessions of a Cardamom Addict and Annemarie of Ambrosia and Nectar. They chose a Traditional (UK) Bakewell Tart... er... pudding that was inspired by a rich baking history dating back to the 1800's in England.

One of the reasons I like to participate in the Daring Bakers’ Challenges each month is each challenge offers me a chance to learn something new. Even if the item itself is not a challenge for me to make, I generally take away something from the experience.

And this month’s challenge is no exception.

Although a common treat in England, I had never heard of a Bakewell Tart before this challenge. The three elements of the tart were not hard to master:

Sweet Shortcut Pastry
Jam (purchased)
Frangipane (a filling made from almonds)

But I did find the legend and lore behind the Bakewell Tart to be fascinating.

First, it should be noted that because the Bakewell Tart is British in origin it is also referred to as a pudding since that is the British term for all of their desserts. What Americans call pudding the British call banana custard.

Like Tollhouse cookies and puff pastry, the Bakewell Tart was also created quite by accident.

Although there are several versions of the legend of how a Bakewell Tart was created, most people agree on the basic facts that sometime in the 1800s in the village of Bakewell in the town of Derbyshire (England), a landlady of one of the inns asked her cook to produce a pudding for her guests. Either her instructions could have been clearer or the cook should have paid better attention to what she said because what the cook made was not what the landlady asked for. The cook spread the frangipane on top of the jam rather than the other way around.

Today, several different versions of a Bakewell Tart exist including the popular version found in grocery stores throughout England that sport a thick sugary icing with a glazed cherry on top.

This origin of the Bakewell Tart is interesting but here are a few more tidbits surrounding this pastry that I thought were even more memorable:

•Murder
In 1974 17-year-old Stephen Downing was convicted of killing Wendy Sewell in the town of Bakewell. His conviction was overturned in 2002 thanks to the efforts of journalist Don Hale. The case is thought to be the longest miscarriage of justice in British history. The story became a BBC TV drama and Don Hale also published a book about it.

•Insults
Because of this murder case, there now exists this not so funny insult: “The Bakewell pudding is a dessert. The Bakewell tart is that girl over there.” It seems Wendy Sewell was a bit promiscuous.

•Regulation
Bakers of the Bakewell Tart/Pudding have aspirations similar to many winemakers: In 2008, several bakers in Bakewell asked the European Union for sanctions to be placed on what ingredients can be used and where they can be made before a Bakewell Tart/Pudding can be called by that name.

•Promotion
In March 2009 the owner of holiday cottages for rent in the village of Bakewell used the tarts to promote his cottages. Ten tarts contained a gold key. The lucky ten were invited to a grand finale where one key unlocked a cottage. The winner is the owner of the cottage.

•Politics
The British celebrity chef Jamie Oliver served Bakewell tarts to the G20 leaders assembled in London in April 2009. I wonder what our health conscious President Obama thought of it!

But I guess what I find the most interesting is the enduring appeal of the Bakewell Tart and how over the years it has become part of the national identity of the British people – similar to how apple pie is to Americans or kolaches to the Czech people, or the perfect macaron to the French.

And isn't that the goal of all bakers -- to have their creations endure beyond the last bite?

Popcorn Balls: Updating an American Classic

2009-06-23T11:15:00.000-07:00

I recently found myself in a popcorn ball frenzy. It was one of the many treats my mom used to make for the snacking pleasure of her five children. My siblings and I were recently reminiscing about our childhood favorite foods. Mom passed away in February 2009 and the thought that we wouldn’t have her around to make our favorite treats was a bit disconcerting.

This blog is named after her signature dessert, ring-a-lings.

The popcorn ball she always made was the classic caramel popcorn ball. They were as big as softballs.

The making of popcorn balls in our family was a group effort. For years, as the youngest, I was not allowed to help because the caramel syrup was too hot for me to handle.

My mom and siblings would pour the caramel syrup onto a cookie sheet of popped corn and with movements that made them look like synchronized swimmers, quickly distribute the caramel and popcorn into softball size balls. Mom would then leave them to harden on waxed paper. Later, she would wrap each ball in plastic wrap.

Popcorn balls are one of those treats that you don’t really read about much anymore except during the fall when cooking or family oriented magazines might feature them as a good Halloween treat for kids.

But according to the Andrew Smith, author of Popped Culture, “Popcorn balls were among the most popular confections in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.”

And they appeared in many works of literature during that time including the Little House on the Praire series and My Antonia.

According to Smith, “Although references appeared as early as the 1840s, the first recipe seems not to have been published until 1861 in Housekeeper’s Encyclopedia.”

My older cookbooks like Joy of Cooking and The Fannie Farmer Cookbook offered recipes for popcorn balls but recipes have all but disappeared in our modern cookbooks.

So maybe it is time for a popcorn ball comeback! Given our perilous economic times, popcorn balls can soothe us with feelings of a simpler time and it doesn’t hurt that popcorn is relatively cheap compared to chips and salsa or other pricey snacks. And they have the added benefit of being gluten-free!

But how to jazz up this treat to compete with Chipotle Ranch Doritos or Flamin’ Hot Cheetos? And could this snack be made more appealing to adults by offering a more sophisticated taste?

I decided to blend my Indiana sensibilities with a California twist and experiment with different takes on this classic treat.

My mom did leave us her typewritten recipe with her handwritten notes so I used this recipe as my master recipe.

For several week-ends the smell of popcorn permeated my house. My husband and daughter kept sneaking fistfuls of popcorn. My hair (my dog) and every surface in my kitchen were covered with a thin sticky film.

My testers turned up their noses at the combination of peanut butter and chocolate as well as caramel, garlic salt and chile powder (I wonder why…) but they were thumbs up on:

Dark chocolate and espresso

Dark chocolate, chile powder and lime

Dulce de Leche and coconut

I also took a few liberties with the size of these treats making some golf ball size and some into small clusters.

The teenagers and the adults love the novelty of these combinations but I have to admit that the old-fashioned caramel popcorn ball is still the crowd favorite.

Caramel Popcorn Balls: Master Recipe

Adapted from a recipe by Dorothy Hanna

Note: see tips from baking911.com for essential tips on making the syrup.

Makes about 15 softball sized balls

1 cup sugar

1 cup brown sugar

¼ cup dark corn syrup

1 cup water

1/3 cup butter

1 teaspoon vanilla

8 cups popped corn (about 2 ½ quarts which is about 1 cup of unpopped popcorn)

Distribute popped corn in one layer on as many cookie sheets as needed.

Put sugars, corn syrup and water in large saucepan. Stir until sugar is dissolved, then cook to hard crack stage (300 degrees on candy thermometer).

Remove from heat and add butter and vanilla. Stir until melted and combined.

Pour over popped corn and quickly form into balls.

Let stand on waxed or parchment paper until cool.

Dark Chocolate and Espresso Popcorn Balls

Use Master Recipe but add:

2 Tablespoons dark cocoa powder
(Hershey Special Dark is a good choice)

1 Tablespoon espresso powder
(I used instant espresso crystals from Medaglia D’Oro)

Add both of these ingredients when you add the butter. Stir until melted and combined.

Pour over popped corn and quickly form into balls.

Optional: After the balls are formed, quickly roll in mini semi-sweet chocolate chips. Nestle and Hershey both make mini chocolate chips.

Let stand on waxed or parchment paper until cool.

Dark Chocolate, Chile Powder and Lime Popcorn Balls

Use Master Recipe but add:

1 Tablespoon dark cocoa powder
(Hershey Special Dark is a good choice)

1 teaspoon lime juice (or to taste)

1 teaspoon chile powder (ancho, Mexican or chipotle) or more to taste

Add these ingredients when you add the butter. Stir until melted and combined.

Pour over popped corn and quickly form into balls.

Let stand on waxed or parchment paper until cool.

Dulce de Leche and Coconut Popcorn Balls

On my first attempt I made my own dulce de leche but I couldn’t get the consistency to be sticky enough to form into balls. Best to purchase a jar of dulce de leche which can be found in most grocery stores. It will typically be found with the ice cream supplies like cones and toppings.

1 cup dulce de leche

1 cup brown sugar

¼ light corn syrup

1 cup water

1/3 cup butter

About 1 or 2 cups of shredded, moist coconut

Distribute popped corn in one layer on as many cookie sheets as needed.

Put dulce de leche, sugar, corn syrup and water in large saucepan. Stir until sugar is dissolved, then cook to hard crack stage (300 degrees on candy thermometer).

Remove from heat and add butter.

Pour over popped corn and quickly form into balls.

Roll into shredded coconut.

Let stand on waxed or parchment paper until cool.

Tour de L.A.: Bakeshops and Sunshine

2009-06-16T08:23:00.000-07:00

Bypass the Getty and forget lurking for celebrities at Fred Segal. If you are heading to the Los Angeles area this summer, make sure you make time for a tasting tour. No, not just of wine bars but of bakeshops! Here are a few to get you started from several of my recent trips to the area.

First stop, Joan’s on Third located on West Third in L.A. a few blocks east of the Beverly Center and west of The Grove/Farmer’s Market. Although Joan’s is also a café offering breakfast and lunch as well as a retail gourmet marketplace, they offer some of the best baked goods in this area. The bakery case is loaded with cupcakes, cookies, coffeecakes, and their famous lemon bars.

Get your goodies to go and stroll down the few blocks that make up this trendy stretch of W. Third. See if there are any celebrities having lunch at Toast or see if you can resist the gallery quality house wares and funky ceramic offerings at OK and Zipper. The Cook’s Library, a bookstore specializing in cookbooks for chefs and the rest of us, is worth a few minutes of browsing time.

Finish your treat and tear yourself away from the rest of the shops and head to Culver City. Long a hub of the film industry, Culver City is now home to the hottest boutiques and restaurants in L.A. But we are bypassing all this trendiness – our stop is the Grand Casino Bakery.

Grand Casino Bakery has been in this area long before it became trendy and judging by the lunchtime rush – it will continue to hold its own against its hipster neighbors. Grand Casino offers the best medialunas outside of Buenos Aires – these sweet croissants are small enough that five or six go down easy. Butter cookies sandwiched together with dulce de leche and membrillo (quince paste) spill out of baskets just asking for you to grab a handful. And if you want to pick up one of their savory empanadas to go, no one would blame you.

There are many sites to see in this rejuvenated section of Culver City but the favorite of any baker has got to be Surfas – the most amazing restaurant supply store I have ever seen. I still pine for it and I live in the San Francisco area – another mecca for cooks. Surfas offers not just your typical restaurant supplies like dinnerware and cookware but also hard to find items like edible silver petals and sugars in every color of the Pantone color chart. And the building isn’t one big drafty warehouse like some of these places can be. Surfas also brings together some of the luminaries of the cooking and restaurant world for technique classes and product demonstrations. And they even have an onsite café so you can take a break from shopping. Their oatmeal cookie is outstanding. I tried to take a few photos of some of their amazing wares but was caught in the act. As the manager patiently explained as he berated me for taking photos, “we have a lot of celebrity chefs in here and they don’t want their competition to see what they are buying. “ Ok, I still like this place even though that was a bit pretentious.

Next stop, Vanilla Bake Shop in Santa Monica located on Wilshire Blvd. -- a few blocks from the Third Street Promenade. This tiny shop with its brown and white color scheme offers cupcakes, cakes and confections with a contemporary twist. Their designs remind me of the style of clothing of designer Vera Wang – sweet but hip. But their treats are not just all look and no taste. Although they have become known for their fancy sounding chocolate cake with Fleur de Sel caramel filling, don’t pass up their cupcake babies – three mini cupcakes in a variety of flavors. My favorite flavor is Mom’s Birthday Cake – an all American yellow cake with milk chocolate frosting. In a “this is becoming hilarious” moment – I was warned not to take photos when I whipped out my camera to take a few snaps. I guess illusions of celebrity grandeur or perhaps fear of competition is rampant in L.A.

A short drive to boutique lined Abbot Kinney Blvd. in Venice Beach gives you two bakeshop choices. If it is Friday, your first stop has to be the Three Square Bakery and Café before they run out of their famous Berliners. Offered only on Friday, a Berliner is a German donut made from a secret family recipe. The donuts are filled with sweet seedless raspberry jam and sprinkled with cinnamon sugar. This labor-intensive pastry is made in small batches so the store limits one dozen per customer. I was sad to see that there were only two left but not as sad as the person behind me.

Walk off your Berliner by strolling the few blocks that make up Abbot Kinney Blvd. The Street, as locals know it, is home to many art galleries as well as funky and eclectic shops but there are two shops not to be missed.

Taj Taj Jewelry pulls together a unique combination of items including intricate wirework, beautiful gemstones and Irish linen to create necklaces, bracelets and earrings. Down the street a funkier store but no less passionate about design is Surfing Cowboy s. I love their tag line: Vintage, The Original Green! No one will blame you if you start humming an old Clash tune as you browse this eclectic furniture and design store. After all, Charlie don’t surf…….

All this strolling will leave you needing a nice cup of tea so cross the street and open the gate to Jin Patisserie for entry into a Zen-like state. This is just the place to end your tour of L.A. bakeshops. Perhaps just one of their exquisite artisan chocolates flavored with lemongrass or black sesame with a cup of tea might soothe you but for me it was one perfect French macaron.

And I took all the photos I wanted.

Baking Failures & A Hamburger Bun Quest

2009-06-09T15:45:00.000-07:00

"The only real stumbling block is fear of failure. In cooking you've got to have a what-the-hell attitude."
— Julia Child

“Perfect Baking,” “As Easy as Pie,” and “How to be a Domestic Goddess” are titles of just a few of the baking and dessert books I have on my bookshelf.

These authors have very good intentions – I truly believe that they want me to be a domestic goddess. But the truth is that baking, unlike other aspects of cooking, is a very exact science. A pinch of this and a smidge of that doesn’t work that well when you are making something as perilous as a three-layer cake with a Swiss meringue buttercream frosting and fondant decorations. There isn’t much room for error.

But I confess that one of the things I enjoy about baking is the experimentation. So I don’t really mind these baking failures. I always keep in mind that we owe the very versatile puff pastry dough to a baker who forgot to put butter in their dough then tried to roll it in after the fact.

No one likes to talk about his or her failures in life. But in baking, that final spectacular product is often preceded by many many failures. And even a recipe that has been made hundreds of times before can fail.

Fortunately, in most cases, those failures are edible.

I typically try a recipe two or three times before I debut it at a dinner party or family gathering or before I try to change an ingredient in the original recipe.

But sometimes I’m tempted to try a recipe before I test it. I have found out the hard way that sometimes the seemingly easiest recipes are the hardest to perfect.

I vividly remember the simple chocolate cake with a buttercream icing I made for a dinner party. I hadn’t bothered to test the recipe -- I had made similar recipes many times. And this cake looked pretty good when I took it out of the oven. But after a few minutes, I watched in horror as the middle of the cake sunk. I now had a nice little dip in my beautiful cake. And no time to make another one before the guests arrived.

Being an avid wearer of makeup, I knew a little concealer was called for to camouflage my blemish. I made the buttercream icing and iced that cake anyway. I built up the icing over the dip, put the cake on a pretty platter and no one was the wiser. Of course, I made certain to take the cake to the kitchen to slice it. I very neatly sliced around the middle of the cake.

Each baking disaster teaches me something that I can use next time. Sure I’ve learned to measure correctly, have ingredients at the right temperature, have the right equipment for the job but surprisingly, one of the most important factors in successful baking is to check the weather first. A cold kitchen can make your bread decide not to rise and high humidity can cause havoc with meringue.

My husband writes a popular hamburger blog. Recently, he decided that he would like to include a posting about how to make your own hamburgers from scratch. For him, this means to grind your own sirloin and make your own hamburger buns and sauce. He had been pestering me to create a hamburger bun for him.

I usually would try several recipes first before I settled on a favorite one but he had already bought the meat and wanted to make the burgers that night. How hard could it be I thought? A little yeast and flour thrown together and I would make him the best hamburger bun he ever consumed. After all, I know how to make croissants; hamburger buns would be a walk in the park by comparison.

My baking prowess would soon be on display for all to see on hoosierburgerboy.com

Last summer in the annual BBQ issue of Gourmet Magazine, a recipe for hamburger buns was featured. It was first published in the magazine in 2002 and it was a favorite of the editors. But in my mind what made it a special recipe was that the creator of the recipe is from the same small town where I grew up in Indiana. I had torn it out and saved it but hadn’t yet tried it.

I carefully made the dough and set it in a bowl to rise on the stove. The yeast did its job and the dough doubled in size. I then shaped the dough into buns and covered them for their final rise.

They looked good until I took the cover off to put them in the oven. The dough was so sticky it was like gum on a shoe. The dough stuck to the plastic wrap.

Blog fame would not be mine that night.

I started researching possible hamburger bun recipes to try next. I decided that I needed a sturdy bun that wasn’t too bready -- one that didn’t overwhelm the burger but still melded well with the cheese, meat and condiments and sauce.

Also on my wish list was a bun that wouldn’t take all day to make -- ideally one that had only one rise instead of the typical two. The above recipe took more than five hours from start to finished bun. It would be great to find one that I could make on the spur (almost) of the moment – whenever the burger whim hit which at our house was quite often.

Many of the recipes I encountered were brioche dough but I didn’t want a hamburger bun that was that rich; the bun needed to be the supporting player and not the main attraction.

Then I happened upon a recipe from allrecipes.com. The recipe called for instant yeast so the time to finished product would be quick and it wasn’t heavy on the butter but was more of a dinner roll.

From start to finish the recipe took only about 1.5 hours. Not bad! I made each dough ball about 3 oz. The bun was light and didn’t detract from the hamburger. I tried it several more times -- eventually increasing to about 4 oz for the perfect size.

This recipe has now become a favorite – we also use it for turkey cheddar burgers and rosemary Portobello mushroom burgers that are both a nice break from beef.

As Ray Kroc, creator of the McDonald’s franchise noted, “It requires a certain kind of mind to see beauty in a hamburger bun.”

I take that as a compliment.

The latest Gourmet Magazine annual BBQ issue (June 2009) features yet another hamburger bun recipe but I’ve decided not to be tempted – I have plenty of other uses for those four hours.

So while I haven’t made any major discoveries like puff pastry yet, my experimentation has led to some signature desserts and baked goods that are requested over and over again by friends and family.

In fact, I find the more I mess up, the more I learn. And there lies the trick to being a good baker.

So, there are actual times when I made that pie to die for that I felt like the perfect baker, a true domestic goddess.