Maple Muffins

These were not quite as yellow in person; they were more of a warm yet pale brown.

These maple muffins are from Sarabeth's Bakery cookbook. They are dense but not overly heavy and they are sweet but not overly sugary. The maple syrup is sweet but with a complexity and deep, warm flavor that is lacking in regular sugar. They are a perfect thing to eat with a cup of tea (or apple cider) on a cold fall day. I believe this was supposed to make normal size muffins. Instead, I made a multitude of mini muffins and 3 mini loaves. I wrapped the loaves in foil, put them in a freezer ziploc bag, and froze them. I kept them about a month and just defrosted them overnight in the fridge. I took them out, let them come to room temp, unwrapped them, sliced them, and tentatively took a bite. They were just as good as the fresh muffins were a month ago. Okay, maybe they were slightly less fresh tasting, but honestly they were still very good and the difference was minor at most.

A note on maple syrup: many baking recipes call for grade B maple syrup. The grades unlike for many other foods, don't refer to how good or fresh the syrup is, instead they refer to how translucent it is. Grade B the darkest and therefore has a stronger flavor than the three subdivisions of Grade A (light, medium, and dark). It is a little strong to use on pancakes (typically Grade A light or medium amber is used for eating) but it is perfect for baking. It can be a little hard to find, so if you can't find it, use Grade A dark amber. Never ever use fake syrups (like Aunt Jemima); they are good for pancakes but bad for baking.

Currant Scones, version 2

These scones are from Sarabeth's Bakery cookbook. I like the recipe we learned at the FCI slightly better; these were a bit baking soda-y. I suppose the baking soda and powder is why these have such good rise, but a similar light flakiness can be achieved with obscene amounts of butter and heavy cream. Overall, a very nice, very close-to-traditional, currant scone.

 

Brown Butter Snickerdoodles

While not my favorite cookies, I like snickerdoodles. There is something comforting about the warmth of the cinnamon and the brown butter that these call for enhance that feeling. The brown butter, which is not nearly as daunting to make as it would seem, is warm and slightly nutty and adds a subtle complexity to the flavor of the cookie. The texture was lovely and chewy, with a fine crust of sugar. Delicious! (The recipe is from Baked's new cookbook, which I just bought and am quite happy with.)

A quick note on brown butter: it can seem intimidating to make--at least I used to find it intimidating. But really it isn't hard to make at all. Basically it's burnt butter, and really how hard it is to burn something? Seriously, all you do is put butter in a pot and melt it over a medium heat. Instead of taking it off the heat once it's all liquid, leave it on and the mill solids will eventually separate out and some will fall to the bottom. This is what will burn and turn brown and start to smell warm and slightly nutty. I assume that the French name for brown butter, beurre noisette (noisette meaning nut or hazelnut, if my French serves me), is a tribute to the nutty flavor and aroma. At this point, swirl it a bit to distribute the burnt bits and bring some unburnt solids to the bottom. At this point it's up to you if you want to make it pale or dark. I prefer it on the darker side, but that's just me. For the snickerdoodles, and other recipes I suppose, you also have the choice of straining out the burnt solids or not. Either way you have the nice flavor, but it's obviously stronger if you don't strain it. Also if you don't strain it you end up with little dark flecks in your butter and, therefore, your dough. I think that is quite pretty (it's similar to the effect you get when you use vanilla beans or vanilla bean paste instead of vanilla extract--pretty black flecks of flavor in whatever you are making) but I suppose the pristine, dark tan dough without the bits of burnt milk solids has a beauty to it as well. Sorry, I lied. This was not a quick note at all. Ah well, I hope it was helpful even if it wasn't brief.

Spiced Chocolate Cookies, take 2

You may remember the Spiced Chocolate Cookies I made last Christmas. These are the same cookies, exactly the same. Why change perfection? Seriously though, they are chewy inside, crispy outside and chocolaty wit a kick of spice. The worst thing is that they are addictive...you can't eat just one. Guess it's good that the recipe makes a surprisingly large batch!

Brownies--a serving suggestion

So you made brownies but you want them to look special. Brownie squares are delicious and a classic, but they are a little boring. Why not make brownie circles? All you need is a biscuit cutter. Just try to space them a close together as possible so you get a bunch of them. The exact same brownie but a slightly classier look that makes them appropriate to serve at, for example, dinner parties. They also make a nice gift stacked and wrapped in cellophane.

Obviously you'll have brownie scraps left over. If you don't end up eating them right out of the pan, I recommend putting them in a ziploc and shove them in your freezer. That way when you really want something chocolate but all you have for dessert is a pint of vanilla frozen yogurt, you now have a pint of vanilla frozen yogurt with brownie crumble topping! Yum!

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Scones

These scones are not at all like traditional scones; they are moist, heavy, and intensely peanutty. The oatmeal is barely noticeable as it overwhelmed by the crunchy peanut butter. That's a good thing in my opinion, I like oatmeal but it's often overused in baked goods.

These are from the new Baked Elements cookbook. I love the Baked cookbooks, I've never found a recipe that wasn't well written, thought out, and delicious. Technically this makes chocolate chip peanut butter oatmeal scones, but they suggest leaving out the chocolate and serving it with jam. I'm not usually one to omit chocolate, but I liked the idea. I gave it a shot and, as I hinted at above, they were delicious. I cut them in half and slathered them with raspberry jam--it was like eating a really delicious and even-less-healthy-than-usual peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

An Apple for the Teacher

I have a friend who is getting a masters in education. She started student teaching this week and I wanted to bake her something special to celebrate--so I made apple cookies.

No these aren't apple flavored, they are a delicious butter cookie dough (I've used it before) that I flavored with a hint of cinnamon and orange zest. I used a pumpkin cookie cutter from a Halloween cookie cutter set since I don't have an apple cutter. It worked perfectly.

I decorated them with royal icing, piping a border and then flooding them in. For the stem I made piping consistency royal icing and used a wide tip to pipe it on, sort of dragging/cutting off the top end to make it more natural looking.

They were a hit with my friend and, apparently, the other teachers she shared them with. I have a couple new cookie cutters and some leftover dough and royal icing so stay tuned for more cookies soon!

 

Flourless Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies

I know numerous people with dietary restrictions and I enjoy the challenge of baking for them; it's an interesting change of pace and often a fun search through cookbooks. Anyway, my goal was to make gluten free cookies that weren't noticeably gluten free. You see most naturally gluten free desserts (beside many frozen desserts like ice cream) are meringue based and many use nut flour in place of wheat flour. That's often delicious--for example macarons or souffles, to name just two--but it seldom comes close to having a taste and texture similar a dessert with wheat (I have to admit my nut free flourless chocolate cake is somewhat akin to a moist brownie, but other than that...)

My plan was to use flours that weren't wheat or nut based. Trying to figure out what types and proportions of flours to use is very difficult. You also have to use the right amount of starch or some other binding ingredient (such as xanthan gum or agar). I don't have the experience with gluten free cooking (or the cookbooks about it) to go experimenting with that right now--it's too costly and time consuming (I might feel differently if I couldn't eat gluten but, as I can, I don't see the need to bother). So instead I bought all purpose gluten free flour, which is basically a mixture of non-wheat flours and starches that can often be used in place of wheat flour (at least in products that don't require much gluten structure). I used the King Arthur brand since I like their wheat flour, but I'm sure other brands are good as well.

The process I used to bake these was basically the same as making any creamed butter cookie. The main difference was that I beat the heck out of the butter and sugar when I creamed them and when I added the eggs. Even when I added the dry goods, I keep beating it--since it's gluten free flour there was no need to worry about too much gluten developing and making a tough cookie. I did all this beating to trap air so much air in the batter that it would help the cookies rise even without the gluten structure holding it in. At this point I tasted the dough--the taste is delicious but the texture is slightly starchy. I was worried, but it was far too late to do anything about it, so I added the chocolate chips, scooped the cookies, baked them, and hoped for the best. Happily the starchy-ness went away after the cookies were baked. Presumably the heat activated the starches, helping the cookies to hold together and getting rid of the unpleasant texture.

These cookies were, as my mom pointed out, not 'good for being gluten and nut free,' they were just good. She was right, they were delicious cookies. They were slightly drier (not too dry, though) and crumblier than these cookies are when they are made with wheat flour, but that wasn't a bad thing. Actually I quite enjoyed them, they were quite light and airy rather than being dense and gooey--perhaps I'll whip them less next time and see if they are gooey-er.

I'm very pleased, my first time using gluten free flour was a success. I think I may try brownies next.

Lemony Sugar Cookie

These were the old fashioned, rolled in sugar type of sugar cookie, not those cut out ones. They were soft and slightly chewy with a lovely crisp sugary coating. The lemon was a fresh twist on the old fashioned cookie, but I have to say I think I'd leave it out next time. It was good but sometimes (and really only sometimes) old fashioned is better.

Double Chocolate Biscotti

I made these quite a while ago. I could have sworn I posted them, but apparently not. Regardless, they are here now.

I have a family friend, Sandra (I've mentioned her before), who is Italian. She makes the best biscotti I've ever had and was kind enough to share her recipes with me (thanks, Sandra!). This particular biscotti is flavored with cocoa powder, milk chocolate chips, and amaretto, in addition to the classic toasted almonds. 

Biscotti is not hard to make, in fact the dough is no harder than any other cookie dough. The trick is shaping them properly, not so thin at the ends that they get too crisp and not so thick in the middle that it doesn't get dried out enough. Interestingly it's not about size, you can make them mini, you can make them giant (though I'm not a fan of the overlarge ones like you find packaged at brand-name coffee shops), or you can make them in between (as I tend to do and did here.)

The other trick is, of course, baking them twice--"biscotti" means twice baked in Italian. You bake them once as logs, slice them while they are still tender, and bake them a second time to dry them out more. That ensures it will properly soak up your coffee or sweet dessert wine (I'd recommend coffee with these and sweet dessert wine with a more traditional, less chocolatey biscotti).

I've also made Sandra's traditional biscotti Toscani--which are delicious, albeit lacking in chocolate. I'll tell you about them soon!