White Chocolate Toffee Macadamia Cookies

White Chocolate Toffee Doodles - made December 8, 2011 from Something Swanky's blog

I'm a follower of Something Swanky's blog and like Dorothy's Crazy for Crust blog, Ashton of Something Swanky always has some killer desserts and recipes on her blog.  I liked this one, both for the flavors and because it just looked yummy.  Judging by the recipe, it also seemed like a safe bet to try out for the holidays and have it turn out.  When I do try a new recipe during the holidays, I like the safety net of knowing it turned out well for another baker and that they recommend it.  Bonus that it was easy to mix up when I had 15 minutes and could sit in the freezer until I needed to bake it for a social event.

The only thing I changed from the original recipe (click on the blog title for the recipe) is I added macadamia nuts in addition to the white chocolate chunks and toffee bits and I baked at a convection oven setting of 350 degrees instead of the 375 degrees in Ashton's recipe.  This turned out pretty well.  But do not overbake these.  I would only bake until the middles look just barely raw.  I baked the first batch at 375 degrees and they baked up faster than I thought.  I didn't burn them but I definitely baked them instead of underbaking them.  They were fine but not as moist as I like my cookies.  I had better results with the second cookie sheet when I baked them at 350 degrees and took them out when the edges were brown and the middles were just past not-doughy-looking.  They were great then.  The edges were crisp but the middle was soft and chewy.  I think I would've been better off without the macadamia nuts so that the flavor wouldn't compete with the toffee.  But the cinnamon in the dough was a nice flavor enhancer and I enjoyed these.  Thanks, Ashton, for a great recipe.

Diner-Style Powdered Buttermilk Doughnuts

Doughnut Holes - made December 3, 2011 from Diner Desserts by Tish Boyle

This is the other new recipe I tried for last Saturday's little dessert get together with my high school friends. The main thing I changed from the recipe is I made them all as doughnut holes and didn't cut them out as doughnuts.  Because they were only one of several treats I was serving at my dessert gathering, I didn't want any one dessert to be too big.  Doughnut holes were less of a commitment than doughnuts and left my guests free to sample everything else.  Although, as you can tell from the pictures, these look like really misshapen doughnut holes, lol.  I used a small round cookie cutter for them but they came out more like little biscuits that fried to their own interesting shape.  But they still tasted good.  They're more like cake doughnuts since they're not yeasted or, as one of my friends' kids put it, "they taste like churros".  As expected, they were best when warm but even after they had cooled, they were still crisp on the outside.  Their texture is a bit heavy so it's best to make them small.  If I make them again, I would make them half the size of these.

3 ½ cups cake flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon baking soda

1 ½ teaspoons salt

¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon

¼ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

¾ cup granulated sugar

¾ cup buttermilk

3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled

1 large egg, at room temperature

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Vegetable oil for frying

1 cup confectioners’ sugar, sifted

1.    In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg.  Add the sugar and stir the dry ingredients with a whisk until combined.

2.   In a medium bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, melted butter, egg, and vanilla until blended.  Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and pour the buttermilk mixture into it.  Using a rubber spatula, stir until the mixture forms a soft, moist dough.  Dust a work surface with flour.  Scrape the dough onto the work surface and lightly sprinkle the top of the dough with flour.  Gather the dough into a ball and knead it gently 5 or 6 times, or until smooth.  Roll or pat the dough into a round roughly 10 inches in diameter and ½ inch thick.  Transfer the round to a baking sheet, cover it with plastic wrap, and place it in the freezer for 15 minutes or until firm.

3.   Using a 3-inch doughnut cutter (or a 3-inch round biscuit cutter and a ¾-inch cutter or pastry tip for the hole), cut out 7 doughnuts and holes from the dough.  Gather the scraps together, reroll ½ inch thick, and cut out 3 more doughnuts and as many holes as possible.  Place the doughnuts and holes on a baking sheet or 2 plates, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate while heating the oil for frying.

4.   Pour the oil into a deep-fat fryer or large straight-sided saucepan to a depth of 2 to 3 inches.  Heat the oil to 370⁰F.  Line a baking sheet with paper towels.

5.   Fry the doughnuts and holes in small batches, turning once for 2 to 3 minutes, or until golden brown.  Using a slotted spoon, transfer to the paper towels to drain, then place on a wire rack to cool completely.

6.   When the doughnuts and holes are completely cool, place the confectioners’ sugar in a medium bowl.  Generously dredge the doughnuts and holes in the sugar, shaking off the excess.  Serve the same day.

Holiday Caramel Treats

Holiday Caramel Treats - made December 4, 2011 from Prize Winning Cookies from Current customers (book #178)

I had my holiday dessert party with my high school friends yesterday and it was a lot of fun.  It was great to catch up with everyone and you know you're very fortunate when, after everyone has left, you realize what nice friends you have.  This is what the holidays are about, not the stress of preparing for them :).

To help alleviate that stress, I went with some reliable stand-by recipes.  I had prepared enough cookie doughs in advance that I could (and did) change my mind as to what to serve.  My friend Lisa likes lemon bars so I made those, using my old standby recipe since I had already made my new favorite, the Three-Layer Lemon Bars, last week:

I also made the peanut butter kiss cookies that always seem to be a holiday favorite

As well as a year-round favorite, Alton Brown's Chocolate Chip Cookies

Since I had enough of the tried and true cookies to serve, I also decided to try a new recipe.  A few of my friends were bringing their kids so I included this cookie as something fun for the dessert table for them.  I felt safe taking a calculated risk on this new recipe because the base recipe is very similar to Mexican Wedding Cakes but without the nuts in the dough and you cover it with caramel instead of powdered sugar.  I can live with that.  Plus it's the kind of recipe I need to try for parties rather than care packages since anything covered in caramel usually don't package well or ship well. 

After the cookies are baked, you stick a toothpick in the center, let them cool then dip them in caramel and roll them in nuts.  I switched it up a bit in case anyone didn't like nuts and did a few in red and green sprinkles for the kids.  Make sure your caramel is thin enough to be dipped in but not so thin that they don't coat the cookie.  Keep the caramel warm and after you coat the whole cookie, let the excess caramel drip off before rolling it in nuts (or sprinkles).  I did have a little difficulty with the nuts clumping a little because of the caramel.  Make sure to grind the nuts fine.  I ground them on the "coarse" setting in my nut grinder so the pieces were a little bit big which I didn't mind from a taste standpoint but they might've looked prettier had they been more finely chopped.  In general though, I liked how these turned out.  The cookies themselves were like a little vanilla butter cookie and were the perfect foil for the sweetness of the caramel and the crunch of the toasted almonds.

Cookies

¾ cup butter, softened

½ cup powdered sugar

1 large egg

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

½ teaspoon liquid maple flavor or almond extract

Dash of salt

2 cups all-purpose flour

48 round wooden toothpicks

Coating

36 caramels, unwrapped

¼ cup milk

1 cup finely chopped peanuts, walnuts or almonds

1.   Heat oven to 350⁰F.  Have baking sheets ready.

2.   To make cookies, beat butter and powdered sugar in a large bowl with electric mixer until fluffy.  Beat in egg, vanilla, maple flavor and salt.  On low speed, gradually beat in flour.  Form dough into forty-eight balls, about 1 inch in diameter.  Place 1 ½” apart on baking sheets.  Bake 12 to 14 minutes until balls are set, but not browned (tops may crack slightly).  Insert a toothpick into center of each.  Cool on wire racks.

3.   To make coating, melt caramels in milk, stirring often.  Keep warm over a pan of hot, not boiling water.  Dip each cookie into the caramel mixture, coating completely and drawing bottom of cookie across edge of pan to remove excess caramel.  Dip bottom of each in chopped nuts.  Place on sheet of wax paper to set.  Store loosely covered; best served within 24 hours.

Makes 48

Hosting dessert parties and managing your time

Three-Layer Lemon Bars

Last year I had blogged about some tips when hosting a dessert party.  I usually host a big-to-me dessert party only every other year and last year was it so this was my off year.  However, I do generally have a few guests over throughout the season to catch up with friends or host family.  Last Saturday was my first gathering of the season where I hosted a dozen family members for an impromptu post-Thanksgiving get together.  They came around lunchtime and, as you know, I don't cook, but thankfully my mom brought arroz caldo (a Filipino rice porridge) and my cousin Christine brought a pizza.  I made the desserts: lemon bars with lemons from my mom's lemon tree, buttery tea balls because my mom likes anything with pecans and I had ceramic mitten dishes to serve the "snowballs" in, and red velvet cookies because they're my niece Shyla's favorite and a chocolate item my nephew Jason will eat (he doesn't like chocolate.  Someday I'm going to tell him red velvet is chocolate.  But not yet.)

"Snowballs" aka Buttery Tea Balls in mitten dishes

I'm hosting another gathering with a few friends from high school tomorrow.  I had missed my has-it-really-been-25-years high school reunion last month because I was at my cousin's wedding in Winnipeg.  So I thought it would be fun to catch up with a few old friends.  The family gathering last weekend spurred me to finish my decorating and my house is now reasonably clean (mostly) so it's fit for company.  But there's still the matter of what to serve.

Red Velvet Cookies

The issue when you work full time and have other things going on during the holiday season is there usually isn't enough time to get everything done that you want to do, including party prep.  Which is why I stock up my baking pantry ahead of time, make up cookie doughs for the freezer and salvage any baking failures when necessary.  One key component of advance prep is selecting the right menu.  First, when deciding what to serve, play to your strengths.  My cousin Chris is a trained chef and he put on a 7-course meal for his family at Thanksgiving.  I'm sure it was superb.  But you won't catch me hosting a full-course dinner anytime soon (or ever) simply because my cooking skills are subpar and I don't enjoy cooking like I do baking.  So it's always going to be a dessert party for me.  I know my limits, lol.

Second, parties are not typically the time or place to take risks on new recipes unless you're absolutely sure they'll turn out, it's something similar to what you've done before and you have a backup plan if it fails.  In other words, now is the time to be risk averse with the menu.  I might try a new cookie recipe if it's one cookie out of several kinds that I'm serving but I'm not likely to take on a towering croquembouche as my dessert centerpiece.  Seriously.

Third, time management is essential.  Last year I blogged about how I like to have a variety of flavors that will be crowd pleasers and/or past favorites of my guests.  But I also take into account which ones I can make ahead of time and balance those with the items that have to be done the day of the party or at the last minute.  I work full time, I sometimes have social engagements after work, and errands always need to be run to the bank, the gas station, the library, the grocery store, the post office, etc, all in the same 24 hours in a day when it isn't the holiday season.

For this weekend's dessert party, my menu was driven by both what I thought my guests might like and what I could reasonably accomplish in the time I had.  I already had peanut butter brownies in the freezer that I had baked earlier in anticipation of needing it this week.  Then every night this week that I didn't have dinner plans after work, I made cookie dough.  One night, I made cookie dough for peanut butter kiss cookies, the next night I made cookie dough for holiday caramel treats (recipe to follow), a third night I made cookie dough for Almond Butter and Nutella Swirl Cookies.  Each of these cookie doughs took a grand total of 10-15 minutes (if that) to put together, portion into individual cookie dough balls and store in ziploc bags in my freezer, ready to be baked off at a moment's notice.  The point being I could make it when I had 10-15 minutes to spare this week, not when I have to make it in a rushed timeframe right before the party.

Which frees me up to focus on the more last-minute baking the night before and the day of the party.  Since I'm a stickler for freshness, the only thing I'm actually going to bake the night before are lemon bars.  They'll be fresh enough the day after they're made and they're actually a bit better the next day because they've had time to set.  On the morning of the party, I'm going to bake some of the cookie doughs I had already made but that will only take baking and clean up time.  Which leaves me free to tackle a whole new recipe without being too frazzled.  I chose a doughnut recipe because I don't often have people over and that's the ideal time to try something like doughnuts because they're best when they're fresh out of the fryer and can be mass consumed by people besides yourself.  I'm certainly not going to eat a whole batch of doughnuts by myself!  Plus I consider the risk of failure to be minimal - it's hard to go wrong with something deep-fried, rolled in cinnamon sugar and served warm.  Doughnut recipe to follow.....as soon as I actually make it.

S'more Squares - sans marshmallows

S'more Squares - made November 28, 2011 from Sweet Miniatures by Flo Braker (book #177)

This is one of those new recipes I decided to take a risk on to see how it would turn out.  The ingredients and instructions were straightforward and the risk of failure seemed minimal.  I did, however, skip the last step of the melted milk chocolate and topping with a mini marshmallow, partly because I didn't have time after work and partly because I don't like marshmallows, mini or otherwise.  So if you leave out the marshmallows, can these still legitimately be called "s'more" anything?  Maybe not.  But regardless, these were pretty good.  The graham cracker crust was a nice touch to add to the brownie which itself was also good, albeit a bit thin.  These were somewhat plain since I skipped the mini marshmallow topping but you can dress these up with a Hershey kiss or chopped up Snickers or peanut butter cups if you wish.  Or leave them plain and just enjoy.

Crust

1 ½ cups (5 ½ ounces) graham cracker crumbs
¼ cup (50 grams) packed light brown sugar
7 tablespoons (3 ½ ounces) unsalted butter, melted

Filling

2/3 cup (100 grams) unsifted all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
6 tablespoons (3 ounces) unsalted butter
1 tablespoon water
1 cup (200 grams) granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Topping

2 ounces milk chocolate, melted
4 dozen mini marshmallows

1. Adjust rack to lower third of oven and preheat oven to 325°F. Press a sheet of aluminum foil to cover outside bottom and sides of a 9” square pan. Invert pan and gently press aluminum form into pan to fit contours; set aside.
2. Crust: In a large bowl, blend the graham cracker crumbs and the sugar. Add the butter and blend thoroughly. Press the crumbs into foil-lined pan. Set aside.
3. Filling: Sift the flour, salt, and baking soda onto a piece of waxed paper; set aside. In a small saucepan, melt the chocolate and butter over low heat, stirring occasionally. Turn off heat, stir in the water. Pour the mixture into a large bowl and let cool for about 5 minutes. Stir in the sugar, then the eggs and vanilla, just until thoroughly blended. Add the flour mixture, stirring just until combined. Pour filling into crumb-lined pan, spreading evenly.
4. Bake for 30 minutes only. Remove pan from oven to a rack, and cool in the pan.
5. Topping: To serve, remove the cake from the pan to a cutting board by lifting the foil by its edges. Pour the chocolate into a small handmade paper cone and pipe zigzag lines over the filling’s surface. Cut into 1 ½’ squares. Center a mini marshmallow on each square, and pipe a tiny dot of chocolate in the center of each marshmallow.
6. Store in one layer in a covered foil-lined cardboard container, such as a cake box, at room temperature up to 2 days.

O Christmas Tree - and preparing for baking gifts

As a baker, it should not surprise you that my fondness (cough, obsession. cough) for baking also manifests itself in other areas of my life.  The only thing I've been doing almost as long as I've been baking is collecting Christmas ornaments.  I started off with Hallmark and branched out to other brands and eventually ended up with a collection that had both sentimental value imbued with certain memories and ornaments I bought just because I loved them.  But Hallmark ornaments will always have a sentimental place of honor in my collection even though I don't buy them by the dozens every year like I used to.

My Hallmark tree

Nowadays I don't buy as much since I'm out of storage and display space. So I've cut back on new purchases but the old ones still remain.  I've culled out a great many in recent years but kept even more as I just like them.  Not surprisingly, I have an inordinate amount of food ornaments.  I used to decorate my largest artificial tree with just food ornaments.  Last year, my food ornament collection outgrew the big tree so I had to split it up into 2 full-size food trees.

Food ornament tree #1

Food ornament tree #2

I always start decorating early because it takes so long and I like to be done by Thanksgiving weekend. Because that time period between Thanksgiving and Christmas is one that I devote solely to baking and holiday get togethers.  I've got my Christmas card pictures printed, envelopes stuffed, stamped and addressed and they're all ready to mail by December 1. Yes, I'm also one of those annoying people who not only gets her Christmas shopping done early but gets the Christmas gifts wrapped as soon as possible.  Although this year I am a little behind but expect to wrap up my Christmas shopping with Cyber Monday deals.  It also helps that a lot of my gift giving is homemade baked goods.

When giving away homemade goodies, I take the appearance and presentation of the baked gift as seriously as any store-bought gift that I wrap.  Maybe even more so since it's personal and I put much more effort into the baked gifts coming out of my kitchen than the gifts I buy at the store or online.  Which means presentation matters.  Well before the holiday season, craft stores like Michaels have decorated gift bags, treat bags, treat boxes, cupcake boxes, candy boxes, plates, cellophane wrap and everything else you need to make a nice presentation of your gifts.  When I shop at the after-Christmas sales, those are the things I look for.  Even before Christmas, I save the weekly 40-50% off coupons from Michaels and buy the treat packaging a little at a time.  That's generally when they have the best selection and by the time I'm baking and giving away treats I have all the necessary packaging materials I need.  More avoidance of holiday stress.

I also take into account sizes in terms of how much I can fit into each package and quantity of baked goods for each recipient.  For friends with families, I tend to give more and possibly combine different packages together to give them a variety of treats.  For my (few remaining) single friends, I might give one treat package but put in a little sample of several different things so they still can get a variety without going into sugar overload.  The treat packages I tend to buy are small to medium in size for the most part.  It's easier to put several smaller packages together to make a bigger gift than to give one large gift that's too much for your recipients to consume. 

I hate for things to go to waste but am also mindful that this is the season of (over)indulgence and my friends are likely to be getting treats from other bakers as well or they also make their own.  So I try to give a variety of treats, some of which can go into the freezer for eating at a later date and others with a shorter shelf life are given in fewer quantity.  I also tell my friends which ones can be frozen for later and which ones should be consumed sooner rather than later so they can get maximum taste and freshness from their baked gifts.  Although some eat all of it right away - that's fine too :).

So have fun with your gift packaging - if you give away your baked treats, dress them up!  Although it's inside the packaging that counts, it's also nice for your gift to reflect the effort and care you put into making them and for your recipient to get an eye-catching gift that pleases more than their taste buds.

Thanksgiving 2011 - menu pictorial

It's been a busy week and I haven't been on the computer much for the past few days.  In between baking, decorating, Thanksgiving, visiting with family and friends and hosting my first holiday get together of the season (no, not Thanksgiving itself - I'm SO incapable of that), there just hasn't been enough time.  Here's a pictorial view of our Thanksgiving meal.  Christmas posts to follow in the coming days.

Lumpia appetizer - almost always present at every Filipino family gathering

Lechon (pork roast) - also a traditional feast food

Lechon in more serving size pieces

Shrimp pesto pasta - with basil grown in my mom's garden

Leche flan (Filipino creme caramel) - made by my mom

Basque Cake (butter cake with vanilla pastry cream)

Apple cobbler, aka Apple Crumble Bars (serve warm with ice cream)