Rolling Rolling Rolling, keep those cakes a rolling. Part 1

If you are a fan of cake, icing with a secret topping inside without a lot of work and the stress of making the cake perfect and flat, the roll cake is the way to go.   I decided to make two this week, one pumpkin and one chocolate peanut butter.  I made the pumpkin cake last Christmas for a party and loved it, but last year I didn't have a blog and this one sadly wasn't for me.   I made it for a good family friend for his Christmas desserts along with an apple crumble pie.    If you love pumpkin desserts and cream cheese icing, make this! It's simply the right amount of both.    I got the recipe from a great baking website, Joy of Baking.   I often go there to easily find something or for some good inspiration.   It is also great because she puts her ingredients in weights, a small touch every baker loves.

INGREDIENTS :

Cake

• 3/4 cup (100 grams) AP flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ground allspice   ( I didn't use this, but used nutmeg instead)
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3 large eggs
• 1 cup (200 grams) white sugar
• 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 2/3 cup (150 grams) pumpkin puree (real pumpkin not pie filling)

Filling

• 8 ounces (226 grams) cream cheese, softened
• 2 tablespoons (28 grams) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup (115 grams) icing sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup (130 grams) skor bits  (joy of baking also has pecans/walnuts has an option instead of skor bits, I would use praline pecans!!)

INSTRUCTIONS:

1) Preheat oven to 375F and spray and parchment a 11x15 sheet pan.   In a bowl sift together the dry ingredients and set aside.   

2) Beat together eggs and sugar with a mixer (paddle attachment) or hand mixer until thick, fluffy and pale.  When you lift the paddle or beaters the batter should fall like ribbons.   Add the vanilla and pumpkin and beat until combined.   

3) Fold in the flour mixture gently by hand.    Pour the mixture in to the pan and spread evenly across the pan.  

Bake for 13-15 min or until a toothpick comes out clean. 

4) Immediately remove the cake from the pan onto a clean towel that has been dusted with icing sugar to prevent the cake from sticking.   Remove the parchment from the cake and sprinkle the cake with icing sugar. 

5) Roll the cake in the towel and let cool.   Rolling the cake while warm will allow you to un roll it and re roll it filled with icing later.  

6) Make the Filling : Beat the cream cheese, butter, icing sugar and vanilla until light fluffy, cream and oh so yummy!  

7) Unroll the cake and spread the icing on the cake.   Sprinkle the skor bits on top of the icing (Joy of Baking adds the bits to the icing ahead of time but I think this is easier and easier to spread the icing as well),  plus you can add more bits if you like or anything else you would like to add to the cake.   Re roll the cake back together and let chill for a few hours. (if you can).    Dust with icing sugar before serving.

Serves about 8 people. 

The cake may look and feel odd when its done, as a sponge cake is a little different than your traditional cake.     Once you put it on the towel and see how it pliable it is you will understand.    This is probably a good sponge cake to start with if you have never made one like this before as this one doesn't require the separation of egg yolks and whites like other sponges.  It's easy and very good.  

MEG's rating : D-EEEEE-LICIOUS!

It's the most wonderful time of the year......

There will be several Christmas dinner desserts coming up in the next few days as we have several dinners to attend and I have signed myself up for making all the desserts. I will be busy busy but lots to try and experiment with, time permitting.    I am happily off next week so I have no excuse to but to write about them, so stay tuned for some great desserts!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS EVERYONE!!

Butter Tarts and Chocolate Chow Mien Cookies

For the last several Christmas' my Mother, Sister and my niece and I get together for Mother/Daughter baking day.  The focus : Ooey Gooey Flaky Butter Tarts.  My mom found this recipe from Canadian Living, but she made a few tweaks, passed it on to us and we have been making it ever since.   It's great for us to get together and spend the day baking, laughing and sharing so we always make a point to set up this day.   Along with the butter tarts we also make Chocolate Chow Mien Noodle cookies, Hay Stacks, Spider cookies or Oodle Kadoodles, whatever you want to call them.   They maybe the easiest cookie ever, but they are so addictive and yummy.


Butter Tart INGREDIENTS:

Dough (Tenderflake - makes 6 pie shells about 3-4 dozen tart shells)

• 5 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 lb tenderflake lard
• 1 egg, stirred slightly
• 1 tablespoon vinegar
• 7/8 cup cold water

Filling: (makes about 12 tarts)

• 1/2 cup Brown Sugar
• 1/3 cup corn syrup
• 1 egg
• 3 tbsp Butter, softened
• 1 tbsp Vinegar
• 1 tbsp Vanilla
• Pinch Salt
• A few in each tart - Raisins or Cranberries

INSTRUCTIONS: 

1) Make the dough :  

• Stir the flour and salt together.   Cut in the lard with a pastry blender until the shortening is in pea size pieces. In a measuring cup, combine the egg and vinegar. 
• Add enough cold water to make one cup.   Stir the liquid into the flour mixture, adding just enough to make the dough cling together.  Stir the water in with a wooden spoon until mixed thoroughly, then gather the dough into a ball, and separate into 6 portions. 
• Cover and refrigerate for one hour, you can chill overnight, covered, providing you leave it at room temp for 15 mins before rolling. 

2) Make the filling :  In bowl, vigorously whisk brown sugar, corn syrup, egg, butter, vanilla, vinegar and salt. 

3) Roll, Cut and Fill:  On a lightly floured surface roll out pastry to 1/8-1/4inch thickness. Using about a 4 inch round cutter cut out circles.   Re rolling as needed.   

4) Spray the muffin tin or grease/flour and place in the dough to make a cup.  Add a few raisins at the bottom of each tart and then add the filling to about halfway to 2/3 full.   You do not want to overfill or the tarts will not remove from the pan easily.    

5) Bake at 350F for about 18minutes or until filling is just set and golden.

OUR VARIATIONS AND RESULTS:

We try and get a head of the game and make the dough ahead of time but this year none of us had time so we started from scratch.  Unfortunately we had issues with the first few batches of dough.  We always tend to use the crust recipe from the Tenderflake shortening box and we did this time but we didn't actually have Tenderflake, we had no name lard.  So we ended up with 5 rounds of dough that just didn't want to stay together.    At this point I went to my never fail dough, it's more of a sweet dough than a flaky dough but its really good and it worked.   PHEW!      My sister likes when the butter tarts have the wavy look just so when she puts them into the muffin tin she adds the bumpy look.   That choice is totally up to you, but it definitely gives them the homemade feel.    We did also put some cranberries in about a dozen instead of raisins.  Different but quite nice.  In the end we made about 8 dozen but due to some over filling and some broken shells we didn't quite get that many.  Not such a large tragedy though eating the broken pieces is still fun.

Ooops! Sorry about the your recipe Mom!  

MEG's RATING : D-EEE-LICIOUS!!


CHOCOLATE CHOW MIEN COOKIES

While we were waiting for the dough to chill and remaking the new dough, my sister made the cookies.
They are really quick and easy and require no baking!   We don't really use a recipe but for guidance I adapted the one from Hershey.

INGREDIENTS: (makes about 4 dozen)

• 3 cups Chow mien noodles - slightly crushed
• 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips (1 12 oz package)
• 1 2/3 cups peanut butter chips (1 10 oz package)
• 1 cup chopped peanuts 
• 1 cup raisins

INSTRUCTIONS: 

1) Melt both chips in a double boiler.   Add chow mien noodles a cup at a time and mix so they are all covered in chocolate.  Add peanuts and/or raisins.  You don't have to do both.

2)  Drop a heaping spoonful on a baking sheet lined with parchment or silpat. 

3) Refrigerate or (put in your cold garage as what we did) until set. 

Seriously, that is it!!   I know it may seem odd with the noodles but trust me.  These are a great easy treat! Great for doing with kids as well, they may just want to eat the noodles covered in chocolate.  Case in point <<

Try experimenting with different nuts or butterscotch chips....or even skor bits.  :-)

MEG's RATING : D-EEE-LICIOUS!

Highlights of My Christmas Party Baking

Let me start at the beginning,  I am a Christmas nut! How did it get started, no idea.  There is just something about the cheer, the decorations and the gatherings that make me giddy.  I start thinking about Christmas, the baking and the parties as soon as Thanksgiving is over.   In fact, every year my Holiday party invite is out the very next day.   I then spend the next 2 months planning my menu.  It's my favorite day, a day where I go nuts an cook a feast for my friends.    This year was our 5th party with a theme of UGLY SWEATERS!    It was quite hilarious actually seeing everyone arrive, where do people find these things.  HA!   Last year I happened to be unemployed over Christmas which gave me quite a lot of time to plan, clean, cook and bake, this year not so much.  :-(    I did take off the Friday to prepare which was such a good idea.  I literally spent two days on my feet but it was worth it, despite forgetting to keep up on my photography.   It was a great time with lots of great food.   Here are the desserts.....

1) Cake pops

2) Apple & Pear Caramel Bundt Cake

3) Orange Chocolate Brownie Cheesecake

4) Pumpkin Cream Cheese bars/loafs

This time for the cake pops I did the Holiday theme of Christmas trees and Santa Hats from Bakarella.   I did them last year for the party and they were a hit!  This year was no exception,  not one pop left.   Same recipe as the Halloween ones I did but this time I shaped them into cones and bent cones.  Put them in the fridge or freezer to get cold.  I find freezer is best so there is little chance for the cake to soften and fall off the stick, however this cools down the chocolate and causes it to harden fast.   It can be a tricky process.  Once firm put it on the stick and roll/dip in chocolate.  Move fast and add coloured chips and sprinkles.  Place them in Styrofoam and let them dry. 

APPLE & PEAR CARAMEL BUNDT CAKE  (adapted from Foodland Ontario Calender)

I often fall back on my staple apple crumble for parties as my token fruit dessert but I saw this recipe in a calender and couldn't resist the thought of a cake with caramel sauce.   Read on and repeat because you won't be able to not try this!

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
• 3 eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 3 cups AP flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 each Apple and Pear cored and chopped

Caramel Glaze

• 1/2 cup butter  
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 tsp milk

INSTRUCTIONS:
1) In a large bowl, using a mixer beat sugar, oil, eggs and vanilla until creamy.
2) Using a wooden spoon stir in flour, baking soda and salt until well blended, Stir in apple and pear.
3) Spoon batter into greased and floured 12 cup bundt pan.   Bake 350F for 60-75 minutes or until cake tester in center comes out clean.   Cool on rack for 20 minutes.
4) Caramel Glaze : In a medium saucepan, combine butter, brown sugar and milk; bring to a boil over medium high heat, stirring constantly.  Boil for 2 minutes while stirring.   Remove cake from pan, spoon warm glaze over warm cake.  Serve warm at room temperature.

MY VARIATION :   I didn't stray to far from the recipe other than the fact that I didn't pour the glaze over the cake when it was warm and serve immediately.   I think this only made it better as the cake soaked in the caramel over time.

This cake was just amazing!!  I would make this every week and the caramel sauce was easy and also very yummy.  If you can get the glaze to pour nicely this cake is also great for presentation.   Make this for Christmas!

MEG's RATING : D-EEEEE-LICIOUS!  

At my parties I like to attempt to cover to key aspects of dessert : Fruit and Chocolate.   Fruit: Check.   Now  the chocolate portion.    I am not a huge orange fan, in terms of the actual fruit.  However I am a fan of chocolate and orange and specifically the "Chocolate Orange".   I was considering making a Chocolate Orange roll cake but then saw this recipe for a brownie cheesecake and decide to put a twist of orange in that.

ORANGE CHOCOLATE BROWNIE CHEESECAKE (Adapted from The Big Book of Baking)

INGREDIENTS :

Brownie:

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 4 oz semi-sweet chocolate, broken into pieces
• 1 cup white sugar
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 cup AP flour

Cheesecake

• 2 1/4 cups cream cheese
• 2/3 cup white sugar
• 3 eggs, beaten
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 cup plain yogurt
• melted chocolate for drizzling.

INSTRUCTIONS:
1) Preheat the oven to 350F.  Lightly grease and flour a spring form round cake pan.
2) Melt the butter and chocolate in a saucepan over low heat, stirring until smooth.  Remove from heat and beat in the sugar.  Add the eggs and milk, beating well.
3) Stir in the flour, mixing just until blended.  Spoon into the prepared pan, spreading evenly.
4) Bake in the preheated oven for 25 minutes.   Remove from the oven while preparing then topping, reduce oven to 325F.
5) For the topping, beat together the cream cheese, sugar, eggs and vanilla extract until well blended.  Stir in the yogurt, then pour into the pan.  Bake for an additional 45-55 minutes or until the center is almost set.
6) Run a knife around the edge of the cheesecake to loosen from the pan.  Let cool before removing from the pan.  Chill for 4 hours or overnight before cutting into slices.  Drizzle with the melted chocolate.

MY VARIATION :  For the brownie instead of all semi sweet chocolate I used some dark chocolate and Orange chocolate.   I also left some in chunks for the brownie base.    For the cheesecake portion, I used light sour cream instead of yogurt.  I also took out a portion of the topping and stirred in melted orange  and dark chocolate to make the cheesecake a swirl cheesecake.


The cheesecake came out really nice.   By using the chocolate orange pieces the orange flavour was subtle, nice and not overly intense.   The brownie was soft and the cheesecake was crack free and creamy.    I think this recipe could have lots of great variations, something to think about.  Hmmm...I see mini eggs in its future!  :-)

If you look close you can see a tree. 

MEG's RATING: D-EEEE-LICIOUS!

A Day of Cookies

So far I am not very good at keeping up with this blog on daily/weekly basis but I am trying.  Here is what happened two weekends ago.   For the last couple years my friend Heather and I get together for a day of baking.  We pick about 4-5 cookie recipes and spend the day baking and enjoying the day together.   The goal is to try and pick cookies we wouldn't always think to make on a regular basis or that may be a little different.  We decided on the 5 cookies below.

1. Martha Stewart's Candy Stripe Cookie Sticks
2. Martha Stewart's Honeyed Almond Cherry Shortbread
3. Coconut Macaroons
4. Chocolate Thumbprints
5. Sugar Cookies

I will tell you now we never completed them all but it was close.   First step was to make the sugar cookie dough so that it could chill for rolling.  While I was making the dough Heather started on the Coconut Macaroons.  We decided to mix it up a little by putting a chocolate covered almond inside, putting our own spin on an Almond Joy.   I also discovered in this process of preparing for baking day that I own A LOT of Christmas cookie magazines, which only means A LOT of untapped recipes. A very exciting finding indeed.   The coconut macaroon recipe came from one of these magazines, 2009 Holiday Baking by Cuisine at Home.

COCONUT MACAROONS

INGREDIENTS :

• 2 cups sweetened shredded Coconut (7 oz)
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup all purpose flour
• 1 tsp minced orange zest
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 2 egg whites
• 2 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
• 1/4 tsp almond extract
• 3 oz semisweet chocolate, chopped. 

INSTRUCTIONS:
1) Preheat oven to 350, line baking sheet with parchment or silpat.
2) Whisk together coconut, sugar, flour, zest and salt in a bowl.  Stir in egg whites, butter and almond extract.   Fold in chocolate.
3) Drop tablespoon sizes balls of cookie dough onto the prepared baking sheets.
Bake macaroons (one sheet at a time) until macaroons are firm to touch and lightly brown on the bottoms, 20 minutes.   Let macaroons cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer to a rack to cool.

OUR VARIATION :  Instead of putting in the chopped chocolate, we wrapped the coconut dough around a chocolate covered almond.  We also skipped the orange zest, mostly because we didn't have any.

We did find the batter spread a bit more than the picture but we did double the recipe so it was maybe a bit more runny than it was supposed.    There were quite tasty though.    I would attempt to make these again on other forms and make sure the dough was a bit drier to prevent spreading.

MEG'S RATING: D-EE-LICIOUS!


COOKIE STRIP COOKIES




We decided to move on to the hardest recipe next, which according to Martha this was her hardest recipe in her 12 days of Cookies.   Sadly we found this out and the video on how to complete them after we were all done.   Go figure!  We did not double this batch and thank goodness.  Although the batter looks small you use a tiny amount for each cookie as you need to spread the cookie into a very thin rectangle with offset spatula.   We went through several iterations of thickness and size and in the end, I will give the kudos to Heather who mastered it.  I seem to be useful when they were hot out of the oven and you had to roll them immediately into sticks.    My advice is to watch her video so you can really get a feel for how they look and how to much batter to use.
Recipe and video link :  http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/candy-stripe-cookie-sticks

Martha suggests actually creating a rectangular template to ensure each piece is uniform but we didn't.   Depending on how many you choose to make using a template could take a long time.
It is also tricky to not have a portion of the cookie brown which can make it difficult to roll.  These cookies were cool but time consuming.  Not an everyday cookie but great for the holidays.

MEG's RATING: D-EE-LICIOUS!











HONEYED ALMOND CHERRY SHORTBREAD


While Heather was busy making thin rectangles, I started to put together the dough for the shortbread.

IINGREDIENTS:  

• 1 cup dried cherries, chopped
• 2 tbsp of sherry   (Heather and I used Vanilla)
• 1 tbsp of orange zest
• 1/2 cup of honey
• 2 tbsp of unsalted butter
• 2 cups lightly toasted sliced almonds
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 8 oz of unsalted butter, softened
• 3/4 cup icing sugar
• 2 1/4 cups of  AP flour
• 1 1/4 teaspoon salt

INSTRUCTIONS: 

1) Combine the first three ingredients, toss and let stand for 1 hour

2) Make the honeyed almonds : Cook honey and butter in a medium sauce pan on medium heat stirring constantly until fragrant and deep amber about 5 minutes.  Add almonds, salt and vanilla.  Stir to coat completely.  Remove from heat and spread on parchment to cool.  Let cool and coarsely chop. 

3) Make the dough: Beat butter and sugar with a mixer on medium speed until pale and fluffy.  Add cherries and mix until combined.  Add flour and salt and mix until dough just comes together, about 1 minute.  Add almonds and mix until combined. 

4) Turn the dough onto a piece of parchment and form into a 2 1/2 by 16 inch long, pressing edges to shape flat.   Wrap in parchment.   Refrigerate until firm, at least 1 hour or up to 2 days.  (Dough can be frozen for up to 3 months) Cut dough into 1/4 inch thick slices and arrange on parchment lined baking sheet.  Chill again for 1 hour.

This is another great recipe by Martha.   We ended up doubling the cherries without doubling the rest of the batch.  I think that only made these cookies better but you need to love dried cherries.  We both do.  
This recipe is also an easy shortbread to put together for those who may have had trouble in the past with shortbread. 





MEG's RATING: D-EEEE-LICIOUS!!!!

We never made it to the sugar cookies so we both left with dough to make them later.  You will also notice chocolate thumb prints in the picture,  they actually didn't really turn out the way they were supposed.  Another batter that spread and flattened more than planned so we didn't really have a good place to put the filling.   I managed to salvage a few cookies for the picture.   Overall it was a GREAT day.   Lots of great cookies, lots of leanings and we had a blast together.