photo courtesy Box of Spice
Some days your own recipe ideas are ok – some days, those of others just are so much better!
Let it be known that I am on record of being a huge proponent of including a finished photo in a recipe, especially one such as the second one in this post.
I have never been one to understand a cookbook without photos. Number two pet peeve is when photos are assembled in a group away from the recipes. For me, nothing inspires more than the visual. Nuff said.
Today is December 22 and, as the recipe feeds are coming in for a landing, just like the receiving line you see overhead as you pass through the toll on the NJ Turnpike extension (aka Newark Airport) going to and fro from NYC – there have been some stellar offerings this morning that I would like to share here for posterity’s sake. I think they are worthy of their own post:
SPICED ALMOND PASTE WREATH WITH CARDAMOM – photos and recipe courtesy Box of Spice
PREP TIME
1 hour 30 mins
COOK TIME
30 mins
TOTAL TIME
2 hours
Author: boxofspice
Serves: 2 wreaths
INGREDIENTS
For the almond paste
250 grams almonds, without skin
250 grams sugar
1 egg, whisked
1 lemon
¼ tsp cardamom powder
Sheets of puff pastry, thawed (I used 4 because at my grocery store you get these square sheets. You might however need 2 if yours are big rectangular sheets)
250 grams almond paste
1 egg, whisked
handful of skinned almond slices for decoration
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INSTRUCTIONS
Preheat oven to 190°C/375°F.
To prepare the almond spice, wash the lemon and dry it. Grate the rind off and grind with the almonds till very fine, in your kitchen machine. Add the sugar and grind again till extremely fine. Squeeze the juice of the lemon and mix with the almond sugar. Add the whisked egg and mix till you get a smooth paste. Lastly add the cardamom powder.
Put the almond spice paste in a clean box and let sit in the refrigerator for at least one hour. Overnight is better.
On a lightly floured surface roll out your puff pastry as thin as you can.
Take the almond spice from the refrigerator and make a roll around 1 inch thick. It needs to be shorter in width than your rolled out puff pastry sheet.
Place the almond spice roll on the dough and fold the pastry around it, till it comes together.
Now take both ends and bring them together forming an ‘O’ or a wreath. Make the ends stick by adding a little water.
Place the wreath on a baking sheet lined by parchment paper.
Brush the entire wreath with egg and throw on the almond slices on top.
Bake in the oven for 30 minutes or till your wreath is nice and brown.
Serve with tea!
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photo and recipe courtesy The Splendid Table
STORIESRECIPESEPISODESDONATE
Double Pear Pudding Cake with Warm Caramel-Cognac Sauce
by Lynne Rossetto Kasper and Sally Swift
This cake is better with a day of rest, tightly wrapped, kept at room temperature; or it keeps frozen up to 6 months. You can marinate the fruits, caramelize the pears, and make the sauce ahead.
Standing proud and tall on a plate, retro Bundt cakes are impressive. Fall is written all over this one—the warming spices, the autumn fruits, the warm caramel sauce filling in the crevices—here is a great baking project for that first cool weekend.
You’ll get to practice the old fruit-on-fruit trick. You soak dried pears in Cognac and sauté fresh ones in butter and caramel. Pretty fancy. The pears can be made ahead and refrigerated.
Cook to Cook: Picky though it may seem, the butter’s temperature is crucial in a cake recipe. At the right temperature, you can beat it up to three times its original volume. This is how cakes get their height and lightness. The butter has to be soft enough to fluff into pockets of air, and cool and firm enough to securely hold it (65°F to 68°F). Tuck an instant-read thermometer in your butter as you’re bringing it to room temperature and you’ll know exactly where you are.
Also, for the most volume, never beat butter faster than at medium speed. Lastly, have all ingredients at room temperature before starting to mix.
Wine: The deep flavors and massiveness of this cake pose a challenge best answered by an oak-aged dessert wine like Sauternes or Barsac from Bordeaux. A great alternative that can hold its own with the Cognac sauce would be Muscat de Beaumes de Venise from France’s Rhône Valley.
Ingredients
Unsalted butter and flour
Marinated Fruits:
1-1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup finely chopped mixed dried pears and apricots, or just dried pears
1/2 cup Cognac or brandy
1 recipe Caramelized Pears (see below)
Cake:
3-1/8 cups (16 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour, dipped and leveled, then sifted
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon baking powder
1-3/4 teaspoons salt
4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1-1/2 teaspoons ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
3/4 cup (12 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1-1/2 cups (packed) dark brown sugar
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1-1/2 cups buttermilk, at room temperature
1 cup whole blanched almonds, toasted and coarsely chopped
1 recipe Caramel-Cognac Sauce (see below)
Caramelized Pears:
5 tablespoons unsalted butter
5 medium firm-ripe Bosc pears, peeled, cored, and cut into 1-inch chunks
1 cup sugar
Grated zest of 2 large lemons
Juice of 1 lemon
Caramel-Cognac Sauce:
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
2/3 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons Cognac or brandy
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
Instructions
To make the Caramelized Pears:
1. Heat the butter in a 12-inch heavy skillet over high heat, taking care not to let it burn. Add the pears and cook quickly, gently stirring often, until golden brown.
2. Raise the heat to medium-high, stir in the sugar, and cook for 1 minute, or until the sugar has turned thick and amber colored (do not let it burn). Stir in the lemon zest, remove the pan from the heat, and stand back as you add 2 tablespoons of water to the pan as a precaution against burning. Gently stir in.
3. Transfer the pears to a bowl, cool for 10 minutes, blend in the lemon juice, and cool.
To make the Cognac Sauce (heat before serving):
1. Make the caramel sauce by combining the sugar and corn syrup and 3 tablespoons water in a 3-quart saucepan. Set over medium-high heat and bring to a bubble. Do not stir at all, but do use a heatproof brush dipped in water to wash down the sides of the pan often.
2. Once the bubbles are clear, large, and shiny, the syrup will start to color. Cook it another 30 seconds, or until it’s the color of caramel candy, but not dark brown. Immediately pull the pan off the heat and stand back while you pour in the cream. The syrup will fiercely bubble up and then settle down. Stir in the butter, Cognac, vanilla, and salt. Scrape the sauce into a medium metal or heatproof bowl, cool, and refrigerate it if holding for more than a few hours.
To make the cake:
1. Butter and flour a 10-inch Bundt pan.
2. Marinate the dried fruits: In a medium bowl, combine the raisins, dried pears and apricots, and Cognac and let stand for several hours or overnight.
3. Puree about one quarter of the caramelized pears, then combine with the remaining caramelized pears in a bowl, and set aside.
4. Make the cake: Place a sifter or large strainer over a large bowl. Add the sifted flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, ginger, allspice, and cloves and sift into the bowl. Believe it or not, sifting doesn’t mix dry ingredients well enough. So to be sure they will evenly leaven and flavor the cake, stir them several times with a whisk. Set the dry ingredients aside.
5. Preheat the oven to 350°F. In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or using a handheld electric beater and a large bowl, beat the butter at medium speed for about 5 minutes, or until light and fluffy. Scrape down the sides of the bowl a few times. Add the sugar and continue beating at medium speed for 3 to 5 minutes, or until very fluffy. Still at medium speed, beat in the eggs, one at a time, until each is just blended.
6. In this step it’s crucial not to overbeat the batter or the cake will toughen. Set the mixer at low speed and beat in about one third of the sifted dry ingredients (flour, leaveners, and spices) from step 4 until just blended. Add half of the buttermilk and beat only to blend. Repeat with half of the remaining dry ingredients, then the last of the buttermilk and, finally, the rest of the dry ingredients. Do not overbeat.
7. By hand, using a big spatula, fold into the batter the caramelized pears and all of their liquid, along with the almonds and the dried fruits with any of their liquid. Fold only long enough to blend. Turn into the prepared pan and bake for 1 hour.
8. Reduce the heat to 325°F and bake for 1 more hour, or until a tester inserted about an inch from the rim of the pan comes out clean. The center of the cake should still be moist. Let the cake cool in the pan on a rack for 15 minutes. Run a knife around the edge of the pan, turn the cake out onto the rack, and cool for 2 to 8 hours. Wrap tightly and keep at room temperature for at least 1 day.
9. To serve, set the cake on a platter and spoon some of the warmed caramel-Cognac sauce over it so it runs down the sides and puddles on the platter. Pass the remaining sauce at the table.
From The Splendid Table’s® How to Eat Weekends: New Recipes, Stories & Opinions from Public Radio’s Award-Winning Food Show by Lynne Rossetto Kasper and Sally Swift (Clarkson Potter/Publishers, 2011). Copyright© 2011 by American Public Media. Photographs copyright© 2011 by Ellen Silverman. Part of the Winter Holiday Dinner Menu.
Categories: CakeChristmasHolidaysThanksgiving
Tags: bundt
Prep time: 2-3 hours
Cook time: 2 hours oven, 3-8 to cool and 24 to rest
Total time: A little over a day, including resting
Yield: 10-12 servings
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And, from Gesine Bullock-Prado, these lovely Cinnamon Buns!
photos and recipe courtesy G Bakes
G Bakes!
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Thursday, December 13, 2012
Cinnamon Bun Wreath
Cinnamon buns. They are delicious. I keep them simple because adding geegaws to the dough or filling just ruins them for me. But I DO make them festive by cutting the dough into a wreath ( I still smother them with glaze).
CINNAMON BUN WREATH
INGREDIENTS
For the dough
5 cups bread flour plus an extra cup in case dough is too sticky
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 package Platinum Instant Yeast (make sure you use instant yeast)
2 teaspoon salt
1 3/4 cups whole milk
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon vanilla bean paste
2 eggs
4 tablespoons unsalted butter at room temperature
For the filling
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and allowed to cool to room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon
pinch salt
For the egg wash
1 egg whisked together with
2 tablespoons water
For the glaze
2 cups confectioner’s sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
2 to 3 tablespoons whole milk
PROCEDURE
•In the bowl of a stand mixer fit with the dough hook, mix together the milk, cinnamon, vanilla bean paste and eggs until the eggs are broken apart.
•Add the flour, sugar, yeast and salt. Mix until the dough just comes together.
•Add the butter, small pieces at a time, until the butter is incorporated.
•Continue mixing until the dough comes together in to a ball. If it is sticking to the sides of the bowl, add more flour, a little at a time, until the dough no longer sticks to the sides of the bowl.
•Transfer the dough to a lightly flour work surface and knead by hand for 10 minutes, until the dough is shiny and smooth.
•Place in a large bowl sprayed with non-stick cooking spray and spray the top of the dough with non-stick spray as well. Cover with plastic wrap and place in a warm corner of your kitchen and allow to rise to double it’s size, 1 to 2 hours.
•Stir together the sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl.
•Roll the dough out to a long rectangle, about 21″ x 10″. Brush the dough with the melted butter and sprinkle with the cinnamon and sugar mixture.
•Roll the dough into a jelly roll, rolling from the long side, into a long rope.
•Transfer the rope to a parchment lined sheet pan and bend into a circle. Pinch the ends together.
•Using a very sharp scissor, hold the scissors at a 45º angle and cut deeply into the dough but not so deeply that you cut all the way through. Tilt the cut piece to on side. Make these cuts every 1 1/2″ and tilt the dough to either side.
•Cover with plastic wrap and allow the proof and room temperature until the buns double in size, about 1 to 2 hours.
•During the proof, preheat the oven to 350º.
•Brush the ring with egg wash and bake until the ring is puff and golden brown, about 45 minutes.
•Allow to cool a bit (you don’t have to let it cool completely, just enough that the heat coming off the buns doesn’t melt the glaze completely off.
•In a small bowl, stir together the confectioner’s sugar, a few tablespoons milk and the vanilla and stir until you have a smooth glaze with the consistency of ketchup. Add more milk or more confectioner’s to achieve the right consistency.
•Drizzle the glaze over the buns.
Soft buns, with that tender texture from top to bottom (baked in an angel food pan).
***NOTE*** Do you prefer cinnamon buns that aren’t as golden brown, that are soft all around (egg wash browns and creates a slight crispness to the exterior of the bun), something that’s insanely tender from tip to tail (dare I say a la Cinnabon?)? This is how you can use this exact recipe but with slightly tweaked techniques to get different textural results:
(1) Roll the buns in a log, as per this recipe, but cut the buns traditionally (I cut them 1 1/2″ thick). Place the individual buns close to each other in a high baking tin (if you like the round wreath look above, use an angel food pan. You can’t fit all the buns in at once, though).
(2) Spray the tops of the buns with non-stick cooking spray and cover with plastic wrap for the last proof.
(3) Respray with non-stick spray just before baking and lightly cover the baking tin with foil.
(4) Bake until just barely light golden brown on the edges. Gently press the middle buns to make sure they feel baked and spring back.
(5) Top with the glaze when still warm.
Tender buns! Pretty hard to resist.
To: Box of Spice and The Splendid Table, G Bakes – Thanks for Sharing!