A Life, Lived

Cinnamon-Rhubarb Muffins

Last week our cleaner texted Paul and asked if we'd like some rhubarb from her garden. We said sure, expecting a handful of stalks. Instead Nellie showed up with a big bag full of rhubarb. We gave some to our neighbour and have been working through the rest.

I made this muffin recipe on Saturday. It comes together easily and yields a dense, yet moist muffin that is bursting with fresh rhubarb flavour.

Enjoy!

Cinnamon-Rhubarb Muffins

For the muffins:
oz. (2 cups) all-purpose flour
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2-1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
1 cup sour cream
4 oz. (8 Tbs.) unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
2 large eggs
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1-1/2 cups 1/4-inch-diced rhubarb (7-1/4 oz.)
For the topping:
3 Tbs. granulated sugar
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

Position a rack in the center of the oven and heat the oven to 400°F. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper or foil baking cups.

Make the muffin batter: In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt and whisk to blend.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the sour cream, melted butter, eggs, and vanilla until smooth. Lightly stir the sour cream mixture into the dry ingredients with a spatula until the batter just comes together; do not overmix. Gently stir in the diced rhubarb. The batter will be thick.

Divide the batter among the muffin cups, using the back of a spoon or a small spatula to settle the batter into the cups. The batter should mound a bit higher than the tops of the cups.

Make the topping: In a small bowl, combine the sugar and cinnamon and mix well. Sprinkle a generous 1/2 tsp. of the cinnamon-sugar mixture over each muffin.

Bake the muffins until they’re golden brown, spring back most of the way when gently pressed, and a pick inserted in the center comes out clean, 18 to 22 minutes. Transfer to a rack and let the muffins cool in the pan for 5 to 10 minutes. Carefully lift the muffins out of the pan—if necessary, loosen them with the tip of a paring knife—and let them cool somewhat.

Rum Balls

When I think about starting my Christmas baking this is generally the first recipe I approach. It's been my experience that as long as you have a cool spot to store them, these rum balls get better with age.

It's is an approachable recipe - just grind things up, measure, mix, roll and you are done.

I think it was about 30 years ago that the mother of a student I taught sent me a tin on the last day of school with a note to enjoy the contents over the break. I enjoyed the contents so much that on the first day back I asked the student if he could get the recipe from his mother. I've been making it ever since.

The recipe says to roll the rum balls in confectioners sugar however I have always rolled them in chocolate sprinkles with some green and red sprinkles mixed in for festive colour. The rolling part can get messy - particularly if the mixture is too moist - if that happens add more ground vanilla wafers or confectioners sugar until it is a proper consistency for rolling. In my old age (i.e. recently) I have started to use a small cookie dough scoop to help measure out the right amount of mixture. It sure cuts down on the mess! The scoop I use holds about 1 tablespoon.

Enjoy.

Rum Balls

1 cup crushed vanilla wafers
1 cup ground pecans
1 cup confectioners sugar
1 tablespoons cocoa
2 tablespoons corn syrup
1/4 cup rum
Chocolate sprinkles (for rolling)

Grind nuts in a food processor - you want an even consistency.

Grind the vanilla wafers in a food processor - you want some small bits so don't grind to a complete powder.

Add in the remaining ingredients.

Place the chocolate sprinkles in a bowl. Shape the mixture into balls. Roll each ball in the sprinkles.

Store in a cool spot.

Cranberry Almond Wedges

It is just amazing how hectic things get in December. . . it is as if we try to pack an entire 12 months worth of activity in the 12th and final month of the year. I find that over the years I have resorted to more short cuts than I would have used in the past. These cookies are a perfect example.

First, let me say that they are one my mom always asks for.

Then let me say that they are made using a mix.

Yes children, a mix.

A sugar cookies mix is used for the base and then the preparation is a breeze. The recipe yields 32 wedges, baked in 2 cake pans.

Don't fret though, you do not have to tell anyone that you used a mix. Take full credit - that is a gift just for you. :-)

Cranberry Almond Wedges

½ cup or 1 Stick Butter
1 (17 ½ oz.) Sugar Cookie Mix
¼ tsp. Almond Extract
1 cup Dried Cranberries
1 tbsp. Milk
¾ cup blanched sliced Almonds
1 ½ tbsp. Granulated Sugar

Preheat the oven 350 F.

Line two 8 ½” round cake pans with an aluminum foil, extending it over the pan edges.

Soften butter in a large bowl.

Add sugar cookie mix and almond extract to the butter and mixed it with the mixer until crumbles are formed.

Add cranberries stir well.

Divide the dough into two and place it in two pans. Press the dough or the mixture firmly into bottom of each pan.

Brush lightly with milk.

Sprinkle almonds on top of each pan.

Sprinkle sugar on top of almonds.

Bake in a pre-heated oven for 18 – 20 minutes until centers are set, top and sides are lightly browned.

Remove from the oven and cool the pans on a cooling rack. Let the pans cool completely.

Using the edges of the foil, lift the cookie cake from the pan and cut each circle into 16 wedges.

Store them in an air tight container and if layering them, place a wax paper between the wedges.

Salmon with Dill Sauce

With spring finally making an appearance hereabouts (in the form of a monsoon today!!!!) it is time to turn to lighter meals made with fresh ingredients. The temperature rising indicates that we should be eating fewer rib-hugging carbs, as comforting as they can be.

This amazing recipe for salmon is a perfect example of the sort of thing we cook once winter's grip has eased. It is quick to prepare (and easy). We thought it was delicious - particularly the refreshing dill sauce.

Better yet, the salmon can be cooked on the grill. I have to say, it felt truly amazing to fire up the grill and cook over a hot flame again - it has been far too long.

Enjoy!

Salmon with Dill Sauce

1 tablespoon olive oil
4 6-ounce pieces skinless salmon fillet
kosher salt and black pepper
1 pound green beans, trimmed
1/2 cup sour cream
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill
1 tablespoons chopped capers

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat.

Season the salmon with ½ teaspoon salt and ¼ teaspoon pepper. Cook until opaque throughout, 5 to 6 minutes per side. (NOTE: we brushed the salmon with the oil, seasoned with salt and pepper, and grilled it until just cooked through)

Meanwhile, in a large saucepan fitted with a steamer basket, bring 1 inch of water to a boil. Place the beans in the basket, cover, and steam until tender, 4 to 5 minutes.

In a small bowl, combine the sour cream, lemon juice, dill, capers, and ¼ teaspoon each salt and pepper. Serve with the salmon and green beans.

Spiced Star Cookies (Speculaas)

Speculaas are traditionally thin, crisp, dark-brown windmill-shaped cookies that originated in the Netherlands where they are eaten at the celebration of St. Nicholas (Sinterklaas in the Netherlands) on December 5th, as well as throughout the Christmas holiday season!

You don't need a mold to be able to enjoy these snapping crisp, delightfully spicy cookies. Try rolling out the dough and using your favorite cutters to make cookies that are just as elegant and fun. This recipe, developed by the folks at King Arthur Flour, calls for the specullas to be cut into star shapes.

These cookies were beyond delicious. As I was baking them the entire house smelled great. Once cooled, I tasted one and had to resist taking another. Nice and crisp, with lots of spice. I dare you to make these and then to limit yourself to just one cookie! :-)

Spiced Star Cookies (Speculaas)

1/2 cup unsalted butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. ground cardamom
1/2 tsp. ground cloves
1/2 tsp. ground mace or 1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
11/2 tsps. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt

11/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup almond flour or toasted almond flour
1 tsp. baking powder
2 to 4 tbls. milk
1/2 cup confectioners’ or glazing sugar
3 to 4 tsps. milk or water

In a large mixing bowl, beat together the butter, sugar, vanilla, spices and salt. Stir in the flour, almond flour and baking powder, then enough of the milk to make a stiff dough.

Form the dough into two disks, wrap in plastic and refrigerate for 2 hours or more.

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Lightly grease or line with parchment two baking sheets.

Working with one disk at a time, roll the dough 1⁄8-inch to 1/4-inch thick. Cut out shapes and transfer the cookies to the prepared pans.

Bake the cookies for 15 to 20 minutes until they’re lightly browned around the edges. Remove them from the oven and transfer them to a rack to cool. As they cool, they’ll become quite hard.

To make the icing, stir together the sugar and enough milk or water to create a thick but drizzleable icing. Drizzle the icing along the cookies.

Christmas Fruitcake Drops

I know that Christmas fruitcake has a bad 'rap' . . . people make fun of it on a regular basis. In my family it is not Christmas without it. That being said, there was no time this year to make it (we'd normally make it in October and let is sit in a dark spot, tightly swaddled in rum/brandy soaked clothes until the 25th).

Whatever the reason for not making some, if you now find yourself in the position of wishing you'd made fruitcake, here's an easy out: fruitcake cookies, moist little nuggets of fruit bound with the merest bit of spice-scented batter and baked to chewy perfection.

These were from the King Arthur Flour site.The recipe is easy and yields many wonderful nuggets of deliciousness.

Christmas Fruitcake Drops

1/2 cup butter
1 cup light brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
2 large eggs
1/4 cup bourbon, rum, brandy, or apple juice
1/4 cup boiled cider, apple juice concentrate, or cherry concentrate
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon espresso powder, optional (I did not use this)
1 3/4 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
9 cups chopped dried fruit
*Use your favorite combination of dried and/or candied fruits. We like to use 1/2 to 3/4 pound candied cherries, snipped into pieces; and for the remainder, our Favorite Fruit Blend.

Preheat the oven to 325°F. Lightly grease (or better yet, line with parchment) a couple of baking sheets.

In a large bowl, mix together the butter, sugar, salt, and baking powder till smooth.

Add the eggs, and beat till smooth and creamy.

Add the liquor and boiled cider/juice/concentrate and mix, scraping the sides of the bowl. The batter will appear curdled; that's OK.

Add the spices; the espresso powder and the flour. Mix until smooth.

Stir in the fruit. The batter will be heavy and sticky; this is best done in a stand mixer, or using a heavy spoon and lots of muscle power.

Using a tablespoon cookie scoop, or a spoon, scoop out balls of dough about the size of a ping pong ball. Space them on the baking sheets, leaving about 1" to 1 1/2" between them; they won't spread much.

Bake the cookies for 20 to 22 minutes. They'll appear fairly set, but may still be very slightly shiny/wet looking when you remove them from the oven. The bottoms will be lightly browned.

Let the cookies cool, then loosen them from the parchment or pan using a spatula.

Store at room temperature up to several weeks, in an airtight canister in layers, with parchment or waxed paper between the layers to keep the cookies from sticking to one another. For longer storage, freeze.

Yield: about 5 1/2 dozen cookies.

Cocoa Snickerdoodles

 

Last week I saw this post in my facebook thread . . .

The BittenWord guys were at it again!

I have read about their cover-to-cover challenges but never participated in one. This time I took the plunge, filled out the form and pushed send. I was a bit worried - while we bake at lot at Christmas time we have limits - we don't generally bake finicky cookies with a gazillion steps of complex decorations. Given that the cookie recipe would be assigned randomly all I could do was hope for the best.

My assignment arrived by e-mail on Friday:

Thanks so much for agreeing to participate in the 2014 Cover to Cover Project: Holiday Cookies! We’re thrilled to have you join us in this little baking adventure.

Your Assigned Cookie Recipe Is:

Cocoa Snickerdoodles

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/cocoa-snickerdoodles.html

A snickerdoodle is a type of cookie made with butter or oil, sugar, and flour rolled in cinnamon sugar. Eggs may also sometimes be used as an ingredient, with cream of tartar and baking soda added to leaven the dough.

There is disagreement as to where these cookies originated. The Joy of Cooking claims that snickerdoodles are probably German in origin, and that the name is a corruption of the German word Schneckennudel ("snail noodles"), a kind of pastry. It is also possible that the name is simply a nonsense word with no particular meaning, originating from a New England tradition of whimsical cookie names (presumably that is where 'whoopie pies' came from . . .).

Paul loves snickerdoodles and when we're in the US he'll buy one in any bakery we're in that makes them. The only time I have seen them in Canada is when we make them ourselves.

I was happy to take on this challenge.

Yesterday when we returned home from Toronto I was torn between a well-deserved nap and baking. Baking won out. These cookies were first on my list. They were easy to pull together and the final result was amazing - the combination of chocolate and cinnamon was amazing - almost ike a Mexican hot chocolate from my favourite chocolate shop SOMA.

The only challenge was that I had no sanding sugar. I had regular sugar, super fine sugar, and sparkling sugar but no sanding sugar. In fact, sanding sugar is hard to find here. I ended up using the sparkling sugar and whirling it in the food processor a bit to break up some of the crystals. The end result was likely more crunchy than it would have been because of that crunch of sugary goodness . . .mind you, who is complaining about THAT?

Cocoa Snickerdoodles

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
10 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/3 cup white sanding sugar
1 3/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Position racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven and preheat to 375 degrees F.

Whisk the flour, cocoa powder, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl.

Beat the butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar in a large bowl with a mixer on medium speed until creamy, about 2 minutes. Increase the speed to medium high and beat until fluffy, about 2 more minutes.

Beat in the egg and vanilla; reduce the mixer speed to low and beat in the flour mixture until just combined.

Combine the sanding sugar and cinnamon in a small shallow bowl.

Form heaping tablespoonfuls of dough into balls with damp hands; toss in the cinnamon sugar to coat. Arrange about 3 inches apart on 2 baking sheets.

Bake, switching the pans halfway through, until the cookies are set around the edge, 9 to 11 minutes.

Let cool 2 minutes on the baking sheets, then transfer to a rack to cool completely.

Pumpkin Molasses Cookies

This recipe popped up on my facebook feed a few weeks ago, looked good, and was dutifully printed for future use. When I was thinking about snacks to make for a recent meeting I decided to give it a try.

These were a great addition to the stream of comfort food that is appearing at the table now that the weather has turned decidedly cooler.

Don’t be deceived by this cookie’s sugar coated crackly appearance. Thanks to the addition of pumpkin puree these cookies have a lovely soft cake-like texture. They’re not chewy like traditional molasses crackle cookies. But now that it’s fall the texture is almost comforting, reminiscent of gingerbread cake.

The only change I made to the recipe was to chill the dough prior to forming it into balls - it was just too soft to roll at that point (although real tasty as I licked it off my fingers! *smile*). After an our in the fridge it was fine.

Pumpkin Molasses Cookies

½ cup butter, softened
1 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup Crosby’s Fancy Molasses
1/2 cup canned pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling)
1 egg
2 1/3 cups flour
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 ½ tsp. ginger
½ tsp. cloves or nutmeg
1/2 cup sugar, for rolling

In a large bowl cream butter and sugar. Blend in molasses then pumpkin. Mix well and whisk in egg.
In another bowl combine flour, baking soda, salt and spices.

Stir flour mixture in the pumpkin mixture and mix until well combined.

Scoop dough by the tablespoon and form into balls. Roll balls in sugar to coat.

Place on parchment lined baking sheet and bake at 350 F  for 10-12 minutes until set.

Thumbprint Cookies

There are a gazillion recipes for thumbprint cookies out there - some rolled in nuts and some without. This recipe is my favourite!

Raspberry preserves and almond extract are the primary flavors in this light shortbread-type cookie which is a snap to make. The shortbread dough takes only a few minutes to whip up. Then you need to refrigerate it for an hour so it’s easier to work with. Then you roll the cookies into balls and spoon raspberry filling into indentations you make with your thumb.

The recipe calls for an almond glaze to be drizzled on the cookie afterwards but we have never done that - they are just fine as it is!

Thumbprint Cookies

1 cup butter
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. almond extract
2 cups all-purpose flour (bleached flour toughens cookies)
1/3 to ½ cup seedless raspberry jam

GLAZE:

1 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar
1/2 tsp. almond extract
2 tbsp. cream (start with less)

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in extract; gradually add flour until dough forms a ball. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour or until dough is easy to handle.

Roll into 1-inch balls. Place 1 inch apart on baking sheets sprayed with cooking spray. Using the end of a wooden spoon handle or your thumb, make an indentation in the center of each ball. Fill with the jam.

Bake at 350˚ for 14-18 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. 

Remove to wire racks to cool.

Combine confectioners’ sugar, extract and enough water to achieve drizzling consistency; drizzle over the cookies.

A Christmas Baking Tip . . . Icebox Cookies in the Freezer

Since we normally have more than 40 types of cookie and squares that we make each festive season I feel that I am able to provide a tip or two to those who want to have a nice assortment of cookies on their cookie platter. Starting in November I brought the stand mixer up from the fruit cellar (where we generally store everything but fruit . . .) and we whip up batches of ice box cookies.

They go by other names -refrigerator cookies, slice and bake cookies.Whatever the name, it is the same premise - a log of cookie dough that just needs to be sliced, placed on a cookie sheet, and baked.

This year we made 10 types - Orange-Cranberry Pinwheels, Cranberry Pistachio Shortbread, Santa’s Whiskers, Marbled Chocolate/Vanilla Wafers, Walnut Spice Rounds, Chocolate Nut Wafers, Mocha Pinwheels, Vanilla Slices, Oatmeal Cranberry, and Cranberry Noels. Each log gets wrapped in saran wrap, then foil. The roll is sealed with a file folder label indicating the name of the cookie, baking temperature, cooking time, and any special instructions.

When I am ready to bake them I pull the like temperature logs out together i.e. all the ones that need to be baked at 350 degrees and thaw them slightly. Lately, because they are for Christmas after all, I have been adding added bling by brushing the logs with egg white and then sprinkling the surface with white sanding sugar before slicing. This makes a sweet, crystally, crust . . . you can't go wrong with that!

Here is what I had on the cooling racks after 2 hours of slicing and baking the other day. . .

The great thing about this is you can have a nice assortment of fresh cookies ready in a short period of time. The unbaked cookie logs also make great gifts to bring along to a party.