Fearless Kitchen

Recipe: Fearless Baby's Birthday Cupcakes

Recipe Source: King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking.  The Countryman Press, Woodstock, 2006 pp. 368 - 9.

Fearless Baby had a birthday recently.  This is a big deal.  She turned two.  This technically means that she is no longer a baby and I should be calling her Fearless Toddler.  It's strange, though.  When I close my eyes I see her as she is now, long hair and distinct features and a human walk and human gestures.  When I look directly at her though she looks no different to me than she did when they first brought her to me in my hospital room.  Maybe this is normal and hormonal, something that happens to your neurochemistry once your body realizes that it is no longer pregnant.  Maybe my eyes need to be checked.  I don't know.

Anyway, this is not a Mommy blog, this is a food blog.  Birthdays mean food.  I tried not to do too much for this party, because I was already stretched to the fraying point before the party and at the end of the day it's not about the food it's about the toddler.  Still some things are expected.  Food is expected; I served a sandwich board with homemade bread, some basic hors d'oeuvres, chips, popcorn.  And cake is expected.  Fearless Baby is two.  She is not the neatest of eaters on the best of days.  Furthermore, she is a very mobile eater.  She wanders through the house gnawing her way through house and home.  (Before you criticize our parenting and say, "Well you need to strap her down and force her to sit still when she eats," this has been tried without success.  I will spare you the details but suffice it to say that the dog gained about a pound and we continue to pick peas out of the moulding.)  I decided that while I would infinitely prefer a chocolate cake, the guests would prefer not to have chocolate ground into their clothes.  Furthermore, chocolate is bad for dogs, so I left it out.  I made a few small changes to the recipe.  I made this a 100% whole wheat cake instead of mixing white and whole-wheat flour as called for in the original.  Everyone on our guest list is concerned for various reasons about health and sweets and I have really come to prefer whole-wheat products to white flour.  This necessitated adding more liquid in the form of yogurt.  Turning the cake into cupcakes was another alteration, although not exactly rocket science.  I frosted the cake with stabilized whipped cream, which is nothing more exciting than whipped cream with gelatin.

So there are two things to note about the results.  Flavor-wise I was very happy with them.  Structure-wise I was also very happy with them.  The color was less enthralling.  Originally I had intended to have a koala-themed party in honor of Fearless Baby's best friend in the whole wide world, Little Bear.  Unfortunately the party store had absolutely no koala bear things at all.  It became a Hello Kitty party very quickly, and I bought the official Hello Kitty food colorings.  When I was adding the official Hello Kitty Food Coloring to the stabilized whipped cream I sneezed.  This resulted in a whole lot more food coloring being added to the cream than intended.  I guess the color is okay.  I mean, I always kind of wanted hair that color.  The problem is that it stains, oh yes it does, which made avoiding chocolate kind of moot.  We have not yet received any dry cleaning bills.

The other item of note regarding this event is attendance.  So far Boston has received precisely one "storm" and it hit on the day of the party.  It's not so much the storm that kept people home, though.  It's the idiots.  Honestly.  People around here were for the most part born and raised in the same town where they currently reside.  It snows every year and has snowed every year since they were born.  Somehow, though, the snow makes people drive like flaming, flying morons.  While my perfectly sensible friends were more than capable of driving themselves in the snow they feared the morons on the road and stayed home.  Those who did show up proved the absentees right: there were spinouts all over the place (for the record, all-wheel drive does NOT mean impervious to snow and ice!) and at least one snowplow driving the wrong way on the high way.  At 50 miles per hour.  To make matters worse, about half my guest list attended a major science-fiction convention here in Boston the week before the party.  The main feature of said convention appears to have been an outbreak of norovirus, which then made the rounds of my friends and resulted in several very sensible cancellations.  So I had more food than it turns out I needed, but under the circumstances that's okay.

Fearless Baby's Birthday Cupcakes (makes 36; approx. $0.66/serving)

15 1/4 ounces whole wheat pastry flour

8 1/2 ounces whole wheat all-purpose flour

3 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

4 sticks butter

21 ounces raw sugar

2 teaspoons salt

8 eggs

2 tablespoons vanilla extract

20 ounces low-fat Greek yogurt

Stabilized whipped cream

Equipment:

• Cupcake tins
• Cupcake liners
• Cooking spray
• Stand mixer with paddle attachment
• Disher
• Bowl
• Pastry bag with wide star tip

1. Preheat oven to 350°.
2. Line the cupcake tins with the cupcake liners.  Spray the liners with cooking spray.
3. Combine the flours, baking powder, and baking soda in the bowl.  Set aside.
4. Combine the butter, sugar and salt in the stand mixer.  Cream until light and fluffy.
5. Add the eggs one at a time.  Scrape the bottoms and sides of the bowl frequently, after each addition is a good start.
6. Add 1/3 of the flour mixture.  Beat well.  Scrape.
7. Add 1/2 of the yogurt and 1/2 of the vanilla.  Mix well.  Scrape.
8. Repeat 6 and 7 in order until the ingredients are all mixed together.
9. Use the disher to portion out the cupcake batter between the tins.
10. Bake 22 - 24 minutes or until a tester inserted into a cupcake comes out clean.
11. Cool completely before frosting.
12. Load your frosting into the pastry bag with the wide star tip.
13. Pipe the frosting onto the cupcakes.  I decorated with an additional Hello Kitty decoration.  You can leave it out.
14. Serve.

Recipe: Oat and Currant Scones

Recipe Source: King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking.  The Countryman Press, Woodstock, 2006 pp. 85 - 6.

We've got a group of friends we generally term "the Allston crowd."  Not all of them live in Allston, but we mostly see them there.  Some of them are people we knew from our college days who just fell in love with the traditional student neighborhood and never left and I guess that you could say that's how we know them.  Others have kind of come to us through that core group of Allstonians.  They throw a few parties a year at one of two homes in Allston and we always have a fantastic time there.  I really appreciate their willingness to host and I hate to show up empty-handed, but I have a kind of mental conflict.  I hate showing up empty handed but I'm always more than a little reluctant to share the results of my kitchen experiments.  Many of the folks in that circle know each other from cooking school, you see, and at least one of them is still working as a professional pastry chef.  I'm always a little ashamed of my efforts, particularly where dessert is concerned.

I decided to bring these whole-wheat oat and currant scones to their most recent party.  Not only do I prefer whole wheat to white flour these days, but I know that most of them don't really use whole wheat flour for sweet dishes so it's something they probably wouldn't already have on the table.  Scones are also not supposed to be terribly pretty, which eliminates my concern about making food that isn't as pretty as theirs.  I did make a few changes, although not as many changes as I might have wanted.  I used all whole-wheat flour instead of mixing whole-wheat and white flours as the original required.  I just preferred to use 100% whole wheat.  To counter the relative dryness of the whole-wheat flour I increased the buttermilk by 1/4 cup.  I also used raw sugar for the sugar required in the recipe.  This may seem like a minor change to you but I assure you the flavor is different.

The results were well-received.  I enjoyed them, my husband delighted in them and people at the party seemed to get into them.

Oat and Current Scones (makes 24 scones; approx. $0.09/serving)

12 1/4 ounces whole wheat flour

3 1/4 ounces oat flour

3 1/2 ounces raw sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup butter

2 1/2  ounces currants

2 1/4 ounces old-fashioned rolled oats

2 eggs

1 1/2 cups buttermilk

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Milk or cream for brushing the tops

Coarse sugar for sprinkling

Equipment:

• Stand mixer with paddle attachment
• Baking sheets
• Floured surface

1. Preheat your oven to 375°.
2. Grease a baking sheet.  I prefer to use cooking spray here but do what works for you.
3. Combine the flours, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt in the bowl of the stand mixer.
4. Add the butter.  Mix gently until the mixture resembles bread crumbs.
5. Add the currants and oats.  Barely mix them.
6. Combine the eggs, buttermilk and vanilla.  Add to the stand mixer all at once.  Mix lightly and quickly until evenly moistened and no more.
7. Divide the dough into two equal heaps and turn out onto the floured surface.
8. Knead a few times.  Divide the dough heaps again in half.
9. Pat the heaps into circles about 1/2" thick.
10. Transfer two circles to each baking sheet.  Cut each circle into 6 triangles and separate barely.
11. Brush the tops with milk or cream and sprinkle coarse sugar over the tops.
12. Bake 22 minutes.
13. Serve warm.

Recipe: Rocky Road Cake

Recipe Source: Desaulniers, Marcel.  Death by Chocolate Cakes.  HarperCollins Publishers, 2000 pp. 139 - 41

I usually try to keep things relatively simple, especially when it comes to baking.  I'm not much of a baker.  I don't have the artistic talent, or the scientific brain.  I also don't have the time or space to get really elaborate.  If you've seen my house you're probably thinking, "What does she mean, she doesn't have the space?  You could keep a fighter jet in her kitchen!"  Yes, it is a large kitchen.  Unfortunately, my every step is accompanied by a toddler and a dog.  Both are blond.  Both are hoping that I will drop some food on the floor.  Either way, my kitchen is very, very crowded when I'm in it.  Sometimes, though, I get ahead of myself and think something looks like a good idea even when it is plainly stupid.  This was one of those times.

The thing is, it didn't seem like all that much trouble when I was doing this.  I broke the process up into manageable steps and kind of went about my business and there was this cake at the end.  Looking back, though, I can't help but think, "Oh my, what a hassle!  Who has time to do all that?" when I read the recipe.  So I guess that it wasn't that bad, it just looks that way.  It certainly tasted like it was worth the effort.  I'm not usually a huge fan of sweets but this was definitely a treat.

I made some changes, as I usually do.  Unfortunately the scrap of paper with my notes on it has disappeared, so you're going to have to hope that my memory holds.  I know that I definitely did this with whole wheat flour.  The original called for half all-purpose flour and half cake flour, but my cake flour was mysteriously missing so I just used whole wheat flour for the whole of it.  I used dark chocolate for the semisweet chocolate because that's what I prefer.  The pecans became almonds because I love the combination of chocolate and almonds.

I served this at a Sunday dinner.  The only complaint that people had was that my portion size was excessive.  It was very much like eating a giant chunk of fudge, and the sugar could get to you after a while.  That's why I'm listing this as "serves 16" instead of "serves 8."

Rocky Road Cake (serves 16; approx. $1.19/serving)

1/2 pound butter, cut into pieces

1 cup whole wheat flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup raw sugar

2 eggs

2 egg whites

8 ounces dark chocolate chips, melted

2 ounces unsweetened baking chocolate, chopped and melted

1 cup sour cream

1 cup dark chocolate mini-chips

1 cup toasted almonds, roughly chopped

-------

6 cups confectioners' sugar

1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

8 ounces cream cheese, cut into pieces

1/2 pound butter, cut into pieces

6 tablespoons raw sugar

1/2 cup milk

1 tablespoon almond extract

1 1/2 cups mini marshmallows

1/2 cup dark chocolate mini-chips

1/2 cup toasted almonds, roughly chopped

-------

1 cup toasted almonds, roughly chopped

3 ounces dark chocolate chips

1 cup miniature marshmallows

Equipment:

• 3 cake pans
• Cooking spray
• Stand mixer
• Rubber spatula
• Paper
• Sifter

1. Preheat your oven to 325°.
2. Prepare your cake pans with cooking spray.  Lots and lots of cooking spray.
3. Combine the flour, baking powder and soda in the sifter.  Sift onto a piece of paper or flexible vessel.
4. Put the first 1/2 pound of butter in the stand mixer with the paddle attachment.  Add the first cup of raw sugar and mix on low speed for about a minute.
5. Increase speed to medium and beat for about 2 minutes.  Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl and the paddle.
6. Beat another 2 minutes.  Scrape again.
7. Add the eggs and egg whites one at a time, beating until incorporated after each addition.  Scrape when the eggs are all incorporated.
8. Add the melted dark and unsweetened chocolates.  Beat until combined, then scrape.
9. Keep the mixer running on low speed while adding the dry ingredients you sifted earlier.  Mix until incorporated.
10. Add the sour cream and mix to combine.
11. Add 1 cup mini-chips and  1 cup of almond bits.  Mix by hand - this is actually important - until combined.
12. Divide the batter between the pans.  Spread it evenly.
13. Bake 32 minutes or until a tester inserted into the cake comes out clean.   Rotating the pans halfway through is a good idea, although not strictly necessary.
14. Cool in the pans 15 minutes.
15. Invert onto cooling racks or refrigerate.
16. Clean your sifter and bowl.
17. Sift 3 cups of the confectioners' sugar and 1/2 cup of the cocoa powder onto a piece of paper.
18. Repeat for the remaining sugar and cocoa powder, but onto a different piece of paper.
19. Put the cream cheese, second 1/2 pound of butter and the 6 tablespoons raw sugar in the bowl of the electric mixer.
20. Using the paddle attachment mix on low speed for about a minute.
21. Increase heat to medium-high and beat 2 minutes.
22. Scrape.
23. Beat another 2 minutes.  Scrape again.
24. Add the first sugar-cocoa powder mixture.  Beat on low speed to combine.
25. Add the milk and almond extract.  Beat about 15 seconds on low speed.
26. Add the remaining sugar-cocoa powder mixture.  Beat until combined on low speed, then increase speed to medium and beat 15 seconds.
27. Use the rubber spatula to fold in the mini-marshmallows, mini-chips and almonds.
28. Combine the remaining three ingredients.
29. Level your cake pieces.  Find something entertaining to do with the scraps.
30. Choose a layer to be your bottom layer.  Scoop some of the frosting you made onto that layer and spread evenly over the top.
31. Choose a layer to be your middle layer.  Put it on top of the bottom layer.  Scoop some of the frosting you made onto that layer and spread evenly over the top.
32. The last layer is your top layer.  Scrape all of the remaining frosting onto the cake and spread over the whole cake.  Start in the center of the top and work your way out over the top, then down the sides and down.
33. Sprinkle the garnish on top and serve.

Recipe: Medieval Quince "Pie"

Recipe Source: Welserin, Sabina.  Das Kuchbuch der Sabina Welserin.  Germany, 16th Century.  Find the original here.

So you already know that I've been playing with quinces a lot lately.  I truly love them, and I get a bushel of them in the fall and just go to town.  I try to find new and different uses for them, although my quince and rosemary jelly is a perennial favorite with my friends.  I love quinces in savory recipes.  In my head they're mostly a Greek or Middle Eastern fruit, although I'm not sure why I should think that.  They certainly grow in cooler climates such as New England.  I decided to force myself to move outside my usual sources and find a non-Middle Eastern recipe calling for quince.  I also wanted to make a medieval recipe for one of our Sunday dinners, so this one seemed to make sense.  After all, I thought, I've made other recipes from this cookbook and I've been delighted with the results.

I was differently enthusiastic about this one, and by "differently enthusiastic" I mean "frustrated and angered by."  I used my traditional family crust but in a whole-wheat version - I'd made several ahead of time for some other reason, so I had them just sitting in the fridge waiting to be used up.  Otherwise I just kind of went to town.  Unfortunately the crust failed miserably.  I did wind up serving it, but scooped onto plates and treated like poached fruit.  I think that the liquid in the filling was just too much for the poor little crust to handle.

My guests loved this.  If I stopped trying to think of it as a pie I loved it too.

Medieval Quince "Pie" (serves 8; approx. cost per serving not available)

1 single-crust pie crust - store bought is fine

4 nice quinces, peeled, halved and cored

1/2 cup currants

1/4 cup raw sugar

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

Beef fat - however much you can get, rendered from a package of beef bacon should be sufficient

1/2 cup dessert wine

1/2 cup raw sugar

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

Equipment:

• Pie plate
• Bowl
• Large deep skillet

1. Preheat your oven to 425°.
2. Render out your beef fat to the best of your ability.
3. Fry the quince halves in the fat until they are fragrant.
4. Line your pie plate with your pie crust.
5. Arrange your quince halves in the pie plate.
6. Combine the currants, first 1/4 cup raw sugar, first 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon and 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves.  Stuff the quince cavities with this mixture.
7. In the skillet, combine the remaining ingredients.  Cook until the sugar is dissolved, then add to the pie plate.
8. Bake until the quinces are tender, about 40 minutes.
9. Serve.

Recipe: Christmas Cutout Cookies

Recipe Source: The Culinary Institute of America.  Baking & Pastry.  John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, 2009 p. 316

My daughter is not quite two.  She's got a little friend, Nathan, who is precisely fifty weeks older than she is.  Fearless Baby stays at home with me all day.  Nathan stays at home with his carer.  Both sets of parents are concerned that our kids get some socialization with other children, and so we've made an effort to try to get Fearless Baby and her little friend together for at least semi-regular play dates.  I think they like it.  I mean, it's kind of hard to tell sometimes, but Nathan has a little song he sings about her when she's not around and Fearless Baby asks to see him frequently so I guess it's working out.  He willingly shares his carrots with her, and I guess he doesn't share them with just anyone.  Anyway, we try to get them together on a semi-regular basis to run around, explore, have fun and maybe if they can't help it learn something.  We've had outings to the indoor playspace at the local shopping mall, we've gone apple picking (where Nathan learned everything Fearless Baby's vocabulary could express about goats) and to a bird sanctuary.  I tried to think of something for them to do on a recent Tuesday and finally it occurred to me: Christmas cookies!  I used to love "helping" to decorate them when I was a kid, and I'm pretty sure my little sister wasn't much older than Fearless Baby when she started.

I did make a few changes to it, but they were minimal.  I used whole wheat flour and raw sugar.  I also used four eggs, which was about three-quarters of an egg more than the original called for (the original gave measurements by weight, you see.)  I figured it would be okay since the whole wheat flour would require more moisture anyway.  That's also why I increased the milk slightly.  They weren't hugely creative cookies or anything like that and they weren't supposed to be.  They were supposed to be a canvas for the kids to smear frosting upon.  For the frosting I used the same icing I used in the almond sweets recipe I made a few years ago, only using vanilla in place of almond.

I made the dough the night before.  The day of the event I rolled the dough out and cut out cookies using as many cookie cutters as I could find.  This is why my daughter now believes that bats are an integral part of Christmas.  (Really.  I suppose it could be worse.)  Anyway, I mixed up the frosting just before Nathan and his carer arrived.  We set out the bowls with some plastic knives, some sprinkles, and an extra supply of paper towels.

I'm not entirely sure what I expected to happen.  Nathan knew what to do more or less.  Fearless Baby was a little less clear on the subject.  Nathan picked up a cookie and slathered some white frosting on it.  FB picked up a cookie and ate it.  "No, no!" I laughed while Norah, Nathan's carer and a friend of mine, tried not to.  "You're supposed to put frosting on it!"  I handed her a plastic knife loaded up with blue frosting.  She looked at me, looked back at the cookie, looked at the knife and licked it.  Eventually we convinced her that she was supposed to actually decorate the cookies and she did - after biting each one she decorated.  Nathan, on the other hand, finally dispensed with the middleman.  We had these tubes of frosting that you're supposed to be able to use to write on the cookies and finally he just put his mouth on one and started drinking the frosting straight from the tube.  When we took that one away he switched to the other.  I'm including a couple of pictures of the finished products.  The pretty cookies are the ones Norah did.  None of Sophia's finished cookies made it onto this plate.  It's your best guess as to who made the rest of the cookies, I think the three-year-old and I have the same degree of artistic ability.

So while I sent half the cookies home with Norah and Nathan, I did not share the cookies outside my own family.  That's okay.  What matters is that Fearless Baby and Nathan had a wonderful time participating in a holiday that really is all about them at this point.  Hopefully this was the start of a new tradition that both kids can treasure as they grow and start their own families.

Merry Christmas to all.

Christmas Cutout Cookies (makes about 5 dozen cookies; approx. $0.13/ea.)

2 pounds whole wheat flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 pound butter, soft

15 ounces raw sugar

4 eggs

1/2 cup milk

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

2 quantities frosting from the Almond Sweets recipe

Equipment:

• Mixing bowl
• Stand mixer with paddle attachment
• 4 zip-top plastic bags
• Rolling pin
• Cookie cutters
• Cookie sheets
• Bowls for frosting
• Food coloring
• Spatulas for frosting
• Drying racks

1. Begin the recipe the night before you want to decorate!
2. Combine the flour and the salt in the mixing bowl.
3. Cream the butter and sugar together in the bowl of the stand mixer until light and fluffy.
4. Combine the eggs, milk and vanilla.
5. Add the flour and the wet ingredients in alternating additions, adding 1/3 of the flour and 1/2 of the wet ingredients at each addition.  Begin and end with the dry ingredients.
6. Divide the dough into quarters and put one quarter of the dough in each zip-top bag.  Refrigerate overnight.
7. The next day, roll out your dough to about 1/8" thickness.  Use the cookie cutters to cut out shapes.  Older kids can help with this.  A kid who is not quite two cannot.  At least mine can't.
8. Preheat your oven to 375.
9. Bake the cookies about 12 minutes each.
10. Transfer the cookies to the racks to cool completely before continuing.
11. Prepare the frosting as described in the recipe linked above.  Divide into four bowls.
12. Leave one bowl white.  Color each of the remaining bowls with a different color.
13. Frost the cookies and decorate as you see fit.
14. Enjoy.

Recipe: Pumpkin Cookies with Brown Butter Icing

Recipe Source: Stewart, Martha.  Martha Stewart's Cookies.  Clarkson Potter Publishers, New York, 2008 p. 197

I know I've already posted about what I made for our Thanksgiving dinner.  The dessert was chocolate-pecan pie.  I was a little concerned about that.  According to our pediatrician the tendency to have food allergies runs in families, although the nature of that food allergy varies from person to person.  Because I have food allergies (three of them) they want me to avoid exposing Fearless Baby to certain very common allergens until she's older.  I can't say it's helped all that much in terms of avoiding food allergies - the slightest taste of blueberries will cause a rash that lasts for months.  I guess a rash is better than needing an epipen, though.  Anyway, she would be unable to partake of the pecan pie.  Ordinarily my husband would tell me to leave the nuts out or avoid making the dessert altogether, but in this case his tune was a little different.  He loves pecan pie, you see, and was unwilling to forgo it.  "She can eat a cookie," he pronounced.  On the one hand - great, I get to make the dessert I wanted.  On the other hand, I now had to make yet another dish.  This I was less than enthusiastic about.

I decided on this recipe because it included some vegetable.  She loves pumpkin and just about any other orange vegetable.  She's been on a protein kick recently, though, and hasn't wanted much to do with anything that wasn't meat, tofu or cheese.  (I'm told this is perfectly normal and even healthy; at this age their instincts still tell them what they need at that particular time and on average they will get the nutrients they need.  I distrust this theory but so far it seems to be working.)  Anyway I have yet to meet the toddler who will decline a cookie, even one packed with healthy pumpkin.  I used whole wheat flour on general principles.  I added some cloves and allspice just to give it a little more depth and fun.  Finally, I increased the evaporated milk slightly to accommodate the dryness of the whole wheat flour.

The results were frankly spectacular.  The cookies were incredibly moist even after several days.  They didn't look quite as fluffy as the photo in the book and the icing was definitely not as fluffy, but I'll cheerfully live with it.  My daughter could not get enough of them.  Neither could the adults and I couldn't keep any on the shelves after Friday.

Pumpkin Cookies with Brown Butter Icing (Makes about 24; approx. $0.33/serving)

2 3/4 cups whole wheat flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/4 teaspoons kosher salt

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 1/4 teaspoons ground ginger

3/4 teaspoons ground nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon ground allspice

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

3/4 cups butter

2 1/4 cups packed light brown sugar

2 extra-large eggs

1 14-oz can solid-pack pumpkin (NOT pumpkin pie filling)

1 cup evaporated milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

4 cups confectioners' sugar

10 tablespoons butter

1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon evaporated milk, plus more if needed

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Equipment:

• Stand mixer
• Small saucepan
• Cookie sheets
• Wire racks
• Whisk
• Mixing bowls

1. Preheat your oven to 375.
2. Combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and spices in a mixing bowl.  Stir to combine.
3. Put the 3/4 cup butter and the brown sugar in the bowl of the stand mixer.  Beat on medium speed until fluffy.
4. Mix in eggs.  I'm a scraper - I like to scrape the sides and bowl of the stand mixer at more or less random intervals.  Your preference may vary.
5. Reduce speed to low.  Add the pumpkin, 1 cup evaporated milk and vanilla.  Mix until blended.
6. Add flour mixture.  Mix until thoroughly combined.
7. Spoon about 1 teaspoon of the batter onto a prepared cookie sheet.  Repeat until all the batter is used, spacing cookies about 1 1/2 inches apart.
8. Bake about 12 minutes, rotating once.
9. Cool on sheets 5 minutes.
10. Transfer to wire racks to cool completely.
11. Put the confectioners' sugar in the mixing bowl.
12. Melt the 10 tablespoons butter in the small saucepan.
13. Cook the butter until it is golden brown.
14. Pour the butter immediately into the bowl with the sugar and mix wel.
15. Add the evaporated milk and vanilla.  Mix thoroughly.
16. Ice the cookies.
17. Serve.

Recipe: Chocolate Pecan Pie

Recipe Source: The King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion.  The Countryman Press, Woodstock, 2003 p. 448

Pecan pie is something my paternal grandmother made.  She didn't make it often.  Traditional pecan pie is very, very sweet and as it turns out her sweet tooth, like mine, was a little stunted.  She made pecan pie at Thanksgiving.  She didn't make it every Thanksgiving, but if she was going to make it she was going to make it then.  Her antecedents, at least some of them, were Southern and pecan pie is a very Southern thing.

I want to like pecan pie.  I like tree nuts.  The thing is, I'm not into super-sweet foods and in traditional pecan pie the pecans are more or less a garnish for a sugar filling.  My husband loves pecan pie, although he insists on mispronouncing the word.  This year we hosted Thanksgiving at our house and that seemed like a perfect opportunity to give him the pecan pie he loves.  I wanted to change it up a little, though.  I wanted to make it something I would enjoy too, something that was a little less sickly-sweet and involved chocolate.  That's where this recipe comes in.

According to the original this would traditionally be served on Derby Day - the Kentucky Derby, for those who are not into horse racing and don't live in the American South.  (I wouldn't have known if not for the recipe notes, not being a fan of horse racing myself.)  I made a few changes of course.  The pie crust I used was a whole-wheat version of our traditional family recipe.  I used raw sugar, which doesn't sound like it should make much of a difference but believe me it does.  I used whole wheat flour for the filling as well.  My chocolate chips were more chocolate chunks and they were of the dark chocolate variety.  Bourbon became Irish whiskey.  We had both on hand but the bourbon we had on hand was a little too high-end to use in baking.  I garnished with a whipped cream I flavored with rosewater, for no other reason than the fact that I love rosewater and dearly wanted some that day.

I actually wound up having to make this pie twice, which is why it is included in the Fail Files even though it turned out perfectly both times.  You see, I made it the night before Thanksgiving.  To keep it away from the dog and cats I put it in the oven overnight.  The next morning, before drinking my coffee, I preheated the oven for the bread I was baking.  I did check the oven but apparently I'd pushed the pie fairly far back.  This left me with a cinder of a pie.  Fortunately I always make extra pastry dough and I was able to whip off a new pie easily.

I liked this pie.  My friends liked this pie.  I'm reasonably certain that my in-laws liked this pie.  My husband, however, said he would have liked this pie if he hadn't been expecting a traditional pie.  Oh well.  That's what he gets for pronouncing pecan wrong :)

Chocolate Pecan Pie (serves 8; approx. $1.48/serving)

1 single-crust pie crust - mine was whole wheat but use whatever works for you

2 eggs

7 ounces raw sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 ounces whole wheat flour

8 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled

6 ounces dark chocolate chunks

4 ounces chopped toasted pecans

1 tablespoon Irish whiskey (plus a little for the cook if you're so inclined)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Rosewater whipped cream to garnish (optional, not included in cost per serving)

Equipment:

• Stand mixer with paddle attachment
• Pie plate

1. Preheat your oven to 375.
2. Line your pie plate with the pie crust.
3. Beat the eggs in the stand mixer on high speed until "light and lemon colored."  You'll know what that means when you see it.
4. Add in the sugar gradually.  Beat until thoroughly incorporated.
5. Reduce speed to low.  Add the salt, flour and melted butter.
6. Stir in the chocolate chips, pecans, whiskey and vanilla.
7. Pour the mixture into the pie crust and trim the edges.
8. Bake until golden, about 45 minutes.
9. Serve, garnished with the whipped cream if you're feeling fancy.

Recipe: Quince and Almond Cream Tart

Recipe Source: Ferber, Christine.  Mes Tartes.  Michigan State University Press, East Lansing, 2003 pp. 27 - 8 and 175 - 6

So the Sunday after Thanksgiving we still held our usual Sunday open house.  On the one hand this seems like a poor idea.  We'd just hosted the family for the holiday, the house (and especially the kitchen) was in a shambles and my back, knees and feet were loudly insisting that more cooking was simply not going to happen.  On the other hand, I was actually pretty excited.  I wanted to make one particular recipe: this one.  We've been trying to avoid using nuts since Fearless Baby started eating solid food.  She's not necessarily allergic, but they tell me that a tendency toward food allergies runs in families.  Since I have not one, not two but three food allergies, the doctors want us to avoid exposing her to common allergens like tree nuts until she's at least two.  The thing is, I love almonds.  They're one of my favorite flavors.  Heck, almond is one of my favorite scents.  Using almond-scented moisturizers always makes me feel good.  Anyway, we were expecting quite a crowd for this edition of Sunday dinner so I figured I'd use it as an opportunity to purge this almond craving.

We got a good sized crowd for the open house, but not everyone stayed for dinner.  Even if they had I think three pies may have been a little much.  I sent lots and lots home with people who at least pretended to be happy to take it, and I actually kept some for myself which is unusual because I try not to keep non-chocolate desserts around.

I did make a few changes.  I used a whole-wheat version of my family's traditional pie crust instead of the "rich flaky pastry with praline paste and hazelnuts" called for in the original.  I did this because a) the ingredients for the recommended crust were prohibitively expensive and prohibitively rare and b) because the family recipe is a known evil.  I've figured out how to make this pastry work, relatively consistently, in a way that suits my needs.  When I'm cooking for a crowd that's paramount.  I tripled the recipe.  I omitted the spices because I just plain forgot about them.  Instead of creme fraiche I used a rosewater whipped cream left over from the garnish for the Thanksgiving dessert and I added a little more rosewater to the filling.

Quince and Almond Cream Tarts (serves 24; approx. $0.64/serving)

3 single-crust pie crusts - I used a family recipe as noted above, but you can use whatever works for you.  Even store bought is probably fine.

12 quinces, washed, peeled and quartered

Zest of 3 lemons, slivered

Zest of 3 oranges, slivered

3 1/2 cups raw sugar

3 cups water

10 1/2 tablespoons rosewater-flavored whipped cream

4 sticks plus 1 tablespoon salted butter, melted

3 cups confectioners' sugar

4 cups toasted almonds, finely ground

180 grams whole wheat flour

5 extra-large eggs

2 tablespoons rosewater

Equipment:

• Large saucepan
• Skimmer
• 3 tart pans
• Large mixing bowl

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
2. Combine the raw sugar and water in the saucepan.  Stir until the sugar is all dissolved.
3. Add the quince quarters.  Simmer until soft, stirring periodically.  Be careful not to splash simmering syrup onto your skin.  It hurts.
4. When the quinces are soft, use the skimmer to evacuate them to a plate and set aside.  Add the citrus zests and simmer five minutes.
5. Meanwhile, make the almond cream.  Combine the melted butter and confectioners' sugar in the mixing bowl.  Stir until the mixture is smooth and all the butter has been incorporated.
6. Add the eggs and stir until thoroughly incorporated.
7. Add the almonds, flour and rosewater.  Mix until smooth.
8. Add the whipped cream and the citrus zests to the bowl.  Mix well.
9. Line the tart pans with your pastry.
10. Pour a layer of the cream into the bottom of each tart.
11. Arrange the quinces on top of the tart.  There should be about 12 quarters per tart.  If you're counting on the picture yes, I know I lost track.
12. Bake about 45 minutes.
13. Serve.

Recipe: Quince Granita

Recipe Source: Batmanglij, Najmieh.  Silk Road Cooking.  Mage Publishers, Washington DC, 2004 p. 267

My in-laws came for a visit over the Thanksgiving holiday.  Of course, they live at some distance from us and therefore stayed a few nights at a nearby hotel.  They were extremely helpful in minding the Fearless Baby while I was preparing for Thanksgiving.  Naturally, they needed something to eat while they were here.  I needed to clear some fridge space, since half my fridge is taken up by quinces at this point.  My in-laws are very abstemious eaters and specifically requested that I serve something extremely light the night before Thanksgiving.  They also believe that eating fruit after a meal aids digestion and prevents the phenomenon known as "food coma."  I figured that I might as well have some fun and use some of my quinces.

As it turns out quinces have a special place in my father-in-law's heart.  He grew up in rural Greece and likes to tell stories about quince orchards stretching as far as the eye could see, where you could just reach out and grab them at will.  (If the owner of said orchard is reading this, I'm pretty sure that the statute of limitations has long since run out.)  I was happy to be able to bring back a few of those memories for him.

I made a few changes to the recipe, as well you might expect.  I used more quinces than originally called for.  Squeezing the quinces as instructed in the recipe did not yield enough juice for the recipe.  Fortunately I had anticipated this and reserved the water in which the quinces were cooked.  I added a little cardamom to the recipe and I replaced the rosewater with orange flower water.  I'm a huge fan of rosewater personally, but I know that not everyone shares my passion.  Orange flower water seems to be perceived as less cloying.  The results were a big hit.  Everyone seems to have enjoyed the granita, which was a refreshing way to end a meal.

Quince Granita (serves 6 generously; approx. $1.54/serving)

2 pounds quinces, washed, cored and sliced

6 cups water

2 tablespoons lime juice

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1 vanilla bean, halved lengthwise and scraped

1/2 cup raw sugar

1 tablespoon orage flower water

Equipment:

• Ice cream maker
• Fine strainer
• Saucepan
• Container with lid
• Cheesecloth
• Colander
• Bowl

1. Tie the quince slices up in the cheesecloth and put them in the saucepan.
2. Add six cups water.  Bring to a boil.
3. Cover, reduce heat and cook 1 hour.
4. Drain the pot, reserving the cooking liquid.
5. Set the colander over the bowl.  Put the quinces in their cheesecloth into the colander and allow them to drip into the bowl until they are cool enough to handle.
6. When they are cool enough to handle, squeeze the bundle with your hands to extract as much juice as possible.  Ultimately you want to end up with 4 cups of juice.  If you cannot get 4 cups of juice out of your quinces, top it off with the reserved cooking liquid.
7. Return the juice to the pan.  Add the vanilla, cardamom and lime juice along with the sugar.
8. Heat gently and stir constantly until the sugar is completely dissolved.
9. Transfer to a container with a lid.  Cover and refrigerate overnight.
10. When you are ready to finish the granita, strain the contents of the container into the bowl of your ice-cream maker.  Add the orange flower water.
11. Churn according to the manufacturer's instructions - mine was 25 minutes.
12. Transfer to a freezer-safe container and freeze until ready to eat.

Recipe: Vanilla Cake with Apple Filling and Whipped Cream

Recipe Source (partial): Peterson, James.  Baking.  Ten Speed Press, Berkeley, 2009 p. 10

I really wanted to bake a cake for a recent Sunday dinner.  I'm not sure why I wanted to bake a cake.  I get these urges sometimes, I guess.  I'd made some pies recently and I guess I just wanted to do something ever so slightly different.  Well, I did it.  I'd planned to do something very different here.  I wanted to do this with almond extract and make an almond buttercream.  I like almonds and I've been going through almond withdrawal lately.  However, someone who shall not be named pointed out that we're still not supposed to be exposing our daughter to almonds and she would want cake if other people were having cake.  So I yielded, with ill grace, and left this as a vanilla cake.  I still think that the almond would have matched beautifully with the apple, though.

I ran out of cake flour halfway through the recipe and had to make up for it with whole wheat pastry flour.  Since whole wheat flour tends to be drier than white flour I added a little liquid, and that liquid (as well as all other liquid) took the form of half-and-half.  I needed the heavy cream for the frosting and we were running very low on milk.  Since the daughter had the priority on milk and I had half and half on hand I decided to split the difference.

I wanted to fill the cake with apples for two reasons.  First - I'd never had a cake filled with apples before and it sounded like fun.  Second - I needed to clear the space to accommodate my quince hoard.  I kept the recipe simple, using only three ingredients.  I didn't want an overly sweet filling so I only used butter, apples and cinnamon.  I used a whipped-cream topping because after the spouse burst my almond bubble I was feeling incredibly uninspired by buttercream.  That turned out to be fine.  I used a splash of orange flower water instead of liquor or vanilla to flavor the whipped cream, which gave it just the tiniest taste of the exotic.

As luck would have it, one of the guests was having a birthday.  We stuck the only candle in our possession in the cake, everyone sang, everyone had a good time.  They liked the cake too!

Vanilla Cake with Apple Filling and Whipped Cream (serves 16; approx. $0.46/serving)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/3 cup half and half

3 tablespoons butter

3 eggs, warmed

3 egg yolks, warmed

3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons raw sugar

3/8 cup cake flour

3/8 cup whole wheat pastry flour

5 apples, chopped

4 tablespoons butter

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

1 1/2 cups whipping cream

1 tablespoon orange flower water

2/3 cup confectioners' sugar

Equipment:

• Stand mixer with paddle AND whisk attachments
• Small saucepan
• Saute pan
• Rubber spatula
• 9" round cake pan
• Cooking spray

1. Preheat your oven to 350.
2. Combine the vanilla, milk and 3 tablespoons butter in the small saucepan.  Bring to a simmer.  Simmer long enough to melt the butter, then set aside.
3. Combine the eggs, egg yolks and sugar in the bowl of the stand mixer with the paddle attachment.  Beat on high speed until the ribbon stage is reached, about 5 minutes.
4. Pour the butter mixture down the side of the bowl, all at once, and fold into the sugar mixture.
5. Fold the flour in three additions into the cake.
6. Lubricate the cake pan very liberally with cooking spray.
7. Pour the batter into the pan and bake about 25 minutes, or until firm to the touch.
8. Cool 10 minutes in the pan, then invert onto a cooling rack and cool completely.
9. Meanwhile, clean out the bowl from the stand mixer.
10. Melt 4 tablespoons butter in the saute pan.
11. Add the apples and cinnamon.  Saute until the apples are softened.  Set aside to cool completely.
12. Combine the whipping cream, confectioners' sugar and orange flower water in the stand mixer.
13. Use the paddle attachment to whip the cream until medium peaks form.  Refrigerate until ready to use.  If you expect this to be any length of time you should probably cover it first.
14. When you're ready to serve, carefully slice the cake horizontally into two layers.
15. Pour the apple mixture onto the top of the bottom layer.  Place the other layer on top.
16. Frost with the whipped cream.
17. Stick a candle on top and sing Happy Birthday.