Let the good times roulade

I admit that maybe I've become obsessive, but the pumpkin roulade was seemingly so easy that I just had to try again.  This time I was inspired by this recipe.  A red velvet cake with white chocolate mousse and raspberries inside.  Mmmmm mmmmm!  It sounded delicious and perfect for our Christmas dessert.  The results fell short of my grand expectations.  I submit to you people's exhibit A:

The problem was after the cake was cooked and rolled and cooled it completely cracked when being unrolled. I was left with about 5 long strips of cake. I proceeded to fill them and "roll" them back up the way they should be rolled. I wrapped it quickly and tightly in saran wrap and aluminum foil and put it in the fridge overnight where I hoped it would heal itself. It did not. I think that some pieces sunk further into the filling, and thus it looks all rolled back up on itself - although I can't really seem to figure out how it should have gone together.

It looked a little better when sliced, I submit people's exhibit B:

And, it tasted delicious!!

I think that perhaps the cake part was cooked too long, I'd attempt a shorter time the next time. It also seemed a little dense, I'd maybe go to 3/4 cup of flour or substitute cake flour instead.

It's my turn

I had two tasks on my "to-do" list tonight: clean the kitchen and bake cookies.  I began by scrubbing the fridge, some of you may groan, but I totally loved pulling out the drawers and shelves and washing them down in the tub and practically climbing in to the fridge itself with some clorox wipes.  I'm about to head out of town for a bit (yay New England!) so my fridge is more empty than usual.  Once that was done, I set out to make some cookies.

I tried a new recipe, one that's making its way around the interwebs (and country) faster than a desperate housewife on Sunday!  It was originally displayed here by my friend NH's sister CNHB on the east coast, subsequently it was made here by my friend VC on the left coast.  And now, I've joined the masses and made them down here on the third coast!

I must start with, this was the messiest recipe I've made in a while - flour, cocoa powder, creamed butter and sugar sprayed everywhere.  Ok, I won't blame the recipe.  I likely could have found a bigger bowl to mix it in.  But the dough was really thick, in fact I'm fairly certain I've burned out my hand mixer motor, it sure smells funny right now.  But holy, GOODNESS!  With due respect to the original cookie-master, I won't publish her secret recipe here, but I'll be sure to bring it home with me so I can make them again...and again...and again.

I plan to bring these, and one other type of cookie, to my department area's Expensive Scotch party tomorrow night.  I'm one of two girls in the area currently, and this is the first time we're being invited to scotch night - and I just know that what co-ed Expensive Scotch night needs is a plate of Christmas cookies!  Thanks CNHB, NH, and VC for relaying this recipe so quickly.

Disco Ball Cake

I'm SO glad that I'm done making this cake! It was a little stressful, but in the end, I think it came out alright. The disco ball looks a little more like Epcot Center than an actual disco ball, but what are you gonna do? That's thanks in part to my limited cake supply resources. . . had I been able to find silver fondant (rather than the white that I used) it probably would've looked a little more like the real thing.

So fondant -- that was a new experience! It was really easy to work with actually. It's stiffer than cookie dough, but doesn't break apart as easily when you roll it out. It's just sort of hard to roll out until you work with it a bit to get it a little more pliable. It got just a little dry toward the completion of the disco ball so I brushed some clear vanilla extract onto it to get it to soften a little and to also help the silver sprinkles stick better. The recipient really wanted a chocolate cake, so I made the bottom, large cake chocolate and the disco ball yellow chiffon. I filled both of them with chocolate mousse and frosted the outside with a simple buttercream (the recipe on the package of Domino's confectioner's sugar, not my favorite because I think it's really sweet, but it's easy to make and was a request). The pink, orange, and green stripes are also buttercream that I just died (instead of decorator's frosting). I figured that it would've been a lot of decorator's frosting, when the taste of it is artificial-like to me (but good as far as your typical decorator's frosting goes). More importantly though, the buttercream spreads more easily so that was the hands-down winner. Now it's late, my feet hurt, and I want to go to bed, so that's all you get. Oh, and a bird's eye view which I think is kind of neat:

Christmas Baking Madness

I've been pretty busy over the past week or so, and most of my business has involved BAKING, so I figured I'd write about it! Of course we're all busy around this time, trying to find time for holiday cards, gift shopping, seeing your friends and family, etc. On top of this, throw in baking five different kinds of holiday treats, fighting with your dishwasher, breaking your only large microwave-safe mixing bowl, recital time kicking in, and you've got my week. Oh, did I mention the disco ball cake? That's another post. . .

Let me fill you in on the baking because that's probably the most exciting of the above list. Several years ago, Scott and I journeyed to the White Mountains' annual Inn to Inn Christmas Cookie Tour (yes, I said COOKIE TOUR!) We checked in to whichever Inn we were staying at for the weekend, and they gave us a map of all of the other Inns. We went around to each, via car, and it was really fantastic. They were all decked out for the holidays (haha, pun intended). There were Christmas trees, wreaths, Nutcrackers, and of course they also had two or three different signature COOKIES to sample! So my point is, a few of the cookies I've made for the holidays since this memorable trip have been from the little cook book that they give you at the Cookie Tour for FREE. It's nothing fancy on the outside, but it's really all about the little treasures inside. This year I'm making the Peppermint Crunch Cookies (thanks to the Tamworth Inn), Inn at Crystal Lake's Crystal Lake Everythings, and Lavender Flower Inn's Pecan Balls. My own personal additions will include sugar cookies, Jenni's two-bite brownies with my mom's brownie recipe, and my own simple creation of white chocolate bark with sliced almonds and dried cranberries. I'll take a picture once I have a Christmas tin of these assembled for your viewing pleasure! Happy two weeks before Christmas!

hold the cheese, please

It's no big secret, I love cheese. I put it on everything, most meals I cook include some form of cheese, and often times I'll just eat cheese slices as a snack. Totally delicious? yes. Healthy? no. My definition of a meal has morphed into "must include cheese" and I've made a conscious decision to try and change that back to something more normal.

The other night, an impromptu get-together to decorate my christmas tree resulted in our making dinner as well.  I had some veggies we needed to use and ry-guy had some chicken to bring, so we decided on a simple rainbow stir-fry.  It ended up being quite good.  I had some broccoli, a yellow squash, red pepper, and red onion (which really look purple).  We cut all of these up and put them in a big bowl with some marinade. Meanwhile, we attempted to thaw the frozen solid chicken breasts - first in a pan of water until mostly soft, and then some in the microwave. By the time the chicken was thawed enough to be cut up we were starving, so I tossed it in the bowl with the veggie marinade, and then threw the chicken only (yes, I had to pick through the bowl to find it all) into the frying pan. When it was mostly cooked I threw in the veggies, and started the rice (of the Jasmine variety). It was a deliciously colorful meal, without any cheese in sight.

This afternoon I was looking for something to eat, and I decided to make a pasta primevera. The same veggies (minus the yellow squash) plus some oregano, thyme, cracked black pepper, and a can of tomato sauce gave me another colorful cheeseless meal - just as tasty!!

a holiday roulade

presenting the pumpkin ice cream gingerbread roulade!
Originally uploaded by with an eye

 

I remembered years ago that my mom and I made a gingerbread and pumpkin ice cream dessert, and I set out to attempt a repeat performance. I found many recipes online, and I read the section about rolled cakes in the Martha Stewart handbook. I decided to combine a few various things, thus making my own completely stolen/original recipe. And, may I add, it was delicious.

The ice cream was classically semi-homemade:
1 quart of vanilla ice cream, softened 15 minutes at room temperature.
1 1/4 c pumpkin puree
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp allspice
1/4 tsp ground ginger

Just put all of this in a medium sized bowl, and mix together with a hand (or stand) mixer and mix it up. When it's all uniform just put it back in the ice cream container. I covered it with plastic wrap before putting the lid back on. Freeze it for at least 4 hours.

I made the gingerbread from scratch, and I was nervous about all the recipes I'd read - but this worked brilliantly. You'll need:

5 large eggs, separated
1/2 cup molasses
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
2 tablespoons finely grated fresh ginger
3/4 cup cake flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground ginger
3/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar

In a large bowl beat the egg yolks until pale (about 2 minutes), and then add the molasses, brown sugar, fresh ginger, and beat until combined. In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, ground ginger, allspice, black pepper and salt. Beat the dry ingredients into the egg yolk mixture until combined.

Now, in a clean bowl, beat the egg whites until soft peaks appear. Add 1/4 cup of granulated sugar and beat until firm and glossy. Fold the egg whites into the batter until all the streaks are gone.

Spread the batter onto a 12 x 17 baking sheet, lined with parchment paper and sprayed with Baker's Joy. The batter won't rise too much as you bake it, so load it up without spilling over the sides of the pan. Bake in a 325 degree oven for 15 minutes. It will be lightly browned and a little springy to the touch. Mine was a little bit sticky and I might have been able to leave it in a few more minutes, but it ended up ok.

When it's done, cool it in the pan for 10 minutes or so. Now here comes the big roulade trick. Sprinkle the top with confectioners sugar and run a knife around the edge to loosen the cake from the pan. Lay a clean linen cloth on top of the cake and place a larger baking pan on top of the towel and quickly invert the entire pile, hopefully dumping the gingerbread onto the towel and larger baking pan. Remove the bottom pan (the one that was in the oven) and the parchment paper. Starting at the short end, roll the cake and towel together and place seam-side down on the baking sheet and cool completely in the fridge (about 2 hours). Once I saw the outcome of this cake I had little concern that it would tear or crack when I rolled it - it's very springy and spongy.

Remove the ice cream from the fridge and let it soften at room temperature for 15 minutes. I found it easier to put it into a bowl instead of softening in the carton. You want to get the ice cream to be firm but spreadable, and not super duper melty. When the ice cream is the right consistency remove the roll from the fridge and carefully unroll it. Spread the ice cream over the cake, going completely to the edges. Roll it back up, without the towel this time. Wrap it tightly in plastic wrap and freeze in freezer for 6 hours or overnight.

You can trim the edges after it's been re-frozen, if you want to make them look pretty for presentation. Enjoy!

I've still got about 6 slices left, who wants left-overs?!

Thanksgiving a la Mel

Overall, Thanksgiving was quite successful here at my place. Everyone was really helpful with their contributions, from side dishes to desserts to even cleaning up. Here's what was on the menu (if you'd like any of these recipes, let me know and I can write them out):

We started out with just a couple of appetizers. There was fruit as well as Jenni's famous brie bites that I made with homemade cranberry sauce instead of jelly. The fruit:


Mmmmmm. Thank you, Whole Foods! We had a few beverage options, but when people arrived, they mostly went for the hot beverage: mulled cider. I kept this warm in the crock pot, which was great because it eliminated the need of an additional large pot (my only one was already in use). I get the mulling spices from Williams Sonoma. It's quite delicious! I also made a Sangria with a mulled simple syrup, Spanish rose wine, red port, and triple sec. That was a new recipe, from Food and Wine magazine, and it turned out really great! Definitely a keeper. In addition, there was red wine and the left-over port from the sangria available.

For the meal, we did NOT have turkey because my brother-in-law is allergic (which is great for me because I wasn't about to cook a bird in MY oven!) so my parents brought ham instead. We also had delicious mashed potatoes that my brother-in-law made here with tons of garlic, cranberry sauce (that I forgot to put out with the meal. . . oops), onion tart c/o Michelle that was incredible, stuffing c/o Diane that was also incredible, roasted root vegetables with pine nut pesto that I made (another new recipe from F&W and it was super yummy if I do say so myself!), corn bread, roasted asparagus, and I believe that was it. For dessert, we had apple pie (that my mother-in-law made and has become quite famous in the family), cranberry pie (thanks to Leah!), and I made vanilla bean ice cream for the first time that was really rich but from what I heard pretty good, and pumpkin cheesecake that did NOT crack! Yeah! I was so proud that I took a picture:


Well that pretty much sums up the day! I wish I had taken more pictures, but what can you do. I was a little busy I guess! I'm glad that my new recipes weren't a disaster. I know you're not suppose to test out new recipes for a holiday (so say many chefs on TV. . . ) so while it was risky I have to say, "HAHA, Suckers!" I was suppose to have an additional dessert that was also a new recipe, but I'd like to forget that it ever happened. For those of you thinking about making Linzer Cookies, I have to advise against it. . . even if the pictures on the package are really cute and hard to resist, don't give in. And that is all. I hope your Thanksgivings were as wonderful as mine! Next up, Christmas! You better believe I'm already excited and looking forward to my Christmas baking (and I'm sure you are too, Jenni!) Happy Holidays!