spike.bakes

Holiday Treats

I finally got around to a bunch of cookie and treat making this past weekend. Here's a look at the spread.

Very tiny rugelach, molasses cookies, peppermint bark, and chocolate caramel matzoh. Thanks to all for the great suggestions. I have a few more recipes on my list yet to try. I'd highly recommend the candy matzoh recipe from David Lebovitz (here's the recipe). Very easy and it got the best reviews at the office.

I did make a TWD recipe for this week, eating a muffin for breakfast as I type. I tried the cardamom cake awhile ago when I had delusions that it was the chosen recipe on a week it was not. It wasn't my favorite. Instead I made a Dorie inspired muffin mix and put leftover pecan crumble topping on top. Pretty tasty.

Coconut Pecan Cake

Long story short... I didn't have apples so this is just a small coconut cake with a few pecans added in. I'm in new jersey with no cake (although I do have a few molasses cookies). I had a small bite before I left and thought this was a decent cake but probably would have been a whole lot better with a few apples thrown in.

Later this week christmas cooking and baking begins! If you have a cookie or dessert to recommend-m leave me a comment. I'd love to try a few new recipes this year.

Want to try the recipe as written? Check out Amber's of Cobbler du Monde blog.

Gerard's Mustard Tart

Look! A non iphone picture! A few weeks ago I dropped my camera and the lense was stuck at one point so it couldn't focus. As of wednesday night, I still hadn't dropped it off to get fixed. However, this big strong dude showed up at my house and said "let me see that" and in two shakes, it was corrected. My hero.

Wednesday was also the night I baked up Gerard's Mustard Tart for the brand spanking new group FFwD. Although Dorie mentions that the tart is best served right away, I was too hungry after work and had to eat my dinner right away before the tart even made it into the oven. When it did come out, it was so pretty (and puffed up) that I wish I had room for a tasted. Patience prevailed. The puff deflated into this loveliness and I was able to control myself until lunch the next day before taking a taste.

I went with a tomato version of this tart. I oven-dried a mix of red and green tomatoes from the garden, mixed in a little fresh chopped basil for good measure. The result? So nice. A light tart with good mustard flavor- prefect with the roasted tomatoes. Made for a very nice lunch.

Marie-Helenes Apple Cake

I've been down on apple recipes lately. I love this here apple cake but the other recipes I've tried lately were just too boring. Then this cake from Dorie Greenspan's newest cookbook came along and turned everything around. Reading over the recipe, I though that this was just too simple to be an amazing dessert. I was very wrong.

The lightly rum flavored batter just barely covers the chopped apples but when it bakes, it fills in and you have a perfect cake where the apples are really outstanding. No cinnamon needed!

I only made a small version of the cake to have as dessert after our dinner of mussels and chorizo last week. It was gone in seconds. In the future, I'll probably double the recipe instead. Thanks for another great pick Dorie and thanks to Marie-Helene for a priceless recipe.

Chocolate Espresso Shortbread Cookies

I made these cookies for the third time this weekend. No, I didn't screw up the previous batches. I first made the cookies months ago and loved them. Repeated a bit later and then made again for this week. This time the cookies are headed over seas for Operation Baking GALS along with the yellow cake cookies also pictured.

I love anything coffee and chocolate. Except maybe a cup of mocha coffee but that's another story. The cookie batter comes together in seconds, you get to use Dorie's gallon bag trick for rolling them out, and the dough freezes really well. Not much to improve on there.

Donna will be posting the recipe for you here.

Vietnamese Spicy Chicken Noodle Soup

Instead of making this soup last Thursday evening as I had planned, I went out to see a band. When a local band makes their once a year performance, you don't stay home. By the time friday rolled around it was rainy and I was tired. It was the perfect time to come home and mix up a big pot of soup.

The soup doesn't take all that long to come together. The broth was really nice, a blend of star anise, coconut milk, stock, ginger, and more- no one flavor stood out but it blended together well. The leftovers have been put to good use as I now have a cold and want to have nothing other than soup at every meal. Three for three in great recipes from Dorie's new book!

Potato Gratin

Like a good Irish girl, I always eat my potatoes. Cover them with garlic infused cream, thyme, and a little cheese and I'll lick the dish clean. I was so excited to try these potatoes that I just snapped a quick photo with my phone instead of going through a real set up. I'm regretting that now because you don't get to see the true loveliness of this dish.

I made these potatoes as part of a nice square meal last week. Really, I made a regular dinner- meat, potato, green vegetable. On a week night too. Dorie's new cookbook is good enough to make me eat non desserts for dinner at least one night a week. Find the potato gratin recipe when you buy the book.

Almond Cake with Lemond Curd and Mascarpone Frosting

Three posts in one. Part one is the SMS cake, Part a late post for Kitchen Readers, and Part three a request to join my Baking GALS team for September. Here it goes.

1. The Cake
I halved this recipe for a dinner with friends this past week. The cake is a light almond cake- made airy with the use of whipped egg whites. Even though I used two fewer egg whites, it was still light and tasty. The cake was split in half and filled with a thin layer of lemon curd. True confession time- I used Stonewall Kitchen lemon curd instead of making my own. I'm stowe embarrassed (except not really, it was good). The frosting is a lemon mascarpone. Just lovely despite my inability to rid the frosting of a few unsightly lumps. A few slices of sugared lemon peel on top at the suggestion of my favorite kitchen lurker. Please find the recipe from Katie's adorable blog here.

2. In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan
I read last month's Kitchen Read Selection on time but mis placed the (library) book for several weeks so I missed posting about it. I found it in the depths of my gym locker this week. This book was somewhat similar to the one I chose in that it talks about the impact of food choices. I recently watch Food Inc which had many of the same themes. When it comes down to it, food choices affect personal health and impact on the environment and practices of the food industry. Some pretty disturbing things go into some food production. If you don't care, I'm not sure reading this stuff is going to really affect you in the long term. If that bugs you, read some of these books and change your practices. So there. (and thanks to Margaret for selecting the book!)

3. Join me in baking for Soldiers
I'm leading a team baking for Lucas who is current on his second overseas deployment. If you'd like to join me in baking and mailing cookies to Lucas for September 1st, sign up for Team Wellington here or email me (spikethebaker gmail.com) for the info.

Speculoos

I was in Berlin last Fall visiting a friend (Hi Kiki!) and there were speculoos cookies and flavorings everywhere. From traditional thin cookies for christmas to ritter bars with speculoos flavoring in the middle. I brought a few of those ritter bars home with me, which disappeared (into my belly) quickly, and have been thoroughly disappointed by the local ritter bar selection ever since.

When I first bought Around the French Table and saw that it included a recipe for these cookies, I wanted to make them right away. With all the will power I could muster, I held off until December when the recipe would be most appropriate.

I made the cookies a bit thicker so they weren't as crunchy as they ought to be. I also drizzled on melted bittersweet and semi sweet chocolate for the Ritter bar effect. The chocolate is the perfect addition to the spice cookie. I think this recipe has successfully made it into the holiday cookie rotation.

Various Apple Cakes

The Double Apple Bundt cake was selected for Tuesdays with Dorie this week and what lovely timing. I made this last Saturday after returning from apple picking with friends. I left the cake in the oven with my friend's looking after it as I headed out to pick up other folks. Courtney reported that the cake was done before the minimum baking time. We had a dessert sampling of apple treats that evening and I wasn't in love with the cake. I found it a little dry. That may have been the apple cider cocktails talking but none the less not a favorite. And I didn't take a picture. Check out Lynne of Honey Muffin to try your hand at the recipe.

That experience had me wanting to try one of my favorite apple cakes- a recipe from the Smitten Kitchen. The apples are layered instead of mixed throughout and the cake itself isn't cinnamon but a nice light orange flavor. It is usually made in a bundt or tube pan but I tried loaf pans instead thinking it would be easier. Well I didn't let one of them cook through enough and it was a little doughy in the middle. I sent the good slices off with my mom for a birthday treat and ate the under done part myself (toasted, with ice cream). I also took a crappy photo of it. the end.

Honey Bun Cake

The name of this cake got me.

I have a weak spot for these horribly wonderful gas station honey buns. I haven't had one in the last 10 years or more but I remember them as ridiculously sweet and completely necessary. I'm pretty sure if I were to taste them again, however, they would not compare to this cake.

Jennifer posted this recipe this past week and I knew it was the perfect thing to whip up and take with me on vacation. It uses a box yellow cake mix, so I had hopes that it would taste even half as good as yellow cake cookies. Something about the magical chemical components of yellow cake mix work in these recipes and make sure the baked goods taste great even after a couple of days, if they make it that long. The first day, the cake tasted a little too sweet for me. However after one day, the cake was perfect and kept even better over the next couple of days. Thanks for sharing the recipe Jennifer!

Honey Bun Cake
based on an Allrecipes Cookbook recipe

1 (18.25 ounce) package yellow cake mix
3/4 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs, at room temp
1 cup sour cream, at room temp
1 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
2 cups confectioners sugar
1/4 cup milk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease a 913 pan with non stick cooking spray.

In a large bowl, stir the cake mix, oil, eggs, and sour cream until most large lumps are gone. Pour half the batter into the prepared pan. Combine the brown sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle over the batter in the cake pan. Spoon the other half of the batter on top, covering the brown sugar and cinnamon (spreading this evenly can be difficult-its okay, it will all get mixed and swirled anyway). Swirl the cake with a knife a few times.

Bake in the preheated oven for 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

In a small bowl, whisk together the confectioners sugar, milk, and vanilla until smooth. Spread frosting on cake while its still warm. This is great warm or at room temperature.

Coffee Break Muffins

I almost choose this recipe when it was my turn to pick. These muffins are easy and have a ton of coffee flavor. Add some chocolate chips to the batter and it's all over.

I've made these muffins a few times- mostly as mini muffins. Sometimes I even share them with others. I don't really drink coffee all that often- I was just able to start drinking it again after 10 years off the stuff- but coffee in baked goods has always been a go to choice. That's why there was only one mini left for picture time (this is taken with my phone seconds after I dropped my real camera. the last muffin was eaten in solace).

Find the super simple recipe at Rhiani's blog of Chocoholic Anonymous. I'm willing to bet she added chocolate as well.

Cranberry Shortbread Cake

You'll find no excuses here, just playing a little catch up. Even if I didn't comment, I read everyone's posts about this cranberry shortbread cake thing and knew I wanted to make it for thanksgiving. I've had a huge bag of cranberries in my freezer that I've slowly been working my way through and this recipe finally used the last of them. Huzzah!

I used clementines instead of orange in the filling and made that a day ahead. The crust is both perplexing and delicious in this dish. It is like a giant shortbread cookie housing a nicely tart filling. I thought the combination was fantastic. Others (non cranberry lovers) seemed less impressed with the filling but all for the crust. Here's the recipe. Thanks for a great pick Jessica!

I also baked up Dorie's chocolate pecan pie which I made last year as well. All desserts have finally left the house and I'm kind of dreading christmas cookies and another influx of baked goods at the moment. I will, however, be catching up on the FFwD roast chicken later in the week.

Gougeres

Ah, thursday. After coming home from a business trip to Atlanta, I set off to work Thursday morning. A couple of miles from home my check engine light came on. Turned around, dropped off the car at my (tax evading) mechanic and headed home to work. Maybe I'll look on the car trouble as a blessing in disguise because I was able to cook up some lovely gorgeres during lunch allowing me to post for the very first French Fridays with Dorie on time.

The recipe allows for the use of any cheese you have in the fridge, luckily, because I was working with very little in the way of ingredients. I chose some goats cheese and romano and they turned out perfectly. So simple but such a sophisticated treat. Perfect to eat while sitting on the back porch waiting to give all your money to the car mechanic.

Dorie picked our first set of recipes so I'm guessing these are some of her favorites. I'm really look forward to cooking along with this group!

Fold Over Apple Torte

I've had some guilt over the last week after reading everyone's posts on the double apple bundt cake. Why didn't I love it too? I've concluded that I probably screwed it up. So I tried to redeem myself this week using the rest of my apples to make the pear (apple) torte selected by cakelaw (recipe).

Only I haven't redeemed myself. I made too many changes to the recipe, tried to scale it down, paid too little attention to the directions, and ended up with another meh apple dessert. The crust and custardy part were very tasty, but I should have spiced up the apples more.

In conclusion, I'm not sure I'm really a fan of apple desserts, especially when I don't follow recipe instructions. Next week I may be making a chocolate dessert instead. ugh.

Mussels and Chorizo

For Dorie Greenspan's birthday, a bunch of Tuesdays with Dorie and French Fridays with Dorie bakers and cooks got together to make a grand birthday dinner. I opted to try a dish from the seafood and shellfish section of Dorie's newest book, Around My French Table. As with every recipe I've tried from this book, it was easy and delicious. You start by cooking onions, tomatoes and spicy chorizo together. While the pasta boils, just add some white wine and the mussels and within minutes you have a fresh and hearty meal. I think many think of french food as stuffy and involved. Where many dishes require classic techniques, many are just like this one-easy and satisfying.

A very happy birthday to Dorie! Her recipes have made my friends and family very happy over the past few years (me too!) and I look forward to many more books and favorite recipes to come.

See what the other birthday chefs made here. And thinks to Holly and Laurie for organzing this!

Peanut Butter Crisscross

The crisscross will make you jump jump. When I got home from a day at the beach yesterday, I didn't really feel like turning on the oven. The butter was already at room temp on the counter though so I whipped up a half batch and just baked up a few. The rest of the dough went in the fridge for a treat later in the week.

This recipe over here is my favorite peanut butter cookie recipe-especially when you add chocolate chips. It is so peanut buttery. I did like this recipe a lot even though it wasn't quite as good as my older recipe. The addition of chocolate chips and chopped peanuts made the cookie feel a bit fancier. The crisscross on top tells you that it is pretty classic. Overall a very decent PB cookie recipe, and you can find it (in french and english) here.

Caramel Pumpkin Pie

I remember an old Prairie Home Companion where Garrison Keillor writes something along the lines of "the best pumpkin pie you ever had is not all that different from the worst and it is all just an excuse to use nutmeg". I shared the feeling; pumpkin pie was never anything special.

That is until this pumpkin pie. I used a graham cracker crust which helped the cause. The caramel here adds just enough flavor so you know it isn't an ordinary pumpkin pie. Plus it is easy, even with the caramel making. Once the pie was transported, we served it with a little whipped cream, it was gone before I could steal a slice to photograph. Perfect pie for a fall day when the Pats win it in OT.

Sweet & Spicy Nuts

I have three recipes from French Fridays with dorie in the works at the moment. The kitchen is a mess. Here's the simplistic recipe of the bunch (and the only one I'll finish today). Nut mixes are a bit retro so I themed the photo that way. I love making them- easy app and totally delish. Although impossible to stop eating. You just coat the nuts in an egg white, mix with a sugar spicy mix (I used sugar, salt, ancho chile and cinnamon) and bake at 300 til brown. Then, the hard part. Not eating the whole lot. Happy Friday!

Pumpkin Caramel Bacon Bars

I'll be late on this week's TWD post but I thought these treats might be a good post in the meantime. My friend Katy forwarded the recipe from the noble pig and I made them last week for friend Joe's birthday treat.

The pumpkin squares might be a bit boring on their own. When you top them with caramel cream cheese frosting and chopped bacon, things change drastically. The bacon tastes quite suitable atop all that sugar. The frosting I made with double the original amount of cream cheese and I don't think that was a mistake. The frosting stays pretty loose and drips down over the sides after you cut the bars. If you're a fan of salty and sweet treats, this one's for you. Unless you're a vegetarian.

Pumpkin Caramel Bacon Bars
based on a recipe by Cuisine at Home

For the Bars-
8 oz. bacon, diced
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt or table salt
1 and 1/2 cups pumpkin puree
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg, at room temp
2 Tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup chopped pecans

For the Frosting-
2 cups packed brown sugar
1/3 cup water
Pinch of salt
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 stick unsalted butter, cubed
8 oz. cream cheese, cubed
Sea salt

For the bars: Preheat oven to 350 F. Coat a 9 x 13 baking pan with nonstick spray. Cook bacon in a saute pan over medium heat until crisp; drain on a paper towel lined plate and set aside. Reserve 2 tablespoons drippings.

Whisk together flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt for the bars in a medium bowl; set aside. Whisk together pumpkin puree, granulated sugar, 1/2 cup brown sugar, egg, melted butter, bacon drippings, and vanilla in a large bowl until well blended. Stir in flour mixture and pecans, mix just until incorporated.

Spread pumpkin batter evenly into prepared pan; bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Let cool completely before frosting.

For the frosting: Boil 2 cups brown sugar, water and a pinch of salt for the frosting in a large saucepan over high heat, 5 minutes, swirling occasionally to prevent scorching. Whisk in cream and butter pieces. (Mixture will bubble furiously; keep whisking.) Boil 2 minutes more.

Transfer caramel to the bowl of a stand mixer; whip on high speed until the caramel is thick and cool to the touch, about 10-minutes (don't try touching the caramel too soon or you'll burn your hand!). Add cream cheese, 1 cube at a time, until frosting is smooth.

Putting the bars together: Spread the caramel frosting over the bars while they are still in the pan. Let caramel set for 30 minutes. Add the chopped crispy bacon on top of the frosting. Cut the pan into small squares and enjoy.

Oatmeal Breakfast Bread

This should have been a complete disaster. I set out to make this this bread after a long day yesterday. I didn't have a key ingredient, applesauce, so I thought I'd just add some yogurt and apple juice. The batter seemed far to liquid to ever really come together. I also didn't have any dried fruit so the bread was a very plain oatmeal with more oatmeal in the topping.

Then, with great surprise to me, it baked up nicely in the amount of time it was supposed to take. AND it tasted good.

Find the recipe as it was intended on Oven Love

Maple Tuiles

Yep, this is a scary cookie. They bake up incredibly thin and you have to quickly get them off the pan in one pieces and drape them to create a curve. One of mine had the right effect. The rest were crazy. I had tuiles doing battle on the plate:

It was a short battle. Tuiles are very fragile.

It is kind of a fun recipe though, even if they don't come out perfect. The challenge of them is fun. I'm planning monday night pats v. jets (boo jets) with tuiles and egg nog ice cream. Pats, tuiles, and egg nog ice cream. Those things all go together perfectly in my mind.

Hindy of Bubies Little Baker has the recipe here.

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