Awww NUTS.... here we go again!

delicately sweet Cashew Butter Cookies

It's kinda funny.  As a kid, I would not have classified myself as a nut lover.  Sure, I enjoyed my fair share of peanut butter on toast or in PB and banana sandwiches, but nuts in their non-butter form, not so much.  Even then, nuts of the non-peanut form were pretty much a rarity (ya ya, I know - peanuts are not "technically" nuts, whatever).  I remember sitting with my Grandpa, while everyone gathered in the living room to watch a football game, and eating roasted peanuts.  By now you've probably caught on to the fact that I have my quirks - and I was even quirkier as a kid.  You know how when you take a peanut and split in half, one of the halves has this teeny tiny extra bit on the tip of it?  C'mon, you know... this part:

my peanut has a thingy

...ok, well, being a very lovable and quirky kid, I refused to eat that part.  I would carefully crack apart each little peanut, gently remove that little thingamabob and my dear Gpa would chuckle at me and eat the thingamabob so I didn't have to.  Have I mentioned how my Gpa was the best?

(by the way, turns out the thingamabob is the "embryo"... good thing I didn't know that as a kid, or I'd have been scarred for life! I don't recall exactly how old I was when I discovered what eggs actually were.)

As years passed, I would be introduced to many other nuts, and today my pantry always has a nutty assortment of nuts to bake with or snack on.  I almost always buy them raw, and toast them myself - think of it as quality control.  With so many nuts in my pantry, it stands to reason that they'll end up in some baked goods, right?

My last nut-themed experiment produced some lovely Almond Butter Cookies that were pretty darn good.  This got me thinking about the various types of nut butters that are readily available at my local grocery store and figured that if Almond Butter Cookies turned out so well, surely Cashew Butter Cookies would be just as lovely.  Well, I was wrong - they are simply delightful and put Almond Butter Cookies to shame.  They have a delicate sweetness to them, a distinct nuttiness, and just the right amount of chewiness.  I took a batch over to a friend's last night and came home with an empty plate.  Yup, the test batch were a hit.

The recipe is the same one I used for the Almond Butter Cookies, but with cashews and cashew butter subbed in where the recipe calls for "Almond".  However, since I have yet to even hear of a Cashew Extract for flavouring,  I just used a generous dose of vanilla.  When I gave the cookie batter an initial taste, it seemed a bit "flat", kind of one-dimensional, so I grabbed a bottle of my favourite honey and added a generous squirt.  Bingo - it was exactly what the cookies were lacking!  Scooped out onto a cookies sheet and topped with a whole cashew, they bake up in just 12 minutes.  That said, they are very delicate when they first come out of the oven, so they need at least another five minutes (as much as 10 minutes if you can wait that long) on the cookie sheet to cool, before you can transfer them onto a cooling rack or plate.

big beige cookie...

Though they tasted great, they looked awfully beige, so before popping the second cookie sheet into the oven, I sprinkled some chocolate flakes overtop - not a lot, just enough to break up the beige.   Even though each cookie had less that 1/4 tsp of chocolate on it, it was just enough to add another dimension of flavour to these already scrumptious cookies.  Now they were really fabulous.  Problem is, those little chocolate flakes are hard to find, so they're not going to be in every gal's pantry.  I obsessed over finding these unusual decorations after devouring them on my first Sprinkles Cupcake while visiting my sis a couple of years ago .  I searched for several weeks before I managed to locate some though King Arthur Flour, but I can't find them on their site anymore.  They're not your average chocolate sprinkle or "jimmy", they're little squares, they're from Italy, and they contain only three ingredients: sugar, chocolate liquor and cocoa butter.

Dark Chocolate Flakes

So, what should you use instead?  I'd recommend that you grab a bar of your favourite dark chocolate, a microplane grater and sprinkle a few shavings over each ball of cookie dough... that should get you pretty close to the same result.

beige before....

what better than chocolate to add some personality

So, I hope you'll give this recipe a try and let me know what you think!

Happy Baking!

Julia's Cashew Butter Cookies
Makes 48 cookies

Ingredients:
355g (2 1/2 Cups) flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
3 tsp kosher salt (half this amount if using table salt)
226 g (1 Cup) unsalted butter, at room temperature
220g (1 Cup) light brown sugar
201g (1 Cup) granulated sugar
320 g (1 Cup) unsalted Cashew butter, at room temperature
2 large eggs, room temperature
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 Tbsp good quality liquid honey

140g (1 Cup) whole cashews - unsalted, plus extra whole nuts for garnish

50g good quality dark chocolate *optional, but recommended

Directions:
Preheat oven to 300˚F and place rack in centre of oven.  Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.

In a skillet, gently toast the whole cashews, being careful not to burn or scorch them.  

As soon as they are toasted, remove them from the pan and allow them to cool on a plate or wooden cutting board.  

the best way to chop nuts

Coarsely chop the cashews, either with a sharp knife (recommended), or with a food processor, using short 1-second pulses - just make sure to leave them quite coarse).  Set aside.

In a medium bow, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the unsalted butter and both sugars until well combined.   

Beat in the cashew butter until fully incorporated.  

Add the eggs, one at a time, along with vanilla and vanilla extract and honey.  Mix the batter well, scraping down the bowl as necessary to make sure everything is fully incorporated.

Gently mix in the dry ingredients until just a few streaks of flour remain.  

Finally, add the chopped cashews and mix until the nuts are well dispersed.
Using a small scoop (a #70 or 35mm disher is my stand-by for cookies), scoop heaping tablespoonfuls if dough onto prepared cookie sheet, allowing about 1 1/2 inches of space between.  

Gently press a whole cashew into the top of each cookie, flattening the cookies a bit as you go.

Sprinkle some finely grated chocolate shavings over each cookie if you please.

Bake until cookies are puffy and golden around the edges, about 12 minutes.

Cool cookies on cookie sheet until they set up, at least 5 minutes, then transfer to wire rack to cool completely (about 10 minutes), as these cookies are really soft until the are fully cooled.

I have no idea how long these will "keep" for - they keep getting eaten before I can find out. 

It's all about the cream

I recently mentioned the amazing Strawberry Panna Cotta hubby and I enjoyed on a day trip to Sausalito, and the memory seems to be a strong one, 'cause I cannot seem to get it out of my mind.  It was creamy and delicately sweet, surprisingly thick yet not heavy or overly rich.  For a girl who misses UK double cream like I do, it was heaven on a spoon.  So it's no surprise that, upon returning home from our mini vacation I immediately began looking at recipes for this lovely italian custard.

I located a few recipes, but they were all pretty similar, so I decided to try the one in the Larousse Pâtissier app I recently downloaded onto my iPad (if you've ever met me in person, you probably know that I'm a huge Mac lover, and proud of it.  I have never owned a PC and never intend to, a decision that is reinforced every day when I'm forced to use one at work - but I'm getting off topic).  Panna Cotta is one of those great 15-minutes-or-less recipes that you can whip up without breaking a sweat.  That said, you do need to make it well in advance of your serve time, because it needs a few hours of chill and set time in the fridge before you serve it.  Great for those times, say, when you have friends coming for dinner tomorrow night and only a million things to do before then.  It's elegant and indulgent and takes very little effort - and who doesn't love that?  Oh, did I mention that you can make it in just about any flavour you want?

To take advantage of every last bit of summer fruit, I decided to make a flavoured panna cotta with ripe nectarines and a few leaves of fresh basil.  OK, so it's not exactly your most common flavour combination, but the flavour of fresh basil really does pair beautifully with the tart juiciness of nectarines.  Normally, the sugar would be mixed in with the cream and the mixture would be heated before blending in the gelatine and vanilla.  For this version, however, I sprinkled the sugar and a pinch of salt over the sliced fruit and basil, and allowed it to draw out the juices and amp up the flavours while I soaked the gelatine sheets, and warmed the cream.  From there, it's a very simple matter of gently mixing the three components together and pouring the mixture into small molds to chill and set. 

Now, about the gelatine.  Gelatine sheets can be very tricky to find where I live, whereas the envelopes of powdered gelatine is on every grocery store shelf.  You can certainly substitute the powdered kind for the sheets if you need, but then you need to sprinkle it over the cold cream before you heat it, so the gelatine can "bloom".  Personally, now that I've gotten my hands on sheet gelatine, there is no turning back.  Of course I have yet to try using agar-agar, the vegetarian-friendly seaweed based gelatine flakes, which are incredibly hard to find in town, and when I did manage to find some at a specialty store, I nearly fell over from sticker shock (I'll try it next time, though, and let you know the results).

As with most (if not all) desserts, really good quality vanilla and a pinch of salt are a must.  In a case like this where there are only a very few ingredients, you can't cheat on quality.  Fresh, ripe fruit, fresh basil leaves, and buy the very best heavy cream you can find.  Or better yet, make it with crème fraiche - the thick and velvety quality will make this dessert toe-curling-ly divine.  

Nectarine Basil Panna Cotta
serves 4

1-2 tsp neutral-flavoured vegetable oil, such as canola or grapeseed
2 sheets gelatine or 2 pkgs powdered gelatine
1 nectarine, skinned and chopped
5-6 leaves fresh basil, medium sized leaves
250ml (1 Cup) heavy cream or crème fraiche
50g (1/4 Cup) sugar
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1 whole vanilla bean or 1 tsp vanilla bean paste

Fill a medium bowl with cold water, and soak the gelatine sheets for about 10 minutes.  Conveniently, this is how much time you will need to prepare the rest of the recipe.
In a medium saucepan, place the chopped nectarine and the fresh basil - be sure to "bruise" or crush the leaves in order to release more of the flavour.  Sprinkle the sugar and salt over the fruit and allow it to sit for a couple of minutes.
Lightly brush a thin coating of oil into 4 small ramekins or cups that you will be using for molds.  Be sure to get into all the nooks and crannies, so that the custards will unmold properly.
Add the vanilla and cream to the saucepan with the fruit mixture, and place over medium low heat until the mixture is hot and steaming, but do not allow it to boil.  Remove the pan from heat and carefully fish out and discard the basil leaves.
Remove the gelatine sheets from the cold water, and gently whisk them into the hot cream mixture.  As soon as the gelatine has fully dissolved, pour the custard into the molds, evenly distributing the fruit amongst the dishes.
Transfer the dishes to the refrigerator for 4-6 hours, or overnight.
When ready to serve, carefully run a very thin-bladed knife around the edge of the ramekin, and turn the custard out onto a small plate.
Serve immediately.

Macaron Fail

For the past couple of months, I have been a bad MacTweet-er.  I have missed not one but two challenges in a row - not because I've wanted to, but because hubby and I have been busy putting in some new flooring and putting a fresh coat of paint on a few rooms.  The downstairs portion of our house is looking pretty great now, and Molly and Riley are quickly learning they can't quite corner as fast on wood floors as they can on carpet (I'm pretty sure we're going to have to heavily pad the landing on the stairs when we finish them next).  Anyway, I'm back now, and am ready to get back to making macs!

...problem is, the Macaron gods seem to be a bit peeved with me.  Yep, that's right.... macaron FAIL!  Consider it Karma.

This month's MacTweets challenge was to create Pinkarons for Pinktober, in honour of October being Breast Cancer Awareness Month.  This cause is important to me not only as a woman, but as a woman who has seen friends and loved ones touched by this tragic disease.  The importance of self-exams and mammograms cannot be stressed enough, as early detection is currently our best defense.

So I decided to make Pink Ginger Macarons by adding a bit of ginger syrup to the macaron batter, and then made a chocolate ganache loaded up with the a sassy kick of ginger.  Even though I'm not much of a drinker, when a friend recently told me about an incredible ginger cognac liqueur, I knew I needed to get a bottle for my baking.  Either sipped at the end of a meal, or stirred into a bowl of melted dark chocolate, it is absolutely intoxicating, though it seemed to lose a bit of its pungency in the ganache.  That was quickly and easily rectified by grating a knob of fresh ginger over the bowl and incorporating all the spicy fresh ginger juice and pulp.  In no time, we had a killer filling for our lovely pink macs.  Unfortunately, "lovely" isn't quite what I ended up with this time.

After the success I had last time I made macarons, I knew I had to stick to using the Pierre Herme Italian meringue method.  I'm quite sure they would have turned out just fine if I had been focused on my macarons and nothing else, but as you can probably guess, such was not the case.  No, I was simultaneously working on dinner for hubby and a friend while trying to make finicky french cookies (seemed like a good idea at the time).  As time for the macaron process ran out, I had no choice but to put the batter into a piping bag, seal it up and set it into the fridge until the following day.  I figured this wouldn't be a problem, as Ken at HungryRabbitNYC had used a refrigerated batter for a previous month's challenge with spectaular results... what could possibly go wrong?  Well, for starters, his macs weren't made with the already thick Italian meringue.  When day two arrived and I finally had the time to devote to piping, drying and baking mon petit macarons, I was getting hand cramps just trying to pipe the batter onto the cookie sheets.  I walked away several times, partly out of frustration, but mostly to let the batter warm up a bit and make for easier piping.  An hour and an half later, I had three sheets filled with bright pink dots.  Only the dots were bumpy.  They were lumpy.  They were ugly.  I gave the ol' "rap the cookie sheets on the table sharply a couple of times" trick a go, but there was no improvement.  Finally, after waiting and speculating different fixes,  I grabbed a small spoon and a bowl of water and attempted to "smooth" the tops down a bit - they needed to at least *look* like macs, instead of pimply pink Hershey's Kisses.  I let them dry for a full 45 minutes before I baked them, but the fact of the matter is they were simply destined to be ugly macs.  When they finally came out of the oven, any happiness I felt over the success of having feet, was quickly over shadowed by the fact that my bright pink macs were now unmistakably flesh-coloured.  Pink Ginger macs had become Soylent macs in a matter of minutes.... not at *all* what I was going for. 

And, in case you were wondering...yes, they were also still bumpy and disfigured; thanks to the wet spoon trick, any water that hadn't completely dried before they went into the oven became a volcano-like vent for the hot batter to bubble up through and collect, giving a glimpse into what macarons may look like if they're not allowed to dry before baking.  Disappointed and defeated, I set the lumpy bumpy shells aside to be filled later.

But later never really came, at least not for these shells.  They were so unappetizing that I didn't even want to serve them to anyone.  So, into the food processor they went, to ground up and be mixed into meringue another day, hopefully reincarnated as the beautiful macarons they were meant to be.

As for the ginger ganache... warmed up and spooned over a bowl of ice cream, it is simply divine - and an excellent way to soothe your bruised baker's ego.

Happy Bakings All - I wish you better results than I had this month!

In the words of Homer Simpson...

mmmmmmmmmmmmmm....doughnuts.

Homemade Vanilla Bean Glazed Doughnuts

The October 2010 Daring Bakers challenge was hosted by Lori of Butter Me Up. Lori chose to challenge DBers to make doughnuts. She used several sources for her recipes including Alton Brown, Nancy Silverton, Kate Neumann and Epicurious.  Thankfully, I no longer have a fear of frying, so I was pretty excited about this challenge!

Now, here in Canada, doughnuts are pretty popular, though I didn't realize just how popular - apparently Canucks consume more doughnuts per capita than anyone else.  Maybe these stats include those incredibly addictive mini-doughnuts that you get at every summer carnival, festival and fair - hot and freshly sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar, they are wickedly good.  I can guarantee you that included in their count is the Canadian institution that is Tim Hortons.  Tim Horton was a hockey player (which automatically makes him a Canadian hero), who opened up a doughnut shop in 1964 with a business partner.  Today, there are over 2700 Tim Hortons locations across Canada (don't ask me why they dropped the apostrophe "s"), almost 600 in the US, and because "Tim's" is such a Canadian staple, there is even a location at the Kandahar Military Base in Afghanistan, simply to keep our troops well supplied with doughnuts and coffee.  Ironically, they're known more for their coffee than anything else these days, and if you don't believe me, next time you run into a Canadian, just ask them what a "Double Double" is, and they'll be able to tell you.  It's pretty well known that if you can get your hands on a Tim Hortons franchise, you basically have a license to print money.  Heck, at the location a block away from my work, the drive through lineup is never less a dozen cars.  While I won't go out of my way for some Tim's, I've definitely eaten there.

Mmmmmm... Doughnuts.  Chocolate, glazed or rolled in sugar!

Lori's challenge gave us the freedom to make whatever kind of doughnuts we wanted, but she provided some recipes for both cake and yeast doughnuts.  I decided to go with the more traditional yeast doughnut recipe by Alton Brown.  Party because I prefer them over cake doughnuts, and partly out of loyalty to Mr. Brown - without him, I would probably still be doing heat-'n-eat food for dinner every night.  His "Good Eats" show was a favourite of mine when hubby and I first moved in together and my cooking skills were basic at best.  His entertaining food science approach was very inspiring, and I would head into the kitchen with a "Hey, I can make that!" attitude after every episode.  It wasn't long before my cooking repertoir expanded considerably.  So, on behalf on myself and my hubby - Thanks Alton!  Now, where was I...? Oh yeah - yeast doughnuts.  Anyway, I was pondering the possibilities of all things doughnut and started thinking about French Crullers, my personal favourite in the doughnut category.  But they're completely different from all other doughnuts... they're not yeast, and they're certainly not cake - they are incredibly light and have an airy, yet moist, custard-y interior.  Well I was able to find out (thanks Google!) that crullers are actually made from pâte à choux dough - which is awesome, because I totally know how to make that! It also explains why they're my fav... pâte à choux dough is the wonderous stuff that éclairs, chouquettes and profiteroles are made from.  It's like wonder dough!

Frying up some French Crullers

Fresh French Crullers... ready to be glazed

The yeast doughnuts do take longer to make, simply because yeast doughs need time to rise and rest and rise again, but you can still have fresh, homemade doughnuts in a little under 3 hours. Conveniently though, there is just enough time while the yeast dough rises to make the crullers.  French Crullers are pretty straightforward: make the choux dough, pipe it into a swirly dough shape using a star tip and a piping bag, and fry.  When they come out of the hot oil you can glaze them or roll them in sugar, plain or seasoned with a spice of your choice, such as cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg... pretty much anything you like!  As for the yeast doughnuts, you can really go crazy with toppings, glazes and even fillings - just remember to omit cutting a hole in the doughnut if you're going to fill them.  I opted to make a vanilla glaze using confectioners sugar, vanilla and cream - and it paired perfectly with the crispy dough.  I also made a ganache to use a rish chocolate glaze for some of them.  Finally, I pureed some strawberry preserves and piped them into the few hole-less doughnuts I cooked up, and used the vanilla glaze on them as well.  A word of advice if you're going to make filled doughnuts: be careful not to overstuff them with your filling.  I sent the filled ones off to work with hubby with the warning that folks should watch out for the exploding doughnut.  I'm pretty sure one of his coworkers started their day off with a strawberry stain down the front of their shirt... oops!

Homemade Jelly Doughnuts - what could be better?

So, having made my own doughnuts from scratch, crullers are still my favourite, though the other ones are way better than store bought.  I can also say that I will certianly be making these again - to fill a request from my nephew in California.  He spent many mornings going for "doughjeez" with his grandpa when he lived in Canada, and he is bona-fide doughnut lover.  Unfortunately, we recently discovered he has a severe allergy to soy, and Sis has yet to find a doughnut they can buy down there that is soy-free.  So I'll happily cook up a fresh batch for him at Christmas.  After all, one of my favourite things about cooking and baking is making someone's day by making their favouite treat - especially if they are otherwise deprived of it.

Sweet, warm & waiting to be devoured....

Happy doughnut making!

Yeast Doughnuts
Recipe courtesy Alton Brown
Makes 20 to 25 doughnuts

360 1 1/2 cups milk
2 1/2 ounces vegetable shortening, approximately 1/3 cup
2 packages instant yeast
1/3 cup warm water (95 to 105 degrees F)
2 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
23 ounces all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting surface
Vegetable oil, for frying (1 to 1/2 gallons, depending on fryer)

Directions:
Place the milk in a medium saucepan and heat over medium heat just until warm enough to melt the shortening. Place the shortening in a bowl and pour warmed milk over. Set aside.

In a small bowl, sprinkle the yeast over the warm water and let dissolve for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, pour the yeast mixture into the large bowl of a stand mixer and add the milk and shortening mixture, first making sure the milk and shortening mixture has cooled to lukewarm. Add the eggs, sugar, salt, nutmeg, and half of the flour. Using the paddle attachment, combine the ingredients on low speed until flour is incorporated and then turn the speed up to medium and beat until well combined. Add the remaining flour, combining on low speed at first, and then increase the speed to medium and beat well. Change to the dough hook attachment of the mixer and beat on medium speed until the dough pulls away from the bowl and becomes smooth, approximately 3 to 4 minutes. Transfer to a well-oiled bowl, cover, and let rise for 1 hour or until doubled in size.

On a well-floured surface, roll out dough to 3/8-inch thick. Cut out dough using a 2 1/2-inch doughnut cutter or pastry ring and using a 7/8-inch ring for the center whole. Set on floured baking sheet, cover lightly with a tea towel, and let rise for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oil in a deep fryer or Dutch oven to 365 degrees F. Gently place the doughnuts into the oil, 3 to 4 at a time. Cook for 1 minute per side. Transfer to a cooling rack placed in baking pan. Allow to cool for 15 to 20 minutes prior to glazing, if desired.

Pâte à Choux
makes approximately 12 French Crullers

125 ml milk
125 ml water
125g unsalted butter
4g salt
140g all-purpose flour
4 large eggs (at room temperature)

Place the milk, water and butter into a small saucepan and heat over medium heat. Once the butter has completely melted, add in the flour and stir vigorously, scraping the bottom of the pan, until the dough is well mixed and resembles the texture of wet sand.
Place the dough into the bowl of a food processor (or stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment). Turn the food processor on to cool the mixture for a couple of minutes. With the processor running, add the eggs, one at a time, through the feed tube. Scrape down the bowl if necessary, and continue to process until the dough becomes thick and glossy.
Scrape the dough into a pastry bag fitted with a large star tip.  Gently pipe large circles of dough onto a sheet of parchment paper sprinkled generously with flour.
Preheat the oil in a deep fryer or Dutch oven to 365˚F. Gently place the doughnuts into the oil, 2 or 3 at a time.  Cook for about 1 minute per side.  Remove from oil and place onto a cooling rack.  Allow them to cool slightly before dipping in glaze or dipping in sugar.

The incredible exploding doughnut

Vanilla Bean Glaze
60ml (1/4 Cup) heavy cream
1 Tbsp vanilla bean paste (or you can substitute with vanilla extract)
205g (1 1/2 Cups) confectioner's sugar

In a medium bowl, combine the cream and vanilla.  Gently whisk in one third of the confectioners sugar until well blended.  Gradually blend in the rest of the confectioners sugar, 1/3 at a time, whisking until smooth.

Dip the warm doughnuts into the glaze, and coat completely.  Lift the doughnut out of the glaze by threading a skewer, dowell or the handle of a wooden spoon through the hole of the doughnut.  Suspend the doughnuts over the bowl for a couple of minutes to allow the excess glaze to drip off.  Transfer the glazed doughnuts to a plate, platter or tray.  Serve immediately.

Give 'em a dip in some Vanilla Bean Glaze

Almost ready to eat.....!