The past couple of Sugar High Fridays have gotten past me. I had every intention of participating in this month's edition, hosted by Zarah Maria of Food and Thoughts, but never really gave much thought to what I would make... until it almost got by me again! This month's theme is "Spice Up our Winter," with the condition that either (or all!) nutmeg, cardamom, or allspice be the featured ingredient. During last weekend's cookie baking extravaganza, Kevin and I just so happened to have made something that fit the bill perfectly -- and it was completely unintentional! Cardamom is a spice that Kevin and I both love, and we made Arabic shortbread cookies from allrecipes.com. We chose this recipe for its simplicity and short ingredient list (and copious amounts of cardamom!), but it wasn't until the next day that I realized it was the perfect entry for Sugar High Friday! PLEASE don't ask me to pronounce this, but these cookies are called...
1. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C).
2. In a medium bowl, stir together the butter and sugar until smooth. Stir in flour and cardamom until well blended. Pinch off tablespoonfuls of dough, and roll into a thin rope. Join the ends together in a circle, and place on a greased cookie sheet. Place almond halves on the joints where the circles come together.
3. Bake for 20 minutes in the preheated oven. The cookies should remain white, but may turn golden at the very edge.
After mixing the first batch, we tasted the dough and decided more cardamom was in order. We added another 1/2 teaspoon and deemed it good. We divided the dough into 24 pieces, rolled them into ropes, and formed rings from the ropes. The first 12 we baked off spread quite a bit, and looked a lot like doughnuts when they came out of the oven! We chilled the rest before baking, and they came out great, as you can see above. Then we made a second batch!
I think the recipe intends for the almonds to be skinless, and I know it wants us to use halves, but we were a bit lazy and used whole almonds with their skins. I'm sure it's an aesthetic thing... but I like ours anyway. =) They're tender, buttery, and spicy. In fact, I think Kev and I could have used even another half teaspoon of cardamom and been pretty happy!
Does anyone else sometimes think that Alton Brown has just a tiny bit too much time on his hands? Now, you all know how much respect and admiration I have for the man, but last night, on the "A Cake on Every Plate" episode of Good Eats, he was wearing a perfectly tailored aluminum foil suit! =)
This New England bread has a story behind its name.
A New England farmer had a lazy wife named Anna who would serve him the same tiresome dish of cornmeal porridge every day. One day he became disgusted and decided to take matters into his own hands. He began adding whatever he could find in the kitchen to his porridge: some flour, some mead, and some molasses. He then shaped it into a loaf and threw it on the fire. When he finally tasted his creation he decided he could easily get through life without his good-for-nothing wife, and exclaimed, "Anna, damn her!"
It shouldn't come as any great surprise to anyone who knows me and/or reads this blog that this is one of my favorite breads -- one of its star ingredients is, of course, cornmeal! And really, what's wrong with a loaf of bread sweetened with a good, healthy dose of molasses?
I have a few different recipes for this bread between my many bread books. I didn't make Tony's version today, though, because it calls for lemon juice, and I am fresh out. Instead, I turned to Beth Hensperger's "The Pleasure of Whole-Grain Breads." I actually don't use this book very often because a lot of the recipes call for ingredients I just don't keep around... but today, Beth came through for me. Here's her recipe for...
Bread Machine Whole-Wheat New England Anadama Bread makes 1 1-1/2 pound loaf
Ingredients:
1-1/4 cups water
1/4 cup molasses
1-1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
2 cups bread flour
1 cup whole-wheat flour
1/3 cup medium-grind yellow cornmeal
4 teaspoons vital wheat gluten
1 teaspoon salt
1-3/4 teaspoons bread machine yeast
1. Place all of the ingredients in the pan according ot the manufacturer's instructions. Set crust on medium and program for the basic or whole-wheat cycle; press start.
2. After the baking cycle ends, remove the bread from the pan and place on a rack to cool to room temperature.
The only major change I made was with the flour: I used one cup unbleached white bread flour, one cup whole-wheat bread flour, and one cup stoneground whole-wheat flour. I also used 2 teaspoons of yeast, because I had active dry and not bread machine yeast. And, as always, I baked it in the oven instead of in my machine... at 350 for about 45 minutes.
This is a wonderful, soft, slightly sweet bread with a great texture (gotta love that cornmeal!). It works well for both sweet and savory sandwiches -- my favorites being pb& j and grilled cheese! It also makes fabulous toast. Breakfast tomorrow will be a couple slices of this, toasted, and topped with European-style butter and plum jam. Mmmmmm... plum jam...
On the 1st Day of Cookies, Food Network Gave to Me...
... nothing.
On the 2nd Day of Cookies, Food Network gave to me...
... nothing.
On the 3rd Day of Cookies, Food Network gave to me...
... nothing.
Do you see where I'm going with this one? I signed up for Food TV's "Twelve Days of Cookies" newsletter a couple weeks ago, as I have for the past several years, but something's different this year. As in, I'm not getting the e-mail. So I'm sending out this somewhat pathetic cry for help: is there anyone out there who is getting the newletters, and would be willing to forward them to me? I would so greatly appreciate it, and would gladly return the favor somehow, someday. I'm going to try to sign up again, and see if they start coming, but I think I've missed at least half already. I have three years' worth of cookie recipes so far and would hate for my collection to be incomplete! Thanks! =)
1 Chilly New England Night (snow optional)
2 Mugs Hot Spiced Apple Cider
1 Bowl Roasted Chestnuts* 1 Roaring Fire (in the fireplace, of course!)
1 Big Comfy Couch
2 Good Books
Combine ingredients with one cuddly boyfriend and enjoy.
*Roasted Chestnuts:
I spent quite a bit of time researching this process last winter, and found lots of different methods, from painfully simple to exceedingly complicated. I chose the simplest "recipe" I could find, and simplified it even more: buy the fattest, heaviest chestnuts you can find (so you know they're good!). I found some amazingly beautiful ones at Wild Oats in Portland last week. Score an "X" in the shell of each nut, making sure to get all the way through the shell. I use a utility knife with a blade you can lock into several positions, extended only about 1/4". The shells get cut through, but the meat barely gets touched. Place scored chestnuts in a roasting pan, and roast at about 450 (yes, I use the oven, not the over-cliched open fire...) until the shells burst open and "smile" at you. If you're really lucky, the exposed nutmeat will be a bit charred and caramelized. Yum! These are especially good when they fill your coat pockets on a cool, rainy spring day in Paris, and you pop them one at a time as you wander the streets of the city... or eaten from a paper cone on Rome's Spanish steps on a sunny Easter morning after attending the Pope's outdoor mass at St. Peter's... but a bowl on the coffee table on a cold, wintry night is pretty sweet, too.
