Fresh Ginger and Chocolate Gingerbread

Wow! I can't believe it- I am actually posting this on Tuesday, just like I am supposed to! Can't say it will happen again, but once is better than nothing. In any case, the recipe for this week on TWD was a Fresh Ginger and Chocolate Gingerbread, chosen by Heather of Sherry Trifle . Great choice Heather! Easy to make once you get all the ingredients gathered up. The smell as it was baking was lucious. I made it first thing in the morning before going off to work and when I came home I frosted it. Tomorrow I will be going to visit my daughter in the army, so of course, the gingerbread is coming with me! We are all fond lovers of anything ginger so I'm sure this will be a hit.


Valentine's Day is approaching, as well as my husband's b-day on the 7th. I'm going to cheat a bit and move around some of this month's choices, since the Devil's Food White Out Cake is just too perfect for his birthday.
I've also been busy starting to bake and decorate cookies for Valentine's Day. How can you pass that holiday without a yummy heart-shaped and decorated sugar cookie?! Pictures of the cookies to follow.

Alfajores

I have been buying these amazing South American "dulche de leche" cookies for years. I finally decided it was time to try them myself. After much searching and tasting (!) I found the recipe that is the taste of the real thing. I started baking these cookies for my daughter to take back to the army with her and it has now become a weekly request from all the girls in her unit. I am thrilled to be able to make their days sweeter as they go through basic training and I just enjoy making them!
The dough can be a bit crumbly, but just persevere. The cookie gets its creamy texture from the large amount of cornflour in the dough and that is what also make it drier in the working stages. I promise-if you persevere, it all works out and the results are heavenly. These cookies have been called "day after" cookies by some, since they need to sit overnight to come to their true texture and flavor. They store wonderfully for a week in a covered container( if they last that long!). I have suggested these cookies for the February Cookie Carnival - keep posted to that site if indeed they are the choice. In any case, I highly recommend trying them- they will surely become a favorite.

Alfajores
adapted from a recipe by Carin Goren
Ingredients for the cookie
200 grams soft unsalted butter
200 grams powdered sugar
3 egg yolks
1/2 package instant vanilla pudding ( 40 grams)
200 grams cornflour
200 grams all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Filling-Dulce de leche ( easier to buy it, though it's not hard to make it on your own)
Coating- flaked coconut

Cream butter and confectioer's sugar in mixer with the paddle attachment until it is smooth and airy. Add the yolks and mix in until incorporated. Sift all remaing ingredients together and and to the mix. MIx only unitl combined. Gather the dough together and form a ball, then pat into a large flat oval shape. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for 2 hours.
Heat oven to 350 F. ( 170 C).
Roll dough to a thickness of about 1/2 cm. They should be fairly thick- they puff up in the oven , then shrink a bit after. Cut out circles af approx. 5 cm in diameter. A small to medium size round cookie cutter will do the trick. Transfer the cookies to a parchment lined baking sheet and bake 10-12 minutes, unitl the cookies just begin a slightly golden color. Do not overbake them. THey need to be light colored on top. Let rest for a few minutes on the baking tray , then transfer them to racks to cool completely.
Spread a teaspoon or so of dulche de leche on the flat side of one cookie ( you can be generous- they should be loaded with the cream, so it queezes out the sides). Cover with another cookie- flat side in to form a sandwich. I like to use a spreading knife to smooth the oozing cream around the edges, then roll the cookies in coconut flakes. They look great and taste even better!

I won!

How exciting! I won the December Cookie Carnival contest! Just the recognition was a joy and I enjoy decorating cookies so much, it's nice to be noticed.

While I'm on the subject, here are a few random pics of cookies I've decorated in the past.

little bear

basketballs

baby shower basket

duckies

I've missed a few weeks baking on Tuesdays with Dorie. I sometimes find it hard to post on Tuesdays , but I promise I will get back into the swing of things. Actually I did make last week's French Pear Tart. It was very rich but very yummie. Easy to make and lovely to serve. The recipe can be found on pages 368-369 in Dorie's book "Baking". Next week's choice is again something I will bow out of- "Savory Corn and Pepper Muffins". I love to try new things, even when I'm not sure anyone will like them, but this - I know no one in my immediate vicinity will even be interested in.
Until next time.....

No pudding , no cheesecake

Puddings are not my thing- and besides, I have no one at home to even taste it ( the butterscotch pudding for Tuesdays with Dorie), and hence, my skipping a week's entry. As far as this week's recipe for cheesecake, we shall see. In our house, cheesecake is more of a warm weather dessert, especially around the Jewish holiday of Shavuot where cheese is the main ingredient in all dishes. That holiday doesn't happen until the beginning of summer, so I might just wait with that and substitute something else.

All said, that doesn't mean I haven't been busy cooking and baking! I attended a wonderful class this past week on breads and soups- how fun!! We made five different kinds of bread and 4 soups. I , of course, came home and had to try things out right away so I decided to go for two breads- one an antipasti bread and the other- lemon rolls( very interesting taste). I also made tomato soup with rice and nana( mint leaves)- yum yum!!

Unfortunately, everyone dove into the food before I had a chance to take a photo of it all- sorry about that- next time! But the recipes are here if you care to try- definitely worth it!



Antipasti Bread(makes 2 loaves)

Ingredients



1/2 kilo bread flour

15 grams dry yeast

360 ml. body temperature water( not too warm not too cold)

handful of fresh basil leaves chopped

30 grams sugar

10 grams salt

50 grams parmesean cheese, grated ( can be fresh or Kraft)

1 zucchini, 1 eggplant, 1 red pepper, lightly grilled



1. Put all ingredients except veggies into mixing bowl . Mix thoroughly and knead into a smooth dough, at least 10 minutes in a stand mixer using the dough hook

2. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise until doubled in size.

3. Pre heat oven to 200 degrees C. ( about 190 F.)

4. Divide the dough into 2 and roll each half out into a rectangle. Don 't knead the dough too uch or it will become elastic and difficult to work with.

5. Lay pieces of the grilled veggies on the rectangle and tightly roll in to an oval shape. Place on parchment covered baking sheet, cover with palstic wrap and let rise again until doubled.

6. For a crispy crust, roll in a bit of cornmeal before the second rise.

7. Dust the surfae with flour and make diagonal cuts with a sharp knife or blade. Bake at 230 C. for 15 min. then lower temperature to 200 C.

8. Cool on a rack before cutting.



Back with more later!!

Buttery Jam Cookies

This week's recipe for Tuesdays With Dorie was a Buttery Jam cookie. The recipe called for apricot jam, but also mentioned that any other flavor of a thicker jam would be fine. I am an absolute addict of anything raspberry and I "just happened" to have some raspberry jam in the fridge(!) so I used that in the recipe. Hard to see in the pictures, but it gave the dough a very light pink tone and they came out really delicious! I am definitely going to try these again with other jam flavors. The cookie is soft, but not too soft and full of flavor . They were very easy to make and I threw them together in just a few minutes. That , for me, is a definite advantage!

Holiday time is just around the corner and I am off on vacation for two weeks beginning this Friday( yeah !!!!) I'm a teacher and this is a very needed break- the burn-out is a major factor in this profession. Here in Israel, we are getting ready for Hanukah and the kiosks and bakeries are filled with sufganiyot ( jelly-filled donuts). These days you can find them filled with everything from jelly, to chocolate to dulce de leche. All are yummy good- though they need to be eaten fresh- nothing worse than getting a cold, stale sufganiya!! I used to make them at home, but it requires deep frying and to be honest, the bakeries do so well, I can't be bothered with the deep frying. One noted point- there are enough calories in one sufganiya to cover an entire day's menu!! Happy Holidays to all!

Decorated cookies

These are the decorated versions of the sugar cookies. I had so much fun doing them. Between the two batches , chocolate and vanilla, I got over sixty medium sized cookies and another forty tiny sized.

Santa Claus is coming to town!

I packaged them in small cellophane bags. Tomorrow night , they will be handed out at our staff holiday party. Happy Holidays to all!

Grandma's All Occasion Sugar Cookies

This was a fun week for me ( other than the fact that I have been struggling with this post for over an hour now ). I so love decorating cookies and this was the perfect opportunity for me. I am always looking for excuses to decorate and make cookie bouquets and treats.

First I tried the recipe in the book "Baking:From My House to Yours" by Dorie Greenspan. The cookies came out tasty enough but I wasn't too thrilled with the texture. Too soft for me- I like a crunchier sugar cookie- just my personal preference. I have dozens of sugar cookie recipes as I continue to search for the ultimate recipe that suits me. As I continued to look , I came across two more of Dorie's recipes, one for chocolate roll-out cookies and one for vanilla both on Epicurious.com.

I really enjoyed working with the dough and the cookies are delicious. Then the real fun part came ( actually I am still in the middle of the whole project, but I took some pics of the first ones to be finished)- the decorating. I use a combination of my own ideas and pictures from books and online. The trick is getting the frosting just right. This time I used both rolled fondant and a glace icing from a recipe by Toba Garrett. This is the recipe she uses on most of her amazing creations in her book Creative Cookies.

Glace Icing by Toba Garrett

1 lb. (454 gr.) confectioners' sugar

3/8 c. (90 ml.) milk

3/8 c (4.5 oz. or 126 gr.) light corn syrup

Flavor options: 1 tsp. concentrated extract, 1 Tbsp. alcohol or liquer, or 2-3 drops concentrated candy oil
In a mixing bowl, thoroughly mix the sugar and the milk first. The icing should be very soft and have a heavy-cream texture before you add the corn syrup. Add the corn syrup and mix just until combined. Divide the icing into several bowls. Flavor if you if you want. Add gel food coloring as desired to each bowl. Make sure you cover the bowls with plastic wrap to keep the icing from drying out.You can add more confectioners sugar as need to make the icing thicker.

Lots more baking has been going on in this house since my daughter is coming home from the army for the weekend and I want to spoil her with all kinds of goodies. Made some of her favorites like Half-Moon cookies ( or black and white, depending on where you come from) and alfajores.

That's about it for now! Back to cookie decorating!

The Finished Product

Here it is- very easy and very yummy. We now have kumquat jam/marmalade for a while to come. Hubby tried mixing it in with yogurt and granola- said it was delish! Personally, I just like it on a crispy piece of toast.

I have sooooo many recipes that I want to try but I find I am now spending more time on the computer than in the kitchen baking. So... I have made a pact with myself-I'm going to work on all the recipes I have already before I go to the hundreds of others I find online. I will post what is worth posting and throw away the others. We'll see if the theory and reality become one!

Kumquats and other stuff

mmmmm... the smell of kumquats cooking on the stove getting ready to make jam. my husband and i were out walking last night and came across a kumquat tree just dripping with fruit. we stuffed our pockets ( i love the smell it leaves on my hands) and came home to look for a good recipe for kumquat jam. interesting note- in hebrew they are called "tapuz seenee" which means chinese oranges. i love to eat them just as they are but the smell of them cooking is so amazing as it filters through the house. The recipe I found which is simple and straightforward is from

www.recipezaar.com/Kumquat-Marmalade-271451. Right now I am in the second stage, which is after letting them sit all night in water and finished boiling them until tender. They are now cooling and I will wait until tonite to do the final stage although the recipe says the next day. I think the entire day will be enough.

in the meantime , we are off to cycle to the beach for a lovely saturday morning
brunch. the winter simply doesn't want to appear here in israel. more to come..........

TWD Linzer Sables

I went cookie crazy today! My daughter came home after her first week in the Israeli army and I decided to totally go all out with baking and cooking. I used the opportunity to make this coming week's TWD recipe for Linzer Sables. I have made these cookies before but the dough was quite different- more of a butter cookie. They were easy enough to make and came out quite good, although I think I and the othermembers of the household prefer the dough without the ground nuts. That's just a personal preference. I filled them with raspberry jam which is one of my favorite things i the world ,so anytime I have a chance to use it in a recipe or just eat it- is fine with me!
I also made a batch of chocolate chip cookies and oatmeal cookies which have been a favortie around this house since the girls were young. I added a few peanut butter chips as well- couldn't hurt huh?
I spent the whole day making a big dinner so she could have some good home-cooked food after a week living in a tent with 16 other girls ( with a hole in the roof of the tent I might add- and it rained too!!) Dinner went like this: salad, homemade chopped liver, a yummy, thick pea soup, roasted chicken with whole garlic cloves and a sauce made with maple syrup(mmmmm!), zucchini with chunked tomates and a wonderful risotto I tried for the first time. It turned out so good and I can tell it will become a favorite around here. I took the recipe from Recipe Zaar for a classic risotto.
Dessert was a plateful of all the cookies and a quick pumpkin cheesecake I threw together ( at the request of my eldest daughter) using the last bit of pumpkin I had. ( canned pumpkin is a real rarity here in Israel, so when I find it I buy a few cans to have around but boy is it expensive!!!) The cake went home with her since it is a disaster for me to have those things around the house.
Now, I will never receive a prize for being a quiet , demure person, or one who holds her thoughts to herself. It usually gets me in a bit of trouble but as the years pass, I am learning to think before I speak and keep certain thoughts to myself. In this case I may be saying something that many people don't agree with, but I have to say it anyway. I waited for the book " Baking, from my house to yours" for a long time, since it came from overseas. After reading the blogs of people who participate in Tuesdays with Dorie, I was very anxious to begin. I have now baked a month's worth of recipes and I am very disappointed. None of the recipes have been anything to speak of; some things didn't turn out as they were supposed to and others- well, I just hope that maybe it was the specific recipes that were chosen and I have better ones to look forward to.
In any case - I just keep on baking, and chalk it up to a learning experience.