Cookies... and Then Some

So the format for this is going to be a little different. There are a series of recipes here and this post would end up being much too long to want to look at. So, I'm going to simply post the recipe (with any additional notes) and add some photos of the items along the way. The first recipe to tackle: eggnog truffles. Yeah.


Eggnog Truffles
8 Oz. of Premium White Chocolate
1/2 Cp. Sifted Powdered Sugar
1/4 Cp. Butter, Softened
1/4 Cp. Refrigerated Eggnog
2 Tbsp Dark Rum
1/4 Tsp. Ground Nutmeg
1/2 Cp. Finely Chopped Pecans, Toasted

Melt the white chocolate in a glass bowl as per the instructions. Add the powdered sugar, butter and eggnog; stir gently until the mixture is smooth. Next, add the rum and the nutmeg; stirring until blended (*I don't like rum so I substituted the rum for 1 Tsp Rum Extract and then 1 and 1/2 Tbsp Vanilla Extract. This is just a preference type of thing.) Cover and freeze at least two hours.

My Toasted Pecans

Freshly Pecan Rolled Truffles

If necessary, let truffle mixture stand at room temperature to soften. Using two small spoons shape the mixture into 1" balls. Quickly roll the balls in the toasted pecans and then place them on a wax paper-lined pan, cover and freeze until firm.

Eggnog-Ganache Covered Strawberries

Road 1: This is where I really veered away from the recipe, which calls for a vanilla bark coating. Instead, I chose to make a chocolate-eggnog ganache. (I am not posting the recipe for that here. If you'd like to make your own either contact me or just reference the ganache recipe posted earlier in this blog substituting a good portion of eggnog for the heavy cream and adjusting your additives. I didn't add Curacao. But that's another story...) If you choose to go this way: Keep the eggnog ganache warm and "liquidy" enough to dip the truffles in. My truffles were a mixture of half covered and completely doused. The rest of the ganache I kept out to dip strawberries in as well as half-dip a portion of my oatmeal-honey cookies in.   

Road 2: However, if you would like to use a vanilla bark coating you will need 6 Oz. Vanilla Bark Coating added to the top of your recipe list. Melt the bark coating according to the package directions, and, using two forks dip your truffles into the melted coating.

Either road you took: Place the dipped truffles on wax paper to harden. You can store the truffles in the freezer up to one week. Yield: 2 dozen.

Eggnog Truffles

 Cassata Swirl Cookies
 1/2 Cp. Butter; Softened
3/4 C. Sugar
1 Lg. Egg
1 Tsp. Vanilla Extract
1 1/2 Cp. All-Purpose Flour
1/4 Tsp. Baking Powder
1/4 Tsp. Salt
1/4 Tsp. Ground Cinnamon
1/3 Cp. Finely Chopped Fresh Cranberries
1/2 Cp. Ground Walnuts
1/2 Cp. Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips, Finely Chopped
1 Tbsp. Grated Orange Rind

Beat butter and sugar at a medium speed with a mixer until light and fluffy.

Cranberry Concoction

Add eggs and vanilla, beating until blended. Gradually add the flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon, beating until blended. Cover and chill dough one hour.

In a separate bowl, combine cranberries, walnuts, chocolate and orange rind. (For my orange rind I grated it fresh then stuck it in the oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit with a cinnamon and sugar mixture sprinkled in to candy them up a little. This isn't necessary, though.)

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface, rolling it into a roughly a 10" square. Sprinkle the Cranberry Mixture evenly onto the dough, leaving about a 1/2" border on two opposite sides.

From Jellyroll to Cookie

Roll up the dough, jellyroll fashion, beginning at a bordered side. Cover and freeze for eight hours.

Cut roll into 1/4" thick slices and place on lightly greased baking sheets.

Bake on top oven rack at 375 for 14 to 15 minutes or until lightly browned. Yield: 3 Dozen.




Swedish Cookies with Lemon-Almond Royal Icing
1 Cp. Butter, softened
1 Cp. Sugar
1/2 Tsp. Vanilla Extract
1/2 Cp. and 2 Tbsp. Sour Cream
2 1/2 Cp. All-Purpose Flour
1/4 Tsp. Salt
1 Cp. Sifted Powdered Sugar 

Cream butter in a mixing bowl; gradually adding your sugar, beating until light and fluffy. Add Vanilla and Sour Cream, mixing well.

Combine flour and salt; fold into creamed mixture. Cover dough and chill several hours or overnight.

Working with small portions of dough at a time, roll to 1/4" thickness on lightly floured surface. Cut with cookie cutters and place at least 1" apart on a lightly greased baking pan.

Cookie Dough Topped Pecans

Bake at 350 for 8 to 10 minutes, place on wire racks to cool and ice to your desire (my icing recipe will be later.)

Dough Leaves ready to bake off

(*I used this dough to mold leaves for display around cakes. To do this, cut out a leaf pattern from the dough and place them on rolled up tin foil to create different shapes and effects. I also covered the tops of some pecans to use in displays... and then eat.)



Honey-Oatmeal Cookies
1 Cp. Butter, Softened
1 Cp. Sugar
1/4 Cp. Honey
2 Eggs
1/2 Cp. Sour Cream
2 Cp. All-Purpose Flour
1 Tsp. Baking Soda
1 Tsp. Salt
1 Tsp. Ground Cinnamon
1 Tsp. Ground Ginger
1 Tsp. Ground Nutmeg
1/2 Tsp. Ground Cloves
3 Cp. Quick-Cooking Oats, Uncooked
1 Cp. Chopped Dates (if desired)

Cream butter and gradually add the sugar and honey, beating until light and fluffy. Add eggs; beat well. Stir in sour cream, blending well.

Combine flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and cloves in a medium mixing bowl; add to creamed mixture. Stir in oats and dates, mixing well.


Drop dough by teaspoonfuls 2" apart onto a lightly greased baking sheet. Bake at 375 for 10 to 12 minutes. Yield: 8 Dozen.

(*A portion of these cookies I dipped in the eggnog-ganache mentioned earlier, the rest I left plain.)

Old-Fashioned Christmas Cookies with Royal Icing
1 Cp. Butter, Softened
2 Cp. Sugar
1/4 Cp. Brown Sugar, Firmly Packed
2 Eggs
1 Tbsp. Honey
1/4 Cp. and 2 Tbsp. Milk (I used Eggnog here as well)
2 Tsp. Vanilla Extract
4 Cp. All-Purpose Flour
2 Tsp Baking Powder
1/2 Tsp. Salt
1/2 Tsp. Cinnamon

Cream butter. Add sugar, honey and eggs, beating well. Stir in milk and vanilla.

Combine flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt and then add to the creamed mixture; mixing well. Chill.

Roll out dough on a lightly floured surface to about a 1/8" thickness. Cut with assorted cookie cutters and place 2" apart on a lightly greased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 for 10 to 12 minutes. Yield: 5 Dozen.


Royal Icing
2 Large Egg Whites
2 Tsp. Fresh Lemon Juice
3 Cp. Powdered Sugar, Sifted




In electric mixer, beat the egg whites with the lemon juice. Add the sugar and beat on a low speed until smooth.

(*I split half of this icing batch up. For the first half I added a little bit of vanilla extract and used this to ice the old-fashioned christmas cookies. For the second half of this icing batch I added almond extract and lemon extract to taste. I made a third batch of this same basic royal icing and added pumpkin and vanilla extract along with some brown sugar for my pumpkin bread. Adding more or less powdered sugar for the desired consistency.)

Starting at the top and moving clockwise: Eggnog Truffles w/ Eggnog-Ganache dipped Strawberries, Swedish Leaf Cookies, Cassata Swirl Cookies, Honey-Oatmeal Cookies(plain and dipped in ganache,) Old-Fashioned Christmas Cookies with Royal Icing

Pumpkin Bread with Royal Icing, Swedish Leaf Cookies and Cookie-Coated Pecans

I was mostly focusing on the versatility of cookies with this post, which is why I'm not including my recipe for the pumpkin bread shown (this one is pretty standard.) I included the bread in the display with the cookies because it offers an opportunity for not only showcasing the Swedish leaf/pecan cookies but it also completes a nice flavor tie-in with the added touches to the plain royal icing. The Cassata Swirl cookies are definitely my favorite; I'm working on a candied orange and ricotta frosting for them. If I come up with a good one I'll definitely post it.

How to Make Simple Syrup, Hazelnut Paste & A Decadent Hazelnut-Ganache Cake

In order to make Hazelnut Paste you'll first need Simple Syrup. Typically, Simple Syrup is just "sugar water". It's usually made by boiling two parts sugar to one part water and then letting it cool and using it as a flavoring in alcoholic or coffee drinks, soaking baked goods in it and it's even the basis for making rock candy. What I love about Simple Syrup is that it's not only insanely easy to make on its own but also because from this basic idea you can make your own flavored syrups for coffee or alcoholic drinks (Vanilla Extract = Vanilla Syrup, Mint Extract = Mint Syrup, Almond Extract = Almond Syrup, etc.) you just have to add a capful or two to the simple syrup and you're done. However, for the purpose of making Hazelnut Paste (and in many other baked items) the Simple Syrup I'll be making today has the addition of Corn Syrup in it to create increased thickness to the batch (it's a paste, remember?) Another example of adding thickness to Simple Syrup would be using it as a frosting-like coating on pastries (we cover danish with it at the bakery.) So, to start out with:

• 2 Cups Water
• 1 Cup Sugar
• 1/2 Cup Light Corn Syrup

 Basically, all you need to do is add all of your ingredients into a pot and bring it to a boil for a few seconds and then let it cool. It's that simple (no pun intended.)



Now, while that's cooling I'm going to prep the hazelnuts to be used in the paste. Unless you have pre-naked hazelnuts you'll need to skin them. To do this: preheat your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit and then toast an even layer of hazelnuts in the oven for about ten minutes. The recipe for Hazelnut Paste calls for 8 oz. hazelnuts but I recommend toasting a little more than that in case some come out burnt or you have trouble getting the skins off of some of them.

After you've taken them out of the oven let them cool and then you can either rub them between your hands or in between a towel to get the skins off. This method will not allow you to fully get the skins off, which is okay as long as you're okay with some skin in your paste. I wanted them as clean as possible so after skinning them as much as I could with my hands I took a paring knife and cleaned them up even more, but again, this is NOT something that has to be done.

Now we are ready to make Hazelnut Paste. You'll need:

• 8 Oz. Hazelnuts (this is best weighed out instead of using a measuring cup)
• 1/3 Cup Simple Syrup

Throw the hazelnuts and the simple syrup into a food processor and blend it together until it becomes a thick paste, periodically taking time to stop it and scrape the sides and the blades down so that the paste is as uniform as possible. No matter how long I blended, the paste kept a "nutty" consistency (akin to natural peanut butter) so I just went with it.

Now you have Hazelnut Paste! I wanted to try and make a cake with it so I decided to apply the same basic recipe for this as I used with the Frangipane in an earlier post, only this time I used more paste than I did previously.
To reiterate, you will need:

• 5 Oz. Hazelnut Paste
• 2 TBSP Sugar
• 2 TBSP & 3/4 TSP Flour
• 2 Oz. Room Temperature Salted Butter
• 2 Room Temperature Eggs
• 1 TBSP Vanilla Extract
• 1 TSP Maple Extract

*As a note, when I say "room temperature" I mean about 70 degrees Fahrenheit.

 As with the Frangipane recipe, cream together your paste, sugar and flour. After this has come together nicely add your butter (while the mixer is still on) and cream together. In a separate bowl put your eggs and extracts together and add the eggs individually while the mixer is still running (waiting to add the second one until the batter has already begun to absorb the first.) As the batter begins to thicken crank up the whipping speed of the machine until it's has a nice light and fluffy texture.

Next, I decided to go ahead and bake off the batter into a 6" round cake pan. I initially had the oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for ten minutes but since ovens vary so wildly the edges were baking too fast so I turned it down to 335 degrees and baked until the center stopped "wiggling" like jell-o and had a springy consistency.

I let it cool in the pan for about 5 minutes and then popped it out onto a plate to cool before cutting away the top and sides.

I had some Ganache left over from a previous batch so I used it to top the cake and then placed the whole plate into the fridge to cool and set for about half an hour to forty-five minutes.

 Once the Ganache was cool enough to set but still soft enough to mold I used a Pastry Comb to create a design (just make it up) and then sifted a mixture of cinnamon and cocoa powder over the entire thing. Now it's time to eat it.

Up & Coming

I'm going to try and make Hazelnut Paste.... When I'm not pulling double shifts. Someday. Soonish.  It's taken me forever to find straight up hazelnuts which I find weird and sad.

Amande du Jardin Cake

Today I'm combining a lot of the things that have been shown in previous entries to concoct a cake. I'm planning on making a two-layer 6" round Frangipan cake with a layer of Lemon Curd in the center and topped with a Lavender-Rose Buttercream, Toasted Almonds and Lemon Zest.

It's been nine days since I began the lavender-rose extract. It's now time to pour the mixture through a sieve to separate the extract from the rose/lavender. I did this process about three times. Discard the leaves and bottle the extract to use any time you want it. I'm planning on adding some of this extract to some butter cream I'm about to make.


 Buttercream (or Butter Cream) is basically just a type of icing used inside cakes, as a coating, as a decoration or all of the above. It's extremely versatile; some people use it on it's own or choose to flavor it using pretty much anything you can think of: jam, extract, coffee, etc. Buttercream can be made a number of different ways, the recipe I'm using today requires:

•  1 1/2 Cups Unsalted Butter
• 3/4 Cup Sugar
• 1 Cup Egg Whites

 There are always different methods for doing things but for mine I use softened butter and combine all the ingredients in a pot and heat it up on the stove until it's all melted together. I was taught to use my hand to stir the ingredients together (the hand replaces a candy thermometer for temp.) Basically, you keep it moving and when your hand begins to feel the temp getting hot enough that you're worried you'll burn yourself it's time to take it off. If this makes you uncomfortable please find and use another method.

Pour your liquid into your mixing bowl and start whipping it on a low setting (so it doesn't splash hot liquid all over you.) It will take awhile to come together so I will show you a series of photographs of it gradually becoming thicker until it fully forms.

As the liquid begins to thicken you can begin to crank up your whipping speed, eventually cranking it up on its highest setting to fully incorporate the ingredients and whip in air.

Another way of beginning to tell if it's coming together (other than visually of course) is by touch. Periodically touching the outside bottom of the mixing bowl you will feel the temperature not only dropping but actually getting cool. This is a good sign so just keep feeling the cooler it's getting.

Finally, you'll end up with something that looks pretty much like this. Use it as is or (as with everything else) put it in a covered bowl and refrigerate. Now, it's going to pretty much just taste like butter (hence the buttercream name) some people really like this, I'm not a HUGE fan and if I were I'd probably just eat a stick of butter. This is where you can add another flavoring (Raspberry Preserves? Vanilla Extract? Almond Extract?) I've taken this opportunity to put in 1 1/2 TBS of the Lavender-Rose Extract I just finished. I'm experimenting here so I'm going to see how the buttercream tastes on a cake.

Yesterday I made a second batch of Frangipane and baked off each batch in its own 6" round cake pan. I let them cool for quite awhile before preparing and stacking them.

I've decided to put a layer of Lemon Curd in between the two layers of Frangipan. After they are stacked and evened out I place it back in the fridge to cool and set before icing the entire cake.

Ice the entirety of the cake in the buttecream using a flat spatula to even out the layers as much as possible.

Next, I chose to toast some almond slices beforehand and toss them on at the bottom. Not only for a nice visual aspect but also for added texture and flavor.

I wasn't totally pleased with how the buttercream turned out, I think perhaps there are too many egg whites. There were issues with separation when I tried piping with it, which can sometimes be helped by re-heating the batch and then re-whipping it together but for a lighter touch I decided to make some whipped cream, adding a TSP of the lavender-rose extract.Then I piped 6 little rosettes with the whipped cream on top of the cake indicating each piece as well as one larger rosette in the center. I placed almonds in each rosette and then topped it all of with a slight sprinkling of lemon zest. Now, it's ready to eat!!

PS: It's delicious

Whippin' Up Some Frangipan

A great example of Frangipan -- Opera Bar: a frangipan base with a layer of coffee butter creme and topped with chocolate ganache (see earlier post for how to make ganache.)

Frangipane (pronounced Frahn-ja-pahn) is pretty much like marzipan's more delicious sister. It's made with sweet almonds as opposed to the bitter almonds that marzipan is made out of. Although there are a number of different definitions and recipes for frangipan, the one I'm using today is akin to an extremely light and fluffy batter that you can bake off as a filling for tarts or as a cake base on its own. It's extremely versatile in the kitchen, and, pretty much my favorite thing to eat ever. (But I'm a little biased because I loooooooove almonds.)

 This recipe will yield about 1 1/2 cups frangipan. Some of these measurements are a little inexact because I had to cut down this recipe from one that uses a pound almond paste, 4 oz. sugar, 5 oz. flour, 8 oz. butter, 6 eggs, 1/2 Tbsp Almond extract & 2 Tbsp Curacao or Triple Sec. Additionally, I'm used to using a balance beam scale for measuring out dry ingredients so converting them to cup/spoon measurements isn't always going to be the most exact. If you can, I recommend almost always weighing dry ingredients out (there are of course some exceptions.)

You Will Need:

• 4 oz. Almond Paste
• 1 oz. Sugar (or 2 Tbsps)
• 1 1/4 oz. Flour (or about 2 Tbsps and 3/4 Tsps)
• 2 oz. Room Temperature Salted Butter
• 2 Room Temperature Large Eggs
• 1/4 Tsp Almond Extract
• 1/2 Tbsp Curacao or Triple Sec

 




In a mixer, cream together your almond paste, sugar & flour on a low to low/medium setting.

While the mixer is still running, piece out your butter and toss it in (being careful to not get your hand close to the paddle in any way.) Cream together.

While your ingredients are mixing break your eggs into a side bowl and add your almond extract and curacao to the eggs.

While your mixer is still going add your eggs one at a time. Wait until the first egg is fairly blended until you add your second. Once the ingredients are sufficiently blended crank your mixer up to as high a setting as you're comfortable with. I set mine all the way up. Not only do you want any chunks to be fully incorporated but you want to whip as much air into the batter as possible to make it super fluffy. Keep it at this setting for a while, taking time to turn it off and check the batter.

 This will be a trial and error kind of thing. You'll eventually figure out the consistency you want, especially since it can vary upon your own personal taste.

It's always best to use the frangipan in whatever it is you're baking off immediately. That's its prime, but it's perfectly fine to throw it in tupperware and keep it in the fridge until you're ready to use it (although, when you are going to use it, take it out of the fridge and let it sit first. The closer it is to room temp. the better it will be.)
At the moment, I'm keeping mine in the fridge because I plan on using it to create a tart or a cake once my lavender-rose extract is ready (hopefully.) But if you plan on using yours immediately: frangipane rises once it's baked so if you don't want something super domed you'll want to level that sucker off. Bake it off around 325 degrees Fahrenheit (this will depend on your oven!) for about ten minutes or until it begins to brown a little around the edges. As with most things, the longer it bakes the harder it's going to be once it cools and frangipan is best when it's light and fluffy. We'll see how my tart/tartlets turn out in a few days, for now good luck with yours! Send pictures or suggestions of what you made if you can. Trading and promoting new ideas is the whole point!

Oh Gosh, it's Ganache

 Ganache is actually surprisingly easy to make. It can be a little time consuming (depending on what you deem as "time consuming,") but it's totally worth it since it's such a versatile baking tool. Basically, ganache is a mixture of chocolate and cream but its texture can change depending on the ratio of chocolate to cream that you use. A firmer ganache can be used as truffles and rolled in nuts, cocoa powder, powdered sugar... you name it. A softer ganache can be used as more of an icing to top cakes, ice cream, etc etc. At the pastry shop I work at we use a ganache that's sort of "in the middle." We use it as tart filling with raspberries, cake icing/filling, piping and a number of other things.

Now, a "good" ganache can be expensive to produce and use but luckily it keeps in the fridge pretty well and you can adjust portions to your own desired amount. It could just be a good excuse to give sweets to your friends or even people you just sort of like (if you're feeling really friendly that day.)

*And as a note: the higher the fat content on the chocolate you use the better the ganache is going to turn out so really try and crank up that sucker's fatty fat fat.

Now let's get started! What you'll need:

• 1/2 lb Semi-Sweet or Dark Chocolate
• 5 oz. Heavy Whipping Cream
• 1 oz. Room Temperature Salted Butter
• 1 Tbsp Vanilla Extract
• 1 Tbsp Curacao or Triple Sec
• Small Pot w/Lid
• Whisk

So, Start out with half a pound (or 8 oz.) of the chocolate you've chosen.

 Chop up the chocolate as finely as you can (don't go crazy overboard or anything, but you don't want thicker pieces that will be tricky to melt.) Be careful while doing this because the oils from the chocolate can cause the knife to slip fairly easily.

 Feel free to leave the chocolate on your cutting board, I just prefer to have something a little easier to handle, but either way cut your butter into pieces and throw it in with the chocolate because when it's time you'll be tossing both into your pot quickly and at the same time. But for now you can leave these to the side.

Now we are going to focus on the cream. You're going to want to stay on top of this because it's pretty much the only place you can go wrong. Pour your cream into your pot and set your burner's temp between med and high. You want the cream to start to boil and bubble. It'll form a skin which is okay because you aren't going to touch it, you're just going to watch it. Once the cream has begun to bubble (see pic to the right) you're going to throw in both your chocolate and your butter, take it off the heat, throw on the lid (make sure it's secure) and swish the contents together a few times so it's a little blended then just leave it there and don't touch it for about 15 to 25 minutes.

After you've let it sit long enough for the contents to melt together you can go back and take off the lid. It's going to look really "watery" and odd so don't let this appearance make you think you've messed up. Take a whisk and just stir the contents as long as it takes for the chocolate, butter and cream to all blend together. Now you can let it sit and cool for a little while longer because the next step will require the ganache to be hot enough to work with but cool enough to add more ingredients.

So, you've whisked it and let it sit. Now you can add a Tablespoon of Vanilla extract and a Tablespoon of Triple Sec for added flavor. If the ganache is really hot the alcohol on both of these will simply evaporate so you'll be canceling out the flavor you're trying to add. (If you want: start out with 1/2 Tablespoon for both and then flavor to your own taste depending on how sweet you want it.)

Experiment with your flavor additions as much as you want. I added a little almond extract to mine but you could pretty much add anything you want: candied orange peel, mint, toasted almond slices, caramel... it ends with your imagination.