RECIPE REVIEW: DECEMBER MISSION: GREENSPAN'S BLACK AND WHITE CHOCOLATE CAKE

greenspan's black and white chocolate cake: let's say it had potential but came short in delivery. i had to decorate with tons of white and dark chocolate shavings to distract people from the ugly sides of the cake
the dark and white chocolate mousse components taste great on their own. the dark mousse is like chocolate pudding and the white chocolate mousse is truly a soft whipped cream. here you can see the cake layers have compressed the mousses and were sliding around so that the layers were no longer centered.

I am disappointed with this particular recipe from Greenspan's Baking: From My Home to Yours. Everything else I have made by Greenspan has been so spectacular and yummy. Her cookie recipes were foolproof and delicious.

Let's just say yesterday was one of my more challenging days as an amateur baker. With the white chocolate mousse component curdling on me 3 times, I thought that I was going to ditch the component and replace it with my favourite white chocolate mousseline buttercream recipe. However, I persevered and stuck with Greenspan's recipe just so I could give it an honest chance.

i was worried about the cake not turning out so I made the barefoot contessa's chocolate cupcakes with a buttercream frosting

In the end, I don't think my perseverence was rewarded well enough. The flavour was okay but the appearance of the cake was not that impressive. Because of the softness of the white chocolate cream, it was almost impossible to frost the cake properly. Greenspan's illustration of the cake clearly indicated gorgeous even layers of thin cake and dark and white chocolate mousse. In my rendition of the cake I followed the recipe to the letter and it certainly didn't have the "wow" factor that the cookbook's illustration had.

we couldn't find a "0" to follow the "4"

A problem I discovered upon serving the cake was that the weight of the layers compressed the mousses so that they squished out the side of the cake, making the layers of mousse thinner than desired. This I hadn't expected. I also had to keep the cake quite cold or it would melt. This meant that the cake layers were not as good texturally. The cake component was okay; nothing comparable in flavour or texture to the cakes I've made from the Cake Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum. It was more dense than I would have liked, bordering on almost dry (but not quite).

here you can see the mousse layers. the white chocolate mousse layer in particular has been compressed by the weight and is too thin for my liking

The dark and white chocolate mousses tasted really good. However I felt the cake layers didn't complement them well. I would have liked a lighter crumb--kind of like more chiffon-like cake layers because of the need for refrigeration and the delicateness of the white chocolate cream.

When I served it to my friends, I had to apologize because I knew before we cut into it that it wasn't up to snuff. My usual cakes are moist and rely on Beranbaum's cake components. Her buttercreams are to die for and her cake recipes are foolproof and flavourful. She's my go to for cakes. My friends were polite and said it was good but N. was honest and said it wasn't as good as my previous cakes. She felt that the cake layers were almost too dry as well.

This is why from now on, I'll stick to my Beranbaum buttercreams. This way, when the cake layers come to room temperature (which is important for the best flavour and texture) the buttercream will still be looking good. I like the fact that I can rapidly create a flawless surface with buttercreams too.

The Verdict: I won't be making this cake again as it's not worth the amount of time and there's too much potential for failure. It's too finicky and the instructions for the white chocolate cream component were too general. I would have liked to know how long to whip the cream with the melted white chocolate. I would have liked to know what temperature exactly the white chocolate mixture should be before adding it in to the whipped cream. I shouldn't have had to research it online. As well, the results were so-so. It wasn't a total disaster but I had to work really long and hard to salvage this one.

The Lessons Learned:

Never add melted white chocolate to whipped cream to make a mousse without checking the exact temperature of the chocolate...no, no, touching it won't do--you need a thermometer!

Never add the dark chocolate cream component to a plain buttercream base in the hopes of recycling leftovers as it will curdle the whole batch of perfectly good buttercream. You can add leftover ganache to buttercream but you can't add a whipping cream-based mousse because of its higher water content.

Never try salvaging a curdled batch of chocolate mousse by melting it and refrigerating it because it's a waste of time and it'll curdle again anyway

Chocolate doesn't like whipping cream but it loves butter

Your friends will still love you even if you screw up a cake

CURDLED MOUSSE EMERGENCY!

any ideas what to do with curdled white chocolate mousse?

I knew I shouldn't have mouthed off about how I didn't think there would be a problem with me making Dorie Greenspan's Black and White Chocolate Cake recipe.

Perhaps I was too cocky. I have never had a problem with mousse before. I've made it dozens of times over the years...but I've only ever made it the classical way with dark chocolate. I didn't think the White Chocolate Whipped Cream component would be a problem at all.

I completed the cake layers and the dark chocolate cream this morning and then proceeded to make the white chocolate whipped cream. It only has 2 ingredients for goodness' sake! How can you go wrong?

Well...it went wrong in so many ways. I was following the recipe to the letter and it said to add the room temperature melted white chocolate/cream mixture into the softly whipped cream mixture all at once and beat on high speed until it holds firm peaks. I did that. And whipped and whipped and it never did hold firm peaks. It looked runny. Then it looked really runny...and curdled. When I took the mixing bowl out, I had a huge coagulated fat globule bobbing in a pool of watery milk. I thought I had made white chocolate butter.

What to do-what to do?

I thought that perhaps I could save it by melting it all together and then letting it cool down to room temperature. I had some extra cold cream in the fridge and whipped that up and tried adding the remelted/cooled mixture to the newly whipped cream. It curdled again. It never went beyond a soft mushy stage.

My baking mojo was gone.

I had angered the pastry gods somehow.

I consulted texts and they didn't say anything much that would help me. I looked online and not much was said about how to rescue curdled mousse.

I knew I had to persevere and maintain the positive baking karma or I would be beat. So I called J. and consulted her. She said I should melt it and leave it in the fridge for a long time. I did. I melted it gently (it took mere seconds); took the bowl out after a long time in the fridge and stirred the mixture lightly with a spatula just to check it and lo and behold, it curdled! The butter fat had floated to the top and solidified in chunks despite my mixing it thoroughly before putting it in the fridge.

I'm left kind of scratching my head at this one.

I decided I would waste only one more batch of white chocolate before calling it quits. Right now it's sitting next to me in a bowl with a thermometer sticking out of it. It's 87.9degrees F, but I'm not doing nothin' until it reaches at least 85degrees F.

I can't not bring a birthday cake tomorrow. What to do? what to do? zoiks, I'm even writing double negatives now. This is a sorry state indeed.

Ooh. I have to go now as the white chocolate is nearing the temperature I need.

Keeping my fingers crossed. Stay tuned. I'll be back.

*********************

Okay, I'm back.

I was so scared of wasting all that beautiful white chocolate. As the whipping cream came to the soft peak stage, I took the bowl of white chocolate mixture which happened to be at 83.2degreesF exactly at the moment I approached the KitchenAid. I made a little Christmas Wish and dumped it into the mixing bowl. I closed my eyes as I cranked the KitchenAid to full power, just as Greenspan indicated in the recipe. I held my breath as the white chocolate mixture integrated into the softly whipped cream; the whisk leaving little spirals in its wake.

I turned the KitchenAid off. What if it curdles? The mixture was still quite soft. It wasn't holding firm peaks at all. I was so afraid of another curdle. I cranked it up high again. That's what the recipe says, "high"! and got worried when the mixture started to thicken a little bit; the whisk leaving a slight trail now. The last 3 times it was mere seconds after this stage that the mixture broke.

I couldn't stand it.

After another 3 starts and stops, I just called it quits and convinced myself that it was firm enough. I had read somewhere online in someone else's recipe that it'll firm up in the refrigerator (and not to worry about the runny appearance!) I'm still concerned that the white chocolate whipped cream component will not be stiff enough for spreading on the cake layers. I have to wait at least 2 hours for the white chocolate mixture to cool before assembling the cake now.

the white chocolate whipped cream never seemed to hold firm peaks...but remained quite soft

This cake better be worth it because I'm pretty peeved by all this effort right now when I can be kicking back in my armchair with a rerun of The Sound of Music playing on the t.v. in the background while I do such lazy Christmasy things like thumbing through my new copy of Sherry Yard's Desserts by the Yard (thanks for the bday present, J & M!)

CHRISTMAS COOKIE BOXES: LAST ROUND!

a stack of christmas cookie boxes ready for giving

WHEW! with all this baking going on, i forgot to make christmas cards this year (oops!) so instead i made a little card with a list of the contents inside

I don't want to see another butter cookie in a while. I'm putting all my raw dough logs in the freezer for when I go back to work next month. I figure that I can "dispose" of the offending calorie-traps after the New Year by placing the cookies strategically in the staff room during breaks.

I am quite pleased with this year's Christmas Boxes and though it was a bit of work and I copped out on the Anise/Vanilla Cookie, I more than made up for it with my newly concocted Bah Humbug Black Sesame Sable. By tossing the raw cookie in vanilla sugar before baking, I added a further crunchy element to it and I am very happy with this cookie. It's going to be a year-round cookie for me now.

ALMOND COCOA NIB STICKS

crispy, crunchy and not too sweet--these are a perfect gift for a chocolate connoisseur

AAAACK! only 4 more days until Christmas! There's so much baking and Christmas cooking to be done and so little time! I've whittled my original 8 pounds of butter down to 3. That's not bad. I decided to keep the rest of the butter for Christmas Day. You know, for the mashed potatoes, the stuffing, the turkey et al. You name it and it's got some butter in it.

This year, we're going organic, free range at Capers Market. I came about this delicious turkey because of my lazy-ass way of waiting until the last moment to purchase a fresh turkey. You see, I also don't like having a huge turkey crammed in my already crammed refrigerator. I also have to have it timed perfectly to allow for brining and drying in the refrigerator. I ran around town looking for a fresh turkey, but none was to be found a couple of days before Thanksgiving. Thankfully, I decided to check out Capers and found a few fresh specialty turkeys left. I took one home immediately (after paying about a third more than I usually pay for a regular non-specialty turkey) and brined it overnight. Then I rinsed and dried it and popped it back in the fridge to dry. That was the most flavourful bird our family has ever tasted. I was even tempted to eat that little turkey butt part that sticks out at the end because it was golden brown and crispy and looked like cracklings...but I didn't. The skin was indeed crackling good and the meat tender, juicy and full of turkey flavour. We deemed the turkey worth the money and we're going to buy it again for Christmas. I even called ahead and reserved one. The turkey I'll be getting is locally raised and free range.

cocoa nibs are roasted cocoa beans separated from their husks and broken into small bits

Those organic cocoa nibs I bought are getting good use this Christmas in my Cookie Boxes. I was salivating at Alice Medrich's Almond Sticks with Cocoa Nibs in her book Bitter Sweet. These cookies would be beautiful and graceful perched on a saucer next to your espresso or a cup of tea. I imagine you could even dip them in wine. They are definitely for adults since I added the frangelico and they are not particularly sweet. They are like thin biscotti almost but not as hard. Instead, these are light and crunchy. You need to slice the sticks as thinly as possible with a serrated knife. I use a bread knife...then use the knife to transfer the long wafer to the parchment-lined cookie sheet.

cocoa nibs are the essence of chocolate, but subtle and delicate in flavour

Again, I've twiddled with the recipe and have adapted it by adding a tablespoon of frangelico...which I think enhances the almond flavour.

ALMOND STICKS WITH COCOA NIBS

adapted from Alice Medrich's BitterSweet

makes about thirty-two 6 inch sticks

3/4 cup ( 3 3/4 oz) whole blanched almonds

1 cup plus 2 T all-purpose flour

2/3 cup sugar

1/4 t salt

6 T unsalted butter, cut into chunks

2 T water

1 t pure vanilla extract

1/8 t pure almond extract

1 T frangelico

1/4 cup cocoa nibs

• Combine the almonds, flour, sugar and salt in a food processor, and pulse until the almonds are reduced to a fine meal. Add the butter and pulse until the mixture looks like a mass of crumbs. Combine the water, vanilla, and almond extract, drizzle them into the processor bowl, and pulse just until the dough looks damp. Add the cocoa nibs and pulse only until evenly dispersed.
• The dough will not form a smooth cohesive mass--it will be crumbly, but it will stick together when you press it. Turn it out on a large sheet of foil and fom it into a 6-by-9-inch rectangle a scant 1/2 inch thick. Fold the foil over the dough and press firmly with your hands to compress it, then wrap it airtight. Slide a cookie sheet under the package and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or overnight.
• Position the racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven and preheat the oven to 350degrees F. Line two cookie sheets with parchment or wax paper.
• Use a long sharp knife to trim one short edge of the dough rectangle to even it. Then cut a slice a scant 3/8 inch wide and use the knife to transfer the delicate slice to the cookie sheet. Repeat with the rest of the dough, transferring each slice as it is cut and placing them at least 1 inch apart. If some break, just push them back together, or bake them broken--they will look and taste great anyway.
• Bake, rotating the cookie sheets from top to bottom and front to back half way through the baking time, 12 to 14 minutes, or until the cookies are golden at the edges. Set the pans on the racks to cool completely.
• The cookies can be stored, airtight, for several days.

PISTACHIO COCOA NIB THINS

pistachio & cocoa nib thins

At last, my baking frenzy is winding down.

Here I am playing around with the Nibby Pecan Cookies ; replacing the pecans with pistachios as Tartelette did. I didn't bother chopping the pistachios as I figured I'd be slicing the cookies anyway. These will be part of the second batch of Christmas Cookie Boxes and will replace the pecan variation.sliced as thinly as possible, the cookies are crispy and delicate

I formed the dough logs into rectangles just to give it a different look. I think that a serrated knife is the best tool for slicing the logs into thin cookies. I believe the thinner you can cut them, the more delicate and crispy your cookie will be. Slicing also gives you the pretty cut mosaic look on the surface of the cookie.

I also decided to adapt the recipe further by adding frangelico to the cookie dough. The cookies smell and taste fantastic, but I don't think they're for the kiddies.

Pistachio Cocoa Nib Thins (adapted from Alice Medrich's Bitter Sweet)

1 cup (3.5 oz) organic pistachios, toasted

1/2 pound (2 sticks) organic unsalted butter, softened

3/4 cup organic cane sugar

1/4 t pink himalayan salt (slightly rounded)

1 1/2 t vanilla extract

1 tablespoon frangelico

1/3 cup organic cocoa nibs

2 cups unbleached organic all-purpose flour

• Combine butter, sugar, salt, vanilla extract and frangelico in bowl of electric mixer and beat on high speed until smooth and creamy but not fluffy (1 minute). Beat in pistachios and cocoa nibs. Turn off mixer and add all the flour at once. Beat on low speed until flour is incorporated.
• Form dough into 12-inch log about 2 inches thick. (I formed them into a rectangular log using a bench scraper). Wrap in parchment and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, preferably overnight. (can be frozen 3 months)
• Position racks in upper and lower thirds of the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
• Use a sharp knife to cut the cold dough log into 1/4 inch thick slices. Place cookies at least 1 1/2 inches apart on parchment-lined cookie sheets.
• Bake for 12 to 14 minutes, or until the cookies are light golden brown at the edges, rotating the cookie sheets from top to bottom and front to back halfway through the baking. Let cookies firm up on the pans for about 1 minute before transferring them to a rack to cool completely. Store cookies in airtight container for at least 24 hours for best flavour before serving.
• can be stored in airtight container for at least 1 month

TIFFANY SNOWFLAKE COOKIES

tiffany snowflake cookies

a bowl of cute vanilla pod mini-snowflakes

this was cakebrain's first stab at decorating intricate snowflake cookies with royal icing

After my fortuitous excursion to Williams-Sonoma, where I picked up a set of Snowflake Cutters, I am now ready to make my Tiffany Snowflake Butter Cookies. I decided against making Snowflakes out of gingerbread for the following reason: I am not fond of it. It's an excellent medium for structural integrity in framing a house, as is the royal icing needed to spackle it together. However, I feel that those very qualities make it inedible and a waste of holiday calories.

the honking big snowflakes are my favourite, but they're a pain to decorate. as you can see in the background, my royal icing flooding skills leave a little to be desired.

As well, I have a negative conditioned response to gingerbread because years ago when I was still in university, I decided to make a gingerbread house. I had all the extra baked gingerbread scraps to eat. I brought them with me in my purse to munch on in the movie theatres (shhh...don't tell!), I gave some to friends and I nibbled gingerbread for snacks. By the end of the week I was so done with gingerbread for the rest of my life. Besides, I had a cute little gingerbread house that nobody wanted to eat because, well it was too cute. By the time I thought I should eat it, it didn't taste so great anyway. So when other people smell gingerbread, they think, "aaah...so homey and comforting"; while I think, "eew...not gingerbread again! gag"

you can see the real vanilla bean specks in the cookie

This yummy and flexible Vanilla Butter Cookie recipe hasn't failed me yet. I use it for sables (sorry, how the heck do you make the French accents in blogger? I have yet to figure it out and have been mangling/anglocizing all of the words--a sorry situation for an English teacher) and roll logs of it in sanding sugar...then I slice and bake. I keep the logs in the freezer just in case I need a couple of fresh-baked cookies. You know, when you want to (impress and) provide guests with the lovely baking smells from your oven as well as the cookie itself when they visit you. Only it was as easy as Pillsbury. How sneaky, eh?

when in doubt, pipe dots. as you can see, piping isn't my forte either

I also use the dough for cutouts but you just have to refrigerate the dough a lot to ensure crisp shapes. Refrigerate a little before rolling and refrigerate until firm after placing on the cookie sheet. Then bake until golden brown. Don't underbake or the cookies will taste insipidly blah.

pretty enough to decorate the tree--but that would be a waste of a perfectly good cookie

This time, I'm adapting the recipe so that I can make use of the stash of Vanilla Bean Pods I have leftover. As well as ramming the empty pods into a bottle of vodka to make vanilla extract, I've been saving pods for grinding. I grind up the pods with a little of the granulated sugar (hey, that's vanilla sugar!) The cookies are speckled with the tiny vanilla seeds and the slightly larger specks of ground vanilla pod. You can triple your vanilla pleasure by adding a little vanilla extract too.

Vanilla Pod Butter Cookies
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
¾ cup granulated sugar
1 large egg plus 1 egg white, beaten
1 dried vanilla bean pod (for grinding with the sugar)
2 ½ cups sifted all-purpose flour
¾ teaspoon coarse salt
½ cup fine sanding sugar

1. Split vanilla pod if it is fresh and scrape out the seeds for creaming with the butter. Place empty pod in food processor with granulated sugar to grind. Sift out the larger chunks of the bean. If you have a stash of dried vanilla pods, use that and supplement with 1 teaspoon vanilla extract.
2. Put butter and vanilla seeds into mixer with paddle attachment, mixing until seeds are distributed thoroughly. Add the granulated sugar/vanilla pod mixture into the bowl and continue beating on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Mix in whole egg and vanilla extract, if using. Reduce speed to low. Add flour and salt and mix until combined.

For logs:

• Halve dough; shape each half into a log. Place each log on a 12-by-16 inch sheet of parchment. Roll in parchment to 1 ½ inches in diameter, pressing a ruler along edge of parchment at each turn to narrow log. Transfer to paper towel tubes to hold shape, and freeze until firm, about 1 hour.
• Preheat oven to 375ºF. Brush each log with egg white; roll in sanding sugar. Cut into ½-inch thick rounds. Space 1 inch apart on baking sheets lined with parchment. Bake until edges are golden, 18 to 20 minutes. Let cool on sheets on wire racks. Store in airtight containers at room temperature up to 3 days.

For intricate snowflake cutouts:

• Halve dough; create discs and wrap one in plastic wrap.
• Take the other disc and roll out the dough to the desired thickness (usually 3-5 mm) out between two pieces of parchment paper. I place the whole sheet of parchment/rolled-out cookie dough onto a plastic cutting board and pop it in the refrigerator to firm up (about 30 minutes).
• Take other disc out and roll out as above. Pop that into the refrigerator to firm up too.
• When the rolled dough is firm enough, take it out and use your snowflake cutters to make as many cuts as possible. Transfer to a parchment-lined cookie sheet. With the tiny cutters, you can now make more cuts into the cut cookies on the parchment. This way you won't have to transfer delicate snowflakes and avoid tons of frustration.
• Do leave a proper amount of space between the cutouts (about 1 inch) to allow for a little spreading. Lift off the surrounding dough carefully. You may need a pointy knife, thin spatula or other such tool to assist you in this endeavour. I use the tip of a plastic kiddie chopstick to poke out the dough from tight crevices. If you leave marks, you can always flip the cookie upside down onto the parchment to bake.
• Place snowflake cookie-laden cookie sheet back into the fridge to firm up again before baking.
• Ball up the remaining dough and do it all over again.
• Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Bake the cookies on the middle rack until golden, about 18-20 minutes--more or less depending on the size of your snowflakes. Just keep an eye on the first batch for an indicator.
• Decorate with royal icing, if you wish

****Please check out a Sugar Cookie variation from my 2008 Xmas cookie boxes here.

CAKEBRAIN'S CHRISTMAS COOKIE BOXES: ROUND 1

here's what the first batch of christmas cookie boxes looks like inside

Ahhh...'tis the season to be weary.

clockwise from top left: world peace, vanilla butter, green tea christmas trees, bah humbug black sesame butter sables, cocoa nib & pecan, chocolate chunk oatmeal

I've completed and delivered my first batch of Christmas Cookie Boxes. I have 4 pounds of butter left in the refrigerator and I have been having second thoughts about some of those cookies. I noticed a particularly nice variation on Tartelette's blog using Medrich's Nibby Pecan Cookie recipe using pistachios and have decided to make the remaining boxes with pistachios instead. This is also a time-saver because I don't have any pecans in the pantry and I don't want to run out to the crowded market to fetch some! I have lots of pistachios left from my Pistachio Macarons adventure.

my favourite in decending order: green tea christmas trees, bah humbugs, vanilla butter, cocoa nib & pecan, chocolate chunk oatmeal, world peace

In Alice Medrich's bible of chocolate recipes and all things chocolate, Bitter Sweet, I noticed an interesting recipe that will use some of my cocoa nibs and whole almonds. It's for a wafer-thin biscotti-like cookie that isn't so sweet. It looks so yummy that I'll have to include it in my next boxes (I hope!) For the second round or cookies, I'm including the snowflake cutouts, the cocoa nib & pistachio cookies and the almond & cocoa nib wafers. I'm currently up to my armpits in royal icing (which I don't particularly like, but it's pretty on cookies). Icing consisitency is so important; otherwise the cookies will look pretty darned messy...and I have made quite a mess with some of these snowflakes! Bebe's been happy though because she gets to eat the rejects.

ah. fini

BAH HUMBUG BLACK SESAME BUTTER SABLES

bah humbug black sesame butter triangles

You know what? I'm getting to think this Vanilla Butter Cookie is so flexible that I can do whatever the heck I want with it. Today, I looked at the recipe for Greenspan's Anise/Vanilla Cookies and thought, "I don't wanna wait 24 hours for you to rest!"

Bah Humbug!

So, I decided instead to replace the cookie with the much easier, streamlined, never-fail, buttery delicious, tender-crumbed Vanilla Butter Cookie recipe I like so much...but with another variation. I'm gonna add Black Sesame seeds! Yup. You heard it right here: a nasty looking grey sable cookie; black-flecked with toasted ground sesame seeds that'll look like bits of soot from the chimney!

it's not so hard making this unique triangular cookie shape

When baking for giving, I always double the recipe and use the full 1 pound brick of butter. I mean, let's not kid ourselves. I might as well double the recipe and use the full pound instead of going back into the fridge again to make the recipe again when I realize I've munched on too many of the cookies so that I don't have enough to give away.

Here's my new recipe--invented on the fly--because I'm too lazy to make a different recipe. You know how they say "necessity is the mother of invention"? Well in my case, my philosophy is "laziness is the mother of invention".

Cakebrain's Bah-Humbug Black Sesame Butter Sables

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

¾ cup granulated sugar

1 large egg plus 1 egg white, beaten

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

2 ½ cups sifted all-purpose flour

1/4 cup toasted black sesame seeds

¾ teaspoon coarse salt

1 teaspoon pure toasted sesame seed oil

½ cup fine sanding sugar

*cakebrain's N.B.: ensure when baking these cookies that they become a true golden brown...otherwise they won't taste so sweet, crunchy and fragrant. I sometimes even try to push the time past 20 minutes to get it as brown as I can without burning them! They're so much more flavourful this way!

1. Put the black sesame seeds into a food processor with half of the granulated sugar. Pulse until the sesame seeds are cracked up but not altogether too powdery.
2. Put butter, the sesame/sugar mixture and the rest of the granulated sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment; mix on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Mix in whole egg, sesame seed oil and vanilla. Reduce speed to low. Add flour and salt and mix until combined.
3. Halve dough; shape each half into a log. (I shape mine in trianglular "logs" using a bench scraper to help form it). Place each log on a 12-by-16 inch sheet of parchment. Roll in parchment to 1 ½ inches in diameter, pressing a ruler along edge of parchment at each turn to narrow log. Transfer to paper towel tubes to hold shape, and freeze until firm, about 1 hour.
4. Preheat oven to 375ºF. Brush each log with egg white; roll in sanding sugar. Cut into ½-inch thick rounds. Space 1 inch apart on baking sheets lined with parchment. Bake until edges are golden, 18 to 20 minutes. Let cool on sheets on wire racks. Store in airtight containers at room temperature up to 3 days.

MUST BUY MORE BUTTER!

SPARKLY GREEN TEA CHRISTMAS TREES

delicate green tea christmas trees

Here's the latest addition that I will include in my Christmas Cookie Boxes.

Last Christmas, I made beautiful Green Tea Shortbread Trees using a shortbread recipe with matcha. The cookie was delicate and a lovely shade of green. This particular recipe was for green tea lovers only as the matcha flavour was quite strong. The leafy chloryphyl flavour came through and was almost too bitter for non-green tea lovers. Perhaps the fact that it called for the lower grade Chinese powdered green tea could account for the bitterness. I shall have to test the recipe with a higher grade ceremonial tea I used with this year's recipe.


a forest of matcha trees straight out of the oven

This year, I was inspired by a new recipe in a foodblog by Foodbeam who in turn got the recipe from Lovescool. I noticed Lovescool's recipe was enriched with egg yolks whereas my previous shortbread recipe was more traditional. What convinced me that these would be stupendous was the fact that they were tossed in granulated sugar which made them sparkle in a Christmasy sort of way.

vanilla sugar adds a flavourful sparkle to the matcha christmas trees

I adapted the recipe and tossed the cookies in vanilla sugar, which added a nice dimension to the flavour profile and I think this also enhanced the matcha flavours. The cookie has a delicate crumb and breaks easily. This particular recipe creates a cookie with a sublime matcha flavour. It is not too bitter and the sugar coating provides a nice granular crunch.

I love my Christmas tree cutter, but it creates corners that are particularly difficult to dislodge, even with heavy dusting with flour before each cut. I discovered that using the tip of Bebe's kiddie-sized plastic chopsticks were quite efficient at poking the tree branches free of the cutter. Of course, I imagine any chopstick would do. It is important to refrigerate the cookies on the cookie sheet after tossing them in vanilla sugar. This ensures sharp corners and crisp edges. Without doing this, your cookie won't have a sharp profile.

matcha christmas trees packaged for sharing in a chinese take-out container

Sparkly Green Tea Christmas Trees
adapted from Green Tea Sweets by Lovescool

Yield (2” leaf shape): Approx 25

3/4 cup (2.25 oz) Confectioners sugar
5 oz Unsalted butter, cut into cubes
1 3/4 cup (8.5 oz) All-purpose flour
3 Large egg yolks
1.5 TBS Matcha (powdered green tea) *see note
1 cup vanilla sugar (for coating)

*N.B.: I used ceremonial grade Do organic matcha that I bought at Capers. This particular matcha is a bright green--the brighter the colour, the higher the quality of green tea it is. It also tends to be less bitter.

• Preheat the oven to 350F.
• Line a sheet pan with parchment paper.
• Whisk the confectioner’s sugar and green tea together in a bowl.
• Add the butter and green tea/sugar mixture to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix until smooth and light in color.
• Add the flour and mix until well combined.
• Add the egg yolks and mix just until the eggs are fully incorporated and a mass forms.
• Form the dough into a disk and chill in the refrigerator until firm (about 30 minutes).
• Roll the dough out to ½” thickness.
• Cut the dough with a Christmas Tree cookie cutter.
• Toss each cut cookie in a bowl of vanilla sugar to coat.
• Refrigerate cookies for 30 minutes (or until firm) to ensure crisp edges to the cookies
• Place the sugar-coated cookie on a parchment lined pan. Bake at 350F for 12-15 minutes, or until slightly golden around the edges.

WHAT I WANT IS WORLD PEACE (COOKIES)

greenspan's world peace (korova) cookies & a shot of eggnog

I thought that this recipe for World Peace Cookies was doomed from the start. First, I couldn't find my Fleur de Sel which I haven't used since making Medrich's Bittersweet Chocolate Tarts. I looked in all the cupboards in the kitchen and it was nowhere to be seen. It was in a pretty glass jar and I could have hidden it somewhere safe...

korova cookies are slightly salty making them unusually delicious

I had to substitute Maldon Sea Salt for the Fleur de Sel. I was sorely disappointed I couldn't find this uber-expensive salt. I mean come on--when do you really get to use this stuff in real life? Then, I saw that I had only half the amount of Valrhona Cocoa powder I wanted to use so I had to top it up with some Hershey's Cocoa Powder (egad!) Moreover, when it came to locating some bittersweet chocolate for chopping, I used the remains of a bag of chocolate chips and some Callebaut chocolate chunks. It was just a mish-mash of ingredients (let's call it a multicultural mosaic).

world peace cookies are perfect for christmas baking

As my butter was happily creaming in my KitchenAid, I heard Bib wake up earlier from her nap than usual so I couldn't finish mixing the dough. She was screaming like a banshee...

I thought that I could finish the dough and roll it into logs for the refrigerator but found it extremely difficult while holding Bib in my left arm. I was working with only my right hand which I'm used to--and which explains why my left forearm is built like Popeye's. However she was batting at my sunglasses that I had on to protect my newly Lasik-ed eyes. Bib pointed at and tried to grab everything: at the chocolate-brown dough, at the cool silvery-shiny Kitchenaid making whirring noises and Greenspan's Paris Sweets.

eggnog and cookies. mmm!

I put Bib down on the kitchen floor to play but she clambered onto my pant legs making it difficult for me to move anywhere. I took out some Tupperware and such for her to gnaw on. That lasted for about 20 seconds. She pulled open all the drawers while I plopped the dough onto the parchment to roll. I grabbed a set of measuring spoons and a-hah! they jingled and danced around in her hands sufficiently for me to start forming logs. However, before I could finish, I heard a clash as the set of spoons went flying across the kitchen floor. She had broken the stupid flimsy metal chain that kept all the spoons together. Drat.

a perfect reminder for santa

In the end, the cookies were baked and Bebe exclaimed they were "yummy, mommy", which is all that matters anyway. Bib of course couldn't have the chocolate cookies 'cause she's not ready for trying eggs or chocolate yet. Too bad for her!

So, Bebe gets World Peace--which I heard her ask Santa Claus for while sitting on his lap at the mall for our annual Christmas picture--albeit in the form of Greenspan's Korova/World Peace Cookies. I'm hoping Santa considers her request for "Peace on Earth" though.

CHRISTMAS BAKING, HERE I COME! (COOKIE RECIPES GALORE!)

I've procrastinated as long as I could. I can't wait any longer. I'm going to start making test batches of cookies for my Christmas Cookie Boxes. I've decided to post the recipes that I'm looking to make. If they don't turn out to be extraordinarily yummy, then I'm not going to make further batches for my Boxes.

Looking through Dorie Greenspan's Paris Sweets, which I purchased several years ago and have yet to make anything out of--I just keep reading the recipes but haven't had the gumption to make any of them--I decided that the Anise Cookies/Pains d'Anis look very promising. Greenspan says they only last a week, so I'll have to wait another week to make the giveaways if I like them. Upon looking at her variation of using vanilla instead of anise, I decided that though I love anise, not many of the kids in our group of friends do...so I'll have to dip into my stash of vanilla beans for this recipe. I'm excited about using the pods all ground up. It's so frugal! Another interesting note that Greenspan has is about the cookie's appearance. It's humdrum and looks quite like a macaron with the circlet of a "foot"...in other words, it's got to rest for 24 hours and on top of that, it's got to be on buttered and floured baking sheets. Geesh! oh well, we'll give it a try.

Anise Cookies/Vanilla Cookies
from Dorie Greenspan's Paris Sweets
2 cups (400 grams) sugar
3 T (15 grams) anise seeds or 2 vanilla bean pods (or 4 t vanilla extract)
4 large eggs, at room temperature
2 cups (280 grams) all-purpose flour

1. The day before: Butter two baking sheets, dust the sheets with flour, and shake off the excess. If you want to pipe the cookies, fit a medium pastry bag with a 3/8 inch (1cm) plain round tip and set it aside; if not, you can use a small spoon.
2. Put the sugar and vanilla pods in the work bowl of a food processor fitted with the metal blade and process for a full minute to flavor the sugar with the vanilla. Pour the sugar through a strainer into the bowl of a mixer; discard the vanilla chunks that remain in the strainer. Crack the eggs into the bowl, then, working with the whisk attachment, whip the eggs and sugar on high speed until they are thick and pale, about 3 minutes. When you lift the whisk, the mixture should fall back on itself and form a slowly dissolving ribbon. Switch to a large rubber spatula and, adding it through a strainer, gently fold in the flour in two additions.
3. Pipe or spoon rounds of the batter, each about 1 3/4 to 2 inches (about 5 cm) across, onto the baking sheets, leaving about 1/2 inch (1.5 cm) space between them. Allow the cookies to rest uncovered overnight at room temperature.
4. Position the racks to divide the oven into thirds and preheat the oven to 350degrees F (180C)
5. Bake the cookies for 15 to 18 minutes, rotating the pans front to back and top to bottom midway, or until they have turned pale, almost white, on top and have formed a rough little foot at the base. Transfer the cookies to a rack and cool to room temperature.

The second cookie I'm intending on putting into the Boxes instead of my usual Green Tea Shortbread Trees, which look so cute, are Foodbeam's recommendation of Green Tea Sweets (which ought to be less bitter than my shortbread cookies were last year!) from the Lovescool food blog.

My third choice for the Boxes will be Alice Medrich's Nibby Pecan Cookies, which were so unusual and tasty.

The fourth cookie to grace my Boxes will be Snowflake cutouts (using my new set of Cookie Cutters from Williams-Sonoma) of Vanilla Butter Cookies, decorated with royal icing.

Number five should be something crispy and chewy and vaguely healthy--hey it's got oatmeal!--like the delicious Crispy Chewy Oatmeal Chocolate Chunk Cookies.

The sixth type of cookie shall be Greenspan's Korova (World Peace) cookies because Bebe, sitting on Santa Claus' lap at the mall for our yearly Christmas pictures, asked Santa Claus for--you guessed it: Peace on Earth--for Christmas! Yup. He said "okay".

Korova Cookies: a.k.a. World Peace Cookies
from Dorie Greenspan's Paris Sweets and Baking: From My Home to Yours

1 1/4 cups (175 grams) all-purpose flour
1/3 cup (30 grams) Dutch-processed cocoa powder
1/2 t baking soda
1 stick plus 3 T (5 1/2 oz; 150 grams) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2/3 cup (120 grams) packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup (50 grams) sugar
1/2 teaspoon fleur de sel or 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
5 oz (150 grams) bittersweet chocolate, chopped into small bits

1. Sift the flour, cocoa, and baking soda together and keep close at hand. Put the butter in the bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and beat on medium speed until the butter is soft and creamy. Add both sugars, the salt, and vanilla extract and beat for another minute or two. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the sifted dry ingredients. Mix only until the dry ingredients are incorporated--the dough will look crumbly, and that's just right. For the best texture, you want to work the dough as little as possible once the flour is added. Toss in the chocolate pieces and mix only to incorporate.
2. Turn the dough out onto a smooth work surface and squeeze it so that it sticks together in large clumps. Gather the dough into a ball, divide it in half, and working with one half at a time, shape the dough into logs that are 1 1/2 inches (4 cm) in diameter. Wrap the logs in plastic wrap and chill them for at least 1 hour.
3. Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 325degreesF. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and keep them close at hand.
4. Working with a sharp thin-bladed knife, slice the logs into rounds that are 1/2 inch (1.5 cm) thick. Place the cookies on the parchment-lined sheets, leaving about 1 inch (2.5 cm) spread space between them.
5. Bake only one sheet of cookies at a time, and bake each sheet for 12 minutes. The cookies will not look done, nor will they be firm, but that's just the way they should be. Transfer the baking sheet to a cooling rack and let the cookies stand until they are only just warm or until they reach room temperature. Repeat with the second sheet of cookies
   

COOL BAKEWARE AT WILLIAMS-SONOMA IN VANCOUVER

the last one left! i snatched it up as quick as a blink!

I couldn't make it to the grand opening of the new Williams-Sonoma last Saturday, which is just as well maybe because of all the crowds. However, I did make a trip there a couple of days ago. I was looking for something for a Christmas gift and of course, I was looking for gadgets and bakeware for myself (my philosophy is to always buy myself a Christmas gift because I know what I want!)

It was still pretty busy on a Sunday afternoon and I had a decent parking spot only a block away (easier to carry huge purchases! ahem) and so I was bent on not wasting that prime parking spot: I had to buy something or my parking karma would be lost!

What caught my eye first was a tin of snowflake cutters. It was the last tin left and I grabbed it quickly because this would make really cool Christmas cookies for my Christmas Boxes.

the snowflake cutters have mini cutters to make intricate patterns in the cookie dough

Next, I noticed the Gold Nordicware pans. The cakes are supposed to release easily from the pans. This pan is quite heavy...not what I'm used to. It looks as durable as well as adorable. The petits fours are in flower shapes!

how cool is this cakepan, eh? it looks good enough to display!

fortunately, there's a recipe on the back! that's always nice to have...

Of course, I had to buy an astronomically expensive chocolate grater. It was so pretty! Besides, it'll get good use as I make a lot of chocolate things...(here I am justifying the hefty price tag). Well, the petits four pan was expensive too. The cookie cutters were not so bad. I'll just try to use these items more so I can validate their purchase. Yeah. That's right. Kind of like amortization, isn't it?

Williams-Sonoma
2903 Granville Street
Vancouver, BC
(778) 330-2581

You can check out their catalogue here