How to win friends and influence people (with baking)

While I can’t be certain it’s true, I like to think that I’m at my best when I’m busy. The economist in me might say that being busy really highlights the scarce nature of time and forces one to become increasingly efficient in order to get everything done. Or maybe that’s just me speaking, period. At any rate, I find that I am often able to accomplish more than usual during periods of extreme activity, seeking out and filling those little moments during the day that I had previously mistaken for leisure.

But this brings me to my real point. Today kick-started what is perhaps my busiest period at work each year. (At least, I’m sensing a trend; it’s only my second go at it.) To mark the event and to start filling my schedule with items that are clearly less pressing (but somehow equally worthy of my attention, in my mind), I decided to bake a Cinna-Nut Coffee Cake to bring to work and share with my colleagues.

I’m pleased to share with you that the old adage that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach has much broader application. In fact, it applies almost equally, without regard for gender, age, class, ethnicity or religion. So, whether you’re the new shmoe in the office or the old shmuck with his/her office door always closed, bringing food – baked goods in particular – to work is your chance to break out.

A few pointers for the novice office baker:

1. Avoid raisins. There’s no quicker way to ruin a baked good in most people’s minds. Trust me, it’s not worth trying to convince them otherwise.


2. Check for nut allergies or avoid nuts altogether. No sense jeopardizing lives unnecessarily just so you can increase your office popularity.


3. Forget low fat. There are no points to be gained for being the person who brings the wholesome, dry cookies. This is not the Work Edition of Weight Watchers.


4. Be random. If you start bringing food every Monday, or every time there is a birthday in the office, you are going to create expectations (and disappointment when you fail to meet those expectations every time).

Here’s a popular recipe to get you started on the path to winning friends and influencing people (with baking).

Cinna-Nut Coffee Cake
(aka Cinnamon Streusel Coffee Cake)

Topping:

2 tablespoons butter, at room temperature
3 tablespoons flour
1/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar
3/4 cup chopped pecans or walnuts, toasted
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

Cake:

2 1/2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup butter, at room temperature
1 1/4 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups sour cream

Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Place nuts on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake for approximately 10 minutes, or until fragrant, flipping them once or twice along the way. Remove from oven and let cool while you mix up the rest of the topping.

In a small bowl, combine the flour, brown sugar and cinnamon. Chop nuts coarsely and then add them to the dry mixture. Add the butter. Using a pastry blender or fork, mix until crumbly. Set aside.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease and flour a 10-inch tube or Bundt pan. (I used a silicone Bundt pan, but still greased and floured it.)

In a large bowl, beat together the butter and sugar on medium-low speed until creamy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating in between. Add the vanilla and mix.

In a small bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

Add 1/3 of the dry ingredients and mix lightly. Add 1/2 of the sour cream and mix lightly. Repeat until all ingredients are gone. Mix just until the batter is blended and almost smooth. The batter will be fairly thick; more like muffin batter than cake batter.

Scoop half of the batter into the pan and smooth using a spatula. Sprinkle 1/2 of the topping on the batter. Cover with the remaining batter, followed by the rest of the topping.

Bake for 45-55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean. (The original recipe called for 40-45 minutes, but I found that it took about 55 minutes in my silicone pan.) Transfer to a wire rack to let cool in the pan for 10 minutes before turning out of the pan to cool completely.

Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days or freeze for up to 1 month. (If your office is anything like mine, it will be gone in an hour, two tops.)

Source: Williams-Sonoma Essentials of Baking, p. 97.

Petit fours gone awry

I don't claim to know much – read: anything – about petit fours. In fact, I can count on one-half of one hand how many times I've tasted them in their truest, traditional sense. But the idea of petit fours has always intrigued me, mostly because I like small foods (and desserts in particular). Plus, I'm also attracted to the precision and attention to detail that petit fours demand (I'm a detail-oriented kind of gal). So it was with trepidation but a keen interest that I set out on my Sugar High Friday 24 (SHF24) journey, not quite sure where I would arrive in the end.

Given my limited experience, I was inclined to stick to the basics, though not sufficiently inclined to stick strictly with almond cakes and glazes. I chose a plain sponge cake with a small crumb which, from what I'd read on the subject, seemed like a good start. To keep myself from completely falling asleep at my lack of creativity, I substituted maple flavouring for the vanilla extract. So far so good. The first sign of trouble came when I decided to half the cake recipe because, as I reasoned, how many petit fours do two people and a few friends really want to eat anyways? After humming and hawing for a good while, I opted to use an 8-inch square pan. Looking back, a 9-inch x 13-inch baking pan would have been a much better choice, but I convinced myself that extra tall cakes would really help my petit fours to stand out. And stand out did they ever.

The recommended baking time came and went and I went through a few rounds of "5 more minutes", followed by a reduction in the oven temperature, followed by a few more rounds of "5 more minutes". By the time the cake was finally cooked in the middle, the sides were dark brown and dry and the centre of the cake had cracked open (probably from being prodded and poked every 5 minutes). Off to the cooling rack she went.

Now a sane individual may have cut their losses and stopped here. But no, not I. Instead, the next day after work, I arrived home, immediately switched out of work clothes and into baking gear (yes, I have baking gear) and began making the pouring fondant. Somehow, in my mind, pouring fondant seemed much easier to deal with than traditional rolling fondant.

Wrong.

The fondant was a cheat-style recipe, but by this point I was caring less and less about authenticity and more and more about finishing. I boiled the ingredients to the appropriate temperature, cooled it partially and then beat it until the thin clear liquid miraculously transformed into a much thicker opaque coating. Pouring fondant is so easy, I thought to myself.

Easy to make maybe, but not so easy to pour.

I took out my leaning towers of cake and spaced them apart on a wire rack on top of a baking sheet. By this time, my easy peasy fondant had thickened considerably more and was approaching an unpourable state. Time was of the essence. I began pouring, from this direction and that, using a spoon and then a measuring cup. When my pouring fondant supply was depleted, I stepped back to survey the damage. The result: a few maple cakes with a bit of maple pouring fondant covering their tops and running down their sides; a lot of cakes with next to no fondant coverage whatsoever; and a large pool of fondant in the baking sheet below. I carefully placed pecan halves on the tops of the approximately 8 cakes with sufficient fondant to hold the nuts in place, moved these to a separate plate for safe-keeping, and then proceeded to consume a few (or more) pieces of cake dipped directly into the vast quantity of unused fondant. Wouldn't want it to go to waste.

And that, my friends, is the sad story of the Casual Baker's petit fours.

Disaster aside, I think it's about time I got back into the baking saddle.

To the pumpkin patch

Having opened, but not finished, a can of pumpkin purée for my last baking endeavour, I vowed to do something more useful than have the leftover pumpkin sit desperately in our fridge trying to attract my attention with its eerie orange glow before meeting its ultimate demise during the end-of-week fridge clean-up and clean-out.


I was contemplating the prospect of a pumpkin loaf with raisins, and leaning towards nixing the idea on the basis that it sounded boring, when I recalled a conversation with a certain friend who was raving about the Pumpkin Scones at Starbucks. Hmmm. If Starbucks can do it well, surely I can do it better, I thought to myself. And with that winning attitude, I set out for the pumpkin patch (er, the Tupperware container in the fridge).

Sidenote: Since we’re on the subject, what is the prevailing opinion on whether or not scones contain eggs? My sources are inconsistent on this point, and I’d love to have a definitive answer.

Pumpkin Scones

Scones:

2 cups flour
1/3 cup brown sugar
2/3 teaspoon ground ginger
2/3 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, cold and cut into pieces
1 egg
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1/2 cup pumpkin purée
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup toasted pecan pieces (optional)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Stack two baking sheets on top of each other and line the top one with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, ginger, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

In a separate bowl, beat the egg and then add the pumpkin purée, yogurt and vanilla extract. Mix well.

Cut the cold butter into small pieces and add it to the bowl of dry ingredients, using a pastry blender to combine until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. At this point, stir in the toasted pecans.

Add the wet mixture (egg, pumpkin, etc.) to the crumbs, and mix with a fork just until the dough is combined. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead gently 4-5 times. Always ensure there is sufficient flour on the surface to avoid having the dough stick.

Pat the dough out into a circle of approximately 7-8 inches in diameter. Cut the dough into 6 equal wedges. Place the wedges on the parchment-lined baking sheets, leaving plenty of room between them.

Bake for 25 minutes or until browned on the tops and bottoms. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Glaze/Icing:

1/2-2/3 cup icing sugar
2 teaspoons corn syrup
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
milk to desired consistency

Combined icing sugar and cinnamon. Add corn syrup and slowly add milk, stirring to mix until the desired consistency is reached. Use a silicone pastry brush to apply a thinner mixture when scones are warm to achieve a glazed effect. Alternatively, use a knife to apply a thicker mixture when scones are completely cooled to achieve an iced effect. Leave scones on rack until glaze/icing has set.

Note that the scones pictured above do not contain pecans and were photographed pre-glaze/icing.

Source: The Casual Baker.

Postscript: For those who have been eagerly anticipating the next phase of The Quest for the Elusive Perfect Loaf, I have received 2 recipes that are awaiting trial. Now all I need is a full day at home to get the ball rolling, so to speak.

Growing up with tiger stripes

Are you familiar with the orange- and licorice-striped mess that is tiger stripe ice cream? Well I am. Intimately so, despite all my best efforts.

If you’re an October baby or have ever attended an October baby’s birthday, you’ll be quick to note some common themes: a penchant for all things black and orange; excessive cobwebs (not simply the result of poor housekeeping); pumpkins giving you the evil eye at every turn; and the sudden proliferation of black cats, witches and ghosts.

Growing up, my birthday parties were no exception. One of my earliest birthday memories is of painting pictures of horned monsters and warty goblins with my kindergarten friends around the kitchen table. In Grade 4 or 5, my girlfriends and I giggled, elbow-deep in pumpkin innards, as we carved jack o’ lanterns on the backyard patio. Even the chocolate-making birthday party a few years later had a Hallowe’en twist, with molded chocolate pumpkins, witches and cats in amongst our chocolate-covered cherries and peanut butter cups.

And let’s not forget the themed birthday cakes: a giant orange jack o’ lantern with black cutout eyes and mouth, a witch atop a broomstick jetting across a night sky, or – my personal favourite – a black cat, its back arched against a pale full moon. To complete the picture, serve with a scoop of tiger stripe ice cream (even if your child despises licorice and annually begs for a different flavour).

Fact #1: Black icing and licorice ice cream taste disgusting and should be avoided at all costs.

Fact #2: Your child does not appreciate the value of a consistent Hallowe’en theme at her party, and nor do any of her friends. They just want the goodie bags.

Now that I call the birthday shots, I’m keeping the black and orange tradition alive and even throwing in some pumpkin for good measure, but avoiding black icing and tiger stripe ice cream in the process.

This cat’s older and wiser.


Tiger Stripe Cheesecake Bars

Crust:

1 cup Oreo cookie crumbs
2 tablespoons sugar
4 tablespoons butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line bottom and sides of an 8-inch square baking pan with parchment paper, leaving an overhand on all sides. Set aside.

In a small bowl, mix Oreo cookie crumbs and sugar with a spoon. Add melted butter and mix until combined. Press mixture gently and evenly into the bottom of the baking pan. Bake until fragrant and slightly firm (about 12 minutes). Set aside to cool.

Filling:

2 packages (16 ounces) cream cheese
1 cup sugar
1 cup pumpkin purée
3 large eggs
3 tablespoons flour
2/3 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/3 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 ounces semi-sweet chocolate, chopped

Blend cream cheese in food processor or using an electric mixer. Add sugar, pumpkin, eggs, flour, spices and salt and mix until combined. Set aside.

Melt chocolate on low heat in the microwave, stirring every 30 seconds. Once melted, add 1 cup of the pumpkin mixture and stir to combine. Set aside.

Pour remaining pumpkin mixture on top of crumb base. Drop dollops of the chocolate mixture on top of the pumpkin mixture. Drag the blade of a paring knife through the chocolate mixture to create swirly patterns.

Bake until the cheesecake is set but jiggles slightly when gently shaken (about 40 minutes). Cool in pan. Cover and chill until firm (at least 2 hours and up to 2 days).

Using parchment paper overhang, remove cake from pan. With a knife dipped in water cut into squares.

Yields 16 squares.

Source: Chocolate Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars in Everyday Food, Issue 37, November 2006, p. 136.

Anatomy of a cookiewich

Let’s talk sandwiches briefly. Sort of.

As previously mentioned, this household is home not only to the Casual Baker, but also to a sandwich connoisseur/sometimes-remiss author of Discovery Sandwich International.

Discovery Sandwich International’s Complete Unambiguous Sandwich Definition (CUSD) does not specifically discuss cookiewiches as a genre of sandwich; nor, however, does it contain any criteria that would preclude the possibility.

I think of cookiewiches as the sweet cousin of sandwiches. You don’t see them everyday, but when you get together on special occasions, you vow to make it a habit.

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After Eight Cookiewich

A thick layer of fluffy peppermint buttercream (the essence) sandwiched between two chewy cocoa cookies (the frame).



Cookies:

1 3/4 cups flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup butter, at room temperature
1 egg

Whisk together flour, cocoa and salt in a medium bowl. In another bowl, using a mixer, beat together sugar and butter until well blended. Add egg and beat. Add dry ingredients and beat until blended. The dough will be quite thick. Refrigerate dough for 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line baking sheet(s) with parchment paper. Shape a tablespoon of dough into a smooth ball and repeat, spacing balls about 2 inches apart on the cookie sheet. Using the bottom of a glass or your hand, flatten each ball into 2-inch rounds (edges may crack slightly). Bake until cookies no longer appear wet (about 10 minutes). Do not overbake. Cool on cookie sheets for 5 minutes before transferring to cooling racks to cool completely.

Frosting:

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons icing sugar
3/4 cup butter, at room temperature
3/4 teaspoon peppermint extract
2 drops green food colouring (optional)

Using a mixer, beat icing sugar and butter in a medium bowl until well blended. Add peppermint and food colouring and mix thoroughly. Spread 2 generous teaspoons of frosting between 2 cookies.

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Caramel Cream Cookiewich

A thin layer of sweet browned butter frosting (the essence) sandwiched between two firm – but not crunchy – brown sugar cookies (the frame).



Cookies:

3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 cup butter, at room temperature
1 egg yolk
2 cups flour

In a large bowl, beat together the butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg yolk and blend well. Stir in flour and mix well. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 15 minutes for easier handling.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets. Flatten to 1 1/2-inch circles using a fork dipped in flour. Bake for 10-14 minutes or until light golden brown. Immediately remove from cookie sheets to cooling racks and cool completely.

Frosting:

2 tablespoons butter
1 1/4 cups powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
4-5 teaspoons milk

Heat butter in medium saucepan over medium heat until light golden brown. Remove from heat. Stir in remaining frosting ingredients, adding enough milk for desired spreading consistency. Blend until smooth. Spread 1 teaspoon frosting between 2 cooled cookies. If frosting becomes too stiff as it cools, add more milk.

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Sources: The After Eight Cookiewich is a variation of a recipe for Chocolate Candy Cane Cookies from Epicurious, which was originally published in Bon Appétit in December 2005. The Caramel Cream Cookiewich is a prize-winning recipe from the 6th Pillsbury Bake-Off Contest in 1955.

Back in the kitchen

After 2 weeks of living out of a suitcase and grabbing a bite to eat in between meetings (often – gasp – from the hotel restaurant), it was time to come home. Back sleeping in my own bed and, more importantly, back in the kitchen. In fact, as my last flight touched down in Ottawa, I was already creating a mental To Bake/Make List.

All of the travel time allowed me to sit down with a recently borrowed book that I had been intending to read for quite awhile now: Julie & Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen.



Julie & Julia recounts the adventures of Julie Powell, a self-proclaimed government drone in NYC who set out to produce all of the recipes in Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking within a year, an undertaking she dubbed the Julie/Julia Project and chronicled on her blog. One part food writing and one part personal anecdote (all served with a healthy helping of humour), Julie & Julia is both well-written and entertaining; chick lit for foodies, if you will. And for those left speculating what happened to Julie post-book, check out her new blog, What Could Happen?

It all makes me wonder sometimes: Why didn't I think of that?

As an aside, I was in NYC briefly last week for work and had a most pleasing dinner that warrants a mention. Braving the heavy rain with a hotel-issue umbrella, my colleague and I ventured out from our hotel rooms and around the corner to a relatively small but lively Italian resto called Serafina. Among other items, Serafina specializes in pizzas, which it bakes in its custom-built cherrywood burning oven using lava and sea salt from Italy. I chose a pie with the most unusual toppings: mozzarella, zucchini flower pesto, zucchini flowers and toasted pine nuts. Nutty, a bit sweet, and altogether too rich for words.

Now if I could just get my hands on some Italian lava.