Easy Pumpkin Dinner & Dessert!

It’s finally FALL! I absolutely love the chill in the air, the rustle of leaves, tall boots and warm sweaters. It’s also great to get to snuggle up at home and enjoy some fantastic fall flavors. Although, in the spirit of things I do have a secret to share.

I’ve never been a fan of pumpkin. Gasp! Pumpkin pie? Nope. A certain pumpkin spice latte from a very popular coffee shop? Not for me. I even grew up near the town where 85% of the world’s canned pumpkin is produced. They have a pumpkin festival complete with many of your pumpkin favorites, like pumpkin pancakes. Yep, you guessed it – I always hated it.

So when Steve and I came across a recipe for pumpkin macaroni and cheese, I agreed to give it a try because I knew how much Steve would love it. And… it’s amazing! Sweet and savory. Warm and comforting. This is the perfect fall comfort food. And to top it off, it’s super simple to make and tastes just as good as leftover as it does fresh out of the oven. Great for busy parents who, like us, cook on Sunday so that we’ll have easy dinners for the week.



Baked Pumpkin Mac and Cheese 
{source}
(Note: my adjustments are in bold)

Ingredients:
8 ounces of uncooked noodles (I used whole wheat rotini)
1 cup of canned pumpkin
1 cup of light cream (I mixed heavy cream and skim milk)
4 tablespoons of Neufchatel cream cheese
1 cup shredded part-skim sharp cheddar cheese
1/2 cup freshly grated Gruyere cheese
1-1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice (divided) (I used cinnamon and nutmeg)
1/4 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper (I didn’t have any handy so I omitted)
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/3 cup of panko (Japanese bread crumbs) (I used whole wheat bread crumbs)
1/4 cup of shredded Parmesan cheese
Cooking spray

Instructions:
Cook pasta until al dente, about eight minutes in boiling water. Rinse and set aside. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Grease a 2 quart casserole dish. Meanwhile, heat cream and pumpkin in a sauce pan on medium heat, until thickened. Reduce heat to low and slowly whisk in cheese until completely melted. The sauce will be quite thick.

Add in 1/2 pumpkin pie spice, cayenne pepper and salt and pepper. Add pasta and stir it into the pumpkin-cheese sauce and mix until thoroughly combined. Pour mixture into the greased dish. Sprinkle panko, parmesan cheese and rest of the pumpkin pie spice to completely cover the top of the macaroni. Add in more cayenne if you want a spicy crust.

Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until bread crumbs have browned.

Now, because pasta typically comes in 13 ounce boxes and you will have leftover pumpkin and cream cheese,  you can modify the recipe to make a larger quantity of mac and cheese. Or you can take the extra pumpkin and cream cheese and make pumpkin bars! Are you with me?



Swirled Cream Cheese Pumpkin Bars 
{source}

Ingredients:
6 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled
1 3/4 cups sugar
3 large eggs
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 package (8 oz.) cream cheese, at room temperature (if you made the mac and cheese, you’ll have a little less than 8 oz which is fine)

Instructions:
In a bowl, with an electric mixer on medium speed, beat butter and 1 1/2 cups sugar until smooth. Beat in 2 eggs, pumpkin, and 1/3 cup water until well blended, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. In another bowl, mix flour, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, and nutmeg; stir or beat into butter mixture until well blended. Spread batter evenly in a buttered and floured 10- by 15-inch baking pan.

In a bowl, with an electric mixer on medium speed, beat cream cheese, remaining egg, and remaining 1/4 cup sugar until smooth. Drop cream cheese mixture in 24 evenly spaced 1-tablespoon portions over batter. Pull a knife tip through filling to swirl slightly into batter.

Bake in a 350° oven until center of pumpkin batter (not cream cheese mixture) springs back when touched, about 30 minutes. Let cool completely in pan, then cut into 24 bars.

Note: You can chill them airtight for up to 3 days.

Both of these recipes have made a pumpkin believer out of me! Enjoy!

Yummy (and easy!) Baked Doughnuts

Lately I've been feeling the need to bake on Sunday mornings. This is a good thing because not only is it super tasty, I have to assume that "baby time" will overtake the available "baking time." Time to get some good, dedicated baking in while I still can! One thing I absolutely had to knock off of my list were homemade doughnuts!


I've been wanting to make doughnuts since I was about 8 years old. And yes, I am just now finally getting around to it. However, since I'm not really into frying things in my own home, I opted for a yeast doughnut that could be baked vs. a doughnut that needed to be fried. I also like to think that this made my doughnuts healthier, but with all of the butter and sugar, I'm probably just fooling myself (which I'm totally fine with...ignorance is bliss)!

These were so much fun to make. And easy. I think any novice baker could easily tackle them. The dough was so soft and gorgeous and just smelled like doughnuts! It was divine. And eating these babies right out of the oven (after dipping them in melted butter and a combination of cinnamon and sugar) was an amazing way to spend a Sunday morning.

Since we ended up with about a million and one doughnuts (ok, more like 18 plus doughnut holes) for just the two of us, we had quite a few leftovers. Not to worry. While they are not nearly a good leftover as they were fresh, these were still tasty a day or two later.

Baked Doughnuts with Cinnamon-Sugar
From the Brown Eyed Baker

Yield: 10 to 14 doughnuts (note: mine yielded quite a few more doughnuts!)

For the doughnuts:
1 egg
¼ cup granulated sugar
1 cup milk, heated to 115 degrees
1 tablespoon active dry yeast
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2½ to 3½ cups unbleached flour, divided, plus more for kneading
1 stick butter (4 ounces), cut into 1″ cubes

For the cinnamon-sugar coating:
1 stick butter (4 ounces), melted
1 cup granulated sugar + 2 tablespoons cinnamon, mixed together

In the bowl of your stand mixer with the paddle attachment, beat the egg and sugar on medium speed for about 1 minute. Add in the milk, yeast, salt, and vanilla. Turn the mixer to low, and then add in 2 cups of the flour. Attach the dough hook and then on medium speed, add the butter one piece at a time until smooth. Reduce the speed to low, and then add the rest of the flour until the dough sticks to the hook and pulls away from the sides of the bowl. It should be soft and moist, but not sticky.

Turn the dough out on to a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth. Place in a mixing bowl coated with cooking spray and cover with a damp towel. Let rise until doubled in volume, about 1 hour.

Punch down the dough and roll it out to about ½” thickness. With biscuit cutters, cut out 3″ circles with 1″ holes. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. On a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, place the doughnuts 1″ apart. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit on top of the preheating oven until almost doubled in size, about 25 minutes.

Bake until light golden in color, 5-8 minutes. Dip the hot doughnuts in the melted butter and then coat with the cinnamon-sugar mixture. Serve immediately; doughnuts are best eaten the same day they are made.

Fancy Apple Banana Cake

Last weekend I was trying to fill up my Saturday with projects while Steve was shooting a wedding. Since I hadn't gone shopping for ingredients to bake with, I decided to be resourceful and find a recipe that used ingredients I already had in the house.

Since we practically buy bananas in bulk, we always have quite a few sitting around. And I haven't been doing a good job of taking apples for lunch during the workweek, so we had a lot of those sitting around too.

Good think I happened upon this apple banana cake recipe.

I took my three apples and cut them into thin slices. This took quite awhile.


The slices were spread onto a cookie sheet, drizzled with honey, and baked until they were soft and smelled amazing.


I mixed up the batter for the cake, which was pretty straightforward: ripe bananas, sugar, honey, cinnamon, etc. Your basic makeup of any banana bread.

Half of the baked apple slices lined an 8-inch cake pan, while the other half were arranged in a spiral pattern on top of the batter.


After I pulled the cake from the oven and let it cool for a bit, I flipped it out onto a cookie sheet. Look at how yummy the apples on the bottom of the cake look!


I then flipped it over onto a cake stand and basked in the glory of my beautiful cake.


Unfortunately, the cake wasn't quite as glorious when Steve and I went to eat it. Because it had no butter or oil, the cake was rather dry. The flavors were nice and the addition of the apple was great, the cake itself could have used a little something extra. I think I would sub out the honey used in the batter for yogurt to fight against the dryness.

I enjoyed using the apples, though - what a great way to make a simple cake just a little bit fancy!

Apple Banana Cake
Recipe from The Taste Space

2 large, very ripe bananas
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup honey*
2 eggs
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
Pinch of salt
3 large Golden Delicious apples, sliced (1/8th of an inch)

Additional honey, for drizzling DIRECTIONS Arrange the sliced apples on a baking sheet and drizzle honey over them. Bake at 400 degrees for 10-15 minutes, or until apples are moist and tender. Remove the apples from the oven and lower its heat to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl, mash bananas and sugar until combined and creamy. Add the honey and eggs and continue to beat until well combined. Add the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg, and mix until combined.

Grease an 8″ round cake pan, and arrange one layer of apple slices on the bottom of the pan (use a little less than half the apples). Pour the banana batter into the pan, and arrange a second layer of apples on the top, in an overlapping pattern. Bake the cake in a preheated 350°F oven for one hour and ten minutes.

*Note: I would experiment with subbing out the honey for yogurt to help the overall texture of the cake.

Olive Tapenade Goodness

Last week at work we had a little wine reception at our office. When things finally settled down, I was able to sample some of the hors d'oeuvres provided by the caterer. Making its way around the room was a tray of crostini topped with creamy goat cheese and black olive tapenade.

Those that know me well know that to say that I'm a picky eater is an understatement (unless the food is "fancy" and expensive...then I'll eat anything put in front of me). I happen to hate olives. But when one is hungry at the end of a long day, one will sample almost anything outside of his or her comfort zone. After about 10 helpings of tapenade, I guess you could say I was smitten.

Since I couldn't get the tasty goodness off my mind, I found this Food Channel recipe and on Sunday tried my hand at tapenade. The results were too delicious for words.

First, I gathered my ingredients at Whole Foods. I already had a good quality olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, dried oregano and fresh thyme in my kitchen. So all I needed to purchase was as baguette (I grabbed a whole wheat one), capers, olives, goat cheese, and anchovy paste.


I threw everything into my food processor (minus the goat cheese and baguette!). I had wanted to make a black olive tapenade like I had sampled at the party. However, when I opened up my olives I saw that they were a dark green color. I'm olive illiterate so I have no clue if there's a huge taste difference with what I bought and what I meant to buy. Ah well. Moving on...


I blended everything up until it was nice and smooth. The recipe I was following didn't use a food processor and just chopped everything up by hand for a chunkier tapenade. I prefer the blended version.


I sliced up the baguette and toasted the slices on a skillet with some olive oil. After spreading some goat cheese on each one, I topped each with a spoonful of tapenade. Divine! My tapenade tastes exactly like what I sampled last week.


This recipe makes a good quantity: Steve and I have already worked our way through 3/4 of our baguette and still have a good amount of tapenade left. Since I have some plain (and deliciously homemade) angel hair pasta in the fridge, I plan on tossing it with some of the tapenade for dinner tonight.

Olives, you have officially won me over with your goodness.

Olive Tapenade
Recipe from The Food Channel

Ingredients

1 cup pitted black olives, roughly chopped
1 tablespoon capers, chopped
1/2 teaspoon anchovy paste
Juice of 1/2 of lemon
1 clove garlic, minced
1 1/2 teaspoons fresh thyme plus additional for garnish
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 cup olive oil plus additional for brushing on bread
2 packages goat cheese, softened
1 baguette cut diagonally in 1/2-inch slices

Directions

Combine olives, capers, anchovy paste, lemon juice, garlic, thyme, oregano and 1/4 cup olive oil. Either chop ingredients by hand and combine, or use your food processor for a smoother tapenade.

Brush one side of bread with olive oil. In large sauté pan, toast oiled side of bread over medium heat. Spread softened goat cheese on toast side of bread; top with olive mixture and sprinkle with thyme.

Honey Lavender Caramel & A Guessing Game

The other weekend I had a container of heavy cream that needed to be used. I also had some dried culinary lavender just sitting around. So, voila! I decided to make some caramels and found this recipe for honey lavender caramel.

I've never made caramels before, I but I figured it was pretty straightforward. My favorite part was steeping the milk, heavy cream and lavender. It smelled absolutely amazing. It also looked gorgeous...I don't think my picture does it justice, but on the flip side, I don't consider myself a photographer.


I don't have any pictures of me making the actual caramel, as it's a hot and sticky process - no place for a camera. Things were going pretty well, though, as I waited around for the mixture to reach 240° F. Once it hit that point, I was to stir furiously until it reached 248° F.

Needless to say, things got interesting when the digital readout on my candy thermometer went insane. It started flashing, displaying wacky temps and then no temps. At that point, it was at about 230° F so I knew I was close but exactly how close? No clue. I decided to stir and stir and then pull the caramel off the heat and add the vanilla extract and salt, per the instructions.

I then poured the caramel into my prepared pan. Take a look at the color of my caramel. Now take a look at the picture on The Gilded Fork's post. Hmm. Obviously mine was on the heat for a wee bit longer than theirs. In any event, I popped it into the fridge to firm up.



After an hour or so, I took the caramel out of the fridge and flipped it onto a cutting board. I started trying to cut it and it was IMPOSSIBLE. It actually cracked right in half. I assumed at that point I had royally screwed up the caramel. However, once it had warmed up to room temperature, it was much easier to slice right through.

So, I ended up with quite the collection of randomly shaped caramels (precision is not a strong point of mine). Also, there were a lot more than what you see in the picture below...I had to keep on "testing" the caramels to make sure they were edible for others.


The lavender was very, very subtle. If I didn't tell you they were honey lavender caramels, you probably wouldn't pick up on the lavender. But once you knew, you could definitely taste just a hint of lavender. I think, though, that if you try and make these and your thermometer doesn't die in the middle of the process, the end result might be better in both appearance and taste.


All-in-all this was a fun process. I made something new, I didn't end up with caramel spilled all over my kitchen, and Steve and I (and friends!) were able to devour a ton of caramel goodness.

Honey Lavender Caramels
Recipe from The Gilded Fork

Yields about 6 dozen 1-inch square caramels

Ingredients
1 cup milk (note: I used skim milk because that's all I had)1 ½ cups heavy cream
2 teaspoons dried lavender buds
¾ cup unsalted butter
¾ cup honey
1 ¾ cups sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
½ teaspoon salt

Equipment
9 inch square pan or an 11×7 in rectangular pan
A large pot that holds at least 4 quarts
Candy thermometer (note: make sure yours works!)

Preparation
Prepare your pan by greasing it with butter then lining the bottom with wax or parchment paper.

Place the milk, heavy cream and lavender buds in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil. Once the liquid comes to a boil, turn off the heat and let the lavender steep for 30 minutes. Strain through a fine mesh sieve, reserving the liquid. You may now discard the lavender. Measure the liquid; you should now have approximately 2 cups.

Combine all of the ingredients except the vanilla and salt in a deep saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, until the mixture comes to a full boil. Using a pastry brush, brush down any sugar that has crept up the sides of the pan. When the mixture reads 240° F on the candy thermometer, begin stirring constantly until it registers 248° F, about 20 minutes total.

Immediately remove from heat, stir in the vanilla and the salt, and pour into the prepared baking pan. Cool the mixture completely until it is firm, at least 1-2 hours in the refrigerator. Invert the caramel onto a cutting board and turn glossy side up. Cut into 1 inch squares and store in an airtight container between layers of parchment paper. (Note: you may need to let the caramel come to room temperature in order to cut the caramel without having it crack into pieces).

"No Eggs, No Problem" Cupcakes

Last weekend for the 4th of July, I made a flag cake like I made last year to take to a party. Once again, the flag cake was a big hit! The cake is frosted with white chocolate buttercream, which is super yummy. Since I had some frosting leftover, I promised Steve I'd make him some cupcakes.

I started planning what I was going to make and was just about to start when I realized we were out of eggs. Trying to figure out if we were going to borrow some eggs from the neighbors or just forgo the idea of cupcakes completely, I realized we had everything we needed for some fabulous cupcakes.

A couple of years ago I had made these chocolate cupcakes. With no eggs or butter, I'm guessing these would be considered vegan, although I'm no expert on the subject. Since we had a box of Thin Mints sitting in the freezer (one of the perks of my job!), I crushed a few up and added them to the batter. At that point, these were officially not vegan! I frosted them with the white chocolate buttercream and garnished with a Thin Mint.

So, no eggs? No problem!

{Photo by Steve Koo}

Egg & Dairy Free Chocolate Cupcakes
from The Repressed Pastry Chef

3 cups flour
2/3 cups Hershey's Special Dark cocoa powder (or brand of choice)
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups cold water
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon (pepper)mint extract
2 tablespoons white vinegar

Preheat oven to 350F

Sift together flour, cocoa, baking soda, sugar and salt together. In a separate bowl whisk together the water, vegetable oil, vanilla extract, mint extract and vinegar.

In a large mixing bowl, combine 1/3 of the dry ingredients with 1/2 of the wet ingredients. After the mixture is thoroughly combined, add half of the remaining dry ingredients with the remaining wet ingredients. Combine thoroughly. Lastly add in the remaining dry ingredients.

Once the mixture is thoroughly combined, continue to mix for another 2-3 minutes. Pour into cupcake liners. Tap the pan against the counter to break any air bubbles that exist.

Bake for 20 minutes (cupcakes) or until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean.
Cool in pan for 5 minutes before turning out onto wire rack to cool completely.

Note: This recipe makes a very large quantity. I made a 1/3 batch and yielded 8 large cupcakes.

Homemade Asiago Bagels

There really is nothing better than a bagel fresh from the oven...especially when it's your oven and you can eat as many as you like! The upside of homemade bagels is that they are relatively easy to make. The downside is that you can't quite get the super chewy yummy bagel "skin" that you get from a bakery. These are best when eaten soon after baking. And trust, me you won't be able to let these babies sit for long!

I've always used an adaptation of this recipe when I've made bagels (recipe at the end of the post). It's super simple but just requires a heavy duty mixer to deal with the heavy duty dough.

Let your water, sugar and yeast proof in a bowl. When it gets foamy your yeast is ready.


Combine your dry ingredients in the bowl of your stand mixer. Make a well in the middle and add your yeast mixture and vegetable oil.


Use the dough hook attachment and mix up your dough. Knead by hand for ten minutes (or let the dough hook do the kneading for you. I usually go this route). The dough will stiff but smooth.


Place your kneaded dough in an oiled bowl. Cover and let rise for an hour.


Once your dough has risen, punch it down and turn it out onto a floured surface.


Cut your dough down into 15 even pieces. I like to use my kitchen scale and weigh out each piece so that I know I'm breaking the dough up evenly.


I keep the dough balls (a.k.a. bagels in waiting) covered as I form the bagels so that they don't dry out.


Using your hands, form the dough into a smooth ball and work your fingers through the middle the create the bagel shape. I didn't do a great job with my dough so you can tell that the dough wasn't as smooth as it should be.


Cover the bagels with a tea towel and let the rise for 30 minutes. In the meantime, get a pot full of water boiling, adding a 1/4 cup of sugar and 1 tsp of baking soda to the water. This will help create a thicker skin to your bagel.

Once the bagels have risen and your water is boiling, drop a few bagels into the water. Boil them for 1 minute on each side. You'll note how puckered they get.


After boiling, mix 1 egg yolk with 1 tablespoon of water and brush your bagels. If you want to add a topping, now is the time to do it. I topped mine with shredded Asiago.


Bake in a 500 degree oven for 10-15 minutes and voila! Fresh and yummy bagels straight from your oven.


Need a closeup of the yummy goodness?!


Asiago bagels (adapted from Confections of a Foodie Bride)

2 1/4 cups warm water, plus more as needed
1 pkg active dry yeast
1/4 cup sugar, divided
6 3/4 – 7 cups bread flour, plus more for kneading
1 Tbsp salt
1 Tbsp vegetable oil, plus more for greasing
1 Tbsp sugar
1 egg yolk
1 cup shredded Asiago cheese
1/4 cup sugar
1 Tsp baking soda

Combine water, 1 Tbsp sugar, and yeast in a bowl and allow to proof for 10 minutes until foamy. If there’s no sign of life after 10 minutes, dump and start over.

Combine flour, and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer, making a well in the dry ingredients. Add yeast mixture, and oil into the center. Mix until combined and knead by hand or mixer for 10 minutes. The dough should be stiff but should become very smooth and elastic. Form dough into a ball, put it into an oiled bowl, turning once to coat all around, then cover bowl with plastic wrap and leave to rise for about 1 hour.

Punch down the dough and turn out onto floured surface again and knead for a couple minutes. Divide into 3 pieces, and then divide each into 5. If you have a kitchen scale use it to help you. Keep these dough balls covered or in your plastic-wrapped bowl while you’re not working with them. Form a ball and push your thumb through the center. Work around to make a smooth-ish ring that is about 3-4 inches in diameter.

Set bagels on oiled baking sheets, cover with tea towels and let rise for about 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 500 F. Set a large pan/pot of water to boil (at least 5 inches deep), and when boiling add 1/4 cup sugar and 1 tsp baking soda.

When the water is boiling and your bagels have puffed up a bit, start poaching. Drop a couple bagels at a time (or however many will fit with plenty of space) and boil for 1 minute each side. Place them back onto oiled backing sheets, well spaced.

Mix your egg yolk with 1 tablespoon of water, and brush onto bagel while still moist. Sprinkle with Asiago. When all bagels are poached and topped, bake for 10-15 minutes or until they’re shiny and golden brown.

Welcoming 2011 & Tomatoes

I'm so excited to share all of the fantastic posts I have lined up to start off the New Year...I have a back log of fabulous, fabulous food that Steve and I have been cooking over my break from work - including the rest of the phenomenal food we had for Christmas! I posted about the dessert I made, but that's nothing compared to what Steve made us for dinner.

For a pre-dinner snack before celebrating New Year's with our great neighbors/friends Rob and Jill, I made a tart. I've made this cherry tomato tart from La Tartine Gourmande a few times in the past...but I've never actually tasted it before because I always hated tomatoes! But, since I welcomed tomatoes into my eating regime in 2010, I was able to find out first hand just how scrumptious this tart is!

In the past I've used store-bought puff pastry for the crust, but this time around I made a pâte brisée which I think worked very well, and is much cheaper than buying puff pastry at Whole Foods.

And, with the extra crust I cut out a little New Year's message!


A close up of the tomato-y goodness:


I hope everyone had a safe and wonderful New Year's and are enjoying the start of 2011!

Cherry Tomato Tart
From La Tartine Gourmande
(For a 14 x 4.5″ rectangular mold, serve 4 small portions)

Ingredients

• About 9 oz puff pastry or pâte brisée (see recipe below)
  
• 14 oz cherry tomatoes
• 3 garlic cloves
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon mustard à l’ancienne (note: I used Dijon)
  
• 3.5 oz fresh goat cheese
• 1 egg
• 1 tablespoon chopped sage leaves
• 1 tablespoon chopped parsley leaves
• 1 tablespoon chopped mint leaves
  
• A few black olives
• 1 teaspoon fine sugar
• 1 tablespoon pine nuts

Steps:

• Roll the dough and place it in the mold. Make holes with a fork and place in the fridge for 30 minutes.
• Preheat your oven at 420 F and precook your tart for 10 minutes. Remove and let cool slightly.
• Slice your tomatoes in halves.
• Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a non-stick frying pan and when hot, add the tomatoes and cook on high heat for 2 minutes.
• Then add the chopped garlic and sugar, and cook for 2 extra minutes, tossing them. Remove and set aside.
• Mix together the egg and the goat cheese. Work to get a homogeneous consistency.
• Add the chopped parsley and sage. Season with salt and pepper.
• Turn down the oven temperature to 350 F.
• Spread the mustard on top of the tart and then spread the egg/cheese mixture over.
• Arrange the tomatoes on top and cook the tart in the oven for 30 minutes.
• Remove and let cool before adding the sliced olives and the chopped mint.
• Dry roast the pine nuts and sprinkle them on top. Eat the tart hot or warm.

Pâte Brisée
From La Tartine Gourmande

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups All-purpose flour
• 7 Tbsp cold butter (or margarine)
• Dash of salt
• Cold water (about 6 to 7 Tbsp)

Steps:

• To make the crust, place the flour in the bowl of a stand mixer and use your hook attachment.
  
• Add the salt and cold butter cut in pieces and start mixing.
  
• Slowly add cold water. Add enough so that the dough detaches from the bowl.

Note: I just used my pastry cutter instead of my mixer, cutting in the butter and then used my hands to work in the cold water until I had a cohesive dough.

Fancy a log?

I have wanted to make a Bûche de Noël for years - it's definitely been on my baking "hit list," but I never seem to get it done during the holidays, and a yule log cake in July just never makes since. As Steve and I celebrated Christmas day with just the two of us (and Charlie!), I decided I would go for the yule...if it worked well, we'd have a fantastically beautiful cake to feast on, and if not, we'd hopefully at least have some cake bits and pieces to munch on. Either way, there was no pressure.

Searching all over, I settled on this recipe from Saveur. It was fairly straightforward and traditional but with great instructions. My biggest complaint was the order in which they broke down the recipe, so I'm going to share it at the end of the post in a more user-friendly format.

{Note: not interested in baking details? Skip to the end for a picture of the final product!}

I started off Christmas morning with making my meringue mushrooms. They needed to bake for an hour and a half and then cool in the oven for an additional hour, so they were great to get out of the way (you could also do these a day or two in advance).

I piped out some sorry looking mushroom stems...


...and then some mushroom caps. I know, they look sad. I've only made meringues once before so I'm wondering if the consistency was just off - I couldn't get them to pipe nicely, nor could I get rid of the tales on top of the mushroom caps.


After they had cooled, I used a paring knife to carve holes into the underside of the mushroom caps...


...and then used frosting (made while the meringues were baking) to "glue" the mushrooms together. Not the prettiest, but I think it resembles a mushroom somewhat...a funny mushroom, that is.


As I said, I started on the frosting while the meringues were baking, because it had to thicken up for 4 hours at room temperature. I started with semi-sweet chocolate chips. I like the Whole Foods 365 brand chocolate chips - they're very reasonably priced as taste a 100 times better than any other brand I've bought.


I also grabbed my Whole Foods unsalted butter...


...combined the two and melted together in a sauce pan over a double boiler.


Once the two had melted together, I removed from heat and whisked in heavy cream. Organic heavy cream that is...nothing but the best for this bûche!


This picture isn't the greatest, but hopefully it gives you an idea of how silky smooth this frosting was. I was pretty skeptical that this super runny mixture would turn into a thick wonderful frosting, but over 4 hours it thickened up wonderfully, just as the recipe said.


For the cake or "roulade" the recipe called for a semisweet chocolate, so I used Green & Black's Dark Chocolate. Mmm.


I don't have step-by-step pictures of the cake, but it's a very light and airy cake composed of melted dark chocolate and cream folded into whipped egg whites. Using a 16 1/2" x 12" baking panned lined with buttered parchment paper, you then pour in the batter.

Then you pop it into the oven until a toothpick comes out clean (note: I baked over the 12 minute suggested time as I struggled to tell if it was done. After I removed it and it cooled, it was so delicate I thought it was underdone, but I think that's just the nature of the cake).


Once the cake is cooled, you spread with a filling that's a combination of semi-sweet chocolate, egg yolks, and simple syrup.

Using the parchment paper as an aid, you gently roll the cake bit by bit, pulling it away from the parchment. Steve was a huge help into rolling this up - 100% a two person job!


And voila! A rolled cake. At this stage, I wish I had popped the cake in the fridge for a bit to let it firm up. It cracked a bit when rolling, and overall was just really soft. Firming up in the fridge would have helped a lot.

When you are ready to decorate, you cut off a couple of inches from each end to create the tree "stumps." Again, if my cake had been cooler at this point, the stumps would have been easier to work with because they would have been firmer.

Use frosting to "glue" the stumps to the top and then heat some of your frosting to then pour over the stumps - an easy way to get them frosted. After that, frost away, add in your 'shrooms and dust the whole log with some powdered sugar.


The final product! Overall, I think this was a great first attempt. I wish I had made the stumps nicer, more realistic mushrooms, and a cleaner frosting job overall. But the taste? Amazing. It was perfect after chilling in the fridge for a bit and was so over the top chocolate goodness.


Bûche de Noël
from Saveur

For the icing:
12 oz. semisweet chocolate
8 tbsp. unsalted butter
2⁄3 cup heavy cream

Melt chocolate and butter in the top of a double boiler set over simmering water over medium-low heat, whisking often. Remove from heat and gradually whisk in cream. Transfer to a medium bowl and set aside at room temperature, stirring occasionally, until icing thickens, about 4 hours. (Don't refrigerate; it makes icing hard to spread.)

For the meringue:
10 tbsp. sugar
2 large egg whites
2 pinches cream of tartar
Pinch salt
1⁄2 tsp. vanilla extract
1⁄4 cup cocoa powder
1⁄2 cup confectioners' sugar

Preheat oven to 200°. Combine sugar and 1/4 cup water in a small saucepan, cover, and bring to a boil over medium-high heat, swirling pan several times until sugar has dissolved, 1–2 minutes. Uncover pan and continue to boil until syrup reaches softball stage or 236° on a candy thermometer, about 4 minutes more.

Put egg whites in the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with a whisk and beat on medium speed until frothy, then add cream of tartar and salt. Gradually increase speed to high and beat until soft peaks form, about 30 seconds. Slowly pour in sugar syrup while continuing to beat until whites cool to room temperature and become thick and shiny, about 10 minutes. Stir in vanilla.

Use a rubber spatula to transfer meringue to a pastry bag fitted with a 1/4" plain pastry tip. To make meringue mushrooms, hold pastry tip perpendicular to a parchment paper-lined baking sheet and pipe meringue into the shapes of mushroom caps and stems of various sizes, then set aside for 5 minutes. Lightly moisten a fingertip in cold water and smooth out any "tails" left behind on mushroom caps.

Bake meringues for 1 1/2 hours. Turn off oven and allow meringues to rest in oven until dry and crisp, about 1 hour. Bore a small, shallow hole in center of underside of each mushroom cap with the tip of a paring knife. "Glue" stems to caps by dipping tips of stems into icing, then sticking into holes in caps. Sift a little cocoa powder on tops of caps. Meringues can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for several days.

For the roulade:
2 tbsp. softened butter
8 oz. bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
1 cup heavy cream
7 egg whites
2 tbsp. sugar
2 tbsp. dark rum

Preheat oven to 375°. Line a 16 1/2" × 12" heavy baking pan with buttered parchment paper, cut large enough to hang over sides of the pan by about 1". Put chocolate in a large mixing bowl and set aside. Bring cream just to a boil in a saucepan over medium heat, then pour over chocolate and whisk until smooth. Set aside to cool.

Beat egg whites in the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with a whisk on medium speed until frothy; increase speed to medium-high and gradually add sugar, beating constantly, then increase speed to high and beat until stiff, glossy peaks form, 30-40 seconds more. (Don't overbeat.) Mix one-third of the whites into chocolate using a rubber spatula, then gently fold in remaining whites in two batches, taking care not to deflate batter. Spread in prepared pan and bake until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 10–12 minutes. Set aside to cool in the pan.

For the filling:
4 oz. semisweet chocolate
6 tbsp. sugar
3 egg yolks
12 tbsp. unsalted butter

Melt chocolate with 2 tbsp. water in the top of a double boiler set over simmering water over medium heat. Stir to combine, then set aside to cool. Combine sugar and 3 tbsp. water in a small heavy saucepan; cover and bring to a boil over medium heat, swirling pan several times until sugar has dissolved, about 1 minute. Uncover and continue to boil until syrup reaches the softball stage or 236° on a candy thermometer, about 5 minutes more.

Meanwhile, beat yolks in the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with a whisk on high speed until thick and pale yellow, about 3 minutes. Reduce speed to medium and gradually pour in hot syrup. Beat constantly until mixture cools to room temperature, about 10 minutes. Allow butter to soften, then beat into egg mixture 1 tbsp. at a time, waiting until it's completely incorporated before adding more; continue beating until thick and smooth, about 5 minutes total. Stir in cooled chocolate and set aside.

To assemble the bûche:

Transfer roulade with parchment to a clean work surface, sprinkle with rum (note: I skipped the rum), then spread filling evenly over top using a metal spatula. Grab the long edge of the parchment paper with two hands and gently roll roulade onto itself, pulling off paper as you roll. (At this point, I would refrigerate until cake feels firmer.) To make stumps, diagonally cut a 2" length from each end of bûche; then, to make the stumps thinner than the bûche, partially unroll each piece, trim off flap, and discard. Set stumps aside.

Using two long metal spatulas, carefully transfer bûche to a serving platter lined with strips of waxed paper. "Glue" stumps onto bûche with some of the icing. Melt 1/4 cup of icing in a saucepan over low heat, then spoon it over stumps to coat completely. Spread remaining icing on bûche, dragging spatula along icing to simulate tree bark. Remove waxed-paper strips. Decorate with mushrooms, then sift confectioners' sugar over mushrooms and bûche.

Macaron FAIL

A few years ago, I was really getting into baking and started seeing recipes for macarons all over the blogs. Certainly I could tackle this simple little French cookie. Well, I'm a little fuzzy on the details, but something went awry with my piping bag and the macaron batter that ended with me covered in it and yelling at Steve that I would never bake again. Melodramatic much?

Of course I've baked many times since then, but I've never made another attempt at macarons...until today. I felt prepared. I studied the recipe. I knew I had this in the bag and was going to prevail over my nummy nemesis.

So I traced 1-inch circles on my parchment paper to use as guides.


I ground my almonds in the food processor.


I measured out my powdered sugar and fancy Dutch process cocoa powder and combined them with the ground almonds in the food processor for a few pulses.


I whipped my egg whites, added granulated sugar, and beat it mixture until I got nice stiff peaks. I was worried because it took me longer than expected to get to this point, but I think I had the speed on my mixer a little too low at the beginning.


I folded the dry ingredients into the meringue. I started noticing things were a little off, as it seemed like I had waaaay too little meringue for the amount of dry ingredients I had. It was really difficult to fold it all of the dry in, and I was left with this really thick batter, which didn't seem right.


In any event, I decided to fill up my pastry bag and pipe the batter onto the parchment paper. Because it was so thick I was able to pipe out only half the number I was supposed to, and they definitely didn't spread out in the circles. I popped them into the oven.


15 minutes later, I had these odd looking, sort of chewy, macaron wannabes.


Needless to say, I didn't waste good chocolate to make the ganache filling for these cookie failures. I'm not discouraged, though. Macarons might have gotten the best of me twice now, but I will one day reign supreme, and that will be a wonderful, wonderful day.

Obviously, I will be seeking a different recipe* for the next attempt. Any suggestions?

*please note: the recipe I used is probably fantastic and there's a strong possibility it was user error, not recipe error, that led me to these blobby cookies.