Fudge Brownie Kisses and Swirls

Valentines Day is a good excuse to make something chocolate, isn't it?  Last year I made chocolate soufflés, my personal favorite.  This year I decided to make Paul some brownies.  A big batch of brownies is really something we don't need to have hanging around the house.  Instead of a big pan of traditional brownies, I thought I'd make some brownie bites using a mini cupcake pan.  The last time I made them they were a big hit.  Maybe it was the Nutella I swirled in the batter.  Paul had just discovered the wonders of Nutella.  They were really fudgy and one little brownie bite was the perfect sized chocolate fix.

For Valentines Day I decided to swirl some with raspberry jam, some with Nutella, and top a few with a little Hershey's Kiss.  I used a basic brownie recipe, but the add-ins make them special.  As I am writing this I just thought to myself, I should have swirled in some peanut butter.  That would be wonderful!  Oh wait, then I would be making them more for me.  Anyway, this recipe makes about 50 bites, so you can experiment if you so desire.  Sorry Paul, you can't have all 50.  I'm packing up a box and the rest are headed to my office.  There are a few chocoholics working there as well.

I hope you all have a Happy Valentine's Day and share it with someone you love!

“If you live to be a hundred, I want to live to be a hundred minus one day so I never have to live without you.” 
― A.A. Milne, Winnie-The-Pooh

Pick Your Favorite Banana Bread

I mentioned in an earlier post that I am loving Joanne Chang's cookbook,  flour. Her banana bread recipe never disappoints.  The first few times I made it, I followed the recipe as written.  It was perfect as is, and there was really no reason to change it.  One Sunday morning a few weeks ago, we were headed into the city to see Melissa and Mike, so I decided to bake some banana bread.  I pulled out the recipe and began to assemble the ingredients.  I had four large bananas to use up, so I had to adjust the amounts of the other ingredients, producing more than enough batter to fill a single loaf pan.  I decided to bake it in mini loaf pans, allowing me to customize the add-ins.  Since I was adjusting the ingredients, I made a few other alterations to the recipe.   One thing I would not deviate from is Joanne Chang's technique of mixing the ingredients.  I think her technique is what sets this recipe apart from all the others.  She beats the eggs and sugar together for 5 minutes, until light and fluffy before adding the canola oil.  This is a key step.  Using a stand mixer makes the task a breeze.  If you follow the mixing technique, you will have the most perfectly textured banana bread that you have ever eaten...I promise.   

Melissa likes chocolate chips in her banana bread, no nuts.  Mike and Paul are very open minded, welcoming both nuts and chocolate chips.  I like nuts, no chips.  Mini loaves were definitely the way to go.  Everyone was happy.  I made them again this morning.  Over-ripened bananas tends to prompt banana bread baking around here.  Again, I went with mini loaves, this time adding a Nutella swirl loaf.  Since these loaves are baked in 6 x 2 1/2 x 2 inch paper molds, they are perfect for 2 people.  This recipe makes 4 loaves so you can share a loaf or two, or wrap up them up and freeze them for anytime that "I need a piece of banana bread" mood hits you.  Just take a loaf out of the freezer and allow to thaw about an hour before serving.  If you are wondering where you can get these nifty little paper cake molds, I purchased mine at Home Goods.  You can also find them at Sur La Table, King Arthur Flour or even Target.  An added bonus if you use paper molds...no need to grease the pan, just mix up the batter and pour it into the mold and bake.  I put the filled molds on a jelly roll pan to make it easier getting them in and out of the oven.  Just leave enough room for the air to circulate around each loaf.

Cranberry Maple Pecan Breakfast Cake

Almost a month has passed since I've posted anything, and it feels like an eternity.  We had a full house for Christmas week, and even though I did a lot of cooking, there was no time to take photos let alone write about what I had cooked.  The day after Matt and Lauren went back to Florida, we received the news that my father-in-law had passed away and we were off to California.  These past few weeks have felt like a whirlwind.

I'm home now and have come to realize that I sort of missed my routine.  Don't get me wrong, I loved having the kids home for Christmas.  And as sad as it was to say goodbye to Paul's father, we had the rare opportunity to have the entire Kipp clan together, a bittersweet gathering.  Time passes all too quickly, and with the family spread all over the country, it seems as if weddings and funerals are the only times we all get to be in one place.

So, I'm back in NY, I've gone back to work, and wouldn't you know it, it's a three day weekend!  I LOVE three day weekends.  They allow me time to do my normal weekend things, with a bonus day to play and do whatever I see fit to do.  My "play" usually involves some culinary or photographic adventure.  Since it was absolutely FREEZING this morning, I opted to bake something and play around with my new lens that I have been dying to put to use since Christmas.  I've been also browsing through a cookbook I received for Christmas, and decided to make a simple breakfast cake.  It was a very good decision.  It was quick and easy to prepare, and quite delicious.  I had plenty of time to play with my camera.  I'm still learning my camera, determined to avoid using the auto mode, so photographing anything takes time...I'll get there eventually.

Biscuits for (Wo)Man's Best Friend

The shopping is done.  The presents are wrapped and placed under the tree.  But perhaps there is one member of your family you may have forgotten.  Have you forgotten your best friend?  She is always there for you, through thick and through thin, unconditional love, whether you want it or not.  Why not do something special for your four legged friend this year?  Why give just another stuffed toy that will be ripped apart and gutted in a matter of minutes?  What does your pup love more than discovering that squeaker?  People food, plain and simple.....so make some doggie treats and show your pup how much you love him or her.

Shortbread, Any Way You Like It

You may find yourself wanting to bake some cookies for Christmas.  Maybe you're not quite up to the big Christmas cookie bake-a-thon.  Maybe you want to bake just one cookie that you can either eat plain or douse in chocolate.  Maybe you want nuts, and maybe you are not feeling too nutty. This is a very adaptable recipe.  I wouldn't call this a kid kind of cookie recipe.  It's more sophisticated.  It's not a dunk in your milk cookie, its more like a nice cookie to have with a cup of tea or a cappuccino.

My mother used to bake shortbread stars for Christmas.  It was her cookie.  As children, my brother and I had no interest.   I guess that's why her shortbread stars were always the last remaining Christmas cookie in the tin.  Oh, did I mention that shortbread cookies keep well, sealed tight in a tin?  Now I get the appeal.  I've made several shortbread cookies over the years and find Ina Garten, a woman with no fear of butter, has a great shortbread recipe.  My mother always made her shortbread using powdered sugar rather than granulated sugar.  Combining my mom's recipe with Ina's produced a crisp, buttery, delicious cookie.  Dipped in bittersweet chocolate, they become something special.  To dip or not to dip....I split the batch and make them both ways.  Whip up a batch and see what a great, versatile cookie this can be .  By the way, it's OK if you want to add this recipe to your bake-a-thon as well.

Gingerbread Heaven, Spice Up Your Life!

This is not a gingerbread for anyone who may be afraid of a little spice. It has beaucoup spice.  It has a deep, dark, rich flavor. It is ooey, gooey, and yes, a little bit chewy and did I mention it is delicious?  Well, it is.  I discovered this recipe a few years ago and have loved it ever since.  It was developed by a chef at the Gramercy Tavern.  I don't believe it is offered on their menu any longer, but the recipe is alive and well thanks to the internet.  This recipe has been written about so much, I hesitated to blog about it for fear of sounding redundant.  But if even one gingerbread lover reads it here and decides to give it a try, my efforts will not have been in vain.  I have no personal story about this cake, but I do have some strong words of advice.  Heed my warning and you will be rewarded.

Herb and Onion Bread

When was the last time you baked bread?   What's that?  Can't quite remember?  Oh wait, you've never even tried to make bread?  I haven't baked bread in quite a while either.  It's not for the lack of desire, it's more like I just don't have the time.  Bread baking requires a day spent at home.  When I was a little girl snow days were bread baking days.  I have fond memories of walking into the house after a day of playing in the snow, to a warm kitchen filled with the aroma of freshly baked bread.

As a matter of fact, my mother only baked bread on snow days.  Maybe a snowstorm meant we wouldn't be getting our bread delivery that day.  Back then, we used to have bread delivered to the house. The Dugan's Bakery truck, a.k.a. the Dugan man would deliver baked goods to our neighborhood once a week.  I loved the Dugan man.  What's not to love?  A good looking man in a uniform would ring the doorbell bearing crumb cake, chocolate cupcakes and bread.  I think I had a crush on him.   I remember inviting him into our house after Christmas to show off my new toys.  Either he was truly a nice man and liked kids, or he feigned interest, a shrewd business move.  Be nice to the kids, and mom buys more.

The Dugan man is long gone, and most of the bread we eat today comes from the grocery store or an occasional bakery purchase.  But nothing can quite compare to a loaf of homemade bread.  I recently resurrected an old bread recipe I used to make.  The recipe comes from an almost 40 year old cookbook, The Vegetarian Epicure, that I've had since my Santa Cruz days.  It's not your typical bread recipe.  From start to finish it takes less than 2 1/2 hours to make, and most of it is rising and baking time.  It goes perfectly with a piping hot bowl of soup.  A turkey sandwich made on this bread tastes just like Thanksgiving.  Give it a try.  It's quick. It's easy. It's delicious.  Start it late in the day while you are making dinner and serve it warm.  If you're a newbie to bread making, its a great place to start.  I used my Kitchen Aid Mixer, but you can easily mix this by hand.

Pumpkin Cheesecake Squares

Are you sick of pumpkin yet?  I'm not.  Pumpkin is one of those things that most people either love or hate.  I fall into the first category.  As much as I like pumpkin, I only cook with it in the fall.  Thanksgiving is the end of pumpkin season for me.  Earlier this week I made penne with a pumpkin sage sauce for dinner.  I used some canned pumpkin to make the sauce leaving me with a cup of pumpkin to either use, or let it sit in the fridge for the week and eventually end up in the compost bin.  A cup of pumpkin usually finds its way into a small batch of muffins, but I was feeling somewhat adventurous and decided to do something different.

Philly Fluff Cake

Yesterday was a freakishly cold and snowy day here in NY.  It was the kind of day that begged for the oven to be turned on.  It would have been the perfect day to have something slow roast in the oven, adding a little extra warmth to the house.  We were meeting friends for dinner, so there was no need to cook.  If it were December, it would have been the perfect day to bake Christmas cookies.  But it was not December.  I sat in front of the fire for a while and read through a bunch of recipes I had clipped from magazines and newspapers.  I remember cutting out a recipe for Philly Fluff cake a while back, and was hoping it was in that file.  My memory did not fail me.  I found the clipping taken from the newspaper on May 10, 2000.  Seriously, I remembered that?  After reading the recipe, I realized it called for an odd sized kugelhopf pan???  Definitely don't have a kugelhopf pan.  I jumped on the internet to research an equivalent, and came across an updated recipe that called for a larger bundt pan.  That, I had.

When I do my grocery shopping, I am always on the lookout for good sales on baking staples.  I'm talking about butter, cream cheese, chocolate, nuts, different flours and sugars among other things.  Last week I picked up a bunch of cream cheese and some 60% cocoa, bittersweet chocolate.  As I was putting the cream cheese in the fridge, Philly Fluff came into my head.

Swedish Apple Cake

October is flying by all to quickly.  I've wanted to share this recipe for some time now, I just haven't had the chance. It's a simple coffee cake, that tastes and smells like autumn.  Apples are the star in this cake, accompanied by a little cinnamon.  It's really nothing fancy, just plain old fashioned goodness.

Most of the apples from this year's apple picking adventure have been turned into apple sauce or apple butter and are tucked away on a shelf in the basement.  I had promised Paul an appley dessert, but had difficulty narrowing down what I felt like making.  He was pushing for a pie, but I prefer to make a pie when there are enough mouths around to consume it in a day.  Day-old pie just doesn't cut it in my book.  I wanted to make something that would last a few days, have an apple forward flavor, and not be overloaded with spice.  Oh yeah,  and I wanted something that Paul could put vanilla ice cream on so he won't think about the fact that I didn't make him a pie.  And then I remembered this recipe...Sockerkaka Med Applen, aka, Swedish Apple Cake.

Mom's Biscuits, and a Jam Tasting

My son Matthew was in town for a few days and as always,  there was too little time and too much to do.    He is a sucker for anything I cook, and always looks forward to home cooked anything.  Matt hates to make any specific food requests because as much as he enjoys my cooking, he doesn't want me to be slave to the kitchen when he is in town.  We usually strike a good balance with some home cooking and a visit to someplace for seafood, and the mandatory pizza.     

Matt's last visit was in June during strawberry season.  We all went strawberry picking back then.  He never got to see the fruits of our labor in jam form.  I made strawberry jam and strawberry rhubarb jam from that bounty.  As a matter of fact, he missed my whole jam packed, jam making summer.  I thought it would be fun to include a Jam Tasting in Sunday's breakfast.  You just can't taste jam straight out of the jar.  It needs a vehicle.  Well, when Matthew is home, the only vehicle of choice is biscuits.  Matthew loves biscuits.  I mean, he LOVES biscuits. So...I made some biscuits...and he tasted.

Summer... Baked in a Tart

     My dad loved bakeries.  Actually, what he really loved were baked goods.  If my mom did not keep him supplied in his favorite desserts, he would eventually find his way to a local bakery.  Not all bakeries were created equal in his mind, so different bakeries filled different needs.  Everbest Bakery was the place to go for Sunday morning rolls, coconut buns and danish.  George's was the place to get a California crumb cake to bring to Aunt Ann and Uncle Joe's down in Rockaway on Saturday night.  Riesterers had the best Christmas specialties, like Linzer torte and gingerbread.  Malverne bakery was his go to place for open fruit cakes, tarts and pies.  I loved to go to the Malverne Bakery with him.  On a RARE occasion, he would bring home a 7 layer cake.  I always hoped that he would spring for a chocolate cake, but oddly enough, the man who loved his desserts, hated chocolate cake.  The Malverne bakery had the BEST chocolate cake!  I had experience their chocolaty perfection many times at my friends' birthday parties.  I don't know why I went with him.  It was such a disappointment when he picked the fruit tart or french apple cake.  When I was 8 years old, I firmly believed that fruit had no place on a cake, and peach skin, BLAH!  Now that 8 years old is just a distant memory, I've learned that there is life beyond chocolate and fruit has its place in the world of desserts.
      I love the look of a fresh fruit tart.  I love the delicate golden crust.  I love the perfection of the fruit.  I love the glisten of the glaze.  The perfect fruit tart is a feast for the eyes and as well as the soul.  A fresh fruit tart is a fitting dessert for weekend BBQ or a New England Clam Bake.  It is a celebration of the season baked in a crust.  I usually bake simple tarts.  I choose a fruit in the season, bake it in a sweet buttery crust and lightly brush the whole thing with an orange or apricot glaze.   But every once in a while, I pull out all the stops and go for the bells and whistles.  I'm talking custard, berries, peaches, kiwi and yes, just a touch of bourbon.

Peachy Boozy Turnovers

I'm making my adjustment back to the civilized (or so they say it is) world slowly.  After spending some time enjoying the peace and quiet of the Adirondacks, it's hard to dive back into the rat race.   I ran out to the farmer's market early this morning to pick up some lettuce (mine bolted) and corn, then ran home in record time.  I'm not ready to deal with traffic and people just yet.  My mind is stuck somewhere between a mountain lake and a field of wildflowers.

I've spent the day sorting through photos, catching up on my reading and generally wasting time.  I had a brief spurt of ambition and decided to check out the fridge.  Melissa stayed at our house and dog sat while we were away, so I hadn't emptied the fridge before our trip.  I had hoped that she used the produce I left behind.  I bought some very firm peaches the day before we left and I guess Melissa was not into peaches.  A peach dessert,  I thought to myself...but it has to be quick and easy with minimal oven time since the AC is running full blast.  Still in vacation mode, I decided to pair up the peaches with something boozy like bourbon.  Sure I thought, bourbon will do just fine...and so my easy, peachy, boozy turnovers were born.  Hmmm, right before we went away I made Apricot Riesling Jam,  I have chicken marinating in tequila and lime.  Do I see a trend here?

Cocopinabananut Muffins

My inspiration to bake these muffins was twofold.   I has some speckled bananas, some very ripe pineapple and some shredded coconut that has been hanging around in the fridge for a while.  I've been watching these bananas grow more and more speckled for the last 3 days.  They were on the verge of death and I know Paul was hoping for a banana bread.  It was Saturday morning and I was doing my - let's see what we forgot to eat this week in the veggie bin drawers - clean up.  I feel less guilty nowadays if I have to chuck a piece of fruit or some sad over-ripe veggie because they go straight to my compost bin.  Nothing is a complete waste anymore.  But still, if it can be eaten, that is the preferable route.  I was taking inventory of the things I stick on the bottom shelf of the fridge door when I came across a small bag of coconut and a bag of pecans.   I felt a wave of inspiration.

It was Saturday morning and I was looking at a three day weekend.  That translates into, I have plenty of time to waste and play with my camera.  I'm still getting used to my new Nikon and I'm determined to learn to take photos using manual settings.  If I am going to rely on "auto" there was no point for my upgrade.  That gave me the second reason to bake some muffins.  I need something to shoot.

Not Your Grandma's Cinnamon Buns

Let me start out by saying, Paul and I celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary this month.  For 30 years I've listened to Paul reminisce about his Grandma Mescher's cinnamon buns.  I'd venture to say that these "sacred" cinnamon buns have not touched his lips in over 45 years, yet their memory remains strong.  Years ago I asked my mother-in-law if she had the sacred recipe, but unfortunately, she did not.  Every cinnamon bun that crosses his path is held in comparison to the esteemed Grandma's Mescher's cinnamon buns.  For as long as I've known Paul, he has been on a quest to find the perfect cinnamon bun. He has never found one that measured up, but he has enjoyed the journey. I've made several attempts to satisfy Paul's memory for cinnamon buns, but they have been nothing more than a valiant effort.

The other day I was thumbing through some old issues of Fine Cooking magazine, when I stumbled upon a recipe for Fastest Cinnamon Buns.  I was intrigued.  The author claimed that these cinnamon buns can be whipped up in less than an hour.  Really?  Obviously if they were "fast" they could not be made with yeast.  I was anticipating they would be a biscuit in disguise.  Cinnamon buns usually require a huge commitment of time which is why I tend not to go there.  It really doesn't make sense to me to spend so much time making something that you really shouldn't be eating anyway.  I kind of have my own formula worked out in my head.  It's my "time commitment food value ratio, which I divided by my taste and appeal ratio".  Anyway, I'm also leery of recipes with the word fastest in the title.  Nevertheless I kept reading.  What really intrigued me was the presence of buttermilk and cottage cheese in the recipe.

Those two ingredients could potentially result in a light and moist cinnamon bun and not turn out like a biscuit.  It was worth a try.  Heck, it was just an hour's commitment.

It was true.  These buns can be whipped up in less than an hour.  It was amazing.  When Paul walked into the kitchen in the morning, his nose was desperately sniffing the air.  Poor thing, between his allergies and his broken nose, his olfactory senses are shot.  "I know you are baking something" he said, "but my nose isn't working."  As I cracked the oven door, a smile came over his face like a child on Christmas morning.

These buns did not disappoint.  They were fragrant, light, gooey, tender, moist, and most of all delicious.  When all was said and done, Paul was a happy camper.  A definite two thumbs up!  No, they were not his Grandma's cinnamon buns.  I've decided that those buns only live in his memory.  And I wonder, after all this time, does he really remember how they tasted?

Irish Soda Bread NO. 2

Yup, that's the official name of this soda bread.  Sometime back in the 1980's my mother-in-law gave me a cookbook that was a collection of recipes compiled by the parishioners of her church.  The cookbook was sold as a fundraiser for San Antonio de Padua Catholic Church in Anaheim Hills, California.  They titled it "From the The Monk's Kitchen".  It's a sweet little cookbook full of family recipes; some good, some not so good and some are true gems.

My mother made Irish Soda Bread every St. Patty's day.  She is Irish, McLaughlin is her maiden name,  and always cooked up a corned beef and cabbage dinner along with her soda bread to celebrate the day.  When I was in high school, my friends and I would cut school take a day off and go to the parade in the city.  It was always nice to come home to a warm house filled with the smell of soda bread baking after traveling on the train with a bunch of drunken fools.  When my brother and I moved out of the house she continued the tradition, inviting her brothers and sisters to a St. Patty's day celebration.  She did that for a few years and eventually moved to Florida.  I don't think she ever baked another Irish Soda Bread after leaving New York.  I remember asking her for her recipe, but she had misplaced it in the move.  When I visited her in Florida, my mother gave me 5 files boxes of recipes, and a big box of recipes clipped from newspapers and magazines that hadn't made it to her index cards yet.  She told me to take them all home and keep what I want.  Her cooking days were over, and if she was going to cook anything, she had every recipe she wanted in her head.  I took the recipes and sorting through them was a daunting task.  She had so many Irish Soda Bread recipes, but none looked stained and used, like her other favorite recipes.  Could she have gotten it from a cookbook?  I started looking for a recipe in my own cookbooks when I came across this one "From the Monk's Kitchen".

Father Seamus contributed two soda bread recipes to this book.  They are called Irish Soda Bread NO.1 and Irish Soda Bread No.2.  Intriguing titles, huh?  Heck, with a name like Father Seamus, how could I go wrong.  I was immediately drawn to the NO. 2 recipe.  It had raisins, a touch of sugar and optional caraway seeds.  I like soda bread with caraway.  I usually make several loaves of soda bread this time of year, omitting caraway from one or two loaves for those with a caraway aversion.  I had to experiment with this recipe at first.  You see,  since it is a recipe from a church group, they probably didn't do much proof reading.  The recipe fails to say how long to bake it and at what temperature.  It did't take long to get it right and tweak the recipe slightly.  It has become my favorite soda bread.  I would always bring a loaf to my friend's annual St. Patty's Day celebration.  Lorraine would always say, "We have enough soda bread for tonight.  I'm hiding yours for our private stash to have tomorrow!"  The next year I brought 2, one for now, one for later!  The beautiful thing about this recipe is it yields 2 loaves at a time.  Share a loaf with someone you love!

Remembering Aunt Gloria and Her Carrot Cake

Aunt Gloria's original recipe card, from my mother's recipe box

Growing up, I spent some time at my Aunt Gloria's house.  She lived in Woodhaven (Queens, NY for those of you who may not be familiar).  There were several reasons I loved staying at Aunt Gloria's.  First of all,  I got to spend time with my cousin Lynda who was, and still is,  just a year younger than me.  We had the freedom to walk to the stores on Jamaica Avenue by ourselves. No one had to drive us.  I'm sure this excited me much more Lynda.  There were no stores to walk to in my neighborhood.  I felt like a country girl in the city.  Aunt Gloria's house was the "fun" house, never a dull moment.  My cousin Robert used to play 45's on the record player and show us his latest dance moves.  If I close my eyes I can see Robert dancing around the dining room table to "Spirit in the Sky".   John was just a baby and we were totally amused  listening to him learn to speak.  We'd say, "how hot is it John?"  He'd wipe his brow and reply, "it's hot ta hell" ( in baby-talk of course).  We would make him say it over and over again.  We'd laugh and he'd giggle.  We were so easily amused, and life was so simple.

Aunt Gloria had a zest for life.  She could turn any day into a party.  She was ready with her Johnny Mathis records, cold beer in the fridge,  a percolator with coffee and a tea kettle on the stove ready to be fired up, and if you were lucky, a freshly baked carrot cake.  People would just stop by her house.  Family lived closer.  It wasn't unusual for one or two of my uncles to stop in.  "Stopping in" was a way of life back then.   Everyone sat around the table, drinking, eating, sipping coffee, singing along with Johnny Mathis and just be together shooting the breeze.  OK, it wasn't always perfect, sometime the Irish blood got boiling and things would get a little heated, but in the end, everyone was family, they'd still get a hug and kiss before heading home.

So back to that Carrot Cake.  Aunt Gloria's carrot cake was my first, and the standard to which I have held each subsequent carrot cake.  I remember she'd say to Lynda and me, I'll bake the carrot cake if you grate the carrots.  Not a bad deal.  It was worth a few scraped knuckles. Her carrot cake had a fairly tight crumb.   It was an old fashioned cake, and baked in a tube or bundt pan.  She did not frost it rather, she sprinkled it with powdered sugar.  But today, people's expectations of carrot cake have changed.  Carrot cake is a common occurrence on most menus today.  Generally it is baked as a layer cake with gobs of cream cheese filling and frosting.  It may even have some pineapple or coconut tossed into the batter.

Are you getting hungry? Here...have a bite just to hold your appetite.

I've made Aunt Gloria's carrot cake many, many, many times.  Over the past year or so, I have made a few changes and I've been very pleased with the results.  I've lightened it up a bit, substituting half of the oil with apple sauce.  The cake is a bit more dense with a larger crumb as a result, but not so much that it changes the integrity of the cake.  She always used Presto self-rising flour.  I don't, so I've added leaveners.  I always add walnuts and a few raisins.  I bake it in my mother's trusty tube pan.   This cake is a big, and serves 12 to 15 people depending on how big you slice it.  It is incredibly moist and will last for days.  I like to make a batch of cream cheese frosting and keep it refrigerated.  I don't frost the whole cake.  I frost it by the slice; if you like your cake frosted, or if you are into nostalgia, I can serve it plain sprinkled with powdered sugar.  I aim to please.

Aunt Dot's Rugelach

I guess if you had to assign a signature recipe to my mother, this would be it.  Every Christmas, my mom would make a tray of home baked cookies to take to her sister's house or my cousin's house, depending upon who was doing Christmas that year.  Her choice of cookies changed from year to year, but the one constant that remained was her rugelach.  She baked them exclusively for the holidays, and it was expected that they would be present on every tray.  They were everyone's favorite.  They became known as Aunt Dot's Rugelach.  Even I call them Aunt Dot's rugelach, and she is my mother.  "Did Aunt Dot make her rugelach?" or "Aunt Dot's rugelach is here" is how we were usually greeted at the door.  My cousins and I all had the same idea to sneak one off the tray before dinner; heck no one would notice just one missing.  The problem was, when you multiply 10 or 12 people sneaking just one cookie, it gets noticed.  My mother, wise woman that she was, eventually brought an extra tin of rugelach along to fill in the holes.

  

My mom use to bake her rugelach with a raisin and nut filling.  It wasn't until I took over the Christmas baking, that I began to add some apricot or raspberry jam.  Sometimes I'd fill them with a cocoa-chocolate bit filling.  You can use any jam or dried fruit that you like.   I find it easier to mix the pastry the night before I want to bake the cookies.  I mix the dough, wrap the dough in wax paper and refrigerate it overnight.  I take the dough out of the refrigerator an hour before I am ready to roll the pastry and they are the perfect temperature.  They take a little time to make, but they are well worth the effort.  Add some rugelach to your cookie tray this year.  My mom would be happy!

Cookie bags for EVERYONE!

Heath Bar Shortbread Meltaways

Christmas has been sneaking up on me.  Thanks to the internet, my shopping is now under control .  It's a quiet weekend.  Paul is away visiting his family.  Today was the perfect day to start my holiday baking.  I sat with a cup of coffee this morning, looking through cookbooks, reading tattered recipe cards, and pulling out cookie recipes that I've been collecting all year.  I thought I'd spend the day mixing batters, baking off some cookies and freezing the rest.  I wanted to use ingredients that I had on hand.  I've been squirreling away cookie-baking ingredients since October.

I finally decided to start my first day of holiday cookie baking by making my mom's rugelach recipe, her spritz cookies, some sparkling ginger chip cookies, russian tea cakes, peanut butter cookies, and I was thinking of making some shortbread cookies.

I've been a busy baking elf today

This morning I came across a hand written shortbread recipe that my mom probably wrote back in the '60s.  I remembered that she liked them with her afternoon tea.  They weren't too sweet and they melted in your mouth.  I was thinking of jazzing them up with some chocolate, either chopped and added to the batter, or better yet, maybe I would dip the baked shortbread in some dark chocolate.  I started pulling all of my ingredients out of the pantry and lo and behold, a bag of Heath Bar chips was tucked between a bar of Belgium chocolate and a bag of chocolate chips.  I bought them because one of Paul's favorite candy bars is a Heath Bar.  I didn't have anything in mind to bake when I bought them.  I don't know what possessed me to do it, maybe I was missing Paul, but I decided to go a little crazy and add the Heath Bar chips to the shortbread and heck....dip them in chocolate as well.

The Best Chocolate Cake

I have the recipe for the best chocolate cake.  Yes, that is a BOLD statement, but I truly believe that it's a TRUE statement.  If you made this cake, you would understand where I am coming from.  For me to consider a chocolate cake to be really good, it has to meet a certain criteria.  Here is my criteria for what I believe constitutes a good chocolate cake:

This is what my best chocolate cake looks like

1. A good chocolate cake should not be a mere vehicle for frosting or butter cream.  A good chocolate cake should be able to stand on its own.
2. A good chocolate cake should have depth of flavor.
3. The only after taste a good chocolate cake should have is chocolate.
4. A good chocolate cake should have a fine crumb.
5. A good chocolate cake should be moist, and remain fresh if properly stored, for a few days (if you hide it from your husband the masses).
6. When a good chocolate cake is baking, it should fill the air with an aroma that stops people dead in their tracks and makes them think they have died and gone to heaven.
7. When you eat a small piece of a good chocolate cake, you contemplate each bite and nothing else in the world matters.
8. When my husband eats you eat an even bigger piece of a good chocolate cake, you break out in a  chocolate sweat, right between your upper lip and your nose.
9. A good chocolate cake makes your mouth feel happy.

Last weekend we were invited to a dinner party and I volunteered to bring dessert.  I did not not know everyone attending, so I thought it safe to bring one chocolate dessert and one non-chocolate dessert.   The only chocolate cake I considered bringing was this Chocolate Guinness Cake.  The Guinness and the little bit of molasses, not to mention the brown sugar, give this moist cake a deep, complex flavor. Yes, it was the right choice.