Breakfast for Dinner

In the lead up to Christmas more often than not meals are a quick grab, not something to savor and enjoy. In our house we are just as guilty. Often it is easier to call up the take-out Chinese (or in Calgary go to Swiss Chalet) than spend a bit of time making a meal.

A fun way to bring everyone together is to have breakfast for dinner. When I was growing up it was always my dad’s job to cook Sunday dinner and his trick was often to make breakfast for dinner. It is so fun for kids to turn the day on its head and have something unusual but familiar on the dinner table. Dad used to do waffles, but I find when you are busy they are too tedious. Instead I like to cook a Dutch pancake.

Dutch pancake, puff pancake, or Dutch Baby, it is known by many names. It basically is a puffy crepe cooked in a hot pan in the oven. All you have to do is mix the batter (which can even be done ahead of time) and pour the mixture into your preheated pan. If you desire you can sauté some peeled apples in butter and sugar and serve them on-top of the pancake, covering it with a sprinkle of icing sugar. I prefer my Dutch pancake savory, so I don’t like any sugar on top. Instead I serve it alongside breakfast sausage and a store-bought fruit salad. Serve the breakfast with coffee and hot chocolate and relax, enjoy and pretend you have a whole extra day (just for a while).

Enjoy!

Tender Dutch Baby

Makes 4 servings

3 large eggs
6 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
6 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons butter or margarine

In a blender or with a whisk beat the eggs with the flour, sugar and milk until smoothly mixed. You can at this point put the mixture into the fridge for a few hours or even overnight. Make sure you cover it and give it a whisk before you use it.

Take a large oven-safe 10- to 12-inch frying pan and place it in a 425 degree oven on the center rack. Add the butter to the pan and let it melt in the oven until it is starting to bubble. Tilt the pan to coat it with the butter and quickly pour in the batter.

Bake until pancake puffs at edges (it may also puff irregularly in the center) and is golden brown, about 15 minutes.

Working quickly, cut into 4 wedges and transfer to dinner plates, using a wide spatula; the wedges may deflate somewhat after cutting. If you prefer you can sprinkle wedges liberally with icing sugar.

Merry Chocolate Pavlova

I made a variation of this dessert this year for Thanksgiving. It was probably the most foreign thing I have ever brought into my in-laws home. This says a lot because my in-laws are kind of the foodie type. They enjoyed it immensely though and it was a big hit.

Pavlova is an Australian dessert named after a Russian ballerina. It is a wonderful meringue concoction, crunchy sweet outside enrobing a gooey, marshmallow-like center. Growing up we didn’t have this dessert necessarily at Christmas, but I do feel a big Pavlova has a festive lean to it.

My mother is fond of buying pre-made individual size meringue shells and filling them with whipped cream and strawberries for a quick and easy dessert for company. I have seen the individual ones for sale here in our neck of the woods, but only at Fairway at 125^th Street in Manhattan. Besides I prefer the homemade shell because I find the store-bought ones to be too crunchy with not enough gooey.

The secret to the goo is the vinegar in the recipe. I’m not sure of the science but I do make meringue cookies a lot too and they need to be crisp and that recipe never has vinegar in it. The traditional Australian topping is whipped cream and passion fruit. Passion fruit is a little too hard to find this time of year and very expensive. I like my Pavlova chocolaty and dark, so I put a little cocoa powder in the egg whites, put a smear of chocolate custard between the Pavlova and the whipped cream and top the thing off with chocolate shavings. I also add fruit of course, usually blackberries or raspberries as their taste goes well with chocolate.

Like I said this dessert is not really Christmas-y but it is a show-stopper and I think would make a lovely addition to a holiday buffet table or even Christmas dinner. The important thing is that this dessert needs to have the parts of it made in advance (usually the night before) and then assembled right before serving.

Enjoy!

Christmas Chocolate Pavlova

Serves 12

Pavlova (recipe below)
Chocolate Custard (recipe below)
1 1/2 cups whipping cream
2 pints blackberries or raspberries
1/2 cup chocolate shavings

Pavlova:
4 large egg whites, room temperature
1 teaspoon cornstarch
2 Tbsp cocoa powder
Pinch of salt
1 teaspoon vinegar
1/2 cup berry sugar
1/2 cup icing sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup semi-sweet or dark chocolate chunks

For the Pavlova: Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Using an overturned bowl or a cake pan as a guide, trace a 10-inch circle onto parchment. Turn parchment over, marked side down.

Beat egg whites, cornstarch, cocoa, salt, and vinegar with a mixer on medium speed until foamy. Gradually add berry sugar. Raise speed to medium-high, and beat until stiff peaks form, about 7 minutes. Reduce speed to medium, and gradually add the icing sugar. Raise speed to medium-high, and beat until very stiff, glossy peaks form, about 7 minutes. Beat in vanilla. Fold in chocolate chunks.

Using a rubber spatula or a large spoon, spread meringue into marked 10-inch circle on prepared baking sheet, forming a well in center.

Bake until outside is firm and bottom lifts easily off parchment, about 4 to 6 hours. (In my experience 5 hours seems to be the magic number). Turn off the oven and leave the Pavlova to cool overnight. When cool, carefully remove from parchment and place on your serving plate. Alternatively the Pavlova can be stored in an airtight container for about 2 to 3 days.

Chocolate Custard
2 cups whole milk
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup cocoa powder
4 teaspoons cornstarch
3 large egg yolks
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon fine salt

For the custard: Put 1 1/2 cups of the milk, the sugar, and the cocoa in a saucepan. Bring to a simmer, over medium-high heat. Remove from the heat.

Meanwhile, whisk the remaining 1/2 cup of the milk, cornstarch, salt, egg yolks, and vanilla in a bowl. Gradually whisk the hot milk into the egg mixture. Return to the saucepan and cook over medium-high heat whisking constantly, until the custard comes to a full boil. Reduce the heat to maintain a simmer, and continue whisking until thick, about 2 or 3 minutes more.

Pour the custard into a bowl and cover with plastic wrap, pushing the plastic wrap right down onto the top of the custard to prevent a skin from forming. Let custard cool completely.

To assemble the Pavlova place the meringue on your serving platter. Whip the cream. Spoon about 1 to 1 1/2 cups of the custard into the well in the Pavlova. Top with the whipped cream, leaving a little bit of a border so you can see the chocolate custard underneath. Decorate the top with the berries and sprinkle with chocolate shavings.

Gingerbread Cupcakes

Last year I was in the full swing of cupcake madness. It has swept nearly every city in North America and I was ready to be pulled along. Then came Christmas and I was not ready to give up my cupcake obsession. A new idea had to be born.

In Calgary there is a restaurant chain that isn’t that amazing, but it is one of the places that everyone goes to, because it is there. It is not terrible, but not exactly innovative and fantastic either. It is one of those restaurants that you know you won’t go wrong when you order the burger or the fettuccine alfredo.

Except at Christmas time when they pull out a great dessert that combined with their fantastic cocktails always leads me to say, “Why don’t we go to Earl’s tonight?” This dessert is a warm gingerbread cake. I’m not a dessert person. I’m the one who would much rather order an appetizer than a dessert, but when it comes to this gingerbread cake I’m hooked.

So last year in the mania that was cupcakes I decided to combine my love for this rich gingerbread cake with a cute cupcake. Earl’s serves theirs with caramelized apples and whip cream, not a very portable concoction; something a cupcake has to be. So instead I decorated the cupcakes with royal icing letting it slide and drip off the sides of the cupcake. I topped it off with a piece of marzipan fruit, something you can find online or in cake decorating stores (and even some grocery stores this time of year). It was such a festive look, the white snowy icing combined with the little piece of fruit. And the icing was perfect on the cupcake, a sweet crunch combined with a richly dense, not overly sweet cake.

Here is the recipe for these glorious cupcakes. You can find the recipe for royal icing here on the blog, under the sugar cookie entry. If you can’t find marzipan just use a festive candy.

Enjoy!

Gingerbread Cupcakes

Makes about 12 cupcakes

5 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup unsulfured molasses
1 egg
1 egg yolk
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon Dutch process cocoa powder
1 1/4 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup hot milk
Preheat the oven to 350. Butter or line with paper liners a 12-cup muffin tin.

Cream 5 tablespoons of the butter with the white sugar. Add the molasses and the egg and egg yolk.

Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, ginger, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg and salt.
Dissolve the baking soda in the hot milk. Add the flour mixture to the creamed mixture and stir until just combined. Stir in the hot milk mixture. Pour the batter evenly into the prepared tin.
Bake at 350 for 20 minutes or until slightly springy to the touch. Allow to cool a few minutes in the pan and remove to a rack to cool.

Once cooled make the royal icing, spread the icing on the top of the cupcakes and don’t worry if it runs down the sides a little, this adds to the effect. Top with the marzipan decoration and allow the icing to harden.

Joan's Chocolate Yummies

When I was growing up Christmas always meant Christmas baking and goodies. My mother is not a cook at all and most of these goodies would be made by my dad or my older sister, or brought over by friends.

There was never any deviation from the menu, always the same goodies every year. This is not a complaint. It is great to have special treats that you only eat at a certain time of year. It would seem so weird to eat shortbread cookies in May, and for that reason they are all the more delicious in December.

Today’s recipe is called Joan’s Chocolate Yummies because that is what they were called on the recipe card in our kitchen. I think they are known by many other names including bird’s nests. One of my favorite seasonal items was always these little melty, chocolatey, crunchy mounds that melt a little in your hand, forcing you to eat them a little more quickly.

It is such a simple recipe, the only hard part for me here on the east coast for the past six years has been finding butterscotch chips. I usually have to order them from Fresh Direct. Joan was my parents’ next door neighbor when we lived in Lake Bonavista and though I have no clue where she is now, her memory lives on in these delightful little chocolate bites.

Enjoy!

Joan’s Chocolate Yummies

Makes about 2 dozen yummies

1 12 oz bag of chocolate chips
1 12 oz bag of butterscotch chips
3 cups chow mein noodles (the crunchy kind)
3 cups rice krispies

Melt the chocolate chips and the butterscotch chips in a bowl above simmering water.

Remove from heat and add the cereal and the chow mein noodles.

Form a yummy by dropping a tablespoon at a time of the mixture onto waxed paper. Let cool overnight and store in an airtight container.

Woo-ing Cookies

I had a roommate in University who wooed with baked goods. He was famous for his pies that definitely got a few girls to look his way. He was taught the art of baking by his mother and I always thought it was so great that here was this cool, masculine guy who knew how to bake a great pie. It’s a skill we should all teach our sons.

One of his other specialties was an amazing recipe for sugar cookies. I’m a sucker for a good sugar cookie and at the time I was trying to woo my very own man so I had my roommate teach me how to make them. The recipe is really simple and can be used at any time of year. The time I got him to show it to me it was right before Valentine’s Day as I was on my way down to New York to visit my boyfriend. Valentine’s Day ended up being our wedding day, coincidence? Maybe, but I like to think the cookies had something to do with it.

This recipe has a simple icing that you can put on the cookies. But this time of year I like to use a royal icing as decoration. Royal icing is the kind that becomes very hard when it cools and you can tint it to any color. The Christmas I was pregnant I made these cookies and my sister and my husband decorated a whole bunch of pregnant snowmen with the icing. (They were regular snowmen without icing). Essential in my opinion to decorating holiday cookies are some sort of sanding sugar or sprinkles. Just walk down the baking aisle at Shoprite here in Hoboken and you’ll find lots of options. So get out your holiday shaped cookie cutters and let’s make some more cookies!

Adam’s Sugar Cookies

Makes about 3 dozen, depending on the size of your cookie cutters

1/2 lb butter (at room temperature)
1 1/2 cup sugar
3 eggs
1 Tbsp. vanilla
1 tsp. almond extract
3 cups flour
1 tsp. b. powder
1/2 tsp. salt

Cream butter and sugar, beat in the eggs.
Stir in vanilla and almond extract.
In a separate bowl sift together dry ingredients.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet.

Chill the dough in the fridge for 3 hrs. Roll out 1/4" thick, and cut out.
Bake at 375 F for 8-10 mins.

Here’s the icing recipe that Adam gave me:

Icing

1 cup icing sugar
4 tsp. hot milk
1/2 tsp. vanilla
2 tsp. lemon juice
food coloring (optional)

Mix together all ingredients together. If it is too thick add more milk, if it is too thin add more icing sugar. Paint onto cooled cookies.

Here’s my recipe for royal icing. By the way I never minded using raw egg whites when I didn’t give these cookies to young kids, but now-a-days there are plenty of people with compromised immune systems around me (pregnant women, elderly people, young kids) so I use either meringue powder, which you can buy online or in cake supply stores, or pasteurized egg whites, and those you can get almost anywhere.

Make sure you make the icing only right before you are ready to decorate the cookies. You can place some in a piping bag and cover the rest of the icing in a bowl with a damp tea towel. That will prevent it from hardening before you are finished.

Royal Icing

3 ounces pasteurized egg whites
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 cups icing sugar

In the bowl of a large stand mixer mix the egg whites and vanilla and beat on high until they start to get frothy.
Slow the machine down and add the sugar gradually. Turn the speed up to high and beat until stiff peaks form. Add food coloring if you want at this point.

Dad's Shortbread

This is the time of year when things really do come speeding at you. It seems like only a few days ago that I was putting my daughter in her Halloween costume and now I’m getting her ready for her picture with Santa.

I find one of the nicest things this time of year is visiting with friends. Pretty soon I’ll be up in Calgary, Canada with my family and one of my favorite things about being home is visits with friends. Along with these visits come the trays and trays of holiday goodies. Some of them get made every year and are tradition; others are newer incantations that are sure to become favorites.

I know I have been remiss in posting recently, but I plan to make up for it this week with plenty of holiday goodies that you can make for your friends and family when they come by.

The first recipe is called in our family “Dee’s Shortbread” though it really has become “Dad’s Shortbread”. It is a simple recipe, only 3 ingredients, and is a true melt-in-your-mouth shortbread. For a hard-core shortbread fan this is the recipe for you, as it is not too sweet, but has the pleasant butter taste that melts on your tongue. I use only French butter in this recipe because when a recipe is this simple it is all about the quality of your ingredients.

Also, I prefer Dad’s Shortbread naked with no decoration, but my dad likes to buy those candied cherries and quarter them and put a quarter of a glistening red or green candied cherry atop each cookie before he bakes them. Your choice, but every since I was a kid I’ve loved the look of the cherries and not the taste. I always picked them off before I ate the cookie.

Here’s the recipe:

Dad’s Shortbread

Makes about 3 dozen cookies (depending on thickness sliced)

1 lb butter at room temperature
1 cup icing sugar (powdered)
3 ½ cups flour

Place all the ingredients in a bowl. Cut with pastry cutter until it resembles a fine meal. Take half (or a third) into clean hands and work and moosh together until it comes together to form a nice golden dough.

Roll each portion of the dough into a log and wrap in plastic wrap or wax paper and refrigerate until cool. Cut and bake at 350 until they just start to turn a nutty brown, about 10 mins. Cool on a wire rack.