Christmas cookie Tree centerpiece
Dec 25, 2011 Cooking & Baking
A couple weeks ago I saw this video of Gail Dosik, of One Tough Cookie, making a Christmas tree out of cookies. I was totally inspired.
I immediately started searching Amazon for graduated cookie cutters and found a set of star-shaped ones from Wilton. I never make a holiday centerpiece. If we have one, it’s because Fiona took it upon herself to make one. So I decided that this year, our centerpiece would be a Christmas cookie tree!
I’m rather glad that I couldn’t find the kind of cutters that Gail used because her tree requires a kind of precision that I just don’t have. Maybe next time. If I take a Valium first.
Last night I made a massive amount of roll-out cookie dough, and this morning made the cookies. At first it seemed like the cookies would take forever, but once I got past the two biggest stars it went a lot faster.
I used Gail’s method for rolling out the dough. Before discovering her secret, I rarely made cut-out cookies because they always looked fairly terrible and tasted even worse, due to all the extra flour I’d have to use to keep them from sticking. But trust me, her method is genius. You’re crazy if you don’t use it.
I’ve never used icing on cookies, so I decided to give it a try. I wanted to outline the cookies in frosting then pour the icing on very thin and let it spread, but I just couldn’t get it thin enough. The recipe I was using said to just keep adding light corn syrup until it was the right consistency but I started getting afraid that it would taste funny. So I spread the frosting to the edges as best I could.
Assembly was really easy, since it didn’t have to be exact. I just had to check every few cookies and make sure the tree wasn’t lopsided.
You can see that some of the frosting near the top gushed out and dripped down. I decided that those looked like icicles and weren’t a mistake. :-)
I sprinkled the whole thing with silver-colored sugar, although I think it would have looked better if I’d done that before stacking the cookies.
I’m quite proud of myself, but this design left a lot of room for error. I’d like to try another one that’s not so haphazard. I think it may be time for some private lessons with Gail. :-)
I made way too much dough, so I let Fiona make some cookies (I think The Ass ate about half of them).
When she got tired of it I made some to share with the choir at Christmas Eve service.
And I still have about a third of the dough left. I might try making some smaller trees with it tomorrow – just the top five or six layers. Maybe I’ll make a whole cookie forest! And populate it with little gingerbread men! And the men will need a house…
I think this is the most relaxing Christmas Eve I’ve ever had. The presents were all wrapped days ago, and I did nothing today but bake.
I hope you all have a nice Christmas, filled with cookies and gifts and family. And if you don’t celebrate Christmas, well, at least your kids will let you sleep in tomorrow.
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has a Compensation Level of 0. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
A butternut squash recipe too good not to post about immediately!
Dec 10, 2011 Cooking & Baking
I just finished dinner. I mean, just. And I had to post about this Butternut Squash Gratin recipe I made for the first time.
For the past few years I’ve been having a love affair with butternut squash. In soup (fourth recipe down), with chickpeas and cous cous, or just roasted with a little butter and brown sugar, I could eat butternut squash every day.
When I saw this recipe online a few days ago I honestly couldn’t imagine how butternut squash would taste with onions, garlic and sage – I’d never prepared anything even close to it before. Well, I can tell you, it tastes just great. Better than great. The next time I’m invited anywhere where I’m supposed to bring a dish, this is the one I’m bringing.
The recipe as written is huge, and I figured the kids wouldn’t touch this (they don’t know what they’re missing!) and my husband was going to a friend’s house for dinner (but I’m sure he’ll join me in leftovers tomorrow), so I cut the recipe in half, and that was plenty. I think I’d have to be feeding over a dozen people to even think about making the full recipe.
There are only a couple of things I would change next time. For one thing, this recipe took over 2 hours start to finish. A lot of that time was spent waiting for the onions to caramelize, and then it spends forty minutes in the oven. So it’s not like all of that is active time. But it did seem like I was making it forever, so next time I’ll probably cube the butternut squash and do the onions the night before – I can’t imaging that reheating the caramelized onions the next day would make a bit of difference. Also, I would cut the onions smaller so that they would caramelize better.
Other than that though, it’s perfect as is! Can’t wait to have more for lunch tomorrow. And, well, probably a bit as I’m putting it away later tonight. :-)
Tags: butternut squash, vegetarian
My Cake Pop adventure
Nov 22, 2011 Cooking & Baking
So I’m not sure when I first got it in my mind to make cake pops. It might have been after I brought a couple of really beautiful NY Cake Pops home for the kids from an event (the Hugh Jackman interview – that’s right, eye candy and dessert), and they raved about them. It might have been when I spent an hour searching for the perfect cake decorating book on Amazon and discovered that cake pops were taking over. Or it might have been the moment I decided to do Slim-Fast and my inner demon said “Cake pops. Cake pops!”
Regardless, I decided to do it, and in true “me” fashion I ordered a bunch of supplies before making even one batch. I ordered a big Styrofoam block to let them dry on, a plastic display stand for serving them (to whom, I had no idea) and little bags and gold twist ties to wrap them in.
But then over the weekend, before any of that stuff had arrived, Fiona and I decided to jump in and make some. I had a layer of yellow cake in the freezer that I hadn’t used because it was really lopsided, so I put Fiona to work breaking that into crumbs.
I wanted to have some kind of vanilla/chocolate flavor contrast, but didn’t have any vanilla frosting to mix with the crumbs (and just didn’t feel like making any), and only had dark chocolate melting chocolate, so I just used those. Fiona mixed everything up by hand – literally – and I took out my new Wilton chocolate melter (which is awesome, by the way).
Fiona made the pops many different sizes, and as much as I wanted to correct her I was also curious as to which size would work best (we discovered that if you make them too small, they fall apart when you put the stick in). We put those in the fridge for an hour.
Then we dipped our sucker sticks in the melted chocolate, stuck them halfway into the pops, and put it all back in the fridge for another half hour.
Jake came over to help dip (yeah, he’s the kind of “helper” who shows up for the fun part and then disappears) and they decorated the pops with chocolate chips, colored sugar, and sprinkles.
We let them sit until they were dry to the touch, then we tried them and oh my GOD they were good. I mean, how could they not be? It’s frosting and cake dipped in chocolate. The next step was to make them look good. And I’m sorry to say, I had to do this without Fiona. Don’t get me wrong, the kids’ turned out really cute, but I get annoying with this stuff. If I can’t make it look professional I’ll just buy it from someone who can.
The only additional supply that had arrived was the Styrofoam block. I covered it in packing tape, got out a ruler, and poked sixteen holes on one side and twenty-five holes on the other (for different sized pops). I put some foil over the top to catch drips. Eventually I think I’m going to get a wood block and drill holes, but who knows when I’ll get around to that. If someone could just sell me one that would be fabulous.
I made a 13x9x2” devil’s food cake from a mix and let it cool completely, then I put it in my stand mixer and mixed it up until it was in pieces. Since the cake was nice and moist it didn’t really get to a crumbly stage like the other one had, but it did get to the point where there were no big pieces.
I added canned chocolate frosting a spoonful at a time until the cake was the consistency of soft Play-Doh (I ended up using 3/4 of a cup).
Now, here’s the part where you’ll start to suspect that I’m a little crazy, but I got out my trusty Oxo kitchen scale and weighed out cake balls 30 grams each. Trust me: if you want to make things a uniform size nothing is as easy as weighing them. The key is to have a scale that can weigh in negative numbers, so that you just keep taking the dough out of the bowl until you’ve reached 30 grams. So much better than eyeballing it.
Once balled up, I put the pan in the fridge for half an hour to chill. About half way through that I pre-heated the Wilton chocolate melter and melted some chocolate, stirring frequently. Then I switched it to the “warm” setting and got the pan from the fridge.
I dipped each sucker stick into the chocolate and pushed them about halfway into the cake balls. I’ve checked out a few sites over the past few days for cake ball advice and even though most of them advised putting the balls back in the fridge before dipping, I didn’t. I let them sit for about fifteen minutes to let the sticks set, then got to dipping. (It’s worth noting though that by the time I got to the last ten, I had to put them back in the fridge – they were totally warm and mushy. So depending on how fast you work, you may or may not have to cool them down again.)
It took me a while to get my technique down so that they came out smooth, but here’s what I ended up with after making about a dozen uglier ones: I dip the ball in and immediately (but gently) tap the stick against my finger to get off excess chocolate. This leaves the chocolate a little lopsided, so I twirl the ball slowly while letting the rest of the excess drip towards the stick. Once the chocolate stops moving and starts to set I put the stick into the Styrofoam.
After about half an hour the cake balls were dry, and I drizzled them with white chocolate. Another fifteen minutes and they were stable enough to be laid down again without wrecking the chocolate. Ideally I would have put them into my new plastic stand, but it isn’t here yet!
Some sites have said to refrigerate them at this point, and some said they would “weep” – that the moisture would escape from the insides and things would get ugly. These are going to my son’s classroom tomorrow for their Thanksgiving feast, and since I routinely leave frosted cake or cupcakes out for forty-eight hours, I think these will be fine too.
I can’t wait until the white dipping chocolate I ordered gets here, because that’s when the fun will begin. Even though I’m not a huge fan of white chocolate, coloring it does make the cutest cake pops.
Now that I’ve got my dipping technique down I want to try something more complicated, from a booklet I was sent to review, Cake Pops & Mini Treats. I need a few more supplies though. Yay, more shopping!
While making these look good is certainly harder than making them taste good, this was a great project for Fiona and me to do together, and I can’t wait to make them with her again. And I promise not to critique her technique. :-)
I visited the following sites to learn the basic techniques for making cake pops:
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has a Compensation Level of 1 (NY Cake Pops, Cake Pops & Mini Treats booklet). Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
Finally, a great biscuit recipe that’s also lightening quick!
Oct 14, 2011 Cooking & Baking
I’ve tried about a half dozen biscuit recipes over the years, trying to find a good one. In order to be a good one in my mind the biscuits don’t just have to taste good, they also have to be easy, relatively quick, and use only ingredients I commonly have on hand. Because I’m not making a turkey and stuffing here, these are biscuits. Like, Oh my God we’re out of frozen bagels what will I put the scrambled eggs and American cheese on. I have to be able to whip them up quick.
So I put out a call to twitter and of course my friend Jennifer Perillo came to my rescue. She recommended this recipe by Dorie Greenspan. I just made them and wow. First of all, from the moment I started to the moment I was spreading butter on one and popping it into my mouth, slightly less than 30 minutes had passed. Second, they used very few dishes and measuring spoons and only a little counter space. Third – which I haven’t tried yet – Dorie says you can cut the dough then freeze it before baking, and pop a few into the oven whenever you need them.
Delicious.
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has a Compensation Level of 0. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
How to make perfect pancakes
Oct 11, 2011 Cooking & Baking
I make pancakes every weekend, and on an occasional weekday if the kids beg hard. Sometimes I make my own batter, but most of the time I use Aunt Jemima Complete mix – just add water!
I’ve learned a few useful things over the years:
- Whether you’re using an electric griddle or a pan, let it preheat for a long time. You want the heat evenly distributed across the whole surface, and you don’t want the temperature to change while you’re in the middle of cooking.
- Don’t mix your batter too much, just enough to get everything incorporated and most of the lumps gone.
- After mixing, let the batter sit for at least ten minutes. Bubbles should form on the top.
- Use vegetable oil to grease the pan. Butter will burn, and olive oil will taste funny.
- Serve the pancakes immediately. You can keep them warm for a short period of time in a 200 degree oven, but they’re best if eaten right away.
- Take the syrup out as soon as possible so that it can come to room temperature. Don’t warm it up – it gets too runny.
And now, how to make perfect pancakes!
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has a Compensation Level of 0. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
Bobby Flay’s egg salad, AKA The Best Egg Salad EVER!
Aug 28, 2011 Cooking & Baking
I like to think my normal egg salad recipe is really good. Mayonnaise, onion, dill, mustard, salt, and pepper are all mixed with hard boiled egg for creamy eggy goodness. And it is. But Bobby Flay’s egg salad recipe is another thing altogether: spicy and tangy with some crunch, it’s a hearty, tasty egg salad that will make you the hero of any bake sale or brunch.
My favorite thing about this egg salad? Bobby Flay made it for me personally. I was at an event last year for Hellmann’s Mayonnaise that was presented to me as a lunch event. So, I didn’t eat lunch before I went. I was hungry when I got there, and by the time the cooking demonstration started I was downright starving.
Bobby Flay (assisted by Lori Laughlin – that’s right, Uncle Jesse’s girl) started by saying he was going to make us three different dishes. The first one, a chicken gyro, looked fantastic, but had meat in it. I salivated a little as it was offered to me, but I had to turn it down because I’m a vegetarian. The second dish – a mini-taco – had some kind of fish in it, and my stomach was starting to hurt.
When he announced the third dish, egg salad, I got excited. I LOVE egg salad! Finally, I’d get a little bit to eat.
I watched in horror as he crumbled turkey bacon into the bowl.
This was too much. Honestly, I was a little pissed (probably hunger-induced – I wasn’t quite thinking clearly). It’s not like I wandered into this event off the street. I was invited. My about page states clearly that I’m a vegetarian. I don’t usually check to see what’s being served at these events because there’s always something without meat in it.
So, I raised my hand, and in front of a whole bunch of bloggers I know, I confessed that I hadn’t been able to eat any of the three yummy-looking dishes he’d made, and could I please have something, anything? I honestly wasn’t asking him to make me anything special. I just thought that since my stomach was audibly growling at this point and I was feeling light-headed, he could toss me an English muffin or a slice of cheese.
There was still one hard-boiled egg sitting there, so Bobby and Lori (yeah, I’m first-naming them – they cooked for me!) whipped up some bacon-less egg salad, just for me! And Bobby himself served it to me. And I’m pretty sure I turned a shade of red I’d never turned before. But it was worth it: it was delicious. I’ve made it about a dozen times since.
I’ve made a few small changes to the recipe. For one thing, I use Morningstar Farms Breakfast Strips instead of turkey bacon. I only have green onions if I’m planning on making this egg salad ahead of time, so I often use regular white onion (but it’s better with green). And I don’t tend to like cheese with my egg salad, so I make this on a variety of breads, usually with lettuce and tomato. But trust me, this is a killer egg salad recipe, no matter how you serve it. You can find Bobby Flay’s Egg Salad recipe here.
Why am I just getting around to posting this now? Because I made it today, and wanted to share.
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has a Compensation Level of 1. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
Tags: Bobby Flay, cooking
In Brooklyn? Let me bake for you this weekend!
May 24, 2011 Cooking & Baking
So last night I posted about a benefit I went to that raised money for pediatric cancer research, and a great giveaway I’m running courtesy of Glad chock full of $125 worth of baking supplies. I’m also holding my own bake sale this weekend to raise money for Cookies for Kids’ Cancer, and since I don’t live in a very high-traffic area I’m going to be delivering the goodies. So for your donation (100% of which will go to Cookies for Kids’ Cancer) you will get my amazing baked goods delivered right to your door! If you’re in Brooklyn you can not pass this up.
If the donation amounts look a little…generous, please remember that it’s for charity. And it’s coming right to you. Plus, Glad is matching the donations from bake sales in May (up to $225,000) so your donation could mean twice as much. Details on this charity and holding your own bake sale are in my previous post.
If you would like to buy any of the baked goods this weekend please email me. I will be taking payment through PayPal so that I’m not going to strangers’ houses laden with cash. There is a $10 minimum per order. Here’s what I’m offering, and anyone who knows me would attest to how awesome these are:
Guittard Chocolate Chip Cookies
Made with semi-sweet Guittard chocolate discs, every bite of these hearty cookies is filled with chocolaty goodness. They’re made from a Jennifer Perillo recipe, which gives you an extra assurance that they’ll be delicious.
$20/dozen
Rich & Gooey Brownies
My brownies are legendary at school bake sales. Teachers try to sneak in early to buy up a bunch before the general public. Friends request them when they come over for lunch. And I’ve been known to eat more of them than I’ll admit publicly after everyone else has gone to bed – they’re impossible to resist!
With or without walnuts, your choice.
$25/double batch size (13x9x2)
$15/single batch size (9×9)
Buttery Cinnamon Buns
I only discovered this recipe a few days ago, but thanks again to Jennifer Perillo, I now have the ultimate cinnamon bun recipe. Comes complete with a generous side of cream cheese frosting.
$20/batch (12 medium-sized buns)
Sour Cream Chive Potato Bread
My waistline really rues the day when I discovered this bread recipe from King Arthur Flour. Moist and flavorful, this bread is perfect on its own, although my husband has been known to make some pretty decadent sandwiches with it.
$9/loaf, two for $16
Rustic Sourdough Bread
I’ve been nursing my sourdough starter for about a month now and can’t get enough of this bread. Chewy and tangy, it’s from this King Arthur Flour recipe.
$8/loaf, two for $14
Banana Bread
There’s something to be said for simple, moist banana bread – no bells and whistles, just deliciousness. Walnuts optional.
$8/loaf, two for $14
Zucchini Bread
Nothing smells like zucchini bread: cinnamon and nutmeg mixed with zucchini combine for one of the most drool-worthy scents of all time. Walnuts optional.
$8/loaf, two for $14
So there you have it! All of you who’ve been commenting and tweeting about how much you’d like to taste my baked goods, if you’re in Brooklyn, time to put your money where your mouth is! Email me and we’ll work out a delivery time.
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has a Compensation Level of 9. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
Mashed cauliflower & muesli–but not together!
Mar 22, 2011 Cooking & Baking
When I travel I tend to not worry at all about how I eat. That’s not to say I necessarily eat worse than I do at home, it’s just that I’m not thinking about healthy eating at all. I order what I want, since I enjoy it so much when other people are making food for me. And when I encounter a buffet, don’t get in my way: you could get trampled.
But after days of hotel, restaurant, airport, and fast food, I’m usually craving something made by my own hands. So it was no surprise that I made two different homemade dishes today, the day after getting home from a working vacation at Disney World (where the food was awesome, by the way!).
The first was mashed cauliflower and potatoes. People have been telling me for years that I would like this, and they were right. Actually, they were telling me I should mash plain old cauliflower, but I wasn’t ready to make that jump yet, so I did roughly half and half, potatoes and cauliflower. It was so very tasty! I think next time I might up the amount of light ranch dressing and put in less butter, or maybe even no butter – it was the ranch taste that really made this dish rock and I want to bring that out more. I also probably would have added a little milk, but didn’t have any at the time.
Mashed Cauliflower and Potatoes
- Peel a pound of potatoes and cut into 2” chunks. Boil until soft.
- Steam a pound of cauliflower florets until soft.
- Mash together with a potato masher.
- Add 2 tablespoons butter and 4 tablespoons Hidden Valley Ranch Light Ranch Dressing.
- Add salt and pepper to taste.
- Whip with hand mixer until smooth.
- Serve hot.
Next was a really quick and simple breakfast recipe that I learned from “Chef Gary” Jones, Disney World’s dietary specialist. I met him a few weeks ago when I was down in Disney World for Disney’s Princess 1/2 Marathon. Afterwards, while I was still aching and very hungry, he taught our press group how to make Birchermuesli, a Swiss cereal concoction. Since I didn’t have any milk in the house until mid-afternoon I made this for a snack, but will be eating the rest for breakfast tomorrow.
This turned out very well and is so adaptable. I’m giving you the original recipe as it was given to me by Chef Gary, but I made a few changes today: I used only apples (I didn’t have any pears), and I left out the dried fruits (didn’t have any and I’m not crazy about them anyway). I used 1% milk, non-fat plain yogurt, Quaker oats, and chopped walnuts. I even had an actual lemon on hand. It was incredibly yummy. Next time I’m going to try adding a little coconut – I think the flavors would go well together.
Birchermuesli
Servings: 10
Ingredients
- 2 cups Oat Flakes (Raw Oatmeal)
- 2 cups Skim Milk
- 1 cup Plain Low Fat Yogurt
- ½ cup Dried Blueberries
- ½ cup Walnuts, Chopped
- ½ lemon
- 2 Apples
- 1 Pear
- ¼ cup Brown Sugar
Directions
1. Soak the oat flakes in the milk and yogurt for about 15 minutes
2. Add the dried blueberries and the chopped nuts. Mix.
3. Squeeze and juice the lemon into the bowl and mix.
4. Shred the apples and pear on a cheese grater and stir into the mixture.
5. Add the brown sugar and mix.
6. Taste and adjust to your own preference.
Hints and serving suggestions:
• Instead of pears and apples, you may use any fresh fruit available at the market.
• Instead of whole milk, you may use buttermilk, whole or reduced fat milk, soy milk, almond milk, oat milk, goat milk, Lactaid, rice milk or other to meet your individual needs.
• You may also use Kefir instead of yogurt.
• The choice of dried fruits and nuts is totally your preference.
• Each item can be modified to suit your individual taste. The Birchermuesli will last approximately 2 days in the refrigerator after which oxidation of the fruits may make the product darker in color and less visually appealing.
There you have it! Two easy, tasty, and healthy recipes. Between the cauliflower mash, the muesli, and the fact that I went on the treadmill this morning, I’m feeling like superwoman.
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has Compensation Levels of 7 & 8 (1/2 Marathon trip) and 8 (Hidden Valley Ranch). Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information. Amy also blogs at Filming In Brooklyn, Behind the Screen, and Momtourage, and podcasts with The Blogging Angels.
Tags: Disney Princess Half Marathon, Disney World, Food, Recipes
