Holiday Traditions

I’m too impatient to enjoy piping and flooding sugar cookies alone. In fact, I find it tedious and virtually impossible. I know some of you feel differently and look at the art of cookie decorating as therapeutic. But for those of us with a shaky hand (especially after a few too many cups of coffee) and a lack of artistic ability, it’s not therapy. In fact it may be the trigger that gets me to a shrink.

But look at the picture. I am so proud. I feel like I can brag a bit since I’ve really worked hard over the years to get to the point of being able to create such pretty cookies. Don’t look too closely though, since they are far from perfect--- no straight lines or smooth edges. My decorated masterpieces are more like impressionistic paintings; viewed best from a distance.

This year my friend Jenn wasn’t able to join me in my annual cookie making tradition. She’s now a professional baker after opening The Little Daisy Bakeshop in Montclair NJ, an amazing little dream come true for her. I have Jenn to thank for teaching me most of what I’ve learned (as I’ve written about through the years). I missed her tremendously this year but my friend Christina proved to be a darn good substitute.

For starters, Christina was kind enough to host our cookie decorating in her spacious kitchen, allowing my sloppy self to spread out comfortably among stacks of cooling racks, baking sheets, sprinkles and icing. She mixed and colored the icing, as Jenn used to do, getting the perfect consistency for the edges and filling and also helped me roll and cut some last minute chocolate cookie dough. But most importantly, Christina was there for the encouragement I always need for the project, my gentle nudge to get it done and ultimately, my way to enjoy an otherwise challenging project. I bounced my decorating ideas off of her as she willingly shared unique ways to design whimsical cookies. More often than not, she left her own cookies to make more icing or demonstrate a design idea. We spent five enjoyable hours together, baking and decorating while talking endlessly about who knows what.

This year I used Martha Stewart’s basic roll out sugar cookie recipe, which yields a flatter cookie. I really like the way the chocolate cookies turned out, especially the mittens, and have Wilton to thank for that recipe. Royal Icing is royal icing and as Christina says, you just mix the confection sugar, water and Just Whites slowly until you get the fluffy and tasty consistency you’re looking for.

Holiday traditions, baking, cooking or entertaining, don’t just enrich our lives. Sometimes they make something possible that otherwise could not have happened. Once again I will proudly present these cookies as hostess gifts and to teachers, relishing every bit of their ooh’s and aah’s. I worked hard for those!

Carrot Muffins, Biscotti and a Good Old Fashioned Lunch

Sometimes it’s hard to see friends. Busy lives and lots of work often interfere with good intentions. That’s why I set aside several hours last Wednesday morning for my friend Jackie. We started with a jog around the park, exercising together while planning what we’d bake later. Jackie had a delicious salad and soup planned for lunch, so maybe something sweet for dessert. Since I just received several pounds of early carrots from my CSA, we decided it would have to be something carroty. And because I also needed to test the chocolate biscotti recipe I had created, I decided to get some “work” done as well.

Jackie peeled the carrots, saving all the scraps for my compost, while I got the biscotti ready to bake. I joked about how happy I was that she performed the carrot peeling job, and she reminded me that’s why we cook with friends. And it sure is! I was dreading peeling those darn carrots, testimony to why they’d been sitting in my refrigerator for a few weeks. Even though they are quite tasty, they weren’t the big easy-to-peel ones, but rather small and thin ones, probably why I had gotten so many for “free” from my CSA farmer. But that’s what friends (or at least cooking with friends) are for!

And, payment for carrot peeling would be half of my biscotti. Not a bad deal! I grated the carrots and we created some delicious muffins together. The only question left? What to top them with! Jackie suggested a cream cheese frosting, which I snuck some cardamom into.

In the midst of baking, our friend Debbie stopped by to say hello. As we were chatting with her, we put her to work on the frosting. As you can see, our cupcakes benefited from the art teacher in her with squiggles and swirls. Voila! A delicious and festive carrot cake muffin with cardamom frosting was created by three friends. And then we sat down to a delicious al fresco lunch in Jackie’s backyard on a beautiful spring day.

Here’s our recipe.

Carrot Muffins with Cardamom Frosting
Makes 12

¼ cup canola oil
2 tablespoons butter, softened
1 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 cup unbleached white flour
¾ cups white whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
2 cups shredded carrots
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon cinnamon

Pre-heat the oven to 325 degrees. Prepare a 12 muffin tin, spraying well with baking spray. Set aside.

Beat together the oil and butter. Add the sugar, vanilla and eggs, one at a time. Mix in the flour, baking powder and baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Fold in the carrots. Divide the mixture evenly among the tin, filling ¾ of the way. Bake in the oven for approximately 20-22 minutes until firm to the touch. Cool and frost if desired.

Frosting:
1 cup cream cheese
½ cup powdered sugar
1 ½ teaspoons ground cardamom
½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Whip all ingredients together until creamy. Place in a sandwich bag, cut a small hole in one corner and frost as you wish!

Cookies and cream

Actually, it was macaroons and banana cream pie! Egg Beaters were whirring, coconut was everywhere and the baking sheets lined up and ready to cook last Wednesday in my petit, well-used kitchen. It was the fourth year in a row that Jackie and I made macaroons together and since our friend Debbie was off from work that day, she decided she’d join us as well. My kitchen was hopping, a bit crowded actually, so we worked in stages. Instead of making all three batches at once, we took turns using the bowls, beater and of course, the oven. It was a less messy and more efficient strategy for three bodies to work together in one small space.

As we waited for our decadent treats to bake to a golden finish, we sat down in my dining room to enjoy a simple lunch of potato leek soup and freshly made bread. The timer went off every twelve minutes, interrupting our serene meal, as we took turns running in and out of the kitchen to place some macaroons to cool and others to bake. We chatted away, catching up on our busy lives.

The leftover egg yolks spurred a last minute idea to make banana cream pie. My Joy of Cooking cookbook came out as Debbie ran home to get her pre-made graham cracker crusts. It was a true team effort as we worked together to whisk the sugar, milk and corn starch into a creamy custard, thinly slice the bananas and then layer both into a decadent pie. We laughed as Debbie realized she hadn’t “scolded” the milk prior to the whisking, as I told her it’s never nice to yell at your milk.

Our friend Lou said the macaroons were the best he and his wife had ever had and the kids couldn’t believe they had banana cream pie for dessert on an ordinary Wednesday.

It was a winning Wednesday – good food, good fun and good friends!

The banana cream pie recipe is from the Joy of Cooking cookbook but here is my recipe for chocolate chip macaroons.

Coconut Macaroons with mini Chocolate Chips
Makes two dozen

8 ounces sweetened angel flake coconut
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2/3 cup sweetened condensed milk
1 stiffly beaten egg white
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 cup mini chocolate chips

Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. Mix coconut, vanilla extract, salt and condensed milk together in a mixing bowl. Beat egg white until stiff. Fold the egg white into the coconut. Add the mini chips and mix carefully. Form the coconut mixture into mounds and place one inch a part onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake in the oven until golden for approximately 12- 14 minutes. Remove the macaroons carefully using a small spatula and cool on a rack.

"B" is for bake with me

I received an e-mail recently as I often do, with a request for some baking help for my daughter’s school. This time it was a specific request for a few hundred butter cookies in the shape of a letter B, decorated in school spirit colors, blue and yellow. I noticed that my friend Christina was also on the e-mail so before responding I sent her a note suggesting we bake and then decorate together. It’s just so much easier and enjoyable to volunteer with a friend. Christina agreed and we accepted the job.

Although I will occasionally bake something simple like a batch of chocolate chip cookies or banana bread alone for a school event, giving many hours of time to create hundreds of decorated cookies is a whole different story, one I’d much rather do with a friend. The cooking with friends’ way of life offers a simple way to give back to the community in a fun and rewarding way. In this case, Christina and I had both been busy and hadn’t really gotten together to cook or bake in a while anyway. This opportunity offered up some necessary catch up time.

And, for those of you interested in the logistics of our baking date, here they are:

Last Tuesday was the second day of spring and I awoke to a front yard covered with snow and no heat. Needless to say, I was a bit down (not the best way to start the day) and had to wait around for the heating guy while Christina got things started. She had the dough nicely chilled and some letters already cut and ready-to-bake when I arrived. We cut, baked and made icing together and then before we started with the decorating, I suggested we make banana bread as well – a bonus for our time together. She readily agreed and pulled 8 overripe bananas from her freezer. I ran home to get more bananas and some other ingredients. I hurriedly mixed a few batches of banana bread while she got things ready for the decorating phase of our cookie making.

Later, while we sat on stools facing one another methodically outlining cookies with icing and dipping them in sugar, our banana breads baked while we chatted away about life and our kids. Christina even whipped up a quick falafel pita sandwich lunch for us to eat. With a whopping 220 sparkling blue and yellow cookies, several loaves of banana bread, our three hours together, was a huge success.
It was a modern and efficient way to spend time and lunch with a friend. And although my day started out gloomy, it ended with a smile and a sense of accomplishment: girl time + volunteer time = an excellent day.

Big Batch Bonus Banana Bread
Makes 2 large loaves, 8 mini loaves or 48 mini muffins

1 stick of butter, softened
4 eggs
7 very ripe bananas
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
½ cup apple sauce
1 cup white sugar
¾ cup brown sugar
1 cup white whole wheat flour
½ cup wheat germ
2 ½ cups white flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
3 teaspoons baking powder
Pinch of salt
½ cup milk
2 cups mini chocolate chips (optional)

Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. Beat together the butter, sugars, apple sauce and bananas. Add the eggs and vanilla extract. Beat well. Gradually add the flour, baking soda, powder and wheat germ and blend well. Mix in the milk, fold in the chips and transfer to loaf or muffin pans sprayed with baking spray. If baking mini loaves, you’ll need approximately 40 minutes. If making mini muffins, bake for less time and of course large loaves will take longer – approximately and hour.