This March was in like a lion, out like a lamb, just as it’s supposed to be, right and good. It’s a slow-brewing Easter revelation: for the past several days, we’ve had our eye on the forecast and those double digits creeping up from 40s to 50s to 70s. We’ve been talking about the weather forecast in awed, hushed tones: it’s going to be 75°F by Thursday! Maybe 80°F on Friday!

We so want to be true believers in meteorology, just this once. We’re ready, after months of snow and ice and wind and mud, to prostrate ourselves at the altar of the Mighty Blue Screen of Meteorological Prophecy.

And today, we are believers. It’s 56°F right now. We see whispers on Facebook: our Chicago friends wax poetic in their status updates about their glorious weather, and we close our eyes and smile, knowing that what’s in Chicago today will be here tomorrow.

in the hippie spirit

And since I’m in this warm hippie spirit, I’ll offer up a foodstuff so linked to hippes that it became an adjective all its own. I’m not too granola myself, but having gone to school in Ann Arbor, I’ve mingled with the granola crowd.

And let me tell you, they’re on to something. This maple granola, from King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking: Delicious Recipes Using Nutritious Whole Grains, is precisely what I’ve missed in every granola I’ve had until this point: fresh, balanced, and just crunchy enough. It doesn’t make large clusters of granola; rather, maple granola is more suited for the cereal bowl. I can’t tell you quite how it is as cereal though, because it became my habit to put a bit into a custard cup and spoon it, dry.

I was really happy with this maple granola and hey, it’s low-maintenance: stir it all together, a couple hours in the oven with 2 stirs, then store in an airtight container forever. Yay!

maple granola

I made half this recipe for 8 cups. Remember, granola is infinitely customizable. Substitute your own favorite nuts and dried fruit. Go crazy. You have my permission. Speaking of permission, this recipe is reprinted from King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking: Delicious Recipes Using Nutritious Whole Grains…with permission!

Yield: 16 cups
Oven: 250°F
Total time: 2½ hours

7 cups (24½ ounces) old-fashioned rolled oats

1 cup (3 ounces) flaked coconut

1 cup (4 ounces) wheat germ

1 cup (5 ounces) almonds, sliced or broken up

1 cup (3¾ ounces) pecans or walnuts, chopped or broken up
1 cup (5 ounces) sunflower seeds, raw or toasted

½ teaspoon salt

1 cup (11 ounces) maple syrup

¾ cup (5¼ ounces) vegetable oil

1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 cup (5¼ ounces) golden raisins
1 cup (4 ounces) dried cranberries

1 cup (4½ ounces) chopped dried apricots




Preheat the oven to 250°F. Combine the oats, coconut, wheat germ, nuts, seeds and salt in a very large bowl. Mix well. In a separate bowl, whisk together the maple syrup, oil and vanilla. Pour the syrup mixture over the dry mixture, stirring and tossing till everything is very well combined; its probably easiest to do this with your hands.



Spread the granola over 2 large baking sheets with rims. Your cleanup will be much easier if you line them with parchment paper.



Bake for 2 hours, stirring the mixture after 1 hour or so. Remove the pans from the oven and let cool completely. Transfer the granola to a large bowl and mix in the dried fruit.



Store in an airtight container at room temperature.



© Amy for Shiny Cooking, 2010. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: almonds, coconut, dried apricots, dried cranberries, maple syrup, oats, pecans, raisins, sunflower seeds, walnuts, wheat germ

Man, the Christmas cookie recipes and pics are piling up. Hmm, I seem to have developed an obsession with them this year.

I had some trepidation about posting this particular Christmas cookie. As I wrestled with rolling out endless walnut-sized lumps of dough, making crescents seemed a lot fussier to me than it did last year. I distinctly remember the dough being a joy to work with: smooth and pliable, not like silly putty, but better.

This year the dough was still quite pliable, but behaved much more stickily. Rather than flour, this recipe uses confectioners’ sugar to smooth out handling and rolling, and I found myself using the powdery stuff quite liberally.

However, the end result? “This is the cookie Grandma was trying to make,” intoned my aunt Linda. “These are lighter, flakier, and…mmm….” and her speech devolved into sounds of food enjoyment.

The cookie she speaks of is descended from the eastern European “kipfel” — a barely sweet dough made with sour cream that is wrapped about a walnut filling. They’re a relative of rugelach, if you’re familiar with those. Unlike rugelach, they’re more demanding: rather than roll out a large circle of dough, spreading filling and cutting it into wedges which are then rolled, nutty crescents are made from individual balls of dough, rolled into 6-inch circles and then filled and rolled into a crude crescent, or horn, shape.

The main difference is both the lack of fruit and that the filling is (mostly) contained. In spite of a bakers’ best intentions, a bit of filling often oozes out the ends. But you know what? That’s okay, because the tidbits of caramelized filling on the ends are tasty in themselves.

Nutty crescents aren’t hard, per se; beyond beating the egg whites, there are no complicated maneuvers. However, you should set aside a good couple hours of pure hands-on time for rolling and filling.

And I’ve gone ahead and decided to post them because, in spite of feeling they were a bit fussy, the end result is so delectable that the trouble is worth it.

nutty crescents

You’ll need 4 eggs total. Three separated for the dough and filling, and one beaten egg on its own in the filling. Recipe source: Grandma D. Transcribed from chickenscratch and edited for clarity.

prep: 45 minutes, then waiting for dough/filling to chill
bake: 15-20 minutes
servings: about 3 dozen cookies
oven: 350 degrees

Dough:

1 cup butter, softened
3 beaten egg yolks (reserve whites for filling)
1 cup sour cream, room temperature
3 cups of flour
1-1/2 teaspoons of baking powder
1/4 teaspoon of salt

———-
Filling:

1-1/2 cups of chopped nuts (I use walnuts)
1 cup sugar
1 beaten egg
1 teaspoon butter, softened
2 teaspoons milk (water is all right too)
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 egg whites, stiffly beaten
copious amounts of confectioners’ sugar, for rolling out the dough

Make the dough:

In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, and salt.

In a large bowl, cream the butter, three egg yolks, and sour cream. The mixture won’t be smooth; the sour cream will persist in remaining in small bits. Just keep mixing until the bits are pea-sized or smaller. Mix in the dry ingredients. Separate dough into two pieces, wrap each piece securely in plastic wrap, and chill for at least two hours, or overnight. Keep dough cold.

Make the filling:

If you haven’t yet, beat the egg whites until they form stiff peaks. In a medium bowl, mix together chopped nuts, sugar, one beaten egg, butter, milk, and vanilla. Fold into the stiffly beaten egg whites. Cover and chill for at least two hours, or overnight

Get ready to bake:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheet(s) with parchment.

If you let your bits chill overnight, the egg whites in the filling may have begun to destabilize. Don’t worry; it won’t affect the finished product. Gently stir the re-liquefied egg whites back into the filling using the same motions you do when folding, so as not to disturb the still-intact beaten egg whites too much.

Keep dough chilled as much as possible while putting these together. When the dough warms, it gets sticky and difficult to work with. Use one half of the dough at a time, leaving the other in the fridge.

Preparing each crescent:

Using your hands, form a walnut-sized ball from the dough. You’ll be rolling this out. Dust your rolling surface with confectioners’ sugar, and the rolling pin as well. A cloth rolling pin cover and mat are very helpful here. Roll out the ball of dough as thin as it will go — about 6 inches in diameter. Use confectioners’ sugar liberally if the dough seems to be sticking at all. Don’t worry; you really can’t use too much.

Spread a teaspoon of filling, covering about 2/3 of the dough circle and keeping clear of the edges. Roll up the circle around the filling, saving the 1/3 empty side for last. This is to compensate for the filling spreading a bit as it’s pushed by the rolling. However, just roll gently; it’s counterproductive to roll it super-tightly. With your fingertips, pinch the edges of the dough closed, bend it to form a curve, if desired, and lay seam-side down on a baking sheet.

Repeat until sheet is filled, leaving an inch or two space between each nutty crescent.

Bake for 15-20 minutes. Remove to a wire rack to cool.

© Amy for Shiny Cooking, 2009. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: ap flour, walnuts

Guess what? I actually got off my arse and did some research for y’all this time.

moops?

See, the cookie we call Mexican wedding cakes, or Russian tea cakes, or polvorones in Spain, or melting moments in Australia actually has a common descendent: the “sandie” type cookie first developed by the Moors in the Middle Ages, medieval Arabs being very fond of sweets.

Most commonly known as Mexican wedding cakes or Russian tea cakes here in the U.S., they’re a buttery, not-too-sweet cookie made with finely chopped nuts. The cookie is shaped like a ball, and rolled twice in powdered sugar after baking. The first dusting of sugar is done while warm, which allows the sugar to absorb slightly into the cookie and keeps its crust from getting hard. Since the first sugar dusting usually melts into near-invisibility, a second coating of sugar is applied to make the cookies pretty.

It’s important to note that Mexican wedding cakes are never baked until browned (else they’d be dry and overdone), so one has to trust one’s recipe for the time and one’s nose for clues as to when they’re done. It’s amazing how many things, when cooking, are “done” when you begin to smell them.

I’ve never seen them in Mexico (someone can correct me if I’m wrong), and in fact the first recipe by this name began appearing in community cookbooks in the 1950s. My mom has it in the out-of-print and highly sought after Betty Crocker’s Cooky Book, originally published in 1963.

I’ve been making Mexican wedding cakes as a Christmas cookie for a few years now, after Mom dropped them from her repertoire. Unlike nutty crescents or miloste they’re not a longstanding family tradition, so I felt safe in trying the barley flour version in the King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking cookbook.

I asked Mom if food photography was really this ugly back in the day, or whether I’m just being overly critical and the photos had faded over time. She said no, it was that way when new, too. Nice.

sexed up

This is a sexed up Mexican wedding cake cookie. The regular version is spiced only with vanilla. This one not only has a tablespoon of vanilla instead of a teaspoon, it adds almond extract and lemon zest. The two new flavorings broaden the spectrum of this delicate cookie, adding notes both deep and tangy. I like it, but if you prefer your MWC unsexified, leave out the almond extract and lemon zest and cut the vanilla in half.

This recipe calls for processing the nuts with the oats and barley flour to a very fine consistency. My taste tester, Dad, said he missed biting into walnut pieces. You could finely chop the walnuts separately instead of processing them into the flour.

However, I recommend trying them this way, since I found this version to be a reliable recipe, good-tasting, and close enough to the original that guests will simply think, “Wow, this is a really good cookie,” and not, “My gods, what have they done to this cookie!?”

Mexican wedding cakes, or Russian tea cakes cookies

This recipe is adapted from King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking, aka My Favorite Baking Cookbook Ever. Reprinted with permission.

prep: 30 minutes
bake: 15 minutes
servings: about 41 cookies
oven: 325 degrees
special equipment: food processor

1-1/3 cups (4-5/8 ounces) old-fashioned rolled oats
1 cup (4 ounces) whole barley flour
2/3 cup (2-5/8 ounces) walnuts
11 tablespoons (5-1/2 ounces) unsalted butter
1/2 cup (2 ounces) confectioners’ sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract
grated zest of 1 lemon, chopped finely
1 cup confectioners’ sugar for coating

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Get out two baking sheets. Leave them naked. You may wear clothes if you like.

Optional: toast the walnuts before processing. Put the walnuts in a pan over medium heat, shaking occasionally. Heat several minutes, until you begin to smell walnuts. It’s better to remove the nuts from the heat sooner rather than later, because overheating the oils in the nuts results in a burnt flavor, while a nut that’s a bit undertoasted is much more minor, and still better than one that hasn’t been toasted at all.

Place oats, barley flour, and walnuts in a food processor. Process for 30 seconds, or until everything is finely ground.

Beat the butter, sugar, and salt in a medium bowl until smooth. Beat in vanilla extract, almond extract, and lemon zest. Mix in the processed oats, barley and walnuts.

Using your hands, roll bits of dough into teaspoon-size balls, no more than an inch around. Place the balls on your baking sheets, leaving about 1-1/2 inches between them. The original recipe says it yields 41 cookies; I got 51. Whichever end you tend towards, you will fill up two baking sheets.

Bake both pans at once, one on a top rack and one on a low rack, for 15 minutes. Switch the pans around midway through baking, to ensure evenness. They won’t have begun to brown, except perhaps very slightly around the bottom edge.

While the cookies are baking, spoon about 1 cup of confectioners’ sugar into a gallon-size plastic bag.

Remove the cookies from the oven and allow them to cool for 5 minutes. Place the warm cookies in the bag and shake gently to coat with sugar. Remove the cookies, allow them to cool completely, then shake them in the powdered sugar again, adding more sugar to the bag if necessary. Place the cookies on the rack once more, to allow time for the sugar to adhere, before serving or storing.

© Amy for Shiny Cooking, 2009. | Permalink | 9 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: barley flour, oats, walnuts

Now there’s a mouthful. Know why? Because it’s so versatile. It works for the gluten-free folks. It works for the pie folks. It works for the tart folks. It works for the don’t-make-me-get-out-the-rolling-pin folks.

Even better, this walnut-oat pie crust recipe is just a prelude to the fresh blueberry pie I made it with, coming up soon. Thought I’d get you going with this amazing crust first, because it will work with more than just blueberry pies. It’ll work with cheesecake, other pies, all sorts of tarts.

And it’s press-in-the-pan easy.

the mad day of baking for gun lake

Last week, as usual, I totally miscalculated time to food ratios. I was leaving on Thursday to visit J and B at the lake and for some reason I dicked around doing comp stuff all of Tuesday, totally forgetting this meant I’d overcompensate on Wednesday in a mad rush.

Wednesday I wound up making a double batch of no longer gluten-free chocolate chip cookies, a variation I use when doubling that replaces some of the oat flour with white whole wheat. Makes for a more traditionally taller cookie.

Then, or rather simultaneously — I wound up washing a lot of dishes that day — I tried out KAF’s zucchini bread. KAF, I love your cookbook, but one of your recipe developers has a serious nutmeg fetish. Many of the recipes have about twice the nutmeg I’d normally add to things, taste-wise, and I like nutmeg. On the bright side, my victims friends thought it was just the right amount.

The zucchini bread came out fine, cooled fine, cut a few slices to photograph, perfect texture. Until it sat a few hours, and became an uber-moist blob. Ick. All I can think is perhaps I should have chopped the zucchini up more finely after grating it, or let it sit and drain a bit before adding to the batter. Maybe my zucchinis are just really watery. It improved upon toasting, at least, and K liked it a lot that way. :p

Also simultaneously, I was madly putting together this crust and the blueberry pie, which I’ll go into in more detail in the next post. I know. Such a tease.

a more awesome crust you will not find

No siree. Not if you like oats and walnuts. And if you don’t like those, you don’t like food, and you aren’t reading this anyway.

It’s a crunchy crust, of decent thickness, about 1/4 inch. Crunchy kind of like those crunchy granola bars, but not to quite that tooth-breaking extent. The crunchiness crumbles right away in your mouth, and the butter and brown sugar enhance the warm toasty flavor of the baked oats and walnuts. This walnut-oat crust is the perfect foil for lightly sweetened fresh fruit pies. I’d like to try it with the currant pie. I bet cream pies like that would work great with the contrast of smoothness and crunch.

Look no further. This is the perfect press-in-pan crust.

gluten-free walnut-oat pie or tart crust

italic:
This recipe is adapted from King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking, aka My Favorite Baking Cookbook Ever. Reprinted with permission.

prep: 20 minutes
total time: 35 minutes
servings: 8
special equiment: food processor, 9- or 10-inch pie plate
oven: 350 degrees

1-1/3 cups old-fashioned or quick-cooking rolled oats (not instant)
1 cup walnuts
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt

Spread the oats in a round cake pan. Spread the walnuts in another round cake pan. Bake the walnuts until they smell toasty and are beginning to brown, about 8 minutes. Bake the oats until they begin to brown, 15 to 18 minutes. Watch both the oats and the walnuts carefully; they go from brown to burned quite quickly.

After removing the walnuts from the oven, let them cool for a few minutes. Then, while the oats are still toasting, coarsely chop them. There’s no need for fineness as they’re going into the food processor.

When the oats are done, remove them from the oven. Transfer both the toasted oats and chopped toasted walnuts to a food processor. Add the sugar and salt and drizzle in the melted butter.

Process until the oats and walnuts are finely ground and the mixture is cohesive. Happily for us, this stage will be obvious — all the ingredients will be moist and stick together.

Remove the mixture from the food processor and press into the bottom and up the sides of a 9- or 10-inch pie plate (not deep dish) that’s at least 1-1/4 inches deep, or a similar tart pan.

Bake at 350 degrees until it’s just barely beginning to brown, 14 minutes. Remove from the over and set it on a rack to cool. Use with your favorite prebaked-crust pie or tart recipes.

Variation: Use pecans instead of walnuts.

© Amy for Shiny Cooking, 2009. | Permalink | 15 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: oats, walnuts