country bread; a tuesdays with dorie post

zero...the thermometer said zero.  by nashville standards, that is beyond cold.  staying warm in that kind of cold is a challenge.  there is only so much clothing one person can wear.  the thermostat can only go so high before you run up a tremendous bill.  it is also a perfect excuse to turn on the oven and bake a batch of bread.

this week, the tuesday with dorie bakers mixed up a batch of country bread.  this simple loaf is a perfect addition to a pot of hot soup.

the recipe uses a sponge that sits for a few hours but i let mine sit overnight.  the kitchen was pretty cool due to the cold weather.  that extra time allowed the bread to develop more flavor.  the recipe also called for using a bread basket-a banneton.  amazingly, i do not own one!  instead, i use this little basket.  the pattern it makes on the loaf is eye catching.

and yes it is just another of my thrift store finds.

the loaf gets folded and shaped and folded and shaped and folded and shaped again.  i cut 4 slits across the top-it seemed like a good idea.  here it is on the peel, ready to go in the oven.

and the slits are something i probably need to work on...the ends of the loaf sort of popped out.  this recipe makes a huge loaf of bread!  i could have easily made a half batch and had plenty for the two of us.  the soft, moist bread also kept well for several days and made wonderful toast too!

the pattern that the basket makes in the crust with the flour.

the crumb is nicely textured with a little chewiness from the whole wheat and rye flour used in the recipe.  to see the recipe, visit the site of a fellow tuesdays with dorie blogger, one clever mom, who has posted the recipe.  to see the posts of the other bakers, visit the tuesdays with dorie website.

caramel apple cake

the weather is a little crazy.  yesterday it was in the 50's in the morning and by early evening, it was raining, sleeting and snowing all at once.  it changed over to snow, we got our annual dusting and the temperature dropped like a rock!  it is 9 degrees outside right now...

before all of this crazy weather started, a few of my fellow master gardeners gathered to begin planning our big urban gardening festival.  a caramel apple cake seemed like the perfect choice for a meeting.

a quickly mixed and spicy cake that is chock full of chunky apples and pecans.  it is one of my favorite cakes to bake and share with friends; it makes regular appearances at meetings and in the garden.

the recipe has been posted before and this is a link to it.  for this one, i used pecans rather than walnuts and that bag of arkansas black apples in my fridge came in handy; i used two of them since they were so large.  for the caramel drizzle, use 1 cup of your favorite caramel sauce-preferably homemade.

to decorate the cake, allow the cake to cool about 15 minutes in the pan.  invert the cake onto a rack and place the rack over a sheet pan to catch the drips.  using a spoon, carefully drizzle half of the caramel over the warm cake.  let the cake cool completely then drizzle the remaining caramel over the cake.  if a lot runs off and collects in the pan, scoop it up and drizzle it again.  the cooler the cake and the caramel, the less likely it is to run off.  just make sure it is pourable or it will form thick globs on the cake-not very attractive, trust me on this.

arkansas black apples get their name from the deep red color of the skin.  it is such a dark red that it will almost look black at a quick glance.  the flavor is a bit floral in comparison to other apples and it they are wonderful for pies and sauce and just as tasty sliced up and eaten raw.  it is a true southern apple and we have a small tree in our yard and maybe this year we will get a few before the squirrels eat them all.

holiday cookie round up: homemade oreos

minty oreos just scream christmas!  to make these, i used my chocolate wafer recipe which you can find by clicking on this link.

for fun, i pressed each cookie with a cookie stamp so that they would be a little fancier.  to fill them, i used this recipe from wayne harley brachman's book retro desserts.  since i did not use that chocolate wafer recipe, i cannot comment on it but the filling recipe worked out very nicely and was pretty close to the real thing.  one thing to keep in mind, the moisture content in butter will cause the cookies to soften a bit after a couple days.  this did not bother me but for those of you expecting a really crispy cookie sandwich, they are best filled the day you will serve them.

to make the pattern on the cookies, i pulled this set of glass cookie stamps out of the drawer.  they were given to me more than 20 years ago and were purchased in williams sonoma.  they no longer sell this set but if you do an internet search, they will come up on various sites as "vintage" and are not terribly expensive.

holiday cookie round up: gingerbread and almond crisps

what kind of holiday season would it be without gingerbread?  this year, I decided to go simple with them, they are fluted rounds with a dusting of coarse sugar.  perfect for snacking or dunking and even suitable for stacking with a frosting filling.  need a recipe?  try this one from rose levy beranbaum's book, rose's christmas cookies.

on a recent trip to atlanta, my daughter and i made a stop at one of our favorite places, white windmill bakery.  they have so many cookies to choose from but these almond cookies caught my eye.  when i returned home, i began a search for the recipe and after several tries, i came up with these.  they do not look like much but if you love almonds, these things are addictive.

crispy and full of almonds, they are light and easy to make.

i must have made at least 3 batches.  for the gluten free cookie lover, they are easy to make with rice flour and every bit as tasty!  try this recipe, it is the one i started with but i did add a little butter and increased the almonds.  since it is a work in progress, i am not posting the recipe at this time.

holiday cookie round up: wheat cookies

it just doesn't seem like christmas without sugar cookies.  every year, my girls decorate a batch of sugar cookies to give to their cousins.  it is a bit of a joke, the cookies are some of the craziest, ugliest cookies around!  the royal icing used for decorating is tinted with colors that are vibrant to say the least.  and they aren't shy with the icing either.  but none of that matters.  they are always well received and a good laugh is had by all.

it just so happens that sugar cookies are one of my favorite cookies.  when i was much younger, a child even, i would look forward to our family trip to my aunt and uncle's house for christmas dinner.  honestly, it was the cookies i was anticipating.  there were so many to choose from.  each year, my aunt would roll out a batch of bertha's famous wheat cookies.  while wheat cookies may not sound like something a kid would covet, these were really just sugar cookies made with some whole wheat flour.

my aunt kept it simple.  she would adorn each cookie with a piece of glaceed cherry, some red, some green.

sometimes, simplicity is perfection...

the cookies are easy to make.  i have posted the recipe before and you can find it by clicking here.  the recipe was written down by my late uncle, my mother added the note about not using butter.  however, i made this batch with butter and to compensate for the drier dough, i reduced both types of flour by 1/4 cup.  it worked perfectly.

holiday cookie round up: coconut spritz

several years ago, i scored this vintage cookie press on ebay.  it has lots of disks to make many shapes.  the box is in nice shape too and even has the original price on it, $3.95.  try and find a new set this nice for that price.  i love the trigger action, it works perfectly.  the only advice i can give you, press them directly onto the sheet pans; do not use paper or grease the pans!  the reason, the cookies will not separate from the gun and you will find yourself getting rather irritated when you have to peel each one off and put it on the pan...yes, that is experience talking.

for my batch, i decided to make them coconut flavored.  to do this, i used coconut oil in place of the butter and because it seemed a little on the dry side, i also added a few tablespoons of unsweetened coconut milk.  if you would like to try mixing up a batch, try this recipe from the joy of cooking, it is the base recipe i started with and then made the substitutions.

when i switched to pans without paper, it was quick and easy to pump out the cookies.  to make it even easier, i used the same pattern for all of the dough.

each pump of the trigger releases the exact amount of dough for one cookie.

because i also added a little coconut milk to the dough, they spread out a bit.  the combination of coconut oil and coconut milk gave nice flavor and brought back childhood memories of danish butter cookies.

each christmas, my grandfather would bring us a tin of (store bought) danish butter cookies.  the different shapes and varieties were stacked separately in the tin using large fluted paper muffin cups.  one of my favorites was always the coconut bars.  they were rectangular in shape with grooves across the top.  these were also some of the last to go-apparently, i was the only one who liked them.

holiday cookie fest round up: amaretti

growing up in an area where italian foods are common, finding amaretti is easy.  i can hardly remember a holiday season when i didn't see the red tins stuffed full of these paper wrapped almond cookies.  these memories served as my inspiration when i chose the recipe from carol field's book, the italian baker.

they mix up quickly and honestly, you will wait longer for them to bake.  they bake at a low temp, 300, then sit in the oven with the heat off to finish drying out.  they are meant to be crunchy but will melt in your mouth.

red and green paper make them so festive, perfect for giving as gifts.

the secret to the batter, getting the egg whites whipped to the proper consistency.  it should be a little droopy and shiny, more whipped than marshmallow cream but not as stiff as a meringue topping.

to portion the cookies out, i used a small scoop.  i wasn't looking for perfect mounds and did not mind the uneven shape.

somehow, these little cookies may have taught me a thing or two about making macarons.  just look at the feet on these things!  these were a favorite among all who received them and i will be making them again next year.

the recipe is posted online at cookinglight.com and can be found with this link .  both versions of amaretti cookies found in carol fields book, the italian baker are posted.  to make these cookies, i used the first recipe.