Panettone

I didn't get around to making my Christmas cake this year. But I did have some surplus orange zest and juice to use up, so I decided to give this panettone a go.

Orange and Raisin Panettone

Slightly adapted from Cook's Country December/January 2018

Ingredients

• 3/4 c. golden raisins
• 2 Tbsp. orange juice
• 3/4 c. warm milk
• zest of 1 orange
• 1 large egg
• 2 large egg yolks
• 3 Tbsp. light corn syrup
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp. almond extract
• 390g all-purpose flour
• 2 1/4 tsp. instant yeast
• 1 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 8 Tbsp. unsalted butter, cut into 1-Tbsp. pieces, softened
• 85g candied orange peel
• 1 small egg
• 1/2 Tbsp. water

Ingredients

1. Combine raisins and orange juice and heat in microwave until steaming (~1 minute). Cover and set aside for at least 15 minutes.
2. Combine warm milk, orange zest, large egg, egg yolks, corn syrup, vanilla extract, and almond extract in a large measuring cup.
3. Combine flour, yeast, and salt in a bowl and stir to mix.
4. Make a well in the centre of the flour and pour in the milk mixutre.
5. Working from the centre outward, gradually mix the flour into the wet ingredients.
6. Once all the flour has been incorporated, cover and let rest for 5-10 minutes.
7. Knead in the bowl for a few minutes.
8. Begin adding butter, 1 Tbsp. at a time, while continuing to knead in the bowl.
9. Cover and let rest for 5-10 minutes.
10. Add the raisins and candied peel and knead in the bowl until the inclusions are fully incorporated.
11. Cover and let rise at room temperature for 1-2 hours. Dough is done rising when it no longer springs back when poked with a wet finger. Try to let it rise as fully as possible, but avoid letting it get to the point that it sighs and sinks back when poked.
12. Grease a 20cm (8") round cake pan.
13. Turn the dough out onto a well-floured surface and knead it for a few strokes.
14. Press it into a flat disc.
15. Shape the disc into a ball by folding each side in toward the centre, then flip it over and round it and tension the gluten across the top surface.
16. Place the ball, seam-side-down, in the greased pan.
17. Cover and let rise for another 1-2 hours. Dough should spring back only very slightly when poked with a wet finger.
18. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F).
19. Beat the small egg with the water and brush the top of the loaf with the egg wash. Try to avoid letting any of the wash dribble down the side of the loaf where it will stick to the pan.
20. Bake the loaf at 180°C (350°F) for 20 minutes.
21. Cover the top of the loaf with tin foil and bake for another 30-40 minutes. (Internal temperature should register 87°C/190°F.)
22. Remove from oven and allow to cool in pan for 15 minutes.
23. Remove the panettone from its pan and transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling¹.

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Variations

Chocolate Chip Panettone

Ingredients

• 3/4 c. warm milk
• zest of 1 orange (optional)
• 1 large egg
• 2 large egg yolks
• 3 Tbsp. light corn syrup
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp. almond extract
• 390g all-purpose flour
• 2 1/4 tsp. instant yeast
• 1 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 8 Tbsp. unsalted butter, cut into 1-Tbsp. pieces, softened
• 1 c. mini chocolate chips
• 85g candied orange peel
• 1 small egg
• 1/2 Tbsp. water

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¹ I remembered hearing that panettone normally needs to hang upside down to cool. The recipe didn't make any mention of this, but the loaf did seem very soft and delicate. I initially sat it right-way-up on the wire rack after turning it out of the pan, but I was slightly worried that it was going to collapse under its own weight. The top crust seemed a bit firmer and more substantial than the bottom or sides, so I fliped it over and let it sit on its head to finish cooling. After that, I put it back in the pan for transport. Maybe next time I can try to figure out a way to hang it and see if that makes a difference to the end result. ^Back

I loved eggnog as a kid and this was always my go-to recipe. I don't make it so often anymore, but it's still a nice treat every once in a while. Add a little rum if you like. Personally I prefer my eggnog without any booze but, to each their own.

Eggnog

Adapted from Betty Crocker's Cookbook for Boys & Girls

Ingredients

• 3 eggs¹
• 1 1/2 c. milk
• 6 Tbsp. (vanilla) sugar
• 3/4 tsp. vanilla extract
• 3/8 tsp. ground nutmeg

Directions

1. Combine all ingredients in blender and mix until homogeneous and slightly frothy.
2. Serve immediately or refrigerate for later. Garnish with a little extra nutmeg if desired.

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¹ I've always just used whole raw eggs in my eggnog. Then again, we generally had fresh eggs from our own chickens to use. If you're wary of eating raw eggs, you can look for pasteurized eggs at the grocery store. They're generally sold in square cartons (like milk cartons) around here. If using pasteurized liquid eggs -- check to make sure they haven't had any other seasonings or ingredients added! -- 1/4 c. should be roughly equivalent to 1 large egg. ^Back

Now that I've discovered trifle, I've been having fun dreaming up all sorts of different flavour combinations. I haven't had a chance to try most of them yet, but I did make some gingerbread on the weekend, so I figured I'd give my gingerbread trifle idea a whirl. So, instead of sponge filled with raspberry jam, I had gingerbread filled with chopped stem ginger and ginger syrup. The raspberries got swapped out for sweet cherries. The plain vanilla custard became eggnog custard. I stuck to the standard whipped cream on top. Although I did add vanilla and icing sugar, so I guess it was technically "cream chantilly". And, to top it all off, a few glacé cherries and some chopped crystallized ginger. All-in-all, I'd say it was a pretty pleasing effect!

Gingerbread Trifle

Ingredients

• 1/2 recipe sticky gingerbread
• 3-4 knobs stem ginger, chopped + 1-2 Tbsp. ginger syrup
• 3 c. fresh or frozen sweet cherries, pitted and halved
• 1/2 c. custard powder
• 6 Tbsp. vanilla sugar
• 1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 4 c. milk
• 2 Tbsp. rum
• 500mL heavy (35%) cream
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/4 c. icing sugar
• Glacé cherries, to garnish
• Crystallized ginger, chopped, to garnish

Directions

1. Split the gingerbread and fill it with stem ginger and ginger syrup.
2. Cut into cubes.
3. Cover the bottom of the serving dish with cake cubes.
4. Top the cake with half the cherries.
5. Combine the custard powder, sugar, nutmeg, and cinnamon in a pot.
6. Add a small amount of milk and whisk until smooth.
7. Whisk in rum and remaining milk.
8. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring, until thickened.
9. Pour half of custard over cake and cherries.
10. Layer remaining cake into bowl on top of custard and top with remaining cherries.
11. Pour remaining custard over, cover, and place in fridge until chilled.
12. Combine cream, vanilla, and icing sugar in a blender.
13. Blend on high setting until cream is stiff and spreadable.
14. Spread cream over top of trifle.
15. Garnish with glacé cherries and crystallized ginger as desired.

The Mother of All Fruitcakes!

I've never been terribly partial to fruitcakes. That said, I haven't even tried a fruitcake in something like fifteen years, so I have no idea whether my fruitcake tastes and opinions have changed since then. And catalyst is a huge fan of fruitcake. On top of that I have a fondness for old traditional recipes and a fascination with baked good that need to age before eating.

Edmonds has an entire section dedicated solely to fruitcakes. Admittedly, it's a small section, but still! It has a fruitcake chapter! This includes a whole range of cakes. Everything from a light, blonde lemony cake with sultanas and candied lemon peel as the only fruit... all the way up to the "rich Christmas cake" which includes seven kinds of fruit + almonds, orange juice, rum (or brandy or sherry), and two types of citrus zest. This cake takes two days to make, four hours in the oven, and is meant to sit for a full two months before serving. It also weighs just shy of five kilos! This cake does NOT mess around.

Rich Christmas Cake

Very slightly adapted from Edmonds Cookery Book

Ingredients

• 1 3/4 c. orange juice
• 3/4 c. dark rum¹ or brandy + an extra 2 Tbsp. for soaking
• 2 Tbsp. grated orange zest
• 500g dried currants
• 500g raisins
• 2 c. sultanas
• 2 c. chopped dates
• 150g crystallized ginger, chopped
• 150g mixed peel
• 150g glacé cherries, halved
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/4 tsp. almond extract
• 2 tsp. grated lemon zest
• 1 c. slivered almonds²
• 2 1/2 c. strong flour ("high grade", bread, or all-purpose)
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 tsp. mixed spice
• 1/2 tsp. nutmeg
• 250g (salted) butter, softened
• 1 1/2 c. brown sugar
• 2 Tbsp. treacle³
• 5 large eggs (or 6 medium eggs)

Directions

1. Combine orange juice, 3/4 c. rum, and orange zest in a pot and bring to a boil.
2. Combine dried fruit in a large bowl and pour juice mixture over it. Cover and leave to soak overnight.
3. The next day, add the vanilla, almond extract, lemon zest, and almonds to the fruit mix.
4. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, and spices.
5. Prepare your baking tin and tie a double layer of brown paper around the outside. Edmonds suggests lining a deep 23cm (9") square pan with baking paper. I greased and lined the bottom of a 10" springform pan.
6. In a third (very large) bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, and treacle/molasses.
7. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
8. Fold in the dry ingredients alternately with the fruit mixture.
9. Scoop the batter (which should be more like a bowl of dried fruit with a thin coat of cake batter on it) into the prepared tin.
10. Smooth the top with wet hands and bake at 300°F (150°C) for 4 hours.
11. Remove from oven and let cake cool overnight.
12. Poke a few holes in the top of the cake with a skewer or toothpick.
13. Pour 2 Tbsp. of rum (or brandy or sherry) over the top of the cake and let it soak in.
14. At this point, Edmonds says to wrap the cake in tinfoil and a cloth and store in a cool place. I didn't like the idea of the tinfoil being right up against the cake, so I wrapped it in baking paper first (I just reused the paper from the outside of the tin) and then wrapped it in tinfoil followed by a tea towel.
15. Cake should be baked by late October in order for flavours to have fully developed by Christmas.

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¹ I used spiced rum because that's what I had on hand. ^Back
2 Edmonds calls for blanched (presumably whole) almonds. I used slivered both because I felt like that might allow for a more even distribution and because, as with the rum, I already had some on hand. ^Back
3 Treacle isn't really a Thing in Canada, so I tend to just substitute molasses whenever I come across a recipe that calls for treacle. They're pretty close. And I've had good results doing this so far. ^Back

Green Bean Casserole

This is basically just the classic Campbell's green bean casserole recipe with extra mushrooms added.

Green Bean Casserole
Slightly adapted from Campbell's
1 can condensed cream of mushroom soup
1/2 c. milk
1 tsp. dark mushroom soy sauce
1 dash black pepper
4 c. green beans (raw)
227g cremini mushrooms, sliced
1 1/3 c. fried onions

1. Combine soup, milk, soy sauce, and pepper in a large bowl.
2. Stir in beans, mushrooms, and 2/3 c. fried onions.
3. Pour into baking dish. Bake at 350F for ~30 minutes.
4. Remove from oven. Stir and top with remaining fried onions.
5. Return to oven for additional 5-10 minutes.

Stuffing with Bacon (and Mushrooms)

I love homemade stuffing, but I've never really made it before. I mean, my mom showed me how she did hers once when I was a kid, but I don't remember enough to re-create it. I decided to give it a go this year. I pretty much just grabbed the first recipe I found and rolled with it since i was in a bit of a hurry. It did come out tasty, if somewhat drier than I'd prefer. And I think it'd definitely benefit from the addition of mushrooms next time!

Stuffing
Adapted from allrecipes.com
1 lb. bacon
1/2 c. unsalted butter
1 onion, chopped
7 ribs celery, chopped
227g cremini mushrooms, sliced
2 Tbsp. poultry seasoning (recipe below)
2 loaves day-old bread, cubed OR 1 bag of "stuffing croutons"
4 c. chicken stock
1 c. milk (optional)
2 eggs, beaten

Poultry Seasoning
8 parts fresh sage
3 parts dried thyme
2 parts dried marjoram
2 parts dried rosemary
4 parts dried parsley
1 part black pepper
1 part ground nutmeg (optional)

1. Cook bacon, drain on paper towel lined plate and cut into bite-sized pieces.
2. Add butter to pan with bacon drippings and melt.
3. Cook onion, celery, and mushrooms in butter-dripping mixture over medium heat until softened.
4. Stir in poultry seasoning and bacon pieces.
5. In a very large bowl, combine bread and onion-bacon mixture.
6. Add chicken stock. If stuffing is still too try for your liking add an additional cup of stock or a cup of milk.
7. Stir in eggs.
8. Pour into roast pan and bake at 400F until desired doneness. (I baked mine in two batches; 30 minutes each.)

Mustard Glazed Ham with Peach Sauce

My family always had either roast chicken or turkey with various sides for Christmas dinner. In recent years we've switched to rappy pie and green bean casserole, but it's still a chicken and potato based dinner. We had a nice smoked ham roast from our pork box this year though so I decided to give that a go for Christmas dinner. I've never cooked a ham before, but I found a recipe that I liked the look of on allrecipes and went from there. I'm really pleased with how the ham came out, and the sauce is quite nice as well.

Mustard Glazed Ham
Slightly adapted from allrecipes.com
1 small, uncooked ham roast (mine was ~2.5 lbs.)
1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground cloves (optional)
2 Tbsp. Dijon mustard
1/2 c. brown sugar

1. Place ham on rack in roast pan. Pour a little water under the rack. Bake ham at 350F for ~1 hour.
2. Combine remaining ingredients. Brush onto ham. Top up water under rack in roast pan if needed. Bake for an additional hour or so.
3. While ham is baking, prepare peach sauce (recipe below). Carve ham and serve with sauce.

Peach Sauce
1/4 c. brown sugar
2 Tbsp. cider vinegar
1 c. peach nectar
1 c. peach preserves
5 c. frozen peach slices
1 Tbsp. ginger paste (I only used 2 tsp. and the ginger didn't come through at all)
1 hot cherry pepper, seeded and minced
1 (3") cinnamon stick

1. Combine sugar, vinegar, nectar, and preserves in pot and bring to a boil.
2. Add remaining ingredients and reduce to a simmer. Cook, stirring occasionally, until slightly thickened. Serve with ham (or over stuffing).

Linzer Cookies

 I was planning on making linzer cookies for Christmas this year. I got a bit behind in my preparations though and ran out of time. The linzer cookies still got made, but I had to ask TF to do it while I was out running errands. I got the recipe here and they came out pretty well. I'd like to try them again sometime with different flavour combinations.

Linzer Cookies
2/3 c. almonds
1/4 c. lemon sugar (1 c. granulated sugar to grated zest of 1 lemon)
1/4 c. brown sugar
2 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 c. unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 large egg
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. almond extract
1 Tbsp. icing sugar
raspberry jam (I used strawberry instead)

1. Toast the almonds for a few minutes either on the stovetop or in the oven at 350F. Once cool, grind to a powder and set aside.
2. Combine the flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. (I used some of the left over dry ingredients from making my gingerbread for this, so I left out the cinnamon since there were already some spices in the flour.)
3. Cream the butter with the sugar until light and fluffy.
4. Beat in the egg, vanilla extract, and almond extract. (I forgot to tell TF to use half vanilla and half almond, so it was all vanilla in this batch.)
5. Gradually beat in the almonds, followed by the flour mixture. Mix until just combined.
6. Chill for at least three hours.
7. Roll out dough about 1/8" thick. Make half of the cookies solid and half with cut-outs.
8. Bake at 350F for 10 minutes.
9. Cool and sprinkle icing sugar on the cookies with cut-outs.
10. Flip the solid cookies upside down and spread a little jam on each one. Top with the sugar'd cut-out cookies.

Almond cookies with either apricot or raspberry jam is traditional for these cookies. I'd like to try some other combinations though: peanut cookies with grape jelly, ginger cookies with apple jelly, chocolate cookies with marmalade, etc.

Gingerbread Cookies

I made an important realization the other day, in amongst all my cookie recipe testing: I've never actually made gingerbread cookies. I mean, I made them with my mom when I was a kid, but that mostly consisted of me wielding a cookie cutter while she made the dough, rolled it out, and baked the cookies. What I mean is I've never actually made gingerbread dough. I knew it involved ginger and molasses and brown sugar, but I have no favourite recipe, no tried and true methods, no specifics.

I do have a young nephew now though and I decided that he should get some gingerbread people for Christmas this year. So after a bit of Googling, I decided to try out this recipe.

The dough came together pretty easily. I'd meant to follow the advice of one of the reviewers and leave out half a cup of the flour, but I had already mixed all the dry ingredients together by the time I remembered. Instead I reserved about half a cup of the dry ingredients and used them to flour the dough and surface when I was rolling out my cookies. It seemed to work reasonably well. Next time I'd just leave out the extra flour from the start though.

Despite the large quantity of ginger called for in these cookies, I didn't find them overly ginger-y once baked. The flavour seemed to intensify slightly once they'd been left to sit/cool overnight, but it still wasn't a very intense ginger flavour. I liked them best fresh out of the oven when they were still warm and soft. TF prefers them now that the flavour has deepened, even though they've lost that wonderful softness they had when they were still hot.

So, what would I do if I were making these again?

Gingerbread Cookies
2 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
1/2 Tbsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
2 Tbsp. ground ginger
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
6 Tbsp. unsalted butter
3/4 c. brown sugar
1 large egg
1/2 c. fancy molasses
2 tsp. vanilla extract

1. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, ginger, cinnamon, and cloves.
2. Cream butter. Add sugar and egg and mix until smooth.
3. Add molasses and vanilla to butter mixture. Mix until smooth and well-blended.
4. Gradually add dry ingredients stirring until just combined.
5. Cover with plastic wrap and let stand for at least two hours. (Or chill overnight.)
6. Allow to come to room temperature (if necessary) and roll out dough. Approximately 5mm seems to be a good thickness.
7. Bake at 375F for 5-7 minutes.
8. Decorate with royal icing as desired.

I think I'd also like to experiment with some (ginger-)molasses cookie recipes and see how they compare to the standard gingerbread. Personally, I prefer a nice, soft, chewy cookie and I'm wondering if a molasses cookie might be the way to go for that.

Mulled Apple Cider

So, I know I'm a little late to the food blogging game. And I'm not usually one to follow trends or fads, but I like food and I like sharing it, so the food blog phenomenon is one trend that I can definitely get behind!

I've been in a bit of a cooking frenzy lately and had a chance to try out a bunch of new recipes. Posts will probably be fast and furious for a few days while I try to catch up with my cooking. I figured I'd start off with a fall favourite:

Mulled Apple Cider
9 cinnamon sticks (3" each)
15 cloves
1 tsp. coriander seeds
2 star anise
12 green cardamom pods
2 blades mace
3L apple cider
1 prune
peel of 2 oranges
1/4 c. jaggery

This recipe is an amalgam of several mulled apple cider recipes that I found online combined with a few of my own inspirations and additions.

Most of the spice suggestions come from a post on Serious Eats.

The orange peel and the idea to sweeten it a bit came from The Pioneer Woman's mulled cider recipe. She suggested a fairly hefty quantity of maple syrup, which I tried the first time I made it. I suspect that she is dealing with much tarter cider than I am, as I found the result (even with half the quantity of syrup she called for) too sweet for my palate. It was my husband's idea to replace the syrup with jaggery. He thought that the slight fruitiness of the jaggery would complement the cider well and, having taste tested the revised version (halving the amount of sugar again), I agree!

The mace was my own addition. I love mace and I thought that it would "play nice" with the other flavours involved, so I tossed a couple blades in the pot. It's not a strong flavour next to the cinnamon and cloves, but I think it complements well.

The prune may seem like a bit of an odd addition. I ran across a recommendation that slivovitz (plum brandy) makes an excellent addition to mulled cider as the plum pairs nicely with the apple and the alcohol adds a bit of depth to it. I didn't have any slivovitz on hand and, even if I had, TF really wasn't keen on the idea of adding anything boozy to the pot. I did have prunes though! So, the hope was that tossing a dried plum in the pot would impart some of that flavour minus the booze. I'm not sure how much it really comes through in the final product, but it's not hurting anything to have it in there, so I figured why not?

I've made this with both toasted and untoasted spices, and it has come out delicious both times. Toasting definitely adds to the richness, but untoasted spices still yield a wonderfully tasty result.

There's something incredibly comforting about a nice hot mug of mulled cider. Especially once the weather's turned cold! There's nothing quite like curling up on the couch in warm slippers and pyjamas, your hands wrapped around a steaming mug of cider, as you sip and look out the window on a cold, blustery fall day. The aroma alone is enough to make me smile and -- although I sometimes have a tendency to guzzle my drinks -- one taste of the warm, sweet spiciness of a good mug of cider is all it takes to convince me to slow down and savour. Every. Last. Drop.