Author Archives: Dave Oney

About Dave Oney

Dave Oney was born mid last century in Middlebury, Vermont. He received his BS in Chemistry and worked as a polymer chemist in Massachusetts and New Jersey. He became a microscopist (someone who studies little bitty things using a microscope) and photomicrographer (someone who photographs little bitty things) before settling into a 35-year career in technical sales of scientific imaging equipment (the science of digitally recording itty bitty things, sending the image to a computer for analysis.) He designed and created a number of products contributing to this field. He is (was) proficient in several computer languages and is currently working on mastering English. After making a few more paradigm shift career changes Dave and his wife, Fran, retired and moved closer to their children and granddaughters and now live in the foothills of the Sierra Nevadas.

No Nothin’ Rustic Bread

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I often make a no knead bread which uses the stretch and fold technique and is delicious, has a good crumb, crust and air holes.

I saw this recipe in my Facebook feed and I was skeptical it could compete with my usual recipe/method.. After a trial bake it was every bit as good as my go-to recipe with NO stretch and fold or kneading. Prep time was about 10 minutes. Total “hands-on” time was about 15 minutes.

We all know you don’t need to knead (I love saying that) to create gluten. Gluten development starts on hydration of the dough. Thorough mixing equals good hydration which enables gluten formation.

I mixed the three ingredients (plus water) with my danish dough whisk assuring all the dry ingredients were well hydrated before covering and placing in the fridge overnight.

In the morning I let the dough warm to room temperature and rise for about 3 hours. I placed it on a well floured parchment paper, folded it into a round boule, flipped it over so the folded side is down. Before placing in the Dutch oven I cut a deep X in the top.

No Knead Bread – 3 Ingredient

INGREDIENTS

  • 3 1/2 cups bread flour
  • 2 teaspoons sea salt
  • 1 teaspoons instant yeast
  • 1 2/3 cups water (100 degrees F

METHOD

  1. Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl. Using a wooden spoon or Dutch dough whisk blend warm water into the dry ingredients. This dough will be wet and shaggy, also very forgiving. Mix until
    no dry flour is seen. Cover with plastic wrap and put a towel on top to proof for 8-10 hours at room temperature or for several days in the fridge.
  2. If refrigerated, take the dough out and place on parchment before heating the oven so it gets to room temperature, then preheat the oven to 450 F with the covered Dutch oven inside.
  3. Dust a large square of parchment paper with flour and turn out the dough carefully. (It will be sticky but try to preserve the proof.) Dust the top with flour and using a dough scraper gently
    fold the dough over and create a round boule. Use the sharp edge of the scraper to score lines in the dough. Cover with the plastic wrap and let rest until pot and oven are up to temperature.
  4. Remove the pot from the oven. Place the parchment paper and dough into the Dutch oven and replace lid. Bake, covered, for 35 minutes. Then, anywhere from 5 to 10 minutes uncovered
    (this is a personal taste issue about the crispness of the crust). Let the bread rest 30 minutes. It will be hard, but you will wreck the loaf by cutting into it immediately.

In The Beginning…

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ABatteredOldSuitcase.com

was created for a post-wedding cake. Daniel and Frances were married in Sacramento, then honeymooned in Egypt. Upon returning to the States they stopped by South Florida for a second reception for our friends and family who couldn’t travel to California. I made my first “wedding” cake for that party. It shares the colors of Boston College and the University of Florida. I then continued making cakes for various occasions before expanding into pastries and entrees.

ToaHotelSomeplace.com

is my writer’s portal. Short stories and novellas are described and listed with links to Amazon and Kindle for purchase, or Kindle Unlimited Members to read for free. Backstreets, my collection of imaginary backstories of a number of my favorite songs will be available shortly.

GhostsThatSellMemories.com

2018 saw Fran and Dave’s Big Adventure as we took three weeks to drive across country, from Sacramento to Vermont. I blogged each day, pretending our Poodle/Havanese rescue Rosalita was with us. This turned into the book “Road Trip! Rosie Goes ‘There and Back Again.’” I wrote it primarily for the friends we visited on the trip and my family members. GhostsThatSellMemories contains my trip blog and additional travel adventures post Road Trip. I also used Ghosts to catalog our fall 2022 trip to Italy and France. I posted every day for about three weeks. A lot of fun, but a bit of a chore after a while. (Header photo of our hometown, Middlebury, Vermont by my life long friend David Griggs.

Chocolate Orange Shortbread Cookies

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Recently I invited our new neighbors, John and Amy, to join my small cadre of baked goods tasters. As it turns our they have several orange trees (not that that had any influence on my asking them to join the group) and they offered me as many oranges as I liked. That is the very good news.

Here is the other side of the coin. QC’s Mah Jongg group (who I made the key lime tarts in the previous post for) cancelled Tuesday’s game, so I gave away most of the tarts I made for them. Then, they changed their minds and decided to play (with 6 tartlets and some of one of the 6” pies left.)

Then, they decided they would try to gather enough players for another game on Wednesday. As it turns out, for some reason, I had some extra oranges in my possession and no plans other than juicing, so… chocolate orange shortbread cookies for Wednesday’ game, and more samples for my tasting cadre.

Cutting the rolled cookie dough
Dust with sugar before baking
Sous Vide for keeping chocolate in temper at 90 F
Tempered dark chocolate with wiggly line white chocolate

I like to melt the chocolate in the microwave using short bursts (first is 1 minute, each other 30 seconds) while stirring between each burst. The white chocolate wasn’t tempered, nor was it quite fluid enough to pipe nicely. I made a second batch and it was much better.

I used my bench knife to act as an end block, lined up six cookies and spread dark chocolate over them all. While the dark chocolate was still liquid I piped the white in thin (occasionally straight) lines and ran a tooth pick across the top of the cookie to make the feathering.

The orange flavor comes through, but isn’t too strong. Next time, I may add some essence as the chocolate nearly overpowers the orange.

Orange Shortbread Cookies

INGREDIENTS
• 1 cup sugar, plus extra for sprinkling
• 3 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
• Zest from 2 large oranges
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 3 ½ cups all-purpose flour
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 6 ounces finely chopped, dark or semisweet chocolate, your choice

METHOD

  1. Combine the sugar and zest, blending with a fork until thoroughly mixed and fragrant.
  2. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, mix together the butter and 1 cup of sugar/zest mixture until they are just combined. Add the vanilla.
  3. In a medium bowl, sift together the flour and salt, then add them to the butter and sugar/zest mixture. Mix on low speed until the dough starts to come together. Dump onto a surface dusted
    with flour and shape into a flat disk. Wrap in plastic and chill for 30 minutes.
  4. Preheat the oven to 375 F.
  5. Roll the dough ¼ inch thick and cut to 3 by 1-inch with a pizza cutter. Place the cookies on an parchment paper lined baking sheet and sprinkle with sugar. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes (rotate pans after 10 minutes), until the edges begin to brown. Allow to cool to room temperature.
  6. When the cookies are cool, place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

TEMPERING DARK CHOCOLATE.
Weigh 1% of the mycryo butter so it’s ready to add.
To calculate:
• 100g/3.5oz chocolate + 1/2 teaspoon (1g) mycryo cocoa butter
• 200g/7oz chocolate + 1 teaspoon (2g) mycryo cocoa butter
• 1kg/35.27oz chocolate + 5 tsp (10g) mycryo cocoa butter.

METHOD

Melt the chocolate on a bain-marie (or use a microwave, melting in 30 second bursts, stirring well between each burst and checking the temperature, reducing to 3 or 5 second bursts when almost ready).

Make sure the chocolate reaches a temperature of 122º F (a few degrees higher is OK). Take it off the bain-marie as soon as it gets near and give it a good stir then if necessary return 5 seconds or so at a time, stir and check the temperature.

Once off the heat (and off the bain-marie) let the chocolate cool to 94ºF. Sprinkle on the mycryo cocoa butter and wait a few seconds as it melts then stir in to combine. Use a rubber spatula to scrape the chocolate off the sides and fold into the middle. Stir well and continue to stir well
fairly frequently. Keep the tempered chocolate in the sous vide, or Bain-marie at 90 F.

Key Lime Day

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Today should be the last of a long line of rainy days. At least I hope so. I have two days of golf this week, something that hasn’t happened since December.

To celebrate the sun I decided to make some Key Lime Tartlets. I guessed how much tart dough I would need, and was pretty close.

I used all the prepared tart pans that I had and missed by two! Not bad.

I also guessed how much key lime filling would be required and missed it by a country mile. (Which makes me wonder, is a country mile longer that a city or suburb mile?)

If you know (or follow me) you know I am not one to throw away anything, so I made two 6” graham cracker pie crusts to use the excellent left over filling

Once the tart dough rested 30 minutes in the fridge I rolled it, and used a cookie cutter to cut circles about the diameter of each tart pan, plus twice the height. Once pressed into the pan I docked the bottoms with a knife then lined them with parchment paper. It’s easier to line them if you crumple the paper first.

I should have applied the egg was before filling the paper lined cups with beans. I had to unload, egg wash, and replace the paper and beans. Live and learn.

I used Italian merengue to counter the tartness of the key lime. I also added some lime zest to counter the sweetness of the merengue… a never ending wormhole.

The filling was sharp, the shell sweet and melt-in-your-mouth, and the merengue perfect. What more could you ask for?

Key Lime Tartlets

INGREDIENTS

SHELL
• 100 g cold butter cut into small cubes
• 200 g all-purpose flour
• 60 g icing sugar
• ½ tsp vanilla
• ¼ tsp salt
• 2 egg – 1 for the dough and the other 1 reserved for an egg wash

FILLING
• zest (grated rind) of 1 lime
• 4 large egg yolks
• 14-ounce can (397g) sweetened condensed milk, (1 1/4 cups)
• 3/4 cup (170g) Key lime juice or lime juice
• 1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon lime oil, optional

METHOD

SHELL

  1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees
  2. Mix butter with sugar
  3. Add salt then vanilla
  4. Add egg
  5. Stir in flour. Mix by hand until incorporated
  6. Cover with plastic and refrigerate for 30 min
  7. Butter tartlet pans, or use non-stick pans
  8. Roll dough to about ⅛” thick
  9. Lay over tart mold and press into all crevices
  10. Roll top to cut off excess
  11. Prick holes in bottom and sides of formed dough
  12. Fill tarts with pastry weights (I put beans in a cupcake paper and remove 5 minutes before the end of the bake.)
  13. Paint edges of the tartlet with the egg wash.
  14. Bake in preheated oven 350 deg F (175 C) for 15 min
  15. Immediately remove from pans and cool on a wire rack

FILLING

  1. Whisk the lime zest and egg yolks at high speed of an electric mixer for about 4 minutes. The mixture will lighten in color and thicken somewhat, appearing similar to Hollandaise sauce.
  2. Stir in the sweetened condensed milk, mixing until smooth. Beat at high speed for 3 minutes; the filling will become slightly thicker and gain a bit of volume.
  3. Add the lime juice, stirring just to combine. The mixture will thicken again. Add lime oil to taste.
  4. Pour the filling into the crust and return the tart (on the baking sheet) to the oven. Bake the tart for 18 to 22 minutes, until it appears set around the edges though still a bit wobbly in the center. The center should read about 145°F on a digital thermometer.
  5. Remove the tart from the oven and cool to room temperature. Refrigerate for several hours before serving.
  6. Once chilled, serve the key lime pies cold with whipped cream and a lime slice if desired. Store leftover pies in the refrigerator (covered) for up to 1 week. If they last that long!

Notes
Make Ahead & Freezing Instructions: Up to 1 day in advance, you can prepare the crust ingredients and the filling ingredients separately. Store each covered tightly in the refrigerator until ready to assemble and bake. Likewise, as noted in set 4, you can bake the key lime pies and store in the refrigerator for 1 day before serving. Key lime pies freeze well, up to 2–3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator before serving.

ITALIAN MERINGUE

INGREDIENTS
• 150g (or ¾ cup) granulated sugar
• 60ml (or ¼ cup) water
• 60g (or ¼ cup) egg whites (about 2 large egg whites)

METHOD

  1. In a medium-sized saucepan, combine the sugar and water. Heat over low heat, stirring until the sugar has
    dissolved. Once the sugar has dissolved, turn the heat to medium-high and allow the syrup to come to a boil.
  2. In the meantime, add the egg whites to a medium-sized, heatproof bowl and mix (with a mixer fitted with the
    whisk attachment) until foamy and the whites are almost able to hold soft peaks.
  3. Once the syrup is boiling, clip on a candy (or sugar) thermometer.
  4. Cook until the syrup reaches 116°C/240°F, then take the pan off the heat and slowly drizzle the hot syrup into
    the bowl with the foamy egg whites, mixing continuously to prevent the eggs from scrambling. Don’t pour the
    syrup onto the whisk, or the syrup may splatter against the sides of the bowl (or into your face!). Instead, aim
    for a spot close to the whisk.
  5. Once all the syrup has been added, keep mixing until the bottom of the bowl feels cool to the touch and the
    meringue has cooled down to body temperature.
  6. Use immediately or keep in the fridge (covered) until ready to use. It’s a very stable meringue, so it won’t start
    weeping, leaking or collapsing.

    NOTES
    Italian meringue can be made two days in advance and stored in the fridge until needed (covered with plastic wrap).

Cheese It’s Nasty Outside

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We’ve had two days without rain since December 26, 2022. It’s now January 14, 2023. This leaves a lot of time for baking and little time for golf.

Today, I made a Cheese-It clone crackers. They are quick to make, create very little mess, such that the kitchen can be clean before they finish baking, and are a delicious game-day treat.

The one caution is be sure they are well baked. They should be turning brown to be sure they will have the proper crunch.

I rolled them to about 1/8” thick, maybe a little thicker. At this thickness they were easy to transfer to the silicone covered baking sheet. My straight edge is about 1.25” wide which baked down to just about 1”.

At this size the recipe made about 4 dozen crackers.

Cheez-Its Recipe

INGREDIENTS
• 8 oz sharp cheddar cheese, grated
• 3 Tablespoons of unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 Tablespoon vegetable shortening
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 cup flour
• 2 Tablespoons ice water
• Coarse salt for sprinkling

METHOD

  1. Combine cheese, butter, shortening, and salt in the bowl of your mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. The mixture will be crumbly.
  2. Add flour in four aliquots and then the ice water. You may add a few more drops of water to help it come together but don’t to add too much. You don’t want a slack dough.
  3. Pat the dough into 2 discs, wrap and chill for at least 30 minutes.
  4. Preheat oven to 375⁰F.
  5. Using silicone mat roll each disc to 1/8 inch or less and sprinkle with coarse salt. I like to gently roll the salt into the dough.
  6. Cut into 1 inch squares (a pastry wheel or pizza wheel is easiest). Punch a hole into the center of each square. (I use a sharpened chopstick (that I use to pierce choux pastry.)
  7. If you have difficulty separating and transferring the crackers onto the baking sheet return the mat to the refrigerator for 10 minutes (while you roll out the 2nd dough disc).
  8. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until puffed and browning around the edges. If they aren’t the crispness you want, return them
    to the oven for 2-3 more minutes. Keep checking every 2 minutes until they are done. I take one out of the oven and set it in the fridge for a minute to try them. Hey, someone has to do it.
  9. Move crackers to a cooling rack. Makes about 5-6 dozen crackers.

Black Chocolate Cookies

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I made these cookies as the base for decorations for my NYE 2023 cake. They were so good I decided to post the recipe alone

The secret to these cookies is the black cocoa. I bought this for another project a year or so ago, but now use it regularly. If you want BLACK frosting, royal icing or other goodies, this should be your go to ingredient.

The recipe made about four dozen 2” cookies . No tricks or tips, just follow the recipe.

Black Chocolate Cookies

INGREDIENTS
• 1 1/2 cups (195g) AP flour
• 3/4 cup (70g) unsweetened black cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon espresso powder
• 1 stick (110g) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 3/4 cup (150g) sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 teaspoon molasses

METHOD

  1. In a large bowl, vigorously whisk together the flour, cocoa, baking soda, salt, and espresso powder.
  2. Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, (2-3 min on medium.)
  3. Beat in the egg, vanilla, and molasses.
  4. Add the dry ingredients to the wet in 3 additions. When well mixed, remove the dough from the mixer, and form it into a ball. It should have the consistency of soft clay. If it’s stiff and unmanageable, massage some water into it, a tablespoon at a time until easily pliable.
  5. Wrap it in plastic wrap, and chill it in the refrigerator for at least one hour.
  6. When you are ready to roll-out the dough, preheat the oven to 350°F (175° C). Break off a chunk of dough from the ball of dough (about a quarter of it) and place it between two pieces of parchment paper. Use a rolling pin to roll the dough out to an even 1/2-inch thickness.
  7. Use a cookie cutter or the rim of a small glass to cut out cookie shapes from the rolled out dough. Place on a parchment paper or silicone-lined baking sheet, allowing at least 1 inch between cookies on the cookie sheet.
  8. Bake at 350°F (175° C) in the middle rack for 12 to 14 minutes, less or more, depending on the size and thickness of the cookies.
  9. The cookies should bounce back when you press on their centers and be a little dark around the edges. When cool, they should be crispy.
  10. Remove from oven and let cool for 5 minutes before removing the cookies from the tray to cool on a rack.

‘appy New Year… Hic!

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The problem with New Year Eve is… I can’t stay up past east coast midnight anymore. I made a cake for New Year’s 2022 that went over so well, I was asked to make one for this year. If you follow/know me, you know I said “Yes” before the question was complete.

As usual I searched the internet for ideas until I found a design I liked. It had a nice dark midnight blue frosting so with another search found the ratio of food coloring to approach that color. It’s always good to try new techniques and develop new skills with big bakes like this, (four layer 9” cake to augment cheese cakes for about 60 people.)

I made the four 9” Extreme Chocolate Cakes, wrapped them in plastic wrap and placed them on flat surfaces in the freezer. I will take them out to thaw the day before New Year’s Eve. (New Year’s Eve eve?)

Making the black chocolate cookies is straightforward. I use Modern Mountain Black Cocoa rather than Hershey’s Special Dark (my go to.)

The dough should be pliable, not soft
Roll the dough out between parchment paper and dust with powdered sugar.

Making black royal icing isn’t as easy as making the cookies. I made a regular royal icing and added two tablespoons of the black cocoa and about 20 drops of black food coloring. Even that much food coloring in about a cup of royal icing only turns it dark gray, and detracts (big time) from the taste. The black cocoa (be sure to sift it before adding) turns the royal icing black.

Retained cookie shape after chilling
This is pure black royal icing.
Oops! My damn dam wasn’t high enough

Chilling the cookie dough preserves the “star burst” shape after baking. As soon as the cookies come out of the oven insert skewers most of the way through them. Later you will paint them black. (On second thought, why not paint them with edible black paint before baking the cookies? Next time.) These cookies are VERY crispy and taste like chocolate cake.

I tried an edible black marker to paint the skewers. Not worth the effort and ordered some edible black paint.
Allow each color to dry before piping another color
Piped white royal icing
Finished “Fireworks” cookies.

Finally, Amazon delivered my number cookie cutters. (To be fair, we only ordered them last night.) I made the second batch of chocolate cookie dough yesterday so when they arrived I started the over, cut the numbers (and a bunch of smaller cookies for QC and I to enjoy) and baked them. Once done I immediately inserted a small skewer into each number and let them cool and turn crispy. Once cool, I made a concentrated sugar water, painted the cookies then coated them with star shaped sprinkles.

It required 6 cups of white buttercream to crumb coat the whole cake. 4 more cups of midnight blue buttercream frosting finished the cake. I wish I could make my surfaces as smooth and clean as seen online. Oh well.

Crumb coated bottom two layers
Parchment paper circle and 8” cake plate on top of bottom 2 yayers
Midnight Blue frosted cake.

Black Royal Icing

INGREDIENTS

• 4 cups (480g) confectioners’ sugar, sifted
• 3 Tablespoons meringue powder (not plain egg white powder)
• 5 drops black food coloring
• 2 Tbl Black Cocoa (sifted)
• 9–10 Tablespoons room temperature water

METHOD

  1. Pour confectioners’ sugar, meringue powder, black food coloring, black cocoa and 9 Tablespoons of water into a large bowl.
  2. Using a hand mixer or a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, beat icing ingredients together on high speed for 1.5 – 2 minutes.
  3. When lifting the whisk up off the icing, the icing should drizzle down and smooth out within 5-10 seconds. If it’s too thick, beat in more water 1 Tablespoon at a time. I usually need 10 Tablespoons but on particularly dry days, I use up to 12-14 Tablespoons. Keep in mind that the longer you beat the royal icing, the thicker it becomes. If your royal icing is too thin, just keep beating it to introduce more air OR you can add more confectioners’ sugar.
  4. When applied to cookies or confections in a thin layer, icing completely dries in about 2 hours at room temperature. If icing consistency is too thin and runny, it will take longer to dry. If the icing is applied very thick on cookies, it will also take longer to dry. If you’re layering royal icing onto cookies for specific designs and need it to set quickly, place cookies in the refrigerator to help speed it up. You can also use a fan to help set the icing.

Black Chocolate Cookies

INGREDIENTS

• 1 1/2 cups (195g) AP flour
• 3/4 cup (70g) unsweetened black cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon espresso powder
• 1 stick (110g) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 3/4 cup (150g) sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 teaspoon molasses

METHOD

  1. In a large bowl, vigorously whisk together the flour, cocoa, baking soda, salt, and espresso
    powder.
  2. Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, (2-3 min on medium.)
  3. Beat in the egg, vanilla, and molasses.
  4. Add the dry ingredients to the wet in 3 additions. When well mixed, remove the dough from the
    mixer, and form it into a ball. It should have the consistency of soft clay. If it’s stiff and
    unmanageable, massage some water into it, a tablespoon at a time until easily pliable.
  5. Wrap it in plastic wrap, and chill it in the refrigerator for at least one hour.
  6. When you are ready to roll-out the dough, preheat the oven to 350°F (175° C). Break off a chunk
    of dough from the ball of dough (about a quarter of it) and place it between two pieces of
    parchment paper. Use a rolling pin to roll the dough out to an even 1/2-inch thickness.
  7. Use a cookie cutter or the rim of a small glass to cut out cookie shapes from the rolled out
    dough. Place on a parchment paper or silicone-lined baking sheet, allowing at least 1 inch
    between cookies on the cookie sheet.
  8. Bake at 350°F (175° C) in the middle rack for 12 to 14 minutes, less or more, depending on the
    size and thickness of the cookies.
  9. The cookies should bounce back when you press on their centers and be a little dark around the
    edges. When cool, they should be crispy.
  10. Remove from oven and let cool for 5 minutes before removing the cookies from the tray to cool
    on a rack.

Extreme Chocolate Cake

Makes two 9” round cakes (double for this cake)
INGREDIENTS
(Makes one 10’ ROUND CAKE [and two 5”] – quantities are in parenthesis. Or one 11”x15”x2” sheet cake.)
• 2 cups white sugar (3)
• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour (2 2/3)
• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (1 ¼)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda (2 ¼)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder (2 ¼)
• 1 teaspoon salt (1 ½)
• 2 eggs (3)
• 1 cup milk (1 ½)
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil (¾)
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract (3)
• 1 cup boiling water (1 ½)

METHOD

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour two 9 inch cake pans.
  2. Use the first set of ingredients to make the cake. In a medium bowl, stir together the sugar, flour, cocoa,baking soda, baking powder and salt. Add the eggs, milk, oil and vanilla, mix for 3 minutes with an electric mixer. Stir in the boiling water by hand. Pour evenly into the two prepared pans. (For cupcakes,portion ¼ scant cups in each cupcake paper.
  3. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes in the preheated oven, until a toothpick inserted comes out clean or 205F internal temp. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pans to cool completely.

Cranberry Meringue Pie

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I needed a few cranberries for decoration on the Yule Cake, so with left over 11.75 oz of the 12 oz bag, I saw and made this recipe for a cranberry merengue pie. (You can take the boy out of Vermont…) Never having made one and needing a dessert to augment the smallish Yule Cake, I thought, Let’s give it a try, waste not, etc.

Macerating the cranberries
Cooking berries, eggs and cornstarch until smooth
Par-baked pie crust
Cranberry mixture poured into par-baked pie shell
Italian Meringue, torch and cranberry pie.
Meringue covered pie prior to torching.
Torched Cranberry Meringue Pie

Cranberry Meringue Pie

INGREDIENTS
For the filling:
• 1 12-ounce bag whole cranberries, fresh or frozen
• 3/4 cup water
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 3 large egg yolks
• 3 tablespoons cornstarch
• 4 tablespoons cold salted butter, cubed
• 1 8- or 9-inch pie crust, any kind, par-baked if necessary
For the meringue:
• 150g (or ¾ cup) granulated sugar
• 60ml (or ¼ cup) water
• 60g (or ¼ cup) egg whites (about 2 large egg whites)

METHOD
To make the filling,

  1. Combine the cranberries, water, and sugar in a medium saucepan with a lid. Cover the pot and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Continue boiling for 3-5 minutes, or until the cranberries have totally disintegrated and the mixture is thick and gloopy. Use a potato masher to speed things up.
  2. While the cranberries cook, whisk the egg yolks and cornstarch in a large mixing bowl.
  3. When the cranberries are done, scrape the contents of the saucepan through a fine mesh sieve into the bowl with the eggs and cornstarch. Stir and press on the solids in the sieve until you’ve extracted all the liquid you possibly can, then scrape whatever’s on the bottom of the sieve into the bowl.
  4. Whisk the cranberry-egg-cornstarch mixture together thoroughly, pour it back into the saucepan, and bring to a boil over medium heat, whisking constantly.
  5. Cook at a full boil for 3 full minutes while whisking. Finally, whisk in the butter piece by piece until it’s completely incorporated and pour the filling into a prepared pie crust.
  6. Cool on a rack at room temperature until there’s no heat coming off the bottom of the pan, then refrigerate overnight (or about three hours if you’re on deadline and like living dangerously).

ITALIAN MERINGUE

  1. In a medium-sized saucepan, combine the sugar and water. Heat over low heat, stirring until the sugar has dissolved. Once the sugar has dissolved, turn the heat to medium-high and allow the syrup to come to a boil.
  2. In the meantime, add the egg whites to a medium-sized, heatproof bowl and mix (with a mixer fitted with the whisk attachment) until foamy and the whites are almost able to hold soft peaks.
  3. Once the syrup is boiling, clip on a candy (or sugar) thermometer.
  4. Cook until the syrup reaches 116°C/240°F, then take the pan off the heat and slowly drizzle the hot syrup into the bowl with the foamy egg whites, mixing continuously to prevent the eggs from scrambling. Don’t pour the syrup onto the whisk, or the syrup may splatter against the sides of the bowl (or into your face!). Instead, aim for a spot close to the whisk.
  5. Once all the syrup has been added, keep mixing until the bottom of the bowl feels cool to the touch and the meringue has cooled down to body temperature.
  6. Use immediately or keep in the fridge (covered) until ready to use. It’s a very stable meringue, so it won’t start weeping, leaking or collapsing.

NOTES
Italian meringue can be made two days in advance and stored in the fridge until needed (covered with plastic wrap,) or transferred to a piping bag, sealed, then placed in the fridge.

Yule Log – Deuxieme Noel

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I made a Yule Log cake a couple of years ago and while it was good, but it wasn’t Cake Wall of Honor good (see below.) This years just might be. It has chocolate Swiss roll with whipped cream filling, glazed and sugared cranberries and rosemary, merengue mushrooms (not majic) and a dusting of confectioners sugar.

The chocolate was super thick until the whipped egg whites were added.
Dollop the batter across the powdered parchment paper.
Dolloping the batter makes it easier to spread evenly.
Roll up in the parchment paper. Use confectioners sugar on every surface.
After filling with whipped cream, re-roll, cut the end to make the side branch.

The recipe was cloned from a number of online suggestions. I took the parts I wanted and left the rest. Sorry I can’t reference them all, I didn’t keep notes.

Ingredients to sugar glaze cranberries and rosemary
Ganache coated cake
Piped mushroom caps and stalks
Pipe columns, trying to make them straight. They WILL fall over. Pipe flat disks for the tops.
Striated “bark” ganache

Chocolate Swiss Roll Cake


INGREDIENTS
Cake
• 4 large eggs, separated
• 1/3 cup (65g) granulated sugar
• 1/3 cup (65g) packed light or dark brown sugar
• 1 Tablespoon (15ml) strong brewed coffee
• 1/4 cup (60g) unsalted butter, melted (see note)
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup (62g) all-purpose flour
• 3 Tablespoons natural unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
Vanilla Whipped Cream
• 1 cup (240ml) cold heavy cream or heavy whipping cream
• 3 Tablespoons (38g) granulated sugar or confectioners’ sugar
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

METHOD

  1. Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Spray a 12×17 inch baking pan (Half sheet) with nonstick spray or grease with butter, so the parchment paper sticks. Then line it with parchment paper so the cake seamlessly releases. Spray or grease the parchment paper too. We want an extremely nonstick surface for this cake roll. Place the stand mixer bowl and whip into the freezer
  2. Make the cake: Using a hand mixer or a stand mixer fitted with whisk attachment, beat the egg whites and granulated sugar together in a medium bowl on high speed for 5 minutes or until stiff peaks form. Set aside. In another bowl, beat the egg yolks, brown sugar, and vanilla extract together until pale and creamy, about 2 minutes.
  3. Sift the flour, 3 Tablespoons cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt together into a large bowl bowl. Pour the melted butter, coffee, and egg yolk mixture over the dry ingredients. Beat everything together on medium speed until completely combined. Using a rubber spatula or wooden spoon, gently fold in the egg whites until completely combined. Avoid over-mixing and deflating those whites. Batter will be very light.
  4. Spread batter evenly into prepared pan. It will be a very thin layer. Tap the pan fairly hard on the counter to smooth out the top. Bake for 10 minutes or until the top of the cake gently springs back when touched with your finger. Do NOT over-bake.
  5. Roll the cake: As the cake bakes, place a piece of parchment paper flat on the counter. Sprinkle with a light coating of confectioners sugar. Once the cake comes out of the oven, immediately invert it onto the parchment paper. Peel off the parchment paper that was on the bottom of the cake as it baked, then dust the recently exposed cake with more confectioners sugar. Starting with the narrow end, slowly and gently roll the cake up with the parchment. The cake will be warm. Allow the cake to cool completely rolled up in the parchment. Place in the refrigerator for 2-3 hours.
  6. Remove the cake roll from the refrigerator and allow to sit on the counter for a few minutes to warm up as you prepare the whipped cream.

Make the whipped cream:

  1. Remove the mixer bowl and whisk from the freezer, whip the heavy cream, sugar, and vanilla extract on medium-high speed until medium to stiff peaks form, about 2-3 minutes.
  2. Gently unroll the cake. Dollop the whipped cream on top, and carefully spread, leaving about a 1/2 inch border around the cake. Gently roll the cake back up, without the parchment/towel this time. Diagonally cut about 4” off the end of the log and position along one side.
  3. Set aside in the refrigerator as you prepare the ganache.

Ganache Topping

  1. Heat cream to near boiling
  2. Pour over chocolate and let sit until chocolate softens
  3. Beat with a spoon until blended and shiny. It won’t be pretty at first but will eventually come together into a uniform shiny chocolate.
  4. Before the ganache firmest to frosting consistency use some to “glue” the branch on the log and fill in any cracks
  5. When the ganache is a spreading consistency spread over the cake
  6. Before completely set, use the tip of a knife to striate the ganache to resemble bark. Do not be to careful. It will look more natural if it imperfect. That’s my story, and I am sticking to it.

To make sugared cranberries and rosemary,

  • add 1/2 cup of sugar and 1/2 cup of water to a boil over medium-high heat.
  • Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes, until sugar has melted. Remove from heat and let cool for about 10 minutes.
  • Spread 1/2 cup of sugar evenly on a shallow dish.
  • Dip cranberries and rosemary springs to the sugar water, then roll in the sugar.
  • Let dry before adding to the cake.
Cake Wall of Honor

8 Crazy Days

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Hanukkah starts Sunday at sundown. Jelly donuts are always a part of our Hanukkah celebration. Of course, it’s part of many of our celebrations… like Thursdays, or the First of The Month Days and many others.

Making these donuts is strait forward with only a couple of possible pitfalls. One is to overwork the dough. Knead it for 2 minutes only! Another is to be sure it fully proofed. When poked, the dough should bounce back slowly, but bounce back. Lastly, regulate the frying temperature. Too hot and they will bake on the outside but not on the inside. Too cold and the donuts will be greasy.

You don’t need an occasion or excuse to make donuts. Try them anytime. It’s a fun bake and the results are delicious.

JELLY DOUGHNUTS

INGREDIENTS
• 1 tablespoon dry yeast
• ¾ cup about 100° F milk
• ¼ cup melted butter
• ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
• ½ cup sugar
• 1 large egg and 1 egg yolk, lightly beaten
• 2 ½ to 3 cups all-purpose flour, divided
• ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
• Vegetable oil for frying
• ¾ cup jam or jelly, any flavor
For the Coating:
• 1 cup sugar
• ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
METHOD

  1. Generously flour a clean work surface and lightly oil a medium-size bowl.
  2. In the bowl of a standing mixer, add the warm milk, then sprinkle the yeast over the milk. Using the dough hook in the stand mixer, stir to dissolve and allow it to sit until it gets foamy, about 10 minutes. Add the butter, salt and sugar, and stir to combine. Blend in the egg and egg yolk, then beat in 2 cups of the flour. Beat until the dough starts to pull away from the sides of the bowl, then beat in another ½ cup flour plus the nutmeg.
  3. When the batter has formed into a cohesive ball, turn it onto the floured work surface and knead the dough for two minutes. (No more!) Add more flour as needed if the dough feels too sticky. Form the dough into a ball, and place in the oiled bowl. Cover with a dishtowel or plastic wrap and let sit in a warm, draft-free place until the dough has doubled in volume, about 1 hour. Check with the poke test.
  4. Re-flour your work surface. Turn the dough onto the floured surface and roll it out with a floured rolling pin to a ½-inch thickness.
  5. Depending on how big you want your final donuts (2 1/2 – 3 inch) cookie cutter, cut as many rounds as you can,. Gather the scraps, let them sit for another 15 minutes, then roll the dough out again, and cut as many more circles as possible. Place the circles on a very lightly floured baking sheet with a couple of inches between each doughnut, cover with a clean dishtowel or loose plastic wrap, and let sit for about 1 hour, until they are quite puffy, about 1 inch thick.
  6. About 15 minutes before you are going to fry the doughnuts, place paper towels on a clean surface. Make the sugar coating: In a shallow bowl, mix together the 1 cup sugar with the cinnamon. And pour at least 2 inches of oil into a deep skillet or pan. Heat to 375° F over medium heat.
  7. Use a spatula to transfer two or three doughnuts into the pan. They will rise and bob on the surface; fry for about 1 minute, until golden brown on the underside, then flip them and cook until the second side is golden brown, another 1 to 2 minutes. You can occasionally gently press the doughnuts down into the oil to cook the sides evenly. Remove the doughnuts, allowing excess oil to drain back into the pan, and let them rest for a minute on the paper towels.
  8. Then place them in the bowl with the sugar coating and turn to coat completely.
  9. Use a chopstick or wooden dowel to poke a hole into the side of each doughnut, and as you slide it in, give it a wiggle to create a small pocket in the center of the doughnut. Fill a pastry bag or sturdy plastic bag with the jelly. Insert the pastry bag into the hole on the side of the doughnut. Gently squeeze a couple of teaspoons of jelly into the middle of the doughnut. Remove the bag carefully from the doughnut, and repeat until all the doughnuts are filled.
  10. Serve warm or at room temperature.