ORANGE-CRANBERRY CORN BREAD

I’ve made this several times now, and I’m making it again this morning. So good! I freeze the cornbread in individual servings for future breakfasts. The best breakfast – split a piece of this cornbread, then fry it in butter. This is so flavorful, you don’t even want jam on it (which is what I usually do with plain cornbread).

1 cup (156 grams) yellow cornmeal
1 cup (120 grams) all-purpose flour
1/2 cup (106 grams) light or dark brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon kosher salt
3/4 cup (170 grams) sour cream
1/2 cup buttermilk (1-1/2 teaspoons vinegar/lemon juice +milk to reach 1/2 cup)
1/3 cup honey
2 large eggs
3 tablespoons (42 grams) melted butter, cooled slightly, plus 1 additional tablespoon (14 grams) for pan
2 tablespoons canola oil
1 cup (99 grams) roughly chopped fresh cranberries
1 tablespoon zest from 1 or 2 oranges

Place a 10-inch cast iron skillet on the middle rack of the oven and preheat to 425°F.

Make the “buttermilk.” It wants to sit for at least five minutes to get it curdled. Ten minutes is better.

Melt the butter, set aside to cool. Rough chop the cranberries, set aside. Zest the orange.

In a medium bowl that will ultimately be large enough to hold ALL the ingredients, whisk together cornmeal, flour, brown sugar, baking powder, salt, and baking soda.

In a separate bowl, whisk together sour cream, buttermilk, honey, eggs, 3 tablespoons cooled melted butter, and canola oil.

Pour wet ingredients into bowl with dry ingredients and whisk until completely combined. Stir in cranberries and orange zest.

Remove the hot pan from oven. Place 1 tablespoon butter in skillet and swirl to completely melt and coat inside of pan.

Pour in cornbread batter and place in oven.

Bake until skewer inserted into middle of cornbread comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Let bread cool in pan for 5 minutes, then carefully turn out to wire rack and let cool an additional 10 minutes.

Adapted from Serious Eats. It used to be easy and direct to embed a link in text. Thanks WordPress for making it stupidly opaque.

https://www.seriouseats.com/orange-cranberry-cornbread

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SPICED RUM RAISIN BANANA MUFFINS

I’ve been frustrated with banana bread recipes, so I’ve tested and written my own. Most recipes don’t specify how much banana – “two bananas” or “four bananas” – how big are these bananas? We don’t know! Consider the amount of banana I’ve indicated as a starting point. If you have bigger bananas or more bananas and want to use them, feel free, though the maximum amount I would use is four. Obviously, the more banana you add, the more batter you’ll have, and, thus, the more muffins you’ll have. Plan accordingly! My other problem with banana bread recipes is they’re sold as “healthy.” Excuse my French but fuck that noise. We’re making delicious muffins here, and they contain sugar in an unapologetic amount. They are moist and flavorful – perfect for a light breakfast or snack.

Ceramic/stoneware muffin tin, date unknown. Photo from Smithsonian Institution, ID number CE.392524

You’ll need two bowls – one that’s microwave safe and large enough to hold all the wet ingredients and one large bowl that can accommodate all the ingredients. (Well, three, if you count the bowl needed to soak the raisins.)

1 cup raisins
1/2 cup Captain Morgan spiced rum
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
250 g (2 cups) all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pumpkin spice
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 large eggs
250 g overripe bananas (two smallish bananas)
1 cup toasted, chopped walnuts

Several hours in advance, combine raisins and Captain Morgan (or rum or other alcohol of your choice) in a shallow bowl to soak. Warming the alcohol in the microwave (10 or 15 seconds) can help speed things up. Stir the raisins occasionally to ensure they all get equally drunk. I let my raisins soak for about 36 hours because they were really old and very dry. It took them about 24 hours to start to resemble edible raisins. Whether you use your old raisins here or in some other recipe, soaking them for a day or two can transform raisins that are old and cranky.

Spread walnuts on a sheet pan and toast in the preheating 350 degree oven – about five minutes. Use a timer, and keep a close eye so they don’t get dark. Spread them on a paper towel or cutting board and let them cool before chopping.

Melt the butter, then add the brown sugar and stir well. Set aside to cool, stirring occasionally.

Put papers into a 12-hole muffin tin* and butter/sugar two custard cups. If you don’t have papers, butter/sugar the muffin tin as well.

Forget your mixer – whether hand or stand – mix the batter by hand so you don’t overwork the flour – it’s not onerous.

In a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients. If your nuts are cool enough (they can still be slightly warm), chop them and add them to the dry ingredients. Set aside.

Now that butter/sugar is sufficiently cool, add in the eggs, and whisk it up. Then add the bananas, mashing to your desired consistency. Add the soaked raisins (minus any residual liquor), and whisk all of it until well blended.

If you haven’t previously chopped your nuts, it’s time! Add them to the dry ingredients.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, stirring only until the flour disappears.

Spoon batter into tin/cups till they’re 3/4 full. If you like, sprinkle the top of the muffins with turbinado sugar. It’s not necessary but adds a nice sweet crunch to the muffin tops.

Bake in your 350 degree oven for about 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let cool for a few minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and enjoy!

*If you prefer, you can use a loaf pan either lined with parchment or buttered and floured or sugared. Bake for 50 to 60 minutes, until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

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One of these days …

Young woman removing loaf of bread from oven; presumably advertising Born Range Co., Cleveland. c.1909 (Library of Congress)

This bread looks so damn good.

I have the Dutch oven needed to bake it, but my house is nowhere near 70 degrees so I’m not sure how well I could get the bread to rise.

I guess this project will have to wait for warmer weather. Too bad as it would be just the thing to have with soup on a cold winter day.

Thanks, Busted!

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Almond Twists Revisited

Wild flowers of Palestine. Almond tree in blossom (from a negative taken approximately 1900 to 1920)

I wrote earlier about my first experience making Solo’s Almond Twists but since then I have made them two more times, each batch better than the last.

I have learned some very interesting things.

I have continued to bake them at 350 degrees rather than the 375 degrees indicated in the directions.

It’s irrational, I know, but I started out with that temp and have been loathe to change it. But I will, next time, to see what effect it has.

Rolling the puff pastry out on sugar instead of flour is definitely the way to go, unless you prefer a much less sweet dessert. It’s trickier using sugar because the pastry really sticks to the countertop. Yesterday I finally rolled the pastry on wax-paper and that was a great help. Parchment paper would be even better, if only because it is wider.

Yesterday’s batch got a lot of sugar in all the rollings. Because I was better able to maneuver the pastry on the wax-paper, I rolled it thinner than I had previously (getting 36 1-1/2 inch twists out of a single sheet of puff-pastry — that’s cooked size).

I really prefer cutting the pastry so that the twists are pop-in-your-mouth-and-it’s-gone size, although if you are doing a special breakfast, for instance, the longer size might be nicer for presentation.

I had the assistance of a teenage boy in making the actual twists. Now, I had been twisting them fairly loosely but he really tightly corkscrewed the ones he did.

What a difference the three variables — thickness, sugar application and twisting technique — have on the final cookie!

The thinner the pastry is rolled, the denser the final confection. More tightly twisting the pastry strips makes for an even denser, more cookie-like confection, losing any resemblance to puff pastry, but really nice nonetheless. The greater volume of sugar also increases crispness.

Once I get over my love affair with almond paste I will try making twists with some of the other Solo fillings — like pecan or poppyseed.

Can you imagine the Solo pecan filling on the first fold, with brown sugar on the second?

I just may have to make a trip to the grocery store …

Word of warning: Whatever you are going to unload the hot twists to must be ready when they come out of the oven as they must be evacuated from the pan ASAP or you will literally be chipping them off. I also recommend putting the twists upside down so they don’t seal to the surface. Definitely do not use paper towels.

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Almond Twists!

I made them last night and let me tell you — they are fabulous! They are lightly sweet and fragrantly almond puff-pastry delights. Thank you, Solo!

ALMOND TWISTS!

Yield:  approximately 48 twists

Preheat oven to 375 degrees fahrenheit

1 package (17-1/4 oz) frozen puff pastry sheets, thawed
1 can (8 oz) almond paste (Solo brand!)
Sugar for sprinkling

Sprinkle work surface with sugar.  Unfold one sheet of pastry and lay flat on sugared surface.  Roll out to 12-inch square.

Divide almond paste in half.  Set half of almond paste aside and break remaining half into small pieces.  Dot over half of pastry sheet.  Fold pastry in half over almond paste and roll out to 10×12 inch rectangle.  Sprinkle lightly with sugar.  Fold in half again and roll out to 10×12 inch rectangle.

Cut pastry in half to make two rectangles, each 5×12 inches.  Cut each rectangle into strips (width-wise), one inch wide each.  Twist strips into corkscrew shape and place on ungreased baking sheets about two inches apart.  Sprinkle lightly with additional sugar, if desired.

Repeat with remaining pastry sheet and reserved almond paste.

Bake 18 to 22 minutes, or until puffed and golden brown.  Remove from baking sheets immediately and cool completely on wire racks.

***

Now, that is the recipe as Solo has written it.

Because I am one who tends to rush ahead before I know where I’m going, I did not read the directions fully before I began — actually, not until I typed them in above! So there are a couple things that I did differently.

First, I didn’t use sugar to roll out the pastry, I used flour. I would definitely go with sugar next time, just because I think there may be some additional “sparkle” to be gained, but if you think there’s already enough sugar (which there is — my twists are delicious!), lightly flour your rolling surface.

Second, I had the oven at 350 rather than 375. I have a gas convection oven and they cooked in 20 minutes (two trays at once). It will be interesting to see what happens at the higher temperature. I have had problems in the past with puff pastry not cooking through fully on the underside yet threatening to become over brown on the upper side, so the slightly lower temp may have worked to my advantage here.

The third issue is not related to lack of reading ahead but rather to my execution — I sprinkled too much sugar on the pastry after the first fold. As a result, the two layers of pastry did not bind well together after rolling, though they did stay together well enough that I was able to make the twists without a problem. Perhaps the “extra” sugar I inadvertently added at this stage “made up” for that inadvertently deleted in the rolling-out stage.

And absolutely — remove the twists from the pan as soon as they come out of the oven. If you don’t, they will stick hard and fast. I didn’t have wire racks but used paper towels, making sure that the twists were all top down, with their bottoms in the air, so that the paper towel did not stick to the cooling sugar on those bottoms.

A recommendation I would make is that rather than cutting the finished pastry in half and then into strips, I would cut it into thirds, so that the finished twists are smaller. The recommended size is not too big necessarily, I just think they would be cuter if they were smaller.

Since I used one of my two sheets of puff pastry to make the ham, swiss & mushroom puff pastry quiche, I only had one to make the almond twists, which means that I still have half a can of almond paste in my fridge. I will be running out to buy more puff pastry so I can make some more of these babies and also try one of the other delicious-sounding variations on the twist theme recommended by Pepperidge Farm and others, such as the glazed apricot twists over at Epicurious.

I have a feeling that many of my friends and relatives will be getting a variety of these crispy little delights for Christmas this year.

UPDATE:   Mmm-mmm!  We made them again and learned new things!

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