MITCH IN THE KITCHEN

gingersnaps with lemon ice cream

milkmadeicecream:

Back to that ice cream sandwich idea. Here’s one we whipped up with lemon ice cream and gingersnaps. I love love love the combination of lemon and gingery baked goods (I used to keep a box of Carr’s ginger lemon creme cookies at my desk, and we’d eat these whenever we could in Berkeley). The lemons were grown by a friend in San Diego, and hand-imported in economy class by my personal fruit smuggler. The hardest part about making these is not eating all of the cookies and ice cream before they’re ready to be sandwiched together in perfect harmony.

<00, Mitch

lemon meringue bars

These pretty Meyer lemons are from John’s trip to San Diego last month. They’re a cross between true lemons and some type of orange, so they taste a little sweeter than “regular” lemons. While I’ve made limoncello, hot toddy ice cream, and lemon-shaped lemon pancakes with lemon curd in the past, I thought I’d try something different this time: lemon meringue pie. I used this recipe, which calls for an un-fussy graham cracker crust. Then I put everything in a 9 by 13-inch pan instead of a pie plate and called it “bars” instead of “pie”.

The result? Weepy, under-whipped and under-baked meringue. Sigh. I’ll have to take another shot at this sometime.

gougères

I think I have a new favorite thing to bake. Gougères are a savory pastry made with pâte à choux (the stuff used to make cream puffs and eclairs) and Gruyère cheese. John and I take the “serve fresh out of the oven” instructions very seriously; we can wordlessly polish off a hot tray of these in record time.

This recipe is from Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking, one of several fine cookbooks and food magazine subscriptions I received over the gift-heavy months of December and January.

1 cup water
6 tablespoons of butter (3/4 stick) cut into pieces
1 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
pinch of nutmeg
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
4 large eggs
1 1/4 cups finely shredded Gruyère cheese

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

Bring water, butter, and seasonings to a boil in a 1 1/2 or 2-quart heavy-bottomed saucepan. Boil slowly until the butter has melted. Meanwhile, measure out the flour.

Remove water and butter mixture from heat and immediately pour in all the flour at once. Stir vigorously with a wooden spatula or spoon for several seconds to blend thoroughly. Beat over moderately high heat for 1 to 2 minutes until mixture leaves the sides of the pan and the spoon, forms a mass, and begins to film the bottom of the pan.

Remove saucepan from heat and make a well in the center of the paste with your spoon. Immediately break an egg into the center of the well. Beat it into the paste for several seconds until it has absorbed. Repeat with the rest of the eggs, mixing in one at a time until the paste is well blended and smooth. Mix in 3/4 cup of the cheese.

Scoop small spoonfuls of the paste (about 1 to 1 1/2 inches in diameter) about 2 inches apart from each other on baking sheets (you’ll probably need 2). Top gougères with remaining 1/2 cup of cheese. Bake for about 20 minutes, or until puffs are golden brown and have doubled in size.

Remove from the oven, and pierce each gougère with a small knife. I think this is supposed to let steam escape so that the puffs don’t get all soggy. Set in the turned-off oven and leave the door ajar for 10 minutes. I don’t know what this last part does or how necessary it is, but I had the patience to do what Julia Child instructs, and the result was good. Then stuff your face with these delicious little things.

Instant update from Miguel D:

if you want to do it up one step, after piercing and setting, fill each gougere with uber-decadent sauce meuniere or bechamel, or even just any simple white cheese sauce.

ham and cheddar drop biscuits

I meant to post this from home (The Nut, CA), but realized too late that my parents do not have photo software that can convert raw image files. For me, the holidays are a chance to escape to blindingly sunny southern California, say hi to my very large extended family, and drink beer in a high school friend’s garage. Every year, my aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, etc. (and this year, future in-laws!) all come over on Christmas Eve. It’s a pot luck, more or less, with everything from Chinese noodle dishes to pastries from a local Cuban bakery to yellow chicken curry. My mom always makes her famous spare ribs, and I usually pull something together at the last minute (while causing my mom to fret that her only child, now 27, still has no grasp of time management). Along with fresh guacamole, I whipped up some bite-sized savory biscuits. They taste excellent fresh out of the oven (but that didn’t stop me from eating all the stale leftovers for breakfast the next day).

makes about 60 (if I remember correctly)

1 cup butter (2 sticks), very cold
3 1/2 cups flour
1 tablespoon + 2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
2 cups milk
4 oz ham, diced
8 oz cheddar cheese, shredded or diced

Combine flour with baking powder, salt, and pepper. Cut butter into the dry ingredients with a pastry blender until the granules are the size of small peas. Add milk and stir just until combined. Gently fold in ham and cheese.

Scoop by the tablespoon-ful onto a parchment or foil-lined baking sheet. Bake at 425 degrees for 12 to 15 minutes, or until biscuits turn lightly golden.

spicy chocolate cookies

I’ve probably mentioned before that I don’t bake much, mostly because I’m not really a sweets and desserts eater. I am, however, trying to get better at it (the baking part, not the eating part), so yesterday was a perfect opportunity to bake a bunch of cookies for a holiday party (again, at Pavla and Diana’s). I’m not sure if they were eaten in the sangria-fueled chaos and gift-exchange-rage that ensued, but I’m glad they at least looked cute.

(recipe adapted from Epicurious)

Makes about 5 dozen (I got up to 66 cookies)

6 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
2 cups plus 2 tablespoons all purpose flour
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1 3/4 cups sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
3 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

powdered sugar
candied cherries, dried cherries, almonds, or pistachios

Remove butter from the refrigerator and let it sit out at room temperature (I forget to do this all the time).

Melt chocolate in a bowl over simmering water, or in a double boiler. Set aside.

Combine flour, baking powder, salt, and spices in a medium bowl. Beat 1 3/4 cups sugar and butter in large bowl until light. Beat in eggs one at a time, then add vanilla and chocolate. Gradually add dry ingredients, mixing just until combined. Chill dough until firm, about 2 hours (or throw it in the freezer for 20 minutes while you worry about being late to your friends’ party because you didn’t read the recipe directions).

Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly butter your baking sheet(s), or line them with parchment paper. Place powdered sugar in a plate or shallow pan. Form dough into 1-inch balls. Roll each ball in sugar to coat; shake off excess sugar. Arrange cookies on prepared baking sheets, spacing 1 1/2 inches apart. Press one cherry or nut into the center of each cookie. Bake until cookies puff and crack but are still soft, about 10 minutes. Transfer cookies to rack and cool completely.

whole wheat scones with fresh currants

It’s been said (particularly by me) that I am not very good at baking. I find it difficult to suppress the urge to improvise in favor of precise measuring and timing. So to accompany my recent foray into “science” (in the form of nutrition-related courses), I’ve started baking here and there. John is around for quality control (“No Mitch, you can’t eyeball 1 1/2 cups of flour”), which, I’ll admit, leads to things like perfectly tender scones.

Some of you probably think whole wheat baked goods are too dry and too dense. I kind of agree, so I usually blend whole wheat with regular flour when baking. These scones, however, are pretty delicious the way they are (as long as you’re not a whole-wheat hater). Pastry flour has less gluten (the protein component of wheat that makes dough elastic and bread chewy) than regular flour, making the final product less tough and more tender.

These scones aren’t too sweet, so you won’t feel like you’re having dessert for breakfast. The steel-cut oats get a little chewy, and the currants are really tart (in a good way). You (and I!) can also substitute other small juicy berries or dried fruit for the less readily available fresh currants. (Read a current article about currants here.)

(adapted from cook.eat.think.)

2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 cup steel cut oats
6 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
10 Tbsp chilled unsalted butter
1 cup fresh currants
3/4 cup buttermilk

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Combine flour with oats, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Cut butter into the mixture using a pastry blender or fork, until the mixture is crumbly. Gently fold in currants, and add buttermilk. Mix gently, just until combined. The dough should be very soft.

On a lightly floured surface, shape the dough into a long rectangle, about 3 inches wide and 1.5 inches thick. Cut into triangles, and place on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Brush tops of scones with heavy cream and sprinkle coarse sugar on top (optional). Bake for 22 minutes.