Vanilla Cardamom Spritzes

We made these for Christmas and I went overseas right after  that for a conference.  So while everyone is recovering from holiday overindulgence,  I am belatedly posting a recipe for Christmas cookies in January.  But they are good all year round and a Christmas staple in my husband’s family.. The kids spend the whole week trying to sneak these out of the cookie box or the freezer, and their grandmother spends her whole vacation trying to make these not disappear by the dozen. My son requested these for our first holiday in 15 years at home.  This recipe is his great grandmother’s and the presence of cardamom suggests that it has a Scandinavian origin.  It’s lovely, delicate and flavorful and if your family is like mine, you will want to make a double batch.  I have to say the cherry on top is not my favorite.  Next year,  I will make these with candied orange peel or citron on top.   Your pick.

Ingredients:

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
1 egg (large) if Xlg, 1 egg minus ½ Tbs as the amount of liquid is crucial
2½ tsp. vanilla extract
½ tsp. ground cardamom
½ tsp. salt
2½ cups all-purpose flour, sifted (I did not sift).

Method:

Preheat oven to 375 F.

Combine the butter and granulated sugar in a large bowl. Using an electric mixer set on medium speed, beat until light and fluffy.

Beat in the egg, vanilla, cardamom and salt. Using a spoon, stir in the flour until well mixed.  The batter will resemble tart dough at this point,  very maleable and easy to shape into a log that is just slightly smaller in diameter than your cookie press.

Fit your cookie press with the desired disk. Pack the dough into the cookie press and spritz the dough out onto ungreased baking sheet spacing the cookies 1 in. apart.  If the cookie dough is too warm, the cookies will not spriz out of the press correctly.  Simply stick the cookie press in the fridge for 15-20 min before proceeding.

Although the original recipe called for sticking the cherries onto baked cookies using egg white,  I found that sticking the cherry on the raw cookie dough prior to baking, worked better (If you prefer, you can follow the original method below:  See *).
Bake until lightly golden, about 10-12 minutes (I did 10 min). Gently transfer the cookies to wire rack (or aluminum foil on counter) to cool.
If you are doing 2 sheets at a time, trade oven places half-way thru.

* Use the following method, If you want to stick the cherries on after baking the cookies:

Combine 1 or 2 egg whites with a little water.

As soon as possible after baking cookies, combine 1 or 2 egg whites with a little water, and dip candied cherries in the egg-white mixture and decorate the center of the spritz cookie. (the egg white helps keep the cherries on the cookies)

Makes about 4 dozen cookies. I always make a double recipe, as one doesn’t last more than 2 days!

Roasted Mushrooms in Garlic Butter Sauce

These mushrooms are wonderful as an appetizer, or as a side to round out a big dinner menu.  This dish involves very little chopping and comes together very quickly.  It can be prepared ahead of time and microwaved just before serving.  This is only slightly adapted from Gourmet via Smitten Kitchen.  At the end of the roasting step,  I found that I had more liquid at the bottom of the pan than desirable.  So I thickened it with cornstarch as described below.

Ingredients: 

1 pound mushrooms halved lengthwise if large (any type will do,  I used baby bellas),

2 tablespoons capers, rinsed and chopped

3 large garlic cloves, minced

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

3 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into pieces

2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley, cilantro or basil (optional)

Method:

Preheat oven to 450°F with rack in middle.

Toss mushrooms with capers, garlic, oil, 1/8 teaspoon salt and black pepper to taste in a 1 1/2- to 2-qt  shallow baking dish. I had slightly more than a pound and used a 9×13″ glass baking dish.  I think the main thing here is to have the mushrooms in more or less 1 layer.

Top with butter and roast, stirring occasionally, until mushrooms are tender and golden and bubbly garlic sauce forms below, 15 to 20 minutes.

I went to 20 min.  and found that the mushrooms released their juices and got liquidy.  If this happens to you, do the following optional step. Mix about 2 tsp of cornstarch with a 1/4 cup of water (the quantities will depend upon how much liquid you need absorved.

Heat 1 tsp of butter in a large saucepan.  Add the mushrooms and all of the liquid back to the pan.

Add the cornstarch mix to the mushrooms and stir on medium heat, till all of the liquid is absorbed into a nice thick sauce.

Stir in lemon juice and parsley, if using. Serve immediately, with crusty bread on the side for swiping up the juices.

Pumpkin-Pecan Soup

I came back from my weekly grocery shopping foray craving pumpkin soup, something rich and nutty and rib sticking.  I found this recipe for pumpkin soup on Simply Recipes. As written,  this is a rich soup, and it wants to be this way.  So just don’t take out the butter and half and half.  Just don’t eat too much of it, ok?

I made a few changes to the original recipe.  These include substituting half and half for the heavy cream and adding some ground up toasted pecans as a thickener.   I tried a garnish with chives and cilantro, but the flavors were discordant with the creamy mellowness of the soup.  What was lovely instead was a generous garnish of toasted pecans and cracked black pepper.  Because I loaded the soup up with cracked pepper, I omitted the red pepper called for in the original recipe.

Ingredients:

4 tbs butter

1 large red onion, diced

3 large cloves garlic, minced (more if desired)

1 1/2 ”  ginger, peeled and minced (don’t reduce this)

1/2 cut pecans toasted (about 1/4 cup ground, the rest coarsely chopped)

2 tsp curry powder

1/2 tsp ground coriander

1/3-1/2 cup brown sugar

2 cans pumpkin puree (not pie mix)

1 1/2 cups 2% milk

1/2 cup half and half

2 tbs.  ”Better than Bouillon” vegetable soup base (substitute 3-4 cup chicken stock if desired, add more if you want a thinner soup)

3-4 cup water (if using the soup base and not the chicken stock)

Fresh ground cracked pepper (1-2 tsp)

METHOD

1 Melt butter in a 4-quart saucepan over medium-high heat. Add onions and garlic and cook, stirring often, until softened, about 6 minutes. Add the ground pecan, coriander and curry powder and stir for a minute.

2 Add pumpkin puree  and the soup base and water (or chicken stock) and blend well. Bring to a boil.

3 Add brown sugar and mix. Slowly add milk while stirring to incorporate. Add the half and half . Adjust seasonings, salt and sugar to taste. If a little too spicy, add more milk or water.

4 Ladle into bowls and sprinkle the top of each with toasted pecans and a generous pinch (upto 1/2 tsp) of cracked pepper.   The soup is wonderful with a nutty bread: we ate it with a cranberry walnut bread for lunch.

Persimmon Bread

James Beard’s “Beard on Bread” is an incredible book.  I bought it maybe 15 years ago and it is still my favorite go to bread book.  Even now, I can go to it and  find something new in it as I did recently with this persimmon bread.  In the breakfast bread/muffin category (made with apples, bananas, zucchini  etc), this bread holds its own.  It is really worth having in ones’ repertoire.

For those that don’t usually use persimmons, it is a mild flavored fruit that comes in several varieties, some of which can be eaten firm while the others have to be softened to the point that they feel over-ripe or even rotten.  I can’t keep the two categories apart, so for the purpose of this bread, I just allow whatever  persimmons I buy to go to the super-ripe state prior to use.

For this version,  I made 2-3 substitutions in the Beard recipe.  I used a combination of grated apples and persimmons, simply because I didn’t buy enough persimmons.  I’ve also made it with just persimmons and both breads taste excellent.  I  replaced the mace with cinnamon and cloves (for convenience) and the 2/3 cup cognac with 1/4 cup of apple cider (the lesser amount figuring that it would not evaporate as much as the cognac).  I am giving you both the original and my substitutions below.

Ingredients:

3½ cups sifted flour
1½ teaspoons salt
2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon grated mace (I substituted with 2 tsp. ground cinnamon and 1/8th tsp ground cloves)
2 to 2½ cups sugar (I used 2 1/2)
1 cup (2 sticks) melted butter and cooled to room temperature
4 large eggs, lightly beaten
2/3 cup Cognac (I used 1/4 cup apple cider, you may be able to add a little more if you use the larger amounts of nuts and raisins as below)
2 cups persimmon puree from super-ripe persimms (I used eureka, but Hachiya persimmons would be fine as well).
2 cups walnuts or pecans, toasted and chopped (I used 1 cup)
2 cups raisins (1 used 1 cup)

Method:

1. Butter 2 9″x 5″ loaf pans,   dust with flour and tap out any excess.

2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

3. Mix the first 5 dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl.

4. Stir in the butter, eggs, liquor/cider, persimmon puree, mix well,  then add the nuts and raisins.

5. Bake 1 hour or until toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

6.  Eat cake for breakfast with a cup of coffee or a glass of milk.

Lemon Squares

Everyone has their favorite lemon bar recipe.  I dislike very eggy  lemon bars because their yolkiness  interferes with the combined brightness and delicacy of the lemon and butter.  This recipe (adapted barely, from Betty Crocker) is lovely and doesn’t involve the tedious beating of eggs or a cumbersome crust preparation.  It is fast, buttery, lemony and delicious. Its the perfect dessert for when you have a large number of guests. I have made only one change to the original recipe: I  doubled the amount of lemon juice the original recipe calls for.  If that is not your thing, you can go back down to the 2 tbs. the original recipe calls for.  One more thing:  this recipe is almost better with lime than with lemon, so use whatever you have.  I bet it would be great with Meyer lemons as well.

Ingredients:

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 stick (1/2) cup salted butter, softened

1/4 cup powdered sugar

1 cup granulated sugar

2 teaspoons grated lemon peel, if desired

2-4 tablespoons lemon juice

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4teaspoon salt

2 eggs

Extra powdered sugar for dusting.

Method:

• 1. Heat oven to 350ºF.
• 2.  Mix flour, butter and powdered sugar. Press into  ungreased 8×8 square pan, building up 1/2-inch edges.
• 3. Bake the crust for 20 minutes.
• 4. Beat granulated sugar, lemon juice, baking powder, salt and eggs with electric mixer on high speed about 3 minutes or until light, pale yellow and fluffy. Add the lemon peel and mix briefly. Pour over hot crust.
• 5. Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until no indentation remains when touched lightly in center. Cool; dust with powdered sugar. Cut into about 1 1/2-inch squares.