White chocolate butterscotch cookies

I read the wonderful "Awards Daily" everyday and yesterday I saw the trailer for "The Sessions": you know that I adore John Hawkes and he's kicking some serious ass in that movie; before watching the trailer I thought the movie would go heavy on the drama but there's a comedy feel to it that I absolutely loved - William H. Macy looks great as the priest. There, another movie I cannot wait to watch - the list is never-ending, I guess. ;)

Another never-ending list of mine is the one with recipes I want to try, but to be honest these cookies were not on top of that list; I wanted to bake something with fruit but I did not have any around, so the bag of white chocolate chips inspired me to try Martha's recipe - and that was a delicious surprise: these cookies are easy to make and taste great.

White chocolate butterscotch cookies
slightly adapted from the wonderful Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook

1 ¾ cups (245g) all purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
¾ cup + 2 tablespoons (198g) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 ¼ cups (220g) brown sugar, packed
1 large egg
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
225g (8oz) white chocolate, chopped into 6mm (¼in) chunks – I used white chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper.
In a medium bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt.
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and brown sugar until light and creamy. Scrape the sides of the bowl. Add the egg and vanilla and beat until combined.
With the mixer on low speed add the flour in two batches and beat until just combined. Stir in the chocolate.
Drop 2 tablespoons of dough at a time about 5cm (2in) apart onto prepared sheets.
Bake rotating the pans halfway though, until lightly golden around the edges, about 15 minutes.
Let cookies cool on the pans for 2 minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.
Cookies can be kept at room temperature in an airtight container up to 4 days.

Makes 2 dozen cookies – I used 2 leveled tablespoons of dough per cookie and got 30

Gingered pear and raspberry pandowdy

Despite loving their first film collaboration, I’m not a fan of Burton or Depp (both together and separate). Burton’s just not the kind of director I admire, and I find Depp very limited as an actor – playing the weird doesn’t necessarily mean one is talented. To make things even worse, they butchered one of the most important movies of my childhood. Having said that, you must know that I loved "Dark Shadows" – I laughed so much I felt renovated after leaving the theater. I do not know if that was because after the awful “Alice in Wonderland” I had no expectations about Burton’s new movie but I thought the script was very witty and funny and that Depp was absolutely fantastic as Barnabas – his performance goes far beyond all that make up and one can tell he’s having a lot of fun playing the vampire. Eva Green, whom I would never have imagined had such great comedy timing, is magnificent, too. The only thing I did not like much in “Dark Shadows” was Chloe Moretz – she’s only 15 and tried too hard to be a femme fatale, all those languid looks and cascading hair and the pouting... Not good. Yet, the movie is worth watching – laughing that much on a Monday was certainly a good way to start off the week. :D

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Crumbles are my favorite dessert and because of that all the variations of warm desserts involving fruit get my instant attention: after the apple pandowdy, it was about time I tried a different spin on that delicious dessert – the pears and raspberries were wonderful together and the biscuit topping, with lovely ginger kicks here and there, complimented the fruit beautifully.

Gingered pear and raspberry pandowdy
from the fabulous Rustic Fruit Desserts: Crumbles, Buckles, Cobblers, Pandowdies, and More

Fruit filling:
½ cup (100g) granulated sugar
2 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon cornstarch
pinch of salt
4 large pears, peeled, cored, and sliced (1kg/2 pounds prepped)
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
250g (2 cups/ 9oz) raspberries, fresh or frozen – I used frozen, unthawed
1 tablespoon cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

Biscuit topping:
1 ¾ cups (245g) all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons granulated sugar + 1 tablespoon extra, for sprinkling
¾ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
10 tablespoons (140g/5oz) cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
1/3 cup chopped candied ginger
2/3 cup (160ml) cold buttermilk + 1 tablespoon extra, for brushing*

Position a rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F. Butter a 22cm (9in) cast-iron skillet or deep-dish pie pan.
Make the filling: rub the sugar, cornstarch, and salt together in a large bowl, then add the pears and lemon juice and toss until evenly coated. Gently fold in the raspberries, then transfer the fruit to the prepared pan. Dot the fruit with the butter.

Biscuit: whisk the flour, 3 tablespoons of the sugar, the baking powder, and salt together in a bowl.
Add the butter and toss until evenly coated. Using your fingertips or a pastry blender, cut in the butter until the size of large peas. Stir in the candied ginger, then pour in the 2⁄3 cup buttermilk and stir just until the dry ingredients are moistened (my dough was too soft, so I added 1 tablespoon flour).
The dough will be crumbly, with large pieces of butter still visible. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and gently press the dough together, then press it into a 22cm (9in) circle.
Carefully place the dough atop the fruit. Brush the dough with the 1 tablespoon buttermilk, then sprinkle with the remaining 1 tablespoon sugar.
Bake in the lower third of the oven for 30 minutes, then turn the oven down to 180°C/350°F and bake for an additional 20 minutes or until the pastry is golden and the juices are bubbly and thick.
Allow to cool for 30 minutes before serving.

* homemade buttermilk: to make 1 cup buttermilk place 1 tablespoon lemon juice in a 240ml-capacity measuring cup and complete with whole milk (room temperature). Wait 10 minutes for it to thicken slightly, then use the whole mixture in your recipe

Serves 8

Almond cake (Tarta de Santiago) + DDL

A long time ago I watched “Magnolia” – because lots of people had told me it was my kind of movie – and got really disappointed; despite the bunch of awards and great cast – including my beloved Julianne Moore – I did not think the movie was all that. A while later, I decided to give Paul Thomas Anderson another chance and watched “Boogie Nights”, which to me was a far superior movie (despite having been made before “Magnolia”). I liked it and added one more strong performance to the handful I have seen by Mark Wahlberg so far. Last week, I finally watched "There Will Be Blood" – because of my love for Daniel Day-Lewis – and wow, he’s fantastic beyond belief as Daniel Plainview. The movie is amazing as a whole, well directed with a beautiful cinematography, and Lewis’ performance is absolutely unforgettable (as are many of his performances), but I don’t think it was better than Viggo’s Nikolai – and that is the only thing I did not love about “There Will Be Blood”. :)

***
A month or so ago I baked the most delicious almond cake up until then – the recipe by Tamasin Day-Lewis (who happens to be DDL’s sister) became my favorite almond cake the minute I tasted the first bite. But Claudia Roden’s Tarta de Santiago, a cake from a book I want to buy as soon as possible and made with almond meal and almost nothing more, made me rush to the kitchen to try it – and now I love both cakes so much I no longer have one favorite almond cake: I have two. :D

Almond cake (Tarta de Santiago)
slightly adapted from Epicurious; the recipe comes from a book I cannot wait to buy

6 large eggs, separated
pinch of salt
1 ¼ cups (250g) granulated sugar
grated zest of 1 orange
grated zest of 1 lemon
1 tablespoon Amaretto
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 ¼ cups (225g) almond meal (finely ground almonds)
confectioners’ sugar for dusting

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F. Butter and flour a 28cm (11in) springform pan*, preferably nonstick.
With an electric mixer, beat the egg whites and the salt in a large bowl until stiff peaks form. Transfer to another bowl and set aside. Wash and dry the used bowl and the whisk. Again with the electric mixer, beat the egg yolks with the granulated sugar to a smooth pale cream. Beat in the zests, Amaretto and vanilla extract. Add the ground almonds and mix very well.
Fold the whites into the egg and almond mixture (the mixture is thick, so that you will need to turn it over quite a bit into the egg whites).
Pour into the prepared cake pan and smooth the top. Bake for 40 minutes, or until it feels firm to the touch and a skewer inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Let cool before turning out.
Just before serving, dust the top of the cake with confectioners' sugar. Or, if you like, cut a St. James cross out of paper. Place it in the middle of the cake, and dust the cake with confectioners' sugar, then remove the paper (I preferred to use a heart-shaped piece of paper).

* I made ¾ of the recipe above and used a 20cm (8in) round cake pan with a removable bottom (regular – not nonstick); I lined the bottom of the pan with a circle of baking paper and buttered and floured the paper as well.

Serves 10

Orange nutmeg cookies

I’ve been using the Internet for ages now – 5 ½ years of blogging alone – but it still amazes me how much good, useful information I have at the tip of my fingers. And how wonderful it is to find people who share my opinions about several things, after spending years loving/hating those things alone. Therefore, it was sheer joy to find this video to find out there is someone out there who has pretty much the exact opinion I do about certain movies; I’d throw in three more nominations for “Hanna” – Saoirse Ronan, Cate Blanchett and Eric Bana – but other than that the list of “nominees” on the video is pretty much perfect. :)

And this very same useful Internet showed me, many years ago, the domestic goddess Martha Stewart shaping cookie dough with a ruler and my life making slice and bake cookies was never the same again. :D
These orange cookies are delicious and if you have a ruler at home they’ll be a breeze to make.

Orange nutmeg cookies
slightly adapted from the wonderful The Grand Central Baking Book

2 cups (280g) all purpose flour
¼ teaspoon salt
1 ½ teaspoons freshly ground nutmeg
1 cup (226g/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
¾ cup (150g) granulated sugar + a little extra for sprinkling the cookie logs
1 egg
finely grated zest of 2 oranges
1 egg, extra, lightly beaten with 2 teaspoons water (I used an egg yolk I had left from another recipe)

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, salt and nutmeg. Set aside.
In the large bowl of an electric mixer, using the paddle attachment, beat the butter, sugar and orange zest until creamy. Add the egg and mix to combine.
In low speed, add the dry ingredients and mix only until incorporated. Cover and chill for 30 minutes.
Divide the dough into two equal parts. Place each on a piece of parchment paper; shape dough into logs. Fold parchment over dough; using a ruler, roll and press into a 3cm (1 ¼in) log – like Martha does here. Wrap in parchment. Chill in freezer until very firm.
Preheat oven to 180°C/350°F; line two large baking sheets with baking paper.
Unwrap one log at a time (keep the other in the freezer). Brush the log with the egg wash and sprinkle with the extra sugar. Cut into 6mm (¼in) thick rounds; space 2.5cm (1in) apart onto prepared sheets. Refrigerate for 20 minutes, then bake until just golden around the edges, 20-25 minutes. Cool in the sheet over a wire rack. Repeat the procedure with the remaining dough log.
Store cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 4 days.

Makes about 40 cookies

Peanut butter-yogurt Bundt cake with ganache glaze + my good mood anthem

I no longer complain about chaotic traffic here in Sao Paulo – I have accepted the fact that it is part of my city and that I have to face it on weekdays. Period. There’s no point in bitching about it – it is what it is. The key to survive it is to try and make those hours a little more pleasurable, and music is a very helpful tool. There is one song I absolutely love and that, for over 10 years now, has been a sort of instant mood enhancer: every time I feel sad or angry (or both), I listen to Phats & Small’s “This Time Around” and it immediately makes me feel better. My good mood anthem. :)

I also keep a small notebook at hand because it seems that traffic jams bring great recipes to my mind – it was on a very rainy and chaotic day that I remembered the peanut butter cake with chocolate glaze from this wonderful book, and now it is here so you can try it too – it is oh, so delicious.

Peanut butter-yogurt Bundt cake with ganache glaze
slightly adapted from the amazing Cake Keeper Cakes: 100 Simple Recipes for Extraordinary Bundt Cakes, Pound Cakes, Snacking Cakes and Other Good-To-The-Last-Crumb Treats

Cake:
1 cup (260g) plain yogurt
3 large eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 ¼ cups (315g) unbleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup (1 stick/113g) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup smooth peanut butter
1 ¼ cups (250g) demerara sugar

Glaze:
¼ cup (60ml) heavy cream
85g (3oz) semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, room temperature

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F. Grease a 12-cup Bundt pan and dust with flour. Whisk together the yogurt, eggs, and vanilla in a large glass measuring cup. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl.
Combine the butter, peanut butter, and demerara sugar in a large mixing bowl and cream with an electric mixer on medium-high speed until fluffy, about 3 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl once or twice as necessary.
On low speed, alternately add the dry ingredients in 3 additions with the yogurt mixture in 2 additions, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients, scraping the sides of the bowl between additions.
Turn the mixer to medium-high speed and beat for 1 minute.
Scrape the batter into the prepared pan. Bake until golden and risen and a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean, 40-45 minutes. Let the cake cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then invert it onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Glaze: heat the cream in a small saucepan over medium heat until it comes to a boil. Remove from the heat, add the chocolate and butter and let stand for 5 minutes. Whisk until smooth.
Pour the warm glaze over the cake.

Serves 10-12