Panettone muffins - for the days with no time (or will) to work with yeast

Last weekend my oven worked like crazy: I baked different types of cookies to give as gifts to people I adore (one of them being pfeffernüsse, my favorite Christmas cookies) and I also baked these delicious, perfumed and oh, so tender panettone muffins – they are the perfect solution to those days when I crave panettone but don’t have the time (or sometimes the will, let’s be honest here) to work with yeast.

I used the same flavorings I had used for the actual panettone – orange and lemon zest, vanilla, Cointreau and Amaretto – and also the same dried fruit combo, with the addition of apricots. While I baked the muffins, my husband came to the kitchen to ask what I was making because of how wonderful it smelled. The muffins turned out insanely tender and really tasty, and two days later they were still great – just make sure you keep them tightly sealed in an airtight container at room temperature. They are also delicious toasted with a little butter on top – yum!

Panettone muffins
slightly adapted from King Arthur's little beauties

1 large orange
1/3 cup golden raisins
1/3 cup dark raisins
1/3 finely diced dried apricots
1/3 cup dried cranberries
¼ cup (60ml) orange juice
2 ¼ cups (315g) all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon table salt
¼ cup (56g) unsalted butter, softened
2 tablespoons canola oil
½ cup (100g) granulated sugar
finely grated zest of 1 lemon
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon Cointreau
1 teaspoon Amaretto
2/3 cup (160ml) whole milk, room temperature
2 tablesoons finely chopped crystallized orange peel
1 ½ tablespoons demerara sugar, for sprinkling over the muffins

Finely zest the orange and place the zest in a large bowl (you will use an electric mixer to make these muffins). Set aside.

Place the dried fruit and the orange juice in a small saucepan and heat over high heat until the juice starts boiling – remove from the heat and let cool completely.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.
Preheat the oven to 190°C/375°F. Line a 12-hole muffin pan with paper cases.
To the large bowl with the orange zest, add the butter, oil, granulated sugar and lemon zest, then cream until smooth and light. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, beating well to combine. Beat in the vanilla, Cointreau and Amaretto.
With the mixer on low speed, mix in the flour mixture in three additions, alternating with the milk in two additions – start and end with the dry ingredients. Stir in the crystallized orange peel and the dried fruit with any remaining orange juice.

Divide the mixture evenly between the cases and sprinkle with the demerara sugar. Bake for about 20 minutes or until risen and golden and a skewer inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. Cool in the pan over a wire rack for 5 minutes, then carefully remove the muffins from the pan and transfer them to the rack. Cool completely.

Makes 12

Panettone

Even though I have been posting Christmas recipes at this time of the year for a long long time, I have not baked panettone – or chocottone, for that matter – in ages. We sometimes get panettones as gifts, and my husband sometimes buys some at this time of the year.

This year, however, Joao told me he wanted homemade panettone and since I was on a Christmas state of mind I decided to make it. It was a rainy Saturday, I did not want to go anywhere, so I made the panettone and watched Carol in between (by the way, I am still trying to understand all the fuss over the awards season).

This is an adaptation of Paul Hollywood’s panettone and it turned out really delicious – the tender brioche dough perfumed with citrus and dotted with chewy and sweet raisins and dried cranberries. But unlike Paul’s brioche, that still tastes great a day after it is made, the panettone got a little tough on the following morning – it was still delicious, but texture-wise it was better freshly baked. If your family is big, I am sure the panettone will be gone in no time, but if there are not many of you around to eat it within a day no worries: it makes a killer French toast. ;)

Panettone
slightly adapted from Paul Hollywood

14g dried yeast
140ml whole milk, lukewarm
75g granulated sugar
500g all purpose flour
¼ teaspoon table salt
5 large eggs, room temperature
finely grated zest of 1 orange
finely grated zest of 1 lemon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon Cointreau
1 teaspoon Amaretto
200g unsalted butter, softened
120g dried cranberries
120g golden raisins
120g dark raisins
50g crystallized orange peel, finely chopped

Egg wash:
1 egg, lightly beaten with a fork

In the bowl of an eletric mixer, place yeast, milk and a pinch of the sugar and mix with a fork. Set aside for 5 minutes or until foamy. Add the flour, salt, remaining sugar, eggs, orange and lemon zest, vanilla, Cointreau and Amaretto, then mix on slow using the dough hook for two minutes. Increase the speed to medium and mix for a further 6-8 minutes until you have a soft dough.

Add the softened butter and mix for another 5-8 minutes, scraping the sides of the bowl occasionally. Dough will be very soft. Mix in the dried fruit and crystallized orange peel. Transfer the dough to a large buttered bowl, cover with plastic wrap and chill overnight until the dough has firmed up enough for you to able to shape it.

Prepare a 18cm/7in panettone pan by brushing the inside generously with melted butter*.
Remove the panettone dough from the fridge, knock back the dough, shape into a ball and place into the pan. Leave to prove at room temperature for a further 2-3 hours, until the dough just starts to dome over the top of the pan.

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F.
Brush the top of the panettone with egg wash and bake for about 25 minutes. Reduce the temperature to 150°C/300°F and bake for a further 35 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean. Check the panettone periodically in case of oven hot spots. Bear in mind that the sugar and butter in the dough could brown too much before it is actually fully baked – if panettone starts to brown too quickly, cover it loosely with foil.
Remove the panettone from the pan immediately and allow to cool over a wire rack.

* I used a 20cm (8in) round cake pan to bake my panettone – I made a collar with a double sheet of baking paper folded in half (that way getting 4 layers of paper) and buttered it all with melted butter (there is a photo of the prepared pan on my Instagram).

Serves 8-10

Garibaldi slice

The first time I ever heard of Garibaldi cookies was many, many years ago, on my dear friend Valentina’s blog – I wasn’t very fond of raisins then, I thought the cookies looked good but I never considered the idea of actually making them.

Through the years I learned to like raisins, then I tried dried currants for the first time eating scones in London (with loads of clotted cream – the thought of it makes me drool already) and now I love using them in cookies (these are my favorite cookies with raisins) and even in bread.

When I saw this Garibaldi slice on one of the most beautiful cookbooks I own I could not resist: the recipe calls for dried currants, raisins and golden raisins (sultanas) and they are cooked in sherry before becoming the filling for the bars – I had to make them! The bars turned out delicious and they are a treat for those of us who like raisins.

Off topic: as I browsed Amazon to get the link for the cookbook I saw that they have cast Diego Luna to play Casanova – that is wrong in so many ways words fail me.

Garibaldi slice
from The Baking Collection (The Australian Women's Weekly)

Pastry:
300g all purpose flour
75g granulated sugar
pinch of salt
180g unsalted butter, cold and diced
2 egg yolks
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon iced water

Filling:
240g dried currants
80g sultanas
75g raisins
½ cup (120ml) water
2 tablespoons dry sherry
1 egg, lightly beaten with a fork, for brushing the pastry
2 tablespoons granulated sugar, for sprinkling the pastry

Pastry: place flour, sugar and salt in the food processor and pulse to combine. Add butter and pulse until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add egg yolks, vanilla and water and pulse until a dough starts to form (add more water, 1 teaspoon at a time, if necessary). Form dough into a ball, divide in two equal parts and wrap in cling film. Refrigerate for 1 hour.

Filling: in a medium saucepan, combine currants, sultanas, raisins, water and sherry. Stir over low heat for 8-10 minutes or until liquid is absorbed and fruit is soft. Transfer to the food processor and blend until creamy. Cool completely.

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F. Lightly butter a 20x30cm baking pan, line with foil leaving an overhang on two opposite sides and butter the foil as well.

Roll one portion of the pastry between two pieces of baking paper, flouring it a little if necessary (don’t use too much flour or the pastry will dry out) until it is large enough to line the base of the baking pan. Transfer pastry to the pan and trim to fit. Prick pastry all over with a fork, then spread with the fruit filling. Roll the other portion of pastry until large enough to cover fruit filling, place on top of it and trim to fit. Press down to enclose the filling. Wish a sharp knife, cut the top layer into 24 rectangles. Prick the pastry all over with a fork, brush it with the beaten egg and sprinkle with the extra sugar. Bake for about 30 minutes or until golden. Cool completely in the pan over a wire rack, then cut into slices using the cuts previously as a guide.

Makes 24

Golden raisin cookies

One very common dish during the holiday season here is rice with raisins – it is served with the usual meat dishes for Christmas and New Year’s Eve dinners. I know people who love raisins in their rice, but most people I know hate it, including my husband and my sister – they’re 46 and 21, respectively, so you can imagine that the hate for rice with raisins is spread throughout different generations. :D

Growing up I was never a fan, either, for I did not understand why people would put something sweet in a savory dish – I thought it was such a waste of something as delicious as rice. :)

I grew up and learned that sweet and savory together in food is actually a good thing, but to be honest I’m still not a fan of rice with raisins: there are millions of other wonderful things to be cooked with rice and I prefer my raisins elsewhere, like in cookies – I used the golden raisins called for in the original recipe, but I am sure that they would be equally great with dark raisins, too.

I found that giving the dough a couple of hours in the freezer instead of the refrigerator is key here because the frozen raisins are much easier to slice.

Golden raisin cookies
from one of my favorite cookbooks

1 cup golden raisins
¼ cup (60ml) dark rum
½ cup (113g/1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
½ cup (70g) confectioner's sugar
1 large egg
pinch of salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 2/3 cups (235g) all-purpose flour
granulated sugar, for sprinkling

In a small bowl, combine the raisins and rum. Set aside to soak for at least 1 hour.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, using the paddle attachment, beat the butter and confectioners' sugar at medium-high speed until well blended and light, about 1 minute. Add the egg, salt and vanilla and beat until blended but not smooth (dough will look curdled at this point). Scrape down the sides of the bowl. At low speed, add the flour, mixing until just blended. Drain the raisins, discarding the rum, add them to the dough and mix until combined.

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 3.5 cm (1.4in) log – like Martha does here. Wrap in parchment. Chill in the freezer until very firm, 2-3 hours.

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). Roll dough logs in the extra sugar, coating them evenly, then cut into 6mm (¼in) thick rounds; space 2.5cm (1in) apart onto prepared sheets. Bake, rotating sheets halfway through, until golden brown around the edges, 15-20 minutes. Cool on the sheets for 5 minutes, then slide the paper with the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.

Makes about 45 cookies

White chocolate granola cookies - turning something bland into something delicious

I told you weeks ago that my experimenting with new types of recipes had had good and bad results: luckily more good than bad, but some things just did not work at all.

There was an almond cake from this book that ended up in the garbage can – I should have followed my instincts and added flour to the batter once I realized it was much too runny – and there was the granola that tasted funny (the one I mentioned the other day). I felt sad about the cake – it was too rubbery and not flavorsome enough for me to come up with something to do with it – but the good thing is that I managed to save the granola.

If life gives you bland granola, make cookies with it. :D

These are super easy to make and taste great – I used homemade granola, which wasn’t too sweet, and it worked perfectly with the white chocolate. If your granola is sweeter (store-bought usually is), using dark chocolate instead of white chocolate might be a good idea.

White chocolate granola cookies
adapted from the most complete dessert cookbook I own

1 cup (140g) all purpose flour
heaping ¼ teaspoon baking soda
heaping ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
pinch of salt
½ cup (113g/1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup (175g) light brown sugar, packed
¼ cup (50g) granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
250g granola (I used homemade)
150g white chocolate, in chips or chunks

Whisk flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt in medium bowl to blend. Using electric mixer, beat butter and both sugars in large bowl until creamy. Beat in egg and vanilla. Add flour mixture; mix on low speed just until blended. Using wooden spoon, stir in granola and chocolate.
Line two large baking sheets with baking paper. Using 2 leveled tablespoons of dough for each cookie, drop batter onto prepared sheets 5cm (2in) apart. Chill 30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 180°C/350°F. Bake cookies until golden around the edges, 10-12 minutes. Cool in the sheet for 2 minutes, then slide the paper with the cookies onto a wire rack and cool completely.

Makes about 25

Sicilian pasta with tomatoes, garlic and almonds and "Her"

As I continue my marathon to watch this year’s Oscar nominated movies, I was extremely surprised by how moved I was by Her – though genius sometimes, Spike Jonze’s style to me is on the verge of crazy (right there with Michel Gondry), therefore I really did not expect to love the movie as much as I did.

Joaquin Phoenix is an amazing actor – the Academy should have cut the trophy in half back in 2001 for him and Benicio to share it – and his performance in Her is so sublime it’s difficult to find words to describe it. I could have easily squeezed him in for Best Actor this year, and I could also vote for the film for Best Movie (despite my love for Gravity) and most definitely for Best Writing, Original Screenplay. After I read the film synopsis I kept thinking of how it would be possible for Jonze to find a decent way to end it, but he did and to me it was perfect.

Also surprising, to me, was this recipe: when I saw Nigella cooking it on TV I had no idea that something that simple could be so good – all you have to do is cook some pasta and whiz all the sauce ingredients in food processor. The sauce is not cooked and that makes this dish perfect for the insanely hot days we’ve been having here (less time in front of the stove).

Sicilian pasta with tomatoes, garlic and almonds
slightly adapted from the wonderful Nigellissima: Easy Italian-Inspired Recipes

200g spaghetti (or other pasta of your choice)
100g cherry tomatoes
2 tablespoons finely grated parmesan
10g golden sultanas
1 small garlic clove
1 tablespoon capers (drained)
25g blanched almonds
1 ½ tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
handful fresh basil

Put abundant water on to boil for the pasta, waiting for it to come to the boil before salting it. Add the pasta and cook according to packet instructions.
While the pasta is cooking, make the sauce by putting all the remaining ingredients, bar the basil, into a processor and blitzing until you have a nubbly-textured sauce.
Just before draining the pasta, remove ½ cup of pasta-cooking water and add ½ tablespoon of it down the funnel of the processor, pulsing as you go.
Return the drained pasta to the hot saucepan, pour over the sauce and toss to coat (add a little more pasta-cooking water if you need it). Sprinkle with the basil and serve.

Serves 2

Kulich

When I was little I hated panettone – all those crystallized fruits and raisins drove me nuts! My mom used to remove them all from the bread so I could eat it (mom was a saint, wasn’t she? :D). Years later the industry came up with the chocottone and that pretty much solved my problem. :)

Nowadays I love crystallized fruits and raisins and adore sweet breads studded with those ingredients. When I saw this kulich on Gourmet Traveller I couldn’t wait to make it, and it would be a good way to use the saffron I’d bought long ago and that was sadly sitting in my pantry – I tend to accumulate ingredients, I believe you’ve noticed that. :D
The saffron adds a nice yellowish tone to the dough, but I am sure the kulich would be wonderful without it anyway, so don’t let that stop you from making this great recipe.

Kulich
slightly adapted from the always gorgeous Gourmet Traveller

7g (1 sachet) dried yeast
½ tablespoon granulated sugar
140ml whole milk, lukewarm
½ cup (55g) golden raisins
2 tablespoons dark rum
pinch saffron threads
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
4 egg yolks, room temperature
360g all purpose flour
¾ cup (105g) icing sugar, sifted
50g almonds, coarsely chopped
50g candied orange peel, diced
1/8 teaspoon salt
100g unsalted butter, softened
1 egg, lightly beaten with a fork, for brushing
icing sugar, extra, for dusting

Combine yeast, sugar and 100ml of the milk in a small bowl, stirring to dissolve, then stand in a warm place until foamy (5-10 minutes).
Meanwhile, combine raisins and rum in a small saucepan over medium heat until rum starts to boil. Remove from the heat and set aside until raisins are plump (4-5 minutes), strain liquid into a bowl (reserve raisins), then add saffron, vanilla, yolks and remaining milk to rum, whisking to combine.
Combine flour, icing sugar, almonds, candied orange and salt in a large bowl, make a well in the centre, add yeast mixture, rum mixture and reserved raisins. Stir to combine, add butter and, mix with your hands to combine. Turn onto a well floured surface, knead until smooth, dusting with extra flour if dough is too sticky (5-6 minutes) – I did the whole thing using a stand mixer with the dough hook.
Place in a lightly buttered bowl, cover with plastic wrap and stand in a warm place until doubled in size (1-1½ hours).
Divide dough into two, roll each piece into a 50cm-long cylinder. Twist two cylinders together, join ends to form a ring shape, place on a large baking sheet lined with baking paper. Cover with a tea towel and stand until risen (35-40 minutes).
Meanwhile, preheat oven to 120°C/250°F. Brush kulich with the beaten egg, bake for 15 minutes, increase oven to 180°C/350°F and bake until golden and an inserted skewer withdraws clean (25-30 minutes), then cool on a wire rack. Dust with icing sugar to serve.

Serves 8-10

Apple and marzipan rolls + an interesting read

One of my favorite things to do is reading about how movies are made and especially how directors and actors are chosen for each project; there are characters impossible to imagine being played by someone else – can you picture Tom Selleck as Indiana Jones? – while with others I would have taken a different route: for instance, I would have chosen Vanessa Williams to play Storm instead of Halle Berry.
Ryan Adams’ has posted an excerpt from William Friedkin’s memoir in which he describes the casting for “The Exorcist” – it’s a very interesting read. I find Ellen Burstyn’s performance in that movie one of the best I have seen in my entire life and it is amazing to find out that she hadn’t even been considered for the part. It is also curious how Jason Miller got cast as Father Karras. Friedkin is a director I admire – can’t wait to watch “Killer Joe” – and I ended up adding his memoir to my already too long wish list. :)

***

Ever since making Paul Hollywood’s marzipan for the first time I’ve been enjoying recipes I had bookmarked for years – these rolls come from Waitrose’s website and are every bit the delicious treat I’d imagined them to be.

Apple and marzipan rolls
slightly adapted from Waitrose

2 ½ cups (350g) all purpose flour
7g dried yeast
¼ cup (50g) granulated sugar
1 large egg
100g unsalted butter, melted
1/3 cup (80ml) whole milk, lukewarm
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
200g golden marzipan, grated – I used homemade, recipe here
1 large Granny Smith apple
½ cup (75g) golden raisins
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
icing sugar, for dusting

Place the flour, yeast and sugar in the large bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the dough hook. Make a well in the center and add the egg, butter, milk and vanilla and mix to combine. Mix at low-medium speed until it starts to form a soft dough. Continue mixing for 5-6 minutes or until dough is smooth and elastic – or knead by hand for about 10 minutes. Transfer to a lightly buttered large bowl, cover with plastic wrap and leave in a warm place for about 1½ hours or until the dough has doubled in size. Meanwhile, butter a 23cm (9in) round cake pan.
Punch the dough with your fist to deflate, then tip it out onto a floured surface. Roll the dough out to a 40x20cm (16x8in) rectangle. Scatter the marzipan over the dough to within 1cm (½in) of the edges. Peel, core and chop the apple and scatter over the marzipan. Mix the raisins with the cinnamon and sprinkle them over the apples. Starting from a long edge, roll up the dough into a long, thin sausage shape.
Using a small sharp knife, cut the dough into 8 even-sized pieces. Place them with their cut sides face-up in the prepared tin. Cover loosely with a piece of buttered plastic wrap and leave to rise again (prove) for about 1 hour until the buns have risen and become tightly packed in the tin (mine took 2 hours to prove). Towards the end of the proving time, preheat the oven to 190°C/375°F.
Uncover the buns and bake for about 30 minutes until deep golden. Cover with foil towards the end of the cooking time if they start to over-brown. Cool in the pan over a wire rack for 15 minutes then carefully unmold onto the rack. Dust with icing sugar and serve warm or at room temperature.

Makes 8

Hot-cross muffins

These delicious and tender muffins, perfumed with spices and moist from a sugar syrup, are a great way to avoid a chocolate OD during the Easter holiday: they're perfect for breakfast or brunch and are very quick to make, unlike their yeasted cousin.

Hot-cross muffins
from the always mouthwatering Delicious - Australia

Muffins:
135g dried cranberries
1 cup (150g) golden raisins
375g self-rising flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
pinch of salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
2/3 cup (160mll) canola oil
1 cup (250ml) buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 cup (200g) granulated sugar

Syrup and icing:
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
½ cup (70g) icing sugar
1 teaspoon lemon juice

Preheat oven to 200°C. Line a 12-hole muffin tray with paper cases.
Soak the cranberries and raisins in just enough boiling water to cover for 10 minutes. Drain well, then pat dry with paper towel.
Sift the flour, baking soda, salt and spices into a large bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together the oil, buttermilk, vanilla, eggs and sugar until combined. Add to the dry ingredients and stir to combine. Gently stir in the fruit. Divide the mixture among muffin cases, then bake for 20-25 minutes until lightly browned and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack for 5 minutes, then carefully remove from the pan and transfer to the rack.
Syrup: place the granulated sugar in a small saucepan with 2 tablespoons water and simmer over low heat, stirring, until sugar dissolves. Brush the glaze over the muffins.
Sift icing sugar into a bowl. Add lemon juice and just enough hot water to make a thick, pipable icing. Use a piping bag or drizzle from a spoon to draw a cross on each muffin. Serve warm or at room temperature.

* 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

Makes 12 - I halved the recipe above, used 1/3-cup capacity muffin pans and got 9 muffins

Maple-iced fruity Advent bread

Trying the lime and coconut flavor combo both in cookie and cake form was not the end of my testing around: the apricot, cranberry and golden raisin trio worked out so beautifully in oatmeal cookie form that I thought it would be wonderful to use it again, this time in a yeasted treat: this delicious bread, with a hint of cardamom, comes from one of the best cookbooks I’ve ever bought – and let’s just say that means a lot! – and my husband, after trying a slice of bread, could not believe how tender it was – I did not keep track but I’m pretty sure he said that more than five times. :D

Maple-iced fruity Advent bread
slightly adapted from the beautiful, beautiful Scandilicious Baking

Bread:
1 cup (240ml) whole milk
1/3 cup (75g) unsalted butter
2 cups + 2 tablespoons (300g) all purpose flour
¾ cup + 2 tablespoons (125g) whole wheat flour
1/3 cup + ½ tablespoon (72g) granulated sugar
1 teaspoon freshly ground cardamom
¼ teaspoon table salt
2 ¾ teaspoons dried yeast
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
¼ cup (60ml) Marsala wine
150g mixed dried fruit (I used 50g each of golden raisins, chopped apricots and dried cranberries)
1 egg, beaten with a fork, to glaze

Icing:
½ cup (70g) icing sugar
1 tablespoon maple syrup

Bread: scald the milk by heating it in a small pan with the butter until it is almost boiling and then leave to cool while you assemble the other ingredients. Scalding the milk makes the finished bread softer.
Place the flours, sugar, cardamom, salt and yeast in the large bowl of an electric mixer (place salt in one side of the bowl and yeast in another, so they’re not close). Add the egg and vanilla, then the warm milk mixture (make sure it’s not hot) and, using the dough hook, mix on medium speed until a soft and sticky dough forms. Mix for 5-6 minutes or until elastic. Transfer to a lightly buttered large bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Leave to rise in a warm place for 45-60 minutes or so until doubled in size and springy to the touch.
While the dough is rising, pour the Marsala over the dried fruit in a small bowl. Leave to soak for 30-40 minutes, turning the fruit occasionally so they’re all soaked in the wine. Drain the fruit right before adding it to the dough, discarding the wine.
Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface, than add the fruit and knead a couple of times to incorporate and evenly distribute. Divide dough in half and shape each half into a rough loaf shape. Place them about 10cm (4in) apart onto a large baking sheet lined with foiled. Cover with a clean kitchen towel and leave to prove in a warm place for a further 45-60 minutes of so, until the dough no longer springs back: you can test it by gently poking it with your little finger – the indentation should stay put – in the meantime, preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F. Brush the loaves with the beaten egg, then bake for 30-35 minutes until the loaves are golden brown and sound hollow when tapped on the base. Cool on the sheet for about 20 minutes, then carefully peel off the foil and transfer to a wire rack. Cool completely.
When the bread is cool, sift the icing sugar into a small bowl and whisk in the maple syrup until thick but still drizzable – add water if necessary. Drizzle over the cooled loaves and set aside for 15 minutes to dry.

Makes 2 loaves

Cranberry apricot oatmeal cookies and a question

I do love cookies – and you know that – and oatmeal cookies are really favorites of mine: besides being delicious there’s a whole “I’m eating something healthy” vibe behind them. :D
These, from one of my latest cookbook acquisitions (a very good one, by the way), have a touch of spices (yum) and three kinds of dried fruit (yum, yum): the cinnamon, ginger and cloves turn them into an even tastier kind of oatmeal cookie and the addition of cranberries, apricots and raisins is a good way to use up the dried fruit left from the holidays.

On a different note: have you watched “Cosmopolis”? I’ve started watching it last night but gave up after 30 minutes of the movie: as much as I love Cronenberg (he’s one of my favorite directors) watching Robert Pattinson act like a robot is oh, so tedious. Do you think I should go on and watch it till the end or should I spare one hour of my life and ignore it completely? :S

Cranberry apricot oatmeal cookies
slightly adapted from the beautiful The Dahlia Bakery Cookbook: Sweetness in Seattle

145g all purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1/8 teaspoon table salt
130g rolled oats
125g unsalted butter, room temperature
150g light brown sugar
85g granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 large egg
85g diced dried apricots
45g golden raisins
45g dried cranberries

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F; line two large baking sheets with baking paper.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, cloves and salt. Stir in the oats.
In the large bowl of an electric mixer, beat butter, sugars and vanilla until light and creamy. Add the egg and mix to combine. Scrape the sides of the bowl occasionally. In low speed, add the dry ingredients in 3 additions, mixing just until incorporated. Mix in the apricots, raisins and cranberries.
Roll 2 leveled tablespoons of dough per cookie into a ball and place onto prepared sheets 5cm (2in) apart. Bake for about 15 minutes or until golden around the edges. Cool in the sheets over a wire rack for 10 minutes, then carefully transfer to the rack to cool completely.

Makes about 2 dozen

Almond and raisin cake

I love movies with strong female characters – you know I like them complex – and last week, besides Saoirse Ronan’s amazing Hanna, I got to know Jennifer Lawrence’s brave Ree. The fantastic “Winter’s Bone” is another example of the theory I wrote about a couple of posts ago: the story is perfectly told and directed, and the performances are excellent. Jennifer Lawrence, talented as hell, is the back bone of the movie but all the other actors (most of which, I’ve read, are from the area where the movie was shot and had never acted before) are great, too – John Hawkes, brilliant as Teardrop, makes me want to watch “Martha Marcy May Marlene” even more (as soon as it gets here).

Lately I have thought twice before recommending movies to people I know – because most of them turn to me later on to tell me how much they hated them – but I do not feel this way writing on the blog, maybe because those of you reading me for a while now already know the kind of movie I’m interested in. I’m not the romantic-comedy-happy-ending kind of girl. So if you are anything like me I am sure you’ll love “Winter’s Bone”.

***

I baked Flo Braker’s tea almond cake a couple of weeks ago and after that I started obsessing with almond cakes in general (the one on “Tartine” is next on my list); therefore, when I saw this almond and raisins cake on Gina DePalma’s wonderful “Dolce Italiano” I immediately marched to the kitchen to prepare it. The cake is very tasty, with great texture, but I think that an extra handful of raisins would make it even better.

Almond and raisin cake
slightly adapted from the delicious Dolce Italiano: Desserts from the Babbo Kitchen

½ cup (120ml) Marsala wine
½ cup (77g) golden raisins
2 cups (280g) all purpose flour
¼ cup (25g) almond meal
2 teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon table salt
½ cup (113g/1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
¾ cup (150g) granulated sugar
100g (3 ½oz) almond paste – I used homemade
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
¼ cup (60ml) whole milk, room temperature
confectioners’ sugar, for dusting

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F. Lightly butter a 22cm (9in) round cake pan*, line the bottom with baking paper, butter the paper as well and dust it all with flour, tapping out the excess.
Combine the Marsala with the raisins in a small saucepan and place over medium heat until the wine just begins to simmer. Remove from the heat and cool completely.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the all purpose flour, almond meal, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
In the large bowl of an electric mixer cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the almond past until smooth.
Beat in the eggs, one at a time, followed by the vanilla, scraping the sides of the bowl after each addition. On low speed, add half of the dry ingredients, beating well. Scrape the bowl again. Add the milk, beat well, then beat in the remaining dry ingredients. Switch to medium speed and beat for 30 seconds. Switch to low speed again and add the raisin and the wine.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until golden and risen and a skewer inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool in the pan over a wire rack for 10 minutes, then invert onto the rack. Cool completely.
Dust with confectioners’ sugar before serving.

* I made the exact recipe above using a 20cm (8in) cake pan (7cm high)

Serves 8-10

Apple and cinnamon hot cross buns for Easter + "Soul Kitchen"

Someone told me once – and I hate it that I cannot remember who it was – that I would love “Soul Kitchen” because it is a movie about a restaurant and there was food involved; since watching the excellent "The Wave" I’d become more interested in German movies, so I rented “Soul Kitchen” and yes, it is a movie about a restaurant and there is food involved, but it’s so much more than that: to me, it’s about relationships and how they affect people’s lives.

* spoilers*

“Soul Kitchen” is full of funny elements – Zinos’ ringtone being one of my favorites – and yet it brings up more dramatic subjects, many of them some of us can relate to: Zinos’ struggle to maintain the restaurant, his need to decide between being with his girlfriend and staying where he feels he belongs to, the brother who causes nothing but trouble (and is a gambling addict, no less)... All of that mixed with images of whipped cream, lamb chops, white chocolate and vanilla beans – I loved it and have added other movies by Fatih Akin to my “to watch” list.

***
Hot cross buns have some interesting story behind them – while researching I found this adorable video with Heston Blumenthal; it was my first time making these buns – I used a recipe from the always beautiful Gourmet Traveller and the buns turned out tender, moist and delicious – the apple compote while cooking had such an amazing smell that I wish there could be a way for it to be trapped in scented candle form. :)

Apple and cinnamon hot cross buns
slightly adapted from the always gorgeous Australian Gourmet Traveller

Apple and lemon compote:
1 ¼ cups (250g) granulated sugar
1 ½ cups + 1 tablespoon (375ml) water
1 lemon
2 Granny Smith apples, unpeeled, cored, diced
1 cinnamon quill

Dough:
5 cups (700g) all purpose flour + 1/3 cup (46g) extra for the piping mixture
1 cup (155g) golden raisins
80g dried apple, diced
14g (2 sachets/4 ½ teaspoons) dried yeast
3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground allspice
finely grated zest of 1 orange and 1 lemon
5 ½ tablespoons (65g) granulated sugar
½ teaspoon salt
1 ½ cups + 1 tablespoon (375ml) whole milk
100g unsalted butter, coarsely chopped
1 egg

Start with the compote: combine sugar and water in a medium saucepan, then squeeze in juice of half the lemon and stir over medium-high heat until sugar dissolves. Meanwhile, cut remaining lemon half into 3mm-thick slices, add to saucepan with Granny Smith apples and cinnamon quill. Bring to the simmer, reduce heat to medium and cook until lemon and apple are translucent (20-25 minutes). Strain, reserving fruit and syrup separately. When cool enough to handle, dice lemon, combine with apple. Remove the cinnamon quills, add them to the syrup and set aside.
Combine flour, raisins, dried apple, yeast, ground cinnamon, allspice, zests, sugar, apple compote and salt in a large bowl and make a well in the centre. Combine milk and butter in a small saucepan, warm over low heat until butter melts and mixture is lukewarm. Whisk in egg, then add milk mixture to flour, stirring to form a soft dough. Turn onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic (8-10 minutes) – I used my Kitchen Aid with the dough hook to knead the dough; gradually added 1/3 cup flour because the mixture was too wet.
Place in a lightly buttered bowl, cover and stand in a warm place until doubled in size (30-40 minutes). Meanwhile, line a large baking sheet with foil.
Knock back dough, divide into 20 even pieces, then knead each piece into a smooth ball. Arrange dough in a large rectangle, placing balls side by side onto prepared sheet, leaving 1cm between each for dough to expand. Cover with a tea towel and stand in a warm place until doubled in size (30-40 minutes).
Preheat oven to 220°C/428°F. Combine the 1/3 cup extra flour and ¼ cup (60ml) cold water in a bowl and stir to a smooth paste. Spoon into a piping bag fitted with a small plain nozzle and pipe a cross shape onto each bun. Bake for 10 minutes, reduce oven to 200°C/400°F and bake until golden and buns sound hollow when tapped (10-12 minutes).
Meanwhile, combine reserved syrup and cinnamon quill in a small saucepan and stir over medium heat until syrupy. Brush thickly over hot buns, then transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Makes 20

President Clinton’s oatmeal cookies

I swear I’m not trying to get a job as an oatmeal poster girl, and I’d already decided on which oatmeal cookies were my favorite, but tell me: would you resist making a recipe with such great reputation? :)

These cookies are so delicious I regretted halving the recipe. Mr. Clinton’s taste in cookies is far superior to his taste in... Never mind. :D

President Clinton’s oatmeal cookies
from Desserts by the Yard

Fat raisins:
1 ½ cups (232g) golden raisins
¾ cup (180ml) dry white wine
3 tablespoons fresh orange juice
1 ½ tablespoons dark rum
3 tablespoons caster (superfine) sugar

Cookies:
1 ½ cups (210g) all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 ¾ sticks (198g) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup (200g) granulated sugar
1 cup (175g) light brown sugar, packed
1 ½ teaspoons freshly grated nutmeg
¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 large eggs, room temperature
3 cups (354g) rolled oats
1 recipe (1 ½ cups) fat raisins

Start by preparing the fat raisins: combine the raisins, wine, orange juice, rum and sugar in a small heavy saucepan; bring just to a boil over medium heat, stirring all the while. Lower the heat so that the liquid is at a bare simmer and poach for 20 minutes.
Remove from the heat, cover the pan with plastic wrap and allow to cool completely. If not using right away, transfer to an airtight container and store in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.

Now, the cookies: preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F; line two large baking sheets with baking paper.
Sift together the flour and baking soda and set aside.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or in a large bowl with a hand mixer, cream the butter on high speed until lemony yellow, about 2 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and the paddle/beaters. Add the granulated sugar, brown sugar, nutmeg and cinnamon. Beat until creamy and scrape the sides of the bowl.
Add the eggs, one at a time, scraping the bowl after each addition. Beat on low speed for 15-30 seconds or until the eggs are incorporated. On low speed, add the sifted ingredients, beating until they’re absorbed. Mix in the oats and raisins.
Place 1 leveled tablespoon of dough per cookie onto prepared sheets, 5cm (2in) apart. Bake for 10 minutes, rotate the baking sheet, then bake for another 5-8 minutes or until nicely browned. Carefully slice the baking paper off the sheet and directly onto your work surface. Cool completely.
Cookies will keep for up to 3 days in an airtight container at room temperature.

Makes 80 small cookies (about 5cm/2in each) – I halved the recipe above and regret it (the cookies were too good!)