Spice financiers to kick off the holiday recipes

As said a couple of posts ago, I now start my holiday recipe series 2011 – I had so much fun in the previous years making these recipes I hoped I could do it again. I thought that star-shaped financiers would be a lovely way to begin – with all those delicious spices to boot – but I’ll be honest with you: the stracciatella ice cream in my freezer is the reason why I baked the little cakes. :)

These financiers are melt-in-your-mouth tender and have a wonderful smell – not to mention they look oh, so cute. :D

Spice financiers
adapted from the gorgeous and very girlie Baking Style: Art, Craft, Recipes

1 ½ cups (210g) icing sugar, plus a little extra for serving
6 tablespoons (60g) all purpose flour
pinch of salt
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground cloves
½ cup (50g) almond meal (finely ground almonds)
4 large egg whites
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ cup (1 stick/113g) unsalted butter, melted

Sift icing sugar, all purpose flour, salt and spices into a medium bowl. Stir in the almond meal. Add the egg whites and vanilla and mix to combine. Add the butter and mix to combine. Refrigerate batter for 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 190°C/375°F. Lightly butter fifteen 3-tablespoon capacity silicone pans or butter and flour metal financier molds.
Divide the batter among the prepared pans and place them onto a baking sheet. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until risen and golden and a skewer inserted in the center of the financiers comes out clean. Cool in the pans for 5 minutes then carefully unmold onto a wire rack. Cool completely.
Dust with icing sugar before serving.

Makes 15

Simple orange cake (that got devoured in a couple of hours) + a lovely movie

I thought I was the only one around here who loves simple cakes, but apparently my coworkers share my opinion: this orange cake got devoured in a couple of hours and was elected their favorite baked good – who would imagine that orange could beat chocolate and caramel?

Speaking of favorites, I watched “Restless” last Saturday and absolutely loved it – sensitive, delicate, with nice dialogs, moving without being sappy. Just beautiful. If Gus Van Sant continues to make movies like this I might forget he was responsible for “Finding Forrester” and “Good Will Hunting”. Might. :)

Simple orange cake
adapted from the always wonderful Bon Appetit Desserts: The Cookbook for All Things Sweet and Wonderful

Cake:
3 cups (420g) all purpose flour
1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
1 1/3 cups (266g) granulated sugar
¾ cup (170g) unsalted butter, room temperature
3 large eggs
finely grated zest of 2 oranges – the ones I used were the size of my head, lots of zest
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
1 ½ cups (390g) plain yogurt
¼ cup (60ml) orange juice

Glaze:
1 ½ cups (210g) icing sugar
2-3 tablespoons orange juice

Start by making the cake: preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F. Butter and flour a 32.5x22.5x5cm (13x9x2-in) metal baking pan. Sift flour, baking soda, and baking powder into a medium bowl. Using electric mixer, beat the sugar and butter in large bowl until blended and smooth. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then orange zest and vanilla extract. Mix in flour mixture in 4 additions alternately with yogurt in 3 additions. Mix in orange juice. Spread the batter in the prepared pan and smooth the top.
Bake cake 50-60 minutes or until risen and golden and a skewer inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool completely in the pan over a wire rack.
Make the icing: sift icing sugar into a small bowl, add the juice gradually and mix until desired consistency. Drizzle over the cake*.
Cake can be kept in an airtight container, at room temperature for up to 2 days.

* I made the exact recipe above using a 20x30cm (8x12in) metal baking pan; since the pan has a removable bottom, I unmolded the cake before drizzling it with the icing

Serves 15

Oatmeal sandwich bread

While organizing my books on the new bookshelf I grabbed "Good to the Grain" and stared at its beautiful cover (those delicious rhubarb tarts!) for a few seconds... Then it suddenly hit me: I hadn’t used that book in ages; it’s one of my favorite books and that makes me wonder about the poor books I seldom or never use. Well, that’s just me. So I decided to make something – anything – from the book. Since there was a package of oats listed on my inventory this bread was the recipe of choice. I think you can see on the photo how tender it was and I have got more news for you: this bread makes a killer grilled cheese.

Oatmeal sandwich bread
from the gorgeous Good to the Grain: Baking with Whole-Grain Flours

2 ¼ teaspoons (7g/1 package) active dry yeast
3 tablespoons unsulphured molasses
2 ½ cups (350g) whole-wheat flour
2 cups (280g) bread flour – I used all purpose
1 cup (115g) rolled oats
¼ cup (56g) unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
½ tablespoon table salt*

Lightly butter a large bowl and a 22.5x12.5x7.5cm (9x5x3in) loaf pan. Set aside.
Add 2 cups of warm water, yeast and molasses to the bowl of a standing mixer. Stir, then allow yeast to bloom (about 5 minutes) until it begins to bubble.
Add the flours, oats and butter to the bowl and stir together with a wooden spoon. Cover with a towel and let stand for 30 minutes.
Attach the bowl and the hook to the mixer, add the salt to the bowl and mix on medium speed for 6 minutes. The dough should slap around the sides of the bowl without sticking to them. If dough is too sticky, add 1 or 2 tablespoons of flour (but only if absolutely necessary – avoid adding extra flour).
Scrape dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead a few times. Transfer to the buttered bowl, cover with a towel and leave it to rise for about 1 hour or until doubled in size.
Transfer the dough onto a lightly floured surface and shape it onto a rough rectangle (with the smaller side facing you). Fold the dough like a letter, then roll it to get a cylinder. Pinch the seams together and transfer to the prepared loaf pan, seam side down. Leave to rise again in a warm place for about 1 hour. Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F.
Before baking, sprinkle the top of the bread with oats (optional)**. Bake for about 40 minutes or until the top crust of the bread is as dark as molasses*** and the bottom crust is dark brown. To check for doneness: give the top of the loaf a thump to see if it sounds hollow – if it doesn’t, bake the bread for another 5 minutes. Check again.
Remove from the oven and carefully remove the loaf from the pan. Cool over a wire rack.

* bread wasn’t salty enough for me; I’d add more salt next time
** I brushed the loaf with melted butter to make the oats stick to it but it did not work – as soon as I unmolded the bread the oats fell off on the sink
*** my bread is a little on the pale side but still delicious – it would have burned it I’d waited for it to brown as much as the recipes calls for

Makes 1 large loaf – I made the exact recipe above and got two loaves, using two 20x9cm (8x3½ in) loaf pans

Really good one-bowl chocolate chip pecan cookies - dead easy to make

I’ve been searching for inspiration for Christmas recipes – my plans are to make a series of recipes like last year’s – and a good place to start is Martha’s website; there are so many wonderful ideas there, everything’s so beautiful that the difficult part of it is choosing what to bake.

Going through some of her cookie recipes for the holidays I remembered that I hadn’t posted these chocolate chip pecan cookies yet – suggested by my friend Ana Elisa I baked them back in July (if I’m not mistaken) and they were fantastic: delicious, easy to make (no special equipment necessary) and you won’t have to remember to take the butter out of the fridge in advance.

Really good one-bowl chocolate chip pecan cookies
from the adorable Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey: Desserts for the Serious Sweet Tooth

2 cups (220g) pecan halves, lightly toasted and cooled
1 cup (226g/2 sticks) unsalted butter
¾ cup (131g) dark brown sugar, packed
¾ cup (150g) granulated sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 large eggs
2 ¼ cups (315g) all purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon baking powder
2 cups (360g) semisweet chocolate chips

Place the butter in a large heavy saucepan. Cook it over low heat, stirring, until completely melted. Remove from the heat and add both sugars, stirring to combine. Add the salt, vanilla and eggs. Stir until just smooth. Stir in the flour, baking soda and baking powder just until incorporated and a soft dough forms. Carefully fold in the chocolate chips and the pecans.
Use an ice-cream scoop or a ¼ cup (60ml) measuring cup to measure out the cookie dough. Place the cookie dough balls on a baking sheet and refrigerate until firm, 45-60 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F; line two large baking sheets with baking paper.
Place the chilled dough balls onto prepared sheets, 5cm (2in) apart. Bake until the cookies are crisp and golden around the edges but still a little soft in the centers without being gooey, 15-18 minutes. Let cookies cool slightly on the sheets over a wire rack, then carefully transfer the cookies to the rack and cool completely.
Cookies can be kept for up to 2 days in an airtight container, at room temperature.

Makes 18 - I halved the recipe above, used 2 leveled tablespoons of dough per cookie and got 13

Lemony nectarine cake + Bill Condon

I always say that a good director can get blood out of a stone – that is why I had a feeling that “Breaking Dawn” would be the best movie of the Twilight saga. I adore some of Bill Condon’s work – both "Gods and Monsters" and "Kinsey" are part of my list; he got a good performance out of Brendan Fraser – a miracle! – and made it possible for me to stand Beyonce and Eddie Murphy for two long hours. :D

Now, the cake: very tender, with a delicious lemon hint. I think that a few raspberries scattered over the batter with the nectarine slices would be a good idea.

Lemony nectarine cake
slightly adapted from the always gorgeous Donna Hay Magazine

175g unsalted butter, softened
¾ cup + 1 tablespoon (162g) granulated sugar
finely grated zest of 2 lemons
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
3 eggs
1 cup + 1 tablespoon (150g) all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt
¼ cup (65g) plain yogurt
2 nectarines, sliced
icing sugar, for dusting

Preheat oven to 180°C/350°F. Butter a 20cm (8in) round baking pan, line the bottom with baking paper and butter the paper as well.
Place the butter, sugar, lemon zest and vanilla in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat for 6–8 minutes or until light and creamy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition – scrape the sides of the bowl occasionally. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt over the mixture. Add the yogurt and beat until just combined.
Spoon batter into prepared pan and smooth the surface. Top with the nectarine slices and bake for 50-60 minutes or until risen and golden and a skewer inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool in the pan, over a wire rack, for 15 minutes then carefully unmold. Remove the paper then invert the cake again. Cool completely and dust with icing sugar before serving.

Serves 6-8