Culinary Concoctions by Peabody

While going through my Google Reader one day I ran into gorgeous looking cashew bars on Bake or Break. I notice that they were from the Sweet Melissa Baking Book. Oh my, how good those looked. And then all I could think of was, where is my copy? Hurry up stupid mail.
Then, as if someone was listening, there in my mail that day was my copy. Ah.
I quickly thumbed through it as I do with all cookbooks and I write down right away what sticks out at me. Those cashew bars(Butterscotch Cashew Bars to be exact) did. I will make them. Granola Breakfast Cookies, which I will be making next.  Bee Stings which are Melissa’s answer to doughnuts…she has no fryer at her bakery. The Chocolate Espresso Cheesecake with Blackberry Glaze sounded very Pacific Northwest so I flagged that one too. But the one I knew I wanted to make right away were the Chestnut Honey Madeleines. You see, ever since I bought those pans I am always looking for a good madeleines recipe. I found one.
What caught my eye was description up top that they were featherweight cake. In all of my limited madeleines baking, none of them have been what I would call featherweight. These most definitely were. I tried both the mini and the regular size pan and must say that for this recipe the regular size pan is the way to go. If you can not find the chestnut honey(I had to go to three places) than use clover. But there is a subtle difference that is nice. I own a cinnamon crème honey that I plan on trying these out with as well.
For those that don’t know, Sweet Melissa is an actual bakery, in Brooklyn NY. It’s full name is Sweet Melissa Patisseries. Sweet Melissa is Melissa Murphy. The first thing you notice about the book is that there are little bees drawn through out it. There is a reason for this. Honey. Melissa uses honey in a lot of her recipes, which is what gives so many of her treats that something special. I know the chestnut honey sure made the Chestnut Honey Madeleines something special.
There isn’t much not to love about this cookbook(my only complaint is my usual one…not enough photos). These are good solid recipes that are not fluffed up(no deconstruction and big towering desserts). Simple and good.
 If you are a novice baker you will find that the instructions are easy to follow and the results will be positive ones for you. If you are a veteran baker like myself you find little twists on classics that you most likely didn’t think about. All around, if you are a baker, you should be owning this book. If you are not a baker and you want to be…you should be owning this book.

Chestnut Honey Madeleines

½ cup hazelnut flour
1 2/3 cup confectioner’s sugar, plus more for dusting
½ cup plus 1 TBSP all-purpose flour
13 TBSP unsalted butter
6 large egg whites
1 TBSP chestnut honey(or clover if you can not find chestnut)

Butter and lightly flour two 12-cup madeleine molds. Refrigerate until ready to use.
In a large bowl, whisk together the hazelnut flour, all-purpose flour, and confectioner’s sugar.
In a small heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter until the butter solids at the bottom of the pan turn golden brown. Immediately remove from the heat and strain into a bowl to stop the cooking.
In the bowl of an eletric mixer fitted with the whip attachment, beat the egg whites until foamy. Add the flour mixture and mix until combined. Add the butter and honey and mix until combined.
Spoon batter into prepared molds, filling almost to the top. Refrigerate for 2 hours.
Position rack in the top and bottom thirds of your oven. Preheat oven to 375F.
Remove the filled molds from the refrigerator. Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until golden brown. After removing from the oven, immediately tap the pans on your work surface to release the madeleines. Transfer to a rack to cool completely.
To serve, turn the madeleines scallop side up and dust with confectioner’s sugar.

Adapted from Sweet Melissa Baking Book by Melissa Murphy, Penguin Group 2008

I will admit that next to pies, cookies are my least favorite thing to bake. They didn’t used to be until I married mister no variety. In the beginning, I would make him all types of different cookies and would he appreciate it?…no. He would simply ask why didn’t I make chocolate chip cookies. Grrr. And so my cookie making for the most part has been dwindled down to three types: chocolate chip, peanut butter and sugar. Oh sure if I am going somewhere I will make a different variety, but sadly if I am just making for him, that is what I bake.
So when I was presented with the opportunity to review 101 Easy Peasy Cookie Recipes, I thought, yes, I am going to put the variety back into my husbands unexciting cookie life. Not wanting to send his body into total shock, I eased into one that I thought he would enjoy, Colossal Double Chocolate White Chip Cookies. And enjoy he did. The only thing I changed from the recipe was the nuts. It asked for walnuts. I measured out walnut. I sat them by the bowl. They never made it to the bowl. I noticed this after the cookies were baked.
There is definitely variety of cookies in this book. Next on my list are the Pineapple Bars with Caramel Drizzle. Oh the man wont eat them, but I will! For him I will be nice and make the Peanutty Milk Chocolate Bars. Others on the list to make include: Key West Cookies(you know my love of key lime), Toffee Drop Cookies, Chocolate Marshmallow Melts and Sweet Graham Scotchies.
If you are a novice baker this book is great for you because the recipes are, as the name implies, easy peasy. But if you are an experienced baker, don’t be turned away, as the shear variety of the cookies is the reason to add this book to your cookbook collection. All the ingredients are readily available at pretty much every grocery store out there, no looking for odd ingredients. Clear and quick instructions. The only thing I would have liked is photos. I always like to see what the end product is looking like.
Oh and before you ask, because I know you will, that cup is 13 years old, so I don’t know where you can get it.

Colossal Double Chocolate White Chip Cookies

4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 ½ cups unsalted butter, softened
1 ¼ cups granulated sugar
1 ¼ cups packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 TBSP vanilla extract
1 cup milk chocolate chips
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
½ cup white chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350F.
In a medium bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, and baking soda.
In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugars. Beat in eggs, one at a time, followed by the vanilla extract.
Gradually stir in flour mixture,
Stir in milk, semi-sweet and white chocolate chips.
Drop by level ¼ cupfuls, about 2 inches apart, onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake for 12 to 14 minutes or until golden brown. Allow cookies to cool for 2 minutes on cookie sheet and then transfer to a wire rack.

Adapted From: 101 Easy Peasy Cookie Recipes by Lucinda Wallace and Heather Wallace

I am always amazed at the variety of readers I get, from international to gluten free. But no one is more surprised than me with all the Vegan readers I have. I mean, I think bacon should be the 5th food group. I sometimes feel that my Vegan readers see my creations as a challenge, a challenge to see if they can “veganize” it. And when they do I am always in awe, just like I am in awe when the gluten-free Daring Bakers make bread.

So when I was presented the opportunity to review Hannah Kaminsky’s(you might know Hannah from her great blog Bittersweet) new cookbook, My Sweet Vegan, I thought heck ya! Here is my chance to give my Vegan readers some love back. I was most excited to see how far the Vegan world has come. About a decade ago I dated a Vegan, and I will admit I hated cooking for him. To this day I dread eating anything with lentils because that is all we seemed to eat. So the idea of a cookbook dedicated to the world of Vegan sweets sounded like a good idea to me. I would have loved to have a cookbook while I was dating D. Though I doubt most of the products that are available now, weren’t back then.
The first thing I love about this book is that it has an Ingredient Guide of all the different types of Vegan baking items that are out there today. I had no idea, I must admit, that a lot of that stuff was even out there. From Agave Nectar to Ricemallow Crème to Textured Vegetable Protein….it’s all there with descriptions of what each is and is generally used for.

Like the beloved Dorie Greenspan, Kiminsky had a knack for writing her cookbook more like a conversation than just someone spewing information. It’s easy to read and never once did I have to look back at a recipe and think, what did she mean by that….it’s pretty straightforward. And better yet is the fact that EVERY recipe has a photo of it. I can’t tell you how much I prefer a cookbook that has a photo of each recipe…really keeps the guessing game to a minimum. Especially since many of the veganized versions look slightly different than that of the original, which is perfectly fine but you like to know that is how it is SUPPOSE to look.

I had originally planned on making three things from the book to highlight, but time has gotten the best of me and I wanted to review this before Christmas as I think it would make a fantastic gift for any Vegan you know, and non-Vegan for that matter. So I had to prioritize what to make.
When I first glance through the book I noticed a Canine Cake. Well you all know how much I love my puppy so that was tagged right away! It’s chocked full with carrots and peanut butter, two of my puppy’s favorite things. The original recipe made one larger cake but I actually quadrupled the recipe and make them into muffins.

Then I saw a Orange Dreamsicle Snack Cake. But this is where the time thing got me. I had run out of orange juice(or should I say a certain husband of mine drank it all!) and had no soy yogurt lying around the fridge. I do still plan on making this though!
And lastly was the Dried Fruit Focaccia. I adored the idea of a sweet focaccia and can’t remember every seeing one before. The original recipe called for apricots, raisins and cranberries but I was out of apricots and substituted cherries…worked out great. This was quite tasty and must hang my head slightly in shame because I did eat it toasted with some cream cheese on it(I really like it like that with a little apricot jam too!). But I must say that by me using the cream cheese simply demonstrates how those individuals like myself, who do not live the Vegan lifestyle, can integrate these Vegan treats into their everyday life!

So help support a fellow food blogger and buy this lovely cookbook. Even if you are not Vegan, I bet you know some who is or is at least a Vegetarian. Surprise them with a treat for this book…or buy them the book.

So I wrote a little bit about this book in my previous post when I selected Chipster-Topped Brownies to make for my husband and for game night. But in all my browsing through the cookbook I knew instantly the recipe that I wanted to make…..the Cranberry Upside Downer. It was bright and vibrant and I knew it would photograph well…plus it looked tasty(the most important thing). It’s a cleaver take on the old pineapple upside down cake, however it is much spicer(there is cinnamon) and of course more tart because of the cranberries. If I had some, cinnamon ice cream would have gone fabulously with this cake. This cake was easy to make and smelled so good baking in the oven that is caused both the dog and me to howl in hunger. The only nervous part is of course flipping the cake, but luckily it came out beautifully. And though it did warn that the berries might stick, mine did not. Once fliped you have a jewel encrusted cake that sure be a stunner at an Fall event you would be hosting.

Like I said in my previous post the directions are very clear and I would be confident that any of my non-baking friends could make this cake, as well as most things in this book. The most refreshing thing about this book is that it uses widely available ingredients. Which is nice because sometimes I really want to try a recipe but can’t find all the specialty ingredients needed to make it.

Cranberry Upside Downer

1 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1 3/4 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup minus 2 TBSP sugar
1/4 cup chopped walnuts or pecans…I used walnuts
2 cups cranberries-fresh or frozen(if frozen, do not thaw)I used fresh
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 whole milk
1/3 cup red currant jelly, for glazing the cake

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350F. Put a 8X2 inch round cake pan on a baking sheet.
Whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.
Melt 6 TBSP of the butter in a small saucepan. Sprinkle in 6 TBSP of the sugar and cook, stirring, until the mixture comes to a boil. Pour this evenly over the bottom of the cake pan, then scatter over the nuts and top with the cranberries, smoothing the layer and pressing it down gently with your fingertips. Set aside.
Working with a stand mixer, preferabley fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the remaining stick of butter on medium speed until smooth. Add the remaining 1/2 cup of sugar and continue to beat until pale and creamy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, beating for 1 minute after each addition and scraping down the bowl as needed. Pour in the vanilla. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add half of the dry ingredients, mixing only until they disappear into the batter. Mix in the milk, then the rest of the dry ingredients. Spoon the batter over the cranberries and smooth the top with a rubber spatula.
Bake for 40-45 minutes, or until the cake is golden and a thin knife inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Remove it from the oven and run a blunt knife between the sides of the pan and the cake. Carefully turn the cake out onto a serving platter. If any of the berries stick to the pan-as they might-just scrape them off with a table knife and return them to the cake.
Warm the jelly in a small saucepan over low heat, or do this in a microwave oven. Gently brush the glaze over the hot cake.

Source: Adapted from Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, Houghton Mifflin Company, November 2006

You will see many more recipes from this cookbook popping up on my blog from time to time, for this one has just too many to choose from. I hope you add it to your Christmas wish list…that is if you can wait that long.

Amoung the one I hope to get to are: Chocolate Armagnac Cake, Swedish Visiting Cake, Caramel Crunch Bars, Pecan Honey Sticky Buns, The Most Extraordinary French Lemon Cream Tart, Rosy Poached Pear and Pistachio Tart and the Coconut-Roasted Pineapple Dacquoise all are things that sound wonderful too me. Those are just some, there are really many more, but then I would just be listing the index