One of my favorite pastimes during this season is making Gingerbread houses.  I have made all kinds of Gingerbread houses from the very large and ornate to the small and simple; I love making them all.  I have created a number of large “centerpiece” houses for various functions and benefits, my favorite being the large church I created as the centerpiece for the gift table at my own wedding.  It was over 2 feet long and the steeple stood almost that high.  With large, candy “stained glass windows, Golden Grahams as roofing shingles and a full array of bells in the steeple the project took weeks to complete, but I enjoyed almost every minute of it.  Then there was the time, as chef of a country club, when I had to make 30 mini Gingerbread houses for kids to decorate.  I didn’t take the simple way out and make them out of graham crackers but cut out and “glued” together 30 of the little things.

Look for Part II where we put the house together and let my daughter have her way with it.

It’s been a few years since I last made a Gingerbread house, but this year my daughter is 3 and I figured it would be a good time to restart the tradition. Of course she is still too young to help Daddy build a Gingerbread house, but she would be more than capable of decorating one, so I set out to build a couple of houses, one for her and one for the neighbor boy who I thought would also like to decorate a house.

The making of Gingerbread houses is not a single day task, unless you want to drive yourself insane. I find that I like to spread it out over 3-4 days, if making an average sized house, many more if making a large or elaborate structure. Day 1 – make and chill the dough. Day 2 – roll out, cut and bake the dough. Day 3 – assemble the house. Day 4 – decorate the house. Of course some of these steps can be combined into single days, but as a working stiff, I find that breaking it up this way makes each step easy to accomplish while still allowing me time to do other things after work.

Gingerbread Dough

2 sticks (1 cup) butter, softened
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup molasses
5 1/4 cups Flour, all purpose
2 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
2 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 tsp. ground clove
2 pinches salt
3/4 cup water

Cream together the butter and the brown sugar, beating until light and fluffy. Add the molasses and mix well. Sift together the flour and baking soda and add, along with the spices and salt. Once well mixed add the water and mix to incorporate. Chill dough at least 3 hours, or better yet, over night. Meanwhile draw out your template for your house. For a basic Gingerbread house you will need 2 sides, a front and back and 2 roof pieces for a total of 6 pieces or 3 template pieces.

To make a house with the same dimesions as I have pictured your side template should be 3″ tall x 4″ long, the template for the front and back (same template for both, just no door or window cut out for the back) is 5″ wide, a side height of 3″, and a roof slope of 5″. The roof template will then need to be 5 1/2″ tall (the extra 1/2″ for overhang) by 5 to 5 1/2″ wide (again to provide some overhang in the front and back and taking into account the width of the gingerbread pieces on the front and back).

After you have let the dough chill for the appropriate amount of time you then need to roll the dough out. Use plenty of flour to dust the dough with, to prevent sticking and roll it out on parchment paper cut to fit your cookie trays. The reason for this is once you cut the pieces it is easier to move the whole parchment paper so that you don’t accidentally stretch the dough out of shape. For a smaller house like this, roll the dough out to about 1/4″ thick, for larger structures you will want the stability of dough rolled out to 1/2″ thick. Place your templates on the dough and cut out the pieces cutting about 1/8″ larger than the templates. Bake in a 350F oven for 20-25 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool, for 5 minutes on trays before transferring to a cooling rack. While still slightly warm shave the pieces down, using a serrated knife, to the exact size needed.

If you want to created glass windows or stained glass windows, use a hammer to crush up hard candies such as Jolly Ranchers. When the dough has 5 minutes more to bake, fill window with crushed candy, mounding it up in the center. Return to oven and finish baking.

A quick word about edibility. This recipe makes a great dough that provides both a good flavor and good stability. If you are not so concerned about edibility then there are few things I would recommend doing. First off, I would double all the spices. Doesn’t make for great eating but all those added spices helps keep the Gingerbread house fragrant for quite a long time. Also I would lower the heat to 325F and bake the dough for about 35-40 minutes. This will dry out the dough even more making it more stable, but also much tougher on the teeth.

It’s December 1st, and that means only 24 days left until Christmas, my favorite holiday of the year. Not only is it Christmas, but my wife and I celebrate our anniversary right around that time (Dec. 30th) along with my parents and grandparents. So, as you can see the holiday is a very special time for me.

I figured I would start the Christmas season off with a simple pie recipe. While it may be simple, it packs quite a punch in the flavor department. I tend to not drink a lot of eggnog. I’m not a big fan of it though I do like Tom & Jerry’s, which at their most basic are a frothy, warmed up version of eggnog. I also tend to use eggnog as a flavoring agent in many recipes this time of year, but I just can’t bring myself to drink more than a glass or 2 during the holiday season, and then only if spiked with copious amounts of bourbon.

My wife on the other hand loves eggnog and will drink a considerable amount over the next few weeks. Because of her love for eggnog I dedicate this recipe to her.

Eggnog Pie

1 each Pie crust for a 9″ deep dish pie
1/2 cup Sugar, granulated
1 pinch Salt
2 cups Eggnog (store bought)
4 each Eggs, large
Nutmeg, freshly ground

Preheat oven to 425F. Par bake pie crust for 7 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool while making filling. Reduce oven heat to 350F. In a large bowl beat eggs. Add sugar and salt and stir until mostly dissolved. Add eggnog and continue to stir until all sugar is dissolved. Try not to beat too much air into filling. Pour into pie shell, coming just below the edge of the crust. You might have a little extra filling. Don’t over fill the crust. Sprinkle with fresh ground nutmeg and place in oven, on a cookie sheet in case it overflows. Bake for 40-50 minutes. To check a custard for doneness, jiggle the pie. The custard should still wiggle like softly set jello. Don’t overcook the pie or it will lose its smooth, satiny texture and become grainy. Allow to cool on tray for 20 minutes then transfer to a cooling rack. Allow to cool completely before cutting. I even prefer to refrigerate it for a couple of hours to make sure it has set completely before cutting.

I can’t say that Whoopie Pies were commonplace in our household when I was growing up, but I do remember my mom making them on occasion. What I remember most is that she made them in the summer and froze them. They would then become a nice, cool treat for me and my brother. They’d last a long time as they were rock solid, when frozen, and we’d have to kind of scrape away at them with our molars until they thawed enough to really bite into.

For those of you unfamiliar with whoopie pies, they are a snack consisting of 2 very large, cake-like, chocolate “cookies” with a sweet, white filling sandwiched in between. They were, originally, a treat of the Amish and Pennsylvania Dutch but in the early part of the 20th century they found their way to New England where they have also become very popular, especially in Maine. While chocolate is the traditional flavor for the “cookies,” bakeries are now producing whoopie pies in all manner of flavors, of which pumpkin is probably the most favored seasonal rendition, after chocolate.

Whoopie Pies are not your “dainty” little snack, nor are they for the weak of heart, considering the hefty amount of vegetable shortening in the filling. It is said that a whoopie pie should be approximately the size of a hamburger, bun and all. Enough to feed 3 women or 1 growing boy.

I was thrilled the other day, when my wife said she wanted to make whoopie pies. Visions of my childhood flooded back and I couldn’t wait for them to get done. Neither could our daughter, who quickly swiped the paddle from the stand mixer and claimed it for herself.

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In my last post, I said I wasn’t going to offer up any Thanksgiving recipes. Well, I lied…kinda…sorta. I am not going to offer up any recipes for dishes to be served during the holiday dinner, though I guess you could serve these then if you wanted to. They would make a great change from the standard dinner roll. But what I really wanted to offer up is a wonderful breakfast treat you could serve to any overnight guests you might have.

Let’s face it, we all try to avoid breakfast on T-Day, in anticipation of the huge, gluttonous feast we plan on consuming later in the day, but if you are like me there is no way you will make it until then without an sustenance, especially as all those heavenly aromas waft through the air, igniting your hunger. Besides, as a host to those overnight guests I feel bad if I don’t offer up something for breakfast.

These popovers fit the bill quite nicely. They are light, but flavorful. Just the thing one needs to just take the edge off of the hunger until dinner is ready. If you have a full house consider doubling or tripling this recipe as they go quickly. Also serve immediately as popovers are best when still steaming hot.

I chose to use sage in these popovers as a little preview to the dinner ahead, but you could substitute out any herb you like. Both rosemary and thyme make nice additions.

Not many people own popover pans any more so I made these in muffin tins. If you have popover pans feel free to use them though you might have to add just a few minutes to the final cooking and you might not get 12 popovers out of the recipe.

Sage Popovers

2 each eggs
1 cup flour
1 cup milk
1 Tbsp. melted butter
1 Tbsp. fresh sage, finely chopped
1/2 tsp. salt

Heat oven to 450F. Generously grease muffin tin. In medium bowl beat eggs slightly. Blend in remaining ingredients just until smooth. Fill cups about half full. Bake at 450F for 15 minutes then reduce heat to 350F and bake for 15-20 minutes longer or until golden brown. Makes 12 popovers.

If you haven’t realized by now that Fall is my favorite season and that apples are one of my favorite foods then either: 1. you haven’t been paying attention, or 2. you are new to this blog and haven’t yet read many of my previous posts. Either way I am not going to bore you today with a rehashing of my previous sentiments. Read a few earlier posts from the last few weeks and you’ll get the picture.

The only thing I will say, before moving on to the recipe for today is that this recipe rocks!!! I know I should be more humble but really, I really liked these when I came up with the idea. I’m sure there have been plenty of others who have thought of stuffing an apple with caramel before turning it into a dumpling, but I haven’t come across any recipes. Besides, this recipe gives you the best of both caramel apples and apple dumplings. What isn’t there to like? I hope you enjoy this as much as I did!

Caramel Filled Apple Dumplings

1 recipe Your favorite pie dough for a double crust pie
4 each Apples (choose a good baking apple such as Granny Smith, McIntosh or Gravenstein)
10-15 each Individual Caramels
3/4 cup Sugar, granulated
1/2 cup Water
1/2 cup Cider or Apple juice
1/2 tsp. Cinnamon
1/4 tsp. Ground Ginger
2 Tbsp. Butter

Preheat the oven to 375F. Peel and core all the apples, leaving just a bit of the blossom end intact. Roll out the pie dough and cut into 4 7″x7″ squares. Pack the cored apple with the caramels, packing it in lightly. Wrap the apples in the pie dough. There are 2 ways you can do this. 1. Bring the corners of the dough up, over the apple and pinch them together in the center. Then pinch together the seams giving yourself an elegant little package, or 2. wrap the dough around and over the apple, forming it to the apple so that the package maintains an apple shape. I then use some of the scrap dough to form decorative leaves “glued” in place, on top, with a little water. Place in a 9×13 pan and bake at for 30 minutes. Meanwhile combine the remaining ingredients in a saucepan, bring to a boil and cook for 3 minutes. Remove from heat. After the apples have baked for 30 minutes pour syrup over dumplings and bake 20-25 minutes more, basting the dumplings with the syrup every 8 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool for 5-8 minutes before placing in a bowl with a little of the remaining syrup and a couple of scoops of vanilla ice cream.

It has been about 1 1/2 months since I wrote about my dismal macaroon failure here. In that time I have done considerable research on making French Macaroons and have finally tried my hand at them again. As you can see by the above picture, they aren’t perfect yet, but I am a lot closer to creating something I am happy with. I think I have the recipe pretty well conquered, now I just have to my piping techniques. The macaroons turned out shatteringly crisp on the outside and still chewy on the inside but they were too tall and not quite smooth on top. I think just a little adjustment to my piping technique and I will be set.

I was amazed, while doing my research, at the large variations in the recipes for French Macaroons. There are a lot of bad recipes out there, and not just on the internet, but in cookbooks also. I was also amazed by the number or recipes that claimed to be based off of the recipe from Laduree, the name in Parisian bakeries specializing in macaroons. With such a wide swing in baking techniques, meringue making techniques, and in the duration to let the macaroons sit before baking, someone (or better yet someones) is lying. The recipe below is one I came up with based on my research and on my experiences last time.

French Macaroons

1 cup Almond flour
1 1/4 cup Confectioner’s Sugar
3/4 cup Granulated Sugar
1/4 cup Water
3 each Egg Whites, room temperature
Pinch Salt

Combine the granulated sugar and water in a sauce pot, bring to a boil and cook to soft ball stage (240-242 degrees). Meanwhile, in an electric mixer whip 2 of the egg whites and the pinch of salt to stiff peaks. When sugar has reached soft ball stage remove from heat and, with the mixer going, add the sugar, to the egg whites, in a slow steady stream and continue to beat to stiff peaks again. In another large bowl combine almond flour and confectioner’s sugar. Add remaining egg white and mix together to form a stiff paste. Add 1/3 of the whipped egg whites to the almond mixture and stir to combine and lighten. Gently fold in the remaining egg whites and well combined.

Cover 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper. Place batter into a pastry bag fitted with a 1/2 inch pastry tip and pipe onto cookie trays into 1 1/2 inch circles. Allow macaroons to sit for 30-40 minutes to allow a skin to form over the mounds of meringue. Meanwhile preheat the oven to 325 degrees. With the door of the oven left open a crack bake the macaroons for 12 minutes. Spin and rotate the trays and bake another 12, again with the oven door slightly ajar. Remove from oven and allow to cool on trays until completely cool.

Fill with your preferred filling. I used caramel as we had some lying around waiting for me to make caramel apples with my daughter. Buttercreams, ganaches, and fruit curds all make great fillings, though just about anything can be sandwiched between the cookies. This recipe makes approximately 40 individual macaroons.

I remember that this time of year was always a busy time when I was a kid. Of course, school was starting, which was always exciting and busy, as my parents hauled my brother and me all over to buy school supplies, new school clothes and new school shoes. Growing up in a small town in Vermont, this usually proved to be quite a production with a big family trip down to Burlington, an hour away, and the closest mall in the area. In addition, there was plenty to do in the garden with harvesting all the late summer produce and watching after the vegetables that would be harvested later in the fall. On top of all this there was lots of canning and freezing going on. Corn needed to be removed from the cob before freezing and green beans needed to have the strings removed before they could be processed for canning. While I am sure that there were a number of items my parents canned, I can only vividly remember three of them: tomatoes, green beans and peaches. What I remember most about the green beans is the boring job of having to snap off the ends and pull the strings. After canning I can remember listening for the “pops” as the jars cooled and the lids were pulled tight by the vacuum created.

The tomatoes were the worst, from what I remember. While Mom and Dad may have canned whole and diced tomatoes, what I remember most was the tomato juice they canned. I loved the tomato juice, but I remember just hating the way the house smelled as my parents cooked, peeled, pureed, and processed those tomatoes. If I was lucky, it was nice outside and I could escape the odoriferous confines of the house. If luck wasn’t on my side it rained on the days my parents canned and my brother and I were stuck, having to bear the assault on our olfactory nerves all day long. (continue reading…)

I had forgotten how much I like properly shirred (baked) eggs, until this past Sunday, when I was searching for a simple, yet elegant dish for my wife and I to enjoy for Sunday brunch. I wasn’t in the mood for an omelet and we always tend to do a variation on Benedicts when looking for something a little special so I went digging around in my cookbooks and was reminded of shirred eggs. I hadn’t done something like that in years, so it would be a novel dish for my wife, and better yet, Shirred Eggs is one of those dishes that is just ripe for variations.

At it’s most simple, Shirred Eggs, are eggs that have been placed into a shallow custard cup, seasoned with salt and pepper, and topped with a little butter to help keep the top from drying out, then baked just until the whites are set, but the yolk is still runny. Doesn’t sound very exciting, does it? Not really. Like a good poached egg, shirred eggs are fine on their own, if not a little bland, but it is when they are part of a dish that they rise above their humble stature and become something almost sublime.

Virtually anything can be used as a base on which to make Shirred Eggs. Some of the more common bases are creamed spinach, various types of hashes, seafood, cooked grains, ham, bacon, other cooked meats and various other vegetables. Just like with omelets, the choice is really limited only by your imagination. Because I was looking for simply elegant this time I reigned the imagination in and created the recipe below, which serves 2. I accompanied the Shirred Eggs with toast and Maple Glazed Bacon, the recipe for which is below also.

Shirred Eggs with Ham & Manchego Cheese
4 each Eggs
1 tsp. Butter
2 Tbsp. Yellow onion, finely minced
1/2 cup Ham, finely diced
1/2 cup Tomatoes, finely diced
1/2 tsp. Fresh Tarragon, finely minced
4 Tbsp. Heavy Cream
1/3 cup Manchego cheese, shredded

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.Heat the butter, in a small saute pan, over medium high heat. As the butter finishes melting add the onions and cook without browning. Add the ham and cook for 2 minutes. Add the tomatoes and tarragon. Heat just to warm the tomatoes then remove from heat. Divide the tomato-ham mixture between 4 small creme brulee cups or ramekins and spread evenly. Crack an egg into each cup or ramekin and season with salt and pepper. Drizzle each egg with 1 Tbsp. of cream. Sprinkle the cheese over top, dividing the cheese evenly among the 4 cups. Bake for 12-14 minutes, checking them after 10. Eggs are done when the whites are just set but the yolks are still runny. Serve immediately as the eggs will continue to cook a little longer.

Maple Glazed Bacon

Take 4 slices of thick cut, smoky bacon and cut them in half. Cook over medium high heat until 3/4 of the way done. Drain on paper towel. Meanwhile remove rendered fat from pan and wipe pan clean. Lower heat to medium low and add the bacon back to the pan. Brush with real maple syrup, flip over and allow to cook for 2-3 minutes. After about 1 minute brush other side with maple syrup. Flip over, when time and cook another 2-3 minutes. Remove to a cooking rack, set over a sheet tray, to crisp up. Make sure that bacon is not touching each other as it cools as it has a tendency to want to stick until it cools slightly.

I have spent a lot of time reading food blogs over the last year and I have come across many great blogs and great people, both professional chefs and at home cooks, who are preparing some tasty food and offering up some excellent recipes and advice. One thing that seems to be lacking though are accounts of failures. There are a few bloggers out there admitting to failures but for the most part, most bloggers tend not to write on their missteps. I find this too bad as often there is more to be learned in someone’s failure than in their success. With that said, I offer up this post on a recent failure of great proportions in the hopes that it might offer some help to those that have had the same trouble.

In a recent post I discussed my desire to start sharpening my baking skills again after letting them languish for a number of years. Well this week I got a bug up my ass to bake french macaroons. I love french macaroons, their crispy exterior and soft, moist interior and subtle flavor of almonds have always been a weakness for me though I haven’t had them in years as it isn’t easy to locate them in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. I remember baking these in culinary school and from what I had remembered they took a certain amount of finesse but weren’t overly difficult to create. I grabbed one of my “go-to” cookbooks on french cooking (which shall remain nameless) and prepared to make the first batch of macaroons that I had baked in 15+ years. As you can see by the photograph at the top of the page, it was a disaster. I can’t lay all the blame on the cookbook, though I will lay most of it with it. My first mistake was following the first recipe I read. Even when I trust a cookbook I usually do a good bit of research before attempting a food for the first time, but with craziness at work, I blew that part off. It sure would have saved a good amount of time if I had bothered to have done my research. Allow me to list my macaroon transgressions, in order of importance, so that you won’t make the same mistakes. 1. The recipe never called for making a meringue. It only had me whip the egg whites to “just barely stiff peak” then add my almond sugar mixture into that. All the other recipes I know of use meringue as the base for the macaroon and whipped egg whites alone are not a meringue. 2. The recipe called for a short baking time at a slightly higher temperature. I have since seen two schools of thought on this, in my subsequent research. One bakes at a slightly elevated heat for a brief period (8-10 minutes), while the other bakes at a lower temperature for a much longer period (anywhere from 15-30 minutes depending on the recipe). With the knowledge I have now, I think I will be baking lower and longer. 3. I am pretty sure I slightly over whipped my egg whites. While they were not where close to becoming dry or separating, I think, according to various recipes, I shouldn’t have taken them as far as I did. 4. Finally, since I was grinding almonds and not using almond flour the recipe says to sift the almond sugar mixture. I didn’t, thinking that I would like the more rustic texture of a few bits of almond. I was wrong. The almonds gave the macaroons texture but not in a pleasant sort of way.

Armed with this knowledge of my errors, and a whole lot of research, I am planning on tackling macaroons again. Not sure how soon I will get to them, but be on the lookout for follow up posts as I am determined to get these little buggers right!

With summer coming slowly coming to an end (many would argue that it wasn’t much of a summer here in Wisconsin) and fall just around the corner, I am starting to look forward to the resumption of late evening fires in our neighbor’s fire pit. The thought of that inevitably leads to s’mores as my wife loves the things and almost always suggests them at our late night gatherings. Unfortunately, beer and s’mores don’t really mix so I usually decline. I have never been a big s’more fan anyway. Sure I love chocolate and toasted marshmallows and I even like graham crackers but I am one of those people that would rather eat them all separately then mash them all together. It was with these thoughts in mind that I was trying to come up with a dessert to surprise my wife with when I remembered that I had saved a recipe for a S’more pie from Gourmet, November 2006. Looking over the recipe I felt that ,while the chocolate filling would work well, the marshmallow topping seemed a little dense so I modified it somewhat to more closely resemble the recipe we use for making homemade marshmallows.

Chocolate S’more Pie
makes 1 8inch pie

1 each Graham Cracker Crust
FOR CHOCOLATE FILLING
7 ounces Bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
1 cup Heavy cream
1 each Egg, room temp.

FOR MARSHMALLOW TOPPING
1 package Unflavored gelatin
1/2 cup Water, cold
3/4 cup Sugar
1/4 cup Light corn syrup
1/2 teaspoon Vanilla extract
Vegetable oil

Preheat oven to 350. Put chocolate in a large bowl. Bring cream to a boil then pour over chocolate, stirring until smooth. Lightly beat egg and add to chocolate mixture along with salt then pour everything into pie shell. Cover edge of crusts then bake until filling is just set, about 25 minutes. Cool completely. Meanwhile make the topping. Bloom gelatin in 1/4 of the water in a large heatproof bowl. In a saucepan stir together remaining water, sugar, corn syrup and a pinch of salt and bring to a boil. Boil until mixture registers 238. Start beating gelatin mixture and slowly add hot syrup, in a slow stream. When all syrup has been added turn mixer to high and beat until triple in volume. Add vanilla extract then immediately pour over cooled pie. Chill, uncovered for 1 hour, then cover with oiled plastic wrap and chill 3 hours more. Before service brown top with either a blow torch or under broiler. If doing under a broiler protect the pie crusts.

If at all possible brown the top with the blow torch. Not only is a much more fun way to do it, I think it provides better flavor and gives it a more rustic look as some parts remain lighter while other parts get darker.