It snowed! (What does ‘it’ determine? The sky, the clouds, the weather, mother nature, God, the world? I’ve never been sure.) About five centimeters of white clotted our driveways and roads. Yeah! For once Victoria felt Canadian. Caleb and I stepped out into the world first thing. We walked a couple kilometers to a palm tree that Caleb photographed in the snow. I photographed Caleb photographing. Also, I lured him into the grocery store on the return trip. After all, on a snow day, what is there to do besides play outside and bake sugar cookies? I toted home a knapsack full of veggies and fruits and Caleb carried a bag of flour slung over one shoulder. With only two weeks to Christmas, snow on the ground, and sugar cookies dancing in my head, I knew life was perfect. Or nearly perfect, the wind was bitingly cold and the skin on my hands and face was red and chapped. I spent most of the day singing along to Christmas songs (we’ve got a whole cache of new Christmas records), mixing, rolling, and cutting dough, and crafting Christmas cards. Two varieties of sugar cookies sprang forth from my laborious activity: one, a lime drop sugar cookie, the other, a rolled sugar cookie. The second, the rolled cookie, is a play on the original sugar cookies, which, while sweet and tasty, strikes me as a tad dull, the bland face of a too beautiful model. So I jazzed, spiced and changed to develop a not-so traditional sugar cookie that includes the likes of buckwheat flour, cardamom spice, and slivered almonds. I hope you tear into these as quickly as we did! (I just ate one for breakfast).

A Not-So Traditional Sugar Cookie

Beat together:
¼ cup butter
1 TBSP olive oil
¾ cup brown sugar

Beat in:
1 TBSP apple sauce
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla

In another bowl, mix together:
1 and 1/3 cup flour
1/3 cup buckwheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp cardamom
¼ tsp all spice
1 tsp cinnamon

Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix until almost combined.
Then, Add:
¼ cup dried cranberries
¼ cup slivered or flaked almonds

Divide into dough in two and shape into disks. Cover dough with plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for at least I hour. Roll dough between two pieces of wax paper. Do one disk as a time, leaving the other in the fridge. Make sure to roll the dough out evenly, about ¼” thick. Cut out shapes with your favourite cookie cutters. Place on a cookie sheet and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.

Bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes. Baking time depends on the size of your cookies. Larger cookies will take slightly longer. The cookies will firm up after they’ve cooled a bit. I like soft chewy cookies, and I think this recipe tastes better as such, so I prefer a shorter baking time.

Birthday Boterkoek

In Calgary Mike first began embracing the Dutch culture (well, I guess since I am somewhat Dutch I suppose it could be argued that this embracing began a little earlier..); he was excited to find a community of people who went to church, lived their faith, yet still enjoyed a pint on a Friday night. His Sottish Campbell ancestors rejoiced in their graves when he discovered John Calvin, to the extent that we now have the complete set of Calvin's commentaries gathering dust on our book shelf.

Since moving to Chilliwack, Mike's embracing of all things Dutch continues with his exploration of Dutch food. What's not to love? Cheese, bread, and baking loaded with butter. Mike has become a regular at the Dutch store, and is working his way through the long list of goudas.

So, to celebrate his birthday tomorrow I have baked his favourite Dutch delicacy -boterkoek. This is my first time attempting this feat and I am excited to report that it may be the easiest thing, albeit somewhat artery clogging, to bake. I did knock the sugar content down slightly, and found the recipe with the least amount of butter (courtesy of the Chilliwack YMCA cookbook, thanks Hanna).

So here it is-

Boterkoek

1) Cream 2/3 cup butter with 2/3 cup sugar
2) Add 1 beaten egg and 11/2 tsp almond extract
3) Mix in 11/2 cups flour and 1/2 tsp baking powder.
4) Press dough into a pie plate or cake pan. If desired brush with egg (1 tsp reserved from the beaten egg)
5) Decorate with almonds (if you are being festive)
6) Bake at 350 degrees for about 350, or until brown on top.

So, that's it - another addition to Mike's adopted heritage - now if he can just get into a Dutch passion for cleaning!

Simple Sweets

Desserts are truly one of my favourite things. I’ll leave the raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens to Julie Andrews. Pass me the lemon cheesecake. Dessert cookbooks are another one of my favourite things. You’ll notice in a previous post that Haley gloats upon obtaining a copy of Nigella Lawson’s new Christmas cookbook. She plans to curl up on a couch with a cup of hot chocolate and a book full of Nigella and do some serious reading, naturally, one of her favourite things. I would be ridiculously jealous, but I too have Nigella on hold at the library. Some of my favourite dessert cookbooks of late include the Moosewook Restaurant’s book of desserts (these people are wonderful), Perfect Light Desserts (this one is sooo good! Not full of boring, icky light desserts, but really tasty creations), and my ancient copy of The Joy of Cooking (this book feels a lot like a mother, or grandmother, laying all the kitchen tips and secrets bare).

Caleb’s birthday falls in the second week of December, giving me a big fat wonderful excuse to drool over dessert recipes. Perfect. After an exhaustive search I decided upon a Joy of Cooking special: lemon cheesecake made with cottage cheese. This appealed to my low fat sensibilities. I worked out a number of ways to further reduce the fat and I was off, flying high before I fell. Because I reduced the fat in the cake it needed a shorter baking time. I realized this after I pulled it from the oven. Boohoo. While the dessert was tasty, it was decidedly dry, as over-baked cheesecakes tend to be, particularly low-fat over baked cheese cake. Yet I’m still excited, and hopeful. With a little tinkering this could prove to be my work-horse of cheesecakes. Well I couldn’t serve a dried out cake at the birthday go time. What to do? I had no time during the day to prepare another dessert, as Caleb and I had a list of plans. A normal, less obsessive person would probably just pick up a cake from the store or bakery. But I am obsessive. I unearthed my recipe, or rather, the Moosewood Collective’s recipe, for Six Minute Cake. As Caleb’s family members arrived for the birthday dinner, and I sprinkled the coarse salt on the foccacia, dropped the meatballs in the sauce, panicked about a salad, I used my third free hand to whip up a six minute cake. I swear I did it in five. I served this simple chocolate cake warm from the oven with a dollop of mocha whipped cream. It was a hit.

What a reminder that food should be simple and fun. It should taste good. Tiered cakes and frothy egg whites have their place but most often a slice of something hot and chocolate and a little sweet beside it is all a girl needs.

Six Minute Chocolate Cake

Sift the following ingredients directly into a an 8 inch square or 9 inch round baking pan:

1 ½ cups white flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
1 cup sugar

In a measuring cup, measure and mix together:
½ cup vegetable oil
1 cup cold water or coffee
2 tsp pure vanilla extract

Pour the liquid ingredients into the baking pan and mix with a fork or whisk.

When the batter is smooth add 2 TBSP apple cider vinegar.

Stir quickly. There will be pale swirls in the batter.

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes at 350. Let the cake cool in the pan on rack. You can cut the slices directly from the pan to serve.

The Moosewood Collective suggests that you let the cake cool and then refrigerate it for 30 minutes but I prefer the cake warm.

Mocha Whipped Cream

Combine and whip until stiff:
1 TBSP instant coffee
1 cup whipping cream
¼ cup icing sugar
1 TBSP cocoa powder

On a Veggie Note

Before I answer the bake-off call…

Haley, my co-blogger, wants cookie recipes. She berated me for slacking on the blog and hording food secrets. While I have not been writing I have been baking, and cooking, and, most importantly, eating. I have loads, mounds, bowlfuls, of cookie recipes. Cookies and all doughs sweet are my weakness, but before I web publish my Christmas treats, I will start the holidays on a veggie note. It is possible. Here is a gem I revised from the Rebar Cookbook: Mushroom Cashew Burgers. The Rebar recipe, Mushroom Pecan Burgers, provides the template for my recipe. I’ve adjusted the ingredients and the spices.

Mushroom Cashew Burgers

In some olive oils, saute:

1 red diced onion

1 tsp salt

¼ tsp chili pepper

Add:
4 cloves garlic, mined

1 1inch thumb ginger, minced

1 tsp thyme

1 tsp cardamom

1 tsp cayenne pepper

Saute until the mushrooms begin to release their juices and the pan begins to dry out.

Pour in:
2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar

Continue to cook until the liquid evaporates. Take the mushrooms off the stove top and let them cool in a bowl.

Add:

1 ½ cups cooked brown rice

1 ½ cups grated carrot

Mulch the mixture in the food processor.

Return mixture to bowl and add:

1 cup cashews, roasted and mulched in the food processor (or however you wish to grind them)

2 cups fresh breadcrumbs

½ tsp cracked pepper

½ tsp ginger (powdered)

1 tsp brown sugar

2 Tbsp soy sauce

Mix and season to taste (you may add salt, pepper, cayenne, ginger, etc). Shape into patties and saute in your favourite skillet.

Cookbooks and Bake-offs

This is what I just picked up from my holds at the library. A beautiful crisp new copy. I am pumped to cozy up on my couch, book on lap, steaming hot chocolate in hand. Ahhhh.

I have a confession - I love to read about food. Read about it and look at pretty pictures. Does all this cookbook and blog reading translate into actual cooking? Sometimes..

On another note I am pumped to report that Reems is being pitted against Reems in the chocolate chip square challenge- here is R1's comment from yesterday-

Whoa, whoa, whoa. This is crazy. I just logged on to see your squares. Would you believe I am planning to attempt the chocolate chip squares??? The bake off was set for tonight! Yikes. We're so alike.

This may get messy. Stay tuned.

Attempting the Chocolate Chip Square

Growing up chocolate chip squares were a Reems' household staple. R1 and I were recently reminiscing about the "original square." In the late 80s, before Joan discovered such terms as "low fat" and "fiber," these squares were everything you could want in a recess snack - butter and sugar, combined with chocolate? Almost good as everyone else's oreos (kids with moms or dads who bake never know how good they have it - who wants homemade cookies when you could be eating a fruit rollup?)

As the years progressed the squares became slightly more, well, healthy, as the amount of butter decreased and the amount of oatmeal inversely increased. Before you accuse me of being overly critical of a working mother of four who still managed to produce a never ceasing flow of baked goods and nutritious meals, I do want to express some gratitude for having been instilled with the value of healthy eating and active living. That said, I set out to replicate the pre-oatmeal-low-fat-square of my memory while making it slightly healthier than the original.

Now according to my R2 I haven't quite nailed the original square. However, judging by the amount of these that I have been baking lately I have come up with a formula that is working. The beauty of squares, as opposed to cookies is that they are quick and easy. You can mix up a batch while you are making dinner. No fiddily little balls, no endless batches. The key to this square is your baking time. Please use the baking time as a guideline and watch these like a hawk the first time you bake them. All ovens are different and what these babies need is to be under-baked. Take them out when the middle of your pan is still doughy. They will firm up while cooling. If you leave them in too long don't blame me.

Chocolate Chip Squares

Cream together:

1/2 cup soft butter
1 cup brown sugar

Add and mix:

2 eggs
generous teaspoon vanilla

Next Add:
Note: I am a one bowl baker. My method? Measure all of the dry ingredients on top of the wet ones, and then give the dry ingredients on top a good stir and then stir the whole mixture together.
21/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup chocolate chips

You may need to use your hands to combine the dough. If it is really dry you can add a scant tablespoon of water but be careful not to overdo it.

Press the mixture into a small cookie sheet or a 9 by 13 inch pan (the cookie sheet will produce a skinnier square and therefore requires a slightly shorter baking time).

Bake at 350 degrees for aproximately 15 minutes for a 9 by 13, 12 minutes for a cookie sheet. Start peeking into the oven at 10 minutes. UNDERBAKE!!!

Let cool for about 15 minutes and then cut into squares. Try not to eat all of them while you do this.

Chocolate Almond Biscotti

Christmas is coming - it's that pre-holiday time of year when I like to leaf through cookbooks and magazines, dreaming about Christmas cookies.. particularly those that require copious amounts of butter and sugar. This is the time when healthy eating is pushed aside. When shortbread and fudge take centre stage. However, for the amount of time I spend looking at recipes, my actual baking output is pretty limited. I tend to make a few batches of biscotti and some sort of square. This year I am thinking of giving Speculaas a go. I'll keep you posted on that one.

Today I was baking for the newest addition to the Reems clan - Tommy Harvey. I needed something to withstand the long journey from the 'Wack to Victoria. Those BC ferries are a rough ride. Biscotti it is.

Biscotti, is a bit of a cheat - hardly any fat and definitely pushing the envelope of a sugary concoction. However, having been on the receiving and giving end of a batch of biscotti at Christmas time I can vouch for the coziness of a cup of hot something, and a nibble of biscotti goodness.

Making biscotti seems a bit involved when you first glance at a recipe. While it takes awhile because of the double baking required, it is actually ridiculously easy (our little secret). My go-to One Smart Cookie is still packed in my garage. My favourite biscotti recipe is still cranberry-almond with white chocolate. However, lacking my favourite recipe, and the requisite white chocolate Smitten Kitchen's Chocolate Hazlenut Biscotti fit the bill.

I'll let you link to the recipe. I did a few tweaks. I didn't have hazlenuts so used almonds - I didn't toast them either, I just did a rough chop on a cup of natural almonds; I used one cup of sugar, instead of 1 1/3; I only had 2 eggs left so I added 1/3 cup leftover coffee (you could use water), and 2 T vegetable oil.

Even with my tinkering they turned out beautifully. To dress them up if you are giving them as gifts, spread or drizzle with some melted white chocolate.

Finally, grab a book and your cup of coffee. Ahhh, biscotti time!

Welcome to world Tommy!