Jam Doughnuts

I've been neglecting Gale's book because this next recipe should have been hers but I am always flipping through Nigella's books and all her recipes are all very warm and inviting so I couldn't help myself. :) They don't really taste like doughnuts but they are very yummy and rolling them in sugar gave it just the right touch. :)

Jam Doughnuts

(from How to Be a Domestic Goddess by Nigella Lawson)

1/2 cup milk

7 tbsp vegetable oil

1 large egg

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/3 cups self-rising cake flour (substitute 1 cup cake flour with 1 1/2 tsp baking powder and 1/2 tsp salt) Note: You can always use all-purpose flour here. I did at least and they came out still pretty tender.

1/3 cup superfine sugar

12 tsp strawberry jam (Note: Use any kind of jam. I used part Black Raspberry and part Red Raspberry)

1/2 cup unsalted butter

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 well greased or nonstick 12-cup mini-muffin pan

Note: I actually used a normal muffin pan and there was enough batter. Just be careful in dividing the batter up and leaving extra for the tops.

Preheat oven to 375F.

With a fork, beat the milk, oil, egg, and vanilla extract. Stir this into the flour and 1/3 cup sugar to combine (just): the lumps don't matter and if you overbeat the muffins will be tough. Spoon the mixture into each muffin cup so that it's just under a third full. Then with a teaspoon add a dollop of strawberry jam-- about the size of a fat lima bean -- then top with more muffin mix so that the cases are just about full.

Put them in the preheated oven and cook for about 20 minutes or until the tops feel springy and resistant and the muffins have puffed up into little toadstools.

Meanwhile, melt the butter slowly in a thick-bottoms pan, and lay the remaining sugar out in a wide, shallow bowl. As soon as the muffins are ready, remove them from their cups, dip them in the butter, and roll them in the sugar. Eat warm.

Makes 12.

Clean clean clean!

Sorry I just had to put this picture up. :)

Macaroons & Milk Bread

No, these two don't really go together well but they will be together here in light of not having posted in the last day or two due to school projects and work (Why must these things get in the way of my blogging? :) Like I mentioned in my last post I'll be going through Gale Gand's Chocolate & Vanilla book doing each recipe and recording my experiences with them here. So let's start with the macaroons.

Recipe #2: Chocolate "burgers" with White Chocolate Filling
(technically #2 since I have already made the hot chocolate pudding)

Actually this recipe isn't going to make it here because it essentially failed. Like I had mentioned earlier, the recipe called for 1 egg white and 3 cups of confectioners' sugar rendering my batter white and crumbly and most definitely not "soupy" like it was supposed to be. On impulse, I added some water to moisten up the batter but when I put them in the oven they exploded... not a pretty sight.

The recipe's only saving grace was the white chocolate filling. It's actually a cream cheese base with added white chocolate. I don't normally like white chocolate so much but this filling was indeed exceptional. And I do think it would work well as fillings for other types of baked goods like a filling for a sponge cake or another type of sandwich cookie (just be sure to double/triple the recipe as appropriate). Try it!

White Chocolate Filling
3 oz white chocolate
3 oz cream cheese, softened
3 tbsp unsalted butter, softened

Cream the cream cheese and butter together. Melt the white chocolate in the microwave (or use the double boiler method) and let cool a bit before adding into the cream cheese/butter mixture. Whip until combined.

Nigella's Chocolate Macaroons

So I couldn't just have the filling and no macaroons now could I? My next attempt was Nigella's chocolate macaroon recipe in How to be a Domestic Goddess. These tasted wonderful except that they spread into something very thin in the oven. I'm not sure why but the batter was definitely "soupy" and perhaps a little too soupy that they couldn't hold any shape. The recipe calls for 4 egg whites and about a cup of confectioners' sugar. (See! 4 egg whites versus 1 egg white with a lot less sugar). Even though they spread very thinly I still used them with the white chocolate filling and they tasted fabulous. But they still didn't look like macaroons, dammit.

Next try: Martha Stewart's French Macaroons recipe

I actually really love this baking handbook and had success with two other recipes that came out of this book. This macaroon recipe calls for less egg whites but has a lot more almond flour than the previous two recipes (incidently, I decided against making the chocolate variation again.) The batter was definitely better and their shape held up pretty well when I piped them... but then they fell flat again once baked. I actually think that it was my fault this time. I must have overwhipped the egg whites because they were perfectly round and domed when I piped them onto the baking sheet.

Anyways, I made the swiss meringue frosting that goes with these cookies and they tasted fabulous despite not being so "macaroon-looking". As with Nigella's cookies, they didn't come out nice and smooth but rather bumpy and discolored. I think I'll have to start paying attention more to my egg whites and making sure I don't overbeat them.

Recipe for Martha's French Macaroons here. On a good note, I had my boyfriend take these to work and they were gone in an hour. :)



The Milk Bread

There is an "English bread" that they sell at the local Andersen's Bakery that I absolutely adore. Its not quite like your normal white bread as it is a bit richer and tenderer(?) (almost like brioche.) This craving struck me the other day and I searched high and low on the internet for such a bread. I found a link on the BBC food site that had a recipe for Milk Bread. The neat thing about this bread is that there is hardly any kneading involved and you do come out with a very nice bread. Instead of the fresh yeast it called for, I used instant yeast and this greatly shortened my rising times. In fact, my second rise went too far and my bread collapsed upon itself. It still was a decent loaf, just didn't look very pretty. At any rate, I would probably try using the fresh yeast or normal active dry yeast next time to see if the flavor comes out a little stronger and/or more complex. But this is an absolutely wonderful recipe for beginning bread makers since you basically knead for about 30 seconds in the entire recipe.

Check for the recipe here.

Chocolate and Vanilla by Gale Gand

Chocolate and Vanilla

by Gale Gand and Lisa Weiss

This is a book review in a sense.. in the sense that I'll actually be trying each and every one of the recipes in this book and posting my experience and opinions about it. I've had some success with several of Gale Gand's recipes in the past and since I share her love for intensely sweet desserts I've picked her latest book as a beginning training ground. The recipes in this book are not particularly advanced except for a few of them... chocolate macaroons, ladyfingers... I'd say that most of them are pretty easy and straight-forward... vanilla malteds, fudgy brownies, etc. But its the holidays and good time for me to spread the "sweet" and since a lot of the recipes are pretty traditional, I figured it would be good. (I'm still making my gingerbread cookies though and snowman cake though!)

I've actually already tried a few recipes but I have to sadly report that they did not turn out well. The first one that I tried "Hot Chocolate Pudding" was just way too sweet that my boyfriend actually said it had a "burning sensation". It could have been because I used Ghiradelli 60% chocolate and the excess sugar in their chocolate might have been too much already.

The second recipe I tried was Chocolate "burgers" with white chocolate filling. To begin with, calling delicate french macaroon cookies "burgers" is a little bit of trashy usage for this type of cookie. When I think of burgers, I think easy and casual... not difficult and fancy which is what french macaroons really are. Anyhow, the recipe called for 1 egg white... 1 egg white with 3 cups of confectioners' sugar! The recipe then goes on to say that the resulting batter should be "soupy". Well mine was anything far from "soupy" or wet for that matter. It seemed kind of odd that 1 egg white (a mere 2 1/4 tablespoons of liquid) could make 3 cups of sugar "soupy" so I looked into more french macaroon recipes and found that a lot of them used at least 3 to 4 egg whites with a lot less confectioners sugar. I'm not sure if its a typo in the book or I am doing it completely wrong.

I tried out some other macaroon recipes and they turned out okay. I'll post more about this later.

Big Nose Princess

Nigella on Epicurious.com

I'm a huge fan of Nigella's and so I thought I would like to share Epicurious.com's little piece on her for Christmas. To be honest, I haven't bought this latest book yet (Feast: Food to Celebrate Life) but this article prints some of her recipes and tips out of that book. I have to say that most of the Nigella recipes have been quite successful and so I would recommend any of her books.

Note: I've been baking several recipes of macaroons lately and will post soon about it.

Edit: I noticed Nigella's Christmas show will be on Food Network starting December 9th. Can't wait!