Tiny 'tashen Fail

From what I've read, it seems like hamantashen--the three cornered hat of a purim cookie--are often ornery. Either the dough is too stiff and dry, or too delicate to hold shape. If I did these again, I'd try folding the dough, and sealing it with a bit of egg wash. These tasted great, sweet and flaky, but I ran into trouble every step of the way.

The recipe I used, from Smitten Kitchen, asks the baker to grind the poppy seeds. In her recipe, Deb gave the seeds a whir in her coffee grinder, since she didn't have a spice grinder. I don't even have a coffee grinder. So I had a go with a mortar and pestle. After a few minutes of grinding and spilling seeds all over the counter and floor, I gave up and dumped the whole seeds in the simmering pan of syrup for the filling.

Then there's the dough. This dough took so long to come together that I'm sure I overworked it before I had the sense to simply bundle it in plastic wrap and let time and refrigeration pull the ingredients together.

The filling settled into caramel colored strata in the fridge, raisins at the bottom, butter just above that, poppyseeds in a thick thick layer at the top.

I folded the dough into strong points, and chilled the cookies before baking, but several of them exploded out into puffy pastry circles with small poppyseed pyramids, fused into sugary mounds, hot from the oven.

(Barely) Irish Soda Bread

The irish soda bread that showed up at a staff meeting last week was a pale and dense crumbly sort of thing. It easily lasted through the meeting, and through the next day, and the next, sitting out on the conference room table.

This bastardized version of soda bread, made buttermilk and citrus zest and (well, why not) cranberries when I ran out of raisins, suffered no such sad fate.

Skillet Irish Soda Bread

adapted from the NYTimes, by way of Smitten Kitchen

1/4 cup salted butter, melted

2 cups all purpose flour

1 cup wheat flour

2/3 cup sugar

1 tbsp baking powder

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1 3/4 cup buttermilk

2 eggs, beaten

1 cup raisins

1/2 cup cranberries

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a(n at least 10 inch diameter) skillet with parchment paper. This skillet needs to go in the oven, so make sure the handle can take the temperature. Cast iron is best.

Combine flours, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In another bowl, mix buttermilk, eggs, and half the melted butter (1/8 cup). Pour wet into dry and mix just until wet. Don't overmix. Add the raisins and cranberries, and stir to distribute the dried fruit.

Turn the batter into the lined skillet, and brush the top with the remaining melted butter. Bake for about 1 hour, until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean, the top is golden brown and hard to the touch.

Cranberry Ginger Oatmeal Cookies

I've been reading about how to develop recipes for baking. Dianne Jacob suggests pulling up a number of trusted recipes for the basic type of good that you're trying to develop (bread, quick bread, cookie, cake, etc.) and then filling out a grid with the ingredients for each recipe. That way, you'll have the right ratios--leavening to acid, for example.

I tried that out this past week with a new recipe for Cranberry Ginger Oatmeal cookies, using recipes from Martha Stewart, Smitten Kitchen, and the Food Network.

Hot and crisp from the oven, cranberries and lemon dominate this cookie. A day after baking, the ginger peeks through. If I made these again, I'd kick in a bit more ginger and maybe some cloves.


Cranberry Ginger Oatmeal Cookies
wet
1 stick butter
2/3 cup brown sugar, packed
1 egg
1/2 tbsp vanilla
zest of 1 lemon

dry
1/2 cup white flour
1/4 cup white wheat flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ginger

finish
1.5 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup dried cranberries



Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. In a large bowl, combine butter and sugar. Beat in the egg, vanilla, and lemon. In a smaller bowl, mix the dry ingredients well. Add the dry to the wet, beating until incorporated.

Finish by adding rolled oats and cranberries (or any dried fruit bits. Apricot springs to mind as an interesting variation.) Mix until it looks vaguely homogeneous.

For the best results, refrigerate the dough for about 20 minutes before picking up and rolling out shooter marble sized spheres. Place the dough balls on parchment or foil-lined baking sheets and bake for 10-15 minutes, depending on how cold the dough is when you put it in the oven.

The cookies are done when the edges are golden brown. Don't be concerned if the middle still looks a bit less than firm. It'll solidify as they cool.

As with many cookies, if you store these in a closed container, the humidity will soften those perfect crisp edges. So these are best eaten the day of baking.