Cake For A Change

 

I was too busy preparing and hosting on Thanksgiving to remember to photograph our table, our guests, and even what we cooked and baked.  

I wanted to finish in the kitchen, go out for a walk with Harry and Charlie, and their out-of-town visitor, Dolly, and then sit down for a while by the fire before gathering for our dinner. 

In addition to my apple pie, this year I thought a cake might be a nice addition.  Most everyone made the traditional selection of pie, so we ate pumpkin gingerbread cake all weekend.  I finished the last piece this morning.  I've shared other recipes from Gingerbread here before, and this one was as wonderful as the others.  The pumpkin cuts the intensity of the spice a bit, yet the overall flavor is definitely of gingerbread.

Pumpkin-Gingerbread Cake

adapted from Gingerbread

3 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon ground ginger

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter at room temperature

1 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup packed light brown sugar

1/2 cup dark molasses

4 large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 1/4 cups pumpkin puree (1 can of puree is 2 cups, so I added 1/4 cup of homemade rhubarb butter, or you could use apple butter or apple sauce)

Confectioner's sugar for dusting

Position a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Butter and flour a 10-inch tube pan.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves in a large bowl.

Put the butter in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and beat on medium-high speed until smooth.  Add the granulated and brown sugars and beat until light and fluffy.  Pour in molasses and beat until smooth.  Drop in eggs, one at a time, and beat for about 2 minutes, stopping at least once to scrape the sides of the bowl.  Add the vanilla extract, pumpkin puree, mixing until combined.  Reduce the mixing speed to medium-low and gradually add the flour mixture, beating just until incorporated.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 1 hour, or until the cake is dark chestnut brown in color, the top is cracked, and a wooden skewer inserted near the center comes out clean.  Set the cake on a wire rack to cool in the pan for about 15 minutes before turning out to cool completely.

Dust with confectioner's sugar.

Gingerbread For A Foggy Morning

Next to hot chocolate, gingerbread says winter to me. While Olivia went ice skating on Saturday afternoon, I baked what she's been asking for.

I tweaked this recipe slightly, substituting whole wheat pastry flour for the all-purpose and omitting the lemon zest.  If you'd like to read about the history of this recipe, take a look for this beautiful book.  It will encourage you to take gingerbread beyond winter.

Eliza Leslie's Lafayette Gingerbread

adapted from Gingerbread

2 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon ground ginger

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground allspice

1 teaspoon ground cloves

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter at room temperature

1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar

1 cup molasses

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 cup hot water

juice of 1 lemon

Position a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Butter and flour a 9 x 3 inch springform pan.

Whisk together the flour, salt, ginger, cinnamon, allspice, and cloves in a medium bowl.

Put the butter in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and beat on medium-high speed until smooth.  Add the brown sugar and beat until light and fluffy.  Pour in the molasses and beat until smooth.  Drop in the eggs, one at a time, and mix until incorporated, stopping at least once to scrape the sides of the bowl.  Dissolve the baking soda in the hot water in a measuring cup.  Reduce the mixing speed to medium-low and alternately incorporate the flour mixture and baking soda mixture, beginning and ending with the flour mixture and stopping once or twice to scrape the sides of the bowl.  Add the lemon juice and beat just until incorporated.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 45 minutes, or until the cake is dark brown in color, the top is cracked, and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean (mine took closer to 1 hour).  Set the gingerbread on a wire rack to cool in the pan for about 10 minutes before turning out to cool for about 10 minutes more.

Serves 8-10

Christmas Morning At Our House

Family holiday traditions is the challenge this month for our bread baking group. Our tradition can be a long held one or something new.

I settled eventually on telling you about our Christmas morning tradition. Before opening the presents under the tree, we make pancakes.

We come downstairs together oohing and aaahing over the magic that happened overnight. Santa's cookies and milk are usually gone except for a few crumbs and it's clear he has read the note left for him.

Olivia and Michael make the pancakes while I set up the table. Usually they make our go-to Basic Pancakes recipe from Mark Bittman. We have music playing and coffee brewing.

When we're ready for breakfast we bring the stockings to the table, and we take turns reaching our hands into our own stocking and pulling something out.

Fortified by breakfast and small gifts we proceed to the tree.

In honor of this assignment, we made gingerbread pancakes last weekend. I've brought you two recipes from this book before. I spend a lot of time flipping through it and dreaming.

The whole wheat flour lends a heartiness here and eaten with maple syrup, these pancakes have a perfect sweetness and spice.

Michael was thrilled with something new, and well, my girl who didn't want to spoil my photo session, said that she thought plain would be best for Christmas morning.

Happy Holidays, friends, be yours traditional or full of spice.

Gingerbread Pancakes
adapted by cooking method only from Gingerbread

1 1/4 cups whole-wheat flour
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1 teaspoon grated orange zest
1 large egg
2 cups whole milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 tablespoons melted, unsalted butter, plus extra butter for cooking

Whisk together the flours, brown sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, nutmeg, and orange zest in a large bowl.

Whisk together the egg, milk, vanilla extract, and melted butter in a medium bowl until combined. Pour the egg mixture into the flour mixture and whisk until just combined. (Avoid mixing the batter too thoroughly; some lumps are okay.) Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set in the refrigerator to chill and rest for at least 3 hours or overnight.

We cooked our pancakes on an electric griddle, using 1/4 cup of batter for each pancake. We made approximately fourteen 4-inch pancakes.

Bring in the Garden Friday with Rosemary Snaps

When we come home from school pick-up in the afternoons, I bring A. upstairs to his room to change. I take off my coat and hang it on the newel outside his room. For months my parka has been there, and sometimes my long, black wool coat.

Today that post holds a mound of coats and jackets. My parka and black coat are there, as is my canvas barn jacket, my shorter and lighter, blue wool coat and my rain coat. That pile reflects the bouncing temperatures of the past week.

Yesterday, I got out and turned the compost. I snipped my rosemary for these cookies, and noticed that my lemon thyme is coming back, as is my oregano. I have a patch of arugula that I planted last Fall that is growing taller in a sunny spot.

There are crocuses everywhere! Our Co-Op has seeds. It is time to start planning.

This gingersnap variation was apparently a "serendipitous" creation by the author of this recipe. These cookies have soft, chewy centers, and will make your home smell wonderful while they are baking. This recipe makes approximately 30 cookies.

Rosemary Snaps
adapted from The Original King Arthur Flour Cookbook

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter
1 cups sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup dark unsulphured molasses
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons minced fresh rosemary
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Put the butter, sugar, salt and molasses into a saucepan and bring to a boil. Remove the pan from the heat and let cool. Transfer the mixture into a large bowl.

Add and blend in the egg. Blend in the spices and baking soda. Stir in the flour until all the ingredients are thoroughly blended. Cover and refrigerate for several hours or overnight.

Roll tablespoon-sized pieces of dough into balls between the palms of your hands. Then roll them in granulated sugar and place them on a slightly greased cookie sheet. If using a non-stick baking sheet, the cookies will spread nicely. If you are not using a non-stick sheet, press the balls of dough down with a glass before baking.

Bake for 12 minutes.

Chocolate and Ginger

These Chocolate-Ginger Crinkle Cookies were among our Christmas cookies this season. They are a new addition to our Holiday collection.

I'm still really enjoying giving Gingerbread my attention. Saturday evening we brought Grandmom Lindner's Favorite Gingerbread Cake, a recipe from the book, to a party. I would have shown you the results, but it wasn't ready until after the daylight was gone.

I had a moment of amusement at the party when bent over the dessert table to make my selection, I overheard one guest tell another that someone brought a delicious gingerbread that he should try.

I lifted my head and waved. Thank goodness I wasn't quietly slinking out of the room in shame!

These cookies have a zing to them, especially if you make sure that your ground ginger is fresh. I omitted the crystallized ginger in these, but if you like it, the recipe calls for a 1/4 cup, finely chopped.

Chocolate-Ginger Crinkle Cookies
adapted from Gingerbread

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 cup Dutch-process cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter at room temperature
7 1/2 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Confectioner's sugar for rolling

Whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, salt, ginger, and cinnamon in a medium bowl.

Combine the butter and 3 ounces of the chocolate, and melt in a double boiler or microwave, stirring periodically until it is melted and smooth.

Stir the sugars into the melted chocolate mixture using a wooden spoon or heatproof spatula. Drop in the eggs, one at a time, mixing briskly until smooth. Stir in the vanilla extract and gradually incorporate the flour mixture. Fold in the remaining 4 1/2 ounces of chocolate. Cover the dough with plastic wrap and set in the refrigerator to chill for at least 2 hours or overnight.

Position a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.

Shape the chilled dough into walnut-sized balls, roll in confectioner's sugar, and arrange them about 2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheets. Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until the cookies have spread and the tops are cracked.

Cool the cookies on the baking sheets set on wire racks for about 2 minutes before removing them to the racks to cool completely. Store the cookies in an airtight container for up to 4 days.

Makes 40 cookies

Color Story of a Cherokee Purple Tomato

In September, I decided to try my hand at a color story. I was standing at my kitchen island one day, looking at the various bowls brimming at the crossroads of Summer and Autumn.

There were peaches, plums, apples, onions, cherry tomatoes and one just-fallen-off-the-vine, a-blush-past-green, Cherokee Purple Tomato. Amongst all that color, my eyes fell on that one tomato. Those were the colors I wanted for my story.

As you can see above, the underside was a dusky pink and the shoulders a bright green. I planned as soon as possible to buy props for my color board. Well, not only did time not allow for shopping, but that tomato changed every few hours it seemed. The pink deepened into streaks of hot-pink, briefly, and the green darkened. Daily, the pink deepened into an almost purple, while the green grew darker, still.

Then, at a certain point, we ate the tomato. That was its destiny after all.

I tried to hold that dusky pink and bright green in my mind. My Black Cherry tomatoes that I was still harvesting were roughly the same coloring, although they never achieved the watermelon-pink streaks.

Finally, a clear scheduled allowed me a few hours to search shops for yarn, fabric, paper and paint chips. I had a little container of the cherry tomatoes with me in varying stages of ripening. I should mention that my neutral addition was a chocolate brown.

There I was holding tomatoes up to paint chips and skeins of yarn, and nothing matched. The closest I got to the pink was the pair of gloves you see.

I came to the conclusion that we can't really match nature to synthetics, not when you've got the real deal right there in your hand.

I had fun with this assignment and look forward to trying again with a different color scheme. In the meantime, however, please have a seat, take a little time for yourself to write down your thoughts (maybe plan your next blog post), have a cup of tea and some gingerbread.

Those gloves by the way are cashmere. Enjoy them, they are really soft.