My love of cinnamon toast brings back one of my earliest memories. I remember the night a babysitter made us cinnamon toast (a real treat, because my mother didn’t have a sweet tooth in her head) and then made me more when I asked for it. This was obviously a BIG DEAL. We certainly weren’t starved as children – Mom and Dad always cooked us wholesome meals – but we were rarely indulged when it came to sweets. Nothing tasted as good as that cinnamon toast, even though I knew I was playing that poor babysitter for a sucker!
I’m sure if I were stretched out on a psychiatrist’s couch right now, he’d be connecting the dots between my sweet “deprivation” as a child and my obsessive baking now. Pffft.
Since I’m in Valentine’s Day mode, I took my cinnamon spiral bread recipe and played with it just a bit. Instead of rolling each half out into an 8×12-inch rectangle, I rolled it out into approximately a 14×16-inch rectangle with the long side towards me, added cinnamon and sugar and rolled it up, then cut it in half, pinched the ends closed, and stuffed the rolls into buttered heart shaped canape tubes. (Or save yourself some work and use a baking spray that has flour in it.) I left one of the caps on, but I don’t think it makes a lot of difference.Don’t stand the pans upright – keep them horizontal to rise and bake. And remember, they’re smaller loaves, so only bake them about 35 minutes.
(You may have noticed that those canape tubes have been getting quite a workout lately. They were in my Valentine’s Day tub, so the novelty factor has been calling to me.)
When cooled and sliced, you’ll get pretty little spiral hearts. When toasted and buttered…heaven. And if you want to put a simple powdered sugar and milk glaze over the wide end of the heart loaf before slicing it, I won’t tell. Here’s my basic recipe:
This is a sweet white bread that makes 2 standard loaves, or 1 standard loaf and 2 canape bread loaves.
Ingredients
2 cups very warm water
1 package active dry yeast
½ cup plus 1 teaspoon sugar
1-1/2 t. salt
¼ cup vegetable oil
2 tablespoons softened butter
6 cups white flour
⅔ cup sugar
2 tablespoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon flour
Instructions
In a small bowl, combine the warm water, yeast, and teaspoon of sugar. Let the mixture sit for 5-10 minutes.
In a large bowl (a stand mixer works best) mix together the sugar, salt, vegetable oil and butter.
Add three cups of the flour and the yeast mixture to the large bowl and mix until well combined.
Add the remaining flour a cup at a time until the dough comes cleanly off the side of the bowl. This should be a fairly soft dough, but not sticky.
If you are kneading by hand, turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead for about 8 minutes. If you’re using a dough hook to knead, 5 minutes is plenty.
Place dough in a large oiled bowl, cover, and set aside in warm spot to rise until doubled (about 90 minutes.)
Punch down the risen dough and let stand for 5 minutes. Divide into 2 equal chunks and roll each one out approximately 8-inches by 12-inches, with the short end facing you.
Combine the ⅔ cup sugar, 2 tablespoons cinnamon and 1 teaspoon flour. Sprinkle half of the mixture (you don’t have to use this much – just make sure the dough is covered) evenly over each rectangle, pat the surface firmly, and roll, beginning at short end. Pinch the seams to seal.
Place in 2 generously greased bread pans and cover with a towel. Allow to rise until double – about an hour. Depending on the temperature of your house, it may take a little longer.
Heat the oven to 375 F.
Bake the loaves for 40-45 minutes, or until the top is a deep brown. Let the bread sit in the pans on a rack for 10 minutes and then turn the loaves out on their sides to cool.
The photos below will show you how to make the heart shaped bread.
For canape pans, roll dough out to 16″x14″
Pinch the seam.
Cut the roll in half and pinch the ends to seal.
Place dough roll in prepared canape pan to rise.
Slide the bread out and cool on a rack.
Slice and serve!
Of all the fragrant aromas of baking, breads and pastries containing cinnamon are the most exquisite. Maybe I need to develop a perfume; I’ll bet cinnamon and vanilla would work better than any pheromones. Of course, women would probably end up walking around like the Pied Piper, with a trail of hungry men following them. Hmm, that’s sounding better and better…
When I think of Valentine’s Day, I don’t think of fancy dinners, champagne toasts, flowers, or candlelight. Oh, I’ve experienced those moments a time or two, but most of my memories are of last-minute scrambling to complete Valentine cards (one for everyone on the list…yes, even the dorky kids) and frantically baking for class parties. In my next life I’ll be wined and dined. In this one, it’s okay that romance took second place to cookies and cupcakes!
If you’ve never made an angel food cake from scratch, now’s the time. It really isn’t hard at all. And you don’t have to bake it in a tube pan…cupcakes or loaf pans work very well. Here’s the recipe I used for these pretty little cakes: If you don’t have superfine sugar, you can put sugar in a blender and blend it briefly. The goal is to make very fine sugar, NOT powdered sugar!
This is one of those recipes where you do actually have to follow rules. Sorry. That means room temperature eggs, careful measuring, thorough sifting, gentle folding. It’s all about getting a light, airy texture – worth the extra effort, right?
I like a dollop of whipped cream on my angel food cake, but it’s not very practical unless you’re serving dessert immediately. So I used a marshmallow-type frosting. It is very soft and fluffy when you are working with it, and then it firms up to more of a soft marshmallow texture. Not too sweet – perfect for these cupcakes. Here’s the recipe.
Marshmallow Frosting
2 egg whites
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons Rodelle Pure Vanilla Extract
1/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup light corn syrup
Red or pink food coloring, if desired.
In medium bowl, beat egg whites, salt, and vanilla at medium speed until foamy. Gradually add sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, beating at high speed until soft peaks form and sugar is dissolved.
In a small saucepan over medium heat, bring corn syrup just to a boil. Holding pan high above egg mixture, pour in a very thin stream, beating at highest speed until frosting is thick. Blend in food coloring, if desired.
I piped melted chocolate onto waxed paper, making little heart shapes for decorating. You could also use sprinkles or Valentine’s candy. If you’re making the larger cupcakes, a chocolate covered cherry on the top would be lovely!
This recipe makes a lot of cupcakes. Take one to a neighbor or a shut-in; everyone needs a little love!
“Women wish to be loved not because they are pretty, or good, or well bred, or graceful, or intelligent, but because they are themselves.” – By Henri Frederic Amiel
With Valentine’s Day right around the corner, heart shaped everything has been dancing in my head. You’re in for it now! To start the insanity, here is a recipe for heart shaped shortbread cookies with a dark chocolate ganache filling and a dollop of raspberry jam.
Depending on the size of your cookie cutters and the thickness of your dough, this recipe will make approximately 36 cookies.
Ingredients
2 cups powdered sugar
2 cups butter, softened
2 teaspoons milk or half & half
2 egg yolks
4 cups flour
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup cornstarch
4 ounces dark chocolate, finely chopped
½ cup heavy whipping cream
raspberry jam
Instructions
Heat oven to 325 F
In a sturdy bowl (preferably using a stand mixer) cream the butter and powdered sugar together.
Add the milk and egg yolks and blend well.
Add the flour, salt, and cornstarch. The dough will be very stiff - you may need to use a dough hook at this point. Mix until combined
On a floured surface, working with half of the dough at a time, roll thinly (picture a thick pie crust.) Cut with a large heart-shaped cookie cutter. Using a small cutter, cut out a hole in the center of half of the cookies.
Place close together on a cookie sheet (they won't spread) and bake for 10-12 minutes, until you just barely see a little golden around the bottom edges. Cool on a rack.
Once all of the cookies are baked, make the ganache: In a small pan, heat the cream. You don't want it to boil, you just want it hot and steamy (you know you do!)
Remove the cream from the heat and add the chopped chocolate. Let it sit a minute or two, then stir gently.
Spread a thin layer of ganache on the solid cookies, then gently set a top (with the hole) cookie over the ganache. Drop a small amount of jam into each hole, being careful not to get it on the cookie.
Allow the cookies to sit until the ganache is firm, or refrigerate for an hour if you wish.
Use quality ingredients – this is SO important, especially when it comes to butter and sugar.
Cutting heart shapes.
Baked to perfection!
…and a dollop of jam!
I (for once) kept it simple, but there are so many ways you could decorate these cookies! The top half could be glazed, then drizzled with chocolate. You could skip the jam entirely, and just let the chocolate peek through, maybe dusting the top half with powdered sugar before placing it on the ganache. Sprinkles, white chocolate drizzles, colored sugar…so many options.
One month until V-Day, and Im feeeeelin’ the love!
As the holidays approach there is the urge to re-create wonderful childhood memories. I was fortunate to have parents who made the holidays picture perfect for my two sisters and me. My parents set the bar high, and though I never managed to capture that serene, calm, carefree ambience, my children certainly benefited from my eternal love of Christmas.
One of my favorite traditions was our Christmas Eve dinner. My father would lay the fire (with some magical substance that turned the flames into wisps of blue and green), and my mother would set the “table,” which was one of her best tablecloths spread on the floor in front of the fireplace. There were full place settings, with the best china. No everyday dishes for this dinner!
There would be a bowl of fresh crab with my father’s special dip (I can identify it now as a homemade Thousand Island dressing), crusty French rolls, and a salad. Dessert was a rarity in our household, but on Christmas Eve my mother served an angel food cake with big, fluffy mounds of whipping cream mixed with crushed candy canes and marshmallows. Mom was a good cook, but rarely baked, so the rolls were store bought and the cake was from a box. We ate both with great enthusiasm.
The food was wonderful, but it was the effect of the fire and the flickering bayberry candles—and the anticipation of gifts and the arrival of our grandparents—that made the evening magical. Later there would be Bing Crosby on the record player, eggnogs carefully mixed by my father (plain for us, and certainly spiked for the adults, dusted with just the perfect amount of nutmeg), and Aunt Patte’s big tin of assorted homemade candies. When it was nearly bedtime my father would play the violin, and we would go upstairs to bed, falling asleep to his carols.
Christmas Day could find us anywhere. Sometimes we went to my grandparents’ house and had turkey. My grandfather would sit at the head of a mile-long table and serve each person, beginning with the youngest. As one of the youngsters, I usually had a plate of cold food by the time we were allowed to eat.
When we were hosting dinner, we would usually have a turkey or a big beef roast. If we expected a lot of people throughout the day, my mother would make her special “Company Casserole,” a wickedly rich mixture of crab and olives and eggs.
Nuts in their shells were poured into large bowls, stubbornly resisting our attacks with nutcrackers and picks. Satsuma oranges, each in their paper wrapper, were a seasonal delicacy that we found irresistible. The pretty candy dishes with foil-wrapped chocolate balls were for “looking at,” not eating. This still makes me laugh. From experience I can assure you there is no way of rearranging chocolate balls to make them look untouched.
When company arrived, my mother made it all look effortless, though I remember well being put to work before the big day—washing windows, polishing silver, dusting, and waxing. We stuffed dates with walnuts and cream cheese, mixed the punch, and arranged crackers on platters. When my parents weren’t looking, we picked all of the Cheerios out of the Chex Mix and ate them. We picked the cashews out of the mixed nut dishes and ate them. We sneaked black olives from their bowls and ate them. I’m certain this didn’t go unnoticed, but it usually went unremarked.
My Christmas Eve menu is different, though crab still holds the place of honor at my table, cooked in a steaming pot of crab and corn chowder.
2 cups bell peppers, chopped (I use red and green)
2 cups fresh corn cut from cobs (about 4 ears)
2 medium potatoes, cut in small cubes
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
½ to 1 teaspoon dried red pepper flakes
1 can (14 ounces) chicken broth
1 cup whipping cream
4 tablespoons flour
Crab (NOT imitation) I usually add at least 8 ounces—more if my budget allows
Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
Melt butter in large skillet.
Add onion, peppers, and corn. Sauté gently for about 3 minutes. Add potatoes and garlic, sauté for 3 more minutes. Peppers should be crisp/tender.
Add pepper flakes and chicken broth. Bring to simmer. Whisk flour into whipping cream, adding slowly, stirring constantly until thickened.
At this point, you can add milk if you want to make it thinner, or a little more flour in milk or cream to thicken. Simmer very gently until potatoes are tender.
Add crab, heat through.
Variations: You can add prawns if you wish, and serve with small bowls of green onions and bacon bits to sprinkle over the top. This is also wonderful when served in crusty french bread bowls. If you must use frozen corn, add it with the potatoes since it won't need to cook long.
My rolls are homemade, as is the angel food cake. I have all of Aunt Patte’s candy recipes and make them faithfully each year. We don’t have a fireplace, but I make sure the bayberry candles are lit. And if I close my eyes and listen hard, I can hear my father’s violin.
My warmest wishes to each and every one of you. Have a wonderful holiday!
Lorinda
I have so many things (and people) to be thankful for, I don’t know where to begin. So in keeping with my personal philosophy, dessert should come first! There will be a flurry of posts with Thanksgiving ideas, but nothing is as important as “Humble Pie!”
Dancing around this pumpkin pie are little pie crust figures that represent the things I am most grateful for. In the picture above, starting at 12 o’clock and going clockwise, you will see my cats, gardening, Granddaughter #1, my chickens, our new grandson that will be born in February, warm clothes, food, Granddaughter #2, our dogs, warmth, sunshine, and family and friends. In the center is our cozy house. There is more – so much more that it would probably take three pies to even come close to naming all of the wonderful things in my life – but this covers the big stuff.
Your pie would look different, so I can’t tell you what to put on it, but I can give you instructions for creating your own humble pie. It’s time-consuming, but if you consider it a labor of love (and possibly a work of art) it is totally worth it. And if you opt for pre-made pie crusts or decide not to bother with the leaves around the edge, I promise I won’t tell.
Here’s my basic recipe for pumpkin pie. Instructions for the dough bling are below. Spend some time in reflection, list the things that are important to you, and have fun with this!
The best pie crust recipe I’ve ever tried is one that’s been around forever, sometimes called “Never Fail Pie Crust.” I love this recipe because even if you mess up and (gasp!) have to re-roll it, it still turns out flaky. I have substituted lard with great results, and today I used part lard, part shortening, and part butter, and it was perfect. Here’s the original version:
Never Fail Pie Crust
(makes 2 crusts)
1 cup chilled shortening
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon vinegar
1/4 cup milk
Mix flour and salt in medium bowl. Cut in the shortening until it looks like coarse crumbs.
Mix vinegar into milk. Combine all at once into flour mixture.
Cutting the shortening into the flour.
This can be rolled into crusts immediately, or flattened into disks and placed between sheets of plastic wrap and chilled first in the refrigerator. If you chill it for more than an hour, let it warm up a little before rolling it out.
Here’s how I first envisioned the pie (things are always so much more beautiful in my imagination), but I learned that the little cutouts don’t stay on the edge of the pie. They sort of dive into the filling or fall over the side, or just curl up in a manner that is very painful to see. The concept is the same with the leaves, though…brush on an egg wash and place the cutouts where you want them.
Okay, this didn’t work very well. See? I mess up a LOT!
If you’re game, here are the instructions for humble pie:
On card stock (or paper, if that’s all you have) draw the shapes you want for the center of the pie. I took some of my shapes from pictures on the Internet, some from clip art, and drew some. Cut them out neatly. For the leaves, cookie cutters are the easiest, but you can draw or trace a few onto card stock and hand cut them. It’s fun to cut them freestyle, too.
If you’re going all out and putting the leaves around the edge of the pie, you probably should make a double batch of pie crust, because you’ll be making a bottom crust, leaves, and little cutouts of things you’re thankful for. You won’t need it all, but it’s better to have too much than too little. You can always put any extra in a zipper bag and freeze it for another time.
If you are doubling the recipe, after you blend the shortening into the flour mixture, divide the mixture in half and put into two bowls. If you have a kitchen scale, weigh the dough to get the amounts as even as possible. Now, add approximately 1/4 cup of the milk/vinegar mixture to one of the bowls. Toss with a fork until blended. Using your hands, form two balls of dough. Flatten them each on a piece of plastic wrap, cover, and put in the refrigerator.
Divide the mixture in the other bowl and put half into the empty bowl. Add half of the remaining liquid to the ingredients in one bowl, form into a ball, and set aside. Add orange or red food coloring to the remaining liquid, and mix into the remaining dough. Don’t try to blend it thoroughly – it looks better when it’s marbled.
If you’re only making a single batch of pie crust, separate the flour and shortening mixture in half. Add half the liquids to one bowl, form a ball, and refrigerate it. Split the other mixture into two parts. Add half of the liquid into one part and form into a ball, and put food color into the remaining liquid and add to the other part and form a ball. The refrigerated dough is for the crust, and the two small balls of dough are for the cutouts and the leaves.
Form colored dough into a ball and place on a well floured board. Roll out a fairly thick dough – almost 1/4 inch. With cookie cutters or a sharp paring knife, cut out out as many leaves as you can, re-rolling as necessary. (To give the leaves a serrated edge, use a large serrated bread knife and cut at an angle.) Put plastic wrap on a plate and lay the leaves flat, not letting them overlap. If necessary, put another sheet of plastic wrap over them and start another layer. Make big leaves and small leaves. If you want to get crazy, you can even “paint” them with an egg wash with food coloring mixed in. Put in the refrigerator until needed.
Cutting out pie crust leaves.
Using a serrated knife to put a pretty edge around a leaf.
Roll out the disk of plain pie crust and with your templates and sharp knife, cut out your chosen objects. There will be some that don’t cooperate…just shove the rejects into a pile and try again! This dough is really forgiving and will let you re-roll it several times. Move slowly, and flour the knife if you need to. Think of this as fragile play doh; you can add fun details after they’re cut out. Use a thin, flat spatula to set each finished piece onto a cookie sheet. From experience, I recommend that you make extras in case some break when you’re decorating the pie. Set this cookie sheet aside.
Cutting shapes out of pie crust. Time consuming, but satisfying!
Preheat your oven to 425 F.
Now…time to make your pie crust! Use lots of flour on the board and roll out one of the remaining crust discs at least 1 inch wider than your pie pan all the way around. It may help to put a piece of plastic wrap on the crust while you’re rolling it out. Gently roll it up with the rolling pin and lay it in the pan. Fold the edge under and flute. (If you’re adding the leaves, you could get away without fluting it.)
Make an egg wash by beating an egg with 2 teaspoons of water in a small bowl. With a pastry brush, paint the edge of the pie and lay the leaves in different directions all the way around, pressing lightly as you go. Carefully move your pie pan onto a cookie sheet so the leaves won’t get broken off when you remove the pan from the oven.
Mix up the pumpkin pie filling and pour it into the pie crust. Put it (on the cookie sheet) on the middle rack of the oven, and put the pan with the little figures on the top rack. Bake for 10 minutes, or until the little pie crust figures are a light golden color. Remove them from the oven and cool on a rack. Leave the pie in the oven and turn the temperature down to 350 F.
Allow the pie to cook for 40 minutes. Carefully remove (cookie sheet and all) and set on a heat-safe surface. Place your cutouts on the pie and return to the oven for 10 minutes. Move to a rack to cool. Admire it and take some pictures, because after all the “oohs” and “ahhhhs” it will disappear before your eyes.
Pie crust leaves, flaky and warm. Yummmm.
For another (easier) option, try a “Friendship Pie”. You will need a double batch of crust because this pie has a top and bottom crust, and you’ll still need a crust to roll out and cut into little men and women. This is an apple pie – because I wanted something that would mound up well without bubbling out of the top of the pie. Use a paper template and put the people on the pie at the beginning instead of pre-cooking them and adding them later. My crust looked better in real life, honest! But I’m guessing I was a little generous with the shortening, because it didn’t hold the fluted edge well. That’s what happens when I’m slam-dunking too many things at once.
This project has put me in a reflective mood, and I can’t think of a snarky thing to say; my heart is full of gratitude. If this lasts too long, I’ll have to pull myself out of it by thinking of all the things I’m NOT thankful for. Let’s see – dog hair on my pillow, chicken poop on my shoes, dirty towels on the floor, flour everywhere…pffft!
My love of cinnamon toast brings back one of my earliest memories. I remember the night a babysitter made us cinnamon toast (a real treat, because my mother didn’t have a sweet tooth in her head) and then made me more when I asked for it. This was obviously a BIG DEAL. We certainly weren’t starved as children – Mom and Dad always cooked us wholesome meals – but we were rarely indulged when it came to sweets. Nothing tasted as good as that cinnamon toast, even though I knew I was playing that poor babysitter for a sucker!
