Moist and Tasty Cornbread

It’s been a couple of weeks since I baked up any bread so I decided to dig into the depth of my fridge for the sourdough starter that I’ve neglected for months. When I took the plastic wrap off the bowl I was blown away by the intense alcohol smell. I considered trying to refresh a small portion of the starter, which I can usually do even if it’s been dormant in the fridge for a while, but from its pungency (yes, I made the mistake of tasting it) and soupy consistency I wasn’t confident that it would come back to life.

So I pitched the whole thing.

I’m contemplating making a new starter this weekend, but I’m uncertain of my abilities to keep it alive. Living things always seem to be at risk on my watch– my sourdough starter, the succulent planter I bought for my desk when I first started my job, the geraniums my mother-in-law planted at my house. Funny how all those things– sourdough, succulents, geraniums– have a reputation for heartiness. They’re not easy to kill. And yet through neglect and mistreatment and disregard I’ve managed to kill them all.

Luckily my dog is still alive; though I probably deserve little credit for this. It’s entirely because of my husband’s care and attention. He notices when she wants food and when she’s scratching too much and when she seems sad and when she needs to take her flea medication while I sit back and watch her thinking that she’s entirely normal. “No Sam,” he’ll disagree, “I think she needs to go to the vet.” And she usually does.

I can’t keep anything alive.

So after pitching my sourdough starter I decided to make a ciabatta bread but realized that I had no yeast. So that idea was scrapped too and since I didn’t have bananas I couldn’t make a banana bread either. So I ended up making cornbread the only other chemically leavened bread that I could think. I didn’t really want it but I was bored and wanted to bake. In the end it turned out so moist and delicious that I couldn’t stop eating it.

This would be really good to make on Super Bowl Sunday with some whisky baked beans.

Moist and Tasty Cornbread

makes one 10″ round loaf

1 cup (6 ounces) coarse cornmeal or polenta
2 cups milk (I used soy)
1 3/4 cups (8 ounces) all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tablespoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
3 large eggs
2 tablespoons molasses
2 tablespoons butter, melted

Directions

Soak the cornmeal in the milk. Cover and leave at room temperature for 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

In a large bowl stir together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and sugars.

In a separate bowl, lightly beat the eggs with the molasses and melted butter. Add the egg mixture and soaked cornmeal mixture to the flour mixture and stir with a large spoon or whisk until all the ingredients are evenly distributed and the batter is blended and smooth to the consistency of pancake batter.

Line a 10-inch round cake pan with parchment and spray with nonstick cooking spray. Pour in the cornbread batter. Bake the cornbread for about 35-40 minutes, or until the bread is firm and springy and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. The top will be a deep golden brown.

Allow the cornbread to cool in the pan for at least 15 minutes before slicing it into squares or wedges.

Niagara Icewine Festival Part 2

Read part one here where we headed to Niagara College, Chateau des Charmes, Southbrook, and Cattail Creek.

Hillebrand

Next stop on our little winery tour was Hillebrand. We’ve bought some of their wines from the LCBO (ie. the only place you can buy booze in Ontario. Literally.) and enjoyed them, so in addition to the icewine Matt wanted to do a tasting of their Reds. None of them really jumped out at me.

We grabbed a sample of their Vidal Icewine paired with warm chili topped with cocoa nibs. I remember liking the icewine, but loving the chili. Matt claimed it wasn’t as good as my mom’s chili recipe, but I thought it was some stiff competition.

I really liked the quaint atmosphere of this winery. We sat by the fire pit as the sun was starting to poke out for the 3 minutes of sunlight that we got the entire day.

Pillitteri

Pillitteri Estates looks pretty unassuming when you approach it, but it’s definitely a winery you shouldn’t miss. It has, by far, the best selection of icewines, not surprisingly since they are the world’s largest icewine producers. We got a pairing of a shiraz icewine with a cheese tart as well as a tasting of 4 of their higher-end icewines. My favourite, and the best one of the day in my opinion, was the 2007 Chardonnay Icewine. It was really flavourful and sweeter than juice. Matt liked the Vidal Sparkling Icewine, which was my second favourite.

Konzelmann

Last stop was Konzelmann Estate Winery which is located in a fancy stone castle in a beautiful property right on Lake Ontario. Matt wanted to do a tasting here, but we got there just as they were closing up shop. I was a bit disappointed that their icewine sample didn’t actually include icewine. Instead they gave us their Canada Red wine paired with “Trainwrecker Beans” which were a version of baked beans that included bacon, beef, icewine, and red wine. Oh and beans. The trainwrecker beans were to die for and luckily I got the recipe. I hope to make it soon and share the recipe with you guys!

Angel Inn

5 o’clock rolled around and all the wineries were closing up shop so we headed to our hotel to check in. We stayed at the Angel Inn which I picked for 2 reasons: 1) the room was cheap, and 2) the first floor is a bar which I thought would be both fun and convenient.

The hotel room was a bit of a dump. It was clean but run down and not well maintained. It felt like crashing at a friend’s house after a long night of drinking. Luckily Matt and I have low standards.

The bar has live music until 12:30 in the morning, which didn’t matter much to us since we were at the pub downstairs drinking anyway. It would have otherwise been impossible to sleep until after the band stopped.

After walking around the deserted streets (the town basically closed down at 5 and there was nothing to do until dinner) we headed back to the inn for dinner.

The pub itself was really good. There aren’t many places to eat and drink in Niagara-on-the-Lake that are casual, fun, and laid back but the Angel Inn is a classic English pub that fits the criteria. They had a good domestic and imported beer selection on tap and even had their own brews (I liked the Angel Wheat beer).

Also the food was delicious. I’ve been on a pie kick lately (what’s better than a warm pie on a cold winter day?) so I was happy to see a variety of English pies on the menu. I went with the shepherd’s pie which trumped Matt’s steak and guinness pie, but not by much. We followed up dinner with a sticky toffee pudding cake and a too many more beers : P

Shepherd’s Pie

Steak and Guinness Pie

Sticky Toffee Cake

Our friend Nathan who moved to Niagara Falls just last week met up with us for drinks later on which was awesome because I was in Florida when he moved away and didn’t get to see him before. Plus Nathan might be the most knowledgeable person I know which makes any conversation with him very interesting.

Since the Inn didn’t have breakfast we headed up the street for breakfast at Escabeche at the oh-so-swanky Prince of Wales Hotel. I just had some overpriced yoghurt and granola (which was, ya know, just yoghurt and granola) and Matt had eggs benedict with the most delicious Hollandaise sauce I’ve ever had.

We headed back home right after breakfast. I asked Matt if he wanted to hit up any of the Twenty Valley wineries on the way home.
“No”, he said, “we need an excuse to come back.”

As if I need an excuse to drink wine?

Niagara Icewine Festival

My present to Matt for his birthday was to take him to visit some wineries in Niagara-on-the-Lake. Matt loves wine and going to wineries so I thought it would be something that he’d really love. We often visit the Lake Erie North Shore wineries here in Essex County, but we’ve never tried any in Niagara so we were pretty excited.

We hit the road on Saturday morning for the 3 hour drive through snow and sleet. We hit up 7 different wineries. Seven. I know that sounds like a lot, and with normal tastings we would have both been completely shitfaced after visiting seven wineries.

But this wasn’t a normal wine tasting. We got tickets for the icewine festival so at each winery we went to we tasted an icewine that was paired with a dish.

Icewine, if you’re not familiar, is a very sweet dessert wine made from grapes that were picked after they had frozen on the vine. When the grapes freeze the sugars concentrate so the icewine has the most delicious sweetness. It is phenomenal.

(click on any of the pictures to make them bigger)

Niagara College

The first winery we hit up was the Teaching Winery at Niagara College. I really liked their tasting area and felt slightly jealous of the students who got to go to school there and learn all about growing grapes and producing wines. Sounds way more fun than my math degree.

We didn’t actually have any icewine here but we tasted the 2007 Dean’s List Meritage which was a really good full bodied red. I might have bought a bottle if it weren’t $50(!)

Chateau des Charmes

Next stop was Chateau des Charmes, a huge, classy joint which was definitely the fanciest winery we’ve been to. Here we had an icewine cocktail paired with a New York Cheesecake and a Salted Chocolate Cheesecake. The latter of the two was probably the most delicious cheesecake I’ve ever eaten. I wish they would have served us the icewine straight up so I could have tasted what it was like, but the cocktail was delicious.

Southbrook

Southbrook was a really impressive winery. It was the number one winery that I wanted to visited because it is a biodynamic and organic winery. They don’t use synthetic fertilizers or pesticides in order to maintain the integrity of the soil. They even have chickens and sheep (my favourite animal!) that graze between the vines and naturally fertilize the vineyard. So cool.

We sampled their cab franc icewine paired with an icewine cannoli. I can’t quite remember the flavours of the icewine, but I remember thinking the cannoli shells were really tasty.

Cattail Creek

Next we went to Cattail Creek which is a much smaller winery that reminded me of the smaller scale wineries here in Essex County. They paired their vidal icewine with butter chicken and mango chutney which was cool since I’m used to icewine served with dessert. I found that their vidal icewine wasn’t as sweet as I like my icewine to be, but it was still pretty good.

Guinness Chocolate Cake with Bailey’s Buttercream

Happy Birthday to my awesome husband. To my best friend. To the person who makes me happy every day.

I asked Matt what kind of cake he wanted for his birthday and he replied with chocolate as if it were the most obvious answer in the world. I was kinda hoping to make a white cake, but I obliged.

I’ve had the recipe for Dark Chocolate Guinness Cake with Bailey’s Buttercream bookmarked ever since it was posted on Global Table Adventure and have been waiting for an occasion to make it. I figured since I would be serving cake to Matt and his brother (who’s birthday is tomorrow) on Sunday night during the football game, a cake with beer in it would be an appropriate choice.

I really liked this cake recipe and will keep it on hand to make it again. The cake comes out rich and dense (which I much prefer to a light and fluffy cake). The Guinness enhances the chocolate flavour (the same way that adding espresso to chocolate cake does) but doesn’t make the cake taste like beer at all.

I’ve never made buttercream before and this one turned out really well. Sometimes buttercream can be gritty but this one wasn’t. It was smooth and sweet and had a great Bailey’s flavour. I wish I would have left the cake out at room temperature before serving though because the buttercream really firmed up and I prefer it to be a little creamier.

Instead of baking two 8″ layers, I made one 9″ round cake and used a sharp bread knife to cut the cake in half so I could fill it with buttercream. As a result, and because I ate a bunch of buttercream while the cake was in the oven, I had to double frosting recipe.

This is a perfect celebration cake.

Dark Chocolate Guinness Cake with Bailey’s Buttercream

Makes one 8″ layered cake, or one thinner 9″ layered cake

Ingredients:

3/4 cup butter

3/4 cup unsweetened Dutch process cocoa

1 cup Guinness Extra Stout

1 Tablespoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 1/4 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

2 eggs

For the buttercream (double recipe if making a 9″ cake):

3 sticks unsalted butter, softened

3 cups powdered sugar, sifted

4 Tbsp Bailey’s, as needed

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350F.

Melt the butter in the microwave then whisk in the Guinness, vanilla, and cocoa. Allow to cool.

Grease and line the bottom of one 9″ cake pan (for a 9″ cake) or two 8″ cake pans with parchment paper.

Stir together the dry cake ingredients. When combined, pour the Guinness mixture onto the dry ingredients, then whisk in the 2 eggs.

When the batter is shiny and smooth, pour evenly into two prepared cake pan(s).

Bake for 30-35 minutes for 8″ cakes or 45-50 minutes for 9″ cake, or until a skewer comes out clean.

While the cake bakes, prepare the buttercream. In a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, whip the softened butter and sugar and add in just enough Bailey’s to get it loose and fluffy. Allow to whip for 5-10 minutes until light and fluffy.

Once the cake is done baking, cool completely.

For a 9″ cake, cut the cake in half lenghtwise with a sharp serrated knife. Top the bottom layer with frosting (~1/3 of the buttercream).

Top the frosted bottom with the second layer.

Line them up and then spread a crumb coat of frosting on the entire cake. This is optional but highly recommended, so you don’t get brown crumbs in your white frosting. Coat top and sides with another 1/3 of the frosting mixture. Spread it all over, nice and thin. Refrigerate to set it. At this point, you can refrigerate the cake overnight. Easy, peasy.

Once the crumb coat is firm to the touch, add the final 1/3 of the frosting to the cake — top first, then sides. Spread it around evenly.

Celebrate!

Dumpling Feast

Happy Chinese New Year to those who celebrate it.

I’m the kind of person who is willing to celebrate any culture’s holiday if it involves eating delicious foods like dumplings and red bean cakes.

(Source) It’s the year of the dragon!

My friend Tina and I went to a Chinese New Year Dumpling Feast on Saturday night at Oakwood Community Centre. It felt a bit like walking in on someone else’s family reunion: tables scattered everywhere, kids playing games with balloons, and everyone seemed to know each other. We bought our tickets and waited around awkwardly while one of the organizers found some extra chairs for the two of us to pull up to a table that had some room for us to sit down. She asked us how we heard about the event, not unkindly, but she definitely sounded confused as to what the hell we were doing there.

We sat down at our table and were offered some appetizers—communal bags of delicious spicy peanuts and sunflower seeds. I had to laugh at the informality of the whole set-up.

The Dumpling Feast itself meant making our own dinner. Fun and efficient! In the centre of the table were dumpling wrappers, pork filling, and a bowl of water. We all sat hunched over our table filling and folding dumplings. There was a man seated with us who was a veritable dumpling-making expert who showed us how to assemble dumplings so they stand up, don’t explode, and look pretty. The first few I made were pretty hideous, but I started to (sort of) get the hang of it after a while.

I made one single dumpling that I thought look pretty impressive. The rest were good enough to contain the filling, which was good enough for me.

Eventually the cooks started collecting our trays of dumplings, bringing them to the kitchen to be boiled, and then bringing the steming hot dumplings to our table by the bowl full. Tina and I went up to the buffet table to get our side dishes there was fried rice and hot pepper and some lettuce which actually ended up being a salad with a very light dressing (but, thinking it was plain lettuce to be eaten with the dumplings in a way I was unaware of, I left it alone so I wouldn’t look like I was eating it wrong). We learned later, after our 10th or so dumpling, that you’re supposed to eat them with vinegar on top. This cut the saltiness of the dumplings immensely and I wish I would have known about it at the start. (So I did end up looking like I was eating something wrong. Go figure.)

In spite of the awkwardness of it all, I liked assembling (and eating!) the dumplings. Now that I sort of know how to make them I do want to try making some at home, but next time potstickers.

Cookie Party 2011

My husband thinks I’m too competitive. Which I am. It stems from the high standards for success and overachievement of my childhood, but let’s not get into that. Anyway, if I’m the competitive one I don’t understand why he always insists that our parties become contests or competitions. Wine tasting competition, chili cook-off, dessert bake-off, beer tasting competition, we’ve had them all.

“Can’t we just have a party that doesn’t involve competing?” I’ll ask every time we discuss our next party

“What do you have against competitions?” Matt will reply. And so it always goes.

Sometimes I win out. One time I convinced him to have a potluck. A normal one where people bring food and we all eat it and enjoy it rather than critiquing it for its flaws. That’s when my friend Kyle brought the Epic Mealtime Lasagna to “change the game” and I started to think that competitions are expected at the Menzies’.

I see where Matt’s coming from though. People get more invested in something when they think they could be a victor which makes the party that much more exciting. Instead of bringing a tray of leftover cookies to the party they spend a hundred bucks on fast food and 40 of Jack Daniels to make a lasagna that will blow people’s minds (seriously. that’s what was in the epic mealtime lasagna).

Of course given my own competitive nature, when we have these parties I toss the ‘gracious hostess’ act in favour of my natural ‘cut-throat contender’ persona because I want to win as much as the next guy. More, probably.

On the 23rd Matt and I hosted a Christmas Cookie party at our place for our friends. The rules were simple, everyone brings a cookie, guests vote on their top 5 favourites (with #1 favourite getting 5 points and #5 favourite getting 1 point) and the winner is determined by total number of points.

For our cookie competition I spent a lot of time trying to determine what kind of cookie would be worthy of the win. I make a lot of good cookies but it’s tough to determine what is going to appeal to everyone in a large group of people. I decided on 3 factors- Rich, Chocolatey, and Complicated- and wound up making Peppermint Patty Cookies- a chocolate sable, topped with peppermint fondant and dipped in semi-sweet chocolate- a recipe that was entirely my own creation.

Yummy. Irresistible.

Sounds pretty damn awesome, doesn’t it? Sounds like it would win, right?

Well the head gamemaker, my husband, decided on a last minute rule (once all the votes came in and my peppermint patty came out on top, mind you) that the host of the party couldn’t win.

Say what?!? Why did I even bother entering this goddamn thing then? I was unimpressed.

Can’t you just say that I won, but give the prize to second place? I asked Matt as he tallied up the vote count. I don’t care about prizes, all I care about is recognition.

Why are you so competitive? Can’t you just win humbly without announcing it to everyone?

Umm. . . actually, no.

It took everything I had not to be that asshole and shout out “Lies! Lies!!!!” while Matt read the name of the “winner” and didn’t even give me a fake second or third place.

The number 2 cookie was phenomenal and fully deserved to win that LCBO gift card (seriously Zack, please send me the recipe.) It was a peanut butter sandwich cookie half dipped in chocolate that was soft and sweet and peanut buttery and chocolatey and that everyone was a big fan of.

Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookie. Delicious. But, ya know, not quite as delicious as mine.

But between you, me, and the Internets the secret is out that I make the best cookies (even if I only won by 3 points).

And now I can sleep better at night.

Do you think there’s enough food?

I’m back after my Internet hiatus for Christmas. I’ve hardly turned on my computer for 5 straight days over the holidays and, not gonna lie, I quite liked it.

In its usual way, the holiday brought lots of family dinners and a bounty of food that naturally led to my overconsumption. My sister and I hosted Christmas Eve at our dad’s place which, in our family, means drinks and appetizers. My family’s philosophy on food can be summed up in 2 words: volume and variety.

Growing up with celebrations where a 40lb turkey was the standard size and everyone went home with a week’s worth of leftovers, I have it ingrained in my mind that if you don’t serve enough food for twice as many guests as you actually have in attendance then you’ve failed. My biggest stressor when hosting an event is whether or not there is going to be enough food. My rational brain knows that the massive menu is more than enough, but I always have doubts.

Inevitably, no matter how many dishes are prepared, I always second guess myself. On Friday as we were prepping some of the 18+ appetizers that were on the menu my sister asked

“Do you think we have enough? You don’t. I can tell.”

I wanted to reassure her, but all I could think was that our family might be going hungry this Christmas Eve.

A week of baking, and two days of prepping and cooking later and I was driving to my dad’s for the big Christmas eve party and practically falling asleep at the weel from being on my feet for 2 days straight. All I wanted was a nap. And maybe a foot massage.

But I love cooking, and I love hosting, and I love serving too much food. It’s worth the sore feet and the stress once my loud and boisterous family arrive with their boyfriends and girlfriends and husbands and brothers and babies and everyone gathers around the food to eat and drink and catch up with each other.

Obviously with all the dishes that we made, my family wasn’t going hungry this Christmas. We ate until we were full and then ate a bit more and there were still plenty of leftovers at the end of the night. It always happens this way, and yet I will always doubt that there is enough food on the table.

Sahtan!

My aunt and uncle brought a platter with enough caviar to feed a Russian army.

Homemade California Rolls

Jumbo Shrimp

Homemade Lox on Homemade German Pumpernickel

Apple, Bacon, and Caramelized Onion Turnovers (top) Shrimp Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms

Asiago Frico with prosciutto, spring greens, and balsamic.

Goat Cheese and Caramelized Onion Tarts

Sesame Chicken on Rice Cakes

Homemade Baguette, Pumpernickel, Oat Crackers, and Wheat Thins

We also had seafood salad, cider fondue, oysters, swedish meatballs, guacamole and chips, zucchini and feta tarts with olives and mint, jalapeno poppers, grape tomatoes with bocconcini and basil, fresh spring rolls with peanut sauce, spiced nuts, and mistletoe sangria to drink.

So yeah, there was enough food.

Oatmeal Butter Crackers

This week I’m baking like a mad woman for Christmas. I’m on bread and cracker baking duty so I’ve got a lot of work to do this week to get everything ready.

A week and a half ago I started making a Bavarian style rye bread. It’s a really dense, dark rye bread (a lot like volkornbrot) that is sliced thinly and that I’m planning on serving with homemade lox. This bread is a process. First I had to make a gelatinous mash, then I had to grow some fresh yeast, then I had to make the starters for the final bread and cook up some wheat berries to add into it, and finally 9 days later the dough made it to the oven. Now that it’s baked I have to age it for a day or so before cutting into it, so I’m not even sure what it tastes like. All I have to say is, with all the work it damn well better be good!

Sometimes I think that German bread isn’t really worth the effort. I mean, I love the density and the intensity of flavour but it doesn’t seem to win over the crowd as much as a Ciabatta or baguette or foccaccia. It’s a bit underrated.

So for the purposes of pleasing the masses I also baked up 6 demi-baguettes on Monday night and I plan on making a fluffy rye bread and possibly a garlic and herb pull-apart bread.

I’ve also baked two types of crackers this week: wheat thins, and buttery oat crackers. I like to make crackers that have a rich grain flavour and a slight sweetness so they work with savoury cheeses and dips as well as sweet  jams. Both of these type of crackers fit that profile, but the oatmeal ones I just couldn’t stop eating (but then I had to because I realized that they have to make it to Saturday night)

True to my style, I burned a good number of the wheat thins but most of them turned out alright. They were the first batch I made so I learned my lesson for the oatmeal batch. I really do love these crackers. Did I mention that I couldn’t stop eating them? The oat flavour, the butter, the slight sweetness. They’re pretty damn awesome if you asked me and really really easy to make.

Oatmeal Butter Crackers

makes about 100 1″ crackers

Ingredients

9 oz. whole wheat flour
9 oz. rolled oats
2 t. baking soda
1 t. sea salt
3 T. granulated sugar
6 oz. cold, salted butter (3/4 c.), cut ino cubes
enough milk to bring it all together (~1 c.)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350F

In a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment stir together the dry ingredients at low speed.

Add the butter cubes and increase the speed of the mixer until you get pea sized clumps, like you’re making a pie dough.

Add in as much milk as necessary to get the dough to come together into a ball without crumbling. If you add too much milk and the dough is sticky, just sprinkle a little more flour on it, no big deal.

On a floured surface, roll out your dough with a rolling pin to about 1/4″ thickness. Cut it into squares or rectangles using a pastry cutter or pizza cutter.

Transfer the crackers to a foil lined baking sheet (or multiple, I needed 3). They can be very close, but try not to let them touch.

Bake for 12-15 minutes or until lightly golden brown. They will not crisp up in the oven, but once you remove them and allow them to cool on a rack they will be nice and crisp.

Kifle with Hazelnut Liqueur

How about some more Christmas Cookies, hmm?

It’s week 12 of the 12 weeks of Christmas cookies and I decided to go with a cookie that I found in my mom’s old recipe folder dated from December 2004.

I remember her coming home one day and talking about these delicious cookies called kifle that one of the other teachers brought in to school one day. (I can’t for the life of me remember whose recipe they were how typical of me to remember more about cookies than people.) I think they are an Eastern European Christmas cookie but I don’t quite know for sure. I do know that my mom raved about how fantastic they were and told us that she was going to make them as soon as she got the recipe from her friend.

I don’t know why I have such a vivid memory of her baking these cookies. Maybe because she hardly baked. Maybe because she talked up these cookies so much that I was more than excited to taste them. Maybe it was the way that she indulged in them and savoured them like each bite was worth a million dollars.

I might go out on a limb and say that these were her favourite cookies. But I can’t be sure. I never got the chance to ask her.

Kifle with Hazelnut Liqueur

The original recipe called for brandy or rye in the filling but I used Frangelico instead to play up the nuttiness of the cookie. Feel free to use brandy or rye if you so desire.

makes about 30

Dough

2 c flour
1/2 lb. butter
1 egg yolk
3/4 c full fat sour cream
icing sugar for finishing

Combine the flour and butter together in a mixer until fluffy. Add the egg yolk and sour cream and mix by hand until it comes together into a soft dough.

Divide dough into 3 parts, sprinkle each part with a bit of flour, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate for at least one hour. Meanwhile, prepare the nut filling.

Nut Filling

1/2 c ground walnuts
1 egg white
1/2 c sugar
1 t vanilla
1 shot of hazelnut liqueur, such as Frangelico (or brandy or rye)

Stir the ingredients together in a small bowl until well combined. Set aside until ready to use.

Preheat the oven to 325F.

Assembly

On a well floured surface, roll out one third of the dough to about 4” wide and whatever length will give you a 1/8” thickness. Using a sharp knife or pizza cutter, cut the dough into isosceles triangles with a base of about 2”-2.5”. Re-roll any excess dough and repeat.

Just like this cool drawing:

Spread about 1 teaspoon of the nut filling onto each triangle and roll like a croissant.

Place on greased cookie sheet about an inch apart and bake 20?30 minutes or until a very light golden colour.

Roll in or dust generously with icing sugar.

This recipe is part of the 12 Weeks of Christmas Cookies.

Prior Posts:

Week 11: Pumpkin Raisin Muffin Bars
Week 10: Momofuku Chocolate Chocolate Cookies
Week 9: Flaky Butter Tarts
Week 8: Lime Curd Sablés
Week 7: Thomas Keller Chocolate Chip Cookies
Week 6: Macaroons
Week 5: Wildberry Dream Cookies
Week 4: Speculaas: Dutch Spice Cookies
Week 3: Poppy Seed Filling
Week 2: Cinnamon Bun Cookies
Week 1: Soft & Pillowy Coconut Frosted Cookies

Pumpkin Raisin Muffin Bar

So let’s talk breakfast!

I eat it daily. End of discussion.

Addendum: On Christmas I follow the ‘no breakfast’ school of breakfast philosophy.

A lot of people have a nice family breakfast on Christmas morning. It sounds like so much fun too. The smell of hot coffee, the family gathered around the breakfast table for an intimate meal of pancakes or waffles discussing their newly acquired presents before the day full of larger family gatherings commences. Or at least that’s what I imagine it would be like.

I know that any nutrition professional or remotely healthy person would probably disagree with this philosophy, but when I wake up on Christmas morning my train goes from:

“Sweet baby Jesus, it’s Christmas!!!!” to
“Presents!” to
“Mmmmm… I’m going to eat so many good desserts today” :- d

Even my thoughts skip breakfast entirely…right to dessert. And once I start thinking about dessert then my appetite for breakfast has gone right out the window.

I think that this recipe strikes a nice balance between breakfast and dessert and would probably make a tasty, quick Christmas breakfast with a cup of warm coffee or tea. Just enough to sweet satisfy my craving until after Christmas dinner.

I made these pumpkin bars loosely based on a recipe for a gooey chocolate chip pumpkin bars. But since I didn’t have chocolate chips I used raisins and, of course, it didn’t turn out gooey. They had the texture of a muffin with a nice pumpkin pie flavour and a sweet chew from the raisins.

If you make them, let me know what you think.

Pumpkin Raisin Muffin Bars

inspired by In Good Taste

Ingredients

2 c all-purpose flour
1 T pumpkin-pie spice
1 t baking powder
1/2 t sea salt
3/4 c butter, softened
3/4 c sugar
1 egg
2 t vanilla extract
1 c canned pumpkin puree
1 c raisins

Directions

Preheat oven to 350. Line bottom and sides of a 9×9 baking dish with foil, leaving an overhang on all sides.

Cream the butter and sugar on medium speed of an electric mixer. Once smooth, add the egg, vanilla, and pumpkin puree and mix until combined. Add the dry ingredients and mix on low speed until just combined. Don’t overmix.

Fold in the raisins. Spread batter evenly into the baking dish. Bake until edges begin to pull away from sides of pan and a toothpick inserted in center comes out with just a few moist crumbs attached, 35 to 40 minutes. Cool completely in pan before cutting.

Prior Posts:

Week 10: Momofuku Chocolate Chocolate Cookies
Week 9: Flaky Butter Tarts
Week 8: Lime Curd Sablés
Week 7: Thomas Keller Chocolate Chip Cookies
Week 6: Macaroons
Week 5: Wildberry Dream Cookies
Week 4: Speculaas: Dutch Spice Cookies
Week 3: Poppy Seed Filling
Week 2: Cinnamon Bun Cookies
Week 1: Soft & Pillowy Coconut Frosted Cookies