Christmas Stollen with Marzipan

The title of this post is a bit of a mouthful, I know. But I didn’t want you to think this was just any old stollen. First, I baked this stollen in honor of the Bon Appetit holiday bake-off and party, which I was super thrilled to be asked to participate in. Second, I think that this stollen has lots going for it. Candied fruit, tons of butter, marzipan, and a delicious almond-rum filling. Some of you may be asking, “But what is stollen, anyway??” Well, I’m here to tell you. Stollen is a German yeasted sweetbread-cake thingy that is traditionally served for Christmas. It was apparently invented in Dresden, Germany, and is said to resemble the baby Jesus in his swaddling clothes. (I’m not so sure about how much my stollen resembled the baby Jesus, but it makes me giggle a little bit.)  Sometimes stollen has a yummy rope of marzipan hidden in the center (I loooove marzipan), sometimes not. It almost always has candied citrus peel (e.g., candied orange, lemon, and citron), candied cherries, and raisins. And some form of booze – usually rum, but sometimes brandy or cognac.

Find yourself some high-quality candied and dried fruit – if you can, try not to use supermarket brands of candied fruit (unless you have access to a really, really good supermarket with really, really good candied fruit). This is not to be snobbish but because the candied and dried fruit form the flavor base of the stollen. You could make your own candied peel using this Bon Appetit recipe. You can even make your own marzipan if you’re feeling really ambitious. Also – I didn’t use my stand mixer for the dough; I mixed and kneaded everything by hand. (It doesn’t take very long to make the stollen dough by hand, just a bit more effort in kneading.) I did use a stand mixer for the frangipane filling.

My stollen is based on several recipes all mashed together. The first is from an old-ish German cookbook that I found in a yard sale (and that smells, deliciously, of 50 year old stale cigarettes) from 1969 called The Cooking of Germany. It’s a Time-Life book from their series “Foods of the World,” favorite classics of mine. The second is the Luchow’s German Cookbook, originally printed in 1952. Luchow’s was a famous New York City restaurant opened in 1882. (No, it’s not a Chinese restaurant – there are supposed to be umlauts over the “u”, but I’m too lazy to add them in. I’ve baked a lot of stollen over the last couple of days, OK? I’m tired.) Finally, I used elements of Richard Bertinet’s recipe, which can be found here.

It’s common to “age” stollen, wrapped tightly, for a couple of weeks before Christmas. I think this recipe won’t last for more than 5-6 days at room temperature, wrapped in plastic wrap. You can also freeze your stollen for up to 3 months, but freezing may affect the texture a bit (i.e., it will likely get a bit dry). Stale stollen can be toasted and spread with (even more) butter.

Lastly, just know that making stollen is an all-day project (or at least a half-day project) due to the various risings that the dough needs to go through.

Ingredients:
Makes 4 medium-sized stollen

For the Stollen Dough:
1/2 cup golden raisins
1/2 cup dried currants
1 cup mixed candied citrus peel (I used equal amounts of candied citron, orange, and lemon peel)
1/2 cup candied cherries, quartered (if your cherries are really syrup-y, rinse them in cold water first)
1/2 cup golden rum
1/4 cup lukewarm water
Two 1/4-oz. packages active dry yeast (I used Red Star brand)
1/2 cup plus a pinch of granulated sugar
1 cup whole milk
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 teaspoon finely grated fresh lemon peel
5 1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 large eggs, at room temperature
3/4 cup (one and a half sticks) unsalted butter, cut into small bits and softened
1 cup blanched slivered almonds
1 tablespoon butter, melted

For the Rum Frangipane:
1/2 cup (one stick) unsalted butter, softened
2/3 cup sugar
1 cup finely-ground almond meal or almond flour (I used Bob’s Red Mill brand)
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 large eggs
2 tablespoons golden rum

To Assemble and Fill the Stollen:
Rum Frangipane filling (see above)
14 oz. marzipan, cut into small chunks
1 1/2 tablespoons melted butter

For the Glaze and Topping:
5 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons golden rum
Confectioners sugar

Procedure:

For the Stollen Dough:

1. At least an hour before you start baking: Combine the raisins, currants, candied citrus peels, and candied cherries in a medium bowl. Pour the rum over the fruit, tossing to coat. Soak for an hour, and up to 2 hours.
2. Pour the lukewarm water into a small bowl and sprinkle with the yeast and a pinch of sugar, stirring gently to combine. Let the mixture stand in a warm place for 5 minutes or so, or until the mixture gets frothy and doubles in volume.
3. Meanwhile, drain the fruit mixture and reserve the rum. Pat the fruit dry using paper towels. Place the fruit into a clean medium bowl and toss evenly with the 2 tablespoons of all-purpose flour. Set aside.
4. In a heavy medium saucepan, combine the milk, 1/2 cup of granulated sugar, and the salt. Heat over medium heat to lukewarm (110-115 degrees), stirring constantly to dissolve the sugar. Remove from heat and stir in the reserved rum, the vanilla extract, the almond extract, and the fresh lemon peel.
5. Add the yeast mixture to the milk mixture, stirring gently to combine.
6. Measure 5 cups of the flour into a large bowl. Stir in the yeast-milk mixture with a fork, about a cup at a time.
7. Beat the eggs with a balloon whisk until frothy. Stir them into the dough.
8. Using a wooden spoon, work in the bits of softened butter several tablespoons at a time. The dough will be very wet and buttery.
9. Spread your counter top or work board with the remaining 1/2 cup of flour. Flour your hands lightly, gather the dough into a loose ball, and place on the floured board. Knead the dough for 15 minutes, flouring your hands from time to time if necessary, until the dough is smooth and elastic. (The dough will be uniform in texture, all of the butter and flour will be incorporated, and it will feel very smooth to the touch.)
10. Add the slivered almonds to the reserved fruit mixture and toss briefly to combine.
11. Flatten the dough into a rectangle shape (the actual size is not important) and press in half of the almond-fruit mixture. Fold the dough over onto itself and again press out into a rectangular shape. Press in the remaining half of the almond-fruit mixture. Knead the dough very briefly to distribute the fruit and almonds. (Don’t knead for too long or the dough will discolor.)
12. Coat a deep bowl or rising container with melted butter. Add the dough to the bowl. Brush the top of the dough with additional melted butter. Drape a kitchen towel (not terry cloth) over the bowl and let rise in a warm spot for about 2 hours, or until the dough has doubled in bulk.

For the Rum Frangipane:

1. Combine butter and sugar in a stand mixer (or using an electric mixer) on medium speed until pale and fluffy.
2. Add the almond meal/flour and mix until incorporated.
3. Mix in all-purpose flour, then add eggs and rum. Mix on medium speed until the mixture is light and creamy.
4. Set mixture aside in a cool spot (do not refrigerate) until ready.

To Assemble and Fill the Stollen:

1. Lightly flour a work board or counter top. Cut the dough into four equal pieces. Let rest for 10 minutes.
2. With your fingertips, shape the dough into rectangles approximately 9 inches by 6 inches.
3. Spread the rum frangipane filling onto each rectangle, leaving an inch border all the way around. Sprinkle each dough rectangle with the bits of marzipan.
4. Fold the stollen: bring one long side of the dough rectangle to the center and press the edge down lightly. Then carefully fold the other side over to the center of the rectangle, overlapping the seam down the center by about an inch. (Like a letter.) Press the edges gently. Lightly flour your hands and taper the ends of each loaf sightly, pinching gently to seal the ends of the dough. Don’t worry if some of the filling seeps out a bit – just wipe off with your fingertips.
5. Brush two 11-by-17 inch sheet pans with 1 tablespoon melted butter. Gently transfer two loaves of stollen to each sheet pan, leaving at least 4 inches between the loaves. Brush the loaves with the remaining 1/2 tablespoon melted butter.
6. Set the loaves aside in a warm place for about an hour, or until almost doubled in bulk. (You do not need to cover the loaves with a towel if you buttered them in step 5, above.)

To Bake, Glaze, and Top the Stollen:

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Bake the breads, switching positions of the pans halfway through baking, 35-40 minutes, or until they are golden brown.
2. Make the glaze: Just before the stollen loaves finish baking, melt the butter in a small saucepan. Stir in the rum.
3. Take the stollen out of the oven and immediately brush with the melted butter-rum glaze, then thickly dust with sifted confectioners sugar.
4. Cool stollen completely on a wire wrack.

Buttermilk Shortcakes with Strawberry Sorbet and Vanilla Creme Fraiche Sauce

Whoa – two strawberry posts in a row! I should’ve planned this whole blogging thing out a little bit better. Because strawberries are so delightful and so in-season right now, I guess I don’t really care that I have two strawberry posts in a row. Really, I don’t.

This is Thomas Keller’s recipe from the French Laundry Cookbook, with some minor modifications. I find that some celebrity chefs’ cookbooks are not as fool-proof as I’d want them to be (I won’t name names), but the French Laundry Cookbook is amazing. If you don’t want to go all-out and make the shortcakes and the crème fraîche sauce, at least make the strawberry sorbet. It is truly the essence of strawberry – so delicious and such a good way to use up lots of strawberries that you may have on hand from obsessively going to the farmer’s market and buying strawberries from at least 4 different vendors. There is no way that this sorbet will be good with regular-old conventional store-bought strawberries. They simply do not have the strawberry flavor that locally-grown berries do. So really, don’t waste your time because it’s a big pain to hull 2 1/2 pounds of strawberries. I’m just sayin’.

My flour of choice for biscuits, White Lily, has sadly been bought by Smuckers and the mill shut down. I found an excellent alternative from King Arthur Flour called “Mellow Pastry Blend“, which (gasp!) I liked better than White Lily – it is unbleached and made the most delicious, tender shortcakes. Exciting!

A fun little kitchen project aside: Instead of wasting the seeds and pulp that remain from the straining process (when making the sorbet), you can make fruit leather with the remains: oil a small baking sheet with cooking spray, very thinly spread the leftover strawberry pulp onto the baking sheet using an offset spatula, and bake in a 150°F oven for about 30 minutes, or until the leather is still pliable but no longer super sticky. If you can’t get your oven as low as 150°F, set to 200°F and prop open the door a bit. Keep an eye on the temperature because you don’t want your strawberry leather to caramelize.

Ingredients:

For the Strawberry Sorbet:
(Makes 1 quart)

2 1/2 pounds fresh strawberries
1/4 cup honey
1 cup raw sugar (as fine as you can find it) or superfine sugar
1 tablespoon rum

For the Shortcakes:
(Makes 8 two-inch shortcakes)

1 1/2 cups King Arthur Mellow Pastry Blend flour or all-purpose flour, plus additional for kneading and rolling
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 1/2 teaspoons raw sugar or granulated sugar
4 tablespoons butter, very cold and cut into 8 pieces
1/2 cup buttermilk, well-shaken, plus extra for brushing
1 tablespoon demerara sugar, for topping

For the Vanilla Bean Crème Fraîche Sauce:
(Makes 3/4 cup)

3/4 cup crème fraîche
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 vanilla bean, split

To Assemble:
(for 8 servings)
1 cup diced fresh, ripe strawberries

Special Equipment: blender, fine-mesh strainer, ice cream maker, 8-or 9-inch round cake pan, 2-inch biscuit cutter

Procedure:
For the Strawberry Sorbet:

1. Wash and hull the strawberries. Place strawberries in a blender and blend until smooth (you may need to do this in batches depending on the size of your blender). Add the honey and the sugar and blend briefly.
2. Force the mixture through a fine-mesh strainer into a large bowl. Stir in rum.
3. Freeze sorbet according to your ice cream maker’s instructions, then transfer to the freezer to freeze completely.

For the Shortcakes:

1. Lightly grease an 8-or 9-inch round cake pan or a small baking sheet. Preheat oven to 500°F.
2. Whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and sugar.
3. Using a pastry blender or your fingers, work quickly to cut in the butter until the mixture resembles course crumbs interspersed with small pea-size lumps of butter.
4. Stir in the buttermilk with a fork until a shaggy dough forms. If the dough seems too dry, add more buttermilk. If too wet, add just a touch of flour. (Remember: you can always add more but you can’t take it away.)
5. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured counter and knead 2-3 times until the dough comes together. Roll out to 3/4-inch thickness and stamp out 2-inch rounds with a biscuit cutter. Take care not to twist the cutter as you stamp out the biscuits (um, I mean shortcakes).
6. Transfer shortcakes to the cake pan or baking sheet, with sides touching.
7. Brush with 1 teaspoon additional buttermilk and sprinkle with demerara sugar and bake in the preheated oven for 8-10 minutes, or until golden brown.
8. Cool on a wire rack.

For the Vanilla Bean Crème Fraîche Sauce:

1. Combine the crème fraîche and the sugar in a small saucepan. Scrape the contents of the vanilla bean into the pan.
2. Whisk over medium-low heat until the mixture just barely simmers and the sugar has dissolved.
3. Keep warm if using immediately, otherwise cool and refrigerate.

To Assemble:

1. Briefly rewarm the crème fraîche sauce and shortcakes, if necessary. Spoon a bit of the sauce onto a plate. Split a shortcake horizontally and place the bottom half on the sauce.
2. Top the shortcake bottom with chopped strawberries, a small scoop of the strawberry sorbet, and the top of the shortcake. Eat immediately.

King Cake for Mardi Gras

One of my closest friends is from New Orleans, and last year we made King Cake together to celebrate Mardi Gras. She has since moved to Seattle, but I miss her and thought that I’d make King Cake again this year, in honor of her and of New Orleans. King Cake is basically a type of brioche, usually iced and decorated with sugar in the colors of Mardi Gras (green, purple, and gold). My friend, being a King Cake purist, refused to entertain the idea of stuffing the cake with what are apparently now-common fillings like cream cheese, and I have to say that I think she’s right – the cake is sweet, rich, and delicious enough without the addition of heavy fillings. She proclaimed our version New Orleans-y and I believed her – given the fact that I’d never had a King Cake before!

Since the 1930s, a New Orleans tradition has been to insert a baby doll trinket into the cake as a representation of the baby Jesus or, as some report, simply because one New Orleans bakery accidentally received an impossibly large shipment of tiny plastic baby dolls. Other traditional items put into the cake for good luck include pecans and beans. If you want to insert a bean, pecan, or especially a plastic baby doll, do it after the cake has baked and cooled.

This recipe is adapted from one on Fabulous Foods.

Happy Mardi Gras!

King cake before icing and sugaring commenced

Ingredients:

For the cake:
2 tablespoons instant yeast
1/2 cup sugar, plus 2 teaspoons (divided)
1/2 cup warm water (110ºF)
4 cups all purpose flour (plus potentially more for the dough)
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1 teaspoon nutmeg
2 teaspoons kosher salt
5 egg yolks
1/2 cup milk, warmed slightly
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
2 teaspoons cinnamon

For the egg wash:
1 egg, beaten
1 tablespoon milk

For the icing and topping:
3 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
2 tablespoons lemon juice
3-4 tablespoons water
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Purple, gold, and green colored sugar

Special Equipment: A stand mixer

Procedure:

For the cake:

1. Combine yeast, 2 teaspoons sugar, and warm water in a small bowl. Set bowl in a warm place until the mixture starts to bubble up and doubles in volume, about 10 minutes. (Discard mixture and start over if yeast doesn’t bubble. Sorry!)
2. In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, lemon zest, nutmeg, and kosher salt together. Set aside.
3. In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine yeast mixture, egg yolks, remaining 1/2 cup of sugar, and warm milk. Using the dough hook, gradually add the flour mixture, then the softened butter until combined. Knead dough, adding flour a tablespoon at a time (if necessary) until the dough is smooth, shiny, elastic, and pulls away from the sides of the mixer bowl – about 10 minutes.
4. Spray a large bowl with cooking spray and transfer dough to bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside in a warm, draft free place until doubled in bulk, about 1 1/2 hours.
5. Butter a large baking sheet, or line the baking sheet with a silpat or parchment paper.
6. Punch down dough. Give it a good punch or two; it feels kind of good. Sprinkle the dough with the cinnamon and form into a cylinder, transfer the cylinder to the baking sheet, then twist the cylinder into a circle. Pinch the ends of the circle together to seal completely.
7. Loosely cover the dough with oiled plastic wrap and set aside in a warm, draft free place to rise again; about 45 minutes.
8. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 375ºF. Combine the 1 tablespoon milk and the beaten egg for the egg wash.
9. Brush sides and top of the cake with egg wash. Bake for 25-35 minutes, or until the cake is golden brown on top. If it begins to over brown, cover with tinfoil.
10. Remove from oven and cool completely on a wire rack before icing.

Forming the king cake ring

For the icing and topping:

1. Combine the sifted confectioners’ sugar, lemon juice, vanilla extract, and water until the mixture is smooth. Add more water or lemon juice if the mixture is too thick.
2. Spread icing on the cake and immediately sprinkle the colored sugar on the cake in alternating rows.

Jasmine Madeleines

I love cooking Thai food at home, so one of my favorite stores in New York City is Bangkok Mart, a small Thai food store in Chinatown. It has just about every Thai product you could ever need, and the staff is super friendly and always willing to answer questions.  My most recent discovery there: jasmine syrup and jasmine essence. Jasmine syrup is perfect for cocktails (jasmine sidecar anyone??) and I’m looking forward to using it in sorbets and to brush onto sponge cakes. Jasmine essence is much more intense than the syrup; if you don’t have a Southeast Asian store near you, it can be found online (also called mali essence). (Note: Do not use jasmine oil! It’s not the same thing.)  Not exactly a Thai dish, madeleines are quintessentially French, and in my opinion, the most perfect hybrid of cookie and cake. Plus, they’re beautiful – and if you’re the creative type, they take well to additions like flavorings and chocolate (for all you non-traditional peeps out there!).  They are perfect dipped in a hot cup of tea (jasmine?) or coffee.

If you can’t find jasmine essence, these madeleines would be delicious with rosewater or orange flower water, or barring any other flowery additions, you can simply increase the amount of vanilla extract to 1 1/2 teaspoons. Make sure that your eggs are at room temperature and that you don’t skimp on the time it takes to mix the eggs and the sugar together. Also – standard madeleine pans have molds that are 3 1/4 inches long. (This recipe, as I baked it, made 24 madeleines, filling the molds up 3/4 full, although the original recipe says that it makes 36.) If you only have one madeleine pan, make sure that you allow the pan to cool completely before re-buttering/flouring (or spraying) it.

This recipe is adapted from one in my favorite Thai cookbook – True Thai.

Jasmine madeleines cooling

Ingredients:
4 eggs, at room temperature
2/3 cup sugar (use slightly less if you’re using jasmine syrup)
2 teaspoons finely grated orange peel
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
Pinch kosher salt
10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon Thai jasmine extract (mali) or 2 teaspoons Thai jasmine syrup or 1 teaspoon rosewater or orange flower water
Additional butter and flour for the madeleine pans, or cooking spray
Confectioners’ sugar, for dusting (optional)

Special Equipment: madeleines pans, a rubber spatula

Procedure:

1. Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt together in a small bowl. Set aside.
2. Using a stand or a hand mixer, beat the eggs and the sugar together on medium speed for 12-15 minutes, or until the mixture turns a light lemony yellow color and has thickened considerably.
3. Add the orange peel and mix for 30 seconds more.
4. Using a rubber spatula, gently fold in the flour-baking powder mixture.
5. Fold in the butter, vanilla, and the flowery essence of your choice. Don’t over mix or your madeleines will be rubbery.
6. Let the batter rest in a cool spot for at least an hour.
7. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 375ºF. Brush the madeleine pans with melted butter, dust with flour, and knock out the excess. Or be lazy like me and spray them generously with cooking spray.
8. Spoon the madeleine batter into the prepared pans, filling them 3/4 full.
9. Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until the madeleines are lightly golden.
10. Cool in pans for 1 minute, then unmold onto wire racks (scalloped pattern-side up) to cool.
11. Dust with confectioners’ sugar, if desired.

Pretty Meyer Lemons

Meyer lemons are actually a cross between regular lemons and oranges (or possibly mandarin oranges – I don’t think they know for sure). If you can’t find Meyer lemons, you can substitute the zest of one orange (that is, use the zest of two regular lemons and one orange in place of the 3 Meyer lemons). You can also leave out the orange flower water entirely. The recipe is adapted from one in Chef Daniel Boulud: Cooking in New York City.

Meyer Lemon and Orange Flower Yogurt Cake

Ingredients:

3 Meyer lemons
3/4 cup whole milk yogurt
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
2 large eggs
1/4 teaspoon orange flower water
1/2 cup vegetable oil (I used canola)
1/2 vanilla bean, split and scraped
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

Procedure:

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Butter and flour the inside of a 9 by 5-inch loaf pan (or you can be lazy like me and spray with cooking spray).
2. Grate the zest of the lemons (preferably with a microplane zester), taking care not to zest any of the bitter white pith underneath. Juice 2 of the lemons. (Use the juice of the third lemon for something else; maybe some lemonade?)
3. In a large bowl, whisk together the yogurt, sugar, eggs, and orange flower water.
4. Add the vegetable oil, Meyer lemon zest and juice, and the scraped vanilla bean seeds.
5. Add the flour and baking powder, and whisk until just combined (don’t over whisk at this point, or the cake will be tough).
6. Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan. Bake for 50-60 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. (The cake may start to brown excessively on the top; if this happens, cover with foil and continue baking.)
7. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Invert the cake onto a cooling rack, remove the pan, and cool completely before slicing.

This recipe for Sally Lunn (yes, that’s the name of the recipe!) is from the Francis Parkinson Keyes Cookbook, dated 1955. Who was Francis Parkinson Keyes? Well, apparently she was a novelist and a senator’s wife and had political leanings that left a little something to be desired – which is why her novels haven’t really stood the test of time. Aside from this, her cookbook has some odd little gems and so I’m going to stick with her recipes and not so much her politics or her novels.

Sally Lunn is a sort of white bread, sort of brioche-y, sort of savory, and sort of sweet. It apparently dates from the 1680s. It’s a bit of an oddity, really. Hard to classify. But so delicious. It’s a really easy yeast bread to make and only requires one rise, right in the pan. I used a 12-cup Bundt pan, but you could use a tube pan or even two loaf pans. I also used cardamom sugar to top the cake-bread-brioche, but feel free to use regular sugar (or vanilla sugar would be nice, too).

Sally Lunn

Crunchy, sugar-y top of Sally Lunn

Ingredients:

One 1/4-ounce (7 gram) package instant yeast
2 cups whole milk, heated to almost boiling, then cooled to lukewarm (about 110ºF)
4 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled slightly
4 cups all-purpose flour
2 eggs, beaten
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon cardamom sugar (or regular sugar)
Cooking spray

Special Equipment: 12-cup Bundt pan (or tube pan of equivalent size)

Procedure:

1. Spray the Bundt pan with cooking spray and set aside.
2. Dissolve the yeast in the milk. Add the butter, flour, eggs, and salt, and beat with a wooden spoon until the batter is smooth.
3. Pour the batter into the greased Bundt pan and cover with plastic wrap. Set in a warm, draft free place for about 1 1/2 hours, or until the batter has doubled in bulk.
4. Preheat the oven to 450ºF.
5. Sprinkle the Sally Lunn with the sugar and bake for 20 minutes, or until the top is golden brown.
6. Cool in pan for 5 minutes, give a the pan a good rap on the counter, and invert onto a cooling wrack.
7. Serve warm with jam, honey, cheese, or any number of delicious savory or sweet accompaniments.

Cut Sally Lunn

I had read about butter mochi in one of my favorite cookbooks, The Food of Paradise, by Rachel Laudan, which I bought to learn more about Hawaiian food before I went there (and from which the recipe below is adapted). Butter mochi is essentially a kind of cake made with coconut milk and sweet rice flour, plus butter and eggs. Laudan suspects that the origins of butter mochi may be a Filipino dish called bibingka (a festival food that includes sugar, eggs, evaporated milk, butter, and coconut), which in turn was likely influenced by the Portuguese. A real bit of fusion cuisine, made up before that stuff was trendy.

A friend of mine had a sushi rolling housewarming party (best party idea ever!) and I brought butter mochi as my contribution. It served the whole party (about 15 people) with lots of leftovers. Look for sweet rice flour (mochiko) in Asian markets. (I carried 4 boxes of Koda Farms mochiko home from Hawaii before figuring out that I can get it around here.)

Koda Farms Sweet Rice Flour

Butter Mochi - looks like yellow cake, tastes like heaven

Special Equipment: a 9 by 13-inch baking pan

Ingredients:

3 cups sweet rice flour (mochiko)
2 1/2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
5 eggs
3 cups coconut milk
1/2 cup butter (one stick/4 ounces), melted and cooled slightly
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Procedure:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Lightly spray the baking pan with cooking spray.
3. Whisk the rice flour, baking soda powder, and sugar in a medium bowl.
4. In a large bowl, combine the eggs, coconut milk, butter, and vanilla extract, whisking until eggs are fully incorporated into the coconut milk mixture.
5. Fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and stir to combine.
6. Pour the batter into the prepared baking pan.
7. Bake for an hour and 30 minutes, or until the butter mochi is golden brown and starts to pull away from the sides of the pan. Cool completely. Cut into small squares and serve.