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.

Starters and Nibbles

Spicy Crock-Pot Apple Butter – Serve with cheddar or brie (or any cheese that is cheddar-or-brie-like) and crackers. Can be made several days in advance. Uses the crock-pot, which frees up your stovetop and oven. Would also be a nice sauce with turkey. And a nice host(-ess) gift.

Spicy Crock-Pot Apple Butter

Chicken Liver Mousse – Quick and easy to make. Can be made several days in advance. Serve with toast squares, crackers, or sliced baguette.

Chicken Liver Mousse on a crunchy little toast square

Manchego Cheese, Quince, and Walnut Crostini – Make the quince jam (or buy it) in advance. Toast the bread in advance. Easy to assemble.

Manchego, Quince, and Walnut Crostini

First Course

Easy Golden Beet Soup with Buttery Croutons - Serve as a first course. Beets can be roasted several days in advance. Soup can be made and refrigerated 1-2 days in advance (without the croutons, of course). Swirl a bit of heavy cream or yogurt on top for an elegant little touch. When I make a large meal like Thanksgiving dinner, I serve creamy soups like this in teacups – it’s just the right amount of soup so your guests aren’t stuffed before the main course.

Golden Beet Soup with Buttery Croutons

Quick Breads

Bacon Muffins – quick and easy to bake. Can be made 1 day in advance.

Bacon Muffins

Irish Soda Bread with Brown Butter, Rosemary, and Black Pepper – Quickbread (no yeast) – takes only a few minutes to mix. Can be made 1-2 days in advance.

Irish Soda Bread with Brown Butter, Rosemary, and Black Pepper

Cheddar-Sage Biscuits – Can be made 1 day in advance and re-heated. Sage goes nicely with turkey.

Cheddar Sage Biscuits

Sides

Broccoli Raab with Pecans – can be made 1-2 day in advance and re-heated.

Broccoli Raab with Pecans

Mashed Potatoes - can be made several hours in advance. Hold in a metal bowl over simmering water. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap to prevent drying. Add more cream or milk before serving if the potatoes have dried out a bit.

Mashed Potatoes

Cranberry Sauce with Bourbon – can be made up to a week in advance. Made in the oven so it frees up your stovetop. Bring to room temperature before serving.

Cranberry Sauce with Bourbon

Roasted Romanesco Cauliflower – can be made several hours in advance. Pop back in the oven for a few minutes to re-heat. Grate some Parmesan over the cauliflower for a little more richness.

Roasted Romanesco Cauliflower

Kale and Ricotta Salata Salad – believe it or not, this salad can be made several days in advance. Unlike lettuce, the kale is hearty enough to not get slimy under the weight of the vinaigrette. Flavors actually get better if made a day in advance. Can be served cold or at room temperature.

Raw lacitano kale for Kale and Ricotta Salata Salad

Dessert

Apple Pie with Boiled Cider – pie can be made one day in advance. I usually serve apple pie with this Calvados Ice Cream (it’s heaven). You can omit the boiled cider to save time. Add a bit more sugar to compensate.

Apple Pie with Boiled Cider

Bourbon Milkshakes – can’t really be made in advance, but really easy to make using store-bought ingredients. And a perfect ending to your fabulous Thanksgiving meal. Give yourself a round of (bourbon-y) applause!

Bourbon Milkshake

Spicy Crock-Pot Apple Butter

My family’s farm, Fernwood Springs, in Westampton, New Jersey, has a lovely little apple orchard. The trees go mostly untended now because it’s just my grandma and my uncle working the farm (and my grandma is 87!), but the Red Delicious apples are still…well…delicious, even without much tending. I picked a boatload the other day and decided to make apple butter with them in my shiny new-ish crockpot.

I’m filing this recipe under “Kitchen Projects” because it takes a looooong time to make. Traditionally, apple butter is cooked over an open flame for like, 4 days, but I managed to a) eliminate the open flame (not so legal in Brooklyn) and b) reduce the cooking time to about 12 hours or so. I added a couple of dried chilies to the recipe after being inspired by a friend who put up a billion jars of cayenne-spiced apple sauce this year – the chile/apple combo is a good one. It may seem a little weird to boil apple cores in a bag along with the apple/water/sugar mixture, but the cores contain a ton of pectin which will give your finished butter a nice jam-y consistency.

Ingredients:
(makes about 2 pints)

12 cups apples, chopped (I used Red Delicious, but other varieties of apples will work). Reserve 5-6 apple cores – see below
2 cups raw sugar
2 cups water
1 lemon
5-6 apple cores
2 cinnamon sticks
2 whole cloves
3-4 whole cardamom pods
2-3 small dried chilies
4-5 pods star anise
1/2 vanilla bean, split

Special Equipment: Crock-pot, cheesecloth, kitchen twine, hand blender (optional)

Procedure:

1. Combine the chopped apples, sugar, 2 cups of water, and the juice of 1 lemon in a large crock pot. (Reserve the squeezed lemon.)
2. Wrap the juiced lemon, the apple cores, cinnamon sticks, cloves, cardamom pods, chilies, star anise, and vanilla bean in cheesecloth and tie with kitchen twine. Add to the apple/sugar mixture.
3. Cook the mixture on high in the crockpot for 2 hours. If the water starts evaporating too quickly, add more, 1/4 cup at a time.
4. Reduce heat to low and cook for 10-12 hours. The mixture should turn a dark caramel brown and the apples should start to fall apart.
5. After 10-12 hours in the crockpot, check the mixture for consistency. This will depend on what variety of apple you use,  how hot your crockpot gets, and whether you added additional water to the mixture. The mixture should start looking jam-y, with little to no apple chunks in the mix.
6. If the mixture is too chunky for your liking, remove the cheesecloth bag and blend the mixture using a hand blender until the apple chunks have been incorporated. If the mixture isn’t thick enough for your liking, remove the mixture from the crockpot and add to a medium, heavy-bottomed pot. Cook over medium heat until thickened. (Keep an eye on the mixture at this point – it will splatter everywhere if left unattended. Trust me.) I both blended with a hand blender and continued to cook the mixture on top of the stove to get the consistency I wanted.
7. Once the apple butter is as thick as you’d like it, ladle into jars or another clean, glass container. Cool completely, then refrigerate. You can also can (that sounds kind of weird) the apple butter at this point, but I didn’t want to bother – the mixture will keep in the fridge for at least a couple of weeks without canning.

Honey Caramels

Honey Caramels come to you in honor of NYC’s Pollinator Week (this week!), which is coordinated by Just Food. Beekeeping is currently illegal in New York City (sign a petition to make it legal here), although there are quite a few rogue beekeepers in Brooklyn and in the rest of New York City. Read more about urban beekeeping here.

I found this recipe in the Puerto Rican Cookbook by Elizabeth B.K. Dooley, an antique cookbook that is part of my growing collection of ye olde cookbooks. It dates from the mid-40s, and is a fascinating collection of Puerto Rican food from the era of American colonization (i.e, prior to Puerto Rico becoming a Commonwealth). It’s got an entire chapter dedicated to recipes made with honey; pretty interesting coming from an island that grew a heck of a lot of sugar cane.

If you’re a novice candy maker, it really, really helps to have a candy thermometer on hand. The various stages of candy making (soft ball, firm ball, hard ball, etc.) tend to happen really, really quickly – you can take your candy from firm ball to hard ball in just seconds and then be totally screwed (mind out of the gutter, people). Without a proper candy thermometer, you will have to drop a bit of your candy into ice water to determine its stage in the candy making process. Don’t be intimidated – it’s really not that difficult, you just have to pay close attention to what’s going on in your pot.  Also – hot sugar is one of the hottest, most dangerous things you’ll come across in the kitchen. I kid you not. If you get hot caramel on your skin, it just keeps on burning and burning. (Speaking from experience here.) So be careful, OK?

Ingredients:

1/4 cup (4 tablespoons) unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces
1 cup honey (mild honey works best here)
1 cup raw sugar (or granulated sugar)
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
Fleur de sel or other sea salt for topping

Special Equipment: 8×8 pan, candy thermometer (optional)

Procedure:

1. Line an 8×8 pan with aluminum foil, letting the edges of the foil hang over the side of the pan, and spray with cooking spray, or butter generously.
2. Melt the butter over medium heat in a medium, heavy bottomed saucepan.
3. Add the honey, sugar, and heavy cream. Stir over medium heat until the sugar has mostly dissolved.
4. Turn the heat to medium low. Clip your candy thermometer onto the side of the pan….carefully.
5. Cook the mixture over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until the mixture reaches firm ball stage, which you can determine in one of two ways: a. the mixture reaches 248ºF (give or take a degree or two) on a candy thermometer (it will be marked with “FB” or “firm ball”) or b. Drop a bit of the mixture into a small bowl filled with ice water. It should immediately form a ball that you can squeeze together with your fingers without it dissipating.
6. Immediately remove from the heat, quickly stir in the vanilla (it will bubble slightly) and pour the mixture into your greased pan. Sprinkle with fleur de sel or other sea salt.
7. Let cool, lift out of the pan using the foil, then cut into squares and wrap in squares of parchment paper or cellophane.

Note: If you happen to accidentally take your caramels past the firm ball stage (i.e., if the caramel mixture gets a little too hard after it has cooled), remelt the candy over low heat with 1/4 cup of heavy cream. Stir until the mixture is totally combined, then do the ice water test to check the consistency of the mixture (dropping the mixture into cold water is a reliable indicator of what the texture/consistency of the caramels will be when cool). Immediately pour into a newly-foil lined and greased pan, and cool completely.

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.

Dairy Cow at Battenkill Creamery in New York State

I’m really not one for resolutions. I half-heartedly make them on New Year’s, only to promptly break them a day or two later. But I think the sentiment is a good one: think about things you want to accomplish in the coming year, and inch toward those goals. Don’t beat yourself up for not adhering to every single resolution you make. I think about Earth Day like an eco-New Year’s. I’ve been thinking about my goals to be a little bit more Earth-friendly, and I’ve been thinking about things I can share with you: some are easy-peasy, simple things you can do every day. Some require a little more commitment. Of course, (obviously) I love food and all things food-related, so most of the things on the list are food-ish. And really, our food choices can make such a difference. So much pollution and waste is generated from factory farms (not to mention lots of other bad stuff). So much energy is wasted transporting fruits and vegetables from, say, South America. And we, ourselves, as individuals (especially those of us who like to cook), generate lots and lots of food waste.

Sometimes thinking about all of this stuff can be a little overwhelming. But you can take small steps, and each small step you take will eventually add up to longer and longer strides for everyone. You don’t have to eat locally all the time. Heck, I really can’t see myself giving up citrus and olive oil and avocados and mangoes (you guys in California have it much, much easier, dammit), I just love good food too much. But I do try to make food choices everyday in a mindful way – think about where your food has come from, what it’s taken to get to you, and what you’ll do with it.

OK, here’s my list:

1. Buy at least some of your meat, dairy products, or eggs from local farmers.

I’m going to tell you upfront: it’s going to be more expensive than buying factory-farmed meat, dairy, or eggs from your local grocery store. I tend to eat less meat in order to be able to afford high-quality meat. And I often buy cheaper cuts of meat that I can stew or braise (cheaper cuts are often more delicious anyway, oddly enough). I am lucky because I belong to a food co-op that gets a lot of its meat, dairy, and eggs from local farmers, but farmer’s markets and CSAs (community supported agriculture) that carry locally raised meat, dairy, and eggs are now popular across the country. Many farmers also sell cuts of meat, dairy products, and eggs directly to the public. Some info on factory farming from FactoryFarm.org here, and info on meat labeling at Animal Welfare Approved here.

2. Cut down on the amount of processed food that you eat.

Processed food usually has a lot of sugar (in the form of high fructose corn syrup), lots of (often GMO) corn and soy, and lots and lots of preservatives. I know that processed foods are often more convenient. But in the long run, you don’t really benefit from eating processed food. Try to make a commitment to cooking with real food (fresh vege and fruit, whole grains, etc.) an extra one or two days a week. Focus on the joy that you get putting good food on the table – food you’ve made with your own little two hands. The Eat Well Guide is a great resource for finding real food (via farmer’s markets, stores, co-ops, etc.).

3. Cut down on drinking bottled water.

In most places in the US, tap water is delicious and healthy. It’s regulated better than bottled water and therefore is probably marginally better for you. Oh, and it’s absolutely free! (Hmm, maybe use the money you save on bottled water to buy good meat?) And most importantly, drinking tap water will reduce the amount of plastic bottles in our landfills. I have a lightweight stainless steel water bottle that I carry in my bag wherever I go. More reasons not to drink bottled water on Treehugger here.

My compost bucket - filled to the brim and ready for dumping

4. Start composting.

I know – this might be the hardest sell on my list. And it’s something that I only recently started doing. I began to feel really bad about the amount of food waste I generate. I’m talking significant, serious amounts of food waste. I don’t have my own garden (I live in an apartment complex in Brooklyn, after all) and so composting my waste just didn’t seem like a viable option until recently. I joined a community garden down the street that composts, so I will be dropping my compost off on a weekly (or more) basis. Many cities have community gardens that need your food waste! If you have a yard, consider composing yourself, and maybe growing a few plants for food in the process. Some farmer’s markets also have compost drop-off sites. An interesting post from Ethicurian on the follies of composting is here.

Vegetable-Dyed Easter Eggs

Put the last of the season’s root vegetables to good use for this Easter kitchen project! Vegetable dyes won’t give you vibrantly colored Easter eggs – the hues are much more subtle and natural looking, almost as if you raided the nests of different chicken breeds.

Making your own vegetable dye is a little more labor-intensive than sticking a dye tablet in a coffee cup, but it’s so much more fun, because different vegetables produce colors that you wouldn’t expect. Red onion skins, for example, produce a lovely blue-ish color.  I experimented with several different types of fruits and vegetables, some that worked, and some that didn’t. Fails: Pomegranate juice (turned the eggs brown…not so pretty) and yellow beets (the color of the water was bright, bright yellow, but unfortunately the color didn’t adhere to the eggs). Wins: red beets, turmeric (both fresh and powdered), yellow onions, and red onions. I wanted the brightest colors that I could get, so I used a multi-phased method: 1) creating the dye; 2) boiling the eggs in the dye; 3) cooling the dye and soaking the boiled eggs in the dye. Vinegar is must, because it helps the natural vegetable dye adhere to the eggs. Normally when I make hard-boiled eggs, I immediately plunge the boiled eggs into ice water to stop the cooking process. I was afraid this would make some of the color come off, so I skipped this step. Just note that your eggs may not be as perfectly boiled as they normally would be sans dyeing experimentation.

It’s fun to play around with different volumes of vegetables. For the onions, I used 3-4 medium onions per color. For the beets, 4 medium. For the turmeric, I used 3 fresh rhizomes plus 1 tablespoon powdered. Different ratios of vegetables to water will produce different results.

Ingredients:

Red onion skins (purpley-blue)
Yellow onion skins (dark golden yellow-ish brown)
Red beets, sliced thinly (pinkish)
Turmeric, either fresh (sliced thinly) or powdered (bright yellow)
White vinegar
White eggs (don’t use brown eggs for obvious reasons)

Procedure:

1. For all of the vegetables: add the vegetables to a medium pot. Cover with enough water that will later be able to cover the eggs. Add 1 tablespoon white vinegar. Bring the mixture to a boil, then turn down the heat and simmer for 30 minutes. Turn off the heat and cool to room temperature. (At this point, you can also soak the mixture overnight for more vibrant colors.)
2. Once the dye mixture has cooled, remove the vegetables and discard (or eat or compost). Add the eggs to the dye water. (The eggs should be completely covered by the dye. If not, add a bit more cold water to cover.) Add another 2 tablespoons white vinegar. Bring the mixture to a boil over high heat. As soon as the water comes to a rolling boil, turn down the heat so that the water is just simmering, cover the pan, and simmer for 10-11 minutes. Remove the eggs to cool.
3. At this point, you can leave the eggs as-is if you like their subtle color. Or, for more vibrant hues, cool the dye water slightly (I poured the dye water into measuring cups).  Add the eggs back to the dye water and let soak until they are the color you want. At this point, you can combine colors – I dipped an egg in the turmeric mixture than then the beet mixture to get an orange-ish color. Remove carefully, dry, and refrigerate.

Homemade Candied Ginger

A trifecta of ginger deliciousness! Actually, the candied ginger is a byproduct of the ginger syrup (or is ginger syrup the byproduct of candied ginger??): you can’t create one without the other.  I had a bit of a hankering for homemade ginger ale, because it’s so much spicier than store bought and I felt like something a little tingly. Oh, but I can think of so many other ways to use ginger syrup…on pancakes, in cocktails, in ice cream…and, of course, candied ginger is good in lots of baked goods (scones? cookies? muffins?) and as a sweet nibble.

Slice your ginger into very, very thin disks if you want a more chewy candied ginger. Because I was looking for a more al dente candied ginger, like the kind you find packaged in grocery stores, I chopped my ginger into small-ish (about 1/2-inch) squares. Just note that it will take quite a bit longer to soften ginger cut into chunks than ginger sliced into thin disks. If you can find young ginger, which has a much thinner skin and is often a bit pink in color, definitely use it instead of regular (read: old) ginger. Older ginger, like the kind I used, tends to be more fibrous, so you won’t have the creamier interior consistency that you will get if you can get your hands on young ginger.

Homemade Ginger Ale

Ingredients:

For the Candied Ginger and Ginger Syrup:

1/2 pound ginger (8 oz.), about 2 large knobs, peeled
2 cups granulated sugar, plus 1/4 cup extra for coating the ginger pieces
2 cups water

For the Ginger Ale:

Seltzer or sparkling water
Ginger syrup (recipe above)
Lime slices (optional)

Procedure:

1. Slice or chop the ginger (as discussed above).
2. In a medium heavy saucepan, combine the sugar and the water over medium heat, stirring until the sugar is mostly dissolved. Add the ginger pieces.
3. Simmer over medium heat for 1 hour if you’ve sliced your ginger very thin, and at least twice that if you’ve cut your ginger into larger chunks. (Check on them occasionally to make sure they aren’t drying out and that the water isn’t evaporating too quickly.)
4. Meanwhile, line a small sheet pan with wax or parchment paper, or with tinfoil. Spread the remaining 1/4 cup sugar on the lined sheet pan.
5. When the ginger is done (it will be soft), remove with a slotted spoon to the prepared sheet pan. Toss the ginger pieces in the sugar and spread them out. Let dry for several hours, or overnight. Let the ginger syrup cool, then refrigerate. If you want a thicker ginger syrup, continue to cook over medium-low heat until it reaches the consistency you want.
6. To make homemade ginger ale: add 3-4 generous tablespoons (or more, to taste) of ginger syrup to a large pint glass. Top with seltzer or other sparkling water. (I also like to add a bit of lime. Uh, and a bit of rum.) Garnish with candied ginger, if desired.

Makes about 1 1/2 cups ginger syrup and approximately a cup of candied ginger.

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.

One of the few products with HFCS in it that I continued (ack!) to eat was ketchup, at least until a certain favorite brand of mine started selling organic ketchup, which contains cane sugar instead of HFCS. I thought I’d just go the extra step and make my own – why the hell not.  I have to admit that making your own ketchup does take just a *bit* more time than simply running down to the corner store and picking up a bottle of organic ketchup, but it was fun to make and the result is actually better (gasp!) than my favorite brand of organic ketchup. In the summer, I’ll try to make this with the equivalent amount (about 2 pounds) of fresh tomatoes.

This recipe is a hybrid, adapted from recipes in Sauveur, Gourmet, and my grandma’s 1940s-era cookbook The Modern Encyclopedia of Cooking.

Uh, so it's not exactly 57 herbs and spices, just 6

Delectable Homemade Ketchup

Makes a little less than 2 cups.

Ingredients:

4 whole cloves
1/4 teaspoon whole allspice
1/4 teaspoon celery seed
1/4 teaspoon chile flakes
1 cinnamon stick (3-inches long)
One 28-ounce can whole, peeled tomatoes with their juice
1 large onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, peeled and smashed
1/2 jalapeno, seeded and chopped (optional)
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/2 cup white vinegar
1/4 cup brown sugar

Special Equipment: Cheesecloth

Procedure:

1. Using kitchen twine, tie the cloves, allspice, celery seed, chile flakes, and cinnamon stick together in a medium square of doubled-up cheesecloth. (You just made a bouquet garni!)
2. In a large, heavy pot, add the tomatoes, onion, garlic, optional jalapeno, salt, vinegar, and brown sugar. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the onions and peppers are very soft, about 1 hour.
3. Remove and discard the secret spice bundle. Let the mixture cool slightly, then puree in batches in a blender or food processor. (Be careful pureeing hot liquids! Don’t fill the blender too full.)
4. At this point, if the mixture is too pulpy for your taste, pass the liquid through a sieve, pushing as much of the solids through with a rubber spatula as you can. If you prefer your ketchup a little more rustic and a little less smooth, you can skip this step.
5. Return to your pot and cook over medium heat, stirring to keep from scorching, until the mixture has thickened and darkened slightly in color, about 30 minutes. (If the mixture starts to scorch, turn down the heat a bit.)
6. Transfer to a container (a glass jar is preferable) and let cool. Cover and refrigerate for at least a few hours to allow the flavors to meld. Your delicious homemade ketchup will keep in the fridge for up to three weeks.