...and this makes 30!

What a month this has been. This post is the conclusion to the challenge from NaBloWriMo, of posting everyday for an entire month, what an accomplishment. As you can tell by my previous posting archive, my average has been about one post per week. Posting every day is a raise of the bar to say the least. My intent at the beginning of the month was to step up to the plate and try to improve my writing, content and photography. I’m not sure if I accomplished that, I have a very long way to go. But it has helped me organize my time better, but sadly not my desk. It is still piled high with files, magazines, cookbooks, etc.

I thought it also might be apropos to take this opportunity to say good-bye to a treasured presence in the food world, Gourmet magazine. After nearly 70 years of fine eating and literary prose, Gourmet magazine is ceasing publication. Conde Nast, the parent company, blamed the tough economic climate as the reason for closing the publication.

For those of us in the food world, the closure is a bit like waking up to find the end of an era. This magazine was unique in its rich content; not only was Gourmet a cooking magazine, it also explored the culture and increasingly the politics of food. The editor-in-chief of Gourmet Ruth Reichl is starting another chapter in her life and I wish her well.

So in tribute to Gourmet, I decided to make a little something from the last issue, spiced nuts.  A handful of these sweet-savory golden pecans and walnuts is just the nibble you need while you prepare for all of those holiday activities…or perhaps as you pull out and thumb through your past issues of Gourmet and get inspired once more.

Enjoy!

Shannon

Sweet and Savory Spiced Nuts
From Gourmet magazine November 2009

3 Tbsp. sugar

1 tsp. paprika

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

½ tsp. ground cumin

Pinch of ground cloves

1 large egg white

2 cups walnut halves (8oz.)

2 cups pecan halves (8oz.)

Preheat oven to 350°F with rack in middle. Lightly oil a 4-sided sheet pan.
Whisk together sugar, spices, and ¾ tsp. salt in a small bowl.
Whisk egg white in medium bowl until frothy, and then stir in nuts. Add spice mixture and toss to coat.

Spread nut mixture in 1 layer in sheet pan. Bake, stirring once or twice, until dry and well toasted, about 20 minutes. Loosen nuts from pan, and then cool completely.

Nuts keep in an airtight container at room temperature 1 week.

Makes 4 cups

kicked-up gingerbread

When I was going through Jamie Oliver’s cookbook Cook with Jamie, I came across a recipe for what he calls the “Ultimate Gingerbread”. He said that the when he was visiting Grasmere, in England’s Lake District he stopped into a shop that had the best gingerbread he’d ever eaten. He says that they use a secret recipe which is about 150 years old and, of course, they wouldn’t give the recipe to him. So he decided to have a go at it on his own. The result…it is probably some of the best gingerbread you’ll ever eat! The recipe calls for not only ground ginger but also crystallized ginger as well as some candied citrus peel. These additions give this unusual gingerbread a spicy-citrus kick that is tasty as a cookie, but also works pretty fine sprinkled over ice cream or even used as a cheesecake base.

His recipe also calls for golden syrup (an English export called Lyles), which amazingly I did find at a little gourmet shop in town. But if you cannot find golden syrup a mixture of 2 parts light corn syrup to 1 part molasses will do the trick.

So if you want to add a little something different into your baking plans this holiday, give this one a try.

Enjoy!

Shannon

Ultimate gingerbread
Adapted from Jamie Oliver’s cookbook Cook with Jamie

14 oz. store bought shortbread or homemade
6 oz. raw sugar
2 tsp. ground ginger
1/3 cup mixed candied citrus peel, chopped
1/3 cup crystallized ginger, chopped
7 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
A pinch of baking powder
2 Tbsp. golden syrup
2 Tbsp. molasses
5 Tbsp. unsalted butter

Preheat the oven to 325°F and find a baking pan about 8x14 inches. Put the shortbread, sugar, and 2 teaspoons of the ground ginger in a food processor and whiz until you have crumbs. Remove 3 ½ oz. of the mix and keep this to one side. Add the remaining teaspoon of ginger to the processor, along with the mixed peel, crystallized ginger, flour and baking powder, and pulse until well mixed.

Melt the syrup, molasses and butter together in a saucepan big enough to hold all the ingredients. When melted, add the mixture from the food processor and stir with a wooden spoon until everything is thoroughly mixed together. Tip into the baking pan and spread out evenly. Press the mixture down into the tray, using your fingers or something flat and clean like a potato masher or spatula. When the mix is a flat, dense even layer, pop the tray into the preheated oven for 10 minutes.

Take the tray out of the oven and sprinkle the hot gingerbread with the reserved crumbs, pressing them down really well with the potato masher or spatula. Carefully cut into good-sized pieces with a sharp knife, and leave to cool in the pan before eating.

the dare

The November 2009 Daring Bakers Challenge was chosen and hosted by Lisa Michele of Parsley,Sage,Desserts, and Line Drives. She chose the Italian Pastry, Cannolo (Cannoli is plural), using the cookbooks Lidia’s Italian-American Kitchen by Lidia Matticchio Bastianich and The Sopranos Family Cookbook by Allen Rucker; recipes by Michelle Scicolone, as ingredient/direction guides. She added her own modifications/changes, so the recipe is not 100% verbatim from either book.

This was the first time that I have ever attempted making Cannoli and I must say they were well received by my clan of recipe tasters. I have to admit I completely strayed off the traditional recipe (no surprise there). When I heard about the challenge for this month I was going through a "passion fruit" stage, experimenting with them in different ways. This all to say I decided to go a more "tropical" route instead of the more traditional "Italian" style. So, if you would like to try the traditional cannoli recipe just click the link for theDaring Kitchen  and you will also be able to see some of the wonderful pictures that have been submitted as well. If you would like to try your hand at the "tropical" type try this one...it turned out great!

Enjoy!
Shannon

Coconut & Key Lime Mascarpone “Cannoli” with Passion Fruit Coulis
Loosely adapted from Gourmet May 1995

For “Cannoli” shells:
About twenty 6-inch square parchment paper
¾ cup flaked unsweetened coconut, toasted and cooled
2 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
5 Tbsp. unsalted butter, cut into pieces and softened
½ cup granulated sugar
2 Tbsp. firmly packed light brown sugar
1 Tbsp. milk
1 Tbsp. coconut rum (optional)
Four 3 1/3 to 4 inch long cannoli forms (about 5/8 inch in diameter)

For filling:
4 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/3 cup granulated sugar
2 tsp. freshly grated lime zest
4 Tbsp. freshly squeezed Key Lime juice
1 cup mascarpone cheese

Passion Fruit Coulis:
8-10 passion fruit (an option if you can't find passion fruit would be mangos)

Accompaniments: fresh raspberries

To Make “Cannoli” shells:
Preheat oven to 350°F and lightly grease a heavy baking sheet.

Arrange 4 parchment squares on the greased baking sheet.

In a food processor blend together coconut and flour until coconut is ground fine. Add butter, sugars, rum and milk and blend until dough forms a ball, about 10 seconds. Spoon a well-rounded teaspoon of dough onto each of the 4 parchment squares and with slightly wet fingertips evenly pat into 2-inch rounds.

Bake cookies in middle of oven until very thin and golden brown, about 10 minutes. Immediately transfer cookies (still on parchment) to rack and let stand until just firm enough to hold their shape, 30-45 seconds. Working with 1 cookie at a time and using parchment as an aid, quickly roll cookie around a cannoli form to make a cylinder. (If cookies become too firm to roll, return them to parchment on baking sheet to oven 1 minute to soften.) Cool formed cookies on a rack before removing cannoli form. Make more cookies in same manner with remaining dough, baking and forming cookies in batches of 4 and allowing baking sheet to cool completely between each batch. Cookies are fragile. Cookies keep in one layer in an airtight container at room temperature 4 days.

Make filling:

In a bowl with an electric mixer beat cream cheese with sugar, zest and lime juice until smooth and beat in mascarpone. Chill filling, covered, until firm, at least 4 hours and up to 1 day.

Make Passion Fruit Coulis:

Cut Passion Fruit in half and scoop out seeds and pulp. Put into a food processor and pulse just until seeds begin to crack. Strain mixture through a fine sieve and refrigerate until ready to serve with “cannoli”.

Assemble dessert:

Whisk filling and transfer it to a pastry bag fitted with a ¼-inch plain or decorative tip. Carefully pipe filling into both ends of 12 cookies. Pour about ¼ cup Passion Fruit Coulis onto each of 6 dessert plates to distribute evenly, and top with 2 “cannoli” and raspberries.