Wednesday, December 2, 2009
There's an In-N-Out in Death Valley, right?
World's Best Scones
- 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 4 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/4 cup white sugar
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 5 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1/2 cup dried currants or raisins
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1/4 cup sour cream
- 1 egg
- 1 tablespoon milk
Homemade Peppermint Patties
- 3/4 cup sweetened condensed milk
- 1 1/2 teaspoons peppermint extract
- 3 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
- 3 cups semisweet chips or dipping chocolate (harder to find than I expected)
- 2 teaspoons shortening, if not using dipping chocolate
Baked Doughnuts
I knew I wanted to make doughnuts while I was home for Thanksgiving and had access to my parent’s kitchen and, maybe more importantly, my Mom’s stand mixer. I also needed to be sure I had enough people around to actually eat the doughnuts, and my family kindly obliged. I much prefer the lighter taste and texture of these to fried doughnuts, and they could almost be healthy…. ? Or not.
Baked Doughnuts
Original recipe here at 101Cookbooks
Don’t over bake these, if anything, under bake them a bit – they continue baking outside the oven for a few minutes. You want an interior that is moist and not dry. Also, be sure to cut big enough holes in the center of your doughnuts, too small and they will bake shut. Remember they rise when they’re baking.
Yields about 1 1/2-2 dozen medium donuts, and the equivalent number of doughnut holes
- 1 1/3 cups warm milk, 95 to 105 degrees (divided)
- 1 packet active dry yeast
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 2/3 cup sugar
- 2 eggs
- 5 cups all-purpose flour
- A pinch or two of nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
- Various sizes of circular cookie cutters
- An electric (stand) mixer
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 1 tablespoon cinnamon
Place 1/3 cup of the warm milk in the bowl of an electric mixer. Stir in the yeast and set aside for five minutes or so. Be sure your milk isn’t too hot or it will kill the yeast. Stir the butter and sugar in to the remaining cup of warm milk and add it to the yeast mixture. With a fork, stir in the eggs, flour, nutmeg, and salt – just until the flour is incorporated. With the dough hook attachment of a mixer beat the dough for a few minutes at medium speed.
Transfer the dough to a buttered or oiled bowl, cover, and put in a warm place. Let rise for an hour or so until the dough has roughly doubled in size.
Punch down the dough and roll it out until ½ inch thick on a floured countertop.
Use a 2-3 inch cookie cutter to stamp out circles. Transfer the circles to a parchment-lined baking sheet and stamp out smaller inner circles using a smaller cutter. If you cut the inner holes any earlier, they become distorted when you attempt to move them. Cover with a clean cloth and let rise for another 45 minutes.
Bake in a 375 degree oven until the bottoms are just golden, 8-10 minutes – start checking around 8. While the doughnuts are baking, place the butter in a medium bowl. Place the sugar and cinnamon in a separate bowl.
Remove the doughnuts from the oven and let cool for a minute. Dip each one in the melted butter and quickly toss in the sugar bowl. These are meant to be eaten immediately, while still warm (they do not hold up well.) Eating them quickly was not a problem…
World Peace Cookies
These cookies are really, really addictive. Not entirely unlike the chocolate wafers I previously posted about, they have a great dark chocolatey taste and crumbly texture. Sorry about the lack of photos, I was nearly done making the dough when I remembered to take a photo with my phone – my pint-sized nieces and nephews were in town for Thanksgiving and things were hectic. When the cookies were done they were promptly eaten, so I never managed to get a picture of the finished product, as I was too busy eating it. Check out the amazing smittenkitchen.com (where I discovered this fantastic recipe) for much better photos.
World Peace Cookies
Recipe found here at smittenkitchen.com. Originally from Paris Sweets, Dorie Greenspan
- 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 stick plus 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temp
- 2/3 cup packed light brown sugar
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1 (or 2) teaspoons vanilla extract
- 5 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped into chips
Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment or a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter on medium speed until soft and cremy. Add both sugars, the salt and vanilla extract and beat for 2 minutes more.
Turn off the mixer. Pour in the flour, put a kitchen towel over the stand mixer to protect yourself from flying flour (I messed up on this and ended up covered in it), pulse the mixer at low speed about 5 times, a second or two each time. If there is still a lot of flour on the surface of the dough, pulse a couple more times. Continuing at low speed, mix for 30-60 seconds more, just until the flour disappears into the dough – work the dough as little as possible, it will look crumbly (which is good). Add chocolate pieces and mix only to incorporate.
Take half the dough and shape it into logs that are 1 ½ inches in diameter. Do the same with the other half. Wrap the logs in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 3 hours.
Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 325. Line two baking sheets with parchment or baking mats (baking mats are on my Christmas list!)
Bake the cookies one sheet at a time for 12 minutes – they won’t look done, nor will they be firm, but that’s the way they should be. Transfer the baking sheet to a cooling rack and let the cookies rest until they are just warm, then serve. Cookies are also more than edible at room temp. Store uneaten cookies in airtight containers.