Food Lush

Last Minute Gifts for your Favorite Foodie

By Nora    

Guys, Christmas is less than a week away (I KNOW), and even thought I feel like i'm pretty much ready for it to be here, I always find myself scrambling on the 23rd looking for last minute gifts for people I may have forgotten about. So, I was thinking yesterday about possible last minute gifts ideas, specifically for people who love food and cooking, just in case I get to that point and need something thoughtful, FAST.  So, if you find yourself in the same position come this weekend, here's some ideas:

1) A gift card/certificate to a restaurant you KNOW they've always wanted to try (and possibly a night of babysitting if it's hard for them to get out to dinner)!  I can't think of a more thoughtful gift than giving a friend a reason to get out and enjoy themselves (without the kids!). It doesn't have to be for a lot of money either---I think just the gesture and the offer of your time so that they can have some time alone is very generous.

2) The promise of a cooked meal delivered to their house (written inside a holiday card). This is in line with the restaurant gift card, but perhaps it's during a time when that person really, really needs to be at home but doesn't have the time or energy to think about dinner. Maybe it's just a dish of baked ziti, some garlic bread, and a bottle of wine.  But I can't TELL you how much this would mean to me!

3) A box of chocolates paired with a chocolate-themed movie (Chocolat!) and a bottle of chocolate-appropriate wine. This will require you going out to buy these items, but you can probably do so fairly easily and it's a creative and fun gift that people will think you put a lot of thought into!

4) A pan of freshly baked cinnamon rolls. This will go over BIG. I just made 9 pans last night and stuck them in the fridge/freezer specifically for baking this weekend.

{Photo courtesy of ME! At midnight last night!}

I plan to deliver them warm so that people can dive right in, if they want. It took some effort to make them, certainly, but you can do it in a night and then bake them the next morning.

Still need other gift ideas? Don't forget to check out the Food Lush Gift Guide!

I wish you all a stress-free, happy holiday!!

Granny's Lemon Pound Cake

By Erica H.

The lemon pound cake has been such a ubiquitous presence at family holiday meals since I was a kid that I 1) often forget that it's not a staple in every household and 2) am constantly surprised that other versions of pound cake exist. Did you know they make it in chocolate? And caramel apple? There's even a lovely-looking plain version right here in the Food Lush archives. But oh, lemon. The seasonal bounty of winter may get a bad rap, but bright citrus can turn around a gloomy day like no other. Particularly when that bright citrus is shining through an irresponsibly thick layer of butter and sugar.

This is my Granny's favorite cake, and she is 92, so you know she's not messing around.

Lemon Pound Cake

• 1 1/2 c. butter
• 3 c. sugar
• 5 eggs
• 3 c. flour
• 1 c. warm milk
• 1/2 t. baking powder
• 1 t. vanilla
• 1/2 t. lemon extract
• 1/2 t. orange extract

Bring the butter and eggs to room temperature.

Beat butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating thoroughly after each addition. ("Thoroughly" is the original wording, but I would amend it to read "to an extent that feels excessive." Really, really beat them.)

Sift flour and add alternatly with milk.

Mix in baking powder vanilla, and orange and lemon extracts.

Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes at 350 degrees in tube or bundt pan. DO NOT PREHEAT OVEN.

Coat warm cake with Lemon Glaze.

Lemon Glaze

• 3 T. milk
• 3 T. butter
• 2 c. sifted confectioner's sugar
• 3 T. lemon juice
• 1 T. grated lemon zest

Heat milk and butter until butter melts. Pour over sugar and stirt until smooth. Add lemon juice and zest and blend well.

Of course, you don't have to glaze it. (I definitely think you should glaze it.) And by no means do you have to confine the finished product to dessert. There have been many slices of toasted pound cake on our breakfast table throughout the years. You could even use two slices to make a fried ham and cheese sandwich like some demented Monte Cristo, though clearly you'd have to be a madman to attempt it.

(All photo credit mine, all pound cake credit my mother's.)

Holiday Baking Odds and Ends

by Elissa

I'm now nearing the end of my annual holiday bakefest. I think all the butter, flour, and sugar have gone to my head, so please excuse the somewhat fragmented post. Here are a few things I've learned this year.

Are you planning to decorate Christmas cookies this year? I attempted to make my own cookie icing this year, and am happy to recommend this recipe. 

My artistic skills are admittedly terrible, but this icing was pretty easy to work with and looks great. And it only requires 4 ingredients (I would at least double, if not triple the recipe; I also added some extra milk to get it to come together).

I am so delighted with Katie's idea for cookie packaging. I ordered a bunch of the boxes and they are perfect.

They hold plenty of goodies (pictured here: molasses cookies, brown butter rice krispie treats, and fleur de sel caramels). And they look great with just a simple ribbon on the outside, plus there are no worries about spilling.

And finally, I wanted to share the swiss chard miracle that occurred at our house last week. Both of my kids are pretty good eaters (knock wood), but leafy greens are still a tough sell. I offer them but don't make a fuss if the kids refuse, which is my general strategy when it comes to food. Last week we were having swiss chard sauteed with garlic and soy sauce, quinoa, and fried eggs (idea courtesy of Dinner: A Love Story). I fixed my plate (with plenty of chard), and was getting ready to make a plate for my son with a small serving of chard on the side. He demanded to take my plate and proceeded to polish off a large serving of chard. While not related to holiday baking, I'm using it to assuage my conscience as he consumes large quantities of baked goods.

And that's all I've got right now. Hope that you all have lots of delicious holiday treats coming your way!

 

Baking Bucket List: Bûche de Noël

by Maura

Years and years ago (circa 2008), I didn't cook. If it didn't involve butter, flour, and sugar, I didn't make it. I baked and that was it. Ironically, I was 10lbs thinner, but that is neither here nor there. I was so into baking that I was even part of a group called the Daring Bakers. Each month, I would participate in a baking challenge with hundreds of other bakers. I made eclairs, opera cakes, Julia Child's French bread, apple strudel, and lemon meringue pie, among other recipes. You can see some of them on my now-defunct blog, MauraLessa (fka AnonymousNY).

(Image credit: bonappetit.com)

The one challenge I regret I did not tackle was the Bûche de Noël. A traditional French dessert served around Christmas, the Bûche de Noël is an impressive accomplishment. Also known as a Yule Log, the Bûche de Noël is a vanilla genoise cake with chocolate butter cream icing, rolled into a log. The outside of the cake is frosted with chocolate icing and decorated to look like a tree log. Many other types of cakes and fillings can be used, but genoise and chocolate butter cream is traditional. 

(image credit: epicurious.com)

There are very few things I have an interest in baking these days; as I get older, I prefer savory over sweet. However, I will one day make a Yule Log for Christmas.

Have you ever made a Bûche de Noël? Do you have any desserts on your baking bucket list?

Need Another Cookie to Add to Your Holiday Arsenal? Try Biscotti!

By Nora    

By now you're probaby either A) Freaking out that there's only 11 days left until Christmas; B) Sick of hearing about how there's only 11 days left until Christmas; or C) SO excited that there's only 11 days left until Christmas.  Regardless of your answer, I imagine that in the next 11 days you have a lot of items left on your to-do list, and if one of them is baking cookies, then I have a suggestion to make your life 10 times easier.  MAKE BISCOTTI. 

Seriously, every time I make biscotti I am surprised at how easy it is, and how many cookies I get out of the effort, and how it makes me seem like such a baking professional when I deliver them to my cookie recipients. I made Sesame Orange biscotti the other day, and it took me about 3 minutes to mix the ingredients and then about an hour total to cook them (including a 10 minute in-between cooling process before you cut them). And then if you want to fancy them up, dip them in chocolate (white or dark!)!  And if you want to get really crazy, after you dip them in chocolate, add some sprinkles! Or coconut! Or extra chocolate! (Sorry. There's 11 days left until Christmas. I'm a little loopy) I also once made Cranberry Pistachio Biscotti (example in photo) which was cool because it had the red/green element that made them extra Christmas-y.

{Photo courtesy of Kitchenartistry.com}

But here's my recipe for Sesame Orange Biscotti. And it is legitimately MY recipe, because I used a basic biscotti formula and added the sesame and the orange zest myself. 

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 eggs + 1 egg white

1/2 teaspoon orange zest

3 tablespoons sesame seeds

Combine first 5 ingredients in a large bowl. Combine vanilla, eggs and orange zest and add to flour mixture, stirring until well-blended (dough will be dry).

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and knead lightly 7 or 8 times. Shape dough into a 16-inch-long roll, and sprinkle sesame seeds over the top of the roll. Press lightly so they adhere. Put the roll on a baking sheet coated with cooking spray or covered with parchment, and flatten roll to 1-inch thickness.

Bake at 350° for 30 minutes. Remove roll from baking sheet to a wire rack, and let cool 10 minutes. Cut roll diagonally into 24 (1/2-inch) slices, and place, cut sides down, on baking sheet. Reduce oven temperature to 325°, and bake 10 minutes. Turn cookies over, and bake an additional 10 minutes (cookies will be slightly soft in center but will harden as they cool). Remove from baking sheet; let cool completely on wire rack.

Decorating with food

by Elsha

Before we got our Christmas tree this year, we talked about making cranberry and marshmallow garlands. They're easy to make, just use a needle to put cranberries and marshmallows on a string. However, in the end we decided it would probably be tedious for the kids, since they're still pretty young. 

It got me thinking though, about the various other kinds of food we've used to decorate in the past. Here's the rundown:

3D sugar cookies. My brother in law made these for us a few times. He used these cookie cutters, and the results were adorable.

{photo credit: creativekidstuff.com}

Popcorn garlands. We made these a couple times growing up. They're a huge pain, because it's almost impossible to get popcorn on a string without the pieces falling apart.

Candy canes on the tree. As kids we loved putting candy canes on the tree, because we were allowed to take them off and eat them whenever.

Gingerbread men. The ones we made (in preschool maybe?) were actually ginger snaps glued on to felt backing. Cute ornaments though!

Gingerbread houses. We made these with the kids for the first time this year. Will only wanted to eat the decorating candy, but Kalena and my nephew had fun.

(Best decorating efforts of a 4 year old. Who definitely didn't put the house together.)

Sugar cookie ornaments. I haven't made these, for fear that my kids would take them all off and eat them in the first hour they were up. But my mom used to make them for the bottom half of the tree! Makes the tree extra irresistible to kids. 

Do you use food in your Christmas decorating? 

My Favorite Cookie Swap Contribution AND Reader Help: Roll-out Cookies

by Caitlin

Ahh, cookie season. It truly is the most wonderful time of the year. Especially if you're in the Larger Pants Selling Business, and if you are then maybe also call me because I'm predicting I'll need your help soon.

For much of my childhood my parents' friends had an annual cookie decorating party around the holidays. It's one of my most dear childhood Christmas memories, and in my adult years I've longed to recreate it.
It was such a wonderful treat to go over to their house and spend an evening sitting at a table covered in a rainbow of colored frostings, sprinkles and candies as bin after bin of sugar and gingerbread cookies in various shapes appeared non-stop.

Joyce, prolific hostess, spent weeks baking hundreds of cookies. She'd freeze batch after batch until the evening finally arrived. She made a simple sugar frosting which she'd color with food coloring and pour into muffin tins - a great strategy. We each had an area to work in, and after using little paint brushes and loading our cookies up with decorations galore we'd carefully place them on wire cooling racks to dry. Some were garish, loaded with as much extra sugar as possible, others we took our time on and were little works of delicious cookie art.

Angels, trees, stars, candles, gingerbread people small and large: We loved that the shapes were familiar year after year, but what excitement there was if she debuted a new shape! For several years she even made special gingerbread house pieces for my brother and I to construct. Those gingerbread houses are what first taught me about royal frosting and that there was such a thing as sugared violets. Some flowers were edible?! 12 year old Caitlin was in awe. 

A marvel our hostess was.

Over the past few years I've longed to recreate those wonderful memories. I've collected various sprinkles, jimmies, sanding sugars, and adornments. My baking cabinet is full, and my husband rolls his eyes at the mention of colored sugars. The truth is, aside from the issues of first not having the space, and lately not having the time, a major inhibiting factor is that...I'm afraid of cut out sugar cookies. I haven't had good luck with them in the past. I don't quite have the technique down, and I don't have any recipes I love.

I need your help, dear readers! How can I achieve a roll out sugar cookie that will keep it's shape, that carries the frosting and decorations well while still imparting a little taste, and which won't break your teeth to bite into? A sugar cookie that looks as good as it tastes: That's what Santa can bring me.

These two recipes look promising, but I've got a little Rollout Cookie PTSD. So much work, and what if it's not worth it?

Gingerbread Snowflakes

Holiday Sugar Cookies

(Photo from Epicurious)

Dear readers, can you help?

And! In return I offer you my favorite cookie swap contribution:These molasses crinkles. My grandmother always made molasses crinkles so I'll always have a soft spot for them, but they were specifically requested for a party last year and this recipe did not disappoint. Spicy, sweet, chewy, they are true holiday perfection.

I'm supposed to be attending some cookie parties soon, and (spoiler alert, friends!) I'll be bringing these to both. They were a huge hit last year, and why mess with a favorite? My secret trick, as with all cookies, is to underbake them slightly to retain that chewy softness. They'll still cook a bit when you take them out, so leave them a little shiny on the tops.

Also, find a fun, festive, cocktail napkin to unfold and display them on, and people will think you're more put together than you are.

(Photo: me)

Aldi Find: Beer Bread Mix

By Ariel

I have been obsessed with beer bread since a friend hosted a Tastefully Simple party about five years ago.  I absolutely love the chewy, sweet, customizable flavor you can great from a simple beer bread mix. What I'm not so fond of, however, is the average $5.99 price tag. Imagine my delight when I spotted this at Aldi's a few months back for a whopping $1.49:

YES. A touchdown victory dance went off in my head and in the event this was a fluke I bought five boxes. I actually grabbed the garlic version of the one pictured above and let me tell you how wonderful it was.

It was wonderful. I served it for our Halloween party:

 

And again as part of our pre-Thanksgiving dinner spread. For Halloween I used a pumpkin ale, then for Thanksgiving I used plain 'ol Yuengling. I think I prefer the extra hint of flavor the pumpkin ale gave, but the Yuengling was great too. 

This is a great snacking bread to serve along side a variety of cheeses. I really like having a couple "entertaining" items on hand that can easily be whipped up for a surprise game (and drinks!) night. It's a bit too crumbly for a traditional sandwich, but it you're not adverse to using a fork I cannot say enough good things. Considering the price difference, this mix can truly outshine Tastefully Simple's. I have two boxes left and I believe this is a seasonal item, I'll be stocking up next time I'm back out at the store!

Have you tried Aldi's beer bread yet? What are your thoughts?

(photo one courtasy aldi.us, second photo by me)

Gift idea for a young baker: Rose's Christmas Cookies Cookbook

In the late 1980s, when I was 11, my grandmother gave me this book for Christmas:

This is Rose's Christmas Cookies cookbook, and it was the first cookbook I ever had. My grandmother inscribed it with a message that she hoped I would use it for years of Christmas cookie making.  I certainly did not adequately appreciate the gift at the time. In fact, I remember feeling a little perplexed: she gave it to me on Christmas, just as it became irrelevant -- one can hardly make Christmas cookies on December 26th, right?

But over time, it has come to one of my most treasured gifts. It strikes me now that my grandmother must have realized even then that I loved food, and cooking, in a way that neither she nor my mother did, and that I might find such a book interesting and useful. Although I might not have fully appreciated it immediately, I do remember that it made me feel very grown up, to receive a cookbook of my own.

And I don't keep it around solely for nostalgia- Rose knows her stuff. The recipes are clearly-written and full of useful tips, and are helpfully sorted into categories like "good for shipping" and "to make with children." And the book includes all the classics, like Spritz and gingerbread men and moravian spice cookies, and Mexican wedding cakes.

A Christmas cookie book makes an excellent gift for this reason: while the pestos and sun-dried tomato dishes of the late 80s have given way to other trends, Christmas cookies are classics, and this book has stood the test of time. It was my first cookbook, yes, but it is also the only one besides The Joy of Cooking that has made it through all my many moves and closet clean-outs and changing tastes.

Every year when I bring it out, I read the inscription from my grandmother, who has now been gone for over five years, and send up another thank you. If you're looking for a gift for a special young baker in your life, I cannot recommend this book highly enough -- it really is a winner.

Easy, Home-baked Holiday Gift Idea

By Nora

My daughter goes to a Quaker preschool where they don't really make a big deal out of the holidays, especially the commercialism surrounding it. As a result, the teachers request that the kids not give them gifts, but if they want to, make something home/hand-made for them. Since my daugher is only 2 and a half that limits what she can create herself, although lately she's been enthusiastic about helping me cook (which is thrilling me to no end!).  So, this gave me an inspired idea. Remember that No-Knead Bread recipe I wrote about a while back? Well, I figured that my kid could help me mix the dough, and then the morning of preschool we pop them in the oven and after it's baked we can wrap it in a cute dishtowel, like this:

{Photo from sayyestohoboken.com}

I bet you can buy super cheap towels at Marshalls or Kohl's, or you can get a few of these that Katie wrote about back in September, and which I am completely obsessed with. And who doesn't appreciate and LOVE fresh baked bread???