Toast

Blog Rolls I: Whole Wheat Seed Buns

Luisa, of The Wednesday Chef made some really great looking breakfast rolls, which started me thinking about homemade hamburger/sandwich buns. I love sandwiches- hot and cold, for their portability and their individual portion size. Sandwiches can be experimental without much risk. If it turns out that you do not like arugula on your sandwich with roast pork and cranberry sauce (as I do), it is not nearly such a big deal as if, say, the ill considered addition of fennel seed ruins a whole pot of soup.

The photo of the nice, round breakfast rolls, reminded me of a terrific hot sandwich I had for lunch at the Cafe at the Frick. The bun was spectacularly good, and the meat juices soaked in just a bit- it was fine. I shared my burger thought with Luisa, who explained that hers were really sweet rolls, a point I'd missed while admiring the pictures.

At the library, I found Bernard Clayton's Complete Book of Small Breads, and now I am a little preoccupied with small breads in general. I was (and still am) planning to make some french rye sandwich rolls from this book. They seem like a good candidate for a tasty, all-purpose sandwich/hamburger bun. However, looking at my rye flour, I found myself unable to remember when I bought it- a bad sign. So I tossed it- and those guys will have to wait til I get to the store.

In the meantime, I made this whole wheat seed bun experiment. How could it be bad to have an assortment of different sandwich/burger rolls available in the freezer? These are a spin-off on a roll from Maggie Glezar's Artisan Baking Across America. Hers were meant to be made with light whole wheat flour, and do not have seeds. She pointed out that made with that special flour, they were the only whole wheat bread her kids would eat. I expect it would be worth seeking out, if you have small children, and they are fussy.

Personally, I was in the mood for something a bit darker, grainy and nutty, so I used ordinary whole wheat flower and added some seeds. If you wanted to make them, you could, of course leave the seeds out, or add some kinds you prefer. I used sesame, poppy, and nigella. all of which I particularly like. I also made the rolls a bit bigger and more bun-like, since I had sandwiches in mind. The rolls are proving very sandwich-compatible. I haven't tried a burger sort of thing yet.

If you would like to make these, you will need:

unbleached all purpose flour 2 cups
whole wheat flour 2 cups
instant yeast 1 tsp
lukewarm water scant 2 cups
salt 2 1/4 tsp
2 tsp mixed seeds (eg nigella, fennel, sesame) optional

Combine flour and yeast in the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with the dough hook. Add 1 3/4 cups of the water and mix til just blended. Cover bowl, and let rest for 10-20 minutes. Add seeds and salt, and mix/knead at a medium speed about 5 minutes, or until dough is smooth, but soft, and cleans the sides and bottom of the bowl. If the dough is not climbing the hook and sticking together, add a bit more of the water, a little at a time, until it does.

Put dough in a clean, lightly floured bowl, and let rise until doubled- about 2 hours. For sandwich rolls, divide into 10 equal sized pieces, and form into smooth rounds, stretching the dough around to the bottom of the roll and pinching closed. Set rolls on 2 baking sheets covered in parchment paper. Cover with waxed paper and let rise 1 1/2 hours, until puffy. Meanwhile, arrange racks in oven to fit 2 pans, and preheat oven to 450F. With a sharp knife or razor blade, slash each roll 3 times, or in a pattern of your choice.If you like, you could brush the rolls with an eggwhite wash, and sprinkle with more seeds. I wanted to maximize crust, and didn't do this.

Bake 20-25 minutes, turning and shifting the 2 pans in the middle of the time. Cool on rack. These may be frozen in a bag, and defrosted individually.

I think there will be more small breads around here soon. After the rye rolls, some crumpets, bath buns, cinnamon rolls? Could be.

The Bread Question Revisited

In September I complained at some length about the trouble I was having finding my favorite kind of bread here in my hometown. I am partial to a dark, thickish carmelized crust, and a chewy crumb, with some big radish sized holes, and a bit of stretch. Not that I don't like other sorts of bread, too- but for an everyday, staff of life kind of loaf, well-that's what I like.If I lived in the SF Bay area, rather than Pittsburgh, I'd just keep myself in Acme rustic baguettes, or something of the sort, and be fine. But I don't.

I was frustrated, because I found several kinds of breads made by Medittera Bakehouse that I really loved, but which aren't carried anywhere I can get to without making a special bus trip. I noted that the Allegro Hearth Bakery, which makes "European Style" breads here in my own neighborhood, seemed, like the other bakeries in town to bake its breads very lightly. I'm sure this has everything to do with what customers are used to, and hence expect, in a town where the Mancini's pale and soft crusted style of "Italian bread" has reigned supreme for years.

No doubt there are any number of Pittsburghers who would think the bread I like best is burnt, and wouldn't try it. Omar Higley, who has been the owner of the Allegro Hearth for a year and a half or so, and seems a nice fellow, commented that I might want to try 3 of his darker breads, including a new batard, with a more carmelized crust. (I thought that this was a very pleasant approach, since he could just as well have asked me who I thought I was to make rules about bread crusts. Of course, this is entirely a matter of my personal fanaticism on the topic, and I am no more qualified than the next opinionated customer.)

That batard is the bread you see here, and I have just tried it. The crust is definitely more to my taste, though I really don't think it's all that dark, truth be told. It has a nice bit of blistering, and a flavor and texture I like very much. The innards taste good too, though they are finer grained and more cottony than my favorite more rubbery kind. It is sour, but not overly so, just the right amount of sour for me, in fact.

The bottom line is I like this bread better than anything else I can get anywhere near where I live, and I'll probably be buying it every week for a while, if I can remember to call ahead for it. Pittsburghers-if you want to try it they are only making 3 of these per day at the moment! They will hold one for you if you call a day ahead, or early in the morning. If you do try it, let me know what you think. BTW, It is a convenient size, big enough to put one out for a small group for dinner, or for one person to eat for several days. It smells good, too.

The Christmas Present

I was the recipient of a number of wonderful christmas presents, including the digital kitchen scale I have longed for, which has the distinction of being the both the first, and the second item ever purchased from my Amazon wish list (Somehow, 2 people managed to purchase the same item, which I had thought impossible. Sorting it out involves me getting to pick out yet another goodie-I'm feeling well and truly spoiled.) There were excellent books, dvds, more nifty kitchen items, and even a cashmere sweater of lush softness. But this particular gift is just so fine.

You may, perhaps, recall my whinging about my inability to buy Maraschino Liquor anywhere in Pennsylvania. I wanted to get some badly after I read in the New York Times earlier this year about making maraschino cherries. It suddenly became immensely important to me that I have a jar of real maraschino cherries, without corn syrup, red dye, et al., made by soaking unadulterated real cherries in unadulterated maraschino liquor.

It is not that I have a manhattan, or a hot fudge sundae, or a pineapple upside down cake on a daily basis. But these things do sometimes just inexplicably grab me. I was not a happy camper when I was informed that the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board had decided that Pennsylvania residents did not need this item, so that it was not available at any liquor store in the state. I could not buy it here, even if I was willing to wait for it to be shipped in from a warehouse in another county.

As often happens in the Toast family, my one and only child had also read the article and independently decided that she needed some real maraschino cherries. (I cannot tell you the number of times I have googled something and wound up looking at her hungry tiger.) She was, however, on her way to Italy for a conference at the time, and by the time we discussed it, she was back with her bottle of the goods. When you are an employee of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, you never go to a conference anywhere more thrilling than Harrisburg. Envy was the nice word for it.

So, when I opened the long skinny present on Christmas Day, and saw that she and S. had given me this, I was pretty well over the moon. They found it visiting Providence, at a fancy Federal Hill liquor store. (They live in Ohio, where the liquor stores are also dire.) There was a definite element of selflessness involved in actually turning it over to me-I know this well. I am hugely tickled to have it, and intend to pour a portion of it over a big jar full of defrosted pitted organic frozen cherries asap.
Cocktails to follow.

HoHoHo.

Addendum: Spotted a small bag of hard South American cherries at the market, and decided it would be nice to have some stems on my maraschinos. So- I abandoned plans for the frozen cherries, washed these guys and filled two pint jars to the top. (I didn't pit them-there's that almondy flavor to be gained from the pits, a perfect excuse for laziness.) I added a wee bit of simple sugar syrup and filled to the top with my lovely christmas present. I'll give them a few weeks at the dark side of the pantry shelf, and then (after tasting) move to the fridge.

Further Addendum: (see comment in response to Matthew, below) If you search this blog for "maraschino" you will find an update. Turned out that the fresh and frozen cherries were a bust- but dried cherries worked very well indeed. I heartily recommend poring this stuff over every dried cherry you can find.

The Icing on the Cake

Look! I am so lucky, because a kind fellow , whom I have pestered and hounded, has given me this beautiful Black Cake! I have wanted to make a black cake ever since I first read about this holiday specialty in Laurie Colwin's Home Cooking. I never got around to it, in part because there are other seasonal cooking traditions I like to keep up with, and also because it is a fairly complicated recipe, requiring planning ahead.

And now I get to try one, with almost no work on my part! It arrived wrapped in a rum soaked cloth, smelling yummy. All I had to do was to frost it. I thought I would go with the traditional English-style royal icing for Christmas cakes. Though specified by Ms. Colwin, it has been mocked by many, including moi, for its crustiness and staying power. Still, not having tasted a black cake before, I felt it was too early to pile on something heretical like a cream cheese frosting. Doing so might have changed the whole taste of the thing. And then I wouldn't have known what I was deviating from.....if you know what I mean.

Anyway, I had an inexplicable urge to see if I could accomplish a traditional Christmas Cake look, to set out with the other goodies for Boxing Day. I found a royal icing recipe in Nigella Lawson's Feast, which I had from the library. First, she said, roll out a pound of marzipan, and drape it over the cake. Oh sure, thinks I, now comes the part where the sticky almond/sugar mixture adheres to everything, including the rolling pin, and then tears and shreds as I try to flop it onto the cake.

Not so. It was totally easy. I think this ease may have been due to my (relatively new) bargain-basement pastry marble, which I sprinkled lightly with flour. Marble is so cool, and pretty, too. I then rolled out 2 mooshed together 7 oz packages of Odense marzipan from the supermarket. Hey presto- the entire cake was magically and seamlessly enrobed.

I kid you not. I wrapped this dream result in cling wrap, to frost the next day. (I wanted to bask in the glory of one step completed without derailment, figuring the frosting would be something to tangle with too.) BTW, If anyone would like to give me a giant, ruinously expensive gift, and has, for some reason ruled out an Aga like Barbara's, a beautiful old marble topped pastry/butcher's table, such as are sold here, would be very nice. I would make pastry on it, even as it was being a thing of beauty. Of course, I'd probably have to keep it in the bedroom, given the size of my apartment kitchen. But no matter, really. I'd manage for sure.

In any event, the royal icing aspect of this venture was less satisfying, rather a come down, in truth. I aimed for a pourable consistency, hoping for smoothness, and also for a thin coating , since this stuff is marginally edible mortar. It was pourable all right, and thin, too, but unaccountably a little lumpy, for all I sifted every particle of confectioner's sugar. As for the nursery school decoration, well, I thought the combo of the rectangular green jimmies with the round red ones would look like holly. I have been telling myself that the homecrafted-by- the-pitiful look is traditional for a christmas cake.

Well, the cake is delicious, madly fruity and boozy. I had a slice before organizing for boxing day drop-ins. I thought others might be hesitant to disturb the smooth surface. .my excuse. The marzipan goes very well, all richness. A tiny sliver is a good serving size. The ever crusty royal icing was thin, as planned. This did, however, make it prone to shattering, and thus messier looking when cut, than the traditional solid thick layer. Since the smooth surface of my icing job was less than perfect anyway, that was not really a problem for me.

It's been a nice and reasonably slow paced holiday. I'm looking forward to making something really good soon, with my favorite XMas present. Stay tuned, as they used to say on the box, back when it wore rabbit ears.

Dinosaur Soup

I am not a big customer of Whole Foods, as I have mentioned before. The combination of high prices and distance (read:bus ride with bags) is discouraging, and in the summer, spring and fall, my CSA veg are so abundent and wonderful that I am not really hampered by the limitations of the Giant Eagle produce. But there are some things you don't find at the Giant Eagle- or in the Strip District either. The Strip is most fabulous for imports, ethnic foods, fish and cheese.

The produce there is nice, and it is cheap, too, but limited. You do get some of the lovely Italian seasonal specialities-figs, fava beans, etc.. There are sometimes fantastic mushrooms. But I have never found black kale, or dinosaur kale, as it is sometimes called, at the Giant Eagle or the Strip District markets. I love this stuff. (Pittsburghers: If I am wrong, please point me to the market in the Strip that has this-I will bless you til the cows come home). As I was recently kindly driven to Whole Foods for a small spree, I have some. I wish I'd bought it all, as I would like to eat it every night for a week.

Faced with the deciding how best to consume my all too small portion of this beautiful, jungly-looking dark green flavorama, I went with soup. There are quite a few versions of bean and kale soup out there, but most have pancetta or bacon going on. That would have been fine with me, but my vegetarian family members were due here for the holidays. I thought it would be good to have a nice soup, for lunches between the various scheduled holiday feasts. So I cooked up my own version, which really owes more to the tradition in general than any particular other recipe.

I wish I'd taken a picture of my gorgeous kale before it was cooked. I was not in the mood to photograph my food after a day of work, a post-work haircut (I can see again, a miracle!), followed by food shopping. This is particularly the case since I've started following the advice of my only child, who took the tip from the spendid Paula Wolfert. Greens, of the sort you intend to cook, rather than salad-ize, really store better and last longer if you blanch them before you put them away. That's what I did. So even before I made my soup, the grandeur was flopped out of the kale. The magic of the internet, however, allowed me to present you with a picture of someone else's black kale, which I assure you resembles my own, pre-blanch. The soup you see, though less beautiful, is my own.

This is what I used:

black kale 1 bunch, blanched and cut in thin ribbons
cannellini beans 1/2 lb.
onion, one, thinly sliced
olive oil
garlic 2 cloves, chopped
2 cups boxed veg broth
2 cups water
pecorino cheese, chunk of rind and cheese about 2"X4"
a chopped carrot
sprig rosemary
salt
pepper
aleppo pepper - a pinch
smoked spanish paprika 1 tsp
home canned san marzano tomatoes 2 quarts, with liquid (obviously, you can substitute any good canned tomatoes)

I soaked the beans overnight. In the morning, I sauteed the onions in some olive oil, until they were soft, added the garlic and cooked it just a bit more. Next came the beans, carrot, seasonings, water and stock, as well as the cheese. I cooked the lot til the beans were tender, about 1 hour. Then, I added the tomatoes and their liquid, fished out the rosemary sprig, and pureed the soup with my immersion blender. (It is important not to add the tomatoes until the beans are tender. Once they- or anything acedic, are added to beans, the beans will never get softer. Some people claim this is also true for salt; I have not found it so.)

Most recipes using cheese rind will tell you to remove it, but I do like it mixed in, so I included it in the puree process. If you do this, your soup will not be perfectly smooth, but I prefer mine with some texture and also random tomato chunks, personally.

I added the ribbons of kale, and cooked the soup for 45 minutes more. Then I applied the immersion blender again, being careful to leave lots of lovely dark green flecks and minichunks of the kale. It rested, cooled, in the fridge for a day, before being reheated, sprinkled with grated romano, and slurped up, with crusty bread. The cheese and tomato flavors did tend to be a little dominant (as compared to the pleasures of eating the kale more or less alone, sauteed), but they also stretched out the small amount of kale to make more nice food. And, immodest though it may be, I've got to say these home canned tomatoes are so noticeably more delicious than the best I've bought. I'm kind of surprised by this, but it is true.

I'm very glad I bothered, and wish I had more jars than I do. Yum.

Rosemary Tree

I don't get to Whole Foods very often; it means a hike, spending too much (they know how to hook me over there,especially when my CSA farm has gone winter-dormant), and then carrying my excess baggage home on the bus. I did stop by on Friday night, with a friend and a car, so I was able to pick up some Mediterra Mt. Athos firebread, which I love. I also succumbed to the lure of the Rosemary Christmas Tree you see above. This 18" cutie was reduced, along with its numerous healthy looking fellows , to $9.99. I could not be expected to resist.

I am very fond of the piney flavor of rosemary. I always grow some in the summer, but have never been able to bring it through the winter-it's too cold outside in Pittsburgh, and the dry heat, low light and cats in my apartment are death to growing things. This fall, I took my little summer rosemary plant to the Magic Windowsill at work, where my lemon tree is blooming again its second winter, after bearing an actual full size fruit. The window ledge there is wide and well lit, and they turn the heat off in the building every night.

This provides a nonfreezing, but cool night temperature, which is perfect for a lot of plants. There's a small palm tree, a Kaffir Lime-with blossoms and fruit, some jade plants and a good sized thyme plant. If my rosemary christmas tree survives the holiday, I will take it in to join the smaller rosemary plant there, and see if I can pull them through. Meanwhile, I have been keeping an eye on my little rosemary tree in a sheltered corner of the porch, planning to drag it indoors if it gets super cold, and to set it on my dining room table for my holiday party.

The root ball of my new rosemary plant, on examination, does have the the look of having been hacked mercilessly from a larger bush. It certainly is not some carefully grown standard, nurtured and gently urged into its shape by subtle pruning over the years. But hey, it cost $9.99. Even if it doesn't last long, it will be well worth the money. For less than it would cost to buy a few undistinguished supermarket cut flowers, it is a bargain. In addition to being seasonal and extremely cute, it should provide quite a bit of fresh rosemary. I see some rosemary ciabotta, roasted veg, rosemary pound cake, slow roasted lamb shoulder, and more in my future.

I've started with something I have not made before, because it sounds intriguing, and because I cannot stay away from preserving for very long. I am now aware that this jelly could been seen as a somewhat peculiar concoction. I liked the idea of it, and assumed that it would be universally appealing. When I told my elderly mother what I was making, she said, with the frankness of the slightly unglued, "What would you want that for?" I reported this to a friend as an eccentric remark, and was brought up a bit short when he raised an eyebrow and said, "Well, what would you want it for?"

It is a garlic and rosemary jelly, a condiment recommended as a substitute for mint jelly with roast lamb- also supposedly complimenting roast pork or chicken. It can be stirred into gravies and the like as well. Personally, I think it sounds great, but I haven't had any yet, so I can't swear to it.

The green apple pectin jelly, I made this summer is nearly gone, so I used the store-bought liquid pectin called for in the recipe- which is adapted from the newest Gourmet Cookbook. Speaking of stirring, the jelly must be stirred up a bit before using; the garlic tends to migrate to one corner of the jar. The recipe makes about 4 cups of jelly.
If you would like to make some too, you will need:

dry white wine 1 1/4 cups
white wine vinegar 1/8 cup
balsamic vinegar 1/8 cup
garlic, finely chopped 15 large cloves
fresh rosemary sprigs 4 four inch sprigs
sugar 3 1/2 cups
liquid pectin one 3 oz pouch

Sterilize four 8 oz canning jars. Put everything but the pectin into a large nonreactive pot, and bring to a rolling boil. Stir in pectin, bring back to a boil, and boil for one minute. Pour jelly through a sieve into a large glass measuring cup. Distribute garlic and rosemary among the jars, and pour jelly over. Leave 1/4 space at top of each. Process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes. Cool and check seals. Do not open for at least 24 hours, to allow flavors to develop. After that you can serve it to anyone who doesn't think you're off your head to want to make it, with their roast lamb.

And with that, my friends, I wish you, in the words of a gifted chef of my acquantaince who is presently the overqualified, yet incredibly helpful cheese guy at Whole Foods, a very "Happy Hollandaise".

Meyer Lemon Tea Cake

Each home cook develops a repetoire of dishes which can be made more or less with eyes shut. These recipes don't let us down. We make them every so often; our friends and family ask for them, and they look pleased when we serve them. We cycle around to them repeatedly, so they conjure up the relative who showed us how, the old klunker stove we had to watch like a hawk, or the baby smacking her spoon on the highchair tray, squealing in anticipation. I feel, sentimentally, that cooking in this frame of mind connects us to cooks we have never met, cooking their own particular favorites, perhaps wildly different from what we are making. This is a variant of the first cake ever to find a place in my long term cooking cycle.

The earliest version I made appeared in a paperback book I no longer have. This cookbook was called something like The Farm Journal Bread Cookbook, and I bought it used, in Madison, Wisconsin in the seventies. The recipe was called "Lemon Tea Bread", though it was clearly a cake.

It is a common enough cake- common because it is so good and so universally liked. My original version was made with ordinary lemons; I still make it with ordinary lemons when Meyer Lemons are not available. But I think it is especially good made with Meyer Lemons, and with some changes copped from Fran Gage's memoir/cookbook, Bread and Chocolate.

You may be thinking by now that everything I cook takes 2 days. Not so, really. This one, for example, can easily be done in one, but it does actually taste even better if you take 2 days, so that the peel can really soak up the syrup. This is what you need:

butter, melted 1 1/2 sticks (12 tbsps, 6 oz)
sugar 2 1/2 cups
eggs 4
vanilla 1/2 tsp
flour, all purpose unbleached 3 cups
baking powder 1 1/2 tsps
salt 1 1/2 tsp
milk 1 cup
grated zest of Meyer lemons 1 (small)
peel of Meyer lemons 2 lemons
juice of 3 lemons

Up to one day, or as little as one hour before preparing the cake, in a pyrex measure, mix 1/2 cup of the sugar with the lemon juice and water to make a total of 1 cup. Bring mixture to a boil in a small pot, stir to dissolve the sugar. Remove from the heat. Place the grated zest and peel in a small bowl, pour the syrup over, and cover.

When you are ready to make the cake, spray a (preferably nonstick) bundt type pan or 2 loaf pans with plain cooking spray, or else butter it, thoroughly, but not thickly. Preheat the oven to 350F. Remove the peel from the syrup, leaving the grated zest in the syrup. Reserve syrup. Chop the peel as finely as you can. Chop like crazy. A mezzaluna is great for this task.

In a medium bowl, mix the butter, remaining sugar, eggs and vanilla and chopped peel. In a larger bowl, or the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the dry ingredients. Add the egg mixture and milk alternately to the larger bowl, beating until thoroughly mixed. Pour the batter into the pan(s) and bake for approximately 70 minutes, or until a broomstraw poked in the middle comes out clean.

While the cake is baking, put a cooling rack over a cookie sheet lined in foil.
Cool cake 10 minutes in the pan(s), and carefully remove from pans. Place cake right side up on rack and pour syrup over the cake. Cool thoroughly and wrap in cling wrap.

Wait at least 24 hours before eating this; the flavor is noticeably superior when you do. Wrapped, this cake keeps a long time, and is splendid plain, but it is also good with fruit. It is nice toasted as it gets on in age. I used always to make this in loaf pans, but nowadays I'm smitten with the bundt form for plain cakes.

Baking for Britain's Banbury Cakes

I have been enjoying the survey of traditional u.k. goodies taking place in Baking for Britain, which I have only recently discovered. I've been trying to pre-make some sweet and savory treats , to serve at my Boxing Day party. These Banbury Cakes seemed in the spirit of the thing, and also gave me an idea. I had been contemplating the mincemeat I made this fall, assuming that I would make mince tarts. But I have nearly two quarts of this stuff; mince tarts take so little, they won't get me far.

The filling for Banbury Cakes seemed quite mincemeat-like; the cakes were said to smell like mince tarts. A rum and mincemeat-like filling also appeared in my other source on the topic- Jane Pettigrew's National Trust Book of Tea-Time Recipes. There is a hefty dose of rum in my mincemeat already- and rum is rumored to be a component of a "secret" local Banbury recipe. I still had nearly a pound of homemade
rough puff pastry. So, I decided to take it easy and use my already made pastry and mincemeat, and make some Banbury Cakes.

Quite simply, I rolled out my sheet of puff pastry to 1/4" thickness, and cut 4" circles. In the centre of each, I put a hefty spoonful of mincemeat. I very carefully brushed all edges with water and pinched them well closed, mindful of the dangers of ruptured pastry warned of in BFB. I then turned them over, seam on bottom, and gently coaxed them into the characteristic torpedo shape. Three diagonal slits, then off to the freezer to bake when the time comes. Except for this one, which I baked for you (well,okay, for me) so that we can see what they will look like. I plan to bake them directly from the frozen state on Boxing Day.

This particular Banbury cake is no more. I ate it immediately after I took the picture, and it was good. I think probably the homemade all butter puff pastry (last of my first ever batch) is the main reason it was so nice. The mincemeat is tasty, too, though the difference from storebought is less obvious there. Nonetheless, you could easily make these from purchased puff pastry-if you can find some you like, and a good brand of bottled mincemeat, spiked with some rum. Or, you could follow the link to anapestic's excellent rough puff pastry lesson, if you are in the mood. It was so much less difficult than I thought it would be, and I'm going to be making more soon.

Savory Rugelach with Olives, Onions, and Capers

Rugelach, the sweet, filled crescent cream cheese pastries,are among my favorite cookies. They are pretty generally available in bakeries around here, though few approach the mysteriously extra good ones made by my late Aunt Yetta. I have a very positive feeling about rugelach, though I do not, sadly, have Aunt Yetta's recipe.

I saw this idea for savory rugelach in an issue of Bon Appetit. When my only slightly adapted version turned out to be delicious, but kind of slovenly looking, I went back to the magazine article to check on what the professional ones looked like. I figured I could adjust my technique on batch two, and make them a bit sleeker. Ha. Everything else in their "updated" Channukah got a closeup, but the rugelach were only shown from a hazy distance, heaped on a tidbit platter. I'm guessing this was to deemphasize their homeliness. I'm willing to eat them with my eyes closed, if necessary, and I'm betting other folks will be too.

They seem to me to be a good choice for my Boxing Day party. I usually have a little afternoon gathering with tea and coffee and snacks the day after Christmas, to get together with family and friends and out of town visitors before everyone goes back to work. Generally, and especially recently, when Christmas has been on or around the weekend, people are available on the 26th. And since I am in Pittsburgh where (unlike Canada and the UK) Boxing Day is not generally observed, there isn't often a conflict with another holiday party.

I try to have plenty of treat-type food, with an equal quantity of savory and sweet things, lots of tea and coffee, and some wine as the afternoon rolls on. It helps if much of the food can be made ahead, and reheated or served at room temperature. I also favor food which can be picked up and eaten easily. These rugelach seemed to fit right in, and they are really good. Also, you can freeze them on a cookie sheet, and then bag then up, to reheat them from the frozen state. This makes them a good take along to the house of others, if you are looking for something of that sort.

I collect ideas for savory snacks that go well with tea and coffee, and these fill the bill. I can sneakily have a few for supper with a pot of tea, if I'm feeling not starved, and a little lazy. They are also nice to offer a visitor who is having a cup of something hot with you. or to nibble with a bowl of a creamy soup. I have not strayed far from the olive filling as set out in Bon Appetit, but I can imagine other savory fillings that might be tasty. In fact, a certain mushroom concoction comes to mind. I will be making (and maybe posting) on this pantry staple, also in connection with Boxing Day. I plan to use it in another application then, though.

Here's what you need to make these:

Dough

packaged cream cheese, cut into 1" cubes 1 8oz. pkg
unsalted butter, cut into 1" cubes 2 sticks (1/2 lb)
unbleached all purpose flour 2 cups
fresh rosemary, finely chopped 4 tsps
salt and pepper

Filling
oil cured black olives, pitted 1/2 cup
salt packed capers 1/4 cup
yellow onions, coarsely chopped 1 cup
cream cheese, room temperature, diced 1 4 oz. pkg

egg glaze
1 egg, beaten

To make the dough:
Blend cream cheese and butter in food processor. Add flour, rosemary, salt and pepper and mix thoroughly in processor. This can also be done in a stand mixer, with the paddle. Divide dough in half. Shape each half into a flat square. Wrap and chill in fridge, one hour to 2 days.

To make filling: Pulse onions, capers and olives in food processor until finely chopped. (If no vegetarians to dine, add a couple of anchovies.) Add cream cheese, blend thoroughly. Scrape into a bowl and chill as with dough.

To make the rugelach: Preheat oven to 350F and line 2 bakingsheets with parchment. Roll out dough square to 14". Trim to 12 1/2" square. Cut into five 2 1/2" strips, then crosswise in 2 1/2 " squares. There will be 25 of these. Put one tsp of filling on each square and spread almost to the edges.
Starting in a corner, roll each square into a cylinder, and curve ends in, to make a crescent. Set on parchment. Brush with glaze. Bake until golden brown, about 25 minutes. Cool on sheets.

These rugelach simply will not look tidy, as the filling creeps out weirdly, and the crescents go bulgy. They are worth it, though, if you ask me..

To reheat them from the frozen state purportedly takes about 12 minutes at 325F.

The Fancy Pantry Mushroom Thing

I love everything about mushrooms. I think they are beautiful in their variety, in appearance and in flavor. If you slice them thinly with a sharp knife, the design in cross section is complex and fascinating. They are exotic, but rustic; they taste woodsy, smoky, and earthy, but also sophisticated, delicate, and elusive. Dried or fresh, I never met a mushroom I didn't like.

I thought about calling this post "Mushroom Sandwiches." But it is only incidentally about mushroom sandwiches- though fine sandwiches they are. More truthfully, it is about the mushroom concoction inside the sandwiches . This stuff is good for more than sandwiches. It has, however, an unfortunate name, or rather two alternate , equally clunky names. It is called either "Mushroom Paste" or "Potted Mushrooms", and I think both sound stodgy.

I never would have tried making it myself, except that it is a Helen Witty recipe (from her Fancy Pantry.) Ms. Witty, whose better known Better Than Store Bought is an old favorite of mine, does not often disappoint. And I really do adore mushrooms. I've become very fond of this pantry staple. I did not take its photo, since it looks boring, just a little crock with a topping of clarified butter. But its looks are deceiving.

It is the cooked down essence of nicely seasoned mushroom, almost like a mushroom version of jellied meat juices. It makes fabulous thin tea sandwiches and excellent toasted panini, and also is an aid to pasta sauces and stews. It is lovely melted on hot cooked kasha or barley, especially with carmelized onions. It can be kept in the fridge for three weeks, under its seal of clarified butter, but should be used within a couple of days after the seal is broken. So I put it up in 3 small crocks, rather than one larger one.

I admit it is a bit of a fuss to make, but it is not a tricky fuss, and you wind up with little jars of instant goodness in your larder. (Fridge, really.) You will need to make some clarified butter first. You can make a pound of clarified butter at a time, because it keeps very well. It is nice for sauteeing , because it doesn't burn so fast as ordinary butter. Have I convinced you?

If so, this is what you need:

dried mushrooms 2/3cup
fresh mushrooms 1/2 lb
madiera 2 tbsps
bay leaf 1/4 leaf
shallots 2 sliced
cloves,ground tiny pinch
thyme pinch
allspice pinch
butter, unsalted 1 stick
butter, clarified about 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks)
salt
red pepper flakes (pref aleppo) pinch

This is what you do:

Soak dried mushrooms in water to cover overnight.

Preheat oven to 300F.

Chop fresh mushrooms coarsely. Put them in food processor and pulse until finely chopped. Remove to a bowl. Lift dried mushrooms out of liquid and put in food processor with everything but the butters. Carefully pour in soaking liquid, stopping before you get to the powdery dregs. Puree. Add finely chopped fresh mushrooms, and puree thoroughly.

Scrape puree into an oven proof bowl or souffle dish- about 3 cup size. Cover with foil, and top foil with some sort of oven proof lid to keep it in place. Set in a larger baking pan. Pull out oven rack, and place pan on rack. Fill bottom pan with boiling water.

Keep an eye on the water level- don't let it go dry. At 1 1/2 hours, remove lid, stir, replace lid. An hour later, remove lid. cook 1/2 hour more. Remove from oven and place, uncovered on a rack to cool. After 5 minutes, slice your remaining stick of butter into very thin slices, and whisk or stir them into the mix. When all your butter has dissoved into the mix, taste for seasoning and adjust. It should be quite strongly flavoured, so that a little bit makes itself known. Spoon into individual crocks, or leave in larger bowl if preferred.

Cool completely-it will look sort of marbled. Melt clarified butter and pour over the top of mixture, making about a 1/4" layer on top, making sure it is completely covered- all the way to the sides of the crock(s). Cover, and store in fridge. Take out of fridge a little before using, for best spreading consistency. If you need to know how to make clarified butter, don't worry. It's really easy.

clarified butter

Use a small heavy pan, and place it over a very low heat with 4 sticks of butter. Keep an eye on it. In about 25 minutes, the white foam on top will begin to look a bit crusty. You want no browning whatsoever. Carefully skim the white top part off, and save.
Pour clarified butter into a clean dry container, stopping before you get to the dregs on the bottom. Once it begins to congeal, cover and refrigerate.

If you are a frugal sort (I believe it is possible to be both frugal and extravagant), you can use the white top bits and dregs to season mashed potatoes, or veg- it tastes very good, just stir into hot veg before serving.

I hope you will try this mushroom business; I definitely think it's worth the fiddling around. I generally make it from pretty generic fresh and dried mushrooms- if you've got fresh wild mushrooms, you want to have them fresh, for maximum value.

If you think of a worthy name for it- please let me know.