Ebelskiver

Ever since tasting Ebelskiver or Danish pancakes at Broder's in Portland, Mr. P and I could barely contain our enthusiasm for making some of our own. Luckily, Santa brought us a fabulous Ebelskiver pan for Christmas (thanks to the handy elf-work of my lovely MIL) and we finally got to try making our own. We hunted down a recipe that sounded good and were not disappointed. You can fill these little beauties with just about anything. We used homemade raspberry jam, but I imagine sweets like bananas, nutella, caramelized apples or savories like breakfast meats, cheese, green onions and more would all be fabulous fillings also. They are also fabulous plain with topping. Serve with syrup, lingonberries, powdered sugar, whipped cream or the Mr.'s favorite - lemon curd. Wondering what to do with that leftover buttermilk? This is one fabulous application. Makes enough for two hungry people with a bit leftover.

Basic Ebelskiver Batter

adapted from SugarMama Baking Co.

1 eggs, separated

1 cups buttermilk

1 cups flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. baking soda

1 tbs. sugar

2 tbs. Melted butter

Separate eggs; beat egg whites until stiff. Mix all the other ingredients together at one time and beat until smooth. Fold in egg whites.

Heat pan on low to medium heat. Put 1/2 tsp. butter, oil or shortening in each cup. Pour in batter near top but not filling cup. If desired, put 1/2 tsp. of jam, a piece of pineapple, blueberries, raisins, etc., in batter. (If fruit is added, reduce the amount of batter initially placed in cup. Add fruit and cover with a small amount of batter.) When bubbly, turn ball with a fork or skewer. Continue cooking until toothpick comes out clean. Serve warm as desired.

Butter

That's right. Making butter. Rocket science you say? Hardly. If I had any idea just how simple it was to knock out a batch of butter, I would've been doing this years ago. It's hard to believe sometimes just how separated we are from our food sources, when an adult has a vague sense of how butter gets to her table, but is sure it involves a hyper-complicated process or hours and hours at one of those old-school churners that seem to be used almost exclusively as country decor tchatchkas, nick-knacks or occasionally, storage. I felt almost ashamed that it took Karen Solomon's lovely cookbook Jam It, Cure It, Pickle It, to make me realize just how simple making your own goodies like butter really are. No wonder each family used to make their own butter! So simple, you get beautiful, fresh buttermilk and fabulous butter all at once! How does the magic happen you ask? Shake. Shake. Shake. Or, for the weak-armed, Mix. That's right. Grab yourself some heavy whipping cream and let's get started.


Butter
from Jam It, Pickle It, Preserve it by Karen Solomon

1 c Heavy Whipping Cream
salt to taste

Place cream in a clean jar with a tight-fitting lid. Jar should be large enough for cream to only take up half of it. Shake. I imagine this would be an awesome game for kids - just beware of launching jars. Shake, dancing along with the shaking is even more fun. Shake while reading the paper. Shake for 3 minutes or so (depending on the temperature, warmer = faster), you'll have whipped cream. Another few minutes you'll have the beginnings of butter. Once you get a good amount of solidified mass and separated buttermilk, pour and reserve the buttermilk in a separate bowl (for ideas on how to use the buttermilk, see the next post!).

Once buttermilk is removed, pour just enough water to cover the nascent butter into the jar and shake some more. Once more solid, dump this water out (do not keep this liquid). Repeat once more. Once the butter consistency is to your liking, mix with your favorite salt or fresh herbs, garlic, whatever your little heart desires. Refrigerate for up to 2 weeks. Also makes a great gift.

ALTERNATIVELY, if you just don't have the shake in you, place cream in stand mixer (or use hand-held mixer) and mix until the butter is mostly solidified and you have your buttermilk. Reserve buttermilk by pouring into separate bowl. Add water to butter, again mix until it's at the consistency you want, pour out water (no need to keep this water) and add in any of your favorite mixings as mentioned above.

Sea Salt Caramels

This Christmas, the Mr. and I managed to put together a whole bunch of homemade gifts. My favorite by far was a recipe for caramels I'd had my eye on since I noticed it at the apartment therapy blog in 2008. Caramel and candy making in general has always daunted me with it's talk of precise temperatures, "hard ball" stages and vivid memories from my childhood of the smell of burnt sugar from a particularly disastrous caramel-apple making session at a friends house. However, with one wee little candy thermometer (which you can pick up for less than $5), this recipe couldn't be simpler. I ended up making many batches of these babies and perfected the technique with each attempt, but honestly, each batch was delectable as was - even the first batch! Though it requires careful babysitting on the stove, this process is surprisingly simple and incredibly delicious.

Sea Salt Caramels

adapted from apartmenttherapy.com

Ingredients

1 cup heavy cream

5 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into pieces

1 1/2 teaspoons sea salt

1 1/2 cups sugar

1/4 cup light corn syrup

1/4 cup water

Directions

Line the bottom and sides of the pan with parchment paper and lightly oil the paper.

Bring the cream, butter and sea salt to a boil in a small saucepan; remove from heat and set aside.

Boil the sugar, corn syrup, and water in a heavy saucepan, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Bring to a boil, without stirring but gently swirling pan; then cook without stirring until the mixture reaches 248°F, the firm-ball stage. Carefully stir in the cream mixture—the mixture will bubble up. Simmer, stirring frequently, about 15 minutes. The temperature should not go higher than 250°F. The mixture will slowly darken and turn golden brown. Once to the consistency you want (see candymaker tip below), pour the mixture into the baking pan and cool 2 hours.

Yield: About 40 caramels

CANDYMAKER TIP: To get the caramel consistency you want, test by dropping a spoonful of caramel into a bowl of cold water. It will form a ball, which you can test with your fingers. Stop cooking when the ball is the consistency that you want.

OPTIONAL: You can enrobe your caramels in tempered melted chocolate; sprinkle the top with some grains of sea salt (pretty salts make a difference); or press in some culinary lavender buds.* Cut into 1-inch pieces, then wrap each piece in a 4-inch square of wax paper, folding ends or twisting to close like taffy.*

ALTERNATIVE: Pour the caramel into individual candy cups.

Grandma Rosie's Persimmon Pudding with Cinnamon Creme Anglaise

This little persimmon followed us all the way across the country from Oregon. It sat ripening with other fruit for a week and change before finally becoming tender enough to be included in a recipe I've been excited to try ever since I came across it in my mom's collection of recipes. Although my mom's mom - my Grandma Rosie was never much of a cook, my mom had this recipe, written in Grandma Rosie's own hand writing on a faded index card for persimmon pudding. Having not ever tasted persimmons until last November and never having cooked with them myself, I was excited to try working with this strangely overlooked fruit.

The pudding looked simple - the simplest of the other persimmon pudding recipes I had encountered online. But I trusted in the simplicity of the dish - especially cooking with persimmon for the first time. I was not disappointed. Similar texture to a traditional English pudding, slightly crunchy carmelized sweetness on the top with a softer middle with a touch of tartness from the persimmon and the warmth of cinnamon. Positively mouth-watering.

However, that little note in the bottom left hand corner to "serve with sauce" left me a bit stumped. What sauce did you mean, Grandma Rosie? The back of the card provided no insight, so I went back to the Internet for some inspiration and settled on a cinnamon crème anglaise - another treat I had never made before, though I have enjoyed it many times. The simplicity of the recipe seemed a natural pairing with the simplicity of the pudding. The crème also did not disappoint - so much of a non-disappointment that I had no qualms using my fingers to scrape out every last bit of the few remaining dregs of crème from the bowl.

Cinnamon Crème Anglaise

from Bon Appétit

2 cups whole milk
1 3 1/2- to 4-inch-long cinnamon stick, broken in half
6 large egg yolks
5 tablespoons sugar
Pinch of fine sea salt

Combine milk and cinnamon stick halves in medium saucepan. Bring just to simmer over medium heat. Remove from heat; cover and let steep 1 hour. (I confess to shortening this time to about 20 minutes due to time constraints and added ground cinnamon to intensify the cinnamon flavor).

Whisk yolks, sugar, and salt in medium bowl. Return milk mixture to simmer. Gradually whisk milk mixture into yolk mixture. Return mixture to saucepan. Stir constantly over medium heat until sauce thickens and instant-read thermometer inserted into mixture registers 165°F to 170°F, about 3 minutes (do not boil). Remove from heat. Strain through sieve into small bowl; cool. Cover; chill until cold. DO AHEAD: Can be made 3 days ahead; chill.

Sweet Potato Rolls

Even though I didn't make much in the way of contributions to Thanksgiving dinner this year, I still had a blast playing with some of the recipes I mentioned in my dreaming of thanksgiving post. One of my favorites were these sweet potato rolls from James Beard. As clearly demonstrated in this blog, orange food and I have a very special relationship - and the sweet potato is in the top teir of those treasured autumnal delights. Put together with a delicious parkerhouse-style roll? Heaven. I certainly wouldn't mind making these again...and again...

Sweet Potato Rolls
adapted from Adapted from "Beard on Bread," by James Beard via the washington post

Ingredients:
1 (8-ounce) sweet potato
4 1/2 teaspoons (two 1/4-ounce packets) active dry yeast
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup warm water (110 to 115 degrees)
3 large eggs
3 tablespoons melted unsalted butter, plus enough to grease the pie plates for baking the rolls
1 teaspoon salt
3 to 3 1/2 cups flour, plus more for the work surface
Oil, for greasing the proofing bowl

Directions:
Prick the sweet potato all over with a fork, and microwave on HIGH for 5 minutes or until soft. Let cool, then peel and put through a potato ricer or food mill, press through a strainer, or thoroughly mash so it is smooth. You should have 1/2 cup of flesh.

Combine the yeast with 1 tablespoon of the sugar and the warm water in the bowl of a stand mixer; proof for 5 minutes. (If the yeast bubbles and foams, it is active. If it does not, it is dead; buy fresh yeast and start over.) Add 2 eggs and beat on low speed, then add the remaining 3 tablespoons of sugar, the butter and salt. Beat on low speed for about 2 minutes (no need to scrape down the bowl), then add the sweet potato and beat for about 1 minute. Add 1 cup of the flour at a time, beating to form a slightly stiff dough that has pulled away from the sides of the bowl; add flour as needed.

(Alternatively, mix by hand: Proof the yeast, sugar and water in a small bowl, then whisk 2 of the eggs in a large bowl just to combine, then add the yeast mixture, along with the remaining 3 tablespoons of sugar, the butter and the salt. Stir with a wooden spoon to blend well. Add the sweet potato; stir until thoroughly combined, then stir in 3 cups of the flour, 1 cup at a time, until the dough has pulled away from the sides of the bowl and is stiff enough to work.)

Lightly flour a work surface.

Transfer the dough to the prepared surface; knead for 2 to 3 minutes, adding flour a tablespoon or so at a time, and adding only enough to prevent the dough from sticking to the countertop. It should still be tacky to the touch but should not stick to your hands. When it is smooth and springy, shape it into a ball.

Use oil to lightly grease the inside of a large bowl, then place the dough in it, turning it to coat evenly. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap; let the dough rest for about 1 hour or until it has doubled in size. The dough will be ready when you can push 2 fingers into it and the indentations remain.

Use a little melted butter to lightly grease the inside of 2 glass pie plates or round cake pans (9 or 10 inches).

Punch down the dough and use a bench scraper to divide it into 3 equal pieces. Use the scraper again to divide each piece into 8 golf ball-size pieces (for a total of 24). Roll into balls, then arrange them in the prepared pie plates.

Cover with plastic wrap; let the rolls rise for 45 minutes to 1 hour or until doubled in size.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Beat the remaining egg, then brush it on the rolls. Bake them for 15 to 20 minutes or until they are a deep golden brown on the top and bottom. Let cool slightly in the pie plates, then cover loosely with aluminum foil and serve warm, letting diners pull them directly out of the plates; or use a large spatula to transfer them (held together) to a cloth-lined basket or another serving dish.

VARIATION: Instead of the freshly cooked sweet potato, you can use 1/2 cup of canned pumpkin or sweet potato puree. Proceed as directed, but be prepared to add up to 1 cup of extra flour in the initial mixing to account for the extra moisture in the canned puree and to create a stiff enough dough.

Baked Doughnuts

As if taking over a certain Portlander's kitchen to make these once wasn't enough, the Mr. and I repeated the deliciousness.

I dream of Thanksgiving...

My family has a long history of hands-on, potluck/bring it and make it dining events. Whether it was a cornucopia of CSA-fresh goodies on "Farm Night", or the annual neighborhood potluck supper, our kitchen was not only the center of some fabulous cooking but community. Thanksgiving for my family these days is no different with friends from all over bringing their own annual specialties, or exciting new combinations of flavors for traditional ingredients. It's always a blast to get together to share, prep, cook and eat together. Though I may not be cooking for the annual event this year (Mr. Pleasant and I are celebrating with the In-Laws this year) I can't resist pouring through the Thanksgiving-related recipes from cooking magazines, websites and blogs with great relish, mouth-watering as I pick out my favorite-sounding recipes. If I were hosting a Thanksgiving celebration, I dream of whipping up the following:

starters:
fall harvest salad
sweet potato rolls

main event:
cider glazed turkey or Julia and Jacques' deconstructed turkey
Pumpkin stuffed with Vegetable Stew
Beanloaf

stuffing:
chestnut and thyme stuffing or chestnut stuffing or chestnut and apple stuffing
porcini, chestnut and sausage stuffing
sides:
Sweet Potato and Grits spoon bread or sweet potato spoon bread
Brussels sprouts with toasted hazelnut butter
carrot with shallots, sage and thyme
green beans Amandie or green beans with roasted garlic
honey parsnip medley
braised potatoes

sauce:
Red Wine Cranberry Sauce

dessert:
sweet potato tart tartin or sweet potato souffle pie
vegan chocolate cheesecake
pumpkin pecan pudding cake or triple-chocolate pumpkin pie
sweet potato pie or gingered butternut squash pie or acorn squash and honey pies
apple pie
mini cranberry pies