Christmas Cake: Day 2

I made two Christmas Cakes!  They are soaking up whiskey and waiting for Christmas and, hopefully, not growing any pathogens. I'll post an updated picture when it comes time to pour a little more bourbon on them this weekend.  Every Sunday between now and Christmas they get a little drink!

Christmas Cake
Adapted from Felicity Cloake's Recipe

Takes 1 hour + 2 hours baking + weeks of waiting
Makes 1 cake

1/2 cup + 1 Tablespoon butter, very soft or melted
1/2 cup + 1 Tablespoon muscovado or dark brown sugar
4 eggs
1/2 cup + 1 Tablespoon flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon mixed spice (a suggestion: 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon + 1/4 teaspoon clove + 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg; you can also use pumpkin pie spice if you have it)
1/4 cup ground almonds
zest of one lemon (an unwaxed one if possible)
1/4 cup blanched almonds
Boozy Fruits

Preheat oven to 280 degrees fahrenheit.

With two layers of parchment, line and butter an 8 inch cake tin, or what I like to use is a 1 1/2 quart Corning bakeware or similar casserole type dishes. Trim the excess parchment.

Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add the eggs, one at a time, whisking in each until fully incorporated. This will take some time, but when you are done, your batter will look very smooth and rich. Add boozy fruits and their juices, lemon zest and almonds, and stir until just combined.

In another bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, mixed spice, ground almonds and a pinch of salt. 

Fold flour mixture into butter mixture until just combined.

Pour into prepared cake tin and create a hollow with your spatula. This trick prevents a dome from forming on your cake!

Bake for one hour.  Cover loosely with tin foil and bake for 30 more minutes. Check to see if it's done (an inserted fork comes out clean). If it's not, cover again, and bake in 10 minute intervals until cooked. Each cake took approximately an extra 40 minutes for a total baking time of 2 hours and 10 minutes.

Let cool completely. When cool, poke holes almost all the way through the cake.  Brush with whiskey.  Wrap in foil and keep in an airtight container. Brush with whiskey, around once a week until Christmas!

Stir it Up!: Christmas Cake, day 1

This is the second year that I am making a Christmas Cake.  Known to some as fruit cake, this is not at all one of those bizarrely dry cakes with bits of bright red and green candied something in them. This is a very moist, rich, boozy cake with lots of real fruit.  Just a tiny slice of cake is so good with a cup of tea around 4 pm, when it is starting to get dark, and you just aren't ready to have it be nighttime already. I love real fruitcake for not being too sweet, and being actually fruity, not in a bright, summery way, but in a serious, winter way. It's a very companionable cake, for the quiet, contemplative time of year.

It's also a party cake, though, because it really is full of booze!  If you're going to make it, use something that you like to drink. The alcohol helps preserve the cake and gives it flavor. 

I spent one fall in London (the first year of this blog), and the woman I was living with started making mincemeat for pies in November. I was very impressed, and couldn't imagine planning to cook that far ahead. Last year, I really wanted to make a christmas cake, but, poor planner that I am, I started the week before and I fed it a little whiskey every day leading up to its unveiling on Christmas Day. It was delicious.

This year, I am starting on "Stir Up Sunday".  Not at all sure that this is a real thing in Britain, but I like the idea of it a whole lot better than Black Friday which is a very real thing here in the US.  Stir Up Sunday apparently has its roots in the Church of England, which marks the last Sunday before Advent as a day to: 

Stir up, we beseech thee, O Lord, the wills of thy faithful people; that they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works, may of thee be plenteously rewarded; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

I guess Stir Up Sunday hasn't been an entirely religious event for awhile, because in 1849, an observer marked little boys changing these words to:

Stir up, we beseech thee, 

The pudding in the pot: 

And when we get home, 

We'll eat it all hot. 

Phiz (Hablot K. Brown), "Paul Goes Home for the Holidays"
from Charles Dickens' Dombey and Son (1848–9)
image from Victorian Web.

In addition to its religious meanings, Stir Up Sunday now seems to be a day to make mincemeat for Christmas pies, to start Christmas puddings, and to start a Christmas Cake. We may not have a Christmas tree, but we have a little Christmas Cake starting in our house!  My stirring up will be to write some blog posts between now and the end of the year!  I'll be blogging the progress of the Christmas Cake, and maybe you want to start one too. First steps: the fruit and the bourbon.

Christmas Cake--Step 1: Boozy fruit

adapted from Felicity Cloake's recipe

1 cup dried currants
1 cup sultanas (golden raisins, preferably the big ones)
1/2 cup (about 6) dried smyrna figs, chopped
1/2 cup dried plump cherries (not the super shriveled ones)
1/2 cup candied orange peel or mixed peel, chopped
1 Tablespoon candied ginger, chopped fine
1/2 cup whiskey or bourbon 
a splash, Grand Marnier, if you have it around

Stir it up! Let sit for one day, until you are ready to bake the cake.

Cardamom and Saffron Mandelbrot

I love the holidays!  I love the occasions to gather over food with loved ones, the opportunities to reflect on the year that has passed, and to simply enjoy being together.

I also love the family recipes that get brought out around holidays and the stories that go with them.  A friend and I had an early Hannukah brunch where we made Jewish classics with Indian flavors.  She made curried sweet potato latkes, and I made an interpretation of matzo ball soup (recipe coming soon).  The highlight though, might have been cardamom and saffron mandelbroit, adapted from another friend's family recipe.  It came with instructions from Aunt Alice and my friend's mom, and this post-script: "Aunt Alice was the coolest. She was a big, fleshy, jolly, southern Jewish woman from Atlanta with a drawl and a really sassy sense of humor. I am told that at one point she owned a cat named "Damnit" so she could have the thrill of hollering "Come here, Damnit!" off her porch in the evening."

Damnit would totally come running if he smelled these coming out of the oven!  They are delicious--not too sweet, not too hard, but like a cross between a very dry cake and shortbread.  And very nutty too!

I adapted Aunt Alice's recipe for vegans by substituting flax meal and water for the eggs (1 tablespoon flax meal + 1/4 cup water = 1 egg).  Flax meal is a wonderful substitute for eggs in recipes that use them to bind the ingredients together.  It will not help your baked goods rise however!  If you would prefer to use eggs, just switch out the flax meal and water with 4 eggs.

Yum!  Perfect to have around the house for the holidays, or good for any day along with a cup of tea!

Cardamom and Saffron Mandelbrot

Adapted from Aunt Alice's recipe and Nehama Stampfer Glogower's instructions

Takes 2 hours

Makes about 3 dozen cookies

1 cup (plus a little extra) raw almonds

1/4 cup flax meal

1 cup warm water

1 pinch saffron

3 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. salt

1 cup sugar

6 cardamom pods, powdered fine

1 cup oil (I used grapeseed, but I wish I had had almond oil)

Preheat oven to 250 degrees fahrenheit.  Toast the almonds for 15 minutes.  When cool, pulverize to coarse meal in a food processor.  Set aside a few tablespoons to dust the cookies.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit, and make sure the rack is in the middle of the oven.

In a large bowl, mix flax meal, water and saffron.  Let congeal while you mix together the ground almonds, flour, baking powder, and salt in another bowl.  Beat the sugar, cardamom and oil into the other wet ingredients.  Add dry ingredients, and stir until combined.

With wet or oiled hands, form the dough into three 'snake-like things', and place them length-wise and evenly spaced on a baking sheet lined with parchment.  Bake for 40 to 50 minutes 'until it looks toasty'.

Mix the set-aside almonds and a little sugar together.

Slide the parchment paper with mandel bread off of the baking tray onto a counter.  Sprinkle the tops of the snakes with the almond and sugar mixture, and cut into even pieces, about 1/2 inch.  

 
Lie them flat on the baking sheet and return to the oven.  Turn the temperature down to 300 degrees.  Bake for 10 minutes to dry them out.  Turn them over, and bake for 10 more minutes.

Thanks Aunt Alice!  Let the holiday baking begin!

Sorta Vegan Fat Rascals for Yorkshire Lass Kate

Maybe you have heard that Prince William is marrying Catherine Middleton, a woman whose family includes a Yorkshire miner!  This labouring ancestor has led many to anoint Kate a commoner, and just like the millions of working Britons (and Canadians and Australians and Jamaicans) who will one day be her subjects. I learned from the very good Channel 4 documentary, Meet the Middletons now showing on Bravo and E!, that her ancestors also include Leeds solicitors and mill owners.  The show highlights her social-climbing grandmother on one side, and on the other side, the deaths of her three great-great uncles in the Great War, which allowed for the establishment of a trust for their sister's family (we don't need to go into sexist inheritance laws that wouldn't allow this sister to come into the family money (or go into the family business) in her own right).  This trust allowed for the education of Catherine's father's family, and helped pay for her expensive private schooling.

OK OK, I digress, this is a blog about food after all.  It kind of makes me uncomfortable all the discussion of her blood and the royal line!  Very Harry Potter.  One thing is clear: the lady had a lot of ancestors in Yorkshire.  On my trip to England last month, I went to York and visited the famous and very popular Betty's Tea room.

That was the line to have tea in the tea rooms!  Their most famous baked good is a fat rascal, a yummy, fruity scone, topped with a rascal-y grin.

Here's a sorta vegan recipe in case you are waking up early to watch the big event, or, are just looking for something to eat with tea!

Be careful!  These little scones inspired rascalry!

Fat Rascals

Inspired by Betty's and adapted from the Elmwood Inn's recipe

Makes 6 scones

Takes 1 hour

1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
Pinch salt
4 ounces vegan margarine
1/3 cup granulated sugar
zest of one orange

zest of one lemon
1/3 cup currants
1/4 cup milk, plus more for glazing

6 maraschino cherries, halved
18 blanched almonds

Preheat oven to 375 degrees fahrenheit.  Line baking tray with parchment.

Mix together flour, baking powder and salt. With your fingers, work in the margarine until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.  Mix in sugar, zests and currants. Add the milk and bring the dough together.

Divide dough evenly into 6 balls, and place on baking sheet.  Flatten, and make the rascal faces with 2 maraschino cherry halves for eyes and 3 almonds for teeth.  Glaze the rascals generously with milk.  This is what makes them brown nicely.

Bake for 25 minutes or until golden.They are even better the next day--if you can wait!

I Didn't Go Shopping: Springtime in England

Readers--it's spring!  I've left snow in North American Halifax to discover that things are alive and blooming in the other Halifax.

I'm back in the United Kingdom, in Yorkshire this time. I came to England's Curry Capital, Bradford to research the south Asian immigrants who have been living here for over fifty years. They came to work in the wool mills that defined Bradford since the nineteenth century.  The mills closed down in the early 1980s, and they remain empty today.

More recently Bradford achieved infamy when some people burned copies of Salman Rushdie's Satanic Verses, setting off a big debate about multi-culturalism and what that means, that continues today.

The city is not the most cheerful place, but there's a lot going on, and so much new construction.  People live here, and they are making the best of it. You know how I love my little markets, and I've found several here in Bradford. I didn't buy anything, but I looked!

 Little puris

so much supari

so many chilis!

syrups for serbeth

Unfortunately, I'm not here long enough to do a lot of cooking.  As much as I thought the South Asian food scene was going to be the most interesting thing to discover on this trip to England, I've been more taken with another food to do.

I've discovered plans for the royal wedding.  You may have read that Kate chose a traditional fruitcake with 'Joseph Lambeth technique' icing.  I didn't know people did fruitcake for weddings, it sounds delicious to me. And apparently they are going for 'traditional and elegant' with that Joseph Lambeth technique icing. I wonder if it will be all white.

While the happy couple and their 1,900 guests are eating cake, you can help yourself to some pie. I saw these at the grocery store the other day.

Nothin' says lovin' like "a dash of brandy in lovely pastry."

Dandy!  To wash down your pie, Schweppes encourages you to celebrate the perfect couple, Prince William of Wales and Miss Catherine Middleton, with what else, a Pimm's Cup.

I asked the people I am staying with and their friends if they were paying attention to the wedding.  At first they said no, but then they slowly started bringing out one by one all the details they knew about the couple. The fashion show at St. Andrews, Kate's pictures of William in her childhood bedroom, Diana's engagement ring.  I asked why weren't they against the monarchy.  A young man said the royal family brought in way more money for the country than they cost. At first silence to a pragmatic answer, and then a young lady said, 'but it's nice!' and there was suddenly a chorus of 'yeah, it's nice!' in the room.

Many people have said that the wedding is something for everyone to be cheerful about, a moment of renewal that will bring the whole country together.  Springtime for Britain and the Monarchy.  And while we might not be invited to the 'traditional and elegant' wedding, at least they're letting us drink Pimm's.

Unless you keep halal of course, like many of the South Asians in Bradford.  In that case, no beef and bacon pie, and no alcoholic Pimm's cups.  Perhaps multi-culturalism has failed, but now, if being part of the 'whole country' means celebrating 'tradition and elegance' I'm not sure that's so nice.

Holiday Update (with recipe for apple cake!)

Happy New Year!  I think there's going to be a lot of good cooking this year, but first, some reflections on holiday baking.

My childhood friend Jessica's grandmother makes the absolute best Christmas Cookies in the whole-wide world, and following her recipe, I went a little crazy churning out dozens of Christmas trees, reindeer and little bells.  I used all the tricks, using only really cold dough, rolling out with powdered sugar, refrigerating again before going into the oven.  They came out beautifully!  They were so good with just a really simple milk and sugar glaze.

Perfect for a little snacking while opening presents, watching Harry Potter in pajamas, you know, the usual holiday activities.

I also went upscale with a champagne cocktail made with the elderberry cordial I made this summer.  So delicious (and classy!) with light, airy gougères!

Gougères are savory puffs, usually made with a hard cheese added to the dough.  I made them twice according to Dorie Greenspan's directions.  I followed the recipe exactly, except without the cheese.  On the second attempt, I forgot to turn down the oven, and baked them at 425 degrees for 24 minutes (turning the baking sheets half way through).  They turned out airier and crisper than the first attempt.

There was so much eating and cooking with friends and family!  I'll post just one more dish and include the recipe.  I made a vegan apple cake modeled on a delicious Italian apple tart that we had recently.  I looked into several recipes, but ultimately threw together my own.  It was so good!  And made the lactose-intolerant quite happy while the rest of us enjoyed a ridiculously indulgent trifle (or both!).

  

Apple Cake

Makes 10 servings

Takes 2 hours

3 medium apples
1 lemon, juiced
1 stick vegan shortening (or nut oil)

2/3 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1/4 cup grand marnier (I think bourbon would also be pretty good, or juice works too)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup coarsely crushed walnuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit.

Peel, core and slice the apples, toss with lemon juice.

Melt 6 tablespoons of shortening in a large pyrex measuring cup.  Use the remaining two tablespooons to butter a 9 inch cake pan or springform pan.  What's left of that, put into a skillet to fry the apples.

On medium heat, saute the apples until they are golden and cooked, about ten minutes.  Set aside.

Combine flour, baking powder and salt in a large bowl.

To the melted shortening, add alcohol, honey, and vanilla.  Stir until honey is melted and everything is well combined.

Pour the wet and the walnuts into the dry and mix until combined.  Pour into the greased pan.  Arrange the apples in a pretty pattern on top.

Bake for 1 to 1.5 hours.  Cake will be done when cake tester comes out mostly clean.  It will be dense and a little chewy!

This cake tasted even better the next day and was great with a cup of tea.  I hope you enjoy it this winter.

Stay tuned!  Vegetarian Pho, homemade pasta, pepper stew with dumplings, orange bitters, ginger cake and more to come!

Happy New Year!

Thanksgiving Update (with Recipes!)

Dear Readers,

I'm sorry.  I am a bad blogger.  Your memories of Thanksgiving are packed away, and I am about to tell you how my meal went.  Bear with me.  There will be so much holiday baking in the next few weeks, all will be forgiven.  That is my hope.

First, what went wrong.  I tried to make a seitan turkey.  I read so many blogs, and thought I would do bee-yew-ti-full-y, but no, I was left with a dense rubbery mass of wheat meat.

The before:

And the during.

I'll leave the after to your imagination.  I don't know what wrong!  I kneaded, I made dashi, I simmered.  Oh well.  I will not be deterred, and I will make delicious seitan one day!

For the almost perfect, I present a gluten-free, vegan pumpkin coconut pie with a pecan crust.  It's actually quite hard to find a recipe that is both gluten-free and vegan.  At our thanksgiving, we had someone with a gluten allergy and someone who is allergic to both dairy and eggs.  I knew it was going to be tough, but I felt sure that I could make a pie that was vegan and gluten-free and delicious.  And it was!  Too bad the filling never quite set.  Rather than messing with various starch flours to make a pastry crust, I made a delicious nut crust.  The filling was classic Libby's with some vegan experimenting.

Recipe at the end of the post.

Now for what went right...This fig crostata.

It was conventional baking perfection!  Buttery crust, rich filling, and the consistency was perfect.  I've never made a lattice crust before, and I was a little nervous, but it comes out so prettily that I've nearly forgotten the tense moments of broken pastry!  I've had my eye on this recipe since last year's Gourmet Thanksgiving issue.  And I might make it again for Christmas, it has a dark, fruity, filling like mincemeat.  I did need to bake it longer than the 30 minutes in the recipe.  More like 45 minutes for the crust to get golden and the filling to set.

It was a wonderful meal with good friends and good food!

Here's the recipe for the pumpkin pie.

Pumpkin Coconut Custard Pie

Makes 12 servings

Takes 2 hours

2 cups crushed pecans
2 Tbsp. brown sugar
2 Tbsp. vegan margarine (or almond oil) 
3/4 cup brown sugar 
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 
1/2 teaspoon salt 
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger 
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves 
4 Tbsp. cornstarch, sifted
15 oz. Pumpkin Puree (Not pie filling) 
1 can (15 oz.) light coconut milk


Pre-heat the oven to 325 degrees fahrenheit. 

If you are using margarine, soften by placing it in your pie pan and heating it in the oven while it comes to temperature.  Remove before it gets too hot.

Toss the nuts with the brown sugar and then thoroughly mix with margarine in the pan.  Use your fingers to press the nuts into a firm and even layer all around the bottom and sides of pan.  Bake for 25 minutes.  (Keep an eye on it because the pecans will burn if your oven is too hot of you leave it in for too long!).

Meanwhile, in a large saucepan over medium heat, add all filling ingredients.  Stir until combined.  When it begins to steam, turn heat down to low, and stir constantly until the mixture begins to thicken (Watch out!  The pumpkin will bubble and can burn you and make a mess of your kitchen if you leave it be!).

At this point, I am not sure how long you should stir for, or if you should add more corn starch.  I felt my filling had thickened, and poured it into the cooled pie crust.  But!  It never fully set.

We ate it cold and it was so delicious!  Like yummy pumpkin pudding with a pecan praline crumble. 

If you try this pie, please let me know how it goes!

I Went Shopping: Thanksgiving at the Halifax Farmers' Market

It's been nearly a month since I last posted!  Don't know how the time has gone by.  Sorry dear readers. Now it is nearly Thanksgiving in America, and there will be so much cooking and picture-taking this week that I hope it makes up for my bad behavior.

Today we went to the Halifax Farmers Market and stocked up for Thanksgiving.

From Elmridge Farms, we bought

Fingerling Potatoes

Multi-colored carrots

A butternut squash

A buttercup squash

Parsley

Parsnips

Yellow Onions

Sweet Potatoes

Celery

We found Brussels Sprouts at the Elmridge Farm Stand, but we are not sure where they came from.

Selwood Green Farm

Yukon Gold Potatoes

Yellow Onions

Carrots

Pasture Hill Farm

Leeks

Turkey

Sunchokes

Satisfaction Feast

Samosa

Cookies

Boulangerie La Vendeene

Square White Loaf

Froment

The mushrooms, hot peppers, green and yellow peppers came from a stand whose name I can't remember.

I am definitely going to be making Gourmet's Vegetarian Shepherd's Pie, which came out so beautifully last year.  I think I will bake a vegan pumpkin pie with coconut milk, and a conventional pecan pie.  And, what I am really looking forward to, I am going to make my own seitan Turkey!

Stay Tuned!

And Happy Holiday Planning!

Channa Masala

Diwali is coming in one month!  Faithful readers will recall that last year, there were two Diwali posts, and they were among the first to be published on this blog.  I am a celebratist, and in preparation for this year's festivities, I've decided to publish Indian recipes in the month leading up to the holiday on November 5.  It is my solemn vow to post at least one Indian recipe a week to help you plan your festivities.

Channa Masala* is one of my favorite foods.  It is so warm and satisfying, and the chick peas have a gentle nuttiness that is the perfect complement to the tangy sauce.  It doesn't have to be super spicy, but when made well, channa masala has a lot of flavor.  This recipe is a perfect balance of tangy, spicy, salty creamy goodness.  This recipe might be the best channa masala I have ever made in my life--so get cooking!

Channa Masala

Takes 2 hours (plus overnight soaking)

Makes 6 (large) servings

2 cups dried chick peas, soaked overnight

2 small onions, diced

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1/2 inch piece of ginger, skinned and minced (an equal amount to the garlic)

1 green chile, halved lengthwise

1 stick cinnamon

1 bay leaf

pepper corns (about 7)

1/2 tsp. Garam masala

2 Tbsp. tomato paste (or 1 large tomato, chopped)

1 Tbsp. salt

cilantro

lime

Drain the pre-soaked chick peas, rinse, and set aside.

In a large, heavy pot, saute the garlic and ginger on medium-high heat for about 2 minutes, or until they become translucent and just start to brown.  Add the onions and one half of the green chile and saute some more so that the onions are translucent and are just starting to brown.  Add the bay leaf, cinnamon stick, pepper corns and garam masala and saute until really fragrant.  Add tomato paste, and saute until the oil becomes red (if you use fresh tomatoes it will take longer).  Add the chick peas, stir together for a few minutes, and then add 6 cups water.  Bring to a boil, then reduce heat, cover and simmer for about 1 hour and 30 minutes.

When the chick peas are soft, add the second half of the green chile.  Check for salt and spice.  Add more garam masala if you like.  When ready to serve, top with chopped cilantro and a squeeze of lime juice.

Channa masala only gets better with time.  So make it earlier in the day and let it sit at room temperature, heating it up again just before eating.  Or even make it the day before and let it sit in the refrigerator over night.

This is great with aloo parathas, Cracked-wheat chapatis, or just rice.  Enjoy!

 Sorry for the bad pictures!  But I just had to post!

*  Channa Masala is also called chole.  It's also spelled chana masala, but I think that spelling is a bad transliteration.  But I'm no expert!