Al Dente

Buttermilk Ranch Salad Dressing and a Whisk in the Cruet

I've broken a slew of attractive looking dressing cruets in the last few years. It feels like I'm on a never-ending search for a sturdy alternative to replace the trusty, but slightly leaky jam jar that currently serves as my dressing emulsifier.  When Kuhn Rikon introduced the Vase Whisk this summer, I was intrigued.  Including the whisk in the cruet is a definite improvement, but how would it actually work, I wondered.  This weekend, I had the pleasure to test it out.

I tried a basic oil and vinegar dressing first and was delighted by the helpful measuring lines on the glass.  After a satisfying shake, the dressing was perfectly emulsified and poured unhindered out of the spout.

To test the obvious virtues further, I decided to try a creamy dressing.  Luckily, the package included a few dressing recipes and a tasty looking Buttermilk Ranch Dressing struck my fancy.  After measuring the liquid ingredients, I added the freshly chopped herbs. I found the mouth of the "vase" to be a tad narrow for some roughly chopped herbs and so it was a bit messier than I would like.  However, the dressing turned out beautifully and it stored well in the refrigerator all weekend. Because the recipe was so good, I'm including it here.

Ingredients:

3/4 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsely
1 teaspoon chopped fresh chives
1/4 teaspoon dried dill
1/2 teaspoon salt
Pepper to taste

Directions:

1. In a medium bowl or Kuhn Rikon Vase Whisk, whisk together all ingredients to taste.
2. Store in refrigerator for up to one week.

No-Cook Sweet Pea and Mint Soup for Hot Days

In the Northwest, where we don't have much need of air conditioning, the occasional hot day can become unbearable if you feel the need to cook.  In our house, we rely on a series of no-cook dishes to get through the summer.  This Sweet Pea and Mint Soup from Real Simple: Meals Made Easy, could serve as a refreshing starter, but on hot days, we often eat this in the backyard with some fresh bread and butter and call that dinner.

Ingredients:
1 onion, chopped
2 cups low-sodium chicken or vegetable broth
1 pound package frozen peas
3/4 cup loosely packed fresh mint leaves
Kosher salt
Sour cream or crème fraîche

Directions:
1. Place the peas, mint, and onion in a blender and add the broth mixture. Blend until smooth.

2. Let soup cool in refrigerator and top with sour cream or crème fraîche.

Serves 4

Real Simple, May 2005

Mahi Mahi 30-Minute Recipe with Greek-Style Dressing

A recent switch in our household to a diet less defined by red meat, has opened up a world of simple and tasty recipes for fish.  I'm always on the lookout for something that takes no more that 30 minutes to prepare and cook.  The following recipe for Greek-Style Mahi Mahi was featured in the June 2009 edition of Gourmet.  It's a savory, citrus-flavored summer dish and I suppose you could substitute a number of other white fish for the mahi mahi. I served this with a side dish of orzo dressed with fresh herbs and olive oil.  The whole thing was such a big hit we've added it to our 12 favorite summer meals list and it's now on permanent rotation.

Greek-Style Mahi Mahi

Ingredients:
3 medium tomatoes (about 3/4 pound total), each cut into 8 wedges
2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
1 tablespoon red-wine vinegar
4 (6-ounces) pieces mahimahi fillet (1 1/2 inches thick) with skin
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup crumbled feta
3 tablespoons chopped mint
2 tablespoons chopped dill
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
8 very thin lemon slices

Directions:
1. Preheat broiler.

2. Toss tomatoes with 2 tablespoons oil, vinegar, and 1/2 teaspoon salt.

3. Line a broiler pan or small 4-sided sheet pan with foil or parchment paper and lightly oil foil. Put fish, skin sides down, on pan and season with 1/4 teaspoon each of salt and pepper.

4. Whisk together mayonnaise, feta, herbs, and lemon juice and spread over top of fish. Put 2 lemon slices (slightly overlapping) on center of each fillet. Drizzle lemon slices with remaining 2 teaspoons oil.

5. Broil fish 8 inches from heat until just cooked through, 14 to 16 minutes. If topping browns before fish is cooked, cover loosely with foil. Serve fish with tomatoes.

--flauersmartini

The Demy Recipe Reader-- Recipe Collecting, Storing, and Sharing

I have an embarrassing pile in my kitchen.  It's unsightly and disorganized.  It reminds me that I can't fully call myself a member of the digital age.  So let me just own up to the fact that I have been printing out recipes from online websites and storing them in a ziploc bag for years.  Some of the pages are yellowing and brittle, not to mention stained from use while cooking.  When company comes over, I shove them in a cupboard.  As I said, it's an embarrassing pile.

I know that various forms of recipe organizing software exist and I'm sure many of them are very good.  As an average home cook, however, I have never found the "store all recipes on your laptop or desktop" solution very satisfying.  I don't want to muck up my laptop keyboard or screen with flour or grease spatter.

Along comes Apple's revolutionary use of the Multi-Touch display, that layers a protective shield over a capacitive panel that senses your touch using electrical fields.  This is a genius product for cooks who use the internet or want access to the recipes on their hard drives without gooing up the mechanisms or their laptops. But what if you don't want to accidentally drop your iPhone in the boiling water while trying to read a recipe direction?

The Demy Kitchen Safe Touchscreen Recipe Reader by manufacturer Key Ingredients uses a similar glass screen technology, but has a size, weight, and function that is more conducive to kitchen use.    This recipe reader brings us one step closer to having a kitchen friendly digital cookbook.  The folks at Key Ingredient sent me a sample to review for this blog.

It's a pretty simple idea.  The recipe reader comes loaded with a solid batch of recipes, but stores up to 2500 recipes of your choosing.  All you have to do is load your recipes to their online recipe site www.keyingredients.com and sync your Demy to your account via a provided USB cable.

After setting up a quick account at www.keyingredients.com, I was able to quickly copy over a few recipes from a few other online sites, using their bookmarklet.  I even hand typed a few recipes without trouble.  Key Ingredients also offers a service called scanmyrecipes.com that allows you to send them a hard copy of your recipes.  They will scan them, transcribe them, and add them to your account for $0.49 per recipe. 

Key Ingredients is a pretty slick recipe website with a couple of features to highlight.  You can sort collected recipes into online cookbooks of your making.  This is quite useful and a feature I haven't seen on other sites.  Additionally, they offer a cookbook publishing service that allows you to have your online cookbooks printed and sent to you in book form.  You can view an online tour of the printing process and more at their site.

After downloading the necessary Key Ingredients software to my hard drive, I hooked up my Demy.  The recipes loaded to the recipe reader in about 5 minutes.  I did have bit of trouble getting the Key Ingredients software to recognize that my Demy was actually plugged in at first.  This has only happened once and I was able to trouble shoot it without customer service attention so I'm choosing to believe this was user error.

Once my Demy was loaded with a batch of recipes, I put it to use in my actual kitchen.  Recipes in my library using the alphabetical index which you can scroll through or jump to any letter in your collection.  You can also easily access any cookbooks you've created on keyingredients.com  The reader can be viewed from 2 angles for easier reading.  The screen flips automatically. I find the size of the reader to be just right for my counter space and it's portable enough to move throughout your kitchen. It also truly is splash resistant and can be easily cleaned with a damp cloth.  Just don't immerse it in water.

You can view recipes using an alphabetical index or view them within your cookbooks.  You can create a short list that allows you to access a set of recipes for a special meal.  This would be particularly useful during the holidays when you may need to multi-task with a variety of recipes. To help you keep track of multiple cook times, the Demy includes three timers.  I think three timers is plenty, since I my kitchen can't really handle more than five separate tasks at a time.  The only thing I would suggest they add in the next version is a way to flag each timer for separate dishes using either a different sound or text entry.  Finally, there is a quick conversion calculator and a snazzy ingredient substitute list that seems to include most things an average cook might need.

All of these features work quite well and the device seems pretty comprehensive.  As an enthusiastic user of Apple's iPhone, I found a couple of features a little frustrating.  First, the touch sensitive screen requires a little more patience than I expected.  You really have to hold you finger pad over the menu button you choose in order to get where you want to go.  However, touching the screen to scroll worked just as expected. 

I also hope that they'll release the next version with WiFi.  By now, most people get the sync to computer concept, but I think users have become more accustomed to having internet access with gadgets of all sorts.  In this case, I think the addition of WiFi would only strengthen the products usefulness in the kitchen.  Often, when I'm cooking and need additional ideas I like to browse through other recipes either online or in cookbooks.  I think this would also boost their community and networking features on keyingredients.com.  It would be great to post questions about techniques while you're cooking and get answers instantly.

The final feature I think Key Ingredients could upgrade is the battery.  The version I have requires a little more maintenance than I hoped.  You really have to charge the thing once a day if you've used it for an hour or so.

All that said, I think this is big step in the right direction for bringing digital cookbooks into the kitchen.  And it's a great alternative to keeping your Kindle in a ziploc bag, or your tree-wasting print-outs for that matter.

--flauersmartini

Kitchen Garden - A First Attempt

A few weeks ago, I promised to add updates on my first attempt at a kitchen garden. For Mother's Day, I finally had all the right parts, the good weather, and the help to accomplish this task.  It also helped that I significantly reduced my plans for this garden.  We planted 2 kinds of lettuce, a bell pepper, a lemon cucumber, and 2 strawberry plants.

We decided to go with plastic raised-bed walls as I have read that they are the best for keeping heat in the soil, a particular problem in the Northwest climate.  These 3-foot-by-3-foot grow beds are made in England from 100-percent recycled plastic.  I figure the Brits know a thing or 2 about growing in soggy, sunless climates. The walls also have the advantage of snapping together easily.

After putting the walls of the raised bed together in the sunniest part of the yard and lining the bottom with gardener's plastic, we started to add dirt.  My tiny helper felt the dirt needed some evening out and he was not wrong.

Then we dug holes for the plants. We tried to space them out, but my little gardener subscribes to a more haphazard approach. The plants went in where the holes appeared.

The tomatoes were planted in separate self-watering pots. We did this in the hope that we could control the amount of water they get.  We'll also add some red mulch to the tomatoes.  This red plastic was recommended by a friend whose tomatoes I've admired.  It's supposed to reflect far-red light wavelengths upward into your tomato plants. This triggers the release of a natural plant protein that stimulates more rapid growth and development.

Finally, we had something that looked like it could produce vegetables. The dump truck and plastic gardening tools were optional, but if this all works out we might have our lucky gardening charms.

Let's just hope the slugs and snails don't find the baby lettuce before I figure out how to protect them.

--flauersmartini

Cheerios, A New Drug of Choice

The FDA is apparently cracking down on wide spread abuse of Cheerios and is threatening to reclassify it as a drug.  Parents of toddlers who eat buckets full can rest at ease.

WASHINGTON

-(Dow Jones)- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration warned

General Mills Inc.

(GIS) that labeling that makes certain health claims for Cheerios whole-grain oat cereal contains "serious violations" of agency rules. (via CNNMoney.com)

--flauersmartini

Muffin Making With a Toddler

Last week I had a rainy afternoon to fill with my toddler.  As his greatest delight is to help make dinner, I thought it would be a grand experiment to bake muffins with him.  I must warn you that I am not a seasoned baker.  I like to eat baked goods every now and then, but I rarely have a strong desire to make my own.  This was not a quest for the most delicious, moist muffin on the planet. This was purely an exercise in entertaining the tot and if I managed to get a decent batch of muffins out of the deal, great! 

I consulted Mark Bittman's tried and true How to Cook Everything recipe for basic muffins.  His recipe is perfect for sharing with a toddler if you're concerned about sugar in your kid's diet.  The muffins are only lightly sweet but still flavorful. 

If you haven't already guessed, baking with a small human is very messy.  If you hate messes, this is not the project for you.  Also, this recipe takes twice as long to prepare when you have help.

Basic Muffins - Spiced Raisin

Ingredients:
3 Tbsp. melted butter of canola/other neutral oil
1cup all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup sugar, or to taste
1/2 tsp. salt
3 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. all spice
1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp. ground cloves
1 egg
1 cup milk
1/4 cup raisins

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees and line your 12-cup muffin tin with paper cups baking cups. Using paper baking cups is a nice way to distract your toddler while you pull out the other ingredients.  Mine played with the paper cups happily while I turned on the oven.  You should assume that you'll need to replace a few of the cups, if not all of them, because they make a very nice crinkly sound when you squish them.

2. Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl.  I measured most of the flour into another bowl and let the toddler scoop it into the mixing bowl with a measuring cup.  While he was doing that, I combined the spices into a small cup.  I let him pour the spices into the mixing bowl.  Expect flour to be everywhere.   I measured out the baking powder and let my tot "mix" everything together with a wooden spoon.

3. Mix egg, melted butter (cooled), and milk in a separate bowl.  Make a well in the dry ingredients and cut and fold the wet ingredients with a spatula into dry until the batter is slightly lumpy, but shiny and wet.  You can't really let the toddler help with this part.  The batter is too heavy for small arms and hands to handle.

4. Measure out the raisins and let the toddler pour them into the batter.  Yours might eat a few.  Mine did.  Add more.  Quickly mix them in.

5. Spoon some batter into a paper cup to show the tot how it's done.  I put some batter on the spoon for my son and let him spoon the batter into a cup.  He needed help getting it off the spoon so I had get my fingers sticky.

6. Wash toddler's hands. Quickly.  Before he sticks his fingers in his mouth.

7. Bake muffins for 20-30 minutes until the tops are brown and a toothpick comes out clean.

8. Expect your toddler to have a hard time waiting for the muffins to bake.  Mine nearly melted into a pool of goo on the kitchen floor from all the waiting.  Maybe you'll be smarter than me and find some distracting games to play in another part of the house.

9. Let muffins cool for 5 minutes if your toddler will let you.  I had to remove a muffin from the tin and cut it up so it would cool faster to feed the famished child.

Serves: 12 adults, 24 toddlers
Mark Bittman, Wiley, 2006. How to Cook Everything

--flauersmartini

Home Cooked Vegetable Garden

We've decided to build a kitchen vegetable garden beyond the herb garden we've had for years.  It will be a smallish raised bed in the sunniest part of our yard.  We've always grown tomatoes, but this year I have plans to grow blueberries, strawberries, lettuce, peppers, and probably anything else that looks good at the nursery.  I'm pretty neglectful of houseplants, so it will be a challenge to see if we can keep the plants alive, let alone coax them to produce vegetables.  But I'm inspired by Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades: The Complete Guide to Organic Gardening and hopeful that we can keep the burly city raccoons from pilfering the plot.  I'd love advice on other books or to hear success stories about your kitchen gardens in planters and raised beds.  I'll post pictures and updates as it progresses.  First obstacle, our raised bed is on back-order until May 1st.
--flauersmartini

Recipe: Baked Macaroni and Cheese with Purple Kale and Great Northern White Beans

It seems odd to post a recipe for comfort food when the sun is shining and the temperatures have finally risen in the Northwest, but last week we battled icy winds and snow.  By Friday, I was ready for a hot, baked dish of macaroni and cheese.  Inspired by April's Bon Appétit recipe for the adult version of the dish, but lacking the time to shop for specialty cheeses, I turned to Mark Bittman's simpler recipe for baked macaroni and cheese from How to Cook Everything.  To boost the protein content for my toddler, I added some Northern white beans. I introduced some purple kale, to keep things interesting.  You never know what a toddler will eat. 

Here's my slightly modified version of Mr. Bittman's tried and true.  In retrospect, I wish I'd added some mascarpone or cream cheese for a richer texture.  It's probably healthier without.  P.S. I'm showing you a picture of purple kale because it seems to be impossible to create an appetizing amateur photograph of macaroni and cheese, but if you must have a picture Google has a vast and disgusting selection.  Also, in case you were wondering, the toddler fastidiously picked out the kale and threw it on the floor.

Baked Macaroni and Cheese with Purple Kale and Great Northern White Beans

Ingredients:
Salt
2 1/2 cups milk (low-fat is fine)
2 bay leaves
1 bunch of purple kale (any kale or chard will do)
1 pound elbow, shell, ziti, or other cut pasta
1 can of Northern white beans
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) butter
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
11/2 cups grated cheese, like sharp cheddar or Emmental
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
Freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup or more bread crumbs, preferably fresh

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Bring a large pot of water to a boil and salt it.
2. Cook the milk with the bay leaves in a small saucepan over medium-low heat. When small bubbles appear along the sides, about 5 minutes later, turn off the heat and let stand.
3. Cook the pasta to the point where it is almost done but you would still think it needed another minute or two to become tender. Drain it, rinse it quickly to stop the cooking, and put it in a large bowl.
4. Trim the stems from the kale.  Bring a large pot of water to boil and add kale.  Boil kale for one minute, remove, and set aside to cool. Squeeze excess water from kale and chop into edible pieces.
5. In a small saucepan over medium-low heat, melt 3 tablespoons of the butter; when it is foamy, add the flour and cook, stirring, until the mixture browns, about 5 minutes. Remove the bay leaves from the milk and add about 1/4 cup of the milk to the hot flour mixture, stirring with a wire whisk all the while. As soon as the mixture becomes smooth, add a little more milk and continue to do so until all the milk is used up and the mixture is thick and smooth. Add the cheddar and stir.
6. Pour the sauce over the noodles, toss in the Parmesan and kale, mix in the white beans, and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Use the remaining 1 tablespoon butter to grease a 9 x 13-inch or similar-size baking pan and turn the pasta mixture into it. Top liberally with bread crumbs and bake until bubbling and the crumbs turn brown, about 15 minutes. Serve piping hot.
Serves: 4-6

--flauersmartini

Make Ahead Recipes

The only way we manage to eat home-cooked meals during the work week is if we double or triple the portions and freeze it for later use.  We've had mixed success with the reheating process.  A recent and perfectly roasted carrot and shallot side dish (we use butter instead of olive oil) turned into a soggy, mushy mess when we defrosted it. It tasted good, but our carrot connoisseur toddler was not impressed by the texture the second time around.  Next time, I'll remember to under cook the portion we freeze.  I've decided to order Cook's Illustrated's The Best Make Ahead Recipe.  Here's hoping the America's Test Kitchen can help us avoid future left over disasters.
--flauersmartini

Cereal Obama, Mmmm....

(via BuzzFeed)  Artists get creative with mediums in lean times.  I wonder if they shellacked this piece.
--flauersmartini

Bacon, Regrettable Food, and Food Memes

It sounds like bacon-obsessed foodies across the land can rejoice.  The fellows at BBQ-Addicts, famous for their Bacon Explosion recipe, have signed a book deal. (via Eat Me Daily).  I have to say though, that the Bacon Explosion book deal reminds me a little of the humorous, but so 2006, food meme of Regrettable Food. Actually, the picture of the Bacon Explosion even resembles some old, regrettable food, no?

--flauersmartini

Chocolate Prices Rise

Unless you've been reading the business and commodities headlines closely, you may have missed that cocoa prices have increased. (via Wall Street Journal and BBC News) There has been a supply shortage caused in part by crop diseases in Ivory Coast and Ghana.  It seems that retailers chose to take a bit of a loss for Valentine's Day sales this year to keep prices in line with customer expectation. 

I don't know what this means for my beloved Cadbury Mini Easter Egg candy, but I sure hope chocolate manufacturers aren't considering a reduction in chocolate quality again.
--flauersmartini

Old Vermouth is New Again

Martini lovers, stock up on Noilly Prat vermouth.  The French vermouth, considered by traditionalists to be an essential to the dry martini, is replacing it's US recipe with the original European version.  According to Eric Felten in the Wall Street Journal , the demise of the American martini is at stake. The typical gin to vermouth ratio of the tried-and-true American martini is 4-to-1, using a dry, mild vermouth.  According to Felten, this ratio using the "European Noilly Prat is a mess... How sugary is it? If you took an old bottle of the dry vermouth and mixed it half-and-half with the Sauternes-sweet aperitif wine Lillet, you'd have a pretty good approximation of what to expect."  

--flauersmartini

Locavore President Elect

Every inaugural year, the press seems to take great pleasure in fussing over the homier presidential habits.  We all know that President Reagan liked jelly beans and President George H. W. Bush did not like broccoli.  If you missed those press releases, you can read up on a few past presidential tastes on Delish.  Turns out President Elect Obama likes chili.  Michelle Obama apparently told Paula Deen this was one of his favorite foods. Delish blogger Jennifer Treuting suggests that we might see more local, seasonal, and organic foods in keeping with the campaign slogan "Change we can believe in..."  Does that mean more or less pork on the White House menu?

Bag Lunch--Built NY Launches Another Stylish Lunch Tote

This year my turkey dinner leftovers traveled to work for lunch in style.  I've been receiving compliments galore on my advanced copy of the roomy Built NY French Bull tote.  French Bull is known for their pop culture inspired housewares designs of melamine dishes. And I must say, the designs transfer well to the everyday use of a lunch tote.

Not only is it clearly bright and cheery, but the bag actually kept my lunch cold for 2-plus hours.  I was so busy admiring the bag on my desk, I forgot to put my lunch in the fridge. Oops. 

It's made from a lightweight neoprene that will keep your food hot or cold for up to 4 hours.  I can attest that a Pyrex container of soup stayed piping hot on the drive to my grandmother's house 45 minutes away.  I also love that the fabric is pliable enough to fold up into your purse or bag for the trip home.

If you can't wait for the French Bull versions, Amazon has other Built NY lunch tote colors, including a camouflage print.  Presumably, happy hunters need to keep their sack lunches hot or cold for those long stake-outs.

-flauersmartini
 

What to Cook this Weekend: Smoked Salmon Vermicelli

As a new parent, I have a stack of home and cooking related magazines languishing piles all over the house.  Sunset Magazine consistently delivers recipes I can cook in minimal time and with optimal deliciousness so I try to look at it when it arrives.  The January 2008 issue offered a recipe for Smoked Salmon Vermicelli.  This dish has been a welcome repetition at our house in winter and spring.  Someone must try it this summer and let me know if it needs lightening up.

Ingredients
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 small onion, cut into half-moons
1 cup whipping cream
Zest and juice of 1 lemon
About 1/2 tsp. kosher salt
About 1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
1 pound vermicelli
8 ounces hot- or cold-smoked salmon, cut into pieces
1/2 cup finely chopped flat-leaf parsley

Directions
1. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Meanwhile, in a large, high-sided frying pan over medium heat, melt butter. Add onion and cook, stirring, until onion is soft but not browned, about 3 minutes. Stir in cream, lemon zest and juice, 1/2 tsp. salt, and 1/2 tsp. pepper. Reduce heat to medium-low and cook until mixture has thickened slightly, 4 to 5 minutes.

2. Add pasta to water and cook according to package instructions. Drain, reserving 1 cup cooking water.

3. Add salmon to cream mixture and stir to combine. Pour pasta into frying pan with salmon-cream mixture and toss to coat, adding some of the cooking water as needed to moisten pasta. Add parsley and toss to combine. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

--flauersmartini

Grill Season Kick-Off, Day 4: The Cheater's Barbecue

I've taken some time off from blogging to focus on being a new parent.  I've also taken some time off from sleeping, and let's face it, cooking.  On the other hand, being a new parent has forced me to consider some short cuts in cooking that I never considered before and not all of them are bad. 

Memorial Day weekend we hosted an impromptu barbecue.  We really didn't have time to create anything fancy so we picked up some bratwurst, salmon fillets, and lamb chops for the charcoal Weber.  We soaked the brats in the undrinkable Miller High Life someone left at a party last year.  For the salmon fillets and lamb chops, we used Tom Douglas's Rub with Love Salmon Rub and Rub with Love Bengal Masala Rub.  Rubs are very easy to make but if you have to use a pre-made rub I highly recommend Rub with Love.  They can be used for meats, fish, and vegetables.  Any of them taste quite good on grilled zucchini.

I admit that I feel a bit of a cheater for not creating my own rub and sharing it with you, but I'm giving myself a big pat on the back for not claiming Tom's rubs were my own when asked about them at the barbecue.
--flauersmartini

12 Days of Holiday Eats, Day 4: Bavarian Nut Stollen

This is actually my father's recipe and his tradition, but I intend to adopt it some day.  In the meantime, I'm happy to be the recipient of the recipe and the treat.  Every year, he bakes up huge batches of this Bavarian Nut Stollen.  On Christmas Eve, he and my mother deliver friends and family a nut stollen wrapped with ribbon. Christmas morning, we eat this with a sausage and egg frittata. 

Ingredients for Bread

1 envelope of active dry yeast
1 1/4 cup milk
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 stick of butter
1 egg yolk
Zest of 1 lemon
4 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon of salt

Ingredients for Nut Mixture
2/3 cups sugar
1/3 cup water
2 1/2 cups ground walnuts
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
pinch of salt
1 egg white

Ingredients for Glaze
2 tablespoons hot water
1 cup confectioner's sugar

Directions for Bread
1. In a small bowl, pour 1 envelope of active dry yeast and 1 teaspoon sugar in 1/4 cup of lukewarm milk for 10 minutes.
2. In a large bowl, pour 1 cup scalded milk over 1/2 stick of butter, cut into bits, stir the mixture until the bread is melted, and let it cool to lukewarm.
3. Beat in 1 egg yolk and grated rind of 1/2 lemon. Add the yeast mixture.
4. Beat in gradually 4 1/2 cups of flour sifted with 1/3 cup sugar and 1 teaspoon salt.  Beat the mixture until smooth.
5. Transfer dough to a butter bowl and turn to coat it with butter.  Let it rise, covered with a tea towel in a warm place for 1 hour 30 minutes, or until it has doubled in size.

Directions for Nut Mixture
1. In a saucepan combine 2/3 cup sugar and 1/3 cup water.  Bring the mixture to a boil over moderate heat, washing down any crystals clinging to the sides of the pan with a brush dipped in cold water.  Boil for 5 minutes.
2. Stir in 2 1/2 cups of ground walnuts, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, and a pinch of salt.  Remove the pan from heat.
3. Let the mixture cool to lukewarm.
4. Lightly beat 1 egg white and stir into mixture.  Let it cool further.

Directions for Stollen
1. Punch down dough, roll it into a 19-inch by 14-inch rectangle on a floured surface.
2. Spread nut mixture on dough, leaving 1/4-inch border.
3. Beginning with a long side, roll the dough tightly jelly-roll fashion and pinch the edges and ends to seal them.
4. Put the roll seam side down on a cutting board and halve it lengthwise with a sharp knife.
5. Twist the halves together, keeping the cut edges up, pinch the ends together, and push the twist together lightly.
6. Arrange the Stollen on a butter and floured baking sheet and let it rise, covered with a tea towel in a warm place for 30 minutes or until it is 1 and a 1/2 times in bulk.
7. Bake th Stollen in a pre-heated oven at 375-degrees for 15 minutes.  Reduce heat to 350-degrees and bake the Stollen, covering it lightly with foil if it browns too quickly, for 25-30 minutes more, or until it is golden.
8. Let the Stollen cool.

Directions for Glaze
1. Into a small bowl, sift 1 cup confectioner's sugar.  Add 2 tablespoons hot water.  Stir the mixture until smooth and glossy.
2. Drizzle the glaze over the Stollen in a zig zag and sprinkle walnuts over the top. Let it dry and serve.

Scandal in Candyland

First, they try to change the composition of chocolate by petitioning the FDA to allow cocoa butter to be replaced by cheaper fats.  Now there are allegations of chocolate price fixing in Canada that may expand to other types of candy.  What in the world is happening to chocolate and what does this mean for chocolate's biggest season?
-flauersmartini