Christmas Baking

What I look forward to most about Christmas is all the excitement and preparations leading up to the actual holiday, and best of all the smells of holiday baking. I especially love the yeasty fragrance of Christmas stollen baking in the oven. This holiday bread is laden with dried fruits, almonds, and butter, so that the yeast has a Herculean task in making the dough rise. My mother always gets trans-Atlantic tips and encouragement from her family in Germany since her stollen dough is several time zones behind. One year my parents did the stollen baking with friends, and while my father diligently kneaded his half of the dough, their friend gave his half a few perfunctory pats in between sips of Gluhwein. I distinctly remember when the two loaves came out of the oven: one nicely plump and the other sadly flat. I was outraged when my parents felt compelled to claim the flat one as theirs and my mother pretended to chastise my father for his poor kneading effort. With a food processor, the kneading is a lot easier, but we had to adapt our standby recipe from the Joy of Cooking (the 1975 edition) to fit into the machine: using 2/3 of the original recipe and preparing this in two batches.

The first thing to do to coax the yeast along is to mix it with warm milk until it's dissolved and frothy.

The buttery dough has just enough flour to come together in a ball,

which you leave in a warm place to rise until it's doubled in bulk.

Then you have to knead in the goodies: toasted almond slivers, and fruit. Over the years, our family has dropped the candied fruit and settled on plain raisins, plumped up in a little warm water, as the nicest accompaniment to the yeasty crumb, but one can add any variety of candied or dried fruit. It's always a challenge to get these incorporated into the dough, which seems to shed raisins like an overexcited labrador sheds fur.

Now this heavily laden dough, shaped into loaves, needs to rise again, and this time the best strategy is to proof it: cover the loaves with a clean dish towel and nestle them in the oven with a pan of steaming hot water underneath. (Just don't forget about them and start preheating the oven for cookies). Finally, after a day of pampering, the dough is baked until golden brown, and covered with a snowfall of confectioner's sugar. This is the perfect treat for Christmas morning to tide everyone over while the presents are unwrapped.

Of course, one wouldn't expect Santa to deliver any presents if he weren't rewarded for his troubles with a plate of home baked cookies. In our household, we've developed the tradition of leaving Santa a Jewish delicacy: rugelach. They are fun for kids to make, and Santa seems to like them because they always get eaten. The recipe comes from Mollie Katzen's Enchanted Broccoli Forest cookbook, which uses cottage cheese for a surprisingly malleable and ultimately flaky dough. She gives a number of filling suggestions, but our favorite is hazelnuts and chocolate with cinnamon sugar.

The trick is to freeze the chocolate chips so that they don't melt while being pulverized into a coarse crumb.

Then you roll out the dough, sprinkle on the filling, and slice it like a pizza.

Roll the cookies from the center to the outside, and sprinkle any shed filling over the assembled cookies.

Then bake until golden brown. Make sure to reserve some for Santa before serving them for Christmas Eve dessert.

Christmas Stollen

adapted from the Joy of Cooking

1 cup (2 sticks) butter

5 cups flour, plus more for handling the dough

1 cup milk, just below scalding

2 Tbsp + 3/4 tsp (3 packages) yeast

1/2 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 cup toasted slivered almonds

1 1/2 cup dried or candied fruit, including or exclusively raisins plumped in warm water and drained.

1. Dissolve the yeast in the warm milk. Prepare the dough in 2 batches in a food processor, combining the butter, sugar, and egg, then mixing in the flour and pouring in the yeast mixture while the processor is running. If the dough is too sticky to handle, add a little more flour. Combine the two batches, cover, and allow to rise in a warm place for several hours, until doubled in bulk.

2. Knead in the nuts and fruit, using a little more flour if the dough is too sticky. Shape into two loaves and place on greased cookie sheets. Cover with clean dish towels and place in the oven beneath a pan of steaming hot water. Allow to rise several hours until doubled in size.

3. Remove the dough, preheat the oven to 350 degrees, and bake the loaves for about 45 minutes until they are golden brown and sound hollow when tapped with a finger nail. Cool on a rack. Dust with confectioner sugar. Serve slices as is or toasted.

Rugelach

adapted from Mollie Katzen

for the dough

1/2 cup (1 stick butter)

1 cup cottage cheese

1 1/3 cup flour, and more for handling

1/4 tsp salt

for the filling

1/4 cup hazelnuts

1/4 cup chocolate chips, frozen

scan 1/4 cup sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

1. Chop the filling ingredients in a food processor until they have the consistency of a coarse crumb. Reserve.

2. Wipe out the food processor and prepare the dough, processing the ingredients until they come together into a ball. If the dough is very sticky, add a little more flour. Remove the dough and shape into two balls. Wrap in plastic wrap or a silicone baking mat and chill  for a few minutes. 

3. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Remove one dough ball from the refrigerator, roll into about a 12 inch diameter circle, sprinkle with half of the filling, and slice into 12 slices. Roll each slice from the center to the perimeter and place on an ungreased cookie sheet. Sprinkle any filling that fell out over the rolled cookies. Prepare the second ball like the first. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes until golden brown.

Merry Christmas!

Dutch Bullet Bean and Roasted Squash Soup

Enough testosterone-driven, world domination food fare. Let's talk about what to cook when it's cold and drizzly outside and everyone in the house has the sniffles. The answer of course is soup. And if you have approximately 23 pounds of heirloom beans in the cellar, the answer of course is bean soup. We also had a nice selection of winter vegetables from the farmers market at the Eugene Holiday Market, including a delicata squash and a kohlrabi. I usually think of a bean and vegetable soup as some variant of a minestrone, but I was inspired by a pumpkin and white bean soup from the Green's Cookbook that incorporated beans into a creamy squash soup. I thought the Lonesome Whistle Farm Dutch bullet beans, a small golden variety, might go well with the delicata squash roasted with herbs (similar to a preparation by Jamie Oliver). 

My son helped me brush the squash quarters with olive oil and sprinkle on fennel seeds, herbs de Provence, and red pepper flakes, and we roasted these for about 25 minutes.

Meanwhile, we simmered the squash seeds and pulp in 4 cups of chicken broth to make a quick stock.

I chopped onion, carrots, and kohlrabi and sauteed these in some olive oil until soft. Then I added the squash stock and the roasted squash, scooped from the peel, and simmered these until the vegetables were very soft.

I'd soaked 1 cup of the Dutch bullet beans during the morning, and now I simmered them on very gentle heat with a couple sprigs of thyme and 2 cups of water for about an hour until they were tender. Then I pureed the squash and vegetables with an immersion blender, and mixed in the beans with their liquid. To finish the soup, I added a drizzle of balsamic vinegar for sharpness to balance the sweetness of the squash. The creamy texture of the pureed vegetables with the roasted squash and herb flavors and a slight bitterness from the kohlrabi, contrasted nicely with the small, round, meaty beans.

I'd prepared a swiss chard and mushroom quiche for brunch (also adapted from a Green's Cookbook recipe, but with added leftover mushrooms from Eric's shooter sandwich and almonds instead of pine nuts because of the latter's short supply). This was the perfect accompaniment to a restorative soup.

Dutch bullet bean and roasted squash soup

1 cup (1/2 lb) Dutch bullet beans (could substitute small white kidney beans)

1 delicata squash

1 onion

1 kohlrabi

3 small or 2 medium carrots

3 cloves garlic

4 cups chicken stock

olive oil

1 tsp fennel seeds

1 tsp herbs de Provence

1/4 tsp red pepper flakes

a few sprigs of thyme

salt and pepper to taste

drizzle of balsamic vinegar

1. Soak the beans for 4-8 hours until the plump up. Then change the water and simmer them with a few springs of thyme and 2 cups of water until soft, about 1 hour. Discard the thyme stems.

2. Halve squash and scoop out seeds and pulp into a sauce pan with 4 cups of chicken stock. Simmer over low heat for about 30 minutes. Brush squash quarters with olive oil and sprinkle over fennel seeds, herbs de Provence, and red pepper flakes. Roast in an oven or toaster over at 450 degrees until they start to brown a little and are soft through, about 25 minutes. When cool enough to handle, scoop the roasted squash from the skin.

3. Meanwhile peel and chop the onion, carrots, kohlrabi, and garlic. Saute in olive oil in a dutch oven until soft. Strain the squash stock into the pot and add the roasted squash. Simmer on low heat until the vegetables are very soft. Puree with an immersion blender, and add the cooked beans with their liquid. Drizzle in a couple tablespoons of balsamic vinegar and adjust seasonings. 

Here's the recipe for the Green's Swiss chard tart.


And here are some other recipes for heirloom beans:
Rio Zape Beans with Toasted Chile Sauce
Arikara bean gratin 
Calypso bean and leek soup

Shooter Sandwich

I have high standards for the contents of this blog, but for the best sandwich ever, as prepared by my husband Eric, I was willing to cede the floor. Here is his report.


The Edwardian gentleman's "shooter's sandwich" was recently named best sandwich in the world by The Guardian (UK).  It looked perfect for a joint Guillemin/Johnson labs holiday potluck get together, and a change of pace from the multitude of (delicious) beans in our household.  It was fun to make and looked good on a platter. I think the 'best sandwich' is still open for debate, but it was quite tasty!

First I took a large steak, peppered,

mushrooms and shallots,

and some potato rustica bread, hollowed out.

I seared the steak and placed half into the hollowed out bread.

Next I cooked the mushrooms and shallots, adding some red wine, pepper, and red pepper flakes.

I piled the mushroom mixture on the steak,

added parsley and the second half of the steak,

smeared with horseradish and mustard,

then compressed overnight in the fridge and at room temperature for a few hours before the party. Then sliced and ate.

Shooter Sandwich

1 large top sirloin steak.  Probably the suggested ribeye would have been better, but I was reluctant to double the cost.  

2 pounds mushrooms. This sandwich used a mixture of shitake and brown crimini.

Parsely.

salt, pepper, red pepper, Worcestershire sauce, red wine.

Horseradish and mustard

I started in the late evening, and while the steaks were searing chopped the mushrooms and shallots and carved out the bread loaf.  While the mushrooms were cooking I tucked the steak (just salted) into the bread.  It took a while to reduce the mushroom liquid and red wine and Worcestershire sauce to a syrupy thickness, so I chopped the parsely.  The mushroom mixture piled onto the steak, and at this point had filled the bread loaf.  But I forged ahead and piled on parsely and then capped the mountain of ingredients with the other half of the steak, smeared on horseradish and mustard, and then squashed it down with the top of the bread loaf.  

I wrapped it in foil and plastic wrap, put it on a cookie sheet in case it leaked, then put a heavy cutting board on top, some cast iron pans, flour, more cast iron.  Since it was going to compress overnight, I put it in the fridge with just some of that stack on top, then resumed the heavy compression at room temperature a few hours before the party.  Just before the party I unwrapped it, sliced it and arranged on the platter.

Rio Zape Beans with Toasted Chile Sauce

The different Lonesome Whistle Farm's heirloom beans we received in our CSA package are eye catching. My favorite is the rio zape: a beautiful purply red bean with black swirls. Apparently this variety was unearthed in the cliff dwellings of the Anasazi in the American Southwest. They are described as having a rich, chocolatey flavor. I decided to try preparing these with a mole sauce of toasted chiles and cumin. I was also inspired by a black bean recipe from Smitten Kitchen that claimed that using a slow cooker would allow you to prepare perfect beans without the bother of presoaking. I thought it was worth a try.

For the toasted chile sauce I used a combination (pictured from left to right above) of dark, mild anchos, reddish, slightly spicier guajillos, and dark, fruity negros. (A good source for dried chiles in Eugene is the Plaza Latina Supermarket.) For more flavors, I used cumin and fennel seeds, cocoa powder and cinnamon, and sun dried tomatoes and garlic.

To bring out the chiles' flavor, I toasted them in a dry cast iron skillet for a minute or so on each side until they puffed up and became fragrant. I also threw in some garlic cloves to let them develop a roasted flavor. Once the chiles were toasted, I removed their stems and seeds and immersed them in 2 cups of boiling water to soften them. I also added the sun dried tomatoes to this brew. Then I peeled the garlic cloves and put them in a blender. Next, I used the warm skillet to toast the cumin and fennel seeds until they started to brown and became fragrant. I added these to the blender, spooned in the soaked chiles and tomatoes, added the chocolate and cinnamon, and poured in 1 cup of the soaking liquid (using a tea strainer to remove stray seeds), and blended this into a rich, thick paste. 

The next step to developing a complex flavored sauce was to fry the paste in some neutral oil. I have a convenient slow cooker that you can use right on the stovetop and then transfer directly to the heating element. I cooked the chile paste for about five minutes, until the oil had incorporated into the paste, and the sauce developed an intense fragrance of cumin, chiles, cinnamon, and chocolate. Then I moved the pot to the slow cooker base. I used the remaining cup of chile soaking liquid to rinse out the last of the paste from the blender jar, stirred in one pound of rinsed rio zape beans and three more cups of water, and set the beans to cooking. 

After six hours (returning from a pleasant evening out), the beans were absolutely perfect: soft but intact, with a thick, rich sauce. They only needed a generous sprinkle of salt, which I'd left out during the cooking process to avoid toughening them. The rio zape beans tasted somewhat similar to pintos, which would be a reasonable substitute in this dish, but they had much more flavor and a wonderful plump, dense texture. They were delicious as a main dish with a dollop of sour cream and a sprinkle of chopped cilantro, and would also make a great side dish. 

Rio Zape Beans with Toasted Chile Sauce

1 pound rio zape beans (or substitute pinto or black beans)

5 dried chiles (for mild spiciness use 2 anchos and 3 negros, for a little more heat, substitute in some guajillos)

6 sun dried tomato halves

4-6 cloves garlic

1 tsp cumin seeds

1/2 tsp fennel seeds

1 tsp cocoa powder

1/2 tsp cinnamon

3 Tbsp neutral oil such as grape seed or canola

5 cups water, heated

salt to taste

1. Heat a skillet and toast the chiles about one minute on each side until they puff up and become fragrant. Also heat the garlic cloves until they start to blacken. Meanwhile remove the stems and seeds from the chiles and immerse them in 2 cups hot water, along with the sun dried tomatoes. When the garlic cloves are done, peel them and put them in a blender. Toast the cumin and fennel seeds in the skillet for about one minute and add these to the blender, along with the cinnamon and cocoa powder. Spoon in the softened chiles and tomatoes. Add one cup of the soaking liquid, strained. Blend until you have a smooth paste.

2. Heat oil in a stovetop slow cooker or other pan and add the paste. Cook, stirring for about 5 minutes until it has darkened in color and become very fragrant. Rinse the blender jar with the remaining soaking liquid and add to pan. If necessary, transfer to your slow cooker. Add the beans and 3 more cups of hot water. Cook on high for 4 to 6 hours (the cooking time will depend on the dryness of the beans and the slow cooker model). When the beans are soft, add salt to taste.


Here are some other recipes for heirloom beans: 
Arikara bean gratin 
Calypso bean and leek soup

Bean Bonanza

It really feels like Christmas! This weekend at the Eugene Holiday Market we picked up our CSA beans from Lonesome Whistle Farm: 24 pounds of 7 different heirloom varieties. I'm so excited to try cooking them. Stay tuned...

Local heirloom beans

Today's Register Guard had a nice article about Lonesome Whistle Farm's heirloom bean CSA:

BEAN ENCOUNTERS | Farmers add heirloom dry beans to the local food scene

Pumpkin Pecan Praline Pie

Hopefully you had a wonderful Thanksgiving celebration. Before you drift off into a tryptophan stupor, I'd like to address a Thanksgiving debate of the best pie choice, if you are limited to a single one. I know some are proponents of the pecan pie, but with a corn syrup base, these can be cloyingly sweet. Others couldn't imagine a Thanksgiving without pumpkin pie, but I find that they can be a bit monotonous in texture. Instead, I have a favorite combination pumpkin pecan praline pie that is the perfect marriage of the two standbys. This recipe has special meaning because it comes from the pastry chef Christine Law who baked our wedding cake, and appeared in the San Jose Mercury News in the week before our first Thanksgiving as a married couple.

First you prepare a pie crust. You can do this in a food processor, but if you want to feel more like a Pilgrim you can attempt it by hand, cutting butter into flour and then mixing in just enough ice cold water to get the dough to come together. Then chill the dough before you roll it out and transferring it to a pie pan (a decidedly modern silicone mat makes this part manageable).

Before prebaking it, you cream some butter with brown sugar and pecans, and line the bottom of your crust.

As the crust cools, you can prepare the pumpkin filling. This is best with pumpkin puree from a freshly roasted pumpkin, but you can also use unsweetened canned pumpkin. I've modified the original spicing, omitting the nutmeg, which I dislike, and increasing the ginger, but you can adjust these to your taste. The final pie is delicious on its own, or with a dollop of vanilla ice cream.

Pumpkin Pecan Praline Pie

adapted from Christine Law

Pie crust

1 1/2 cups flour

8 Tbsp chilled butter (1 stick) or use part butter and part vegetable shortening

1/2 tsp salt

~5 Tbsp ice cold water

Praline layer

3 Tbsp soft butter 

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

1/3 cup pecan pieces

Pumpkin filling

1 sugar pie pumpkin (for 1 1/2 cups pumpkin puree, with more for other uses)

1 cup evaporated milk

2 eggs

1/3 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup white sugar

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/4 tsp ground cloves

1. To prepare the pumpkin, preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Cut the pumpkin in half, scoop out the seeds, and roast cut side down on an oiled baking sheet until the flesh is very soft, about an hour. Scrape out the flesh from the skin and puree in a food processor. Reserve 1 1/2 cups for the pie and save the remainder for another use (pumpkin bread, pumpkin and ricotta ravioli, etc.).

2. For the crust, combine the flour and salt. Cut the butter into small cubes and work into the flour with a pastry cutter until it has the texture of cornmeal. Add water gradually and mix with a spatula until it just comes together into a ball. Wrap in a silicone map or plastic wrap, flatten into a disk, and chill for an hour or freeze for 10 minutes. Roll out to fit into your pie dish. Prick all over with a fork.

3. To prepare the praline layer, preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Cream together the butter and brown sugar and add in the pecans. Spread over the bottom of the prepared pie crust and bake for 10 minutes. Allow the crust to cool completely.

4. Reduce the oven heat to 350 degrees. To prepare the pumpkin filling, heat the evaporated milk until scalding. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs, sugar, and spices. Mix in pumpkin puree, and then gradually mix in the hot milk. Pour the filling into the prepared crust and bake until the filling has set and does not jiggle, about an hour and 10 minutes.

Gozleme

My sister is spending the year in Berlin, which feels very far away (5277 miles or 8493 kilometers to be exact). This is a picture she sent me from her apartment window. Winter has set in there, which sounds chilly and gloomy at times, but she's discovered a new comfort food of filled flatbread, or gozleme. This Turkish street food is prepared on large griddles; the dough is rolled out, filled, and grilled  for eager patrons, who consume them standing up around crowded tables. I thought the distance between Eugene and Berlin might feel a little less vast if I could recreate gozleme at home. I search the internet for recipes and came up with an amalgam that most closely resembled her description, with a yeast dough and fragrant lamb and spinach filling.

I prepared a dough similar to a pizza dough, with some olive oil.

For the filling I sauteed diced onions and garlic with ground cumin, paprika, and cayenne, then added some ground lamb and a dab of tomato paste.

My eager assistants helped me roll out the dough into rectangles.

Then we layered on spinach leaves, the lamb filling, and crumbled feta on one half, folded over the top and sealed the sides. For a vegetarian version, you could use just spinach and feta, or include some grilled eggplant. My daughter opted to stick with the tried and true calzone and filled hers with tomato sauce and cheese.

We grilled the gozleme with some olive oil on a medium hot skillet until they were nicely browned on both sides.

And we ate them, according to my sister's instructions, hot off the griddle, sliced with a drizzle of yogurt cucumber sauce. They were delicious, but Berlin still felt very far away.

Gozleme

makes 8 filled flatbreads

For the dough

3 cups flour

1 1/2 tsp yeast

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp salt

1 1/4 cup warm water

1 Tbsp olive oil

For the filling

1 small onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 tsp ground cumin

1/2 tsp paprika

1/4 tsp cayenne

salt to taste

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 Tbsp tomato paste

1/2 lb ground lamb

baby spinach

feta cheese crumbled

Yogurt cucumber sauce

1 cucumber peeled, seeds removes, and finely chopped

1 cup Greek style yogurt

1 Tbsp olive oil

2 Tbsp lemon juice

minced mint leaves and chives

salt and pepper to taste

1. To prepare the dough, combine the yeast, sugar, and 1/4 cup warm water and allow to dissolve. Mix in remaining ingredients, alternating flour and water until the dough is soft but not too sticky. Knead well. Cover and allow to rise in a warm place for a couple hours until the dough has doubled in size.

2. To prepare the filling, saute onions in olive oil over medium low heat until quite soft. Add the garlic and cook a little longer. Add in the spices, cook for a minute, then add the tomato paste and ground lamb and continue sauteing until the lamb is thoroughly cooked.

3. Divide the dough into eight pieces. Roll into very thin rectangles. On one half, layer on a handful of baby spinach leaves, a heaping spoonful of lamb, and a handful of crumbled feta. Fold over the dough and seal the sides.

4. Heat a skillet to a medium temperature so that the gozleme can cook without burning for about 7 minutes per side. Slick the surface with olive oil and place the gozleme on the hot surface. Once the first side is nicely browned, flip and cook the second side. Serve hot off the griddle, sliced, with a generous drizzle of the yogurt cucumber sauce.