Gastroanthropology

Cinnamon Mexican Wedding Cakes

When Christmas time comes around, I could really care less about the presents (my husband and I don't exchange gifts anymore) or trimming the tree, or caroling, but I do absolutely love being with family and of course, the exchange of holiday cookies. 

I love giving and getting the cheap holiday paper plate loaded with all sorts of delicious baked cookies, fudges, nut clusters - whatever. With all the friends Lori from Fake Food Free and I have made over our food blogging lifetimes we thought that we'd love to exchange holiday cookies with whomever wanted to. But, shipping cookies all over the world isn't the most practical, so we decided to exchange recipes instead.

Every participant received a cookie recipe to try, photograph, and post. Later this week, after everyone has posted on their given recipes, Lori and I will do a round up off all the cookies to inspire you for your holiday cookie plate this year.

I had the wonderful fortune of receiving a recipe from Kristin of Dinner du Jour. Dinner du Jour is written by best friends Kristin and Kelly. They are separated by the vast Atlantic Ocean, with Kristin in the Irish countryside and Kelly in Milwaukee. They share their recipes with each other and the rest of us by through their blog and often post a series of recipes so you have inspiration for an entire meal, rather than just a side or main dish.

I was especially excited to receive this Mexican Wedding Cake recipe, because it has the addition of cinnamon, which is not included in the Mexican Wedding Cake recipes I have made in the past. My love for cinnamon is grand and undying - so much so that I recently calculated my consumption of the spice.

Turns out I consume nearly a pound of the spice yearly. I stir a spoonful of it in the oats I eat for breakfast, and sprinkle it over the rice pudding I have after dinner, not to mention the hundreds of teaspoons I put it in to countless baked goods coming out of my kitchen.

So without further ado, here is the Cinnamon Mexican Wedding Cake Recipe, also known as the Russian Tea Cake, and most affectionately known to Kristin as Butterballs! 

CINNAMON MEXICAN WEDDING CAKE from Bon Appetit via Kristin of Dinner du Jour

• 1 cup butter, room temp (225 grams)
• 2 cups powdered sugar (240 grams icing sugar)
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups flour (240 grams)
• 1 cup walnuts or pecans (100 grams)
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Using an electric mixer, beat the butter in a large bowl until light and fluffy. Add 1/2 cup (60 grams) of the powered sugar and the vanilla and beat until well blended. Beat in the flour, then nuts. Divide the dough in half and form each half into ball. Wrap separately in cling film and chill until cold, about 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Whisk the remaining icing sugar and cinnamon in a shallow bowl or pie dish to blend. Set the cinnamon sugar aside.

Working with half of chilled dough, roll 1 scant tablespoon of dough between your palms into balls (I used a small ice cream scoop). Arrange the balls on a large baking sheet, spacing them 1/2 inch apart. Bake for about 18 minutes, until the cookies are golden brown on the bottom and just pale golden on top. Cool the cookies for 5 minutes on the baking sheet, then gently toss or roll the warm cookies in cinnamon sugar to coat them completely. Transfer the coated cookies to a wire rack and allow to cool completely. Repeat this procedure with the remaining half of the dough. Sift any remaining cinnamon sugar over the cookies and serve.

The cinnamon gives these cookies a warm brown coating, a little bit different than the snow white coating these types of cookies usually get, adding another dimension of color to the cookie plate! 

Happy Baking! Hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season and enjoys loads of cookies of all different sorts...

Walnut Nut Cups + A Giveaway

**This contest is now closed. Winner is Lauren K! Lauren is an American expat in Germany and after inspiration from us bloggers will launch her own food inspired blog in the coming year.

Last week I planned, cooked, and photographed a lovely Chestnut Baklava. I used a gorgeous Italian chestnut honey for the syrup and a bit of cinnamon. It looked and smelled lovely. It was a recipe I thought of to honor one of my favorite holiday treats - marrons glacé, or candied chestnuts.

I thought my chestnuts would go so well sprinkled in between buttered sheets of paper-thin phyllo and soaked in chestnut honey. It was shockingly disappointing. Chestnuts are like treasured gold nuggets for me so I felt such anger and guilt that I used a whole bag of them for this failed recipe. I had also just been promised boxes of marrons glacés from Jeff de Bruges when they become available in late November, so I thought what a wonderful way to giveaway a box. The chocolates at Jeff de Bruges are quite good, but of all the chocolatiers and patisseries I've experienced, their candied chestnuts are the best! And while I can't give you a recipe for Chestnut Baklava, until I muster the courage to possibly lose another bag of these gorgeous things...

...you might win a box of marrons glacés! Jeff de Bruges uses the best Italian chestnuts from Turin for their candied chestnuts. These individually wrapped jewels are so special that each winter I contemplate getting my nails done in a Christmas red before I unwrap and savor each precious stone in complete silence.  

The chestnuts won't be delivered to me till the first week of December so leave a comment by November 30th, 2010 to be entered. Once I receive the box of jewels I will mail them out to the random winner in December. This contest is open to everyone and if you tweet marrons glacés giveaway from @gastro http://tinyurl.com/33nmomc it will count as a second entry.

Even though the Chestnut Baklava didn't work out I do have a tasty recipe to share. These walnut nut cups are a must for the holiday season. Instead of pumpkin breads for gifts to take home after Thanksgiving dinner, my guests are getting a few of these.

WALNUT NUT CUPS

• 1 1/2 cups coarsely ground walnuts
• 1/2 cup butter, melted and slightly cooled
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup dark brown sugar
• 1/2 cup dark corn syrup
• 2 Tbs maple syrup
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp salt

In addition to the above ingredients you will need enough pie dough for two double crusted 10-inch pies, or four 10-inch pie rounds.

This recipe makes approximately 48 nut cups, when using a mini muffin tin. Use a good quality, non-stick muffin tin.

Make your favorite pie dough. Divide by four and leave to rest in the fridge. This can be done a day or two ahead. 

Using a food processor, coarsely ground walnuts to get 1 1/2 cups. Just a few pulses should do it - you don't want walnut flour, but small pebble size bits. Set aside. Melt 1/2 cup butter and set aside. In a mixing bowl whisk together all the remaining ingredients till combined. Whisk in the butter. Divide the mixture evenly in half, placing each half in a heavy-duty quart sized plastic bag, or two pastry bags with medium tip (clip or bend the end so no mixture leaks). Refrigerate overnight if possible (this step is not critical, but the cooled mixture is a bit thicker and easier to manage when filling the little cups). You could also use a small ice cream scoop to fill the cups, but I find using a plastic bag to be the quickest and easiest.

Preheat the oven to 350F. 

Roll out one of the portions of pie dough to 1/4 inch thick. Using a biscuit cutter cut small circles to fit in the mini muffin tin with a tiny bit of pie dough exposed outside the edge of each muffin circle. Gently press the rounds into a non-stick mini muffin tin, making sure no air bubbles are trapped underneath. Use your pastry bag or snip the corner off the plastic bag and fill each cup, nearly the entire way up. If you have refrigerated your dough it will be separated. Gently massage the bag to recombine everything.

If there are a bigger bits of walnut that struggle to come out, do not squeeze the bag! You will be tempted to, but do not! If you do, you will end up with a colossal mess. It is much better to force the bit of walnut by breaking it between your fingers. With these small nut cups it is not necessary to blind bake the cups before adding the nut cup mixture.

Put in preheated oven and bake for about 10 minutes. The mixture will puff gently, filling the cup entirely. If you use a non-stick muffin tin and a bit spills over the side you have nothing to worry about. They pop out easily. If you are using a not using a non-stick muffin tin, fill your cups a bit less. The cups are ready when the filling is set and the pie dough has barely turned golden on the edges. Let cool in cups and when they are cool enough to handle remove and eat! Once completely cooled keep in an airtight container for up to three days.

P.S. Emails have been sent to those who wanted to participate in the International Cookie Recipe Exchange hosted by Lori from Fake Food Free and I. If you haven't yet received an email and asked to participate please get in touch!

International Holiday Cookie Recipe Exchange

When I was growing up every Christmas my family would fly to see my Grandparents in Florida. After assurances from my parents that Santa Claus would be able to find us, even though my sister and I weren't at home, we would pack up our shorts and bathing suits and head to my Grandparent's neighborhood where everyone was, well, old. Grandpa and Grandma always had activities planned like sailing, orange picking, Busch Gardens and manatee watching. But, like most memories, it's the food I remember. I grew up in a Korean-American household so sweets often meant a plate of fruit, but Grandma's kitchen was uber-American, complete with recipe box, ice cream in the freezer, and a cookie jar on the counter.

Arriving around Christmas time meant all the ladies in the neighborhood exchanged all sorts of cookies - you know, the kind that have been passed down for generations. After dinner, when everyone would go to watch Jeopardy, I would sneak to the kitchen and gobble up cookies, trying my darndest not to eat all of the very best ones in efforts to hide the fact that I had been gorging on cookies. The love for the holiday cookie plate did not end after trips to Florida stopped. Every Christmas since high school, the girls gather and bake holiday cookies all day long. Dads (and now husbands) are shooed out of the kitchen, and we gossip all day long and have a giant plate of all sorts of cookies to take home when the day is over.

So for the International Holiday Cookie Recipe Exchange...

A few weeks ago, Lori from Fake Food Free and I thought we should get our food blogging friends involved in a cookie recipe exchange. That way, come holiday time, everyone would have a great library of recipes to choose from. We'd love to get as many people involved and the exchange is simple. Either comment on this blog, or Lori's blog at Fake Food Free and let us know you are interested in participating by November 5th. Be sure to leave a valid email address when you sign in to comment.

Soon after the 5th of November we will let you know who you should send your recipe to. Each participant will create an original or an adapted, attributed-to recipe and send it to the blogger we've randomly selected for you via email by November 15th.

Once you receive a recipe we ask that you post on the recipe by December 15th. Lori and I will do a roundup of all the recipes so you know where and how all the cookies turned out.

We are aware that a few of you have dietary restrictions or allergies. When you receive a recipe you may alter it to fit your dietary needs, but please post the original as well. If you have any trouble altering a recipe feel free to contact either me at gastroanthropology AT yahoo DOT com or Lori AT fakefoodfree DOT com for advice or suggestions. The only guideline is that the recipe should be something you'd find on a holiday cookie plate, so anything from rugelach to fudge squares to gingerbread men.  

So the dates again are:

Let us know you want to participate by November 5th

Send your recipe to your matched blog by November 15th

Post the recipe you receive by December 15th 

HAPPY HOLIDAY COOKIE BAKING! 

Flammkuchen and Handbrot - German Christmas Market, Part 2

Of all the food offerings at the Berlin Christmas Markets our favorite was the Flammkuchen and Handbrot. First, the Handbrot...a whole wheat bread with a gooey cheese and bacon inside baked in a wood-fired oven and then slathered with creme fraiche and sprinkled with chives.

The bread dough is rolled flat and the piped with a thick Mornay sauce and then rolled and pinched shut. Mornay is a Bechamel sauce (one of the traditional mother sauces made of milk and thickened with cooked flour and butter, or roux) that has cheese, usually Gruyere, added to it.

No reason for fancy ovens - a wood fired oven and a spray bottle of water create the perfect heat + steam combination for this oven handbrot.

It was served to us hot from the oven with cool creme fraiche and chives. Need I say more?

Well, yes. The handbrot was trumped by the flammkuchen. It's better known as the Tarte Flambe in France and Flammekueche in Alsace. It has a similar history to the petit four - a little something to test the heat of the oven before oven thermometers existed. The flammkuchen is a yeasted dough rolled thin, a bit of fromage blanc or creme fraiche is spread over and topped with thick-cut smoked bacon bits. When it comes out of the oven, green onion is sprinkled on top. So simple, yet so delicious.

I first experienced this wonderful creation in Paris at Flam's..

The version above was a bit dressed up with more cheese and the addition of mushrooms, but I must say I do prefer the one below - the wonderfully simple Flammkuchen I had at the German Christmas Market.

This would be really easy to make at home...I'm now on the search for the perfect yeasted whole wheat dough to recreate my own flammkuchen at home.

Weihnachtmarkte - German Christmas Market, Part 1

For the second Sunday of Advent we went to the home of the world famous Christmas Markets - Germany! As we toured Berlin we stumbled upon market after market, but the absolute best were at Gendarmenmarkt and Alexanderplatz. The Christmas Markets are spilling with handmade wooden and glass ornaments, but the real highlight, of course, is the food!

It's never too early for a bratwurst and that's what we started with for breakfast.

Along with potato pancakes and apfelmus (apple sauce).

We were on foot most of the day so we had to stop at yet another market for an afternoon snack of roasted chestnuts and honig brat mandeln (honey roasted almonds).

 

No rain or snow on our weekend excursion, but very chilly in Berlin with freezing temperatures so we warmed up with Gluhwein.

Gluhwein is red wine heated with a bit of sugar and spiced with cinnamon sticks, cloves, citrus peel and vanilla pods. You also get to drink it out of a special mug designed for the particular market you are enjoying your Gluhwein at.

We sampled a bit of stollen - a not too sweet cake-bread with bits of candied citrus, raisins, cardamom, vanilla, and rum - and bought a hunk off a much larger piece, though it wasn't as enormous as the 3.3 ton Dresden Stollen which took over 80 bakers and pastry chefs and 60 ovens to bake!

More on the delicious savory brots (breads) of the Christmas Markets in a few days...