Zimtsterne: Dairy & Wheat-free Almond Cinnamon Cookies

These cookies were another great travel companion, back when I went to Seattle in November. I knew one of my hosts was allergic to dairy, so I decided to take a variety of goods with me, including this dairy- and wheat-free option.

Since it was nearing the holidays, this cinnamon almond cookie looked cozy to me, and the star shape happy (hence the Swiss German name: Cinnamon Stars). I was pleased to find that the result was chewy but not overly dense, despite being made of almond powder.

If you're wary of raw eggs, you could replace the egg white in the glaze with milk/soy milk, but I had no problem with the egg I used.

When I think of these cookies, I feel comforted and warm - give 'em a try, whether you're dairy-/wheat-free or not!

Zimtsterne

Cinnamon Stars, from David Lebovitz' Ready for Dessert

Cookies

3 C (240 g) sliced almonds, preferably unblanched

1 C powdered sugar, plus more for rolling cookies out

1 T plus 1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/8 tsp salt

1 T honey

1 large egg white

Glaze

1 1/3 C powdered sugar, or more if needed

1 large egg white

1 tsp kirsch or other clear brandy, or lemon juice

Preheat the oven to 350 F and prepare a baking sheet.

Pulverize the almonds in a food processor with 1 C powdered sugar, the cinnamon, and salt until the almonds are finely ground. Add the honey and egg white and process until smooth. If it's dry and cracking, add a tiny bit of water and process until dough comes together (if using a blender, add the honey and egg white to the mixture in a bowl and knead by hand until smooth).

Dust a work surface with powdered sugar and roll out the dough 1/3 inch thick (no thinner). With a 6-point star cookie cutter about 2 inches in diameter (or other shape), cut out stars, and arrange them, evenly spaced, on the prepared baking sheet. Reroll the dough scraps, cut out as many cookies as you can, and place them on the baking sheet. Repeat until all dough is used.

Bake, rotating the baking sheet midway during baking, until the cookies are very lightly browned, about 12 minutes. They should be soft; don't overbake them. Let cool completely on the baking sheet.

To make the glaze, in a small bowl, mix together the 1 1/3 C powdered sugar and the egg white until smooth, then mix in the kirsch. The glaze should be quite thick, opaque, and almost hard to stir. If necessary, stir in additional powdered sugar to thicken.

Spread the glaze on the surface of each cookie. Sweep off some of the excess, but leave a layer just thick enough so that you can't see the cookie through it. Let the cookies rest until the glaze is completely dry.

These cookies will keep for at least 3 months in an airtight container.

And a little heart for Valentine's Day :).

Basic Muffin Recipe: Almond Apricot, Coffee Chocolate Chip, and Banana Nut Spice

Got up one morning on a rainy holiday, and what did I do? Made muffins. It would have been hard not to do, honestly. Now that I'm back on a baking kick, free time means recipe time, and a rainy day said comfort food to me.

I realized that I don't actually make muffins that often, so the consistency of the batter felt a little foreign to me. This is a really thick, dense batter, which results in dense, moist muffins. The density also meant that the muffins didn't rise that much, but being used to cupcakes that rise a lot, I didn't put quite enough batter in each muffin mold to make muffin tops. I think I would almost want to call these tea cakes rather than muffins given the texture, but muffins come in all manner of varieties - some batters are thick, some are thin, some are almost cake. Still, they turned out well, and were lovely right out of the oven with a cup of tea.

For Christmas I received the relatively new baking cookbook from America's Test Kitchen, an enterprise that produces classic recipes, all well-tested and excellently explained. I decided to make this muffin recipe because it can be a basis for a number of versions, including the two I picked: Almond Apricot, Coffee Chocolate Chip, and Banana Nut Spice. The almond apricots and banana spice were definitely my favorites, since a coffee-flavored muffin seemed a little redundant to me (do you want to eat something coffee-flavored with your coffee?).

So here you go! Sub in your own add-ins (extracts, zest, dried fruits, nuts, etc.) for those given:

Basic Muffin Recipe
from Big Beautiful Muffins in The America's Test Kitchen Family Baking Book

3 C flour
1 C sugar
1 T baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 C whole or non-fat plain yogurt (I used Greek)
2 large eggs
8 T (one stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled

add-ins:
Almond Apricot: add 1/2 tsp almond extract to the yogurt mixture, fold 1 C finely diced apricots into the final batter, and sprinkle a few sliced almonds over the muffins before baking.
Coffee Chocolate Chip: add 3 T instant coffee or espresso to the yogurt mixture, fold 1 C semisweet chocolate chips into the final batter.
Banana Nut Spice: add 1/2 tsp nutmeg and 1 tsp cinnamon to the dry ingredients, fold 1 1/2 C finely diced banana and 1/2 walnut bits into the final batter, and sprinkle cinnamon sugar liberally over the muffins before baking.

1. Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 375 degrees. Grease a 12-mold muffin tin. Try to not use muffin papers - this causes them to be paler and not rise as much, plus the papers stick to the muffins.

2. Whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in a large bowl. In a medium bowl, whisk the yogurt and eggs together until smooth (plus any add-ins for this stage). Gently fold the yogurt mixture into the flour mixture with a rubber spatula until just combined, then fold in the melted butter (and any add-ins for this stage).

3. Portion the batter into each muffin cup equally (should make 12). Bake until golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out with just a few crumbs attached, 25 to 30 minutes, rotating the pan half-way through baking. Mini muffins will take more like 15 minutes.

4. Let the muffins cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then flip out onto a wire rack, and let cool for 10 minutes before serving.

Almond Croissant at Amandine

I have finally found a good almond croissant in LA...better in fact than many of the almond croissants I had in France! And let me tell you, I have had quite a few there - including one as big as a piece of pizza.

A croissant aux amandes is a day-old croissant, cut open and lined with almond paste, soaked in simple syrup, topped with sliced almonds, and baked all together. Sweet, almondy, and buttery.

Amandine, true to its name and reputation, had the winning pastry. It did not skimp on the almond paste, and was not too sweet, but oh so buttery and light. This croissant, accompanied by a huge café au lait, made me incredibly happy. Too happy to not share it with you. Mmmmmmm...

Almond Puff Loaf

At the request of my mother, I am posting this professional-looking, EASY pastry. It is a light, buttery, just sweet enough puff loaf, great for brunches, teas, desserts...and culinary experimentation. I've already got changes planned for the next time I make it, but here's the recipe from the last time I made it, which was a hit with the family. Since there are only a few ingredients, which you probably already have in your kitchen, I suggest you keep this recipe on reserve for unexpected guests!

Almond Puff Loaf (from the King Arthur Flour website):

First Layer:
1/2 C (1 stick) butter, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
if using unsalted butter, add 1/4 tsp. salt
1 C flour
1/4 C water

Second Layer:
1 C water
1/2 C (1 stick) butter
if using unsalted butter, add 1/4 tsp. salt
1 C flour
3 large eggs at room temperature (or warm in hot tap water for 10 minutes)
1 tsp. almond extract

Topping:
2/3 C jam or preserves (try apricot or raspberry)
1/2-2/3 C slivered or sliced toasted almonds

Icing:
1/2 C powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
~ 4 tsp. milk or water

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

First layer: In a medium-sized mixing bowl, combine the butter, flour, and salt, working the butter into the flour with a pastry blender or fork, your fingers, or a mixer. Mix until everything is crumbly, then stir in the water. The dough will become cohesive, though not smooth.

Divide the dough in half; if you're using a scale, each half will weigh about 4 5/8 ounces. Wet your hands, and shape each piece of this wet dough into a rough log. Grease a baking sheet or sheets that'll allow you to stretch and pat the logs into 11 x 3-inch rectangles on the sheet, leaving at least 4 inches between them, and 2 inches on each side. These will puff up in the oven.

Second layer: In a medium-sized saucepan, bring the water and butter to a boil. Stir until the butter melts, then add the flour and salt all at once. Stir the mixture with a spoon until it thickens, begins to steam, and leaves the sides of the pan; this will happen very quickly. Transfer the dough to a mixing bowl, or the bowl of an electric mixer. Beat it at medium speed for 30 seconds to 1 minute, just to cool it down a bit.

Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition; beat until the dough loses its "slimy" look, and each egg is totally absorbed. This is very similar to pâte à choux (dough you would use for cream puffs and eclairs). Mix in the almond extract.

*see below for optional step to insert here.

Divide the batter in half. Spread half the batter over one of the dough strips on the pan, covering it completely. Repeat with the remaining batter and dough. With a spatula or your wet fingers, spread the batter until it completely covers the entire bottom layer of dough. Smooth it out as best you can.

Bake the pastry for 50 minutes to 1 hour, or until it's a deep golden brown. Remove it from the oven, and transfer each pastry to a wire rack (a giant spatula works well here).

Topping: Spread each warm pastry with about 1/3 C of jam or preserves. Sprinkle the toasted almonds on top of the jam. By this time the puffed pastries will start to sink, as they are supposed to.

Icing: Stir together the sugar, vanilla, and enough milk or water to form a thick but "drizzlable" icing. Drizzle the icing atop the pastries. My icing was a bit too thin, so it formed pools on top of the pastry rather than nice neat lines. Cut into squares or strips to serve.

*Next time, I'm going to try adding a layer of almond paste, beaten with a bit of sugar to soften it up, between the layers of dough. I'm thinking it will make a fabulous almond pastry!

Oktoberfesting: Bee Sting Cake

I'm not going to find as much time to cook and post in the next few months, but I wanted to get this up here real quick. I made this Bee Sting cake for a spur-of-the-moment Oktoberfest meal this past weekend, and it was thoroughly enjoyed. I found the recipe simply by Googling Oktoberfest, so I was glad that this random internet recipe turned out so well.

According to this website, "the cake is called 'bee sting' as it is thought that a bee was attracted to the honey topping on the cake, and that the baker who invented the cake was stung." Who knows if that's true, but it's a cute story! The topping of the cake is indeed the best part; almonds in syrup are baked on top of the cake, so that it forms a lovely crackly, sugary crust. There is no need for frosting with that decadent topping and custard in the middle, although a little whipped cream on the side never hurts. In spite of the sugary topping, it is not an overly sweet cake, and the custard is barely sweet at all. Take with tea or coffee, and you'll think that you should have German food more often.

This does produce a fair amount of dirty dishes in order to get the final result, but trust me, it's worth it.

Handmade Marzipan

Introducing the recipe that has won me over to the cause of rose water-flavored sweets: Handmade Marzipan.

These pretty almond goodies are not the über-sweet marzipan you buy in a tube in the baking aisle, used to fashion colorful decorations for Yule logs or rolled out thin to cover Princess cakes - they are a fresh, lightly-flavored delicacy of almonds you grind yourself, and simply mix with sugar, water, and rose water to make a mold-able paste. This is a unique dessert that will add great variety to any dessert platter since it's not a cake, not a cookie, not candy...people may not know what it is, and you'll get to tell them the story of how you made it!

I discovered this recipe while helping friends out with a Syrian seder meal (also the inspiration for my kosher marshmallow attempts), and have since made these pastries several more times. My friends had the cookbook Aromas of Aleppo, which produced fabulous dishes of tamarind meatballs and a very cheesy spinach frittata in addition to this marzipan. I love the simplicity of the ingredients and the physicality of rolling them and pressing them into the mold. The one difficulty in preparing for this recipe was finding a good source for blanched almonds and pistachios, so you'll want to search out a store with good Middle Eastern ingredients in stock, or at least a Whole Foods with a good selection of nuts.

I was lucky enough to have a friend who already had an appropriate wooden mold, but I wouldn't be surprised if you could find similar cookie molds in any cooking store. And if you can't, why not just make the balls and flatten them into shapes, even add your own impression on top?

Here we go:

Handmade Marzipan

2 C almonds, blanched, peeled (and finely ground if possible)
1 C sugar (substitute up to half with Splenda if desired)
1 tsp rose water
1 C pistachios, shelled, blanched, peeled, and finely chopped
powdered sugar to dust cookie mold and surfaces

1. Grind almonds in food processor if not already ground.
2. Stir together the ground almonds, sugar, 1/4 C water, and rose water in a medium bowl. Transfer to a food processor and process until the mixture forms a paste.
3. Take one teaspoon of this paste and form into a walnut-sized ball. Repeat with the remainder of the paste, placing each ball on a sheet of parchment paper dusted well with powdered sugar (the paste will be quite sticky; should make about 25 pastries). Press down on the center of each ball with your finger, making a 1/2 inch indentation. Fill the indentations with a pinch of pistachios. Close the pastries with your thumb and forefinger. Dust a fancy cookie mold liberally with powdered sugar and then press a pastry into the mold. Tap it gently out of the mold and set on a baking sheet sprinkled with powdered sugar to dry.

Cupcake Playdate

Three weeks of cooking nothing but s'mores + birthday in the office = time to get creative!

After traveling for so long, my cupboards were pretty bare, but my cooking fervor motivated me to scrounge up enough goodies to make 6 different flavors of cupcakes for this week's birthday party. I found a white cake mix on the shelf and decided to use that as a launching point for fun in the kitchen.

With the cake mix made according to the box instructions (I prefer Duncan Hines brand), I then divided the batter into 6 equal parts and began playing. I flavored the batters and spooned up 4 cupcakes of each flavor (one box mix makes 24 cupcakes). While they were baking I prepared a double batch of firm buttercream frosting, half of which I reserved as is, and half of which I made into chocolate buttercream by adding unsweetened cocoa powder to taste (I had planned that half of my flavors would take chocolate icing). These are very generously frosted. Once the cupcakes were cooled I customized the icing; some of them took straight chocolate or vanilla icing, but for others I added flavoring to the chocolate or vanilla base.

Hope you can use these ideas for your own kitchen playdate!

Chocolate Cherry Cupcakes

Batter: Mix in 6 frozen sweet cherries, chopped and defrosted with juice, and 1 or 2 tsp. unsweetened cocoa powder

Decoration: Chocolate buttercream icing: Pipe with a large round tip in a spiral and then bury the tip in the middle and squeeze tube to form icing cherry. Top with red sprinkles and cherry stem (fished from jar of maraschino cherries!)

Almond Cupcakes

Batter: Mix in pure almond extract to taste and dish into cupcake pan; in small bowl in microwave heat 1 Tbsp. butter with 4 tsp. almond paste, then mix the butter and paste thoroughly and press 1/4 of mixture into the middle of each cupcake before baking.

Decoration: Vanilla buttercream icing: Mix in a splash of almond extract. Pipe with a medium star tip in a spiral around the top, weaving tip back and forth to create waves and building up with concentric spiral layers to create a dome. Top with sliced almonds (roasted if desired).

Chocolate Cupcakes

Batter: Mix in 2 or 3 tsp. unsweetened cocoa powder to taste and dish into cupcake pan; press a square of chocolate into the middle of each cupcake prior to baking. Squares of Hershey's would work.

Decoration: Chocolate buttercream icing: Pipe with medium star tip in a spiral around the top, building up with concentric spiral layers. Top with a broken piece of chocolate.

Pistachio Cupcakes

Batter: Mix in several teaspoons of finely chopped pistachios, 1/2 tsp. honey, and a drop of green food coloring.

Decoration: Vanilla buttercream frosting: Mix in 1 tsp. honey and then pipe onto cupcake with petal tip in a spiral on top, then create sweet pea petals in a circle in the middle and then in groups concentrically around the edge. Top with whole shelled pistachio.

Mocha Cupcakes

Batter: Combine 1 1/2 tsp. instant coffee with just enough boiling water to cover granules; stir until dissolved. Mix dissolved coffee and 1 or 2 tsp. unsweetened cocoa powder into batter.

Decoration: Chocolate buttercream icing: Prepare instant coffee as for batter and mix into icing. Pipe with petal tip in spiral on top, building up in center with layers of concentric spirals. Add coffee-bean-like form on top with petal tip wide end up.

Sprinkle Cupcakes

Batter: Mix in sprinkles as desired; solid thick sprinkles last better than non pareilles (pictured on top of this cupcake), which dissolve in the batter.

Decoration: Vanilla buttercream icing: Pipe with middle round tip in spirals on top, building up with layers of concentric spirals. Top with desired sprinkles.

Create your own cupcake playtime and let me know what flavors your kitchen produces!

Maman Je T'Aime: Almond Torte

Since I am in Paris and cannot be home on this Mother's Day - and La Fête des Mères is a big deal in France, after all! - I decided to compose a post to honor my mother.  I owe her completely for my love of food, and for my foundation in the kitchen arts.  She taught me to bake chocolate chip cookies long ago as my childhood speciality (which were the top sellers of my not-for-profit "Kid's Bakery"!) and gave me a solid education in cooking skills, from cutting up whole chickens to measuring flour properly.  She is trained in nutritional science, but always said that she really learned to cook from her mother, and not her university food classes; I can truly say that I also really learned to cook from my mother, and so the tradition continues.

While my mom is quite skilled in cooking, and successfully creates a wide range of foods that continually expands, her most remarkable use of the kitchen is for the purpose of hospitality. One day I hope to have a kitchen like hers: welcoming to all, generous to a fault, always abundant with fresh and tasty food.  I don't always tell her this, but I love the fact that I never know who will be in my home when I set foot in the door, and that I never have to hesitate to invite more people, no matter who they are.  Because of her, I see food as something to be shared and enjoyed with others.  When I've considered starting a bakery or catering business, I have always backed away from it because it removes the essence of what I enjoy about cooking: giving the food away.  And Mom continues to have patience for the smallest kitchen questions, which always seem to worry me for hours.

To celebrate my mother, I would like to share a recipe that she has made famous in our town - and it will only do her justice if the recipe is given out as generously as the tortes themselves. This almond torte recipe was given to her by a family friend, and ever since then it is a constant presence in our house.  Its simple sophistication works well as a gift and for special occasions, as it may be made ahead of time, stored at room temperature wrapped in plastic for weeks, frozen for longer, or mailed without incident.  As it sits, over time it becomes more chewy (a quality I value), and it fits perfectly in a gallon-size freezer bag.  It should be served sliced in very small wedges, as it is quite rich.

Mom's Almond Torte

1 1/2 C sugar

3/4 C melted butter

2 1/2 T almond paste*

2 eggs

1 tsp almond extract

1 1/2 C flour

pinch salt

1 tsp baking powder

handful of sliced almonds

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line a 10" iron skillet or pie plate with foil.  Beat together sugar, melted butter, and almond paste until well combined (if the almond paste starts out soft enough, it shouldn't still be in clumps after being beaten in).   Add eggs and almond extract. Then mix in flour, salt, and baking powder.

Pour into foil-lined pan, even out the batter with a rubber scraper, and sprinkle the top with a light layer of granulated sugar and sliced almonds, which should be pressed in individually so that they do not fall off after baking.

Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes to 1 hour.  Once well browned on top and the edges are cracked all around, a chewier torte may be achieved by turning off oven, cracking open oven door, and leaving torte in the oven for another 10 minutes (Mom's discovery!  I've learned that mistakes can improve an item sometimes.).

Cool in pan.  Store with foil on the bottom until ready to serve.

So, Mom, I'm enjoying good food in Paris for you today.  Next year in Paris, Maman?  

*This is 1/3 of the Odensa 7-oz. almond paste tube; if you purchase this, you should squeeze the tube while in the store to make sure it gives to the touch - sometimes the paste can grow hard on the shelf, which is not ideal.  Almond paste can also be purchased in a can at Cost Plus World Market, and this can be a good deal.