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 :).

Adaptable Icings: Buttercream and Mascarpone Frostings

I accidentally had a cupcake for lunch on Valentine's Day; it wasn't planned, it just was there in front of me at noon, and I thought "I can't just Not Eat that cupcake." So I ate it. Which reminded me that I made all of these cupcakes last weekend for a friend's birthday...

She had requested a variety of frostings - chocolate, cream cheese, and vanilla bean - so I decided go on a spurt of cupcake creativity. The kind of spurt where I make 6 different flavors, using a basic cake and frosting as a foundation. I honestly started out with about 10 flavors in mind, which I whittled down to 6, which finally became 5 in the absence of key ingredients and extra time.

This time I went with my favorite mascarpone chocolate cupcake recipe, minus the mixed-in chocolate chips. For one of the flavors I mixed in some spice, and for one I added some white chocolate chips, but the rest I left plain chocolate. And then came the icings:

Vanilla Bean Buttercream Frosting
This is really just a basic buttercream with a vanilla bean scraped in.

Cream together:
1 C (2 sticks) salted butter
1 tsp vanilla
the seeds of one vanilla bean scraped into the bowl

Add:
1 lb (about 4 C) powdered sugar
2 T milk or cream or soy milk

To make this into a chocolate buttercream, add:

1 T unsweetened cocoa powder
4 oz melted dark chocolate (bittersweet chocolate chips work fine)

To make this into a cinnamon chocolate icing (think Mexican chocolate, with cinnamon mixed into the batter as well!) add:

1 tsp ground cinnamon

Mascarpone White Chocolate Frosting
For the remaining cupcakes, I made a mascarpone icing, similar to cream cheese but a little less sour. Together with the chocolate cupcakes that had white chocolate chips mixed in, it had the effect of a chocolate cheesecake. I split off some of this frosting to also make a raspberry mascarpone icing, for which I filled the chocolate cupcakes with raspberry jam. To fill cupcakes, cut a cone out of the top of the cupcake, into the middle of the cake, and then lop off the tip of the cone, fill the space with jam, and replace the top of the cake.

Cream together:
1/4 C (1/2 stick) salted butter
1/4 C mascarpone cheese
1 tsp vanilla

Then add:
2 C powdered sugar
3 oz. melted white chocolate chips

To make this a raspberry mascarpone white chocolate icing (shall we just call this "raspberry" for short?), add:

several tablespoons of good raspberry jam (to taste)


When making these frostings, cream the butter/mascarpone and vanilla well together first, until it's getting fluffy, and then after slowly encorporating the powdered sugar and other additions, beat it long enough to make it light and smooth. You want it to make voluptuous cupcakes, n'est-ce pas?

It's always my feeling that food should be decorated to look like it tastes, so I encourage you to find creative ways of doing so - while it might seem too obvious to put white chocolate chips on top of white chocolate frosting, I like the way the textures and shapes look together. And hey, you know what you're eating when you pick it up.

Be forewarned that the amounts of icing produced by these recipes are not proportionate to one batch of 24 cupcakes; the vanilla bean buttercream is more than enough to frost 24, but the mascarpone icing is about enough for 12.

Bon appétit!

Two Cakes and a Vientisietera: Tres Leches and Strawberry Cakes

There's nothing like a viewing of Julie and Julia to revive my desire to cook! Earlier this week I watched it while sick at home, and as my head cold fades away, I am left suddenly without a voice, but still inspired to create beautiful food. Thankfully I had a birthday party to bake for, so my creative juices have had a place to flow.

This particular birthday party was a wanna-be quinceanera for my 27-year-old friend, who has always wanted to have a quinceanera and decided to just throw one for herself this year. I mention this, #1, because it is funny, and #2, because it puts these cakes in context. I've only been to one real quinceanera, so my experience is limited, but my impression of it was a traditional, family-oriented, and overwhelmingly feminine celebration. The cakes that emerged from the party scheming this week are very appropriate to the occasion: traditional Latin American Tres Leches Cake, and girly-pink strawberry cake. Pretty pink and white, and oh so sweet.

I ended up making the strawberry cake from a mix because I was still somewhat sick (don't worry, I didn't cough on the cakes, and wore food prep gloves while cooking), but I made Alton Brown's Tres Leches recipe, and it came out really well! Despite the fact that it was spelled "Tres Leche" on the Food Network website, which belies its authentic result. I'm not usually a fan of cakes or breads soaked in liquid, but I did like this cake - it was refreshing and moist, as one guest said, and not too sweet. I halved the original amount of sugar in the whipped cream, and added some Vietnamese cinnamon per the comments on the original recipe, and it was just right. Sorry I didn't get any photos of the Tres Leches cake, but I did decorate it with sweet peas just like the cupcakes.

You absolutely MUST make this cake a day ahead, because it takes that long for the cake to absorb the liquid. Don't freak out when the thing is swimming in the liquid at first - it will soak in. I haven't played with using reduced-fat milk products in this, but let me know if you do!

Tres Leches Cake

Vegetable oil to grease the pan
6 3/4 oz. (a little less than 1 1/2 C) cake flour, plus extra for pan
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp kosher salt
4 oz. (half a cube or 1/4 C) unsalted butter, room temperature
8 oz. (~ 1 C + 1 T) sugar
5 eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

For the glaze:
1 (12-ounce) can evaporated milk
1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
1 cup half-and-half
optional: 1/4 tsp cinnamon

For the topping:
2 C heavy cream
4 oz. sugar
1 tsp vanilla

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly oil and flour a 13 by 9-inch metal pan and set aside.

Whisk together the cake flour, baking powder and salt in a medium mixing bowl and set aside.

Place the butter into the bowl of a stand mixer. Using the paddle attachment, beat on medium speed until fluffy, approximately 1 minute. Decrease the speed to low and with the mixer still running, gradually add the sugar over 1 minute. Stop to scrape down the sides of the bowl, if necessary. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, and mix to thoroughly combine. Add the vanilla extract and mix to combine. Add the flour mixture to the batter in 3 batches and mix just until combined. Transfer the batter to the prepared pan and spread evenly. This will appear to be a very small amount of batter. Bake on the middle rack of the oven for 20 to 25 minutes or until the cake is lightly golden and reaches an internal temperature of 200 degrees F.

Remove the cake pan to a cooling rack and allow to cool for 30 minutes. Poke the top of the cake all over with a skewer or fork, very thoroughly. Allow the cake to cool completely and then prepare the glaze.

Whisk together the evaporated milk, sweetened condensed milk and the half-and-half (and cinnamon if desired) in a 1-quart measuring cup. Once combined, pour the glaze over the cake. Refrigerate the cake overnight.

Place the heavy cream, sugar and vanilla into the bowl of a stand mixer. Using the whisk attachment, whisk together on low until stiff peaks are formed. Change to medium speed and whisk until thick. Spread the topping over the cake and allow to chill in the refrigerator until ready to serve

Sugared Puffs

During my spring break baking frenzy, I made something much easier than the intimidating macarons while I was waiting for egg whites to come to room temperature: Sugared Puffs! A whimsical name for light and airy popovers crusted over with butter and cinnamon sugar - why not throw a few in the oven?

They were as magical to me as pitas, although a little slower to grant satisfaction: these take 35 minutes to puff up into fanciful edible balloons, while the pitas only take 3 minutes to swell.

The puffs deflated quickly when they came out of the oven, as they should, and then were brushed with melted butter and dredged through the cinnamon sugar, and voilà! Sugared Puffs. The nine popovers somehow only made it into 4 people's mouths, but trust me, everyone else was quite jealous.

Go ahead, give your food processor a spin, throw the batter in a well-buttered muffin tin, and eat them fresh out of the oven, coated in goodness. Great for celebrating spring. Or Passover (check it: these are only leavened by AIR!). Or Easter. Any excuse will do.

Valentine's Marshmallows: Cinnamon, Rose, and Peppermint

Before February ends, I need to share more Valentine's Day treats for the month of Love. I made cinnamon, rose, and peppermint flavored guimauve (marshmallows) for a Valentine's party; the cinnamon were coated in red sprinkles and dipped in dark chocolate, the rose were tinted pink and drizzled with white chocolate, and the peppermint were layered with purple sprinkles and dipped in dark chocolate. I left a few plain hearts for the hot chocolate, as you see here, and all were a hit.

The cinnamon marshmallows dipped in chocolate are my new favorite: lightly spicy and reminiscent of Mexican hot chocolate. So good!

Cinnamon marshmallows: flavor 1/2 marshmallow recipe with 4 tsp ground cinnamon dissolved in several tsp water.

Rose marshmallows: flavor 1/2 marshmallow recipe with 2 tsp rose water (for a light rose flavor)

Peppermint marshmallows: flavor 1/2 marshmallow recipe with 2-3 tsp peppermint extract (use 2 tsp if the marshmallows are not going to be dipped in chocolate; 3 tsp will stand up better to the chocolate, and the chocolate will take the sharp edge off the stronger peppermint)