Some baking tips to catch up

Sorry for the extended absence! I feel especially bad now that I know someone’s actually following along (hi Aunt Sherry!), but last week ran away from me, particularly since it culminated in a Cookie & Cocktails party the Other and threw on Friday night—I didn’t even have a chance to start baking until the day before!

I was thinking of you, though, and while megamultitasking the five types of cookies, I learned a few things worth passing on…

• Snowflake cookie cutters minimize rerolling of dough: This was my first foray into sugar cookies, and with the party’s start time looming, I was glad to discover how well snowflake cookie cutters interlock, which meant I could cut lots of cookies out before having to reroll the dough. The fact that the snowflakes coordinated with the theme-y goodness was an extra bonus—well, actually, that part was planned, so I guess the interlocking was the bonus.
• Multiple sizes make flexible servings: Using snowflake cookie cutters in several sizes (along with six-pointed stars, which can be decorated to become snowflakes) helped stretch the dough, but it also meant my cookie trays had a mix of tiny cookies for the nibbly eaters, big ones for the sows (namely me), and everything in between. A lot of people hesitate to take the whole thing if baked goods are big, so smaller options gave such persons an easy out.

• Bake mini butter tarts right alongside their big brothers: Since the best butter tarts are a little gooey, I didn’t want to cut up muffin-size tarts into bite size portions to accommodate those less piggy than myself. My first thought was to use mini muffin tins instead of the standard ones, but at 32¢ a piece, tartlet tins were more economical (and better for tarts, of course). Using one pack of two premade refrigerated pie crusts and a single recipe of the filling, I was able to make 12 muffin-size tarts and 12 mini tarts. I thought I must have done something wrong, as the original recipe is for only 12 tarts, but they came out just fine. At the Mother’s recommendation, I pulled the mini tarts out of the oven earlier than the big boys—10 minutes at 350°F rather than the full 15—but I could have pulled them out even earlier. Next time I’ll try pulling out the minis 5 minutes after lowering the temperature; they were perfectly tasty but a little less runny than ideal.

I’ve got some cool ornament tutorials in the works and plenty more snowflake projects, so I’ll get back to proper flurry speed this week.

Recipe: toffee bark

Need a quick recipe for one of the many seasonal potlucks? I whipped these up from the Mother’s recipe last night for a lunch with my appliqué pals this afternoon. Very easy, very tasty, and very fattening—but calories don’t count this month, right? You could make them slightly less offensive to the waistline by substituting saltines for the Club crackers (as the original recipe had it, apparently), but they wouldn’t be as buttery-tasty.

Ingredients

• 1 box Club crackers (a 16-ounce box will do 2 batches in an 11×17" pan)
• 1 cup butter
• 1 cup brown sugar (packed)
• Chocolate chips to taste (typically the better part of a 12-ounce package)
• Chopped almonds, pecans, etc. (optional)
• Nonstick cooking spray

 

Preparation

1. Line a rimmed cookie sheet with aluminum foil. Spray foil with nonstick cooking spray. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Cover the cookie sheet with a single solid layer of crackers.
3. Heat the butter and sugar in a medium pan on the stove until foamy, stirring to prevent burning.
4. Pour the butter-sugar mixture over the crackers in the cookie sheet. Spread the mixture over the crackers evenly with a spatula.
5. Bake at 350°F for 10 minutes.
6. Remove from oven. While still hot, sprinkle chocolate chips over the top. When they’ve melted, spread them into an even layer (if necessary, pop the pan back into the oven briefly to help melt the chocolate). If desired, sprinkle bits of almonds, pecans, or whatever you have on hand over the chocolate—I had walnuts waiting for butter tarts, so that’s what I used.
7. When the cookie sheet has cooled, put it in the fridge to harden the bark (I left it overnight, but a few hours is probably plenty). Break the bark into pieces and store in the fridge.

Canuck Christmas cookies, Yankified

Spending my first Christmas away from my family, I've been discovering that cookies were one of the biggest parts of my Christmases growing up. I'm not sure I'm even all that fond of this time of year, but as December started, I found myself hankering for the half-dozen types of cookies the Mother would bake annually. I pestered her for the recipes, and the Other and I baked up a batch of nearly all the old faves.

That includes two Canadian sweets you don't see very often round these parts. It wouldn't be Christmas without Nanaimo bars, and butter tarts bring a nice contrast to the chocolate that covers our cookie tray. The gooey butter tarts—similar in flavour to pecan pie—are the Other's new favourite indulgence. So if you haven't done all your baking yet, here's a couple recipes to try, with the Mother's Americanization tricks included.

Nanaimo Bars

The Mother's Canuck-in-Yankland Trick

Authentic Nanaimo bars use custard powder, which is virtually nonexistent in the States. Instead, use vanilla instant pudding mix, but add a bit of almond extract to get closer to the custard flavour.

¾ cup butter
¼ cup white sugar
1/3 cup cocoa
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg
2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1 cup coconut
½ cup walnuts (optional; we usually skip 'em)
2 Tbsp custard powder (or instant vanilla pudding mix)
1/8–¼ tsp almond extract (if using pudding mix)
3 Tbsp milk
2 cups icing sugar
6–8 oz chocolate chips

Melt ½ cup butter. Blend in the sugar, cocoa, vanilla, egg, graham cracker crumbs, coconut, and walnuts, if using. Press into a buttered 8" square pan. Refrigerate.

Cream the remaining ¼ cup butter with the dry custard powder or pudding mix. Add milk and icing sugar. Add almond extract if using. Blend together. Spread onto the bottom layer; return to fridge.

Melt chocolate chips in a glass cup in the microwave (6 oz is half a bag, but it can take a little more). Make sure the bottom layers are cold, then spread the chips on top.

Butter Tarts

The Mother's Canuck-in-Yankland Trick

The poor American excuse for corn syrup will do for this recipe, but Canadian corn syrup, more like English golden syrup, is better. So use golden syrup if you can find it. And avoid the temptation to use pecans if you're going for the real thing!

1 cup corn syrup (or golden syrup)
2/3 cup brown sugar
2 eggs, slightly beaten
¼ cup butter
¼ tsp salt
2/3 cup chopped walnuts and/or raisins
½ tsp vanilla
Pastry or tart shells (1 box of refrigerated pie crusts is enough but will require rerolling)

Mix corn syrup and brown sugar in a saucepan. Cook gently for 5 minutes. Cool slightly. Pour mixture over slightly beaten eggs; beat continuously, adding remaining ingredients (except pastry, duh).

Press circles of pastry into 12 tart tins or muffin cups. Fill unbaked shells 2/3 full. Bake at 450°F for 10 minutes. Then reduce heat to 350°F and continue baking for an additional 15 minutes, until set. Don't overcook—it's better to pull them out a little on the underdone side so the tarts stay runny.

The Other woke me up on Saturday morning with the aroma of butter tarts coming out of the oven—not the healthiest breakfast by any means, but a tasty one!