Ghughra

http://www.rakskitchen.net/2010/04/badhusha.html
http://www.dessarts.com/2010/10/traditional-diwali-treats-ghugra-karanji.html

Teaser pics!

Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice

I expected more from these cookies.  They were soft and chewy with crunchy edges and just a hint of spice.  When Joy the Baker describes them as chocolate chip cookies without the chocolate chips, she's right.  And that's what was missing.  Silly Sally and I, attempting to make cookies without chocolate... that never ends well.

Brown Sugar Cookies
adapted from here and here
makes 2 dozen cookies
Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
12 tbs. (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter
1 1/4 cups dark brown sugar
1 large egg
Directions
1. Whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, ginger, and cinnamon in a medium sized bowl.
2. In a separate bowl, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy (yes, your arm will want to fall off if you do this by hand).  Add the egg and beat into the mix.  Add the dry mixture and stir until combined (it will look very dry at first, just keep mixing and everything will come together).
3.  Cover the bowl with saran wrap and chill for about 1 hour.
4.  Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
5.  Roll about a tablespoon full of dough into a ball and flatten.  Place dough on a baking sheet, leaving about 2 inches of space between each cookie (seriously.  these things spread).  Bake 8 minutes, turning the tray halfway through.  The edges should be slightly brown.  Leave the cookies on the baking sheet for 5-10 minutes, until set (seriously.  they will fall apart if you try to move them sooner. and you will be sad).  Transfer to a cooling rack.

An Apple Tart

There is always a chance, in any endeavor, that something will go horribly wrong.  A badly written recipe, poorly described instructions, forgetting to add a vital ingredient - what? You've never done that?  Never been so careless as to simply misplace that last 2 tbsp. of butter or miscount the number of cups of flour?

When Sally first learned of my forgetful nature, she was sympathetic.  Granted, my muttering questions about the location of my cell phone or car keys had no direct impact on her.  But when my minor bouts of amnesia started to intrude on her life (hours stranded in parking lots on cold winter nights searching for the car, Christmas presents in July...) she decided to take a stand.  There would be no forgetfulness around Sally.  Twas simply not allowed.

Unfortunately, it doesn't work like that.  Oh, things certainly got better now that I had an incentive to remember things - breaking a 5 year friendship due to misplaced birthday cards was not too dramatic for Sally - but every now any then, I would have a minor relapse.

Like when it came to this tart.  This gorgeous, delicious, flaky apply tart.  That survived a minor scorching in the oven due to my forgetfulness... good thing I checked on it 15 minutes in, and was able to save most of it.  I'd say "Don't tell Sally!" except she obviously already knows - good thing the apple tart was yummy enough to distract her.

Alice Water's Apple Tart
adapted (more like followed) from here
Ingredients
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. sugar
1/8 tsp. salt
6 tbs. (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, softened, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
3 1/2 tbs. chilled water
2 pounds apples (I used 4 granny smith), peeled, cored (save the peels and cores), and sliced
2 tbs. unsalted butter, melted
3 tbs. sugar
1/4 cup sugar (glaze)
Directions
1.  Mix flour, sugar, and salt in a large bowl.  Add 2 tbs. of the butter.  Mix until dough resembles coarse cornmeal.  Add remaining butter and mix until pieces look like large peas.
2.  Pour in some of the water, mix, and then add more until dough just holds together.  Toss with hands until it's ropy with some dry patches.  Keep tossing until you can roll dough into a ball.  Flatten into a 4-inch-thick disk and refrigerate.  Remove after at least 30 minutes and let soften.  Smooth cracks at edges.  Roll out dough into a 14-inch circle about 1/8 inch thick on a lightly floured surface.
3.  Place dough into lightly greased 9-inch round tart pan.  Heat oven to 400 degrees F.
4.  Place apple slices on dough in a ring, continue inward until reaching the center.  Fold the dough hanging off the edge of the pan onto itself and crimp edges at 1 inch intervals.
5.  Brush melted butter over apples and onto dough edge.  Sprinkle 3 tablespoons sugar over dough edge and apples.  Place tart in oven until edges brown (about 45 minutes, make sure to rotate tart every 15 minutes).
6.  Meanwhile, make the glaze by putting apple peels and cores in saucepan with 1/4 cup sugar.  Pour in just enough water to cover, and simmer for 30-45 minutes.  Strain syrup through cheesecloth.
7.  Remove tart from oven, let cool for 15 minutes.  Brush glaze over tart, then slice and serve.

Banana Bottom Baked Oatmeal

This isn't the healthy recipe the title would lead you to think.  Nope, it's chock full of sugary and buttery goodness, perfect for those cool fall mornings.  Maybe even too much sugar - though, according to Sally, you can never have too much sugar.

(pre-oven photo shoot)

It's perfect for those mornings when you crave something more substantial than milk and cereal and more satisfying than a granola bar.  The texture is similar to a dense, chewy granola bar, and the fruit on the bottom is a nice surprise.  Keep some in the fridge and reheat whenever you're craving oatmeal - it lasted a week before Sally and I managed to finish it all.

Banana Bottom Baked Oatmeal
makes around 6 servings
adapted from Annie's Eats
Ingredients
1/2 cup steel cut oats
2 tbsp. unsalted butter, divided
1 1/2 cups very hot water
2 bananas, sliced
1 1/2 cups old-fashioned oats
1/4 cup plus 1 tbsp. brown sugar, divided
2 1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon, divided
1 tsp. cardamom (optional)
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
Dash ground cloves
2 tbs. maple syrup (optional)
1 tsp. salt
3/4 cup milk
Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees (you can use a toaster oven - Sally and I did).  Lightly grease a 1 quart baking dish (an 8x8 glass dish would be perfect, or a large pyrex bowl)
2. Add the steel cut oats into a large bowl with 1 tablespoon of the butter.  Pout the hot water over the oats and cover the bowl.  Let sit for 20 minutes.
3. For the caramelized bananas: Melt the remaining 1 tablespoon of butter in a medium skillet over medium heat.  Add the bananas, 1 tablespoon of brown sugar, and 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon to the pan.  Toss gently and cook briefly, about 2 minutes.  Stop before the bananas start to break apart.  Remove from heat and pour into prepared baking dish.  Spread evenly on bottom of dish.
4. After the steel cut oats are done, stir in the old fashioned oats, remaining 1/4 cup brown sugar, maple syrup, salt, cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg, and cloves.  Add the milk.
5. Pour the oatmeal mixture on top of the bananas.  Bake in the oven for 30-40 minutes.  Remove and let cool before serving. To reheat leftover oatmeal, place in microwave bowl, add a dribble or two of milk, and reheat in microwave for 30 seconds.

Teaser pics!

Are you ready for fall yet? Coming soon:

Caramelized Bananas & Baked Oatmeal

Simple Apple Tart

Non-edible but still gorgeous:

Pouding Chomeur in a mug

You've heard of cake in a mug?  The infamous yummy 5-minute cake made in mug in the microwave, single serving of deliciousness? No?  It's delicious. You should try it.

This isn't a recipe for cake in a mug.  Well, it is, but not the kind you'd expect.  Because Pouding Chomeur isn't technically cake.  It's more like a mix of cake and frosting, all rolled in one.  Made in Canada since the fur trading days, pouding chomeur is French for "poor man's pudding."

This isn't a traditional recipe for Pouding Chomeur either.  Sally says this is more like bread pudding, because of the addition of fruit, but she admits the texture is more like cake than bread.  Technically, in pouding chomeur, one would leave the brown sugar sauce on top of the batter instead of stirring it in like I suggested.  But when baking in the oven, there's more time for the sugar to seep into the cake - here it only has 3 minutes, so I decided to help it along.

Pouding Chomeur (in a mug)
adapted from here, advice taken from here
serves: 1!
Ingredients
1/2 tbs. butter
1 tbs. sugar
1/4 egg (I know, it's silly, use the other 3/4 to make some scrambled eggs... or more cake in a mug)
drop of vanilla
3 tbs. flour (divided)
1 tbs. milk
1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 apple, peeled, chopped
10-12 raisins
2 tbs. brown sugar
2 tbs. water
Directions
1. Make sure your ingredients are at room temperature! Then, in a microwave-safe mug, cream the butter and sugar together until fluffy.  Add in the egg, beat again until well combined.  Add the drop of vanilla.
2. Add 2 tbs. of flour, stir into the egg mixture.  Add the milk and stir again.  Pile on the remaining 1 tbs of flour, baking powder, and cinnamon on top of the batter.  Stir it all together until smooth.  Add the apples raisins and stir once or twice.
3.  Mix the brown sugar and water in a separate small bowl, microwave 30 seconds until bubbling.  Pour on top of the batter and stir once.  Microwave the mug for 3 minutes, watching carefully.  The cake is done when it bubbles up.

Scallion Pancakes

I know I mentioned we have no flour, and it's true.  We have no all-purpose, standard, white flour.  What we do have is atta, which is half all-purpose and half wheat.  Along with rice flour, gram flour, chickpea flour, and several other never-heard-of don't-know-what-they're-used-for flours.

And since I'm going stir crazy rounding up all these recipes that just happen to require the one pesky ingredient we don't have, Sally suggested doing a little substituting.  Switch the amount of all-purpose flour for the same amount of atta, plug and chug, and ta-da! scallion pancake.

Kinda. Sorta. Maybe.  Ok, they turned out perfectly normal, except for the extra-brown color and a little bit more stiffness to the dough than usual.  And hey, they're a little extra-healthy too. It's a nice plus.

Scallion pancakes are the perfect thing to make when you have too many scallions.  They don't require many ingredients (aside from flour), assembly is a snap, and they last a while in the fridge.  Just reheat them in the microwave for about 20 seconds and you'll be good to go.

I've seen them served with a soy sauce/vinegar sauce before, but seeing as we didn't have either of those, I didn't bother to look up a proper recipe for it.  And they're just as delicious on their own.

Scallion Pancakes
adapted from here and here
makes about 10 pancakes
Ingredients
2 cups flour
1/2 cup hot water
1/3 cup cold water
4-6 scallions, minced
salt, to taste
sesame oil
Directions
1. Mix together flour and hot water in a medium sized bowl.  Add the cold water and knead the dough until smooth (~20 strokes).  Cover dough with damp towel, let rise for 15 minutes.
2.  Pinch off a piece of dough and roll it into a ball (1 1/2 - 2 inches in diameter, a little bigger than a golf ball). Flatten it in your palm and place on floured surface.  Use rolling pin to roll out dough into a circle as thin as possible (1/16th inch).
3. Spread sesame oil over the flattened dough (about 1 tsp), sprinkle some salt and add some scallions.  Roll the dough horizontally (to make a tube- or just look at the picture here).  Then swirl the dough around like a snail's tail and press flat.  Roll the dough out with a rolling pin again (1/8th inch thick).
4.  Heat a flat pan, the kind used for making omelets or pancakes, on the stove with a drop of oil in it.  Add the pancake when the oil is hot.  Flip over the pancake when one side turns brown, cook the other side, and you're done!

French Onion Soup

Fall is upon us and it's time for something hearty and delicious... well, maybe not so hearty, but definitely delicious.  Sally happened to buy a ginormous red onion from the market last weekend and we've spent the last three days eating salads while attempting to whittle down this bulbous vegetable before it starts to rot.  Too bad there's just so much salad a girl can take.  And only so much onion breath.

We started searching for recipes with red onions, trying to find something to break the monotony of lettuce+tomatoes+cucumbers+red onion salad.  Couscous and red onion?  Chickpea red onion salad? Tandoori chicken and red onion pizza?  The last one sounded tempting, but we're out of flour.

Yes, you heard me.  The queen of baking (ahem, Sally) is out of flour.  Which may or may not have contributed to our long absence.  But never fear! Delicious delicacies can be made with or without flour... whether they'll end up baked is another question.

Finally we settled on french onion soup.  Sally's a huge fan of this simple soup, consisting of only a couple ingredients (onions, broth, oil, and some seasoning. Oh, and of course, the whole french bread+cheese thing.  Which we totally have.  Totally.).  She's also a huge fan of onion breath. Which you will not get with this soup, I promise.

As simple as the recipe was, it called for a bit of modification. Mostly because we didn't have dry white wine. Normally I'd just substitute an equal amount of chicken broth and call it a day, but we were already using chicken broth as a substitute for the beef broth.  So that didn't seem right.  Our options: red wine, vinegar, mirin, and sparkling grape juice. We went with the red wine, not sure if it was the best choice, but hey, our taste buds didn't mind.

French Onion Soup
adapted from here, here, here, oh and here too.
makes 2 bowls of soup
Ingredients*
1 tbsp. olive oil
1 red onion, thinly sliced
1/2 garlic clove, minced
2 cups chicken or beef broth
1/8 cup dry white wine
1 bay leaf
2 black peppercorns
salt to taste, about 1/4 tsp
4 baguette slices, 1/4 inch thick, toasted
1/4 cup shredded cheese (Gruyere is traditional, we used Swiss)
Directions
1. Heat the oil in a medium sized saucepan over medium heat.  Add the onions, toss with a wooden spoon to coat them in oil.  Cover the pot and reduce the heat to low.  Let the onions steep for 15 minutes.
2. Uncover the pot, increase the heat to medium.  Cook the onions for 30-40 minutes, stirring frequently, until they caramelize.  They'll turn a little grey-ish in color and clump together.
3. Add the garlic and saute for 1 minute.  Pour in the wine, stir, then add a little bit of the stock at a time, stirring in between each addition.  Add the bay leaf and peppercorns.  
4.  Bring the liquid to a simmer and leave it partially covered for 30-40 more minutes, skimming the top if it becomes frothy.  Add the salt.  Remove the bay leaf.
5. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit.  Bring the soup to a boil and ladle the soup into two ovenproof bowls.  Set the bowls on a foil-lined baking sheet and add two slices of bread to each bowl to float on top of the soup.  Divide the cheese and mound it on top of the bread.
6. Bake the soup on the tray for 10 minutes, then turn on the broiler and brown the top lightly.  Serve immediately.

*Note: yes, I know the measurements are a bit crazy.  The reason Sally and I decided to leave it this way is because we're cooking for two people rather than the six people most recipes seemed to call for, and figured other people in smaller households might appreciate the scaled down version.  (or maybe we're just too lazy to do the math to scale it up.)  If you'd like to feed six people, take a look at the ingredient list for one of the adapted from recipes to get the proper proportions.

Alice Medrich's Best Cocoa Brownies

It's generally believed that the best brownies must be made from chocolate.  Chocolate, not cocoa powder, which was the one thing that Sally and I did not have this weekend.  Luckily, the First Lady of Chocolate came to our rescue with this rich and fudgy cocoa brownie recipe.

 These brownies are reputed to have the taste and texture of box brownies, which I would not know, as every pan of box brownies I have attempted to make has hardened/burnt/generally been inedible, regardless of how early I take them out of the oven.  These, on the other hand, did not burn, have not yet hardened, and are delicious.  Not too sweet (in fact, Sally thinks they could use a bit more sugar!), very chocolatey, and extremely dense.

Best Cocoa Brownies
Adapted from Alice Medrich’s Bittersweet, or online here 
Ingredients
10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter
1 1/4 cups sugar
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder (natural or Dutch-process)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs, cold
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2/3 cup walnut or pecan pieces (optional)
Directions
1. Position a rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat the oven to 325°F. Line the bottom and sides of an 8×8-inch square baking pan with parchment paper or foil, leaving an overhang on two opposite sides.
2. Combine the butter, sugar, cocoa, and salt in a medium bowl and microwave for about 1 minute. Stir until the butter is melted and microwave another 30 seconds.  The mixture should be relatively smooth and hot enough that you want to remove your finger fairly quickly after dipping it in to test. Set the bowl aside briefly until the mixture is only warm, not hot.
3. Stir in the vanilla with a wooden spoon. Add the eggs one at a time, stirring vigorously after each one. When the batter looks thick, shiny, and well blended, add the flour and stir until you cannot see it any longer, then beat vigorously for 40 strokes with the wooden spoon or a rubber spatula. Stir in the nuts, if using.
4. Spread evenly in the lined pan. Bake in oven until a toothpick plunged into the center emerges slightly moist with batter, about 30-40 minutes. Let cool completely on a rack.
5. Lift up the ends of the parchment or foil liner, and transfer the brownies to a cutting board. Cut into 16 or 25 squares. (or random shapes, as I did above.)

Double Chocolate Mint Cookies

Happy St. Patty's Day!  Here are some cookies for you:

Aww, don't they look delicious?  They are.  Very delicious.  So fudgy and chocolaty, with just a hint of mint.  All for me and none for you.

Double Chocolate Mint Cookies
adapted from Annie's Eats here and Une Gamine dans la Cuisine here
Ingredients
1/2 cup of dark cocoa powder
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1 cup butter, cut into chunks
1 1/4 cups of sugar
2 eggs, at room temperature
1/4 teaspoon of pure peppermint extract
2 1/2 cups of bittersweet chocolate chips (I threw in some mint chocolate chips too)
1/4 cup sugar (optional)
Directions
1. In a medium bowl, whisk together the cocoa powder, flour, salt, and baking powder. Set aside.
2. In another bowl, combine the butter and sugar. Beat together until well combined, light, and fluffy (about 3-4 minutes). Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the peppermint extract and mix until well combined.
3. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix until just combined. The dough is very thick, so you might need to use your hands to work in the last streaks of flour.
4. Using a large spatula (or your hands), fold in the chocolate chips.
5. Cover the bowl and refrigerate for at least 8 hours or overnight.
6. Preheat the oven to 350F. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.
7. Remove the dough from the refrigerator. Roll into 1 inch balls and flatten and shape (they don't spread very much).  Press into granulated sugar until evenly coated.
8. Place onto the prepared cookie sheets. Bake for 12-14 minutes. (Note: There really is no visual clue as to when these cookies are done, just don't over bake them.)
9. Allow them to rest on the cookies sheets for a few minutes before transferring to a cooling rack. 

Makes about 40 cookies.

Sally Lunn Bread

Life's been having its way with Sally and I for the past month.  We've honestly been too busy wrapped in our own little worlds to contemplate baking anything.  Except, we did make cookies.  Once.  Though there's no evidence left of them, so it's like it never happened at all...

Since I took the time to bake this bread, I figured I might as well take the time to photograph it (with my awful phone camera, in the horrible lighting of my kitchen) before we scarf it down.  Because it is just that good.  Luckily the recipe is quite simple and perfect for days when you have tons of work to do.  You can find it here, on Smitten Kitchen's blog, and I'm not going to take the time to write it all out myself because I'm lazy this girl's got tons of work to do and not much time to do it in.  I did make some modifications, but none of them were particularly life-changing or awe-inspiring... at least, not enough to convince me to type out the directions.

I will say one thing.  Yes, you can make bread in a 9" pie pan.  Yes, that is what I did.  Yes, I did cut the recipe in half just in case it overflowed (which it obviously is nowhere close to doing).  If you don't have a bread pan and would still like to make this bread, please don't let a silly little thing like not having a bread pan stop you. Just remember to adjust the baking time and check often.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

 There's nothing worse than baking a cake and having no one to feed.  Sally is quite adamant about this, and I'm not about to argue.  Remember the delicious cake we made last week?  Remember how quick and easy it was to make?  Well, it wasn't half as easy to eat an entire cake between the two of us.

Reduce: Sally and I spent last week slowly making our way through slices of cake until it was about halfway gone.  Now, I'm not going to say that we grew sick of it, because how can you get sick of cake?  But we did grow a little tired of eating it... and our hands were itching to make something new.
Reuse: So we decided to use the leftovers to make cakeballs, similar to the ones we made for Halloween last year.  Except this time, there was no recipe.  No guidelines to follow.  These cakeballs were done completely freehand, and turned out amazing.
Recycle: And of course by the end we were left with the same problem as the beginning: too much food and not enough people to feed.  So what did we do?  Shipped it out to friends across the land, in hopes that they would get as much use out of them as we did.

A One-bowl Cake

You've heard of a one-bowl recipe, right?  The kind where you just throw all the ingredients into a bowl and they magically mix themselves and turn into something delicious?  No?

 The internet is abound with one-bowl cookie recipes, one bowl brownies, and many others.  The idea is that it's easier to make something in one bowl - less mess, fewer dishes to wash, faster, simpler - because it's hard to go wrong when all you do is put the ingredients into the bowl and mix.  The problem Sally and I have found with these recipes is that sometimes they sacrifice taste on the way.  And what's the point of having a cake recipe that's easy but doesn't taste so good?

Good thing this cake doesn't disappoint in its deliciousness.  The texture is a bit odd, it's dense but not spongy, perfect for trifle or with ice cream.

Everyday Cake
barely adapted from Smitten Kitchen here
Ingredients
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg, at room temperature
1 cup buttermilk*
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup Dutch cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 325°F. Butter and lightly flour a 9×5x3-inch loaf pan, or 8 inch round.
2. In a large bowl, cream the butter until smooth. Add the sugars and beat until fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add the egg and beat well, then the buttermilk and vanilla. Don’t worry if the batter looks a little uneven or starts to curdle.
3. Sift the flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt together right into your wet ingredients. Stir together with a spoon until well-blended but do not overmix.
4. Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 60 to 70 minutes in a loaf pan, and 80 to 90 minutes in a round pan. Cool in pan on a rack for about 10 to 15 minutes, at which point you can cool it the rest of the way out of the pan.
*Buttermilk is real easy to make if you don't have any on hand: add a tablespoon of lemon juice to the bottom of a 1 cup measuring cup and fill with milk.  Stir, wait about two minutes, and you're ready to go!

The Great Cookie Exchange Part 2

The best part of the holiday season is giving gifts... now, who really believes that?  The best part of the holiday season is receiving gifts, and I'm sure everyone (except maybe Mother Theresa) would agree with Sally and I in this matter.  Something about unwrapping presents is just so exciting, even if it occurs long after the holiday season, as Sally and I can attest to.  We received our counterpart to the Cookie Exchange earlier this week, and have been diligently waiting for the sun to peer through the clouds to get a decent picture of all the decadent goodies we discovered.  Alas, the sun has thwarted our plans for three days, and Sally and I know if we waited much longer for this post there might not be anything left to take a picture of.  We couldn't resist munching on the sticky peanut brittle and smooth chocolate fudge while we waited... and waited... and it wasn't until we sat through a particularly gruesome snowstorm that we ended up completely consuming the treats in a fit of starvation.  Well.  Sort of.

Anyway, Sally and I would like to thank Kate for sending us the delicious treats and Steph of stephchows.blogspot.com for organizing this Cookie Exchange!  We had a lovely time, and hope to see more of you ladies in the future!

To Accompany your Champagne

Sally and I had a champagne party to go to last weekend and when it came to deciding what to bring, we were at a loss.  We needed something classy (to go along with the champagne), something pretty (to match all the formal-wear), and something light (the party didn't start til 10pm).  Chocolate covered strawberries would have been perfect, but strawberries are out of season and expensive.  Luckily, during our weekly trip to the Farmer's Market, Sally and I spotted a fruit that would make a great alternative: oranges.

Now, chocolate covered oranges aren't particularly classy or pretty, though I would suppose they would be considered light finger food.  Chocolate covered candied orange peel, on the other hand...

 Begin by peeling the orange, leaving on as much of the pith as possible.  Sally and I made this easier by slicing the top and bottom off the orange and dividing it into six sections before peeling.

Cut the orange peel into 1/4 inch wide strips.  Sally wishes to remind you that when she says 1/4 inch, she means 1/4 inch, not the 1/8 inch strips I ended up cutting.

Blanche the orange peels to get rid of the bitter taste. 

Let the orange peel simmer in a mixture of sugar and water until translucent (about 1 hour) and avoid stirring.

Remove orange peels and leave them to dry on a drying rack.  Use a cookie sheet under the rack to catch any drips.  Try and separate each peel so they are not touching - otherwise they'll be stuck together. 

If you don't have a drying rack (or don't have enough space on your drying rack), improvise!  I used a row of three chopsticks here.  Then get ready for a lot of waiting... it took 2 days for our orange peels to dry.    You'll know when they're dry by the hardness (they won't be as floppy) and the white sugar crystals you can see in the above picture.

Time to dip them in chocolate! Leave them to dry on a drying rack or propped up against the rim of a cookie tin, like you see here.

Chocolate Covered Candied Orange Peel
adapted from Bon Appetit here
Ingredients
2 navel oranges
3 cups sugar
3 cups water
4 oz. semi-sweet or bittersweet or dark chocolate
Directions
1. Peel orange, retaining as much pith as possible.  Cut orange peel into 1/4 inch wide slices.
2. Blanche orange three times: place orange peels in pot.  Fill with enough cold water to cover.  Place pot on stove and heat water until boiling.  Drain water and rinse orange peels with cold water.  Repeat twice.
3. Remove orange peels from pot and set aside.  Add 3 cups water and 3 cups sugar to pot, heat until boiling.  Add peel, bring to a boil.  Lower heat until water simmers, wait until peel turns translucent (~1 hour).
4. Drain water and separate out orange peels on drying rack.  Leave until completely dry (~2 days).
5. Heat chocolate over double boiler or in microwave, until melted.  Dip orange peel into chocolate and lay out to dry (~2 hours).

Cookie Exchange!

Sally and I are always up for giving away baked goods.  It's great to know you've brightened someone's day by handing them a fresh chocolate chip cookie (or by sending several dozen through the mail) and we bake too much for just the two of us anyway.  Receiving cookies is just as good - we get to try out things we might never bake in our own kitchen.  So when we heard about this cookie exchange over at Steph Chows, we didn't even have to consult each other before deciding to put our name on the list.

That was over a month ago, before the crazy holidays, and before we knew how crazy the holidays were going to be.  In fact, it almost feels like holiday season is still here with these gingerbread cookies covered in orange glaze.  It's always a relief to find a cookie recipe that uses molasses, because I usually end up buying a bottle to make gingerbread men during the holidays and never know what to do with it after.  It's good to know you can make these cookies year round.

Gingerbread Cookies with Orange Glaze

modified from Sweet Pea's Kitchen recipe here

Ingredients:

¾ cup packed dark brown sugar 

2 tablespoons grated zest from 1 orange 

3 cups all-purpose flour 

1 tablespoon cinnamon 

1 tablespoon ground ginger 

½ teaspoon ground cloves 

¾ teaspoon baking soda 

½ teaspoon salt 

12 tablespoons (1 ½ sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 12 pieces and softened slightly 

¾ cup molasses 

4 tablespoons milk, divided 

2 cups confectioner's sugar 

2 tablespoons orange juice

Directions: 

1. Adjust the oven racks to the upper- and lower-middle positions and heat the oven to 350 degrees F. 

2. Place brown sugar and zest  in a bowl, mix together until combined.  Add flour, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, baking soda, and salt, mix until combined.  Sprinkle the butter evenly over the dry ingredients and mix until sandy- 5 minutes by hand, and you should see the dough become a little darker/yellower. Add molasses and two tablespoons of milk; mix dough until it comes together and is evenly moistened.  If still dry, add a little more milk.

4. Roll into 1 inch balls and flatten.  Place on prepared baking sheets spacing cookies 1 inch apart. Bake until centers are just set, 8 to 11 minutes. rotating the baking sheets halfway through. Transfer the cookies to a wire rack and cool to room temperature. 

5. For the frosting: In a medium bowl, whisk together confectioners sugar, orange juice, and remaining 2 tablespoons milk until smooth. Spread a heaping teaspoon of glaze on each cookie; let dry 30 minutes before serving.

We sent these cookies off to our cookie partner last week - hope she likes them as much as we did!  And a special thanks to Steph for organizing the cookie exchange!

About those Resolutions...

So Sally and I haven't been the best at keeping our New Years Resolutions, but we promise to do better!  In fact, just to show you how much better we can do here is a teaser collection of pictures of all the things we made over the holidays.  Hopefully we'll end up doing full posts on at least some of these.

my favorite Indian snack food: Pani Puri

 

Apple Walnut Bread

 

Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

 

 

Apple Crisp

Happy New Year!

Sally and I would like to take this time to wish all of you a Happy New Year and to make a few New Years Resolutions:

1. More blog posts! The ratio of goodies baked to baked goodies posted is ridiculously high.
2. More pictures! Must not eat tasty treats before hauling out camera and waiting for good sunlight to get picture.
3. More comments? Sally and I haven't decided on whether or not to properly promote our blog.  We know this is unfair to our blog and the time and effort we put into it, but we wanted a trial run in order to prove that we could write a thoughtful and engaging blog.  There was never any doubt in my mind of this - Sally is a baking and writing and photography goddess, so how could we go wrong?  However, we may hold off on publicizing our blog more than the occasional few readers we already currently get simply because of our irregular schedules and the chance that there might not be blog posts for a long time... say a year or so.