Hamantaschen

Joanie's Fig Newtons

In the1980s there was a popular machine-made cookie called the 'Fig Newton' made by Nabisco. This cookie dough was wrapped around a fig paste. Since this cookie, of course, would never reach the stature of the ceremonial cookie, the Hamantaschen, and since my poorly executed attempt at Hamantaschen didn't equal either one, my husband was amused and said, "Oh, good, here are some of "Joanie's Fig Newtons" -  And so here is the story . . .  

The photos I am including here are actually from Day 2 of this adventure. It is my second attempt at baking these famous, celebration cookies. None of our Alpha's seems to have made a dough as faulty and compromised as mine; in fact, I doubt if even Nabisco could duplicate it. Certainly after my first attempt at the Hamantaschen on the day before, Day 1, the batch I called "Ruins of Sablee", I had no idea I could possibly make the same mistakes on Day 2, especially having in the interim doggedly watched many YouTube films on making pate sucree, sablee, and others, and being 'tutorized' there by all sorts of French, Italian, American, British and wonderful old Jewish chefs. I surmised that none of them must have had more than the variety of butter-peas that I did not know how to regulate, and of course if they had they knew what to do with it. Myself, I still didn't know whether to go forward or backward with the flour pulsing 8-10 times in the Cuisinart to obtain the desired result because if I went the wrong way in either direction I was done for.

The first attempt to create this recipe on Day 1, was the one where I had the fall of a member of the dusty Hamantaschen Cookiedom. That dough was a beautiful sablee-colored dough. It was so crusty that it cracked like ruins, would not roll out at all, let alone be formed into anything but a questionable doily. I took a picture with one little shape of a droll Hamantaschen on the cutting board as this dough slid sadly into the trash can. I sent the photo to Monica, who responded that she thought I might be late for my post.

But all was not lost because I still had eggs, cream, filling made, flour, strained preserves, sugar and strained egg glaze. Therefore, on the morning of Day 2 the baking began again.

I knew I needed Patricia's tutorial because it would show me a large picture of butter not larger than a small pea to keep the dough perfectly malleable with its flour. But neither Patricia nor Stormy were to be found and Echo was busy here studying the Baking Bible and had no time for me.

Per Rose: Softening sugars. In a container of hard sugar, add a small piece of foil, shaped to receive a lightly moistened half paper towel without touching sugar. Place the top on the container and leave it. It will soften. I use this method and leave it overnight. It works, including the Turbinado shown here. I store mine in a plastic rectangular box.

This whole process of creating the Hamantaschen isn't time consuming, as we all know. So once again my lovely softened Turbinado was placed into the Cuisinart and pulsed. I did all I was told. Until - yep - I hit the brick wall again. I really scrutinized the mixture this time so I wouldn't go beyond the size of a small butter pea. As I peered into the feed tube once again I knew I had to pulse more, or less, and I knew the parameters. I felt like I had more moisture this time and I took the dough out. 

 I began to follow more directions again, since after all it was Day 2. I emptied the dough into a plastic bag, kneaded, and made a ball, cut in half 210 g., made discs, refrigerated them in plastic. And then again the problems began once more:

I thawed a disc a bit after 30 minutes, floured and rolled it out on a floured mat, into a rectangle. Okay. Rotating, not okay. Sticking and crumbling, not okay. Lots of flour top and under, questionable because contributing to consistency? The dough is not happy dough. Nevertheless, the time has come to:

The cut out 3" circles that were so crumbly I could barely lift one even with a small spatula, and usually it was necessary to cut around edges and shore them up. I managed to egg-wash half-inch around, barely.

Finally, I added 2 tsp. filling (delicious) into the center. I only managed 8 partial circles. There were lots of scraps. The circles were so crumbly that I couldn't compose the corners, with water or anything else, to fold the corners together. I pressed and dabbed them with apricot wash and baked them just to see what would happen. Well, even after baking they were so ugly I was about to pitch them when I had to decide if I wanted you to think we hadn't at least tried. I decided it could go either way. So, with that in mind, I decided not to throw them away and just put them on a drying stand to figure what to do with them, aside from glaring at them, because their failure to even reach Fig-Newtonville was, of course, all their fault. They knew I knew better.

So, we are finally at the end of this novelette . . .  I was thirsty last night. At midnight I went to the kitchen and got some orange juice. I passed by Joanie's Fig Newtons, and just for no reason picked up one and took a bite. My eyes flew open. Another bite. And then I ate two more. They were more dense than tender, and not flaky, but I have had worse, i.e. Fig Newtons themselves, and the filling was awesome with that slight hint of the lemon zest  throughout. So I must say, if I had seen Patricia's tutorial it would have undoubtedly shown me butter-no-larger-than-a-small-pea-perfect. Yet, even though not tender, shapely, or flaky, these tasted 'perty darned good' and were deemed worthy to escape an early demise, except they have strangely disappeared, those Joanie's Fig Newtons. 

This all leads me closer to the Hamantaschen creation once more: Day 3. 

Mercurius Sublimatus - 'Curi'

                                            

Thanks for listening. Again.
We'll be over to learn the consistency, Patricia.

Lemon Posset Shortcakes

Since these delectable little lemon posset shortcakes only beckon sweetly, how would one know that they are actually approaching the sublime? 
As Rose says about her enlightening experience with Ann Bridges at Restaurant Alma, the lemon posset offers a "pure and clean flavor." It is a "soft lemon cream . . . that relies  entirely on the acidity of the Meyer lemon juice to set the cream" (p. 111).

I am not so naive as to disbelieve Roses's observations. I never cease to admire her expertise and choices. Therefore, I looked forward to another delightful experience of learning to create what she had so beautifully described. I was not disappointed.

                               The mis en place was simple.

         The batter took very little time. Wondra flour. Sugar, eggs. 

The beurre noisette for that extra 'je ne sais quoi'. "Burned butter" as Hector calls it. And wonderful vanilla. As usual I found myself wondering which takes longer, beurre noisette or lemon curd. 

     The design of the Marianne pan is delightful. I have had it since RHB. However, I think I did not put enough Baker's Joy into its crevices, and this possibly caused my little cakes want to stick and then be crumbly. I do intend to acquire the larger size of the Marianne pan in order to have more support for the distinctive basket-weave on the cakes. In this case there are two layers of syrup/glaze that would diminish the sharpness of the design anyway. The cakes have wonderful lightness, and flavor. 

Sinking slightly and coming slightly away from sides.

 

I now recall that I laid out the mis en place and baked the cakes the night before I completed the balance of this recipe. Is that why they are crumbly? They had plastic on them~

                                                     *

                    The next evening - the ahead less planned --

Rose had cautioned: Plan ahead. Okay. I have a tendency to say Okay to Rose, and then not to look beyond her caution to reality. And so:
  
     The next evening, after work, I began the preparation of the lemon syrup, apple glaze, and the posset. This whole procedure turned out to be rather tedious in that there were 3 hours between the lemon syruping of the cakes and the apple glazing; and then 30 minutes after the apple glazing. I had a small cake casualty, so I shored it up with a toothpick, later filled it with posset - and ate it.







         [I even ate many 1/4 tsps of the apple jelly glaze  -omg]

                        the poor catastrophy

Meanwhile the posset was made, and then it required 3-4 hours of refrigeration to set up. 

                                                Heaven

     And then, allowing 1 hour after placing the first layer of posset in the cavities of the cakes, add the second layer and wait at least 2 more hours to set the second layer. Finally, at that time, I simply set the completed cakes into a domed cake carrier and refrigerated them. Decidedly, it would have been smarter to do all the 'time-outs' during the day when extra time could be put to better use than trying to stay awake until 0430.

     I had zested the lemons, rubbed the zest in sugar, and left it for a day on a plate in the oven with the light on. Perfect. Then I ground it in a mortar and pestle, sieving it three times. It was like lemony faerie dust, and I sprinkled it all over the cakes and the serving plates.

     
     At this morning's gathering, I smiled as I watched the small ladies group fairly swoon before my eyes after a taste of the lemon posset shortcakes! Although the cakes had a somewhat disheveled appearance they did look happily apple-sticky-glazed and who could resist that? The ladies were intrigued by the combination of the apple glaze and the lemon syrup, and enchanted by the creamy posset with the inflection of the Myer lemon that adds such a special clear note. I had enjoyed mine with the casualty earlier in the morning, of course. 

             Note to self: It would be more sensible next time to make a triple recipe of these fantasticated cakes. 
            Note to self: Listen to Rose.

                                                    *        

  

The Chocolate Pavarotti

                               

Philemon

                                    The Chocolate Pavarotti with Wicked Good Ganache

I had expected this recipe to be a daunting one, yet it did not seem to present any problems. Only a few very minor cracks appeared on top of the cake that were expected. The underside was lovely and perfect.



        The ganache was made two days before the cake, and it remained air-tight unrefrigerated.

The Guittard: Collection Etiene chocolate I wanted to try was not available at the time so I chose Scharffen Berger that has precisely the right amount of cocoa, 62% and 99%. I liked the idea of the cayenne so I used a rounded off ¾ tsp of it. When I tasted it from the bowl it was excellent. When I tasted it after frosting it, however, there was a slight indeterminable after-taste, [before the golden sprinkles were put on, unfortunately with too heavy a hand].

I am curious. I have shared the cake with two ladies at work, and my husband. One lady said too spicy for her with the cayenne, one lady loved it and took it home, my husband did not like it at all. I noticed an odd flavor in the ganache.

Now I have decided to remake the cake right away. I have thrown away all the white chocolate I had, the Green and Black’s cocoa, and VaIrhona chocolate. I think it will be interesting to use the Guittard: Collection Etiene chocolate if I can find it, or possibly I will want to see if the ganache comes out the same for me with ½ tsp of cayenne instead of rounded ¾ tsp..

The batter

[somebody got loose with the golden sprinkles - oops] 

This cake. of course, is wonderful. I feel as if I have done something wrong in the ganache and although I have looked to see, I will have to re-bake it to find out.    A pleasure.

Gingersnaps

As I perused the Gingersnap reactions of the other Alphas, there were so many fun responses that I couldn't wait to bake them, never having eaten a gingersnap myself except the boxed ones.

This was not a labor-intensive endeavor. I made the dough last night to chill, and today baked the 'cookies', as I think many are calling them since our Alpha in UK noted that there was not snap and furthermore these didn't have molasses and other ingredients that I think make up a true snap. So many wonderful responses, and I laughed and giggled.

Really, I have nothing to say except to agree with all that has gone before - these are special - and I, too, am eating them as they cool - and more --

                  Echo wanted to know what is happening 
                 to interrupt his nap, then went back to dream
                 of the birds in the trees outside since ginger 
                 doesn't smell enough like tuna~~~~~~~~~

Mis en place is quick and easy -

First. I melted butter and Golden syrup in Rose's caramel pot. I seem to use that pot for more things than I would have dreamed. I didn't have India Tree Golden so just used my Lyle's. With the butter: another spoon-licking experience.

Like several of us, I could not locate the golden sugar, so I did as Rose suggested in this case, I mixed light brown sugar with Caster.
I didn't think much about the fact that the brown sugar was none to loose, so when I finished something else and returned it was hard. Reminding me to put apple or another tip that Rose has mentioned.
So, I put it and the Caster sugar in the Cuisinart, and here it is, looking like fine Bermuda sand, except that once I was disappointed to see that Bermuda sand is really just sand-colored, not pink sand. Perhaps it's in the lighting at sunrise. 

Ingredients sifted into KA bowl. By rote I had put in the whisk and turned the flour mixture a few seconds before it dawned on me -- that wouldn't have been good, so completed its 30 seconds with the beater blade. So the flour mixture now was readyfor the cooled butter mixture and beaten for one minute before adding the egg mixture for 30 seconds.*[Oops--I was warned about doing the post inside. I guess I just had too suffer the injustice lol] 

The dough was crumbly but not dry, and was  easy to mold it into three little packages and refrigerate.

Then today I took one at a time and scooped balls with my beautiful scoop, that although it was 1.5 inches diameter, produced little balls that were 30+ g.  I didn't like that too much, and figured an easy way out was to just lay a bit of dough on the scale for 27g and then form the ball. Soon I became able to almost make the balls 27g, but I still just weighed them for fun. 

The first batch was gorgeous dark caramel - well, hmmm the bottoms were even darker, just missing scorch. They are too crisp, but the flavor is unbelievable. Perhaps the caramel is brought forward more with the intense heat. I am breaking my teeth as we speak eating one of the dark ones. It is still a little chewy in the center, but I doubt if that will remain. They are addictive as others have noticed and will be gone by morning... I have a picture of the requisite glass of cold milk!

The second batch was not quite as dark but I noticed something odd that was happening around the bottom. And then it hit me -- I had once again gone by rote - the last thing I baked was on the lower rack -- so now the middle batch was wonderful, also because I took it out earlier, so a little chewy and flavor still outstanding. 

 I moved the rack to the middle for the last batch, and still they baked quicker than expected, but are lovely and almost the same coloring as the second batch. The ginger is barely perceptible to me in these 'cookies', just a tiny bit noticeable using 1T. I will most likely add 1/8-1/4 tsp more next time just to tip it a bit. But whatever, these are fabulously flavored, and easy to make for many different occasions. And, all three of mine do indeed have 'snap'.

                            I'm off to get some milk, and guess what...?