Cats, Sheep, & Penguins

Little things often make a world of difference. At least they do in the baking world. I changed several things to avoid a repeat of the Best Christmas Cookies debacle of last week. Issue one: the ambient temperature, which was a balmy 70˚F (21.11˚C) at my sister-in-law’s house, was a little chillier at 64˚F (17.77˚C) here at home. Issue two: using a hand mixer v. mixing by hand. I suspected that using a hand mixer made the batter a little too fluid for the cookies to roll out right, and this time, my dough set up nicely when popped in the freezer for thirty minutes. I didn’t need to re-flour the parchment paper on my work surface, nor was it necessary to refreeze the dough halfway through, as it was at my SIL’s. The cookie cutters sliced through the dough quite sharply, and the silicone spatula I used was thin enough to get under the cookies without distorting them. Issue three: no shortening in the icing. All I used was a cup and a half of confectioner’s sugar, three tablespoons of half-and-half, a tablespoon of vanilla, and Wilton Paste Colors. I made up eight ramekins of the sugary stuff (black, brown, violet, rose, red, yellow, leaf green, and white) and used tiny paintbrushes instead of butter knives in order to frost with precision. Check out my results!

Growing up Jewish, you’d think I never had occasion to bake Christmas cookies with an elder. Not so! My mother and I used to bake all sorts of shaped cookies; she had a special recipe and made her own icing, cutting the tips from plastic baggies to frost the cookies. I’m hungry to continue the tradition with my new family. Gary and I picked out some large copper cookie cutters from Chef Central: a sleigh , a gingerbread man , a nutcracker , a train, and a car with a Christmas tree on top (my favorite), as well as a set of twelve copper cutters in a smaller size. I’ve tried several recipes, even fashioning one myself out of two that looked promising, with varying results. The recipe I created rolled out perfectly, but tasted way too floury. I also made them too thick, with the resulting cookies resembling Mongo from Shrek . Going back to an old standby, I tried Cook’s Country’s Best Christmas Cookies. The sour cream adds a discernible delicious tang that wasn’t present in the other cookies. However, you must remember to keep the dough cold, otherwise it gets too darn sticky. When I made these at my sister-in-law’s house on Christmas Eve, I worked with a floured marble work surface and marble rolling pin, even with these however, the dough got too warm too fast (their thermostat is set at 70˚). I did not have access to parchment paper, it’s what I’ll be working with when I try these at home. (more…)

Ever since I first had Guinness stew at The Ginger Man I’ve wanted to know how to make it. Recently I’ve pursued this goal in earnest, and I’ve come close enough to invite some friends over for a tasting. With the stew we’ll be serving fresh bread made with beer and gruyére cheese (baked by my lovely and talented wife, Lysa), and of course Guinness Draught. To help pique the anticipation of tomorrow’s dinner, I’m posting an image of a recipe test I did this week. The Ginger Man version I’ll be attempting has much more liquid, but the ingredients won’t change; the test version was also a bit light on the beer as Lysa favors Guinness not so much as I.