Tuesday, October 18, 2016

Momofuku Corn Cookies #CreativeCookieExchange

Momofuku calls this a sleeper cookie, that is, one that they did not expect would be that popular but has become a favorite. Rich, buttery, sweet but a bit salty, these Momofuku corn cookies are chewy and completely more-ish.


One of the beautiful things about having children is the intelligent discourse that becomes possible as they grow and become more articulate. Nothing gives me greater pleasure than spending time with my girls and learning from them. This past week I was in Baltimore visiting our elder daughter and I had the best time exploring her neighborhood and talking with her late into the night.

We ate lump crab cakes at Faidley’s in the world famous Lexington Market, bought pasta puttanesca supplies and chianti at a little Italian grocery for dinner on Friday night and enjoyed a beautiful meal – with house brewed beer, of course – at The Brewer’s Art. We even got to cheer on the runners in the Baltimore Marathon which ran right through her neighborhood Saturday.

On my final night, we brought home boiled crabs for dinner from Lexington Market. And if it sounds like all we did was eat, eat, eat, well, I cannot deny that. But we also managed to get our work done and we talked a lot.

I mentioned to her that I wasn’t going to take part in this cookie event because time had gotten away from me in Houston and I hadn’t had time to bake. Her eyes lit up at a good reason to introduce me to these Momofuku corn cookies, which she had already made twice in as many weeks. She extolled their virtues at length and, best of all, had the ingredients in the cupboard already. How could I resist?

I need to introduce the recipe by saying that we got it off the Lucky Peach website and it supposedly comes from the Momofuku cookbook. I say supposedly because I have never held that volume in my hands. I can tell you the measurements online are off so I hope that they are correct in the book. Since my daughter had already made these corn cookies twice, she said to ignore the volume amounts and use the weight measurements. I followed her instructions and give you below the corrected volume measurements for those who don’t have a digital kitchen scale.

Ingredients for 2 dozen cookies
1 cup or 226g room-temperature butter
1 1/2 cups or 300g sugar
1 egg
1 3/4 cups or 220g all-purpose flour
1/2 cup or 65g freeze-dried corn powder *See note below
1/4 cup or 45g corn flour (corn masa flour, like you’d use to make tortillas, not corn starch)
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt or flakey sea salt

*Note: I used Karen’s Freeze Dried Corn (<affiliate link) in this recipe, weighing out 65g and then blitzing it into powder with a food processor. The resulting powder measured about 1/2 cup by volume.

Method
Use a stand or handheld electric beaters to cream the butter and sugar together on medium high until they are fluffy and pale yellow, about 2-3 minutes.

Add in the egg and mix it in with the beaters on low.

Increase the speed to medium high again and beat for eight minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl occasionally with a rubber spatula. Here the original recipe says that at the end of eight minutes, the sugar will be dissolved completely and the volume would double. Neither was true of mine but, honestly, it did not matter. The butter, sugar and egg were very pale and fluffy and I called it good.



With your mixer or beaters on low, mix in all of the dry ingredients, just until they come together as a dough.



Use a scoop or two spoons to divide the dough into 24 relatively equal portions. If you are a scale-using person, mine were about 40g each.

Using clean hands, roll the dough into balls and place on two cookie sheet lines with baking parchment or silicone liners.



Chill in the refrigerator for one hour. You can chill these for longer, even overnight, but in that case, cover them with cling film so they don’t dry out. The chilling time is a must for cookies with this much butter. If you bake them without chilling, the butter will melt out.

As you come to the end of the chilling time, preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C.

Bake the cookies one pan at a time on the middle shelf of your preheated oven, leaving the second pan in the refrigerator until you are ready to bake it.

Bake for 10 minutes and then turn the pan around to make sure the cookies bake evenly. Bake for a further 5-6 minutes or until the edges are slightly golden and the cookies are a bit puffy looking. They will sink when they start cooling but that’s okay.



Leave the cookies to cool on the pans for a few minutes then cool them completely on a wire rack.

I wish I could adequately describe to you the buttery, chewiness of these sweet and salty corn cookies. Let me just say that you should try them, and as soon as possible. As you can see, when they are just turning brown on the edges, they are lovely and golden on the bottom.



Enjoy!

This month my Creative Cookie Exchange group is baking with the tastes of autumn. Check out the lovely list of cookies we have for you today.



Creative Cookie Exchange is hosted by Laura of The Spiced Life. We get together once a month to bake cookies with a common theme or ingredient so Creative Cookie Exchange is a great resource for cookie recipes. Be sure to check out our Pinterest Board and our monthly posts at The Spiced Life. We post the first Tuesday after the 15th of each month!

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Tuesday, October 11, 2016

Easy Apple Banana Bread #BreadBakers

Easy Apple Banana Bread is a wonderful transition from summer to fall, as our temperatures finally get cool enough to bake without cranking the air conditioner thermostat down to compensate.



You know when you are so fast asleep that the phone rings and you somehow incorporate it into your dream? That was me the other night. My sister called about 1 a.m. to ask if I could come over to stay with her girls because their father was being taken to the medical center for testing. The doctors suspected a blockage in one artery. Well, I didn’t wake up in the four rings it took the answering machine to do its thing so she had to call our mom to go. I felt terrible the next morning when I saw the phone blinking and realized that I had missed the call.

The next day, while he was still being tested, I was charged with picking the girls up from school, so I decided to bake an after school snack for them. There was a change of plans and I ended up not doing the school pick up but I can assure you that this easy apple banana bread makes an excellent after school snack! Or breakfast. Or midmorning coffee break.

In other good news, my brother-in-law is fine and he was released that day. I believe a stent may be in the cards but at least it’s not an emergency situation.

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups or 190g flour
3/4 cup or 150g sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 ripe bananas, peeled
1/3 cup or 75g butter, melted and cooled, plus more for buttering the pan
1 egg, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 large or 2 small apples
Option for decorating: a light sprinkling of powdered or confectioner’s sugar

Method
Preheat the oven to 350°F or 180°C. Butter a loaf pan or line it with baking parchment.

Whisk your flour, sugar, baking soda, salt and cinnamon together in a mixing bowl and set it aside.

In another bowl, use a fork to mash your bananas until they are fairly smooth and pour in the melted butter.



Mix well with the fork until the butter is completely incorporated.

Add in the vanilla and egg and mix well again.



Peel and chop your apple/s finely. Add the apples to the banana bowl and stir well.



Fold the wet and dry ingredients together until just combined.



Pour the batter into your buttered loaf pan. You can sprinkle on a little extra cinnamon and sugar, if you'd like.



Bake in the preheated oven for 50-55 minutes or until the loaf is nicely browned and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove from the oven and leave to cool for about 10 minutes on a wire rack.



Run a knife around the edges and turn the apple banana loaf out on to the wire rack to cool completely.

Slice with a serrated bread knife to serve.



Enjoy!

This month my Bread Bakers group is celebrating fall fruit and vegetables with a plethora of breads, both quick and yeasted. Many thanks to our host, Pavani of Cook's Hideout, for her behind the scenes work.


BreadBakers
#BreadBakers is a group of bread loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bread with a common ingredient or theme. Follow our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated each month on this home page. We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient.



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Posted by at 2:30:00 AM 0 comments
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Sunday, October 9, 2016

Baked Ham, Egg and Cheese Sandwiches

Baked Ham, Egg and Cheese Sandwiches are the perfect make ahead breakfast for three or a crowd of 20. Assemble the night before and bake them up hot and fresh when your guests wake up.



I must confess that my go-to breakfasts for a crowd are usually pancakes, waffles or muffins. I make my life easy in the morning by getting organized the evening before, measuring out the dry ingredients into a big bowl and whisking together the wet ingredients in another bowl. I pop the wet ingredients in the refrigerator.

All that’s left to do in the morning is to combine the two and cook the batter, a process so simple that even I can do it while simultaneously sipping on my first cup of coffee. To measure ingredients in the morning, I’d have to be on my second cup to ensure any degree of accuracy. I’m sure many of you can relate.

This week my Sunday Supper group is sharing great recipes to serve when you are hosting a sleepover or slumber party.  I doubt my make-ahead batter tips are news to most of you so I decided to branch out a little. Baked Ham, Egg and Cheese Sandwiches take a little more time but you save that on clean up!

Ingredients per person
1 bread roll
1 slice ham
1 medium egg
Freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons finely grated sharp cheese
Sprinkle chopped green onions or chives

Extra equipment: aluminum foil cut in squares large enough to wrap your bread rolls individually

Method
(If baking immediately, preheat your oven to preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C.)

If baking the next morning, start here:
Use a sharp serrated knife to cut the top of your bread roll at a slight angle, like you would the top of a pumpkin for carving. Set aside.

Use the knife to cut around the hole so that you can remove the soft inside of the roll. Save it for another use like breadcrumbs or stuffing. You want to get the walls of the roll quite thin so that the heat can reach the egg quickly when we bake this.





Dry the ham slice with a paper towel and fit it into the roll, pressing down on the bottom to create more space for your egg. Don’t tear the ham or your egg will leak through to the bread roll, which we do not want.

If your eggs are very fresh, you might be able to skip this step: Crack the egg into a slotted spoon with tiny holes to let the very liquidy part of the egg drain away, leaving behind the rest of the white and the intact yolk.

Put the egg in the ham “bowl” in the roll.



Grind on some freshly ground black pepper then add the cheese on top. Sprinkle with some chopped green onion or chives.

Put the top back on the bread roll.

Wrap the whole roll completely with a piece of foil and set on a baking tray. Repeat as many times as necessary to feed all of your guests.



The baked ham, egg and cheese sandwiches can then be refrigerated overnight to be baked fresh and hot the next morning.

When you get up the next morning, preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C and remove the baking pan from the refrigerator.

Once the oven is hot enough, put the pan with the sandwiches in and bake for about 15 minutes. Pull one out to check how cooked the egg yolk is. Pop it back in for a little longer if the egg is still a little too runny for your liking. You are starting with cold ham, eggs and cheese so the time will vary by how cold they were and how soft you like your egg yolks.

N.B. If you make these and bake right away without refrigerating, they will take a shorter time to cook. I tested it both ways, baking one immediately and baking the other three the next morning. I was very happy with the results either way.

Once done to your liking, remove from the oven and leave to cool enough to handle. Hand out foil-wrapped baked ham, egg and cheese sandwiches and napkins to your hungry crowd. No plates to wash! Or put them on plates and get fancy.



I haven’t tried it yet, but I’m thinking these could even be baked over a campfire in a Dutch oven or in a covered barbecue pit, away from the direct heat. Wouldn’t they be great for a Scout campout?

What's your favorite dish to bring or make for a slumber party? If you are looking for some great new ideas, Sunday Supper is here to help. Many thanks to our event manager, Cricket of Cricket's Confections and our host, Marion of Life Tastes Good.

Breakfast

Snacks

Desserts


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