Merry Christmas
We’ve been sick with a dreadful bout of flu for the past 2 days. I went down first, followed 12 hours later by GH. Luckily, Christmas isn’t a big deal around here. We’ll pull ourselves together and go see a movie with the boys and then perhaps dinner at our favorite Indian restaurant. I’ve always thought of the spices in Indian food to be the perfect antidote to illness.
I bet you’re munching on a cookie right now, aren’t you? The next time you bake, include these delightful Italian gems. Crumiri cookies have long been a favorite of mine. A stroll through San Francisco’s North Beach always included a stop for some of these, but now I make them myself…and they’re really easy. Plus you’ll get to use your pastry bag…always fun!
Crumiri [printable version]
1-3/4 sticks unsalted butter
3/4 cup sugar
2 large eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla
2/3 cup yellow cornmeal
Preheat oven to 325 F. Eggs and butter should be at room temperature.
Using a mixer, cream the butter and sugar for about 5 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time. Add the vanilla and mix in. Mix together the flour, salt and cornmeal and add to the butter mixture.
The cookie dough will be thick. Smoosh into a piping bag fitted with a star-shaped tip (3/4” to 1”).
Pipe the cookies onto parchment covered baking sheets in an overlapping oblong about 3 inches long.
Bake until the cookies are golden around the edges, anywhere from 12 to 14 minutes. Cool and freeze then dip one end in melted chocolate.
S’more me to my soul
Lucky us, we got a snow day today. I guess if you grew up in the city or in a balmy part of the world you might not have experienced the pleasures of a snow day. But I’m sure you can imagine…a day just like every other day, filled with appointments, to-do lists, and obligations, then suddenly…it’s all called off on account of snow. Oh, happy day!
I took advantage of my unplanned day off to craft a new bar cookie, one I’ve been contemplating ever since I made those marshmallows. LAmonkeygirl’s comment about deconstructed s’mores got me to thinking about a s’more bar cookie. I searched the internets to see what was out there and all the recipes were miserably disappointing and involved a chocolate chip cookie base. That just didn’t sound like a s’more to me.
I started with a standard graham cracker crust. Then I added a layer of milk chocolate. Yes, I could have used bittersweet, but honestly, those s’more I had as a kid were made with Hershey’s milk chocolate and I wanted to stay true to that experience. After the chocolate melted I added a layer of my marshmallows. Back into the oven until they were all melty and soft then I topped it off with buttered graham cracker crumbs and I let that bake for a bit. When it came out it had melted all together and look really gooey and good.
The results are heavenly…a chewy, buttery, chocolaty treat that is sure to bring back memories of campfires, friendship bracelets, and kumbaya. But really these are so much better…no nasty mosquitoes, outhouses, or poison ivy. These s’mores are right at home on a cold winter day.
S’more bar cookies
1 ¼ cups graham cracker crumbs
¼ cup sugar
1/3 cup butter, melted
Another ½ cup of graham cracker crumbs
3 tablespoons butter, melted
10 ounces milk chocolate
Marshmallows
Put the first three ingredients in a 11” x 9” baking dish. Using a fork or your fingers mix this together well and then press it into the dish so it is flat and level. Bake at 350° for 7 minutes or until it begins to brown on the edges.
Crush 8 ounces of milk chocolate into little bits and distribute them evenly across the surface of the crust. Put the dish into the oven for 5 minutes or until the chocolate has melted enough to be evenly spread across the crust.
Once the chocolate is spread about add enough marshmallows to cover the chocolate. Put the dish back in the oven and allow it to cook for 5 minutes or until the marshmallows puff up and turn golden brown on the edges.
Remove the dish from the oven and spread the marshmallows so they evenly cover the surface. Combine the remaining butter and graham cracker crumbs and spread them across the surface. Bake for 10 minutes or until it looks golden brown, bubbly, and gooey.
Better than store bought…marshmallows
My favorite sweet from See’s Candies is a dark chocolate scotch mallow; a layer of caramel and a layer of marshmallow all enrobed in dark chocolate. It is divine. We’ve (Dexter and I) often wondered what it takes to make marshmallows. I knew it was possible but I just hadn’t gotten around to looking into it…until this past weekend.
It was a simple process in and of itself, as long as it was in the mixer. The tricky part came when it was time to move the sticky mass from the mixer bowl to the cookie sheet. It’s like working with really sticky caulk. The recipe said to line the sheet pan with oil brushed plastic wrap. That was a mistake because oil brushed plastic wrap doesn’t stick to the marshmallow but it doesn’t stay in the sheet pan either. Next time I’ll line the pan with oil brushed foil.
I know there are cooks who pride themselves on the professional appearance of their food, and if they don’t get it it right the first time, they toss it and try again. You should know by now…I am not that cook! In this case I did my best to wrangle that sweet blob into a rectangular shape but it was no use…it had a mind of it’s own.
Once it was reasonably contained and wrapped up tightly in it’s pan I parked it in the garage for the night…it’s cold and dry out there and quite safe for a defenseless pan of sweet delight. The next morning I cut squares of the marshmallow. Here the recipe indicated that scissors should be the tool of choice but I thought that sounded crazy, so I just used my biggest knife. Some squares got dusted with powdered sugar, some I clumsily coated in milk chocolate, and others were drowned in dark chocolate. My chocolate technique was as unprofessional as everything else and I was freaked out about the heat of the chocolate melting the marshmallows so I felt like I had to work fast. I ultimately used 2 skewers to pick up the marshmallow, drag it through the melted chocolate and then airlift it onto the sheet pan.
But here’s the thing…they are delicious and really didn’t take that much time or fuss…mostly they just freaked me out because I’ve never worked with anything like that before. But to eat them…oh! They are so fresh and fluffy…not dense and yet not feather light either. The flavor and texture are outstanding and I can’t wait to make them again for the holidays. I also want to try construct a homemade scotch mallow. I’ll post it when I do.
One note about the recipe. I don’t think I would attempt this without a stand mixer…12 minutes is a lot of mixing time and it really does get very big and even my KitchenAid was working hard.
Marshmallows Recipe
3 envelopes of Knox gelatin
1/2 cup cold water
2 cups granulated sugar
2/3 cups corn syrup
1/4 cup water
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
Powdered sugar for dredging
In the bowl of an electric mixer, sprinkle gelatin over 1/2 cup cold water. Soak for 10 minutes. Combine sugar, corn syrup, and 1/4 cup water in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil and boil hard for 1 minute. Pour boiling syrup into gelatin and mix at high speed. Add the salt and beat for 12 minutes. Add vanilla and incorporate into mixture. Brush your spatula with oil and scrape the mixture onto a sheet pan lined with foil brushed with oil and spread evenly. Cover with another piece of foil brushed with oil.
Let mixture sit for a few hours. Remove from pan, dredge the marshmallow slab with confectioners’ sugar and cut into equal pieces with a chef’s knife. Dredge each piece of marshmallow in powdered sugar or dip in chocolate.
