Candy Bar In-Betweens

So, how did he do? Did you like his style? How about the cake - pretty snazzy, huh? I promise, if I ask him to 'guest star' on here again, I'll pick a less frustrating recipe!

Now, back to business as usual.

This might seem odd, but I’m sure I’m not alone when I say there was leftover Halloween candy hanging around my house and I needed something to do with it. Those fun-sized candy bars? Yeah, they went in these cookies from The 18^th Annual Bake-Off, and I think it was the best thing for everyone involved.

Candy Bar In-Betweens

2 C confectioner’s sugar

1 C butter, softened

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

½ tsp almond extract

3 C flour

1 tsp cream of tartar

1 tsp baking soda

¼ tsp salt

12 (7/8 oz) candy bars

Cream sugar and butter until light and fluffy. Add eggs, vanilla and almond extract, beating until well blended. Mix in dry ingredients slowly. Cover and chill for 1 hour.

Roll out dough on a floured surface into an 18”x11” rectangle. Cut dough into 9 11”x2” strips. Place 2 candy bars, end-to-end, on a long strip of dough, cover with a second strip, place 2 more candy bars, and cover with a final strip of dough.

Round and seal edges of dough layers to create a log. Repeat with remaining candy bars and strips of dough. Cut logs into ½” slices (I recommend a very sharp, very heavy knife) and place on ungreased cookie sheets. Bake at 375^oF for 10 to 12 minutes.

As far as preparation, layering the cookies and cutting the slices was a little tricky, especially because when cutting the candy bars tended to slip through the dough, but the end result was a batch of tasty, crispy cookies with a hint of chocolate inside. Definitely an ideal way to dispense with extra Halloween candy bars!

Have a question or a request? Put it in the comments below and I’ll be sure to respond. Fröhe essen!

Fluffy White Frosting

Fluffy White Frosting

¾ C sugar

¼ C water

1/8 tsp cream of tartar

1 tsp corn syrup

2 egg whites, stiffly beaten

1 tsp vanilla

Heat first four ingredients slowly to boiling and cook (without stirring) to 242° F, or until a small amount dripped from tip of spoon spins a long thread. Pour syrup slowly onto stiffly beaten egg whites, beating constantly. Beat until cool and thick enough to spread. Add vanilla. Will frost 1 (9X9) cake.

This recipe was difficult for me. After confiding in a work friend of how much trouble this was she admitted to doing a similar frosting and swearing to never do it again either. That being said, this frosting is fun to eat and teaches you a bit about sugar chemistry.

There are potential pitfalls. My first attempt at the egg whites ended with throwing out all of them. I thought I did a good job separating but some bit of yolk must have slipped by because they would not stiffen. In case you didn’t know, the proteins in egg yolks will break down the egg white structures as fast as you whip them if you don’t get rid of every little bit. There are only two eggs in this batch but if you have more I suggest using the hand method to separate them into a cup. Inspect and throw out (or make a scramble for breakfast) any white that even has a speck of yellow. This way you cannot accidentally drop yolk into a big batch of whites and ruin the whole batch.

I also recommend starting off with a medium heat and carefully watching the temperature. My first batch I heated too quickly and it soared past 242° F leading to a “hard crack” candy texture with an unpleasant hint of caramel. When folded into the whites it turned into sharp points. If you get any color change in the sugar, start over. If you go beyond the temperature, turn it off, let it cool well below and heat up slowly again. If you get it right you get a VERY fluffy sweet icing that is reminiscent of marshmallows. When combined with the Blitz Torte’s crumbly, fluffy texture and the silky smooth custard it makes for a textural journey.

Custard Filling

Custard Filling

3 tbsp flour

1/3 C sugar

1/8 tsp salt

1 C milk

1 egg, beaten

½ tsp vanilla

1 tbsp butter

Combine dry ingredients very thoroughly. Add milk and egg. Cook over boiling water, stirring constantly, until thickened. Add vanilla and butter. Cool. Filling for two layers.

Very simple, quick custard filling. Good amount of vanilla and an easy recipe to play around with and add flavors to.

Blitz Torte

This week, since it was my birthday, I will be featuring my first guest on Essen Girl: my hubby! He made a wonderful cake for me (even if there was a fair bit of swearing coming from the kitchen). I now turn it over to him (I'll be back next week).

These recipes came out of 250 Cake Recipes.

Blitz Torte

1 C sifted cake flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/8 tsp salt

½ C shortening

1 ¼ C sugar

4 eggs, separated

1 tsp vanilla

3 tbsp milk

½ C sliced blanched almonds

1 tbsp sugar

½ tsp cinnamon

Sift flour, baking soda and salt together.  Cream shortening with ½ cup sugar until fluffy.  Add well-beaten egg yolks, vanilla, milk and sifted dry ingredients.  Spread mixture in two greased pans.

Beat egg whites until stiff but not dry, add remaining sugar (3/4 C) gradually and beat until eggs hold a sharp peak.

Spread over unbaked mixture in both pans. Sprinkle with almonds, 1 tablespoon sugar and cinnamon and bake in moderate oven (350° F) about 30 minutes.

Cool and spread custard filling between layers.  Makes 2 (9-inch) layers.

Great recipe, but a lot of work. Read through it and heed my warnings! First, as a general recommendation, look for shortening with no trans-fats. It is a bit more expensive but it is healthier and substituting butter in this recipe just won’t work, it won’t hold the body and will deflate. Besides, a lot of them have a faintly coconut flavor that is very nice! Second, use a spring form pan if you’ve got it and parchment paper even if you don’t. I mean it, go run to the store and pick up some up. This cake will stick to the bottom like nothing else and the meringue will stick to the sides like glue. Using paper will also allow you to bring the meringue all the way up to the sides and smooth it out nicely. It will not spread on its own. The shape you put in the oven is what you will get out in the end and the meringue will be delicate and delicious. Get it right and you are in for a treat. Also, electric mixers are a blessing for these recipes. Hand-held is great but a stand mixer will make for a wonderful and fulfilling life. It may not be as important as a 401-k or a pacemaker but you’ll think fondly of it more often. I also really like the addition of a bit of cinnamon. You can substitute cocoa powder but it is a bit refreshing to get cinnamon in a non-spice cake. If I make this again I think I will add more cinnamon and a dash of nutmeg.

Also, fun note: 1/8 teaspoon is more technically a pinch of salt and is fine to measure it as the amount that you can hold between your thumb and forefinger. Some people refer to 1/8 as a dash and 1/16nth as a pinch with 1/32 as a smidgen… This is a new definition and really doesn’t make a huge difference. If you need to be that exact, get a scale. For almost all recipes, a little here and there won’t matter and you can feel free to vary proportions of spices and salt (be a bit more careful with leavening ingredients like baking soda, baking powder, or Sal Ammoniac). We combined this cake with the Custard Filling and Fluffy White Icing. The result was a pretty cake with a pretty generic taste profile of vanilla and sweet (with a dash of cinnamon!) but a textural treat that I have never had before in cake. Enjoy!

Green Bean Salad

The French Dressing serves as a dressing or base for quite a few recipes in 300 Salads. To pair with the Lemon Meat Balls, I wanted something fresh and crisp. Since we both really like green beans, this seemed like a good option.

Green Bean Salad

3 C cooked green beans

1 small onion, minced OR 1 tbsp chopped chives

1/3 C French dressing

1 canned pimiento, cut into strips OR ½ C sliced radishes

I flash-cooked the green beans and then blanched them because I wanted them to still have a bright green color and a little snap to them in the salad. Combine beans and onions with French dressing. Chill for 1 hour. Drain, add pimiento and toss.

Again, so simple, but sometimes I feel I just need the hint of a recipe to remind me, “Oh, yeah, I could pair those things together…” Since I only just barely cooked the green beans, this was light, refreshing, and a good texture contrast for the meatballs.

Have a question or a request? Put it in the comments below and I’ll be sure to respond. Fröhe essen!

French Dressing

Ready for a whole new recipe book? I needed something to pair with the Lemon Meat Balls, and we were looking for interesting vegetable options, so I turned to 300 Delicious Salads. Big promise, right? Apparently the half-size booklet was originally marketed at $0.35, but a sticker on my copy of the book shows that it was sold for $0.19. Let’s see if it’s worth what it cost!

I picked a salad out of the book, but then realized that the salad called for one of the dressings in the back of the book as part of its construction, so we’ll start with the dressing.

French Dressing

1 C olive or salad oil

¼ C vinegar

½ tsp salt

¼ tsp cayenne

¼ tsp white pepper

2 tbsp chopped parsley

Combine all ingredients and beat or shake thoroughly before using. Simple, right? I made a double batch and added some extra chopped tarragon I had lying around.

Variations using 1 C French Dressing as a foundation:

-       Add 2 tbsp anchovy paste and 1 tbsp chopped pearl onions

-       Add 1/3 C minced capers

-       Add 1 tbsp each of chopped beets, chopped chives and chopped hard-boiled eggs

-       Add 1 tbsp chopped chive, minced shallot, onion or garlic

-       Add 3 tbsp cottage cheese and 1 tbsp chopped chives

-       Add 3 tbsp grated cucumber and 1 tbsp chopped chives

-       Add 1 tbsp each minced parsley, watercress, chervil and basil

-       Use 2 tbsp each vinegar and ginger ale

-       Add 1 tbsp prepared horseradish

-       Add 2 tbsp prepared chutney, 2 chopped hard-boiled eggs and ½ tsp curry powder

-       Add 2 tbsp chopped pearl onion

-       Add 1/3 C soft crumbled Roquefort or bleu cheese

-       Use ¼ C tarragon vinegar

-       Add 1 C tomato juice, ½ clove minced garlic and 1 tbsp confectioner’s sugar

-       Add 1 tbsp each of chopped chives, chopped sweet pickles and chopped capers

Have a question or a request? Put it in the comments below and I’ll be sure to respond. Fröhe essen!

Lemon Meat Balls

On the prowl for something new and different (and that would make ample leftovers during a busy set of work weeks), I cracked open a hardly-used cookbook: The Ground Meat Cookbook. I know, the title sounds a little sketchy. That’s partially why I hadn’t braved it yet (except for the Petit Ham Puffs). But my friends and relatives will tell you that the quickest way to my heart is by flavoring something with lemon, so when I found this recipe, I decided the time had come to give this book another chance.

Lemon Meat Balls

1 lb ground beef

1 lb ground pork

½ C grated cheddar cheese

½ C plain bread crumbs

1 tbsp chopped parsley

1 tbsp lemon zest

1 tbsp lemon juice

1 egg, beaten

1 tsp salt

½ tsp MSG

¼ tsp pepper

1 ½ C tomato juice

1 ¼ C hot water

2 tbsp flour

2 tbsp water

Combine meat, egg, cheese, bread crumbs, and seasonings in a large bowl. Shape into balls. Here the recipe says to coat the meatballs lightly in flour and fry them in fat in a pan, but that seemed excessive. Instead, I just recommend browning them in the pan – the meat has enough fat on its own for a nice carmelization.

Add meatballs to skillet and brown over medium heat, turning occasionally to brown on all sides. Remove from heat and slowly add a mixture of tomato juice and hot water. Return to heat, cover and simmer about 40 minutes, turning meatballs occasionally. That was the end of the recipe. No, really, the book says nothing whatsoever about serving suggestions or what to do with the runny cooking liquid. Not wanting to waste it, I devised my own plan. I removed all of the meatballs from the cooking liquid with a slotted spoon and left them on a plate. I mixed water and flour together in a screw-top jar and then mixed that into the cooking liquid with a whisk, heating until the sauce was thick. I re-added the meatballs and heated them through, then served them with the sauce over rice.

My husband’s review of this was: “Oh, this is good. We could totally have this again. We could even make this if we have people over.” ‘Nough said. The lemon and parsley gave the meatballs a delightful freshness, and the sauce was very tasty with the tomato juice base. Like he said, we will definitely enjoy this again, and you should try it, too!

Have a question or a request? Put it in the comments below and I’ll be sure to respond. Fröhe essen!

Ochsenschwanz-Eintopf

Remember my friend Andrea from Three Maples Farm? While I was there picking up an absolutely delicious duck, I also grabbed an odd ingredient that I knew I would struggle to find in the local grocery store: oxtails! It seems odd in our Western culture to think about eating the tail of an animal, but there are a lot of animal parts that we wind up wasting. Tails have bones, which are good for making stock, and a little meat, which made this recipe very tasty.

Ochsenschwanz-Eintopf/Oxtail Stew

3 lbs oxtail, disjointed

½ C flour

1 tsp salt

1 tsp MSG

¼ tsp pepper

1 ½ C chopped onion

3 tbsp butter

1 can tomatoes

1 ½ C hot water

4 medium potatoes

6 medium carrots

2 lbs peas

1 tbsp paprika

1 tsp salt

¼ tsp pepper

¼ C water

2 tbsp flour

Wipe oxtails clean with a damp cloth. Mix flour and seasonings together in a deep bowl or bag. Coat oxtail pieces in flour mixture.

Put butter and onion in a large pot and cook over medium heat until onion is transparent. Remove onion with a slotted spoon and set aside. Put meat into pot and brown on all sides.

Drain tomatoes and set liquid aside. Make sure tomatoes are cut into small pieces. Return onion to pot along with hot water and tomato liquid. Cover tightly and simmer 2 ½ to 3 hours or until meat is nearly tender.

Use a melon-ball cutter to cut potatoes and carrots. I’m proud to say I did not waste the time, energy, or vegetables that this recipe suggests. While making potato and carrot balls would certainly look cute, it would also waste a lot of the potatoes and carrots, plus it would take forever, so I opted with normal cuts. When meat is tender, add potatoes, carrots, and peas, along with seasonings. Cover and simmer 20 minutes, or until vegetables are nearly tender. Add tomatoes and cook 10 more minutes. Remove meat and vegetables from broth.

Put water in a screw-top jar with flour. Cover jar tightly and shake until flour and water are combined. Pour mixture slowly into soup broth, stirring constantly with a whisk. Bring to boiling and cook until of desired thickness. Return meat and vegetables to pot and heat through before serving.

We had mixed feelings about this dish from The German & Viennese Cookbook. While it was very tasty and we loved the idea of trying something new, the oxtails were a little difficult to eat. Like I said, the tail is a bit of bone with some morsels of meat on it, but when it came time to get the meat off the bones this stew (which one normally assumes to eat with a spoon) became a fork/knife meal, with occasional finger eating as well. That said, I love the idea of using every part of the animal, so I would say our first attempt at eating oxtails was a successful experiment.

Have a question or a request? Put it in the comments below and I’ll be sure to respond. Fröhe essen!

Schnecken

My German grandmother would be so pleased today: I made cinnamon rolls called Schnecken from The German & Viennese Cookbook. The reason this is funny is that “Schnecken” is the German word for snails, and my grandmother really hates snails and slugs and other slimy gastropods. However, these turned out so well that I’m sure she wouldn’t mind these gooey snails!

Schnecken/Nut Snails

1 C plus 24 nuts (either pecans or almonds), divided

1 C brown sugar

¼ C currants

1 tbsp cinnamon

1 C milk

1 pkg OR 2 ½ tsp yeast

¼ C warm water

½ C sugar

1 tsp salt

5 C flour, divided

2 eggs

½ C butter, softened

2/3 C butter, melted

Set the 24 nuts aside and coarsely chop the 1 C. Mix chopped nuts together with brown sugar, currants, and cinnamon and set aside.

Scald milk. Soften yeast in warm water and let stand. Put sugar and salt in a large bowl. Pour scalded milk over sugar in bowl and stir until blended. Mix in softened yeast, then blend in 1 C flour until smooth. Add approximately 2 C of flour to dough and blend until very smooth, then add eggs. Vigorously beat in ½ C butter 2 to 3 tbsp at a time. Add enough of the remaining flour to make a soft dough. Turn dough onto a lightly floured board and let stand 5 to 10 minutes.

Knead dough until smooth. Form into a tight ball and place in a deep greased bowl. Allow to rise until doubled. Punch dough down with fist and re-form into a ball. Allow to rise until doubled.

Meanwhile, melt 2/3 C butter. Put about 1 tsp of butter in the bottom of each muffin pan well. Instead of putting the mixture straight into my muffin pans (because I hate greasy dishes), I put cupcake liners in my pan wells first, then put the butter in the cupcake papers. Sprinkle about 2 tsp of the nut/sugar mixture in each muffin well. Gently press one nut into the sugar mixture in each well.

Form dough into 2 balls. Roll each ball out into a 8”x12” rectangle. Brush top surface of dough with melted butter and sprinkle evenly with nut/sugar mixture.

Starting with a long side of the rectangle, roll dough up tightly and press edges together to seal. Cut each roll into 12 slices. Place one slice in each muffin well. Allow to rise until doubled. Bake at 375^oF for 15 to 20 minutes. I recommend closer to 20, because this allows the interior of the rolls to bake so they are not quite so soggy. Invert muffin pans on cooling rack for 5 minutes. Remove Schnecken from pan and cool on racks, glazed side up.

What can I say? These were fantastic! We enjoyed them for dessert, and again for breakfast! The dough was wonderful – a nice basic soft dough that baked up airy and fluffy and yummy. Although the nut/sugar mixture is very tasty, we decided that the glaze on the bottom wasn’t necessary, so in the future I think I will put all of the filling inside the rolls instead of underneath. All in all, however, these little “nut snails” were a delightful version of cinnamon rolls that we will surely enjoy again and again.

Have a question or a request? Put it in the comments below and I’ll be sure to respond. Fröhe essen!

(Welsh) Rarebit

So, I thought I'd crack open a brand new book today. It promises 230 Tasty Sandwich Recipes. A lot of the things I saw as I flipped through didn't look very inventive or different from sandwiches I already know, but as I moved toward the back of the book I found rarebit. I had eaten rarebit once before, but I had never made it. Now, I know it's not really a sandwich, but it's in there anyway.

Unfortunately, the rarebit recipe in this book is really wrong. Like, really. They said to use American cheese (which doesn't melt well), and it didn't say anything about using beer (rarebit is traditionally made with a dark beer). So, after a bit of internet research and some trial-and-error, this is what we get:

Rarebit - Essen Girl Style

2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp flour
1 tbsp mustard (Dijon or spicy brown)
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1/2 C dark beer (porter or stout is a nice choice)
1/2 - 3/4 C whole milk or cream
2 C cheddar cheese

Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Whisk in flour and cook until thick. Mix in mustard and Worcestershire and cook until very thick. Whisk in beer and mix until smooth. Add milk and cheese, stirring until cheese is completely melted. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve immediately.

A lot of recipes I found, including the original from the cookbook, call for pouring rarebit over a slice of bread (hence, "sandwich," I guess). But I served my rarebit to friends during a game night, so I figured dipping would be better than pouring. Homemade soft pretzels and some sliced summer sausage went very well in this tasty, cheesy dip.

Have a question or a request? Put it in the comments below and I’ll be sure to respond. Fröhe essen!