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- by Laura, January 03, 2009
Toys in the Kitchen
Stuffed guys on the kitchen counter again,
furry ones, just below those
spoons dangling on the hook
and ready, for measuring
coffee.
Graphic novel --little boxes of outrageous behavior-- and
plastic wrestler dudes entangled.
Dried up garlic bits,
origami lotus flower,
transformer in vehicular form.
I am old to this game, thirteen years now,
and the little one nearly 8.
Tonight, a Lego warrior came
so close to the frying pan.
I knew it would come to this someday.
When I was done, I just threw him and let
his pair of ragged claws scuttle across the crumbs.
Masher
- by Nancy, December 30, 2008
Laura told me this morning as we were chatting on the phone that the Victorians loved to use pigs as a symbol of good luck and prosperity on their New Year’s cards and decorations (yes, this is really what we talk about which gives you an idea how jellypress was conceived . . .) Anyway, it makes sense, doesn’t it? If you had a pig, you had something to eat. These photos are just in from my brother, Bruce, an attorney and photographer, fresh from a recent trip to Madrid. These people are serious about their pigs.
This photo is a scan Bruce did of the restaurant Botin’s post card. Seems they made the Guinness Book of World Records for being the world’s oldest restaurant. Got a suckling pig anecdote? We’d love to hear from you. Happy New Year.
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Photo credit: Bruce Ring
Photo credit: Bruce Ring
Photo credit: Bruce Ring
Photo credit: Bruce Ring
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Masher
- by Nancy, December 30, 2008
Champagne Granite (Sweet Champagne Ice)
Makes 8 cups (serves 12 - 15)
1 cup plus 2 T. water
1 cup plus 2 T. granulated white sugar
1 bottle Champagne
3 oranges, juiced
1 lemon, juiced
1. Make simple syrup: Place water and sugar in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Boil until the sugar is dissolved. Set syrup aside to cool.
2. Combine champagne, orange and lemon juices. Add cooled simple syrup. Stir well to combine. Pour mixture into an 8 x 16 inch, shallow, nonreactive pan and place in freezer for several hours or overnight. For best results, periodically stir the partly frozen granite during the freezing process. Stir gently to keep from breaking up the thin sheets of ice. To serve, scrape granite with a fork and layer in a champagne glass with fruit such as fresh raspberries or poached pears.
We love Jean-Baptiste-Simeon Chardin’s Soap Bubble painting and our easy bubbly New Year’s recipes. Let us know if you try them.
Champagne truffles, rolled in cocoa and ready for their close-up.
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Champagne Truffles
Makes about 60 truffles
1 pound bittersweet chocolate
3/4 cup heavy cream or creme fraiche
1/2 cup champagne
6 T. unsalted sweet butter, softened
For dipping:
1 pound semisweet chocolate
2 cups unsweetened cocoa
1. Cut 1 pound chocolate into small pieces and place in a small bowl. Melt chocolate over simmering water or in a microwave oven. Set aside until ready to use.
2. Scald the cream and champagne and pour over the chocolate. Whisk until smooth.
3. Mix in the soft butter and pour the mixture onto a sheetpan covered with parchment paper or a nonstick pad. Refrigerate until you can form balls with the mixture.
4. Roll small balls of chocolate. Keep them cold.
5. Melt the other pound of chocolate. Temper the chocolate (don’t know how? Let David Lebovitz show you.) When all the balls are rolled, put some of the melted chocolate into the palm of your hand. Roll a truffle in your palm, letting it roll off your finger tips back onto the sheetpan. Continue until all balls are coated with chocolate. Chill. When chilled and dry to touch, roll in cocoa powder. Keep stored in cocoa powder in the freezer or refrigerator.
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Masher
- by Laura, December 19, 2008
Well, it’s ravioli time, isn’t it. Christmas is next week. And we working women of the modern era, well, we like to have ours done about now and stocked away in the freezer.
I made mine this past Sunday with my sister Andrea, who came over eager to help.
So now while I’m in the ravioli spirit is a good time to tell you all that The Lost Ravioli Recipes of Hoboken: A Search for Food and Family has recently come out in paperback.
I really like this cover and—and hope the book will continue to reach people, as that’s what every author wishes for. In this new edition, there is a reader’s guide at the end of the book, and I will be making myself available in 2009 for book group invitations, mainly by phone but also the occasional in person visit. You can find out more, including my contact info, at www.lostravioli.com.
Back to ravioli….
This year, there was not a lot of torture over raw or cooked meat, as you can see in these photos of braising beef, veal, and pork.
There were all sorts of aromatics involved and the house smelled beautiful for two days.
I did NOT get all worried about the cream cheese, either. I added a package of it. Since my book came out a year ago, I can’t tell you how many Genoese descendants have told me they use cream cheese. In light of everything and I publicly apologize for my former snobbery
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and ask forgiveness.
As to rolling pin versus pasta machine? I used a machine this year simply because my board is now officially sagging and the pin is not meeting the surface. Very unpleasant. Until I get a new board, I’m using the machine. Well, actually, this is Andrea using the machine.
It might sound like all is resolved and peaceful. But some things never change. Of course I had to make a last minute run to Lou’s house for some extra 00 flour. What can I say?
Since The Lost Ravioli Recipes first came out in hardcover a year ago, a lot of things have happened.
For one thing, hundreds of Italian Americans have written to me or come to my author events to tell me about their families and their recipes, and their yearnings—whether for family or Italy, or some other form connection and continuity they can’t quite explain. I have been so honored and humbled to hear of the things people do for love and ravioli.
Some of my favorites: Bob (Schenone) Cole and his family in Philadelphia whose recipe matched mine just about exactly and told me his mother knew my great grandmother Adalgiza. A musician named Georgeanne who began with “I was a generation closer,” to describe her own Italian American twilight and shared an incredible tale about her own life. Then there was the NJ woman who wrote, “I don’t know where to begin,” and sent me a photo of herself sitting on a bench with a bunch of old Italian women in her ancestors town. She didn’t understand it—why was she always drawn back there?
I also made some videos of pasta rolling which have gotten a lot of response, such as this one on youtube, which over 4,000 people have watched. I feel very shy about this, video because I’m not exactly Rachel Ray here. But I am really touched by all the comments. So here’s the link. .
Writing a book about your own life changes your life. I guess that was my intention but I could never have expected some of the things, such as how over the last year, I slowly felt a burden lifted from my shoulders. Something I can’t explain. But I discovered I no longer feel as needful of my own past. Strange and oddly liberating. I’m far less often pummeled by memories. I am more in the present.
Finally, since the book came out, a number of readers have asked me how my sister is doing. They ask about her health and tell me they worry about her. For those who don’t know, the book included details about our strained relationship and her illness. Well, she is doing just fine. She has found that a radical diet of eating very non-inflammatory foods is helpful and reduces pain. But we still hope for the medical community to come up with some solutions for this condition she has, which is called adhesive disease, and millions of people suffer from it.
My relationship with Andrea continues to be good two years after writing my closing chapter. there have been no blow ups, no problems. We are friends, or maybe just sisters, as sisters should be. I don’t know if this would have ever happened if I didn’t write the book. When she read it she told me “I never thought you understood. Now I know you did.” I’d say that this was the best thing that ever came out of all my writing years.
Andrea even leans on my shoulder once in the while, as a younger sister might. Her husband took this picture on Sunday, and honestly it just breaks me up.
Here’s the filling we made. We will eat these on Christmas. I owe a debt to many many people for this recipe. I say grazie mille and buone feste
Ravioli Christmas 2008
For the Dough
6 cups flour, preferably 3 cups being 00 Italian style flour and half , about 3 cups being a higher gluten all purpose flour such as King Arthur’s.
3 eggs plus one yolk
1 tablespoon salt
2 teaspoons olive oil
enough water to make the dough elastic
For the filling:
1 bunch of borage (about 2/3 pound) or substitute spinach and/or escarole, boiled until tender, squeezed dry
½ cup olive oil
2/3 pound veal shoulder, or veal stew meat
1 pound beef, the type you would use for pot roast, such as chuck, trimmed of extra fat, or bottom round, or top round roasts, which are leaner but still braise well.
2 cloves garlic
1 stem of fresh rosemary or 1 teaspoon dried
2 bay leaves
1 cup dry white table wine
1 carrot, minced extremely fine
1 rib of celery, minced extremely fine
1 onion, sliced thinly
3 or 4 pieces of dried porcini, rinsed and reconstituted in warm water 30 minutes (reserve the water)
6 cups marinara sauce already made
1 tablespoon butter
½ pound pork, shoulder cut, trimmed of extra fat
2 teaspoons pignoli
1 4 oz package of Filadelfia cream cheese in silver foil
1 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
1 large piece (about three-inches from an Italian loaf) of stale white bread, soaked in warm milk
salt
pepper
nutmeg to taste
1 teaspoon of marjoram, minced
2 egg, plus 2 yolks
1. Make the dough and set aside covered in plastic. I’m assuming you know how to do this.
2. Boil the borage (or whichever greens you are using) five minutes in salted water. Let cool.
3. Heat the olive oil in a terracotta casserole or large heavy stainless steel pot. Add the veal and beef along with 1 clove garlic, rosemary, and 1 bay leaf. Brown the meat.
4. Add ½ cup of the white wine. When the wine evaporates, add carrot, celery, onion and mushroom. Cook with pot uncovered until vegetables are softened. Add a little hot water as necessary, to keep vegetables from scorching.
5. Put a cover on the pot, lower the flame to a very slow heat. Check the veal in 20 to 30 minutes. When cooked tender, remove the veal and put aside. The time will depend greatly on the size and cut of your meat.
6. Add six cups of tomato sauce to the pot with the beef in it. Continue to cook the beef on a slow heat until falling apart and tender. This can easily take two and a half more hours , depending on the size and quality of your meat. It will be tough for a long while. When it is finally fork tender remove meat. Save this sauce, which is one method for making tocco, Genoese for sugo or gravy. You will use it to dress your ravioli on Christmas Day.
7. Put the butter in a separate smaller pot. Add the pork, salt, pinoli, a bay leaf, a clove of garlic. Add one two or three tablespoons of white wine and put a cover on the pot. Turn heat down to low. Cook until tender and soft. This may take an hour or more, depending on your meat and how high your heat is.
8. When all the meat is cool, set up your meat grinder and fit it with a fine mandrill. Set a big bowl underneath.
9. Trim the fat off the meat and put it through the grinder. Add the reserved pignoli and a little of the flavorful fat and wine from the bottom of the pork pot.
10. Put your greens through the food grinder, followed by the soaked bread.
11. Okay now, go and whip up that that room-temperature cream cheese (with a mixer) and add it into your bowl of filling.
12. Put the parmigiano, marjoram, nutmeg, pepper, and salt directly into the bowl and stir with a wooden spoon so that all is VERY well mixed.
13. Taste. Correct seasoning. Do you need more salt, pepper, cheese? If your mixture tastes dry you may wish to add some of your reserved porcini broth or marinara.
14. Add egg. Mix everything. Your filling is now ready.
15. If you are using a machine, roll out dough with your machine to the second to last setting. Spread filling on a half a sheet of dough. Do this thinly and evenly. Put the other half on top like a lid, then run over this with a checkered ravioli rolling pin. Finally, use a ravioli cutter to cut across the squares.
16. Let the ravioli dry a half hour on cookie sheets dusted with flour or cornmeal. Turn the over and let the other sides dry. (Yes, I’m serious.) Or put the tray directly in the freezer. Now go ahead and do the other 200. When the ravioli in the freezer are frozen solid, transfer to plaster bags and seal shut.
17. When ready to serve, put the ravioli in fiercely boiling salted water. Cook 3 minutes if your ravioli is fresh and 5 or 6 minutes if it is frozen. Taste to be sure.
18. Gently scoop out the ravioli with a large slotted ravioli lifter--or pour carefully into a colander, so the ravioli don’t break. Serve in a large bowl with the tucco—the red Genoese sauce you made earlier. Or use whatever tomato sauce you prefer. Sprinkle with grated Parmigiano-Reggiano.
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Masher
- by Nancy, December 19, 2008
Too bad an empty box does not have the same allure as it did when we were two years old. I guess I’ll have to fill them with cookies before I mail them out! Read on for One Badass Cookie’s inexpensive yet beautiful way to package baked goods for gifts (and with some recycling too!) These boxes cost about 89 cents each, or, you can do what I did, which was ask my local CVS manager if I could just have the one on the right after they had unpacked and left it in a pile on the floor of the store. Lucky find! And free . . . That’s one badass way to snag a deal.
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Lined boxes are not that much fun either without the cookies, but I like to line mine with waxed paper first to keep the buttery cookies from staining the boxes.
For mailing I wrap the individual kinds of cookies in inexpensive clear cellophane bags (acid free and archival ones double for me as wrappings for my handmade art cards too) and tie with curling ribbons, available at most discount stores for about a buck a package. Individual bags like this helps keep the cookies fresh enroute. If you’re not mailing them, you can just stack them in pretty rows inside the waxed paper lined boxes. I sometimes stick gifts in with the cookies, like pix of my son or in the one on the right, a Zagat guide. Here are the boxes loaded up ready for their outer wrapping.
Don’t these look great? A dramatic and beautiful presentation from recycled boxes, inexpensive waxed paper, ordinary curling ribbon, stickers, and clear cellophane wrapping paper, and on the box on the right, a recycled greeting card for a tag (just cut off the front of greeting cards you get and punch a hole in the top - it’s as easy as that to save money and the planet.)
Got a badass cookie recipe or baking tip for Laura and Nancy? Send it to us, we’ll test it out and if it’s badass enough, we’ll post it as a reader’s recipe or tip and you’ll win a prize of Nancy’s book.
see also: One Badass Cookie - Ginger Molasses Cookie
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Masher
- by Laura, December 17, 2008
I have an article in this month’s SAVEUR magazine. It’s all about pandolce, the holiday feast bread from Liguria--and the bread my great grandmother made long ago. I hope you all go out and get it because Saveur is a wonderful magazine. And the photos--such as the one above by Penny De Los Santos--are beautiful. In the meantime, since they don’t have the article available online, I’ll tell you a little about it. It’s the story of how last year at Christmas time, I went to a little town called Savignone north of Genoa to learn how to make a very very special pandolce with a 6th generation baker named Adriano and his wife Harriet. This is Savignone.
Adriano and his father built a little cabin with wood burning oven inside it, and this is where Adriano gave the lesson. Here we are in their little 12 x 12 cabin. This is Harriet and Adriano. And these are all the ingredients they had ready on the table when we arrived: flour, sugar, butter, raisins, candied orange peel, and pignoli.
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But the most important ingredient of all was this stuff called lieveto madre, or “mother leaven"--sometimes also called wild yeast. This is basically a form of sour dough that has been continually “kept going” for more than 100 years in Adriano’s family. It is a naturally fermented product--of the sort that people once used before there was instant dry active yeast. It’s more work to care for and feed it, but serious bakers love the stuff as it produces a far better tasting bread with a webby crumb.
(After I returned home, I started my own leaven at home so I could make my own bread. All you need is flour, water, and a little pinneapple juice--plus all the natural and wild bacteria in the air of your house. )
Here’s Adriano kneading all the ingredients--very hard work by hand.
And these are the pandolce all formed and ready to rest overnight.
The next day, Adriano made a fire in this oven and then, when it subsided, swept out the coals and put the pandolce inside. Then he shut the door.
This is what came out. It was a beautiful thing.
Adriano and Harriet will soon be opening a place in the mountains where they will bake bread and eventually offer bed and breakfast stays, perhaps some baking lessons too. I will keep you posted on this wonderful couple
Now here are the recipes. What I ABSOLUTELY MUST TELL YOU (and this is all explained in the article) is that there are two kinds of pandolce: “basso,” which means low and is crumbly like a scone, and “alto” which means high and is the yeasted bread.
Adriano’s basso recipe is extremely easy and you can put it together basically in an hour. His alto recipe is another matter and requires a bit of natural leaven. I’ve put it here for the gamers and true bakers. It’s worth the effort. Meanwhile, for those with less time to spare, the kitchen editors at Saveur magazine created an adaptation of pandolce alto using dry active yeast. Warning: Adriano’s recipes are still in “Italian,” meaning: you must use a kitchen scale and weigh everything in grams. Good luck!
Adriano’s Pandolce Basso
Easy to make and delicious, produces three large breads.
500 gr cake flour
500 gr bread flour
38 gr baking powder
8 gr salt
400 gr soft butter
340 gr sugar
1 egg
1 yolk
330 gr warm milk
2T orange blossom water
3 T fennel seeds that have been soaked twenty minutes in hot water and drained
700 gr best raisins you can find,
200 gr candied orange peel, best quality
100 gr candied citron, best quality
110 gr pinoli
*******************************************************************
1. Heat the oven to between 325 and 350 degrees. Combine dry ingredients.
2 Using a mixer, thoroughly beat the butter and sugar together. Add the egg, yolk, milk, orange blossom water, and fennel seeds. The mixture will be very wet. That’s okay.
3. Mix in the flour slowly until you have a sticky dough.
4. Work the fruit into the dough in batches using your hands either in the bowl or on a flat work surface. First add the raisins, then the candied fruit, then the nuts. Make sure all are distributed evenly.
5. Cut into three or four equal pieces, depending on whether you want large or small pandolce. Form into flat spheres like a dome, no more than 2 inches tall. Using a razor blade or a very sharp non-serrated knife, slash a cross on the top, not very deep. Lay on parchment paper on double cookie sheets. Bake 40 to 45 minutes in the center of the oven or until a stick comes out clean. Check the pandolce midway. If it is getting too dark, cover with foil to prevent burning.
Saveur Magazine’s Interpretation of for Adriano’s Pandolce Alto
Adriano’s Pandolce Alto
Made With Natural Leaven
Ingredients
180 gr water
150 gr sugar
500 gr bread flour
120 gr natural leaven* (taken from the recipe below)
190 gr butter
380 gr high quality raisins
190 gr candied orange peel
50 gr pignoli
1. Refresh your leaven three times over the course of ten to eleven hours. You can use Adriano’s schedule as follows:
At 8:30 am: take 120 grams of leaven and add 80 grams flour and 40 water. Knead until mixed. Cover and let sit.
At 12:30, repeat the refreshment. You will now have 240 grams of leaven. Add 160 flour and 80 water. Knead. Cover and let sit.
At 4:30 repeat again. You will now have 480 grams of leaven. Refresh with 320 grams flour and 160 grams of water. Knead, cover, and let sit.
2. At 7 pm, or whenever the third refreshment is complete and leaven has doubled for the third time, mix sugar into water until it is dissolved. If you are using a heavy-duty stand up mixer with a dough hook, put flour in the mixer bowl. If you are doing this by hand, spread out your flour in a circle on a clean work surface. Gradually pour the sugared water in the center and use your other hand to slowly work it in until you have a pasty dough.
3. Measure out 570 grams of leaven. Reserve the rest. Knead leaven into dough until thorough incorporated.
4. Add butter. If you are using a mixer do this on low speed and be patient. It will take a while for the butter to mix in. Knead on a low speed for 20 minutes. If you are working by hand, flatten out your dough into a rectangle. Put butter in center, and fold over. Begin kneading until butter is incorporated. Knead for a total of 40 minutes or until the dough is silky. It may take up to an hour.
5. Add raisins, then fruit and nuts. Do this by hand as a mixer will break the raisins. Lay out your dough on a work surface and flatten it into a rectangle about 1 ½ inches thick. Lay your raisins in the center and wrap the dough around them. Begin kneading. It will take time to incorporate all of this. As raisins fall out, just put them back in.
6. Let rest for five minutes. Then flatten out the dough again and cut into three equal pieces—use a scale to be sure. Each bread will weigh about 700 grams. Now, form each pandolce into a small ball about four inches tall. Place on parchment paper and let rise, uncovered, in a warm place (ideally 20 degrees) overnight, or until the breads rise by 35 to 40 percent in size. This will take least 12 hours—but as many as 16 hours or even more. A skin will form.
7. Just before baking, use a razor blade or the point of a very sharp non-serrated knife, to make a triangle in top center. Inspect your breads. Tuck in any raisins that are hanging too far out to avoid burning. Put breads in a preheated oven for 45 minutes at 170 centigrade (between 325 and 350 fahrenheit), on double cookie sheets in the center of the oven. Check halfway. If it is beginning to get too dark, cover lightly with tin foil.
8. Do not even think of cutting this for four hours.
When well wrapped in plastic, both pandolce alto and basso last for three months.
Making Your Own Natural Leaven
You may not have access to Adriano’s hundred-year-old yeast, but you can begin one on your own. It will take a couple of weeks to get ready along, along with a good amount of patience for the process fermentation, which is inexact and varies from kitchen to kitchen. A digital kitchen scale is a must have.
My first efforts resulted in moldy leaven that smelled really hideous. Luckily, I found a coach. Peter Reinhart, master baker, leaven expert, and author of The Bread Baker’s Apprentice and Whole Grain Breads “>The Bread Baker’s Apprentice and Whole Grain Breads was willing. (If you are any kind of serious baker you must have these books.)Peter tweaked my leaven recipe and coached me on. His secret was to use some pineapple juice. The acids prevent mold. And also to stir it every day to move those acids through the leaven. When I got my it to rise cheered me on. “You go girl,” he wrote. “Now make the bread”
Natural Leaven
100 grams organic pineapple juice (the acids work well to prevent mold)
200 grams high gluten flour or bread flour
70 grams water
1. Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl with a spoon, your hands, or with a stand up mixer. Cover and let ferment at a temperature of 75 degrees (ideally). This process could take anywhere from 5 to 10 days depending on your environment. It is very important that you stir the mixture once or twice a day, especially during the first three days.
2. Wait. Nothing much will happen the first few days. But then you will see your leaven bubble as natural fermentation occurs and yeasts build. When it doubles or when it has sat for 8 days (whichever comes first), you have the beginnings of your own mother yeast. It is fragile and must be fed.
3. Feed your yeast every day until it is strong enough to use. After that, you will need to do this only once a week. Here’s the method:
Weigh your dough. Add two thirds of its weight in flour (use bread flour or high gluten flour) and one-third of its weight in water. This is Adriano’s hydration formula. For example:
For every 150 grams of leaven
add
100 grams flour
50 grams water
Knead. If it is too sticky to handle, add a little more flour. Cover and leave out and wait. When it doubles in size, put it in the refrigerator covered tightly until the next day when you feed it again. As the yeast grows stronger, the rising time will accelerate. When your dough is able to double in about three hours, then it is strong enough to for use in pandolce or other breads. When you are not using it, keep it in your refrigerator.
Note: feel free to adjust the feeding formula if your dough is too sticky or too dry. It should be moist and springy. It will get better and develop more flavor and character over time.
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Masher
- by Nancy, December 10, 2008
Dining table near and far . . .
Here is another photo in the series I started to challenge the conventions I use over and over in my painting. This is the hand-me-down table in my dining room where we’ll be spending a lot of time soon for the holidays. A quiet moment pictured here before the guests and platters arrive.
see also: Ways of Seeing
Masher
- by Nancy, December 06, 2008
My niece, Molly, with the Badass Biscotti she made from my recipe. Thanks Molly!
Photo credit: My brother, Bruce Ring, one more badass photographer. Thanks Bruce! To see more of his photos, click here.
One Badass Cookie is up and running for the holidays. We’ve got lots of recipes for you in the next few weeks so check back often. So what’s a badass cookie? Click here to see the first badass cookie post for the answer. This week’s cookie is Badass Biscotti made with almonds, pistachios, cornmeal and anise. It’s a buttery, crunchy, intensely flavored recipe I learned when I was a pastry chef, and one of the reasons I like it so much is because it’s made in a big quantity and can fill lots and lots of gift baskets. It keeps beautifully too which makes it perfect for mailing or baking ahead for parties. They’re also great for dunking! When Molly made it recently, her dad (my brother, Bruce) told me that he was enjoying a cup of coffee when the first batch was done. Molly, too impatient to wait to make her own cup of coffee for dunking, reached across the table and dunked her biscotti into his cup, splashing a trail of coffee drips and crumbs across him and the table before he could protest. Too delicious to wait for a cup of joe to brew! That’s one badass cookie. Read on for the recipe, and for the Badass Cookie Tip of the Week. Does it work? You bet your badass it does.
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Badass Cookie Tip of the Week: When measuring dry ingredients for cookie dough or any baking recipe, measure by lifting the ingredient with a spoon or with hands and dropping it gently into the cup measure rather than scooping it and shaking the cup measure to level it. Scooping and shaking compresses the dry ingredient and more of it will end up in the cup than you need, resulting in heavy or overly sweet dough. To level dry ingredients in a measuring cup, use a knife or your finger rather than shaking the cup.
Photo credit: Bruce Ring
Badass Biscotti
Note: This 3 pounds 1 1/2 T. flour recipe may be doubled and even doubled again for a maximum of 12 pounds, 6 ounces of flour, yielding 500 cookies. Directions are given in the recipe for handling the large quantity of dough. It is well worth the time and trouble if you need a lot of cookies for gifts or an event. It’s best to have a kitchen scale for this recipe as the flour is weighed, not measured with cups, and the dough itself must be weighed out into chunks to bake off.
Yields 125 cookies, depending on thickness
3 pounds plus 1 1/2 T. of all-purpose unbleached flour
5 1/4 cups sugar
1/4 cup plus 2 T. anise seed
1/2 cup yellow cornmeal
1 T. baking powder
2 t. salt
1 pound (4 sticks) butter, room temperature
8 eggs
1/2 cup annisette liqueur or other anise flavored liqueur
2 cups whole roasted, blanched almonds
1 cup chopped roasted blanched almonds
1 cup whole pistachios
1. Measure all dry ingredients except nuts into the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with a paddle attachment or in a large mixing bowl to mix by hand. Crack eggs, stir to combine and set aside. Measure the annisette and set aside. Roast and measure the nuts and set aside.
2. With the mixer on low speed, or gently by hand, add pieces of softened butter little by little to dry ingredients without pausing between additions, and then drizzle in annisette. The minute the dough begins to hold together, add nuts in the same manner. Stop the machine the second all the nuts are in the dough. Do not over mix. Most stand mixers will accommodate a dough containing up to four cups of flour easily. If making a large quantity of dough, use a large (at least 20 cup capacity) mixing bowl to make the dough, or make in 4-cups-flour batches, dividing up the other ingredients proportionately. Then mix all the dough together at the end.
3. Transfer the dough to a sheetpan and refrigerate it wrapped in plastic wrap overnight or for several hours.
4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Remove dough from the refrigerator and weigh out in 1 1/2 pound chunks for 1/2 size 11” x 17” sheet pans (3 pound chunks for full size sheet pans.) Allow dough to stand at room temperature until it is kneadable, not too soft. Roll chunks into logs, about an inch short of the length of the sheetpans. Place on parchment paper covered pans, nonstick pad coated pans, or greased pans. Put two logs on each 1/2 sheet pan, or 3 logs per full sheet pan, evenly spaced. Double sheetpans under the logs to prevent burning.
5. Bake logs approximately 30 minutes or until the dough is set and the top of the log is medium golden brown, not light. Cool on a rack completely before moving on to the next step. Note: For convection ovens, bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes, then turn and rotate the sheetpans in the oven front to back and top to bottom. Then set oven temperature to 325 degrees and bake 10 minutes more until done.
6. When logs are cool, slice with a serrated knife with a sawing motion as thinly as possible without breakage. Place them again on doubled sheetpans covered with parchment, nonstick pads or greased, lying flat and end to end. Rebake them at 325 degrees about 10 - 15 minutes until even light golden brown and cookies feel firm and dry to the touch. Cool on racks, store in airtight containers. Will keep several weeks. Do not refrigerate.
Photo credit: Bruce Ring
Mmmmm, I like my biscotti buttery but I have seen recipes for biscotti with olive oil instead. This one looks good for those olive oil fans out there.
Do you have a Badass Cookie recipe for Nancy and Laura? Send it to us using the comments link above and we’ll test it. If it’s badass enough, we’ll post it as a Reader’s Recipe in future One Badass Cookie posts and you’ll win a copy of Nancy’s book.
see also: One Badass Cookie - Ginger Molasses Cookie
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- by Nancy, November 30, 2008
Photo Credit: my son, Max, one badass photographer
Time for another post for One Badass Cookie. This week, since the holidays are in full swing, I thought you’d like to see how to present your badass cookies for a crowd. As I noted in the first One Badass Cookie post, these cookies can stand in for any fancier dessert and make a great gift and an impression. So read on for this week’s practical advice on how to present cookies for a crowd, and the Badass Cookie Tip of the Week. Does it work? You bet your badass it does.
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Here’s my favorite way to bring cookies for a crowd to any party or holiday dinner. Trust me, you walk in with this, and it will elicit as many oohs and ahs as any fancy cake or pie, and maybe more, from children and adults alike. And one of the nicest things about it is that everybody pretty much gets their favorite, as there is a variety to choose from. It may look like a lot of work, but if you make lots of dough for each recipe in the weeks prior to your event, you can freeze the doughs in logs and then just slice them off and bake them on the day or day before you need them. Look for directions for freezing logs of dough, or for any portion of the recipes here that can be made ahead in all One Badass Cookie recipes.
Here’s my Badass Oatmeal Raisin Cookie recipe in a log that I froze last week. (To get this recipe, check back in the coming weeks when I’ll be posting more badass cookie recipes or scroll down to find the previous weeks’ recipes, Badass Chocolate Chip Cookies, Badass Ginger Molasses Cookies, and Badass Lemon Bar Cookies.) To freeze dough logs, simply take the dough from the mixing bowl once it is finished, and lay it onto a long sheet of plastic wrap. If the dough is soft, you may want to refrigerate it first to get it firm enough to shape. Alternatively, you can also use wet hands to shape logs, shape logs once they are wrapped up in the plastic, or loosely wrap a soft log, freeze it for thirty minutes or so and then take it out of the freezer to further shape it. Whatever you do, you will end up with a log like this, perfect for slicing into thick slices and baking off when you need it.
This is a shot of my favorite cookie basket. I got mine at Zabar’s. I like to line it with a nice cloth napkin in a coordinating color, but you can also use a sheet of waxed paper. Watch for another One Badass Cookie post coming soon that will show you lots of great ways to package cookies for gifts too.
Badass Cookie Tip of the Week: Double your sheetpans to ensure that the bottoms of the cookies don’t burn before the tops are done.
Got a Badass cookie recipe for Nancy and Laura? Send it to us and we’ll test it. If it’s badass enough, we’ll post it as a reader’s recipe and you’ll win a prize of Nancy’s book.
see also: One Badass Cookie - Ginger Molasses Cookie
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- by Nancy, November 27, 2008
Been baking all morning and last night. Dessert for 18 people at my cousins’. Final tally: one black mission fig and lemon apple pie, one caramel banana bread pudding, brownies, chocolate chip cookies, oatmeal dried cranberry and raisin cookies, ginger molasses cookies, and a coconut custard pie. I’m DONE! All I have left to do is bake off the ginger cookies, make whipped cream and toast coconut for the pie and finish slicing the lemon bars. Oh, did I mention the lemon bars?? Okay back to real life on Friday . . .
Masher
- by Nancy, November 23, 2008
My sister, Janet, in her California yard with the badass lemon bars she baked for us. Thanks J.B.!
Photo credit: My brother-in-law, Ron, one more badass photographer.
We’re back again with this week’s badass cookie, Lemon Bars, baked and photographed for us by my sister, Janet and her husband, Ron. I adapted these bars from a recipe by Emily Luchetti who is one of my favorite pastry chefs and the author of several fabulous baking books. I met Emily at a couple of Women Chefs and Restaurateurs Conventions back in my pastry chef days, and she is as wonderful as her fabulous recipes. Anyway, J.B. (that’s our family nickname for Janet) says that the lemon bars smelled and looked so yummy, she had to take a bite of them right out of the oven even though my recipe says to refrigerate the bars until they are fully set before slicing them. Too delicious to wait for! That’s one badass cookie. These are a favorite Thanksgiving treat in my family. Read on for the recipe, another of Janet and Ron’s photos, and the badass cookie tip of the week. Does it work? You bet your badass it does.
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Badass Cookie Tip of the Week: Slice soft cookies like lemon bars with a knife dipped in hot water to avoid tearing or breaking the cookie bars. Wipe off the blade between cuts and dip in hot water again to make the next cut.
Badass Lemon Cookie Bars
Makes 1 9-inch square pan, or for cookies that are thinner and have less crust, 1 9-x-13 inch pan.
Crust:
1 1/2 cups all purpose unbleached flour
1/2 cup powdered sugar, sifted to remove lumps if necessary
6 ounces (1 1/2 sticks) cold sweet unsalted butter, cut in small pieces
Filling:
6 large eggs
3 cups granulated sugar
3/4 cup plus 2 T. freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/4 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
zest of one lemon
1/2 cup flour
Powdered sugar for dusting
1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Combine flour and powdered sugar either by hand or in the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with a paddle on low speed. Add butter and mix until it is the size of small pearls. Press the crust mixture into the bottom of the pan. Bake the crust until golden, about 20 minutes turning the pan halfway through the baking time to ensure even browning.
2. Decrease oven temperature to 300 degrees. Whisk together eggs and granulated sugar in a large bowl. Stir in the juices and then the flour, whisking to combine well. Pour this juice mixture into the pan on top of the crust.
3. Bake the bars until the filling is set (it should not jiggle at all or the bars will not firm up completely) about 40 minutes, checking after about 1/2 hour or so as oven temperatures vary. Allow the bars to cool in the pan for 30 minutes, then refrigerate until firm and cold. Slice with a hot knife. Store in the refrigerator, covered.
Do you have a badass cookie recipes for Nancy and Laura? Use the comments link at top to send it to us to test, and if it ‘s badass enough, we’ll post it as a reader’s recipe and you’ll win a prize of Nancy’s book.
see also: One Badass Cookie - Ginger Molasses Cookie
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- by Nancy, November 15, 2008
Photo credit: my son, Max, one badass photographer
We’re back with another installment of One Badass Cookie. So what’s a badass cookie? Click here to find out in the previous One Badass Cookie post and get the Badass Ginger Molasses Cookie recipe too. This week’s cookie is Badass Chocolate Chip. These are chewy, thick, fragrant with vanilla and beat the pants off those other recipes out there. Think you’ve tried all the chocolate chip cookies you need to try and you’ve already got the best? Well, check this out: last week I made these for my hairstylist, Mandee, and after tasting them she asked me if she could please have a package of them for the holidays instead of the fat tip I usually give her. Better than cash! Now that’s One Badass Cookie. Read on for the recipe, photos, and the Badass Cookie Tip of the Week. Does it work? You bet your badass it does.
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Badass Chocolate Chip Cookies
This recipe can be doubled. You may bake off these cookies right away after making the dough, or freeze it in logs to bake later.
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 t. baking soda (you may use half this amount if you like a denser cookie)
1/2 t. salt
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) sweet unsalted butter, melted
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 T. vanilla extract
1 egg
1 egg yolk
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips (or half white chocolate chips and half dark chocolate chips)
Method:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees if you are planning to bake off the cookies right away instead of freezing it in dough logs to bake off later. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper, or grease the sheets, or use nonstick baking sheets like silpats to cover pans. Set aside.
2. Sift or whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
3. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle, or with a wooden spoon by hand in a large mixing bowl, combine the melted butter and sugars until thoroughly incorporated. Add the vanilla, egg and egg yolk. Beat at medium-high speed until light. Stop the electric mixer if using to add the dry ingredients all at once, then continue on low speed just until the dry ingredients are blended in. Do not over-mix. If mixing by hand, add dry ingredients all at once and mix gently. Add the chocolate chips by hand at the end. Do not over-beat the dough.
4. If freezing the dough to bake later, drop it onto long sheets of plastic wrap and loosely roll into a log shape. If the dough is very wet, place the logs in the freezer for 30 minutes or so until it can be shaped into a log approximately 3” in diameter. Freeze logs completely.
5. To bake cookies, either drop fresh dough by ice cream scoop sized balls onto sheet pans or slice frozen dough logs into 2 to 3 inch slices. Place cookies onto sheet pans about 3” apart. Bake for 15 - 20 minutes, turning the trays midway through the baking time to ensure even browning, until the edges are browned and centers just set and golden (do not over bake or cookies will be crunchy instead of chewy.) Cool on pans briefly until cookies can be transferred without damaging their shape to a wire rack to cool the rest of the way. Store in airtight container.
Badass Cookie Tip of the Week: Double your sheetpans under your cookies while baking to protect the bottom of the cookies from getting too dark or burning before they are done to perfection on top.
Slice the logs nice and thick for fat, chewy cookies.
Good sheet pans are a must. I like these.
Oh baby.
Got a badass cookie recipe of your own? Send it to us using the comments link above and we’ll test it. If it’s badass enough, you’ll get a copy of Nancy’s book as a prize plus we’ll post it as a Reader’s Recipe in future Badass Cookie posts.
see also: One Badass Cookie - Ginger Molasses Cookie
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- by Laura, November 13, 2008
We were delighted when Abbie Rosner sent us a “Hands On” submission about her experience making olive oil in Northern Israel. We only wish we could have been there. Abbie writes:
I have lived in the Galilee in Northern Israel for over twenty years - much of which has been spent learning and practicing the local culinary traditions. For the past few years, my husband and a good friend and I have been making olives - curing the green ones in brine and the black ones in salt. This year we decided to be ambitious and make our own olive oil. After scouting out available trees, with a few more friends we picked sporadically over 4 days, then took our yield to one of the many olive presses that are working around the clock during this short season. We were amazed to find that we had picked almost 1000 pounds of olives, which produced almost 20 gallons of oil - well over a year’s supply for each of us!
Abbie is studying cookbooks from the Middle Ages and writing about the Arab-Jewish overlap in foodways. She tells us she will soon be offering culinary tours. We will keep you all posted on Abbie.
see also: Hands On
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Masher
- by Nancy, November 07, 2008
Photo credit: my son, Max, one badass photographer.
So what’s a badass cookie? It’s a cookie that WORKS. It always comes out right, tastes great and can stand up to any fancier dessert. Friends and family beg you for it because it’s so good they haven’t stopped craving it since you last made it. It can be made in a big batch and frozen to bake off in a pinch, something I depended on as a former pastry chef who survived the chaos of Manhattan’s professional kitchens. It makes a great gift and an impression. And more than that, it’s a cookie that shrugs off this goody-two shoes image that Laura and I have garnered from each of us having written a book adoring of our fabulous grandmothers. Nothing against grandma and her own badass cookies by the way, (some of our handed-down recipes will appear here) but we’re just staking out some territory that’s a better fit for our less than perfect, not exactly nostalgic lifestyles and aprons without ruffles, if we’re wearing aprons at all. Hey, Laura, you got an apron? I do but I never put it on. I’m not sure where it is. Probably at the bottom of that mountain of undone laundry . . . It’s solid black as I remember. Matches my vintage 80’s Schott leather jacket, what can I say?
Read on for more photos and the badass cookie tip of the week. Does it work? You bet your badass it does.
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Badass Ginger Molasses Cookies
Yields approximately two 24” long x 3” diameter logs of cookie dough that can be sliced into approximately 2 - 3 dozen giant cookies depending on thickness.
Note: Do not divide this recipe as it does not work well if divided. It may seem like a lot, but it is well worth the trouble in flavor and texture and it freezes well. Tips are given below for handling the large quantity. You will need a mixing bowl or other container that can hold a dough containing 8 cups of flour. I like my stainless steel one with its 2 gallon capacity, and it’s a work horse, especially for entertaining.
3 cups unsalted, sweet butter (1 1/2 pounds, or 6 sticks) , softened to room temperature
4 cups white sugar
1 cup molasses (for thicker cookies, use robust unsulphured blackstrap molasses, for thinner, use unsulphured light, cooking, or fancy molasses)
4 eggs, lightly beaten
8 cups all purpose white flour
2 T. plus 2 t. baking soda
1 t. salt
4 t. cinnamon
1 1/2 t. ground cloves (this may be increased up to double the amount if you are a clove lover)
4 t. ground ginger
1/4 cup crystallized ginger, chopped (available at most supermarkets that carry dried and candied fruit)
Turbinado sugar, or any large crystal sugar for baking
Method:
1. Sift or whisk dry ingredients together (except sugar and crystallized ginger) and set aside.
2. In the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, or by hand with a wooden spoon in a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar on medium-high speed until light. Add molasses and crystallized ginger and mix to incorporate.
3. Add eggs a little at a time, in about four or more additions, stopping often to scrape down the bowl. Add more egg only when the egg that has been added is incorporated fully.
4. To accommodate the large quantity of dough in home kitchens, remove mixture from the stand mixer bowl and transfer it to a large mixing bowl. Add the flour all at once and gently mix it in. Do not over-mix. Spread dough onto sheet pans (unless you have a refrigerator that has room for the large bowl) and refrigerate several hours or overnight it until it is firm enough to roll into logs for freezing. (You can bake off the dough before freezing it, but it will yield cookies with a slightly different look and texture.)
5. When it is firm enough to handle, roll the dough in plastic wrap into thick (approximately 3” in diameter) logs and freeze them, several hours or overnight.
6. To bake, preheat oven to 325 degrees for convection, 350 degrees for still oven. Slice the cookie logs into thick slices (approximately 2” slices or more) and dredge one side in large crystal sugar for baking. Bake cookies 3 inches apart until set, about 15 - 20 minutes. Do not over-bake or the cookies will be crunchy instead of chewy. Cool on sheet pans a minute or so until the cookies can be moved without damaging their shape and then cool the rest of the way on a wire rack. Store in airtight container.
Tip: Don’t over-mix your cookie dough or gluten will form and make the dough tough. For tender cookies, always use the lowest speed on an electric stand mixer when adding flour and turn off the mixer to hand mix in the last bit of flour. If mixing by hand, stir only until the flour is incorporated and no more.
I like to slice the logs with my chef’s knife on a cutting board.
These silpat nonstick baking sheets are great. The cookies slide off them and the cookie sheets stay clean underneath. You can buy them here.
A big cooling rack is another wonderful addition to any kitchen. I bought mine from this fabulous kitchen ware store.
So what are you waiting for? Whip ‘em up! And check back here weekly for more Badass Cookie recipes.
Got a badass cookie recipe for us? Send it in using the comments link above and we’ll test it and see if it’s badass enough to appear as a reader’s recipe in future One Badass Cookie posts.
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- by Nancy, November 02, 2008
Look what I found at my friend’s yard sale yesterday. These are so cool. I’m especially happy about the silver cookie cutters in perfect condition just like my mom had, so charming. Plus getting them for so much less than new ones in this recession was great of course. Especially considering that new ones don’t come with a piece of my childhood in the box and the opportunity to connect with my yard-sale friend in these over-scheduled times. And these weren’t the only treasures.
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To find out about Laura's search for a long lost family recipe, click [
A James Beard Award winning book that tells a history of American women through food, recipes, and remembrances. Recipes and illustrations from prehistory to the present day.
Laura's memoir about a search for a recipe, happiness, and mythic Italy--with many unexpected adventures along the way.
In this culinary memoir, Nancy Ring combines funny and poignant stories of love and work with warm remembrances of a family that celebrates food with gusto and cherishes memories with passion...
