Cream Cheese cookies on our blackboard plate. The notes were chalked on this morning.
This morning, before the house got hot, I baked a second batch of the Cream Cheese Cookies to take to the piano recital. This time I followed the recipe. My panel of tasters agreed that these are much better than last night’s batch, so I encourage you to indulge in the butter fat and follow the recipe as written. These are much lighter, taller and delicate than the version with only half of the butter.
Joe’s piano recital is tomorrow and I want to take something a little bit fancy, not so sugary, in an attempt to broaden the palette of the young musicians. (Or at the very least to give the parents something interesting to eat.) These cookies have no sugar or eggs in the dough, sweetened only with a dollop of jam and a dusting of powdered sugar.
I love Joe’s piano recital. It is a very sweet event, held on a grand piano in a church sanctuary, lovingly run by Mrs. Todd and her family. First the really little kids play their pieces, with Mrs. Todd helping them make things even more musical by accompanying them on a duet. Then the older kids play their pieces solo. After wards, the Todd family has a reception with punch and treats donated by parents.
I botched this recipe tonight, but I’m posting the finished product because they still tasted pretty good. My teenagers like them! I left out half of the butter, so if you’re interested in a flaky little, not-too-sweet cookie with not quite so much butter fat, then you can do as I did.
Tomorrow morning I’ll make a new batch using the correct recipe (below), so that I can properly spoil the young musicians.
Cream Cheese Cookies
Cream the cream cheese and butter, then slowly mix in the flour. Knead for a moment to make a smooth ball, and then refrigerate for an hour or so. Roll out about 1/3″ thick in some powdered sugar. Cut into shapes and dent the middle with something round like the back of a wooden spoon, or your thumb. You can dip the spoon end into a little powdered sugar if it sticks. Pipe or spoon in a small dollop of thick jam. Bake at 400 degrees for 12-15 minutes or until lightly brown. Dust with powdered sugar when cool.
I’ve been tempted for years, and today I decided to try something new and try my hand at a 6-strand braid. I looked on the internet for guidance and found multiple sites with step-by-step instructions. It wasn’t hard, and how pretty it is.
Three colors of batter—what’s not to love?
After I volunteered to make a favorite little friend a birthday cake, I, who love color and art in my food, was told that he prefers white cake with white icing. Rainbow Butter Cake has saved the day—what 11 year-old boy wouldn’t like a multi-colored version of a white cake?
I found this in one of my mother’s favorite’s, the 1961 edition of The New Antoinette Pope School Cookbook:
Rainbow Butter Cake
Cream butter and sugar well. Add eggs, one at a time, and beat for several minutes. Add extracts, then flour sifted with baking powder, about 1 cup at a time, alternately with milk, beating after each addition only until smooth.
To 3-1/2 c. batter add red food coloring, to 2-3/4 c. add green coloring, to remainder (2-1/4 c.) add yellow coloring.
Grease and flour a 10 x 4 tube pan with a removable bottom. First pour in pink batter carefully with a spoon and spread it gently; then with spoon pour in green batter, and lastly yellow batter.
Bake in preheated 325 degree oven for 1 hour; then about 20 minutes more at 375 degrees or until done.
The first time I tried this cake I cut it into layers—this was a mistake. The cake crumbled. Keep it whole until it’s time to slice!
First spoon in the red batter and top with the green batter.
Lastly, top the green batter with the yellow batter.
A slice through the cake—layer 1.
A slice through the cake—layer 2.
Fresh Strawberry or Raspberry Fluff Icing
This is the freshest, lightest, truly amazing icing. It beats up like a meringue.
Beat all together at high speed until light and quite stiff, about 5-10 minutes.
Garnish with fresh berries.
Joe on his 14th birthday, ready to enjoy his cake.
This free-form leaf motif top crust is my antidote to a lattice top. Shown here on a rhubarb-custard pie. Custard pies don't freeze well, so we ate this one while still warm.
There aren’t many things that get me as excited as when someone brings me a bag of fresh seasonal fruit. Just consider the possibilities! Jam, conserve, chutney, crisp, crumble, marmalade, muffins, pie? So when 26 cups of rhubarb found its way into my kitchen this morning (thank you, Lori Day), I eliminated the other options, and all I could think about was pies.
This traditional strawberry rhubarb pie is headed to the freezer.
Try different shapes to decorate the top of the pie. Just lay them over the filling before placing the pie in the oven.
A fluted wheel cutter easily creates leaf shapes.
Why stick with round? This double-recipe pie was made in a 13" x 9" pan, and is for an event at the Shavuot Confirmation service at Temple. The ten commandments is the theme for the confirmation class's speeches.
Strawberry-Rhubarb Custard Pie
Mix together egg and milk, stir in dry ingredients, and then stir in strawberries and rhubarb. Pour into pie crust, top with second crust in either a lattice-style or a covered top crust with vent holes. Bake at 400 degrees for 50-60 minutes, until crust is browned and the filling is set.
Liz’s Lemony Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie
Mix together flour and sugar, then toss with lemon zest and fruit. Pour into pie crust, top with second crust in either a lattice-style or a covered top crust with vent holes. Bake at 400 degrees for about 40-50 minutes, or until crust is brown and the pie is bubbly.
Pastry for a 2-crust pie
By the way, in case you’ve been keeping track, pie #6 wasn’t very photogenic. We’ll eat that one tomorrow.
I learned a lot from Doug on this camping trip. Who knew that one could bake in a camp fire?
One of our first dates was a week-long trip to the Boundary Waters in upper Minnesota. By then we had a pretty good idea that we liked each other, but this was still an important step in our courtship. This would be my fourth trip to the wilderness canoe area, and I wanted to impress Doug with my mastery of all things outdoors: handling a canoe, putting a worm on a hook, starting a fire with one match, reading a wilderness map—I wanted to take him camping. It’s hard to clearly remember, but I don’t think I had yet grasped the depth of Doug’s mastery of the outdoors. Here was a man who, aside from being an Eagle Scout, had been a back country guide in New Mexico, a white-water canoe guide in Maine, had run Colorado’s rivers as a rafting guide, had earned his EMT in his spare time so that he’d feel better prepared during rock climbing emergencies, and possessed copies of his mother’s best recipes.
We had an idyllic week. Mysteriously, there were no black flies or mosquitoes. On one golden evening as we sat on a rock edge over looking the water, watching the sunset, the sky became darker and we were captivated with the brilliance of the Northern lights. Really, it was magical.
As for showing off my mastery of the outdoors, I gave up map duty on day one after getting us quite lost. Only by asking some fisherman did we find out that we were in the lake named, aptly, Lake of Confusion. Yet, I was a good sport in the middle of a down pour and impressed Doug by saying how fun it was. I made a passable camp fire, and was able to successfully feign indifference while putting a worm on a hook.
However, nothing could compare to Doug’s expertise with camp-cooking. He nursed the fire until the coals were evenly hot, mixed up some brownie batter from a homemade, dry mix we had concocted in his apartment in Chicago, then poured it into an aluminum pan which he then placed inside a dutch oven. Doug then buried the entire thing in the coals, creating a campfire baking oven. What a delicacy to have fresh, hot brownies on a wilderness trip!
And on one chilly morning, once again I was amazed by Doug’s camp-cooking ability. Using the dutch oven, he baked up some of his mom’s flaky biscuits.
I guess we each passed each other’s wilderness test. This morning, over 20 years later, using our regular stove, Doug mixed up a batch of biscuits in our kitchen. If you ask any of our kids, they’ll tell you, “Dad makes the best biscuits.”
Doug had everything covered: brownies in the oven; coffee on top.
Doug and Dori, Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, Minnesota, August 1989.
Here's a picture of the brownies, just coming out of the camp fire. (I was taking pictures of food, 20 years ago, while camping?)
Dorothy’s Soft Crumb Biscuits
Cut shortening into dry ingredients. Add milk all at once. Stir until just mixed. Turn out onto floured board. Knead about 20 times. Pat out on a floured board, about 3/4″ thick. Cut and bake at 450 degrees for 12-15 mins. Makes 12-14 biscuits.
You can see how flaky these are.
Suzie’s chocolate bars are in the oven. For hamentashen or babka there’s nothing finer than Ida’s yeast dough, and for an elegant, flaky, bakery-class cookie I go for Gert’s. They are the baker matriarchs whose names head up the treasured recipes in my mother’s card box, and looking through the recipes is like following the jagged lines of a family tree. Recipes with names in the title are like found treasures, taking you back to a loved-one’s kitchen—that is if you know who the person is. I’m a little hazy on which Suzie made the bars that are in my oven, and I’m pretty sure Ida Cash, an old friend of my grandmother’s, is responsible for the yeast dough, but I do remember my great aunt Gert, and think about her when I make her cookies.
What names are on your recipe cards?
Suzie’s Chocolate Bars
For the crust, mix together, and press into a 13 x 9 pan:
Bake at 350 degrees for 10 mins. Remove from oven and sprinkle with:
Put back in oven for 1 minute and then remove and spread around the chocolate.
Mix together the following:
Spread over the top of the chocolate, return to oven and bake for 30-35 mins. Cut into bars when cool.
I grabbed a bag of apples from the IGA today and they turned out to be mushy. There’s nothing more disappointing than a mushy apple, but I didn’t want to throw out an entire bag, so I decided to put together this quick dessert. This is just a simple pastry, filled with apple slices, a little sugar and cinnamon. Nothing fancy, but very elegant for a Wednesday night.
In my quest to pack more vitamins into my growing children, I used 100% whole wheat pastry flour. I’m a big fan of whole wheat pastry flour. It can be substituted 1-to-1 for white flour, bakes up a little browner, but is every bit as light and flaky.
Quick Fruit Tart
Blend together the following, as you would for a pie crust:
Roll it out on parchment paper, into an oval or a rectangle. Sprinkle with the following, blended together:
Layer on thin slices of fruit (apples, peaches, plums or pears), and top with berries if you like. Sprinkle with some additional sugar or cinnamon-sugar. Fold over the edges of the crust and crimp.
Slip the parchment onto a baking sheet. Bake at 400 degrees for 30-40 minutes, or until nicely browned. Serve hot. Scoop on some vanilla ice cream for a treat!
I make this every year, and every year I wonder “why the food coloring?” But who am I to break with tradition, so I diligently squeeze out the 20 drops of red dye into my family’s cake. And, actually, it is a lovely rosy color and tastes the way you wish the most gorgeous cake would taste. This cake is light and moist, and the frosting, a cooked variety, is elegant. Some day I may try it without the food coloring, but not today.
Waldorf Red Cake
Mix vinegar and soda, and set aside. Cream butter and sugar, add eggs and beat. Stir a paste made of the cocoa and red food coloring. Mix together the buttermilk, salt and vanilla, add alternately along with the flour to the creamed mixture, beating well after each addition. Mix in the soda and vinegar.
Grease and flour two 9″ square or round pans.
Bake 30 mins. at 350 degrees.
Cool in pan for 10 mins. then cool completely on rack. Frost tops only with Marshmallow Fluff Frosting.
Marshmallow Fluff Frosting
Cook flour and milk until very thick, then let cool. Mix cooled mixture together with remaining ingredients. Beat until light and fluffy.
Refrigerate frosted cake. Serve cold.
Tonight I made our challah with three kinds of seeds: sunflower, sesame and poppy. It makes a lovely bread, and while it bakes the seeds get toasted adding a flavorful crunch to the crust.
If you want to put seeds on baked goods, then do so deliberately, with focused intention. Don’t just dump them willy-nilly all over the top. Be mindful of the process. Have a plan and go about your business executing it in good taste.
The Plate is My Canvas 