Slow As Molasses

Our Ginger Molasses Cookie is back for the holidays in our cafes. Many of our customers (and my family) look forward to this traditional Northeastern US cookie making its annual appearance.

Ginger is the underground stem (rhizome) of the plant known as Zingiber officinale. It has been a popular and valuable spice for medicinal and culinary uses for over 5000 years. The oils in ginger trigger production of digestive enzymes that neutralize stomach acids, and aid in digestion and absorption of nutrients. Ginger is also credited with increasing circulation and lowering cholesterol levels, as well as being an anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant.

The blackstrap molasses we use is the byproduct of the process of refining sugar cane into table sugar. It is an excellent source of manganese and copper, iron, calcium, potassium, magnesium, vitamin B6 and selenium.

We roll our cookies in sugar before baking. As the cookie bakes, it spreads and cracks form in the coating creating a sparkle that looks like frost on the cookie. They have a deep, aromatic bite and finishes with a sense of freshness on your tongue.

All of these ingredients come together to create a holiday for your senses. Here’s wishing you the best of holidays from myself and the Specialty’s family.

Eat Well,

Dawn

The Pilgrim Pumpkin Pie

The Mayflower left Plymouth, England in September, 1620, with 102 passengers and 30 crew members on board. During the 66-day voyage, the Pilgrims faced treacherous storms, two deaths and one birth.

On November 11, 1620, the Mayflower reached what is now Provincetown Harbor on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Winter set in quickly, during which time more than half of the pilgrims died. And those who survived had only 5 kernels of corn a day on which to live.

In early autumn of 1621, the 53 surviving Pilgrims celebrated their successful harvest with what is remembered as the “First Thanksgiving in Plymouth.” Their celebration included the great Indian king Massasoit and 90 of his men.

While pictures of this celebration usually include pumpkin pie, there were no milled flours for making a fine pie crust, no sugar and no spices. Their “Pumpkin pie” was most likely served as custard baked inside a pumpkin.

My family traditionally enjoys this kind of pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving. My youngest started clamoring for one when Halloween pumpkins first hit the market. These are easy to bake and impressive to serve.

1. Start by selecting a small sugar (baking) pumpkin. If your pumpkin is too big it will take too long to bake the custard through. Since you will be eating the pumpkin, be sure to wash the outside of the pumpkin as well.
2. Preheat your oven to 350. You need a moderate oven so the pumpkin won’t burn before the custard is cooked through.

3. While the oven is heating up, prepare your pumpkin and your custard:
   • Carve off the top nicely- you’ll want to put the top back on for baking and serving.
   • Clean out and scrape the inside lid & walls of the pumpkin very well. You will end up eating any stringiness you leave inside the pumpkin.
4. Make your favorite custard recipe or combine in a pan:
   
   • 6 eggs
   • 2 cups heavy whipping cream
   • 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
   • 1 tablespoon molasses
   • 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
   • 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
   • 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
   • 1 tablespoon butter
5. Cook over a low heat stirring constantly until warmed (but not cooked or thickened) and then pour the mixture into the pumpkin. This helps the custard cook evenly without overcooking the pumpkin.


6. Replace the lid on top of the pumpkin and stand the pumpkin in a shallow baking dish with a small amount of water at the bottom. Place in the center of your preheated oven. It should take 60-90 minutes to bake through. You will need to check the custard for doneness to be sure. The custard should look mostly set when you remove it from the oven.

It’s most impressive to serve the pumpkin warm but can also be made a day ahead and refrigerated. When you serve it, you slice it like an apple. Each slice has some custard in the center and the fresh baked pumpkin on the edge. It’s not nearly as sweet as the pumpkin pie we’ve come to know, but this “pie” will make your friends and family thankful they came to your table for this celebration.

My wish is that you and your family have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Eat Well,

Dawn

The Dark Side of Chocolate...

This week I continue my focus on the chocolate we use at Specialty’s.  In my previous article I talked about how Cacao (pronounced 'ka-KOW') pods are harvested and turned into Milk Chocolate.  Today I’d like to share a richer, deeper chocolate experience… Semi-Sweet chocolate; my favorite!
 

Our Semi-Sweet chocolate contains a higher percentage of cacao (55%) than our Milk Chocolate (30%) giving it that dark appearance and extra rich flavor you can taste in our cookies.  We use chunks of Semi-Sweet chocolate in our cookies, so when you bite in to them, you can see and taste that gooey-chocolatyness (spell check says there is no such word, yet I know it to be true) all throughout the cookie.  Semi-Sweet chocolate has no milk. And since it has more cacao there is less room for sugar.  What that means is the resulting chunk is only semi-sweet and is filled with more chocolate flavor.  I like using Semi-Sweet chocolate in my baking because it balances out the sweetness of my pastry.  I also use it in my cooking; it adds a depth of flavor and a touch of sweetness to many dishes.  Of course, I eat it straight out of the bag as well.  

  

I always keep a supply of Guittard chocolate on hand for baking and eating.  Storing it properly (described in my milk chocolate blog) ensures it looks and tastes its best when I bake or eat it.   Since chocolate contains Theobromine, I’m careful to store it safely.  Theobromine is an alkaloid and just an ounce of baker’s chocolate contains (400mg) enough to send a 40lb dog to the vet.  Please take care in keeping chocolates out of reach of pets.

  

One of my favorite ways to use Guittard Semi-Sweet chocolate is in brownies. This brownie recipe is a super easy, one bowl dessert that is quick to whip up, quick to bake and quick to disappear!  One batch will yield 16 – 2” inch squares.  But who eats a two inch square???
 

Quick & Easy Brownies

1 cup (6 ounces) Guittard Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips*

1/4 cup butter

2 large eggs

1/2cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

3/4 cup sifted all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt (optional)

*For extra chocolaty brownies, stir another cup of semi-sweet chips into the batter.

Preheat the oven to 350ºF and butter the bottom of an 8x8-inch pan.

1) In a microwave safe bowl: combine 1 cup of chips with butter and melt on a 50% setting in the microwave, stirring occasionally until melted and smooth. Then, set aside to cool.

2) Beat eggs, sugar and vanilla in a medium bowl until light and fluffy, about 1 minute.

3) Stir in the melted chocolate with a rubber spatula.

4) Add flour and salt, stirring only until combined (it’s OK if there are some small lumps)

5) Spread the batter into the buttered pan, getting batter all the way in the corners. 

6) Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center still has moist crumbs on it.

When cool, cut the brownies into 2-inch squares.   Dust with powdered sugar for a festive presentation.

 
Baking Tip:  If you bake brownies so the toothpick comes out clean, the brownies will be cakey.  If you pull them out when they are just a little underdone, when they are cool they will still be chewy.

 

Eat Well,
 

Dawn

The Tricks of the Treat

On this Halloween morning, it seems more than appropriate to talk about chocolate. 

 

Chocolate has been cultivated for more than 3000 years.  Ripe Cacao pods are knocked off the Cacao tree, which is small and leggy because it grows under the canapé of other trees.  The beans are then removed from each pod and piled in bins to develop flavor through fermentation.  Fully fermented beans are spread out and dried in the sun for 5-7 days to prevent mold from developing.  The dried beans are then cleaned of stones, twigs and other debris. 

 

At this stage, the cacao beans are graded and then sold to roasters (like our longtime chocolate partner, family-owned Guittard Chocolates).  They roast the beans and then remove the shells to get to the good stuff - cacao nibs.  The nibs are ground into a chocolate paste (called "chocolate liquor") and separated into two components - cocoa solids and cocoa butter. 

 

Throughout most of history cacoa was used in a beverage called xocolatl ("bitter water") - nothing like the hot cocoa we enjoy today.  Jospeh Fry & Son revolutionized chocolate in the solid form we know in 1847 when they mixed cocoa butter back into dutched chocolate and added sugar - creating a mouldable paste.  They combined cocoa solids, cocoa butter, sugar and milk to form the first modern milk chocolate bars.

 

At Specialty's, we use only Guittard Milk Chocolate in our Milk Chocolate Chip cookies.  We select xxtra large chips to ensure our large cookies deliver the perfect blend of soft chewy cookie and sweet creamy milk chocolate in every bite. 

 

At home, I store my milk chocolate away from cabinets that are near the oven.  Heating and cooling chocolate will draw the cocoa butter out of the chocolate and cause a grey film to develop ("blooming").  I also take care to keep chocolate safe from our pets.  Chocolate contains theobromine and phenethylamine which have been linked to positive effects on serotonin levels in the human brain. However; theobromine is vert toxic to dogs and cats and will make them sick.  Please take care in keeping candy out of reach of pets.

Enjoy your chocolate - whether it is among the treasures of tonight's trick or treating bounty or one of my family cookie recipes at Specialty's.  Let's appreciate this delicious combination of an ancient product with modern techniques.
 

Eat Well,

Dawn

An Apple (Pie) A Day...

When my kids were little we would celebrate October (National Apple Month) with stories of Johnny Appleseed, arts & crafts, apple prints on the fridge and, of course, lots and lots of apple pies.  Well, the kids are older now - story time is out and the fridge door is void of those treasured apple prints, but there are still apple pies in the oven.

While there are all kinds of cool, funky things to add to the apples in your pie, the best super “secret” ingredient I use isn’t in the apples at all…it’s in the crust.

Since a pie’s crust is baked under a juicy filling, it is critical that the crust remain dry. Start with enough fat.  It’s the fat that will make the dough flaky.  About half the fat should be butter for flavor and color, the other half should be vegetable shortening or lard (very high smoke point and, no, it doesn’t taste like bacon).  For best results freeze these fats first to give you longer to work with the dough before the fat begins to melt.

Make the crust dough first.  When adding liquid to bind the dry crust ingredients together, consider using your favorite liquor instead of water.  The alcohol doesn’t allow the protein in the flour to develop its gluten (the culprit in a tough crust).  Applejack is a great choice as it is distilled from apple cider.  

Flatten the dough into a disk and let it rest in the refrigerator to allow the flour to become fully hydrated and easier to roll out.

While the dough is resting, prepare the apples.  I mentioned previously I think golden delicious apples are the most reliable for baking - crisp without being too firm, sweet without being too sweet and tender without losing shape.  I “skip peel” them - removing big chunks of peel and any spots or bruises.  The remaining peel contains small amounts of pectin that help set up the pie and give it that classic, rustic look.

There is no need to stick to the old traditional flour to set up a pie’s filling.  I believe tapioca flour is the best ingredient to use when making most pies (substitute tapioca flour 1:1 in recipes using flour as the thickener).  Cornstarch is also a nice substitute (use only ½ the cornstarch as you would flour).

Use room temperature apples so the filling sets up without the crust burning.  The time of year or theme of the gathering determine my choice for flavorings.  I love unique pairings like apple and fennel or apple bacon. Think outside the limitations of that “apple pie spice” bottle and express your inner “Top Chef.”

Start with a HOT oven (450).  After the pie is in place and the door closed, immediately turn the heat down to 425.  This way the elements don’t come back on for a while - eliminating the burnt crust that can occur with immediate reheat.  A good 20-30 at 425 should be enough to set the proteins and quickly evaporate the moisture out of the crust.  Give the pie a turn so it will brown evenly and reduce the oven temp to 350 for the remainder of the baking. 

Lastly, (and almost impossibly in my house) allow the pie to cool completely so the filling can completely set up.  I must admit that my attempts to take pictures of my recipe results were thwarted by my family when I mistakenly turned my back for a few moments :).  Please enjoy my recipe below for a Galette – a quick and easy twist on an apple pie.

Eat Well,

Dawn

ANYTIME APPLE GALETTE

A Galette is a rustic, quick pie that my family prefers…it takes less time to bake and there is no pie plate to standin the way of eating (average life span of this Galette is about 4 minutes at my house).

Crust:

2 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp kosher salt

1 TBSP sugar

Mix dry ingredients together, and then add:

4 oz cold butter, grated

4 oz frozen shortening or lard, grated

Mix gently with finger tips until evenly blended.

5-6 TBSP iced applejack (pour over ice to chill first, then measure and add iced liquid)

Form dough into a disk, wrap in plastic and refrigerate for an hour to overnight.

Filling:

In a mixing bowl:

6 large Golden Delicious Apples – “skip peeled”, cored and sliced

Squeeze juice of ½ lemon onto apples

In another mixing bowl:

1/2 cup sugar

3 TBSP tapioca flour

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1 teaspoon spice of choice…be traditional (cinnamon) or creative (Garam Masala or 5 spice) 

Mix dry ingredients together, sprinkle over apples, toss and stir to combine.

Directions:

Roll out the crust to about ¼” thick and place onto a ½ sheet pan. 

Pour filling into the middle of the pie crust. Turn up the edges of the pie crust to surround the apples and hold in the juices.  The apples should be about half covered.

Paint the crust with egg and sprinkle with coarse sugar or cinnamon-sugar. 

Bake in a preheated 425 oven for 20 minutes. 

Rotate the pan 180 degrees, reduce heat to 350 and continue to bake for 30-40 minutes.  Filling will be bubbling in the center, with a nut brown outer crust and irresistible smell.

TRY to cool it all the way before eating, but if all else fails…just make sure you have plenty milk &/or ice cream on hand.

Dawn

Vegemite In The Land Down Under

On our trip to Australia recently, I just discovered what a bad wrap Vegemite undeservedly gets.  Visiting the amazing "Land Down Under," I had the privilege to try this savory, yeasty concoction the correct way. 

Starting with some good bread we got from our friends at Brasserie Bread in Sydney,  we smeared on the yellowiest butter I’ve ever seen (butter in Australia is phenomenally rich, sweet and creamy) and then topped it with a thin layer of Vegemite.  The result was creamy, slightly salty and robust!  To make a real Vegemite sandwich, we just topped it with another piece of buttered bread.  Some Australians also add a slice of cheese - since Kraft owns Vegemite, their Kraft single seems to make a perfect partner to this savory sandwich. It’s quite good! 

So why the bad wrap?  I think many people unfamiliar with Vegemite make a mistake by treating the product like peanut butter or jam and spreading it on too thick.   To me, Vegemite tastes a little like a beef bullion and meripioux spread.   I’m going to try Vegemite in a beef stew - I think it will add depth to the flavor.

Cool Vegemite trivia for ya':

• Vegemite was invented in 1922 by Dr. Cyril P. Callister.  He developed the spread from the used brewer’s yeast being dumped by breweries.  Concentrating the extract and blending it with salt, celery and onion extracts formed the sticky black paste now known (and loved) as Vegemite (Oh yeah, I’m way ahead of you if you’re thinking an ice cold beer would pare perfectly with a Vegemite sandwich!).
• In 1939, Vegemite was officially endorsed by the British Medical Association as a vitamin B rich food.  During WWII, Vegemite was included in Australian Army rations and by the late 1940s ,Vegemite was used in 9 out of 10 Australian homes.
• Today's Vegemite is virtually unchanged from the original recipe and Kraft Foods' Port Melbourne manufacturing facility produces more than 22 million jars annually.
• Vegemite far outsells other similar spreads (like Marmite) in Australia. The billionth jar of Vegemite was produced in October 2008.

With converts like me, Kraft is well on their way to their 2^nd Billion!

Hungry for more vegemite info? Try: http://www.vegemite.com.au/

G'day!!!

-Dawn

It's THAT Time of Year Again

This odd weather we’re having lately has me at the grill for one meal and filling the slow-cooker for another.  Here in California, I can use each all year - the slow cooker brings a fallish-indoor-homey feeling, while the grill leads to a summerish-outdoor-active tone.  Today finds me doing both.

As I write today, I have my crock pot filled with beef, potatoes, carrots, onions and garlic. I braise and season everything before placing it in my crock.  Then, I deglaze the pan with a splash of red wine, balsamic vinegar and some good beef stock I have frozen into ice cubes.  I pour this over the whole concoction, top with a good sprig of rosemary and cover.  Since I’m not making a stew, I just need enough to cook my treasure and render some tasty gravy. 

While these ingredients slow cook for our delight this evening, I am preparing to grill lunch.  I saw these amazing softball sized peaches at the market and just couldn’t resist (The peaches from my orchard are long gone after the squirrels and deer got more than we did this season).  Lunch on the grill will consist of grilled peaches with balsamic vinegar, grilled romaine with garlic infused XVOO and balsamic vinegar, and a little grilled chicken. 

While I am in denial that summer is winding down so soon, a part of me enjoys the changes each season brings to my garden.  I have already planted beets, carrots, broccoli, rabe, and cauliflower.  I have replanted basil and cilantro from their bolting stalks. 

A good sign of the coming fall: I picked some golden delicious apples from my trees on this warm afternoon. When I sampled one, each bite tasted like a baked apple pie.  I prefer golden delicious for making pies and galettes (I love galettes, they are like a quick apple pie).  While I realize this apple preference statement raises all kinds of controversy in the baking world over baking apples,  I believe that much like art and wine, food is about personal preferences: What's best is what you like.  Not what someone tells you to like. 

This change of season will bring changes to the menu at our cafes as well.  I look forward to the return of our Fall seasonal offering.  Hearty Turkey Chili and our wonderful Roasted Butternut Squash soup are among my favorites. 

Enjoy this time of year whatever each day may bring to you and your kitchen.  Put on your jacket or shorts, grab a warm or cool beverage of choice and head to your crock or your grill.  Embrace and enjoy the changes to come.