Happy Holidays

I've always enjoyed the holiday season.  As a child I remember the anticipation of waking up on Christmas morning, opening gifts, eating pancakes with my brother and wearing pajamas all day long.  Snow, cold air, food, family and friends.  Now, the season gets a bit less innocent each year, but it's important to me that some holiday traditions are kept alive.  One such tradition, for me, is the baking and icing of Christmas cookies.  Traditional, buttery sugar cookie dough rolled out and cut into festive shapes and baked until golden.  Be sure to add a bit of pure almond extract to your dough for richer flavored cookies.  Decorated with royal icing, they are always a sweet addition to the season.  I prefer to enjoy my cookies with a large glass of cold milk.   Just how we used to leave them next to the fireplace on Christmas Eve. 

Happy Holidays.

Use meringue powder in your royal icing to give it a smooth and firm texture.  Gel food coloring gives your icing deep, rich color.

  Pipe your icing for a neat and tidy presentation. 

Ornaments, trees, stars and snowflakes.  Colorful holiday treats.

All that is needed is a glass of milk. 

Snowed in

We had a blizzard last weekend.  A big, bad, serious blizzard.  The snow kept falling and we were lazily stuck in our house, aside from the few dreaded trips outside to shovel our walk.  Since none of us were driving anywhere, our next door neighbors Erick and Keely invited us over for a little get together on Saturday  night.  Erick eats gluten-free and loves sweet treats so I decided to whip up a batch of my gluten-free cupcakes to take him.  If you have the ingredients on hand, these are supremely easy  and really tasty.  Rich, buttery and moist. You'll never know they were made without all purpose flour.  A basic vanilla buttercream on top and they're complete.  There is just something so appropriate about baking when the weather outside is frosty and snowing.  I topped the cakes with frosting, packaged them in a box, we bundled up and headed through the snow for a little neighborly hospitality.  Though the roads were treacherous and the wind was bitter, we all had a great time holed up together in the warm house while the snow fell outside.

Gluten-Free Vanilla Bean Cupcakes
makes 12

For the cupcakes:
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter (softened)
1 cup sugar
2 L eggs (at room temperature)
1 1/2 cups gluten-free all purpose flour mix (I like Bob's Red Mill brand)
3/4 tsp xanthan gum (found in the gluten-free sections of most markets)
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1/2 C whole milk
2 tsp pure vanilla extract

For the basic buttercream frosting: 

1 1/2 sticks softened unsalted butter

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

1/4 tsp kosher salt

4 cups powdered sugar (or to your liking)

Cupcakes:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and move an oven rack to the center position.

In a medium bowl, whisk the gluten-free flour, xanthan gum, baking powder and salt.  Set aside.

In a stand mixer (or using a hand mixer with a large bowl) beat butter and sugar on low speed until light in color and fluffy.  Add eggs, one at a time, and mix until each egg is incorporated. Scrape the bowl with a plastic spatula, making sure all of the ingredients are evenly combined.  Add the vanilla.  On the lowest speed, mix until incorporated.  Scrape the bowl again.

With the mixer on low, add half of the flour mixture.  Once the flour is just incorporated, add the milk.  Then add the remaining flour mixture, being sure not to over mix.  Turn off the mixer and gently mix the batter with your spatula to make sure everything is evenly incorporated.

Line a 12 cup muffin pan with cupcake liners and fill each liner 2/3 of the way full, preferably with an ice-cream scoop to ensure even sizing. Bake for 20-24 minutes or until the tops just barely spring back when gently pushed.  Be sure not to over-bake.

Allow cupcakes to sit on a wire rack until completely cooled.  Generously top each cake with buttercream frosting (see below).

Frosting:

Using a hand mixer, blend the butter in a large bowl until creamy. Add salt and vanilla extract. Mix until combined.  Slowly add the powdered sugar, one cup at a time, mixing after each addition until completely combined.  Eventually, your frosting should be the consistency of slightly softened ice-cream.  The amount of sugar needed may be a bit more or less than suggested above, depending on the softness of your butter.  

An easy batter, scooped into red, holiday-inspired cupcake liners.

Just a quick bake in the oven . . .

Fluffy, moist and sweet.  Ready to be frosted.

Tucked into a white bakers box, they make the perfect gift for your favorite gluten-free loved one.

Securely packaged for their trek through the snow.  

Organized Holiday Soiree

A few months ago, my Mom asked me to fly out to Connecticut to help her prepare the food for a Christmas party she and her husband Jim were throwing.  Well, the party was last weekend and it was a great success.  I spent quite a bit of time preparing the food for the party, but I was able to organize the preparations enough so that I had plenty of time to relax with my Mom.  I knew that appetizers for a cocktail party of 75 guests would prove to be daunting, so before arriving I created a food prep timeline to helped me stay organized. I also designed a menu where many components could be made in advance.  

Rosemary cookie and blue cheese cracker doughs were prepared three days early, rolled into logs, refrigerated and sliced to be baked off just before the party.  Dates for the "devils on horseback" were stuffed with Manchego cheese and wrapped in bacon the day before the party.  A local butcher shop roasted and sliced four beef tenderloins and supplied brioche rolls sent in from New York. Grilled cheeses were the last things to prepare and they were griddled in a pan with sage butter the afternoon of the party and reheated in a screaming-hot oven just as guests arrived.  Salted cashews, candied bacon and store-bought caramel corn was poured into bowls and placed around the house for guests to nibble on while sipping cocktails.  The dining room table held all of the food and behind it Willy, the bartender, poured various tasty libations which were neatly arranged on a beautiful wooden bar.  

The evening was perfect and ended in a chorus of Christmas carols around the piano.  Because most of our menu was either prepared in advance or store-bought, I was able to spend plenty of quality time with my Mom and that, after all, is what the holidays are all about.

Menu:

Candied bacon

Various marinated vegetables

Cheese and meat platters

Gorgonzola and walnut crackers

Devils on horseback

Shrimp cocktail

Mini grilled cheeses 

Beef tenderloin with brioche rolls and horseradish sour cream 

Rosemary sugar cookies

Brownies 

Garbage bars 

Crispy, candied bacon stacked in glasses.  Always the hit of the party.

Jarred vegetables from a local Italian deli.  Peppers, artichokes, fava beans, mushrooms and zucchini.  Delicious, savory and as easy as opening a few jars.

Various cheeses and cured meats arranged on cake plates.  A leafed clementine added a festive pop of color.

Gorgonzola crackers with walnuts.  One of the most delicious recipes and oh so easy.  They were adapted from this recipe.    

Dried dates filled with manchego cheese and wrapped in smokey bacon.  Baked until crispy and then poked with toothpicks.  "Devils on horseback" are always a party favorite.  

Dainty grilled cheeses, filled with sharp white cheddar, parmesan and fried in sage butter.  Finished with a sage leaf, these were warm, gooey and delicious.

An array of desserts with something for everyone.  Cut into two-bite pieces so that guests could taste all three.  Sweet endings to a magical holiday party.

Sweet Traditions

I am what one may call a sentimental person. I live for nostalgia, crave romance and maybe most of all, find a lot of comfort in tradition. As a result, I've learned to create my own little traditions over the years and, despite their triteness, they hold a special place in my heart. One such tradition that must occur whenever I visit my Mom in Connecticut is the oh-so-necessary early morning trip to Dunkin' Donuts. Residing in Minneapolis, I live without this breakfast pastry chain which, as I'm sure, many others across the country are inundated with around every corner. Yet, this mega doughnut shop continues to bring back fond memories of when I was a small girl visiting my Great-Aunt Esther in New York.  On special weekend mornings, she would take me to Dunkin' Donuts for a dozen and to this day, that thick, distinctive smell of sugar and yeast immediately takes me back to those visits. Over the weekend, I travelled to the east coast to visit my Mom and, of course, I had to start my first morning by dragging her out of bed to make that early doughnut run. She parked the car, I rushed in, ordered my doughnuts and, without fail, was well into my first glazed beauty before we had even left the parking lot. Buttery, soft and melt-in-your-mouth good.  Be it the memories of my Aunt Esther or the new memories I've made with my Mom, those sweet, fluffy confections have become a tradition that I plan on keeping for years to come.

Traditional glazed are always my favorite variety.

A buttery-sweet glazed stack of tender dough. 

Sticky-fingered, childhood delight.  The first bite is always the best.