Everyone thinks they have a great recipe for butternut squash soup, and various versions adorn winter menus everywhere. The recipe I'm about to give you is the best one. I tried this butternut squash soup for the first time almost ten years ago now, when my best friend's stepfather made it for Thanksgiving dinner in upstate New York. I've been told it was an adaptation from a New York Times cookbook, but I've never found this precise recipe there.
It's something delicious and special, and it's actually pretty easy to make. You'll never try another recipe.
I mentioned that this soup often makes me think of a wintry Thanksgiving I spent many years back. While the holiday food season is over, its music doesn't need to be. Here's Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong singing "Autumn in New York."
Ingredients:
--1 large butternut squash
--1 small yellow onion, coarsely chopped
--2 carrots, peeled and chopped
--1 clove garlic
--2-3 tsp. extra virgin olive oil
--1 tbsp. salt + a little extra to taste
--1-2 tsp. pepper
--2 tsp. ground nutmeg
--about 48 oz. chicken stock, or 1 1/2 cartons (you can substitute veggie stock if you're making this a vegetarian recipe)
--2 c. half and half, or heavy cream
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
Slice butternut squash in half and scoop out seeds and filling. Using a pastry brush or your hands, coat the flesh with extra virgin olive oil. Fill the seed "holes" in the squash with the chopped carrots, onions, and lone garlic clove. It's okay if they overflow a little bit. Lightly salt the flesh of the squash, and place in the oven on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Roast for about one hour, or until the squash and the veggies inside are quite soft.
Scoop the veggies into a large stock pot and add the chicken stock. Simmer on low. Now scoop out the squash--the skin should peel back very easily, and you should be able to remove almost all of the "meat." Place it in the stockpot.
Sprinkle salt, pepper, and nutmeg into the pot. Using an immersion blender, emulsify those ingredients. Add the half and half or cream, and blend just a bit more. Serve warm with a sprig or two of fresh thyme.
Cinnamon buns on a snowy Sunday morning. What could make for a better breakfast? Of course, these flaky rolls are also a delightful dessert. I had the idea for these miniature sticky buns after (jealously) watching Ina Garten stroll through London markets. I've adapted her recipe here for some even sweeter, stickier buns.
These are best when they're still just a bit warm from the oven. If you want to make them ahead of time, I recommend rolling and filling the dough, and refrigerating it until you're ready to slice and bake. You'll also need a miniature non-stick muffin pan (but shouldn't you have one of these in your kitchen anyway?).
I can't believe I haven't used this song yet, but it turns out I haven't: Neil Young's "Cinnamon Girl." Here it is, to go along with some very cinnamon-y Chelsea sticky buns.
Ingredients:
(*Adapted from Ina Garten's Holiday Sticky Buns)
For the buns:
--1 package (2 sheets) frozen puff pastry dough, dethawed overnight in the fridge
--1/2 c. dark brown sugar
--1 tsp. cinnamon
--1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
--1/2 to 1 c. coarsely chopped pecans (amount can vary depending on your love of pecans)
For the filling:
--1/3 c. dark brown sugar
--1/3 c. turbinado sugar
--1/3 c. very finely chopped pecans (almost dusted)
--1 tbsp. cinnamon
--1/2 tsp. nutmeg
--1/2 tsp. cloves
--1/2 tsp. allspice
--1/2 stick butter, melted
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
Start with the "buns" ingredients. In a large bowl, combine the brown sugar, cinnamon, and butter. You'll want to beat it until the sugar and spice are incorporated fully into the butter, making a sort of brown sugar butter (by the way, this makes an excellent topping, on its own, for muffins and breads). Spoon the butter evenly into the bottoms of the miniature muffin cups, filling them about 1/3 of the way full. Distribute the coarsely chopped pecans on top of the butter in each of the 24 miniature muffin cups and set aside. The butter will begin to melt, but that's OK.
Now for the "filling." In a bowl, mix the sugars, spices, and pecans and set aside for just a moment. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the puff pastry dough. You'll have two sheets, so you'll end up doing this twice. Using a pastry brush, paint about 1/2 of your melted butter across the pastry dough. Sprinkle about 1/2 of your sugar and spice mixture evenly across the dough. Now, you'll want to very carefully roll it up using the longer edge. In other words, you want to have a longer, rather than a shorter, roll. Once you've rolled it up, pinch the ends closed and place the dough roll seam-side down. Using a serrated-edged knife, carefully cut the dough roll into twelve equal pieces. Place these on top of the butter/pecan mixture in your miniature muffin tins and repeat until all muffin cups are filled.
Bake for about 20 minutes, or just until the rolls have puffed up and are firm to the touch (you'll know when you see them!). Allow them to cool down for just a few minutes, and then flip the muffins upside down one at a time onto parchment paper--your bottoms are now your tops, and you've got sticky buns with a gooey, sugary topping. Remove any remaining butter topping from the muffin cups and add it to your buns. Let them cool just a bit longer, and then dig in!
When we'd travel to my grandmother's house for the holidays, she'd always have snickerdoodles waiting for us (along with extras to take on the drive home). So, while these aren't holiday cookies per se, they'll always be Christmas cookies to me.
Snickerdoodles are fluffy and sweet. I love soft cookies, so not much can beat a cinnamon-and-sugar snickerdoodle hot out of the oven. I've adapted the recipe from Smitten Kitchen, but there are a lot of great recipes out there for these cookies.
I have to admit, in addition to sweets, I love Christmas music. Here is John Fahey's "Auld Lang Syne," from his 1968 Christmas album, The New Possibility.
Ingredients:
--2 3/4 c. all-purpose flour
--2 tsp. cream of tartar
--1 tsp. baking soda
--2 sticks salted butter, softened
--3 eggs
--1 1/2 c. granulated sugar, + 1/2 c. granulated sugar for rolling
--2 tbsp. ground cinnamon
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
In a large bowl, combine butter, 1 1/2 c. sugar, and eggs on medium speed until fluffy (about 3 minutes). In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, cream of tartar, and baking soda. Slowly add to the wet mixture until combined. Scrape dough into wax paper and chill for about an hour.
In a small bowl, combine remaining sugar and cinnamon. Once dough has chilled, shape into 1" balls and roll thoroughly in the mixture of cinnamon and sugar. Place at least 2" apart on a parchment-lined baking sheet (these will seriously expand in the oven). Bake for about 8-10 minutes, or just until the cookies are cracking. If they're golden-colored on top, they're overcooked.
If you read this blog with any regularity, you might have noticed that I have an incurable sweet tooth. The holiday season gives me a marvelous excuse to make (and devour) a new dessert almost every day. I love shortbread, and I've been trying to find a recipe that I'm really crazy about. While I've made some shortbread recipes that are yummy (like my winter white amaretto shortbread), lately I've been craving a shortbread that's especially flaky and crisp. This recipe is exactly that.
You can make this into any shape you'd like, of course. I selected some snowflake cookie cutters to accompany the wintry weather. I tried to introduce you to the Durutti Column's music in previous posts, but it turns out that some of their cold-weather tracks are even more beautiful than I could imagine. Here is their haunting "Snowflakes," to match the aesthetics of these shortbread cookies.
Ingredients:
--2 sticks + 6 tbsp. unsalted butter (keep this very cold like you would for a pie crust)
--2 tbsp. dark rum
--1 tbsp. vanilla
--1 c. turbinado sugar
--1 c. cornstarch
--2 c. all-purpose flour, + extra for rolling
--1 tsp. salt
--decorative sugar crystals
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
In a large bowl, sift flour, cornstarch, and salt. Using a food processor or using a pastry cutter, add butter, sugar, vanilla, and rum. If you're using a food processor, pulse the ingredients until they begin to form a ball, just like a pie crust. (If you're using a pastry cutter, it'll take a little more time, but cut the ingredients until a dry, crumbly dough begins to form.)
Separate the dough into quarters. On a large floured surface, shape the first dough quarter into a ball and roll out until it's about 1/4 to 1/2" thick. Using a floured cookie cutter, cut any shapes you like. Repeat with remaining dough, incorporating the scraps as you go. (You'll end up with about 3 dozen cookies or so, depending on the size of your cookie cutter, when all is said and done.)
Arrange the cookies about 1/2" apart on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Sprinkle with decorative sugar crystals (I used silver and gold).
Bake at 325 degrees F for approximately 12-14 minutes, or just until the cookie edges are ever so slightly golden. If the tops become golden, they're overdone. Remove from oven and allow to cool. And these look great in holiday gift bags!
It's December, and it's time for holiday desserts! Inspired by Giada's recipe, this bread pudding is oh-so-rich and sweet. Every winter, I end up experimenting with different bread puddings, and this year won't disappoint. The only catch to this specific bread pudding is that you'll likely find that the main ingredient, the panettone, is typically available solely during the holiday season. (*Not sure what panettone looks like or where to find it? It's a sweet Christmas bread filled with candied fruits that, I believe, originated in Italy but is a holiday staple across many parts of the world. You can find it in almost any speciality food store once November rolls around, or you can make your own.)
I made this eggnog bread pudding during one of the first real snowfalls of 2013, and it was a delightful dessert (and later on, as a breakfast food). I topped it with a cinnamon and molasses whipped cream, recipe to follow.
During the snowy winter months, I have to admit that I've collected snowflakes on contrasting dark-colored paper to marvel at their singularity. For the sentiments that snowflake collecting brings, and for winter treats, here's Mark Mothersbaugh's "Snowflake Music" from the fabulous Rushmore soundtrack.
Ingredients:
The Bread Pudding:
--1 large (1 lb.) panettone loaf
--10 large eggs
--6 c. eggnog (you could make your own, of course, but a tasty half gallon from your local grocer will do just fine)
--1/2 c. turbinado sugar
--1/2 c. dark brown sugar
--2 tsp. vanilla extract
*Note: it's best to make this the night before you plan to serve it so the pudding can have time to "marinate" in the refrigerator!
The Cinnamon Molasses Whipped Cream:
--1 pint heavy whipping cream
--1 tbsp. cinnamon
--2 tsp. molasses
--1/4 c. dark brown sugar
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Butter a 13 x 9 baking dish and set aside. Remove your panettone loaf from its wrappers and cut into roughly 1" cubes. Arrange the cubes in the baking dish and set aside.
In a large bowl, beat the eggs, eggnog, sugars, and vanilla until well blended. Pour over the panettone cubes, cover with plastic, and place in the fridge overnight. (In a pinch, you don't need to let the bread pudding sit--you can put it in the oven right away.)
Bake uncovered for 45-50 min, or until the center puffs and the pudding is set (believe me, you'll know when this happens, and if you check too soon, the pudding will look like it's never going to set). Remove and allow to cool.
You can also make the whipped cream a day in advance, or immediately before you're ready to serve your bread pudding. Either way, it's quick and easy. In a large bowl, beat the ingredients on medium speed for approximately 5-7 minutes, or until the whipped cream forms stiff peaks.
Cut and serve your eggnog bread pudding with a (very large) dollop of cinnamon molasses whipped cream.
Have you eaten alfajores de maizena in Argentina? They're delicious cornflour shortbread cookies, filled (in some cases, sky high) with dulce de leche and rolled in toasted coconut flakes. Until I had encountered the pastelerias in Buenos Aires, I thought I had already sampled the best sweets the world had to offer (baklava in Istanbul, of course). And just when I thought Argentinian sweets couldn't get any better, I tried the most amazingly delightful alfajores de maizena at the Mataderos Sunday market. Crumbly, melt-in-your mouth, dulce de leche delights.
These cookies are a labor of love: first you have to make the shortbread cookies, then you'll have to fill them with dulce de leche before rolling them in coconut. But it's worth every extra minute. They're not easy to come by in the U.S., and they're really good. We brought some delicious and fresh dulce de leche home from Green Eat on Buenos Aires' Reconquista for some authentic alfajores at home in Virginia. But don't worry: you can buy dulce de leche at almost any specialty foods store.
When I think of "paradise," I rarely see beaches or impossibly sunny days. Instead, with more than one hundred used bookstores (I visited fifty-eight of them!) and dulce de leche-infused sweets on every corner, Buenos Aires was for me, in many ways, a paradise. Here's the Atlantics' "Adventures in Paradise" from this Australian band's 1963 album, Bombora.
Ingredients:
--1/2 c. corn flour (no, not cornstarch--this is a specialty corn flour I bought at Whole Foods)
--1/2 c. all-purpose flour, + extra for rolling
--3 1/3 c. cornstarch
--1/2 tsp. baking powder
--3/4 c. unsalted butter, softened
--1 1/3 c. granulated sugar
--3 egg yolks
--1 tsp. vanilla
--2 tsp. dark rum
--16 oz. dulce de leche
--1 c. very finely shredded toasted coconut (you can grind already shredded coconut even further in a food processor)
Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.
In a large bowl, combine wet ingredients. Mix until fully combined and a fluffy light yellow color. In a separate bowl, sift the dry ingredients. Slowly add them to the wet ingredients, about 1/4 of the dry mixture at a time. Don't overmix! Once the dry mixture is incorporated (and it should be very dry and crumbly at this point), separate the dough into quarters.
On a floured surface, roll one of the dough quarters until it's about 1/2" thick. Using a 3" biscuit cutter, cut dough circles. Place about 1/2" apart on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake for 7-8 minutes. Do not let these cookies turn golden-colored on top--if they have any golden tone, they're overcooked. Allow the cookies to cool on a cooling rack and repeat instructions until you have about 75 shortbread cookies.
Once the cookies have all cooled, liberally apply dulce de leche to the flat side (bottom side) of one of the cookies. Be very careful--the cookies are very fragile and will crumble easily with too much pressure. Once you've smothered the bottom of the cookie in what most Argentinian menus translate as "milk caramel," add another cookie on top, flat side down (bottom side), making a cookie sandwich. Repeat until all cookies have become cookie sandwiches. Each sandwich should have about 1/4" of dulce de leche in the middle (of course, if you like a lot of dulce de leche, add more).
Place your shredded coconut in a shallow bowl. Roll each cookie like a wheel until the exposed dulce de leche has been coated with coconut. Repeat until you've finished all cookies. Makes about 3 dozen alfajores de maizena. You won't regret it.
I have been horribly neglectful of my blog over the last month or so, which, in my mind, is a particularly heinous crime given the salient spices and aromas of the holiday season. As it turns out, applying for academic jobs and postdocs takes more time than I initially anticipated. (I haven't stopped baking, though, I promise!) What better way to counter the anxieties of assistant professorship applications than a pan of hot pumpkin pecan cinnamon rolls? It's nearly the end of November, and it's a perfect time for sweet pumpkin spice.
These pumpkin pecan cinnamon rolls are just the right amount of everything: they're not super sweet on their own (if that's what you like), but if you want something sweeter, that's where the delicious vanilla-rum cream cheese icing comes in. Drizzle as much or as little as you'd like for a warm breakfast or an after-dinner treat.
We've been listening to a lot of Neil Young as the leaves have been falling, and our recent vinyl acquisition of Rust Never Sleeps has left our autumn kitchen with the sounds of "Thrasher."
Ingredients:
*Recipe adapted from Smitten Kitchen's pumpkin cinnamon rolls
*Note also: you'll need a dough hook for your mixer to complete this recipe!
The Dough:
--8 tbsp. unsalted butter, + extra for buttering your pans
--1/2 c. water, warmed (but not boiling)
--1 package of active dry yeast
--3 1/2 c. all-purpose flour, + additional for rolling and buttering your pans
--1/3 c. dark brown sugar
--1/3 c. turbinado sugar
--2 tsp. ground cinnamon
--1/2 tsp. ground cloves
--1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
--1/2 tsp. ground allspice
--1/2 tsp. ground ginger
--1/2 tsp. salt
--3/4 c. pumpkin puree
--1 tbsp. canola oil (for coating your bowl)
--2 eggs
The Filling:
--3/4 c. dark brown sugar
--1/2 c. turbinado sugar
--pinch of salt
--1 tsp. cinnamon
--1 c. chopped pecans (you can make these without nuts, too)
The Icing:
--4 oz. cream cheese (or neufchatel)
--2 tbsp. half and half
--2 tsp. vanilla extract
--1 tbsp. dark rum (obviously, leave this out if you're making these for kids)
--1 1/2 to 2 c. confectioner's sugar (depending on whether you want your icing thin like a glaze or thick like an icing)
First thing, heat your water and dissolve your yeast. Keep in mind that your water cannot be boiling or near it--just warm enough to dissolve the yeast. If the mixture doesn't begin to froth in 5-7 minutes, the yeast is bad and you'll need to start anew (it's always good to check this first).
Next, melt your butter and set aside. In a large bowl, combine all the dry ingredients--flour, sugars, spices and salt. Beat on low speed, and slowly add about half the melted butter to your mixture. Continue to beat on low to combine. Now, add the yeast mixture, pumpkin puree, and the eggs. Using a dough hook on your mixer, combine the ingredients on low for 5-7 minutes until you have a combined dough.
In a separate large bowl oiled with canola oil, transfer your ball of dough. Cover it with plastic wrap and let it sit for about in hour in a warm place. While you're waiting, butter and flour two 9" springform pans (or whatever cake pan you're using).
You can also use this time to make your filling and your icing. These are both pretty straightforward. For the filling, just use a fork to gently combine all ingredients. Set aside. Now, for the icing: in a large bowl, combine the cream cheese, half and half, vanilla, rum, and confectioner's sugar. Beat on medium speed until it's silky and smooth.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Now to complete your cinnamon rolls! After an hour or so (the dough should have just about doubled in size). On a heavily floured surface, roll the dough into a rough rectangular shape that's about 1/4" thick. With a pastry brush, gently brush the surface with the remaining melted butter (you should have about half of the melted butter left). Drench that dough! Then sprinkle the filling evenly across it. Now, you're going to roll this piece of dough length-wise (or the long way). Try to keep it as tight as possible until you've got a pumpkin dough log on your hands. Using a serrated-edge knife, very (very!) gently slice the log into 1/2" discs. When you're finished, you should have enough to fill your two cake dishes.
Place the cinnamon rolls so that they're touching one another in a circular pattern in each of the cake dishes and bake, uncovered, for 30-35 minutes, or until the rolls have puffed up and are ever-so-slightly a golden color. Remove from the oven, allow to cool, and drizzle (or coat heavily) with your vanilla-rum cream cheese icing. Enjoy!
