Socks! Finished Socks!

 
Hey, lookit that!  I finished a whole pair of socks!  It only took me a year (or more, maybe…) and 2 3 4 start-overs.  Turns out I have really, really loose gauge.  I hadn’t noticed just how loose it was, because I tend to make things that don’t depend on gauge, but my sock attempts kept turning out HUGE.  These were knit on size 2 needles even though the pattern calls for size 5.  Yeah.  But once I figured that out and decided to, y’know, actually swatch for socks, it was smooth sailing.

And I cast on my second pair (a different pattern) approximately 8 hours after finishing this pair, so it seems I’ve caught the sock-knitting bug (cue groans from my husband as he anticipates more money being spent on yarn)...
 

Speaking of yarn – this is lovely stuff.  It’s Rios by Malabrigo, a Superwash Merino, roughly worsted weight.  I love the colorway, and it’s a dream to knit up.  Highly recommended!

Hazelnut Muffins, with Teff Flour

These muffins are from Kim Boyce’s much-heralded Good to the Grain, and they are lovely.  I’d never used teff flour before, but I’ll definitely continue to use it!  It has sort of a delicate grassy flavor that is faintly sweet.  It’s wonderful in these muffins!

The only thing I’d like to change about these muffins is the body-to-topping ratio.  There was too much topping for the 12 muffins I got (you can see how much of it fell off – and the recipe was only supposed to yield 10 muffins!) and at the same time, there wasn’t enough of it for each bite of muffin.  I think next time I’ll fold half of the topping into the batter and see how that works out.




Hazelnut Muffins
from Good to the Grain

1 stick unsalted butter
1/2 cup raw hazelnuts, skins on, chopped into rough halves
1/2 tsp kosher salt

For topping:
1/2 cup raw hazelnuts, skins on, finely chopped
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 tsp cinnamon

For muffins:
Dry mix:
1 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup teff flour
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp kosher salt

Wet mix:
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup plain yogurt
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350°.  Grease muffin tins with butter or cooking spray.

Place the butter, hazelnuts, and salt in a small heavy-bottomed pan and cook over medium heat, swirling the pan occasionally and watching for the edges of the nuts to turn golden brown.  Remove the pan from the flame before the nuts get too brown, as they will continue to cook in the hot butter.  Pour them into a bowl to cool down.

In a small bowl, stir together the topping ingredients. Set aside.

Sift the dry ingredients into a large bowl.  In a medium bowl, whisk the wet ingredients until thoroughly combined. (This is where I'd fold in about half of the topping, after combining the other ingredients.)

Pour the hazelnuts and their butter over the dry ingredients, and then pour the buttermilk mixture over the top of that.  Using a spatula, mix together the wet and dry ingredients.

Scoop the batter into 10-12 muffin cups.  The batter should be mounded above the edges of the cups.  Sprinkle the topping evenly over the batter, gently pressing it into the batter so it adheres.

Bake for 22-26 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through.  Let cool on a rack in the pan until they’re cool enough to handle. Remove each muffin from its cup and set it on its side in the cup to cool (this will keep them from getting soggy).

Semla

Happy Fat Tuesday!  In Swedish, “Fat Tuesday” is “Fettisdag,” and the traditional treat is a Fettisdagbullar – also known as Semla (Semlor if you’re talking about more than one).  Semlor are cardamom bread rolls filled with an almond paste mixture and topped with whipped cream and powdered sugar, and they are GOOOOD.






I go to a church that is of Swedish extraction, so we have a number of Real Swedish cookbooks between us.  A group of us got together to make these (after buying them the previous 3 years), and we noticed that all of the Real Swedish Recipes call for fresh yeast – and a lot of it!  That’s hard to find, so we found another recipe on allrecipes.com and went with it.

We think this recipe is good, but it needs more cardamom.  The rolls are nice and cardamom-y when eaten plain, but once you add the filling the cardamom is drowned out.  Otherwise, these are perfect!  They aren’t hard to make, and they’re a lovely treat.

  


Semla/Fettisdagbullar

makes 16-20
from allrecipes.com


Ingredients:
For dough:
2 eggs
2/3 cup butter, melted
1 1/2 cups warm milk (70-80°F)
2 1/4 tsp (1 packet) active dry yeast

5 c all-purpose flour, plus 1 more cup later
1/2 c granulated sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cardamom (next time I'll add about 1/2 tsp. more, or use freshly ground!)
4 tsp baking powder

For filling/topping:
1/2 c milk
5 oz. almond paste
2 cups whipping cream
2 Tbsp granulated sugar
confectioner’s sugar for dusting

In a large bowl, mix the milk, eggs, and butter.  Sprinkle the yeast over this mixture and let sit for about 5 minutes.  Meanwhile, whisk or sift together 5 cups of the flour, 1/2 cup of sugar, the salt, and the cardamom.  In a separate small bowl, whisk together the remaining 1 cup of flour and the baking powder; set aside.

Stir the milk mixture, then add the flour-sugar-cardamom mixture to it.  Stir until a soft dough forms.  Cover with a towel and let rise for about 30 minutes.

After it's risen, stir in the reserved flour mixture and knead for about 10 minutes, until the dough comes is smooth (you're looking for "windowpanes," if you're familiar with breadmaking).

Cut dough into 16-20 pieces and form into balls.  Place the balls on greased baking sheets, cover with towels or plastic wrap, and let rise until roughly doubled, 30-45 minutes.  Preheat oven to 375°.

Bake in preheated oven for 10-15 minutes, until golden brown.  Let cool.

Once cool, slice off the top (about 1/2" thick at center).  Cut or scoop out the centers of the rolls, leaving a shell about a 1/2" thick around the edges.  Tear the centers into small pieces and add up to 1/2 cup of milk, to moisten.  Stir in the almond paste until smooth.  Add more milk as needed, until the filling is as soft as pudding.

Spoon the filling back into the bread shells (you may have extra; I won't tell if you eat it with a spoon, because that's certainly not what I did...).  Whip the cream with 2 Tbsp sugar.  Pipe or spoon the whipped cream onto the rolls, nice and high.  Replace the "lids" of the bread.  Just before serving, dust the whole thing with confectioner's sugar.

Arabic Spice Cake

   
This is one of my family’s very favorite cakes.  My dad and my brother request it for pretty much every birthday, and we’ve been known to eat it for breakfast simply because we can’t resist.  It’s an old family recipe (which probably means my Nana found the original in a magazine 50-odd years ago) and I’ve never tasted anything similar.  It’s a mocha spice cake, but not your usual spice cake, either.  I don’t know why it’s supposedly “Arabic,” but it is really, really good.



     



The original cake recipe tends to get dry easily, so I’ve tweaked it somewhat and made it a little moister.  The frosting is another story – it’s a mocha frosting, and the original recipe calls for raw egg yolks, which of course is a no-no these days.  My mom and I make the frosting slightly differently every time we make it, because it’s one of those that you can get right only by tasting it.  This time the frosting was perfect, but of course I didn’t write down exactly what I did!  So I’ve given guidelines below, but I’m sure I’ll change it next time I make it.




Arabic Spice Cake
adapted from my Nana’s recipe

(original source unknown)

Cake:
3/4 c butter (room temperature)
1-1/2 c sugar
2 whole eggs
2 egg yolks
1 Tbsp vegetable oil

Dry ingredients:
1-3/4 c all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
3/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1 tsp cinnamon
2 Tbsp cocoa powder

Wet ingredients:
3/4 c buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp lemon extract (I have also successfully used 1 tsp lemon juice, since I’d run out of lemon extract)

1/2 c finely chopped walnuts

Preheat the oven to 350°F.  Lightly grease and flour two 9-inch round cake pans.

In a large bowl, cream together the butter, sugar, eggs, egg yolks, and vegetable oil.  In another bowl, sift together the dry ingredients.  In a third bowl (or liquid measuring cup), mix together the wet ingredients.

Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture in three batches, alternating with two batches of the buttermilk mixture, beating until just combined after each.

Fold in the walnuts.

Pour into prepared pans and bake for 25-30 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center is just clean.  Do not overbake or it will be dry.  Cool in pans on rack for 15-20 minutes, then turn out onto rack to cool completely.



Frosting (A Guideline)
1 cup butter, room temperature
3-4 Tbsp natural cocoa powder (not Dutch-process, and sift it if it’s lumpy)
1.5-2 lbs powdered sugar
Really strong coffee/espresso – I use approx. 2 Tbsp espresso powder in 4 Tbsp hot tap water.  I’ve also used Starbucks Via packets with great success.
Milk
Pinch salt

In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle, cream the butter until it’s glossy.  Add 3 Tbsp cocoa, approx. 1lb of powdered sugar, and the pinch of salt.  Beat until combined.  Add about 3/4 of the coffee.

Here’s where it becomes more guideline than recipe: from this point on, you’re trying to get both the flavor (strong coffee and strong chocolate – you don’t want the predominant flavor to be “sweet”) and the texture right.  So you’ll add more of the cocoa, powdered sugar, coffee, and milk as you aim for that balance.  I’ve also used chocolate syrup with success, when I wanted more chocolate flavor but I didn’t want it to get any drier.

Monkey Bread

 
I love having a special breakfast on Saturdays.  I’ve been on a major French toast kick lately, but I didn’t have a chance to make the challah for that this week (now that I know how to make my own challah [post coming soon], I am unwilling to pay $5 for a loaf of it at the store!).  So I was looking through my recipe binder the other night, trying to find a breakfast item that sounded appealing.  This Cook’s Country/Cook’s Illustrated recipe jumped out at me!  Then I saw that it had two 1-hour rises involved.  Hm.  Not ideal for a Saturday morning, but not a complete deal-breaker.  I remembered that Deb at Smitten Kitchen had done one not too long ago, and wondered if hers was quicker, so I went a-looking for it – only to find that she’d used the same recipe!  Well.  I decided to go for it – I printed the recipe back in February 2005, so it had been languishing in my binder for far too long.


I’m so glad I made it – yes, we didn’t get to eat it till 10:30am, but it was WORTH IT.  Mine didn’t rise as much as it was supposed to, but the finished product was scrumptious so I don’t really care. 


I had some leftover cream cheese frosting in the fridge, so instead of making a whole new glaze I just melted that down and stirred some more milk into it – it worked great.  I think next time I make this for just the three of us, I’ll halve the recipe and bake it in my small bundt pan.  It reheats beautifully, but I don't really need this kind of temptation lying around!


Monkey Bread with Cream Cheese Glaze
From Cook’s Illustrated/Cook’s Country, and Smitten Kitchen.