A New Tradition

Last year, Dan and I started a new tradition. We celebrate Christmas Eve with my family, eating a traditional German feast of red cabbage, mashed potatoes and goose, followed by delicious desserts.

On Christmas morning, we trudge to the airport and make the two hour flight up to Oregon to meet Dan's parents at the airport. After Christmas dinner with Dan's family, we make the drive to his parents' house out by the coast for a week of relaxation.

This year, a most wonderful present was awaiting me under the tree--a brand new, beautiful KitchenAid. I've wanted a KitchenAid for a few years, but realized how impractical it would be in a college dorm. Although it was probably good for my waistline, I was disappointed every time a cake craving was thwarted by my inability to whip up a nice buttercream frosting.

So far, we've made chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream frosting, challah (my favorite kind of bread), whole wheat sandwich bread, and nutella cookies.

I think for lent this year, I might have to give up anything I could make with my KitchenAid instead, just so I have an excuse to use it more. Not that I've needed an excuse so far.

Happy baking! And I hope everybody is coming out of their holiday food coma, and ready for more. If not, trying whipping up a batch of nutella clouds (replace the peanut butter with nutella) by hand.

Let me know what you think by leaving a comment or emailing me at piquantprose [at] gmail [dot] com.

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Tuiles and Trees

Earlier this week, Dan and I decorated our first Christmas tree together!

Apparently, if you wait until the week of Christmas to decorate your tree, all of the ornaments go on sale. We decided to do a classy tree, with glass ball ornaments.. ok so they're mostly "shatterproof" glass, aka plastic.

That same evening, I tested the good graces of my La Farine apron once again. Flipping through my cookie book, I scanned ingredient lists to find something I could actually make. (A lot of the recipes call for cream of tartar.. probably a good thing we don't have any, or Dan and I would eat way too many cookies.)

I stumbled upon tuiles, a super thin wafer cookie that is incredibly pliable when hot, and very stiff and crunchy when cooled. They also look a lot like GIANT potato chips.

The recipe toted the difficulty of making these cookies--not only do they involve an unusual shaping method, they also require precise removal from the oven. The line between crisp and chewy is almost as thin as the line between crisp and burnt.

Fortunately, I had luck on my side.

Well, except on this batch.. I used parchment paper instead of aluminum foil, because I like to experiment. Outcome: cookie fail.

I'm not going to give you a recipe, because you should really just go buy the book. I will give you some advice, however:

1. Use aluminum foil, dull side up, liberally buttered. Alice Medrich claims silicone mats work as well--I don't yet have silicone mats with which to test, but I trust her.

2. After 10 minutes in the oven, check often.

3. Once they're out of the oven, work fast. On your first batch, I recommend making just one or two cookies, so you see how they behave right out of the oven. From there, you can increase the size of your batches.

4. Feel free to re-use aluminum foil, just make sure to re-butter!

Happy baking!

Let me know what you think by leaving a comment or emailing me at piquantprose [at] gmail [dot] com.

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