Let it snow?

Good morning!  It's relatively rare lately that I managed to work on a post any time other than late at night, but I have the morning off.  We've finally been getting a taste of winter weather (overnight temps below freezing) down here in central Texas, and I'm really enjoying it.  There's just something so nice about a hot cup of tea and a warm muffin on a chilly morning.  No chance of snow, though, so I'm having to find my own snowflakes. =)  

I could have sworn that I'd already done a blog post on these muffins.  I've certainly made them plenty of times.  But I've found that there are a number of favorite recipes that for whatever reason haven't made it onto the blog.  It's time to do something about that.  These Coffeecake Muffins are from Cook's Illustrated, January 2007.  The recipe uses the food processor to mix everything up.  That alone should tell you how much I love them, because I am not often willing to pull out my food processor, since I hate washing it.  The batter is done in several steps, but after you've made the recipe a time or two, it becomes pretty easy to throw together.  One of the options in the recipe is to top the finished muffins with a powdered sugar glaze.  We always do that, since we love glaze.  Plus it helps keep the streusel on top from falling off. 

This batch of muffins also gave me a chance to try out the new snowflake papers that I got from KAF.  I don't like the design quite as much as the ones I ordered last year, but they're still nice.  I've said it before, but it is so worth it to spend the money on quality supplies.  The papers come off easily, without destroying whatever is inside, and the colors show up well, too.  

The verdict?  Of course, these were a hit with the whole family, as always.  We love coffeecake, and it's so handy to have it already portioned out.  Brianna and Gillian don't like nuts in baked goods, but they don't seem to have figured out that there are pecans in the streusel--they eat these up.  The muffins keep pretty well, and provided the girls with breakfast for several days.  I recommend microwaving the leftover muffins for about 10 seconds before eating them.  I think these would make a holiday breakfast treat.

If you'd like to give these a try for yourself, you can find the recipe here at Cook's Illustrated.  If you have a copy of Baking Illustrated, they're in there, too.

Mug shot II

One of the other places Gillian and I went yesterday was Crate and Barrel.  They're still focused on Thanksgiving (which is good), but the other holiday stuff is starting to creep in.  We found these cute mugs, and couldn't pass them up.  We're amassing quite the collection of C&B seasonal mugs.

Happily-ever-aftering

This was my latest order from KAF.  No flour this time, since I'm still pretty well-stocked.  I can buy AP, bread, www and unbleached cake flour blend in my local grocery store for quite reasonable prices.  Durum flour is the one I order most often, but I just opened a new bag, and I have cake flour, high gluten flour and pastry flour that I've barely touched.  So I'm good there.  I love the boiled cider, so I try to keep a bottle in reserve.  As for the vanilla, I really like King Arthur's relatively new house blend a lot.  I have to admit, the fact that it's a big bottle makes me use it more liberally than I might otherwise. =)  Again, this new bottle is for my reserve.  I don't want to run out of a lot of things, but vanilla is very high on the list!  As for the sprinkles and cupcake papers, look, it's more evidence of my love of snowflake items. =)  I bought some snowflake papers from KAF last year, which were great.  These are a slightly different design, but still very pretty.  I couldn't pass up the sprinkles, either.  I'm sure B&G will enjoy helping me use them to decorate cookies and top cupcakes.

Note--I just happen to like KAF products; they have not compensated me in any way.

Let it snow

Today was nice--I had the day off from work, but the girls had school, so I got some time to myself.  The highlight of my morning was being able to watch TV without having anyone complain about what I put on.  (Yay for BBC America!)  I had lunch out with a couple friends and got to do some (mostly window) shopping as well.  The only things I came home with were these candles and holders.  As I mentioned before, I love snowflakes.  I particularly like these holders because they aren't specific to Christmas, so they can stay out after the holidays.  I don't buy a lot of candles, since I'm not fond of a lot of scented stuff.  Yes, I'm that person who buys unscented everything (laundry detergent, etc.).  The few things I do buy are usually in the citrus family, especially grapefruit and tangerine.  These candles aren't citrus-scented, but they are food-related.  The white ones are vanilla, and the red one in the middle is cranberry.  I actually like that one a lot, and may pick up a couple more.  It's too early for a lot of decorations, but I'm getting excited about the holiday season.

Tradition

As I was making my 4th batch of fudge in about as many days, Brianna asked me why I only make fudge at Christmas.  She's right--I don't really make it any other time of year.  It's not a conscious decision to reserve it for the holidays; it just doesn't really occur to me to make it during the rest of the year.  I'm like that with certain cookies, too.  Chocolate chip cookies are not Christmas cookies (though my husband would probably disagree with me there, since his grandmother made them during the holidays).  Spritz cookies are Christmas cookies.  My cookie press came with about a dozen different plates for various shapes, but the only one I've ever used is the Christmas tree.  What sort of treats do you only make during the holidays?

I don't usually make four batches of fudge, though.  The first one I made didn't turn out.  It was a recipe I hadn't tried before.  It's frustrating when something doesn't work--I always want to know why.  In this case, I think I didn't cook it quite long enough; it never got all the way firm.  I didn't like the flavor very much, either.  The second batch was one I've made before, a great recipe from Fine Cooking.  The third was this interesting cookie dough fudge that my friend Tracey posted recently.  It doesn't have quite the usual fudge texture, but it definitely tastes like cookie dough.  Batch number four was a repeat of the Fine Cooking recipe--I gave away most of the first batch and needed more.  It was one of the key components in my treat bags this year.  

I first made this fudge a couple years ago, when it showed up in the magazine.  It was the first fudge that I'd made that didn't use marshmallow cream or other shortcuts.  It starts off as sugar, unsweetened chocolate, corn syrup (helps keep the sugar from crystallizing the wrong way), cream, and salt.  Everything gets brought to a boil, and cooked until it reaches about 238ºF.  Then you remove it from the heat, add some butter (without stirring it in any way), and let the mixture cool until it's 110ºF.  This takes a while, so it's a good thing to make when you have other things going on in the kitchen to keep you occupied for a while.  Once the mixture gets to the right temperature, you beat the heck out of it.  I did try once to do it by hand, but my arm got too tired before I could get it to the right texture.  What the recipe recommends is using a hand mixer, and that works quite well, though I do usually worry that I'm going to overheat my mixer.  Once the fudge starts loses its shine and starts to thicken, you put it in a pan and let it finish setting up overnight (or at least for a few hours).  

The verdict?  I just love this fudge, both the recipe and the final product.  I've made it several times, and it always turns out great.  The texture of the fudge is very smooth.  I think the bit of salt in the recipe makes all the difference in the flavor--the new recipe this year tasted flat and just sweet without the salt.  I shared this fudge with lots of people, and while I'm not sure yet how they all liked it, but my girls seem to be big fans.

If you'd like to try the recipe for yourself, you can find it over at Fine Cooking.  If you're looking for ideas for goodie bags, I found my supplies at a variety of places.  The treat bags are from Target, the snowflake stickers are address labels that I got at Office Depot, and I find that Michael's is a great place to buy ribbon.  The papers are just standard mini muffin cups.  

Wordless Wednesday - Holiday lights

(candle holder can be found at Crate & Barrel)