Tag Archives: baking

Just for Something Different — Cranberry Pistachio Shortbread Cookies

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Cooling down

Yesterday I made cranberry pistachio shortbread cookies. The kind of cookies my grandma Olive would’ve made to serve at a ladies’ luncheon. (Although, her cookies would’ve have contained dates because dried cranberries weren’t available until the 1980s.) Her luncheon would’ve been written up on the society page of the local paper. The kind of write-up they don’t do anymore, unless it’s about someone famous. It would’ve sounded something like this:

On Wednesday, May 6, Mrs. George Youngquist entertained the Presbyterian Women at a luncheon in her home. [Back in the day, a married woman’s first name was rarely mentioned in an article.] She served a variety of finger sandwiches, potato salad, and coleslaw, along with fruit punch. For dessert she served a variety of cookies, including her well-loved date-pistachio shortbread cookies, accompanied by coffee. In attendance were the group’s president, Mrs. Frank Smith; the secretary, Mrs. Grover Bost; and the treasurer, Mrs. Elmer Connors, along with nine other members. No church business was conducted. Mrs. Youngquist said, “The gathering was held to celebrate spring and to give the ladies a chance to visit with one another.“

As a child and for most of my adult life, had I been at that luncheon, I would’ve passed on the date cookies, no matter how well loved they were. I would’ve looked for a chocolate chip, peanut butter, or sugar cookie. But I’m of a certain age now, and I like to try new things, occasionally. (But in a crazy paradox, I’m not big on change.) So, a couple of months ago when I saw this recipe, along with a picture of the cranberry pistachio shortbread cookies, I decided I needed to bake them. After all, I do like cranberries and pistachios and shortbread.

I bought the dried cranberries and the shelled pistachios shortly after I came across the recipe, which was a couple of months ago. Yesterday I decided I needed to stop procrastinating and bake the cookies. It was a perfect day for baking. I spent most of the day writing, so baking cookies would get me off my backside. And it rained and stormed most of the day, ideal baking weather.

The production line

Why did it take me a couple of months to try the recipe? Fear of messing it up — because I’d never made this kind of cookie before. But once I started mixing, chilling, then later baking, I discovered this simple recipe produces scrumptious cookies that look sophisticated, like the kind served at a luncheon or with high tea.

The two sticks of butter used in the recipe make the cookies melt in my mouth, releasing bursts of cranberry and orange, making my mouth tingle. They pair well with coffee. However, I will have to find someone to share them with because my husband doesn’t like cranberries. He did try one, but he didn’t like it. I just couldn’t possibly eat all these cookies by myself.

What did I like about this recipe? It was easy! The cookies turned out so well that I fancied myself as a TV chef. The dough is rolled into a log before chilling, which makes it easy to slice the cookies for baking. Other recipes, like this one, call for the dough to be chilled in a ball then rolled out on a flat surface before using a round cookie cutter. But the log method is easier and less messy. Also, the log method keeps the baker from overhandling the dough. Best of all, I felt like I was in the kitchen baking with my grandma Olive.

What would I change? I’d use chopped walnuts or pecans instead of pistachios, which are harder than pecans and walnuts. Because when I had to slice the cookie dough, the chopped pistachios were difficult to cut through. I could use dried cherries because my husband likes those, but he doesn’t like walnuts or pecans. I could eliminate the nuts, but they add a savory taste.

My one goof? I only had a small orange. Having never zested an orange before, I had no idea how many it would take to make a tablespoon of zest. I ended up with 1/2 tablespoon, and while I can still taste the orange, I can’t help but wonder what the cookies would taste like if I’d used a whole tablespoon.

Here’s the recipe I used. Happy baking!

And What to Do with the Leftover Pumpkin after Making the Pumpkin Cake

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I forgot to take a picture of the pancakes after they were fresh out of the pan, but I think the dogs are more interesting!
Ziva (l) and Bogey (r), my mom’s dog

After I made the Pumpkin Bundt Cake, I had six ounces, or 3/4 of a cup, of pumpkin left. (Cooking math is the most important kind of math, and if I could go back in time to my freshman algebra class, I would tell Mr. W, “Who cares about solving for x — there is no x in cooking!”)

So, what to do with the leftover pumpkin? I hate to throw food away. It’s like throwing money in the garbage. And there are other more important considerations when food is thrown away. The waste ends up in landfills. The energy used to raise, cultivate, package, and distribute the food has been wasted. All that investment and those expended resources with no caloric intake to show for it. And as weather patterns change, food will become more scarce.

My husband suggested I make pumpkin pancakes, so I found a recipe that called for a 1/2 cup of pumpkin. All you math phenoms will know this left me with two ounces or a 1/4 cup of leftover pumpkin. (Now, I’m just showing off my math skills.)

This morning I made a batch of pumpkin pancakes, which yielded nine pancakes. We have a few leftover, but my husband will eat them. I put sliced bananas and maple syrup on mine. My husband opted for butter and maple syrup on his.

I still have two ounces of pumpkin. I could try making a pumpkin spiced latte, but that looks like a lot of work, and I don’t have anything to froth the milk. I could try feeding some to my dog, Ziva, but she’s turned her nose up at pumpkin in the past. I could just eat it. I tried a teaspoon when I made the cake, and it’s not bad. The two ounces are back in the fridge. I think I’ll mix them in with my oatmeal along with a sliced banana.

Simply Pumpkin Pancakes

Ingredients

Yields 4 servings of two pancakes each. (I ended up with nine pancakes.)

  • 1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
  • ¼ cup white sugar
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • 1 cup milk (I used whole milk)
  • ½ cup pumpkin puree
  • 1 egg, beaten
  • 1 tablespoon vegetable oil

Directions

  1. Sift flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, and nutmeg together in a bowl.
  2. Whisk milk, pumpkin, egg, and oil together in a bowl. Pour milk mixture into flour mixture and stir until just moistened. Batter will be slightly lumpy.
  3. Heat a lightly oiled griddle over medium-high heat to 350 degrees F. Drop batter by large spoonfuls (I used a ¼ measuring cup) onto the griddle and cook until bubbles form and the edges are dry, 1 to 3 minutes. Flip and cook until browned on the other side, about 1 minute more. Repeat with remaining batter.

Pumpkin Bundt Cake from the Blog “In Diane’s Kitchen”

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If you like pumpkin, this cake is yummy!

Yesterday I made a pumpkin bundt cake from scratch. I discovered the recipe on the blog In Diane’s Kitchen. I’m proving a point to Betty Crocker.

On Tuesday I called Betty Crocker. Well, not a real Betty Crocker because she doesn’t exist. Instead, I talked to a representative in the General Mills customer care department. I lodged a complaint because Betty Crocker cake mixes have shrunk — again.

For most of my life, cake mixes were 18.25 ounces. I have some great cake recipes that call for an 18.25-ounce cake mix and build from there, like a decadent chocolate rum cake and a tasty pistachio cake. So about ten years ago when the cake companies dropped the mixes to 15.25 ounces, I wasn’t happy. At the time, I called Betty Crocker and Duncan Hines to complain. (Unlike Betty Crocker, Duncan Hines was a real person, but he died in 1959.) Neither company cared that I was concerned my cake recipes could become obsolete — 15.25 was their new standard. They weren’t rude, not at all. They were apologetic and sympathetic, but I could read between the lines — I could like it or lump it. (The phrase customer care is an oxymoron.) Fortunately, my cake recipes still worked with the 15.25-ounce size.

But last week I discovered there has been another shrinkage. Betty’s cake mixes are now 13.25 ounces. So far Duncan Hines is still weighing in at 15.25 ounces, as is Pillsbury. When I called Betty Crocker’s consumer care department on Tuesday, I told them I would no longer buy their cake mixes. I explained that I wasn’t about to experiment by using a cake mix that is 5 ounces less than the amount called for in the recipe. I further explained that if other companies followed suit, I would make all my cakes from scratch because I have some good recipes. The customer care representative was sympathetic and kept saying, “I’m sorry about that.” She said she would pass my concerns along. But I know nothing will change, except in the future when the cake mix loses more weight.

You can google to find out how much extra flour and other ingredients, like baking soda, to add to the prepared mix. But go ahead and call me “my father’s daughter” on this one: I’m not buying a product then adding what the company should have added in order to make up the difference. One website suggested buying two boxes of cake mix, and adding six tablespoons from the second box to the first box. Then I was to seal up the leftover cake mix and save it to use for other cakes. AS IF!

So yesterday to prove my point to Betty Crocker, I made a pumpkin bundt cake — from scratch. Because I follow the blog In Diane’s Kitchen, the recipe landed in my email a couple of weeks ago. Pumpkin mixed with a dash of cinnamon, ground cloves, and ground ginger makes this cake taste like a slice of autumn. It has the consistency of a pound cake, which pairs well with coffee. And, in my experience, baking a pound cake is more forgiving than baking a regular cake.

Some thoughts to keep in mind if you make this cake:

  1. Diane recommends eating the cake with vanilla ice cream. I’d go with a creamy vanilla custard. However, this recipe calls for three sticks of butter and six eggs, so I skipped the ice cream. I’ve never baked a cake recipe that called for six eggs. This reminded me of one of my all-time favorite novels City of Thieves by David Benioff. Set in Russia in WWII, the two main characters in the novel have been arrested and are to be executed. However, a powerful Soviet colonel promises to pardon them if they can find a dozen eggs for his daughter’s wedding cake. There is war and famine, but the colonel wants his daughter to have an elegant wedding and a big cake, and so an epic quest for a dozen eggs begins. And this bundt cake? That might serve twelve people at the most? It gets six eggs!
  2. The recipe Diane shared says to spray the bundt pan with cooking oil. I used Baker’s Joy. When it was time to remove the cake from the pan, it came out like a dream.
  3. Diane noted that while the recipe said to bake for 60 minutes, she needed to bake the cake for 64 minutes. So did I, but I started with 60 minutes.

I will make this cake again. It was worth the extra time and effort. Besides while I made the cake, I listened to A Lady’s Guide to Gossip and Murder, the second book in Dianne Freeman’s Countess of Harleigh Mystery series.

[To read my review of Freeman’s first book in the series, click here.]