The Taste Traveller

cocoa sugar cookies

 

It was almost Christmas and I had no Christmas baking in the house. This is just not right. I made some with my cousin Sandy a few weeks before - but it just didn't go that well - my shortbread was too buttery and most of it didn't turn out (so yet again I provided some good entertainment value with my Christmas baking mishaps and was reminded of the time I quadrupled the butter in my bird's nest cookies but neglected to do so with the rest of the ingredients!). My gingerbread men were fine but I just didn't end up with as many as I wanted and so we decided to go ahead and eat those ones with plans for me to make more. That didn't happen. So, to get off to a fresh start I thought I'd try an entirely new recipe!  

Mmm, what a treat these are! Extra special sugar cookies. From my The Complete Canadian Living Baking Book: The Essentials of Home Baking, these were to be easy and quick to make. The hitch was that when I started them it was later in the evening and I decided to chill the dough overnight and make them the next day. The recipes states that this is possible. Well, I went to continue the process the next day, first letting the dough warm up to room temperature, but it was almost breaking off, too dry. So, I resorted to warming it in the microwave for 40 seconds or so, still not good enough to be able to roll out effectively. So, my stepdad, here with my mom over the holidays, suggested working another egg into the batter. I did and this worked a treat to get the dough back to working shape. I lightly floured the kitchen counter, my working surface, and got the dough nicely rolled out to about a 1/4 inch thickness, then cutting out as many of my star shapes as I could. I overdid one baking tray a little bit, but these and the ones that I did not overdo were equally good actually. Less sugary than I would have thought they would be and very much cocoa-y. I would definitely make them again but I'd try it going straight through the whole process, and if I did refrigerate the dough again I would be prepared to adjust the recipe and add another egg to compensate if necessary.

They suggest you could turn them into jam-filled sandwiches, but I like them just this way, as they are. 

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup (175 ml) butter, softened
• 1 cup (250 ml) granulated sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp (5 ml) vanilla
• 2 1/4 cups (550 ml) all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup (75 ml) cocoa powder
• 1/2 tsp (2 ml) baking powder
• pinch salt

Method:

Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or grease. 

In a large bowl, beat butter with sugar until fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla. In separate bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt until no streaks remain. Stir into butter mixture in 2 additions to make a smooth dough. Divide the dough in half and flatten into discs. Wrap each disc and refrigerate until firm, about 1 hour. As I noted above, you can also refrigerate for up to one day - handy if you want to have these really freshly baked prior to serving, but be prepared for the possibility of having to add some more liquid of some sort to get the dough workable again. 

On a lightly floured surface, roll out each disc to 1/4 inch (5 mm) thickness. Using a floured 2-inch (5 cm) round fluted cutter (or any favourite shape you have), cut into rounds. I had a star-shaped cutter which worked well. Place 1 inch (2.5 cm) apart on prepared baking sheets. Refrigerate until firm, about 30 minutes. 

Preheat the oven to 350⁰ F (180⁰ C). Bake on top and bottom thirds of the oven, rotating and switching pans halfway through, until edges begin to darken, about 12 minutes. Transfer to racks to cool. 

To make ahead, layer between waxed paper in airtight container and store at room temperature for up to 1 week or freeze for up to 1 month. 

Makes 48 cookies (I would say this is approximate of course, but I did end up with close to this amount)

easy vegetable and beef stew

Back to Jamie again, this time instead of just referring to his show or a recipe I actually (pretty much) followed a recipe from his Jamie's Dinners: The Essential Family Cookbook. It turned out really well and I'd only make a few more modifications next time.

First of all, it's super easy - great when you're tight on cooking time lIke I often am with my one year old, Scarlet, under foot. Secondly, it's healthy as it is, and you can easily make it even more so by adding more vegetables. Scarlet liked it too - so it's also great baby/family food!

The meat isn't browned prior to being mixed in with the other ingredients here, cutting out a step and cutting down on preparation time. Another bonus, his list of ingredients includes (wait for it) butternut squash. Are you thinking enough with the butternut squash? No problem, use a different squash, or add more carrots - you can tailor this stew easily. I skipped the wine, but certainly that would add a richness to the flavour here. I used vegetable broth - again, you could change things up and use beef broth instead. We don't actually eat a lot of red meat and so I tend to just have chicken or vegetable broth and stock around. I didn't use fresh here - but rather a carton of vegetable broth. 

Jamie's recipe has the garlic added at the end, which is just fine, but I think next time I'll add it in to cook along with everything else. 

Before I get right into the recipe here, one last comment - I thought his addition of fresh lemon zest, from a whole lemon, was brilliant! I hadn't thought of this on my own and it really added a great lift of freshness to the whole finished dish. From now on I will add this to all of my stews at the end. Okay, so here's the recipe in full. 

Serves 4 (generously)

Ingredients:

• olive oil
• a knob of butter
• 1 onion, peeled and chopped
• a handful of fresh sage leaves
• 1 3/4 lb stewing steak or beef skirt, cut into 2 inch pieces (I estimated here)
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• flour, to dust
• 2 parsnips, peeled and quatered
• 4 carrots, peeled and halved (I sliced mine up a bit more than he suggests)
• 1/2 a butternut squash, halved, deseeded and roughly diced
• 1 lb of small potatoes (I got a few different kinds of potatoes and roughly chopped them)
• 2 tablespoons (30 ml) tomato puree
• 1/2 bottle of red wine (or more stock/broth)
• 1 1/4 cups (300 ml) beef or vegetable stock
• zest of 1 lemon, finely grated
• a handful of rosemary, leaves picked
• 1 clove or garlic, peeled and finely chopped (I added two cloves)

Other suggestions for ingredients:

• Acorn or other type of squash
• yams or sweet potatoes
• turnips
• zucchini
• eggplant

Method:

Preheat the oven to 300⁰ F (150⁰ C) Put a little oil and the butter into an appropriately sized pot or casserole pan. Add your onion and all the sage leaves and fry for 3 to 4 minutes. Toss the meat in a little seasoned flour, then add it to the pan with all the vegetables, the tomato purée, wine and stock, and stir together. Season generously with pepper and a little salt. Bring to a boil, place a lid on top, then transfer to the oven and cook until the meat is tender. This will take 3 to 4 hours. You can check this by seeing if one of the pieces of meat falls apart easily. Once it's all cooked you can turn the oven down and keep it warm until you are ready to serve it. 

When you are ready to serve the stew, mix the lemon zest, chopped rosemary and garlic together and sprinkle over the stew. As I mentioned above, this was really nice to add before serving, but I would also add garlic for the entire cooking process. I added a few extra sprigs of rosemary on top, unchopped. As he suggests, this would be good with warm bread, I think garlic bread would be extra good here - and a glass of red wine would add a nice touch to the taste buds. 

Mmm, what a cozy meal!