Middle Shmiddle, We Want Edge

I've seen it everywhere, in The Baker's Catalogue, Kitchen Krafts, on Amazon, written about by fellow food bloggers, AND YET, I mention it to my brownie-loving relatives and they've never heard of it. So this goes out to them. They're the ones still fighting over who gets the edge.

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AFTER...

Happy Holidays!

Since I've been slow in the kitchen this past week, I'm sharing with you some beautiful holiday cookies my cousin Rachael made. I was so impressed with the presentation I had to snap this photo, but honestly, their flavor and texture were equally impressive. They're sugar cookies with a lemon glaze and candied cranberries. Rachael is definitely a person I'd go into business with if I decided cookies were my calling. She's just amazing.

I consider myself more of a breads and cakes person. I did make a Dorie Greenspan Fresh Ginger and Chocolate Gingerbread over the weekend and it was fabulous. It was also quick to make, as I whipped it up while my vegetarian chili was simmering. Got the recipe from one of my favorite food sites, Serious Eats.

But on to the really important stuff, I want to wish you a very Happy New Year!

I'm still working on a New Year's Resolution plan, but I already know one of the items on the list is to blog regularly. I look forward to documenting many baked goods and feeding them to others! The sooner I can unload excess on friends, the sooner I can turn to the next recipe. A person can only handle so many perishables at one time, especially with limited freezer space. And as I'm sure you'd agree, nobody likes a stale cookie!

Cuckoo for Cookies

I’m a baker, so it should come as no surprise that I have high standards for baked goods. I hold myself to those high standards and always try to improve on my previous efforts. But while I’m not especially fond of burnt, dry, mediocre sweets, I have a heart. I’m not going to insult a friend who hands me his first-ever peanut blossom or advise a dinner party hostess when her cake is dry. I’ll just bite my tongue as I bite the homemade “eh.”

And now, having said all that, allow me to be foodsnobby for one second. When I am paying for the goods, meaning I am in complete control having selected the bakery and the items, the goods had better be, well, good! Paying for burnt, dry, mediocre is no fun.

I am very happy to share a cookie company with you that is oh so GOOD! I just discovered it and it passes the Marni Taste of Approval with flying colors. In fact, these are some of the best cookies I have ever tasted and are going to give Mrs. Beasley’s a run for her money. A giant box of assorted cookies, some regular, some sandwich-style, was delivered to my office about a week ago as a holiday gift. The sandwich ones are my favorite because there are so many flavors in a single bite. My top picks are the carrot cake sandwich cookie, the peanut butter and jam sandwich cookie, and the peppermint pattie sandwich cookie, which is two chocolate cookies enveloping a peppermint frosting.

You just don’t expect delivery cookies to be anything but cookie cutter (pardon the pun) unoriginality. These cookies kill that concept and will absolutely be the only cookies I order as gifts, assuming I’m not available to bake my own.

The company is called Cookie Dough Daddy. I believe they are currently only delivering to greater Los Angeles, and you know what that means? If you live anywhere else, you’d better move here.

Food Challenge: Gift-wrapped Chocolate Cake

Having just finished my master's program on Tuesday, I decided I was entitled to a baking challenge. I selected a recipe from Marlene Sorosky's holiday cookbook Season's Greetings that I would never in my right mind have selected while in school, and frankly, should not have selected even with this newfound post-graduate freedom. I thought this cake might be hard, and I was initially up for the challenge. But I had no idea just HOW hard.

This was a multi-step project. First, I had to make the actual cake, which would be one sheet of chocolate genoise (a sponge cake made by folding in lots of stiff-peaked egg whites), and cut into thirds to stack. In between those layers I would spread a rich white chocolate buttercream. The assembled cake would be chilled until firm. Meanwhile, using a double boiler, I made two different doughs, one dark chocolate, one white chocolate, by melting a whole lotta chocolate with a few tablespoons of corn syrup. Each dough had to set for over 4 hours so that I could roll it out and wrap the cake like a present. From beginning to end, including wait time, this cake took probably half a day! Fortunately, it had the wow factor. I also got to try my skills at fondant-like decorating. And the delicious taste was there, too.

But I think it's safe to say that my sense of entitlement to go crazy in the kitchen is out of my system. At least, until next weekend.

No Appetit

I read an article today on Women's Wear Daily online (wwd.com) announcing that Bon Appetit magazine would be making some big changes come January 2008. I am quite alarmed by this announcement.

Bon Appetit is that classy epicurean glossy with all-star recipes, interviews, kitchen gadget reviews, and tips on entertaining. My favorite part is the R.S.V.P. section near the front, where readers write in asking Bon Appetit's staff to go after a particularly memorable recipe from a restaurant the readers dined at, and then publish the recipe. I love seeing recipes from restaurants I have been to, sometimes even for dishes I have ordered. I fully intended to write in to Bon Appetit one day to ask for a recipe. Let's hope that with the big new changes at the mag, they won't cut R.S.V.P. If they do, I won't be R.S.V.P.ing for their mag anymore.

But about their big changes. One thing they are doing is making the logo a little friendlier and hipper. They are going from all capital letters in monochromatics, to all lowercase letters and an "o" and accent on the "e" in a different color than the rest of the letters. The WWD article says the mag hasn't changed its logo in 17 years. Ok, the logo alone won't kill me; in fact, the fresh look might be, well, refreshing. But what might do me in is the new focus, as it tries to appeal to younger audiences by giving more step-by-step instructions. Way to shut out your fan base, Bon Appetit, you know, the ones who don't need hand-holding in the kitchen. I understand their desire, and more so, need, to lower the average reader age from 50 to 20s and 30s, but man, that really stinks for the faithfuls like me. I view it as wasted space of prime paper real estate to explain to me things I already know. Show me how to knead dough and you can show me the door. And yes, maybe I am more like a 50 year old woman than like a twentysomething.

I always thought I would grow old with Bon Appetit. It was my magazine. Maybe I'm not 50 now, but one day, when I am, it would still be my perfect read. Instead, with these changes, I'm reminded of what I "should" be reading in my twenties: the new Bon Appetit, not the old. We'll see if I follow those rules...

Thanksbaking

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite times of year for a couple of reasons. First, I love the point of it, because we don't say thanks often enough, so having the government instate a national holiday and coerce us into saying thanks is pretty useful.

I also love every single traditional dish from the turkey to the corn pudding to the yams with marshmallows on top to the homemade cranberry sauce, sitting side by side with the canned kind we just can't let go of, to the bread basket to the gravy to the stuffing and on to desserts which will take a lot longer to list. As it is, that last sentence is way too long, breaking grammar 101, and therefore so unlike me.

Besides the menu, I love preparing it all with my mom as we play holiday music and bounce around the kitchen in our slippers and aprons. Morning of Thanksgiving, my sister sits on the couch watching the parade on TV and then the dog show, calling my mom and me out of the kitchen every now and then to see a Broadway performance in the streets of NY or a funny-looking poodle.

Each year, I can select whatever breads I want for the bread basket. I am the Bread Basket Manager. I love trying new recipes, so 2007 was the year of a first. I made my first crusty French bread. Got the recipe from Marcy Goldman, one of my baking heroes. I've never attempted a country bread because it's usually a multi-day process and requires some sort of steam bath or pizza stone to allow the bread's crust to form in the oven. In making this one, I prepared a sponge the night before and let it sit out on the counter to bubble till the next day when I'd add the rest of the ingredients. I've almost never seen a dough grow quite so much so fast! Reminded me of the I Love Lucy where Lucy opens the oven door and a loaf just keeps coming at her! As for this big loaf, the result, according to many a happy eater, was perfection!!

I also made delicious Big Fat Rolls from David Rosengarten. First time trying anything of his, and boy, won't be my last. Those rolls are pictured at the beginning. I am already thinking about what I will make next year, as Bread Basket Manager is a lifelong position.

And now, I'll leave you with that Lucy video...