Indian Cashew and Pistachio Nut Brittle

17 Dec

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If you’ve never attempted to make candy before, I think I’ve got the perfect recipe to get you started. I know, I know—you don’t have a candy thermometer, you’re afraid of burning things (including yourself), and why would anyone make candy when you can just buy candy? I get it, really I do. But I still think you should make this.

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Crisp, wonderfully spiced, and absolutely jam packed with nuts, this is homemade candy at its finest and simplest. If you don’t have a candy thermometer, you can totally eyeball the doneness of the candy via its change in color while it cooks. Because I like a high ratio of nuts to sweet stuff, I made this recipe specifically with that preference in mind. The sweetness of the brittle serves mainly as a lacy structure to hold the nuts together, making every bite a perfect balance of nutty and sweet. Because a lot about the recipe is customizable, you can swap out the nuts you see here for any other nut you like. You can also swap the ginger extract for vanilla extract, the cardamom for cinnamon (or a smaller amount of cayenne pepper or chipotle powder, if you’re looking to make a sweet and spicy candy). It’s great for wrapping up and gifting to friends and family, and, if packed in an airtight container and padded against shattering, it can be shipped across the country and arrive perfectly fresh and tasty as the day it was made.

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Last Year: Peppermint Mocha Crinkle Cookies

Indian Cashew and Pistachio Nut Brittle Recipe

As I mentioned earlier, if you don’t have a candy thermometer, you can still make this candy. Though gauging a candy’s doneness can be accomplished by temperature, it can also be accomplished by keeping a close eye on your candy’s color and scent. I’ve added instructions below that address both temperature as well as color and scent.

Heaping ¾ cup granulated sugar

¼ cup water

¼ cup honey

½ teaspoon sea salt

1 cup raw cashews

1 cup raw pistachios

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

¼ teaspoon ground cardamom

½ teaspoon ginger extract (if you can’t locate ginger extract in your local market, it can be ordered from a baking or spice shop, such as this one)

½ teaspoon baking soda

Line a heavy baking sheet with parchment paper, then set aside.

In a large, heavy-bottomed saucepan set over low heat, combine sugar, water, honey, and sea salt. Stir with a wooden spoon until the sugar dissolves. Increase the heat to high and, without stirring, allow the mixture to come to a boil. Boil the mixture for 5 to 8 minutes, without stirring, until the mixture reaches around 260 degrees on a candy thermometer, or, if you don’t have a candy thermometer, until the mixture turns a deep amber color. When the desired temperature or color are reached, immediately stir in the nuts and stir the mixture constantly until it reaches a temperature of 310 degrees or, if you don’t have a candy thermometer, when the mixture turns a deep golden shade of reddish brown and you can smell the nuts toasting and the sugar becoming deeply caramelized.

Immediately remove the pan from the heat, then stir in the butter, cardamom, and ginger extract until evenly incorporated. Add the baking soda (the mixture will bubble and foam for a bit, then reside) and stir until combined. Quickly pour the mixture onto the prepared baking sheet, pouring it around as evenly as possible. Do not bother trying to scrap the last bits of the hot, sugary mixture from the sides of the pan. Gently push the mass of nuts around so it covers as much of the surface of the candy as possible.

Allow the candy to cool completely before breaking into bits and eating or packaging. If you want to speed up the cooling process, you an place the sheet of cooling candy in the freezer and cut your cooling time in half.

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Rum Cake

12 Dec

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A moist sour cream cake, fortified with rum, rich with butter, then glazed with a heavy hand of even yet more rum and butter. It’s reminiscent of an old-fashioned doughnut, but still in possession of cake-like qualities. Also, it’s got booze in it. Which means that if you are going to celebrate a person or an event, you’ll get a good jump on things by introducing this cake into the celebration.

Rum Cake

2 ¼ cups cake flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

1 1/3 cups sugar

3 large eggs, at room temperature

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

½ cup dark rum

1 cup sour cream

Rum Glaze:

4 tablespoons (½ stick) unsalted butter

2 tablespoons water

½ cup granulated sugar

¼ cup dark rum

pinch of sea salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  Place an oven rack in the middle position.  Thoroughly butter and flour a 10 or 12-cup bundt pan.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.  Set aside.

In a large bowl, or in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter on high speed until light and creamy.  Add the sugar, and beat on medium-high speed until well blended, about 2 minutes.  Scrape down the sides of the bowl, then add the eggs, one at a time, blending well after each addition.  Add the vanilla and rum and beat until combined.

Scrape down the sides of the bowl, then add one third of the flour mixture and beat on low speed until just combined.  Add half of the sour cream, and beat until just combined.  Add half of the remaining flour mixture, beat until just combined, then add the remaining sour cream, mixing only until just combined.  Add the last of the flour mixture and beat until just combined.

Spoon the batter into the prepared bundt pan, and bake for 50 to 55 minutes, until a cake tester inserted into the middle of the cake emerges with just a few moist crumbs attached, and the top of the cake is golden brown.  Cool the cake in its pan for 15 minutes, then invert onto a wire rack to cool.

To make rum glaze, melt the butter in a small or medium saucepan. Stir in the water and sugar until the sugar is dissolved, then, over medium-high heat, bring to a gentle boil. Allow mixture to simmer for 5 minutes, swirling the pan occasionally, then remove from heat and stir in the rum and pinch of sea salt.

While cake is still slightly warm, brush all over with rum glaze. Allow the first coat of glaze to cool a bit, then glaze again. Repeat until all of the glaze has been brushed onto the cake. Layering the glaze applications will result in a fantastic coating with a really great, toothsome bite.

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Apricot Brown Butter Cookies

10 Dec

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I just reverse engineered a cookie that I ate four months ago and had to recreate based entirely on memory.

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One of my favorite cookies is the apricot brown butter cookie from Bi-Rite Market, in San Francisco. The cookies are thick and chewy, rich with brown butter, and topped with a spoonful of sticky apricot preserves. I do not live in San Francisco, however, so I only get to meet up with the cookies whenever I travel to them.

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After while, I got tired of pining for the cookies, and decided that I had to figure out how to make them myself. I started with brown butter, deeply cooked so its toffee notes stood front and center, then, looking to create a cookie with a nice, chewy finish, paired it with brown sugar. Since the cookie I was looking to make was essentially a souped-up butter cookie, I followed the pattern of butter cookie know-how, creaming the lightly firmed brown butter with sugar and flour, then chilling the dough to allow it to hydrate and set up. When baked up with a spoonful of apricot preserves, the cookies were a dream. With a pronounced brown butter flavor, a sticky lid of apricot preserves, and a delectably crisp-yet-chewy bite, they are just like my long lost cookie friend.

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Last Year: Ginger Almond Toffee

Apricot Brown Butter Cookies

I first made these cookies much larger than the ones pictured here (in the interest of recreating Bi-Rite Market’s cookie as closely as possible). The tiny cookies seen here were made for a holiday cookie swap, so a small size seemed like a reasonable idea. If you want to make the cookies more like Bi-Rite Creamery’s, triple the scoop size, multiply the apricot topping by the same factor, then bake the cookies for 2 to 4 minutes longer, checking the cookies every couple of minutes to reach the proper level of doneness. When made larger, the cookies will end up much chewier than a tiny cookie.

1 ½ cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature

½ cup dark brown sugar

½ cup granulated sugar

2 large egg yolks

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

½ teaspoon salt

1/2 cup to 1 cup apricot preserves

In a medium skillet or pan, melt 2 sticks (1 cup) of the butter over medium heat. When browning butter, it is always best to do so in a light-colored pan so you can closely gauge the changing of the butter’s color. Slowly cook the butter, swirling the pan around every few seconds so the butter cooks evenly. The butter will begin to foam, then spatter a bit, and then you’ll see the little dots of milk solids begin to turn brown at the bottom of the pan. This can take anywhere from 5 to 8 minutes, so be sure to watch the butter very carefully to keep it from burning, and stir the butter every now and then to keep the milk solids from sticking to the bottom of the pan.

When the dots of butter solids have turned dark brown and the butter begins to emit a lovely nutty aroma, pour the butter into a medium bowl. Immediately place the bowl in the refrigerator or freezer. Allow the butter to cool, stirring every few minutes, until it is the spreadable consistency of softened butter (you basically want it to be the same texture as the remaining stick of butter that has been left to soften at room temperature). Getting the browned butter to this texture can take anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes, depending on whether you place it in the refrigerator or freezer, how often you stir it, etc.

When the browned butter has reached the proper consistency, place it in a large bowl, or in the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, along with the remaining stick of softened butter. Cream the butters together until they are light and fluffy. Slowly add in both the brown sugar and granulated sugar, beating all the while, until everything is blended together. Beat in the egg yolks and vanilla. With the mixer on medium low speed, slowly add in the flour and salt and mix until everything is well combined and the dough is relatively smooth. Cover the bowl of dough and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

When the dough has chilled, preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Using about 1 rounded teaspoon of dough at a time (or, for a much larger cookie, a couple of rounded tablespoons of dough), roll dough into a roughly 1-inch ball (or, obviously, larger). Place balls of dough about a inch or so apart on parchment-lined baking sheets. Using the tip of your finger, make a small indentation in the center of each dough ball. Drop a small scoop of apricot preserves into the indentation (a small ball will handle about ¼ of a teaspoon of preserves, but a larger ball can take about three times that much).

Bake the cookies in the center of the oven for 12 to 14 minutes, until the edges are lightly golden. Remove cookies to a wire rack to cool.

If you make these cookies using rounded 1 teaspoon scoops, you will get around 6 dozen or more cookies.

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