Glazed Corned Beef

We always eat corned beef and cabbage on St. Patrick's Day.  My family enjoys it so much I could serve it more often; I usually manage just once or twice more a year.  My favorite treatment comes from Mable Hoffman's Crockery Cookery.  The meat is simmered in a crockpot, then brushed several times with a molasses-based glaze as it finishes in the oven.  Delicious!

Glazed Corned Beef, lightly adapted from Mable Hoffman's Crockery Cookery

1 (3 1/2 to 4#) corned beef brisket (flat cut is best)
2 Tbsp prepared mustard (I use Dijon)
1 1/2 tsp horseradish
2 Tbsp red wine vinegar
1/4 cup molasses

• In a slow cooker, cover the corned beef with water.  Cook on low 10-12 hours or until tender.
• Drain the corned beef.  Gently remove the external fat layers.  Place the meat in a baking dish covered with heavy duty aluminum foil.
• Combine the remaining ingredients and brush on all sides of the meat.  Bake at 400, brushing with the sauce several times, about 20 minutes or until the beef begins to brown.  Cut across the grain.

Today I oh-so-gently simmered the corned beef on top of the stove for most of the day.  The 7# slab I bought was still partially frozen, so I didn't want to risk the slowness of the crockpot.  Besides, it's easier to cook the cabbage in the flavored broth already in a cooking pot instead of trying to transfer that liquid from the slow cooker.

Our traditional Irish dinner has always included cabbage, potatoes, carrots, and soda bread.  I've usually boiled all the vegetables, but admittedly they end up tasting pretty bland.  This year I briefly simmered only the cabbage in the corned beef broth, and it picked up a lot of flavor (more than usual--because the stock was made on the stove?).  The carrots were glazed with brown sugar and lemon juice, and I fried the potatoes with onions.  The traditional elements, ramped up just a bit.  Yum!

BTW, the soda bread is an adaptation (Of course; I rarely leave well enough alone!) of my mom's recipe.  I'll try to post that soon.

Cinnamon Rolls

Cinnamon Rolls
This recipe makes two 9" x 13" pans of soft, sweet, buttery, cinnamony rolls. They are irresistible! I've slightly adapted it from a recipe from my mom's friend's mother-in-law, Adelaide.

Rolls:
2 cups milk
1/3 cup cold butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
2 pkg yeast (4 1/2 tsp)
1 tsp salt
6 cups (+) flour

Filling:
1 cup softened butter
1 1/3 cups sugar
2 Tbsp cinnamon

Icing:
3 cups powdered sugar
cream or milk
splash of vanilla, optional

Heat the 2 cups milk (but don't boil). Pour into mixing bowl and add butter, cut in chunks. Let butter melt (which will cool the milk, too). When the milk is lukewarm (105-115 degrees F), add sugar, egg, and yeast. Let it stand for about 5 minutes, until the yeast begins to foam. Add salt and 3 cups flour, mixing well. Add remaining flour and knead into a soft dough. You may need more flour. (In a Kitchen Aid mixer, mix on speed 2 until the dough clears the sides of the bowl--sprinkling more flour if necessary--then mix for 2 more minutes.) Cover and let rise until doubled.

Meanwhile, combine filling ingredients.

Punch down the risen dough. Roll 1/2 the dough into a rectangle, about 12" x 18". I like to work on freezer paper taped to the counter. I made a few marks on it to guide the size of my rectangle. Spread with the filling, leaving about 1/2" strip of dough plain. Roll up the dough along the long side and pinch the edges to seal.

[I misread the recipe this time--that picture shows only HALF the recommended filling...]
Cut into 20 pieces. I cut the long roll in half, then each of those in half, leaving four smaller logs. Cut each of these into 5 pieces. Try to make the thicknesses similar. Some rolls will be wider than others, because the center of your original roll is bigger than the ends. Just put the smaller ones in the middle of the pan. Lay these 20 rolls in a greased 9" x 13" pan. Repeat with remaining dough.
I make the first cut with a knife, but use unwaxed dental floss (or at least unflavored, if that's all I can find) for all the rest. Ease it under the dough and wrap it around the top. Pull the two ends in opposite directions, and you'll make a beautiful, clean cut that doesn't smush the roll out of shape.

Cover and let rise again until almost double. Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes, or until lightly browned. I bake only one pan at a time.

Glaze while hot or warm or cool. Mix the powdered sugar with cream or milk (and optional vanilla) to achieve the proper consistency. If you are glazing hot rolls, make the icing very thick; it will melt all over. The cooler the rolls, the thinner your icing can start out. You may want to spread icing on one roll and watch it for a few minutes to decide whether or not to add more milk.

These are, of course, best eaten warm. Microwaving a cool roll for just a few seconds works wonders.

Make-ahead tips:
The rolls pictured here were mixed, risen, spread, and cut one night then put in the fridge. In the morning I warmed the oven SLIGHTLY, put a Pyrex of boiling water on the floor, and let the rolls rise in there. Then I baked one pan at a time.

My mom and I have had success baking the rolls ahead and then freezing them (uniced and out of the pan) wrapped in plastic and foil. When ready to serve, just put in pans, thaw (overnight at room temperature), warm in the oven (covered with foil), and glaze.

I think they are best freshly baked, so for Christmas 2008 I am going to try freezing the raw sliced rolls, thawing them in the fridge, and baking in the morning. I'll update the recipe with my success or failure.

UPDATE: I made the Christmas rolls just a day ahead, but my sister froze some shaped rolls. She said they thawed and baked up beautifully. Now we know!

Note: I've copied all this text below without pictures for anyone who wants to print just the recipe. Bon Appetit!

Bonus picture: Here's the island late at night after roll making and birthday decorating. Yes, I went to bed with it looking like that! I did get up early enough to raise and bake the rolls and get everything clean again. I must clear and wash that thing at least three times a day...

Cinnamon Rolls
This recipe makes two 9" x 13" pans of soft, sweet, buttery, cinnamony rolls. They are irresistible! I've slightly adapted it from a recipe from my mom's friend's mother-in-law, Adelaide.

Rolls:
2 cups milk
1/3 cup cold butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
2 pkg yeast (4 1/2 tsp)
1 tsp salt
6 cups (+) flour

Filling:
1 cup softened butter
1 1/3 cups sugar
2 Tbsp cinnamon

Icing:
3 cups powdered sugar
cream or milk
splash of vanilla, optional

Heat the 2 cups milk (but don't boil). Pour into mixing bowl and add butter, cut in chunks. Let butter melt (which will cool the milk, too). When the milk is lukewarm (105-115 degrees F), add sugar, egg, and yeast. Let it stand for about 5 minutes, until the yeast begins to foam. Add salt and 3 cups flour, mixing well. Add remaining flour and knead into a soft dough. You may need more flour. (In a Kitchen Aid mixer, mix on speed 2 until the dough clears the sides of the bowl--sprinkling more flour if necessary--then mix for 2 more minutes.) Cover and let rise until doubled.

Meanwhile, combine filling ingredients.

Punch down the risen dough. Roll 1/2 the dough into a rectangle, about 12" x 18". I like to work on freezer paper taped to the counter. I made a few marks on it to guide the size of my rectangle. Spread with the filling, leaving about 1/2" strip of dough plain. Roll up the dough along the long side and pinch the edges to seal.

Cut into 20 pieces. I cut the long roll in half, then each of those in half, leaving four smaller logs. Cut each of these into 5 pieces. Try to make the thicknesses similar. Some rolls will be wider than others, because the center of your original roll is bigger than the ends. Just put the smaller ones in the middle of the pan. Lay these 20 rolls in a greased 9" x 13" pan. Repeat with remaining dough.

I make the first cut with a knife, but use UN-waxed dental floss for all the rest. Ease it under the dough and wrap it around the top. Pull the two ends in opposite directions, and you'll make a beautiful, clean cut that doesn't smush the roll out of shape.

Cover and let rise again until almost double. Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes, or until lightly browned. I bake only one pan at a time.

Glaze while hot or warm or cool. Mix the powdered sugar with cream or milk (and optional vanilla) to achieve the proper consistency. If you are glazing hot rolls, make the icing very thick; it will melt all over. The cooler the rolls, the thinner your icing can start out. You may want to spread icing on one roll and watch it for a few minutes to decide whether or not to add more milk.

These are, of course, best eaten warm. Microwaving a cool roll for just a few seconds works wonders.

Make-ahead tips:
The rolls pictured here were mixed, risen, spread, and cut one night then put in the fridge. In the morning I warmed the oven SLIGHTLY, put a Pyrex of boiling water on the floor, and let the rolls rise in there. Then I baked one pan at a time.

My mom and I have had success baking the rolls ahead and then freezing them (uniced and out of the pan) wrapped in plastic and foil. When ready to serve, just put in pans, thaw (overnight at room temperature), warm in the oven (covered with foil), and glaze.

I think they are best freshly baked, so for Christmas2008 I am going to try freezing the raw sliced rolls, thawing them in the fridge, and baking in the morning. I'll update the recipe with my success or failure.

Bon Appetit!

Chocolate Cake with French Buttercream

Here is Lauren's graduation cake. It's two 9" x 13" rectangles with a 9" round (I just happened to have in the freezer) on top.

I got this recipe from Len's mom, but it is very close to the recipe on the back of the Hershey's cocoa box. It's dark and moist.

Chocolate Cake
2 cups sugar
2 cups flour
3/4 - 1 cup cocoa, sifted
1 tsp baking powder
2 1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs
1/2 cup oil
1 cup boiling water
1 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla

• Mix dry ingredients. Add eggs and oil and beat until thoroughly combined. Add boiling water and beat at medium speed for 1-2 minutes. Stir in milk and vanilla; batter will be very thin.
• Pour into greased and floured 9" x 13" pan. Bake at 350 for about 30 minutes, until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pan 10-15 minutes, then flip out onto cooling rack. Flip again to put the top up.

Notes:

• To make 24 cupcakes, scoop scant 1/3 cup batter into each paper lined cup. Bake 15-20 minutes.
• As I made 4 batches this weekend, I realized what a great cake mix this is. Next time you're making it, fill one or more bags with additional dry ingredients, and you'll save a lot of time (and mess) when baking your next cake!

The icing: I adapted this recipe from one in a Wilton wedding cake book. It's rich rather than super-sweet, and soft rather than stiff. I had to tweak and tweak to get the saltiness right (none made it too bland), which is why there are two kinds of butter.

French Buttercream (makes about 2 cups)
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup flour
3/4 cup milk (any fat level)
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
1/2 cup (1 stick) regular butter
1 tsp vanilla extract

• Place sugar, flour, and salt in saucepan and mix thoroughly; stir in milk. Cook over medium heat and stir constantly (I use a whisk.) until bubbling and very thick. Remove from heat and pour into a mixing bowl. Cool to room temperature.
• Turn mixer to low speed and add butter in chunks (about 1 Tbsp each). Add vanilla and beat at medium-high speed until smooth. You'll have to beat for a long time; it will look curdled and you'll think it's never going to get smooth.
• Chill icing for a few minutes before decorating (I spread it at room temp.). Iced cake must be refrigerated until a few hours before serving time.

Notes:

• Even when the icing looks smooth there may be small bits of butter in it. You can't tell by looking, so put a little sample on your tongue to feel for creaminess.
• This icing is ivory rather than white. It does not take food coloring well (curdles/streaks), so I use a powdered sugar icing for decorating.
• This icing is also very soft at room temperature; it's mostly butter. It's hard to keep a well defined shape when decorating because of the heat of your hand, so I use it for dots or lines rather than shells.
• Because it's mostly butter, the icing is firm at refrigerator temperature. This is handy for covering--just chill for a little while and then the cake can be covered with plastic wrap without muss. You must take the cake out of the fridge about two hours before serving or you'll think you're eating butter rather than buttercream.
• Leftover icing can be frozen. Transfer to the fridge before using. Either add with the butter into a new batch or just rebeat your leftover by itself. It will curdle even worse than a fresh batch, but will eventually be fluffy and smooth. All that rebeating will make it pretty warm, too.

Decorating notes:

The graduate silhouette is made from store-bought fondant (white). I kneaded in food coloring (wearing gloves!), then rolled it out and cut with a sharp knife. I found the pattern online, printed it, traced onto waxed paper, and cut it out before laying on the fondant. The fondant is easy to work with, and edible, if not actually tasty. The children called it edible play-dough.

The squiggles are called "Cornelli Lace". I think this is the first time I've used a monochromatic scheme--usually it's pink over yellow or blue over white, etc. I used a relatively large (#5) round tip for this cake. Just pipe strings of icing, wiggling up, down, and around. Make sure the strings never touch or cross each other. Simple but slow. Since this is done with the French buttercream, warming was a potential problem. I tried to keep just a small amount of icing in the bag so I could frequently add cooler blobs.

The blue icing used for writing and the shell border was ordinary powdered sugar frosting.

Tea Party Tips

I recently hostessed a tea party for eight little girls, so I thought I'd share some helpful ideas for planning and preparation.

Afternoon tea can have up to three courses: savory (in our case, sandwiches), scones, and sweets/pastries. My assistant (Thank you, Lauren!) and I made 4 types of sandwich and preplated them for our guests. We had some extra on platters to pass for second helpings. These were made ahead, but not until the morning of our tea.

For the sandwiches we used Pepperidge Farm very thin white sandwich bread. I thought about making bread in my special Pampered Chef flower- and heart-shaped bread tube pans, then decided that was over the top (even for me). So Lauren made peanut butter sandwiches, which were popular enough for us to make more during the party. Although you wouldn't make those for a grown-up tea, cucumber sandwiches are required. I peeled and sliced the cucumbers very thin. A little mayo, salt, and pepper went on the bread (every piece) before stacking the slices. These were wrapped and refrigerated until serving time. The pb s'wiches were wrapped and left at room temperature. Crusts were cut off after assembly, but I suppose you could do that first as well.

We used burrito sized tortillas to make the wraps. I've never built these before, so it may not have been done in the most efficient way. I cut the roundness off the tortillas, and then Lauren filled them. The first were spread lightly with Ranch dressing and then layered with turkey, provolone, and tiny diced (and deseeded and spun dry) tomatoes. We rolled and then cut each wrap into 4 sections; they looked prettiest on their sides. Important discovery: there's no need to fill your wrap to the very end, as some filling tends to get pushed to (or out of!) the end. Then ham and American cheese were simpler to assemble. A bit pedestrian, I think, but they worked well for our audience. Some girls had several. (I also facilitated some sandwich trading--not proper manners, perhaps, but I do hate to waste food.) I have my scone recipe and technique down to a science. My innovation for this event was to mix, knead, roll, and cut the dough a week ahead. I froze it on its parchment-paper-covered baking sheet, then thawed and baked it on party day. Fresh and easy!
This course was preplated like the others. We served each scone with strawberry jam (Smucker's makes a great low sugar one with no artificial sweetener.) and whipped unsweetened cream (almost butter...).
After a break, the girls were ready for dessert. A friend made the chocolate covered strawberries. We cut the other pastries into small, interesting shapes. A fancier option would be to make things that were already small, like tarts or shaped cookies.I had fun with the birthday cake. I baked a 6" sour cream butter cake (and cupcakes with the leftover batter) at least a week ahead. I sliced it into three layers using unwaxed dental floss. The floss is wrapped around the cake then crossed. Check the placement and pull both ends; like magic the floss meets itself inside and cuts an even layer.

I filled the layers with chocolate ganache. This is so simple to make: heat heavy whipping cream in the microwave until it bubbles, then add an equal amount of chocolate. I usually use Nestle chocolate chips, but better chocolate would be even tastier. (Another tip: to make bittersweet, mix 3 parts semisweet with 1 part unsweetened chocolate, e.g. 1/2 cup chocolate chips plus 1 oz. unsweetened.) Cool until spreadable. Ganache can be stored for a long time in the fridge or freezer if you can keep yourself from sucking a spoonful every afternoon.

I frosted the cake with French buttercream, then chilled it. Next I wrapped it in plastic and froze it (in a container) until the night before the party, when I put it back in the fridge. It sat at room temp for a few hours so the icing could soften. Then I decorated it simply with frosted roses that I've had on hand for too long.We have a climbing rose that grows tiny blooms. Now and then (every few years?) I'll pick some to frost. I lightly whip an egg white with a fork, just until it is frothy. Then I brush the petals with the egg and sprinkle generously (over a bowl) with superfine sugar. I set them to dry on waxed paper. The paper is on a cooling rack and has holes poked in it for the flower stems to rest in. After drying, the flowers last a long time, although the color fades. These are 2 or 3 years old! The sugaring process works for other flowers, too. It's easy to look up which are edible. I use only home grown, though, so I am sure there are no pesticides. The roses are edible but not tasty; at least on party guest ate hers. :-)For the tea itself, I heated water on the stove and then brewed DECAF in china pots at the last minute. It stayed hot long enough. By the time we needed more heat it was time to make more tea anyway. Tea was served with sugar cubes, cream, and lemon wedges.

As the guests arrived they decorated gingerbread cookies to take home. These were of course baked ahead; I find they can last many days at room temperature. They probably could have been frozen, although I would worry about the stacks getting stuck together. I set up the island ahead of time with cookies, waxed paper work stations, icing, and sprinkles.

Placecards were made of large, unmarked index cards. I hot-glued silk flowers on and Marianna wrote the names.

The cookies were to be taken home in cute buckets, so we lined them with matching tissue and tied on labels (also index cards with silk flowers).

Here's an idea of how to schedule tasks for a nice party. I didn't follow this plan exactly, but it's my best advice:

Far in advance:

• Send invitations.
• Select menu.
• Hire a helper for the morning of party day and at least part of the service time. You may want a helper for clean up time as well, especially if you hand wash your china, crystal, and silver.
• Bake cake, ice, and freeze.
• Bake and freeze other pastries.
• Bake or buy sandwich bread and freeze.
• Mix and roll scone dough; freeze.
• Gather/borrow equipment (sugar tongs, extra teapot) and food (sprinkles, sugar cubes) that is pantry stable but not on hand yet.
• Prep placecards or party favors.

Up to a few days ahead: buy food and flowers.

The day before:

• Thaw anything that's frozen. Most bready foods thaw and store best at room temp.
• Set the table, or at least gather linens, china, crystal, etc.
• Bake/prep any desserts or pastries that weren't freezable.

The day of:

• Dress up and wear your apron. You aren't likely to have time to change at the last minute.
• Make sandwiches and wraps.
• Bake scones.
• Color icing and set up cookie stations.
• Set up other activities (napkin folding,etc.).
• Set table.
• Wash and wedge lemons.
• Cut/set out pastries.
• Decorate cake, if needed.
  

At the last minute:

• Set out sandwich course.
• Brew tea.
• Set out sugar, cream, and lemon wedges.
• Pour cold water.
• Whip cream.
• Smile!
• Prepare for lots of tidying and washing up. ;-)