A Biscoff break

I think that most people who have spent time in western Europe (and definitely France) have discovered the amazingly delicious little spice cookies that accompany coffee or tea and just seem to pop up everywhere. Many know them by their brand name, Biscoff, but these crisp cookies called speculaas originated in Belgium as treats to be served around Christmas time. They traditionally have images of the story of St. Nicholas stamped on them, and although I've never seen them, there are apparently pans made especially for them!

Speculaas spice is a mouth-watering, heart-warming combination of cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, ginger, cardamom and coriander. This magical blend is sharp but not too overwhelmingly spicy, and when you smell these cookies baking it will make you feel all kinds of holiday nostalgia. Almost makes me wish it were cold and raining! Almost.

For me, there's an experience of a coffee or tea break that begs a side dish. A square of dark chocolate, a cakey donut or a crisp cookie are essential when I'm starting or taking a break from my day. I was feeling a little homesick for a Parisian sidewalk cafe, and decided to see if this recipe was easy enough to whip up on a regular basis. Good news! - it's so easy :)

It's not identical to the texture of Biscoff, but this recipe captures the flavors perfectly and something about homemade makes it even better. You can make the cookies in varying thicknesses, but I like a balance between crisp and chewy and rolled out the dough to a little over 1/8" thick.

A note about the recipe - it specifies weight instead of volume of the flour and sugar, so the volume approximations are not precise. I used a food scale for a more accurate result.

Speculaas
Spice blend from Seitan is My Motor
Cookie recipe from Tasty Kitchen
Makes about 20 cookies (about 2.5" diameter)


Speculaas spice blend
1 Tbsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground cardamom
1/8 tsp ground coriander
1/8 tsp ground ginger
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg

Cookies
8 oz all-purpose flour (or ~2 1/4 C)
5 oz dark brown sugar (or ~3/4 C)
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp speculaas spice blend
5 oz cold butter, cut into small pieces
4 Tbsp milk

Directions: Combine dry ingredients and then add butter and milk. Blend with an electric beater or cut in with pastry cutter (much more labor intensive, be warned!) until dough is formed. Refrigerate in a disk for at least a few hours.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Roll out on plastic wrap or a lightly floured surface to about 1/8" thick and then cut with cookie cutters. Place on prepared baking sheet and bake for about 10 minutes, until fragrant and lightly browned on the edges. Let cool for a minute and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Going into the oven!

Petits palmiers

I really hate to admit this, but there is one baked good I never tried in France. For some very odd reason, I never got around to buying a palmier ("palm" in French) and I've regretted it ever since. Better late than never, however - these cookies turned out to be the easiest I've ever made. They're also foodgasmically delicious, so if you're looking for the most bang for your buck in terms of prep time and ingredients, these are definitely up there. 
I took the easy road and bought frozen puff pastry sheets. You're welcome to make your own puff pastry dough but frankly, I've got cell biology to study and hungry mouths to feed. If you look at food blogs online, you'd think that frozen puff pastry dough was really easy to find - but I looked at Ralph's, Trader Joe's and Whole Foods and only found one type at Whole Foods from the Aussie Bakery brand. It's important to let it thaw for about 40 minutes before trying to unfold each sheet, because frozen dough can crack easily. 

The beauty of this recipe is that you can even make savory flavors. I've seen recipes for pesto, sundried tomato and even meat fillings in place of the suggestions for filling below, and I'm sure they'd be amazing. I'm itching to try nutella filling and even baklava filling (chopped nuts, honey, etc.). I made up my own lemon filling to use up the abundance of citrus in my house, and it turned out AMAZING. The four-spice recipe below that I found, is also fantastic - as my roommate Elise said, "it's like childhood in your mouth."

Four-Spice or Lemon Palmiers

Four-Spice filling from Food Lover's Odyssey

1 sheet puff pastry (the brand I bought had three sheets in the box, each about a 12-inch square)

1/4 cup granulated sugar, plus an extra 3 tablespoons

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/8 teaspoon allspice

OR

Finely grated zest of 3 lemons
1/8 C granulated sugar

Follow instructions for thawing the pastry dough, letting it rest on a parchment-lined baking sheet for about 40 minutes before unfolding. Mix together spices, or for the lemon recipe rub the zest and sugar together in a bowl to get the juice flowing out of the zest.

Sprinkle a generous portion of the filling onto the sheet of puff pastry.  Starting at the outer edges, fold over 2 1/2 inches of the puff towards the center of  the sheet.  Do this on both sides.  Sprinkle the newly folded over portions with the filling mixture. From both outer edges, fold another 2 1/2 inches over towards the center.  Do this on both sides.  At this point, the folds will meet in the center.  Sprinkle the newly folded over portions with the filling mixture.

Fold the two parts together.  Wrap in plastic wrap and freeze for 30 minutes. 

 

Preheat the oven to 410ºF and place parchment paper on two baking sheets. Remove the puff pastry from the refrigerator and slice into even slices, 3/8-1/2 inch in thickness.  Place on the baking sheet, leaving a 3-inch space between each palmier. Bake for 15-17 minutes until lightly golden.  Cool slightly.

Snickerdoodling

It was the lovely Megan's birthday yesterday, so in celebration I decided to try a combo of cinnamon and sugar that, to my knowledge, has not yet been attempted. Snickerdoodle cupcakes with snickerdoodle cookie dough inside, plus a vanilla buttercream frosting topped with more cinnamon. Did you just start drooling? Because I did...

You may also be thinking to yourself right now that I'm obsessed with cinnamon - true, but I also too lazy and cheap to buy more spices. I've finally exhausted the possibilities, however, so the next recipes will perhaps contain nutmeg or something similarly exotic :) 

There's really something to be said for making cake batter from scratch; I often convince myself that it would be easier to just use a boxed mix, but the times I do take the extra half hour to put together a mix myself I end up being so much happier! This is possibly the best cake batter I've ever made - something about the buttermilk and whipping it with a whisk makes it incredibly light and fluffy. Even after a couple of days when it's been sitting in a box, it's denser but still fantastic.

There are three steps to this recipe
1. Make the cookie dough and freeze it in balls
2. Make the cake batter and bake the cupcakes
3. Frost and sprinkle with cinnamon!

Not difficult, but a tad time consuming.

Snickerdoodle Cookies
Yields about 24 cookies
Originally from Allrecipes.com

For the cupcakes, add the cinnamon from the topping to the dough itself (omit the sugar) and do not bake!

3/4 C granulated sugar
1/4 C butter, softened
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 egg

1 1/3 C all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp salt

1 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp cinnamon


Directions: Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cream sugar and butter with an electric mixer, then add egg and vanilla. Add dry ingredients gradually until dough forms. Form into balls about 1 1/2 inches in diameter and roll in cinnamon sugar topping. Place on parchment-lined cookie sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes until set.

Snickerdoodle Cupcakes
Yields 12 cupcakes
Recipe adapted from Mermaid Sweets

For cookie dough cupcakes, fill the cupcake tin halfway with batter, press a frozen dough ball into the center, then cover the tops of the dough balls so the tins are about three-quarters full.

1 1/2 C all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1 C granulated sugar
1/2 C (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 C buttermilk (or add 1/2 Tbsp lemon juice or apple cider vinegar to 1/2 C milk)

Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. In a large bowl, whisk together sugar, butter and eggs until smooth. Whisk in vanilla extract. Alternatively whisk in flour mixture and buttermilk, making three additions of flour mixture and two of milk.
Scoop batter into prepared pan. Sprinkle cinnamon and sugar topping mixture on top of cupcakes. Bake in preheated oven for 20 - 25 minutes or until golden brown and tops of cupcakes spring back when lightly touched. Let cool in pan on rack for 10 minutes. Remove from pan and let cool completely on rack. Frost when completely cool.

Snickerdoodle Frosting
Makes frosting for 12 cupcakes
From Martha Stewart

6 oz (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
8 oz powdered sugar, sifted
1/2 tsp vanilla extract (to taste - I put in more)

Beat butter with a mixer on medium-high speed until pale and creamy, about 2 minutes. Reduce speed to medium. Add sugar, 1/2 cup at a time, beating after each addition, about 5 minutes. Add vanilla, and beat until buttercream is smooth. Use immediately, or cover and refrigerate for up to 3 days. (Bring to room temperature, and beat on low speed until smooth before using.)

Make it a good morning! Or afternoon... or evening... or 4am snack...

I really take issue with the overly sweet and sticky cinnamon rolls that you buy at the mall or pop out of a can. I'll be the first to admit that I'm drawn to the smell of cinnamon and sugar like a moth to a flame, but the times when I actually have eaten them I've found myself feeling a tad ill.

In an attempt to right this wrong and give these classic treats a sophisticated revamp, I decided to try making cinnamon rolls from scratch. Most recipes call for yeast and therefore require a lot of time (not to mention the proper environment for rising), but I found a few that use baking soda instead. Much better for those non-pioneer housewives among us.

To spice it up a little, I decided to add espresso to the dough - 5 Tbsp, just enough to be a subtle undertone. Too bad it was completely useless, there was absolutely no espresso flavor that I could detect in the finished product! I did add brewed espresso because I didn't want to be chewing on beans, so maybe it would be better if I had added espresso powder to the filling or even the dough. Another variation I want to try is adding Nutella to the dough and/or cocoa powder to the filling instead of cinnamon. Chocolate chips could be interesting too...

I also didn't add the cream cheese frosting, mostly because I didn't have cream cheese and I also didn't want them to be super rich. My roommates insisted, however, that frosting would have made them even more excellent, so I included the recipes for both cream cheese frosting and a thinner milk glaze!

If you're interested in the bread flour the recipe calls for, it is described as "a high-gluten flour that has very small amounts of malted barley flour and vitamin C or potassium bromate added. The barley flour helps the yeast work, and the other additive increases the elasticity of the gluten and its ability to retain gas as the dough rises and bakes." I substituted all-purpose flour and didn't get quite as light a roll as I'd hoped, so I think the results would be better if you could get your hands on bread flour.

No-Yeast 
Cinnamon Rolls
Adapted from Sugarlaws


Ingredients:

Dough
1 C warm milk
2 eggs
1/3 C butter, softened
4 1/2 C bread flour
1/2 C sugar
1 Tbsp baking powder

Filling
1 C brown sugar
1 Tbsp water (eliminate if you’re opening a new package of brown sugar)
2 Tbsp cinnamon
1/4 cup butter, melted

Cream Cheese Frosting
4 oz cream cheese, at room temperature
1/4 C butter, softened
1 1/2 C confectioners’ sugar
OR
Milk Glaze
3 Tbsp milk
2 C powdered sugar

Directions: Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Combine the dough ingredients together in a large mixing bowl using your hands, mixing thoroughly until the dough forms a large ball. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, combine brown sugar, butter, water and cinnamon. Stir to make combine completely.
Divide the dough in half and roll/press each part into an approximately 6" by 10" rectangle. Spread the cinnamon mixture to cover the dough completely. Roll each rectangle into a tight cylinder, then slice off the ends to make clean edges. Cut each into 8 slices and place in a baking pan sprayed with nonstick spray.

Bake the rolls until just start to turn golden, about 15 minutes. While rolls are baking, beat together ingredients for either glaze or cream cheese frosting. Frost/glaze before rolls cool completely. Serve warm and gooey!