Holiday Baking

It's Christmas Eve! The weather's cold, there's a speckle of snow on the ground outside, and the forecast says more is on its way. It looks like it's going to be a festive, white Christmas this year. As such, I have more holiday recipes to share with you. Wishing you all a lovely happy holidays!

Green Roulade | Cornbread Muffins | Fruitcake Mini-muffins | Gingerbread snaps

Gingerbread Snaps

This is one of my holiday recipes this year. Find the other ones here: 

Green Roulade | Fruitcake Mini-muffins | Cornbread Muffins

Gingerbread Snaps

Honestly, I hadn't planned for these to be snap cookies. I was aiming for more of a chewy soft cookie, but I guess I rolled them too thin, and they came out from the oven snappier than I thought they would. After they cooled, they became tender crisp, almost like a shortbread texture. So I guess I really made some sort of ginger-short-bread. 

The Recipe

Dry ingredients: 

• 1 cup barley flour
• 1/4 cup oat bran
• 1/4 cup teff flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt

Wet ingredients:

• 1/4 cup milk (any fat content is OK, I used skim)
• 1 egg white (or about 2.5 tbsp liquid eggs)
• 3 tbsp dark brown sugar
• 3 tbsp very light margarine (not meant for baking, but I think it contributed to my lucky accident)
• 2 tbsp light cream cheese
• 2 tbsp butter
• 1–2 tsp fresh, ground ginger
• 1/8 tsp ground cardamom (optional)

Sift and stir together dry ingredients. Heat butter, margarine, and cream cheese to melt. Stir in sugar, ginger, and cardamom. Whisk in milk. Add egg white and whisk to mix. Pour over flour mixture and stir to form dough. Roll out into a thin layer, between 1/8 and 1/16 inch (or about 2 mm) thick. Cut out into gingerbread man shapes (or whatever shapes you desire), and bake in a 325 °F (~160 °C) oven for 6 - 8 minutes until top surface is matte and colour is slightly paler than dough. Allow to cool on a rack and decorate to make your gingerbread men come alive!

Note: for larger cookies, make sure to dock them with a fork or a docking wheel, before baking to prevent odd air pockets from forming. 

Measured out flour mixture - teff flour on top

Gingerbread men and women cut-outs

Baked cookies. Wish I could convey smells via Blogger. 

A cheerful looking plate, wouldn't you say?

Thought I'd show you some more of my icing fun. I just used a royal icing recipe. For the green icing, I added a bit of matcha green tea powder, and for the pink icing, I replaced the water with blackberry juice. 

Fruitcake Mini-muffins

This is one of my holiday recipes this year. Find the other ones here: 

Cornbread Muffins | Green Roulade | Gingerbread Snaps

Fruitcake Mini-muffins
These aren't exactly like the fruitcake you see in supermarkets, with the green and red cherries. They're more like a clafoutis scooped into mini-muffin tins, or a loaded, muffin-shaped fruit and nut pancake. Anyway, it got my family's thumbs-up, so I thought maybe you would like it too. I don't add a lot of sugar because the dried fruits have tons anyway. 

The Recipe
Dry ingredients:

• 1/2 cup barley flour
• 1/4 cup teff flour
• 1 tbsp coconut flour
• 1 tbsp cocoa powder
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 2 tbsp white sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt

Wet ingredients:

• 2 whole eggs
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 tbsp melted butter

Fruits and nuts (feel free to make your own substitutes):

• 1 medium apple
• 1 tbsp butter 
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 cup dried apricots, diced
• 1/2 cup dried cranberries, chopped 
• 1/2 cup toasted almonds, chopped
• 1/2 cup toasted walnuts, chopped

Peel and dice apple. Sauté in 1 tbsp butter and cinnamon until apples are cooked and some of the water content has evaporated. Set aside to cool. Sift and stir together dry ingredients. Add fruits and nuts and stir to make sure everything is coated in flour. Mix all wet ingredients together and add to flour and fruit mixture in one go. Stir to combine. Spoon into lined mini-muffin tins and bake at 350 ºF (175 ºC) for 10 to 12 minutes. Toothpick should come out clean. 

Dried fruits and sautéed apple.

Chopped walnuts and almonds.

Before baking.

After baking. I couldn't get a better picture of them – they were devoured before I could get a better shot.

Cornbread Muffins

This is one of my holiday recipes this year. Find the other ones here: 

Green Roulade | Fruitcake Mini-muffins | Gingerbread Snaps

Cornbread Muffins

The Recipe (makes 1 dozen)

Dry ingredients: 

• 1/2 cup coarse grind cornmeal (#120 grind)
• 1/2 cup wheat bran
• 1/2 cup barley flour
• 2 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp tumeric powder
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon

Wet ingredients:

• 2 eggs, separated
• 1 tbsp white sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup milk

Fillings (feel free to use substitutes of your choice):

• 3/4 cup diced mozzarella cheese
• 3/4 cup small diced orange bell pepper
• 1/2 cup canned cream corn
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
• 2 thin turkey pepperettes, diced
• 1 jalapeño pepper, minced

Sift and stir dry ingredients together. Add fillings and stir so that everything is coated in flour. Add milk and stir to get even mixture. Beat egg whites, sugar, and salt until medium peaks form. Fold whites into flour & fillings mixture, scoop into lined muffin tins and bake at 350 ºF (175 ºC) for 15 to 20 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Now sit back and enjoy!

Egg whites

Cornbread batter

Freshly baked cornbread

Still good the following day

I melted some mozzarella in a small bowl and dipped my muffin into it. Mozzarella "frosted" cornbread muffin. 

Green Roulade

This is one of my holiday recipes this year. Find the other ones here: 

Cornbread Muffins | Fruitcake Mini-muffins | Gingerbread Snaps

Green Roulade (pictures below)
The idea for this recipe came from a recipe for a ham and spinach roulade in one of my favourite cookbooks: The Viennese Kitchen. 

The Recipe: 
Ingredients for cake: 

• 1 1/2 cup chopped kale
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
• 1/2 cup cold milk (any fat content is OK)
• 1/3 cup barley flour
• 2 tbsp butter (don't need to pre-melt)
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 3 egg whites
• 2 tbsp white sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt

Wash kale and drop into boiling water to cook for about 3 minutes. Drain and put into food processor or blender. Quickly add cold milk and butter to kale, and process or blend. Add chopped parsley and black pepper, and process or blend again. Transfer to another bowl and stir in flour. Set aside. 

In a large clean bowl, beat egg whites with the sugar and salt until you get medium peaks. Whisk about 1/3 of the egg whites into the green mixture first. Then gently fold in the rest of the egg whites. Spread in an even layer into a lined 9 by 13 inch jelly roll tin and bake for 325 °F (165 °C) for 12 to 15 minutes. Remove from the oven, and let cool for 1 minute (and admire the beautiful pale light green surface and dark green speckles :-) Roll into a log shape along the short side with the parchment paper to let the shape set in. Parchment paper should face the outside. I followed this rolling technique. Allow to cool completely and make the filling in the meantime. 

Ingredients for filling:

• 1 large avocado (dark skin ones)
• 2 tbsp softened cream cheese
• 1 tbsp Miracle Whip or mayo
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 1 small can (57 mL) tomato paste

Heat tomato paste thoroughly on stovetop and allow to cool. This step is purely precautionary because food processors may not expect canned tomato paste to be eaten without cooking. Peel and chop avocado. Mix with sour cream, Miracle Whip, and lemon juice, making sure avocado is completely coated in dressing. 

Gently unroll cooled roulade and remove the parchment paper. Spread tomato paste in one layer over top surface, leaving just over 1 inch (or about 3 cm) of border on all sides. Add avocados in one layer over the tomato paste. Gently roll up cake again, but without the parchment paper this time. Allow cake to set in the fridge for a few hours before slicing. 

Beautiful, vibrant, magical-looking pureed greens.

Rolled up and cooling.

Probably should have let it set for a while longer, but this is tasty nonetheless.