Yeasted Meringue Coffee Cake

(do I even need to say it... pls excuse the poor photo quality)

The March 2011 Daring Baker’s Challenge was hosted by Ria of Ria’s Collection and Jamie of Life’s a Feast. Ria and Jamie challenged The Daring Bakers to bake a yeasted Meringue Coffee Cake.

At first I thought to myself.......Isn't this the same as the December challenge?? Nope!.... And a meringue in the middle; thats strange. Wrong again. While similar to the Stollen this was a unique recipe and the meringue in the middle was fabulous. Believe it or not it kept the dough moist and chewy, kind of like a butter brown sugar mixture used when making cinnamon buns... but with way less calories ;) 

This dessert was not overly sweet. Perfect with coffee as is or drizzled with honey, pairs well with tea.  The dough and meringue are a neutral palate and give you the flexibility to make this into what every you want. I used walnuts and dark chocolate chips (as the recipe suggested) - another variation used Indian spices and cashews. 

FILLED MERINGUE COFFEE CAKE
Makes 2 round coffee cakes, each approximately 10 inches in diameter
The recipe can easily be halved to make one round coffee cake

Ingredients
For the yeast coffee cake dough:

4 cups (600 g / 1.5 lbs.) flour
¼ cup (55 g / 2 oz.) sugar
¾ teaspoon (5 g / ¼ oz.) salt
1 package (2 ¼ teaspoons / 7 g / less than an ounce) active dried yeast
¾ cup (180 ml / 6 fl. oz.) whole milk
¼ cup (60 ml / 2 fl. oz. water (doesn’t matter what temperature)
½ cup (135 g / 4.75 oz.) unsalted butter at room temperature
2 large eggs at room temperature

10 strands saffron for Ria’s version (Saffron might be hard to find and it’s expensive, so you can substitute with ½ - 1 teaspoon of ground cardamom or ground nutmeg. Or simply leave it plain like Jamie’s version)

For the meringue:

3 large egg whites at room temperature
¼ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon vanilla
½ cup (110 g / 4 oz.) sugar

For the filling:

Jamie’s version:
1 cup (110 g / 4 oz.) chopped pecans or walnuts
2 Tablespoons (30 g / 1 oz.) granulated sugar
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup (170 g / 6 oz.) semisweet chocolate chips or coarsely chopped chocolate (I used Hershey's Special Dark Chocolate - and next time I'd use only about 3/4 cups.

Ria’s version:
1 cup (130 g / 5 oz.) chopped cashew nuts
2 Tablespoons (30 g / 1 oz.) granulated sugar
½ teaspoon garam masala (You can make it at home – recipe below - or buy from any Asian/Indian grocery store)
1 cup (170g / 6 oz.) semisweet chocolate chips )

Egg wash: 1 beaten egg
Cocoa powder (optional) and confectioner’s sugar (powdered/icing sugar) for dusting cakes

**Garam (means “hot”) masala (means “mixture”) is a blend of ground spices and is used in most Indian savory dishes. It is used in limited quantities while cooking vegetables, meats & eggs. There is no “one” recipe for it as every household has a recipe of their own. Below, I am going to share the recipe which I follow.

4 or 5 sticks (25 g) Cinnamon Sticks (break a stick and open the scroll)
3 ½ tablespoons (25 g / less than an ounce) Cloves, whole
100 g. (3.5 oz.) Fennel seeds
4 tablespoons (25 g / less than an ounce) Cumin seeds
1 ½ tablespoons (10 g / less than half an ounce) Peppercorns
25 g (less than half an ounce) Green Cardamom pods

In a small pan on medium heat, roast each spice individually (it hardly takes a minute) until you get a nice aroma. Make sure you stir it throughout so that it doesn’t burn. As soon as each spice is roasted, transfer it to a bowl to cool slightly. Once they are all roasted, grind into a fine powder by using a coffee grinder, or pestle & mortar. Store in an airtight container and use as needed.

Directions:

Prepare the dough:

In a large mixing bowl, combine 1 ½ cups (230 g) of the flour, the sugar, salt and yeast.

In a saucepan, combine the milk, water and butter and heat over medium heat until warm and the butter is just melted. Ria’s version: add the 10 saffron threads to the warmed liquid and allow to steep off of the heat for 10 minutes. This will give the mixture a distinct aroma and flavor and a yellowish-orange hue.

With an electric mixer on low speed, gradually add the warm liquid to the flour/yeast mixture, beating until well blended. Increase mixer speed to medium and beat 2 minutes. Add the eggs and 1 cup (150 g) flour and beat for 2 more minutes.

Using a wooden spoon, stir in enough of the remaining flour to make a dough that holds together. Turn out onto a floured surface (use any of the 1 ½ cups of flour remaining) and knead the dough for 8 to 10 minutes until the dough is soft, smooth, sexy and elastic, keeping the work surface floured and adding extra flour as needed.

Place the dough in a lightly greased (I use vegetable oil) bowl, turning to coat all sides. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and a kitchen towel and let rise until double in bulk, 45 – 60 minutes. The rising time will depend on the type of yeast you use.

Prepare your filling:In a small bowl, combine the cinnamon and sugar for the filling if using. You can add the chopped nuts to this if you like, but I find it easier to sprinkle on both the nuts and the chocolate separately

Once the dough has doubled, make the meringue:
In a clean mixing bowl – ideally a plastic or metal bowl so the egg whites adhere to the side (they slip on glass) and you don’t end up with liquid remaining in the bottom – beat the egg whites with the salt, first on low speed for 30 seconds, then increase to high and continue beating until foamy and opaque. Add the vanilla then start adding the ½ cup sugar, a tablespoon at a time as you beat, until very stiff, glossy peaks form.

Assemble the Coffee Cakes:

Line 2 baking/cookie sheets with parchment paper.

Punch down the dough and divide in half. On a lightly floured surface, working one piece of the dough at a time (keep the other half of the dough wrapped in plastic), roll out the dough into a 20 x 10-inch (about 51 x 25 ½ cm) rectangle. Spread half of the meringue evenly over the rectangle up to about 1/2-inch (3/4 cm) from the edges. Sprinkle half of your filling of choice evenly over the meringue (ex: half of the cinnamon-sugar followed by half the chopped nuts and half of the chocolate chips/chopped chocolate).

Now, roll up the dough jellyroll style, from the long side. Pinch the seam closed to seal. Very carefully transfer the filled log to one of the lined cookie sheets, seam side down. Bring the ends of the log around and seal the ends together, forming a ring, tucking one end into the other and pinching to seal.

Using kitchen scissors or a sharp knife (although scissors are easier), make cuts along the outside edge at 1-inch (2 ½ cm) intervals. Make them as shallow or as deep as desired but don’t be afraid to cut deep into the ring.

Repeat with the remaining dough, meringue and fillings.

Cover the 2 coffee cakes with plastic wrap and allow them to rise again for 45 to 60 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C).

Brush the tops of the coffee cakes with the egg wash. Bake in the preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes until risen and golden brown. The dough should sound hollow when tapped.

Joconde Imprime

The January 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Astheroshe of the blog accro. She chose to challenge everyone to make a Biscuit Joconde Imprime to wrap around an Entremets dessert.

Overall great challenge. There was no filling recipe provided so I did not end up making any filling but I got through the tough part... making the Jonconde Imprime. Originally I wanted to do a traditional Hungarian pattern but thought I should stick with something a bit more simple. I settled on stripes. 

Christmas Stollen - fruitcake or fruity bread?

Merry Christmas!

The 2010 December Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Penny of Sweet Sadie’s Baking. She chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ to make Stollen. She adapted a friend’s family recipe and combined it with information from friends, techniques from Peter Reinhart’s book.........and Martha Stewart’s demonstration.

I loved this challenge! And, from what I could tell, so did everyone else! My aunt called me three times to tell me how much she enjoyed this cake and that it’s been Stollen for breakfast every morning since Christmas.  J

We were all in agreement that it was delicious but none of could settle on whether this was a “cake” or a “bread”.  I think it’s a bread. Sister, on the other hand, was completely convinced that since it contained lots of dried fruit it should be considered a fruitcake. I’m not on board with that for a couple of reasons. For one thing, and let’s be honest, you don’t start salivating at the thought of fruitcake.  But more importantly anything that uses yeast as a leavening agent and has to be kneaded is considered bread (or at least by my standards). Well, whatever – its pretty irrelevant. Bottom line is that this is kind of dense, a little chewy and only slightly sweet and really delicious. 

Stollen Wreath

Makes one large wreath or two traditional shaped Stollen loaves. Serves 10-12 people (uhm, this served 6 of us at Christmas dinner and that was only 1/3 of the wreath!)

Ingredients

¼ cup (60ml) lukewarm water (110º F / 43º C)

2 packages (4 1/2 teaspoons) (22 ml) (14 grams) (1/2 oz) active dry yeast

1 cup (240 ml) milk

10 tablespoons (150 ml) (140 grams) unsalted butter (can use salted butter - I wouldn't recommend that)

5½ cups (1320 ml) (27 ozs) (770 grams) all-purpose (plain) flour (Measure flour first - then sift- plus extra for dusting)

½ cup (120 ml) (115 gms) sugar

¾ teaspoon (3 ¾ ml) (4 ½ grams) salt (if using salted butter there is no need to alter this salt measurement)

1 teaspoon (5 ml) (6 grams) cinnamon

3 large eggs, lightly beaten

Grated zest of 1 lemon and 1 orange (I only used orange)

2 teaspoons (10 ml) (very good) vanilla extract (I used my own homemade! J)

1 teaspoon (5 ml) lemon extract or orange extract (I skipped this and just added the juice of an orange when soaking the dried fruit)

¾ cup (180 ml) (4 ¾ ozs) (135 grams) mixed peel (link below to make your own)

1  2 cups (240 ml) (6 ozs) (170 gms) firmly packed raisins loosely packed dried fruit – a mixture of your choice. I used dried blueberries, dried cherries, golden raisins and craisins.

3 tablespoons (45ml) rum (I used 3 tsp rum extract)

12 red glacé cherries (roughly chopped) for the color and the taste. (optional)

1 cup (240 ml) (3 ½ ozs) (100 grams) flaked almonds (I used slivered almonds and toasted them – gave it more of a crunch)

Melted unsalted butter for coating the wreath

Confectioners’ (icing) (powdered) sugar for dusting wreath

Note: If you don’t want to use alcohol, double the lemon or orange extract or you could use the juice from the zested orange.

Directions:

Soak the raisins

In a small bowl, soak the raisins in the rum (or in the orange juice from the zested orange) and set aside. (I used a mixture of golden raisins, craisins, dried blueberries and dried cherries from Trader Joe’s. I soaked this mixture in 3 tsp rum extract and 3tbs freshly squeezed orange juice. I dumped all of this into the dough – liquid and all)

To make the dough

1.     Pour ¼ cup (60 ml) warm water into a small bowl, sprinkle with yeast and let stand 5 minutes. Stir to dissolve yeast completely.

2.     In a small saucepan, combine 1 cup (240 ml) milk and 10 tablespoons (150 ml) butter over medium - low heat until butter is melted. Let stand until lukewarm, about 5 minutes.

3.     Lightly beat eggs in a small bowl and add lemon and vanilla extracts.

4.     In a large mixing bowl (4 qt) (4 liters) (or in the bowl of an electric mixer with paddle attachment), stir together the flour, sugar, salt, cinnamon, orange and lemon zests.

5.     Then stir in (or mix on low speed with the paddle attachment) the yeast/water mixture, eggs and the lukewarm milk/butter mixture. This should take about 2 minutes. It should be a soft, but not sticky ball. When the dough comes together, cover the bowl with either plastic or a tea cloth and let rest for 10 minutes.

6.     Add in the mixed peel, soaked fruit and almonds and mix with your hands or on low speed to incorporate. Here is where you can add the cherries if you would like. Be delicate with the cherries or all your dough will turn red!

7.     Sprinkle flour on the counter, transfer the dough to the counter, and begin kneading (or mixing with the dough hook) to distribute the fruit evenly, adding additional flour if needed. The dough should be soft and satiny, tacky but not sticky. Knead for approximately 8 minutes (6 minutes by machine). The full six minutes of kneading is needed to distribute the dried fruit and other ingredients and to make the dough have a reasonable bread-dough consistency. You can tell when the dough is kneaded enough – a few raisins will start to fall off the dough onto the counter because at the beginning of the kneading process the dough is very sticky and the raisins will be held into the dough but when the dough is done it is tacky which isn't enough to bind the outside raisins onto the dough ball.

8.     Lightly oil a large bowl and transfer the dough to the bowl, rolling around to coat it with the oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap.

Put it in the fridge overnight. The dough becomes very firm in the fridge (since the butter goes firm) but it does rise slowly… the raw dough can be kept in the refrigerator up to a week and then baked on the day you want.

Shaping the Dough and Baking the Wreath

1.     Let the dough rest for 2 hours after taking out of the fridge in order to warm slightly.

2.     Line a sheet pan with parchment paper.

3.     Preheat oven to moderate 350°F/180°C/gas mark 4 with the oven rack on the middle shelf.

4.     Punch dough down, roll into a rectangle about 16 x 24 inches (40 x 61 cms) and ¼ inch (6 mm) thick.

5.     Starting with a long side, roll up tightly, forming a long, thin cylinder.

6.     Transfer the cylinder roll to the sheet pan. Join the ends together, trying to overlap the layers to make the seam stronger and pinch with your fingers to make it stick, forming a large circle. You can form it around a bowl to keep the shape.

7.     Using kitchen scissors, make cuts along outside of circle, in 2-inch (5 cm) intervals, cutting 2/3 of the way through the dough

8.     Twist each segment outward, forming a wreath shape. Mist the dough with spray oil and cover loosely with plastic wrap

9.     Proof for approximately 2 hours at room temperature, or until about 1½ times its original size. (I was in a rush to get this done for Christmas Eve dinner so I expedited the process by proofing in the oven. The lowest my oven will go is 150F. I put a shallow pan with hot water on the lower rack and the stollen on the upper rack. I proofed for about 1 hr this way and then followed the directions for baking in step 7)

10.   Bake the stollen for 20 minutes, then rotate the pan 180 degrees for even baking and continue to bake for 20 to 30 minutes. The bread will bake to a dark mahogany color, should register 190°F/88°C in the center of the loaf, and should sound hollow when thumped on the bottom.

11.   Transfer to a cooling rack and brush the top with melted butter while still hot.

Immediately tap a layer of powdered sugar over the top through a sieve or sifter.

Wait for 1 minute, then tap another layer over the first.

The bread should be coated generously with the powdered sugar.

Let cool at least an hour before serving. Coat the stollen in butter and icing sugar three times, since this many coatings helps keeps the stollen fresh - especially if you intend on sending it in the mail as Christmas presents!

12.   When completely cool, store in a plastic bag. Or leave it out uncovered overnight to dry out slightly, German style.

The stollen tastes even better in a couple of days and it toasts superbly…. so delicious with butter and a cup of tea….mmmmm  (agreed!!! You know, I’m wondering if it would make good French toast ;)

Storage

The more rum and the more coatings of butter and sugar you use the longer it will store.

The following is for the recipe as written and uses the 45 mls of rum and two coatings of butter and icing sugar

1. Stollen freezes beautifully about 4 months

2. The baked stollen stores well for 2 weeks covered in foil and plastic wrap on the counter at room temperature and

3. One month in the refrigerator well covered with foil and plastic wrap.

Nutrition Facts: (1/20th recipe)

303 Calories, 9.6g fat, 47.2g carbs, 2.3g fiber, 14.6g sugar, 7g protein

Cottage Cheese Crostata

The 2010 November Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Simona of briciole. She chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ to make pasta frolla for a crostata. She used her own experience as a source, as well as information from Pellegrino Artusi’s Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well.

So what is a crostata??? Our host provided a brief description: "...crostata (tart), an Italian dessert. The base of a crostata is pasta frolla (or pastafrolla), sweet short crust pastry (or sweet tart dough) made of flour, sugar, butter and eggs. Pasta frolla is versatile: it provides the base to make crostata with fruit preserves, pastry cream, fresh fruit, ricotta, and other ingredients, and, by itself, it makes very nice cookies."


Sounds pretty easy. In short, its kind of like a pie dough... but with eggs and melted butter instead of cold butter. Sooo.. really its nothing like pie dough :p bad bad reference.




Pasta Frolla
Ingredients:

• 1/2 c. minus 1 tablespoon [105 ml, 100 g, 3 ½ oz] superfine sugar (see Note 1) or a scant 3/4 cup [180ml, 90g, 3 oz] of powdered sugar
• 1 and 3/4 cup [420 ml, 235 g, 8 1/4 oz.] unbleached all-purpose flour
• a pinch of salt
• 1 stick [8 tablespoons / 4 oz. / 115 g] cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
• grated zest of half a lemon (you could also use vanilla sugar as an option, see Note 2)
• 1 large egg and 1 large egg yolk, lightly beaten in a small bowl

Note 1: Superfine sugar is often also referred to as ultrafine, baker’s sugar or caster sugar. It’s available in most supermarkets. If you cannot find “superfine” sugar, you can make your own by putting some regular granulated sugar in a food processor or blender and letting it run until the sugar is finely ground.

Note 2: There are different ways of making vanilla sugar. I keep vanilla beans in a jar half-filled with sugar until I need to use them, for example, to make vanilla ice cream. After I remove the split bean from the custard that will go into the ice cream maker, I rinse it, dry it and put it back in the jar with sugar.

Making pasta frolla by hand:

1. Whisk together sugar, flour and salt in a bowl.
2. Rub or cut the butter into the flour until the mixture has the consistency of coarse crumbs. You can do this in the bowl or on your work surface, using your fingertips or an implement of choice
3. Make a well in the center of the mounded flour and butter mixture and pour the beaten eggs into it (reserve about a teaspoon of the egg mixture for glazing purposes later on – place in the refrigerator, covered, until ready to use).
4. Add the lemon zest to your flour/butter/egg mixture.
5. Use a fork to incorporate the liquid into the solid ingredients, and then use your fingertips.
6. Kneed lightly just until the dough comes together into a ball.
7. Shape the dough into a flat disk and wrap in plastic wrap. Place the dough in the refrigerator and chill for at least two hours. You can refrigerate the dough overnight.
8. Roll out the dough so that it is big enough to completely cover/fill your tart pan. 
9. Bake at 350F until golden and then fill with what ever you choose. See suggestions below.

I chose to do a cottage cheese filling. Note, I like most dairy but I'm really not a fan of cottage cheese. I've tried the cottage cheese doubles (you know, with the fruit topping)... not a winner. But, this is a simple filling used in a few different Hungarian pastries... cottage cheese is even used a candy bar! (Turo Rudi) Again, not a fan...but I haven't had it since I was about 5. 

Anyhow... its a combination of eggs, cottage cheese (drained over night) and vanilla sugar (powdered sugar infused with vanilla bean essence), and a little lemon zest. Thats it. 

Other fillings could be a simple chocolate ganache or cream, a vanilla cream with fruit topping, lemon curd, fruit preserves..... pretty much anything you would put in a pie. 

Donuts or Doughnuts? Doesn't matter... they're delicious!

The October 2010 Daring Bakers challenge was hosted by Lori of Butter Me Up. Lori chose to challenge DBers to make doughnuts. She used several sources for her recipes including Alton Brown, Nancy Silverton, Kate Neumann and Epicurious.

This month's challenge was so much fun!! 

  

Is it obvious I am not much of a Dunkin' Donuts fan?  I've always favored Krispy Kreme... maybe because my uncle would always bring us a dozen of hot Krispy Kreme donuts when he came to visit. :) Or maybe its just because they are way better. ;)

That being said, I knew I wanted to come as close to KK as I could, so a lot of research went into this challenge and I learned that making a donut is much more than just mixing and frying. For starters, there are two different kinds of donuts: Yeast donuts and Cake donuts. Yeast donuts is what you want. They are the fluffy, airy kind you get at KK. If I wanted Cake-like donuts, I would eat cake. Although I don't think cake like donuts taste a thing like cake - I wouldn't bother eating a cake that dry - there is one exception to this rule: Sweet 16s. Mini cake-y donuts with a thick coating of powdered sugar that just melt in your mouth!

Anyways, on to making donuts!

A couple of things to keep in mind: If you will be filling these donuts I suggest you let them rise longer on the second rise. Mine were extra large when I did this and much easier to fill. Also, it is very important to keep the oil between 355F - 365F. Too low and the dough will soak up all the oil and make gross, greasy donuts. Too high and your donuts will fry to a crisp on the outside and stay doughy on the inside. Equally unappetizing. 

Alton Brown's Yeast Donuts

• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 2 1/2 ounces vegetable shortening, approximately 1/3 cup
• 2 packages instant yeast
• 1/3 cup warm water (95 to 105 degrees F)
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg * I omitted this. Not sure why nutmeg belongs in a donut.
• 23 ounces all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting surface
• Peanut or vegetable oil, for frying (1 to 1/2 gallons, depending on fryer)

Directions

Place the milk in a medium saucepan and heat over medium heat just until warm enough to melt the shortening. Place the shortening in a bowl and pour warmed milk over. Set aside.

In a small bowl, sprinkle the yeast over the warm water and let dissolve for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, pour the yeast mixture into the large bowl of a stand mixer and add the milk and shortening mixture, first making sure the milk and shortening mixture has cooled to lukewarm. Add the eggs, sugar, salt, nutmeg, and half of the flour. Using the paddle attachment, combine the ingredients on low speed until flour is incorporated and then turn the speed up to medium and beat until well combined. Add the remaining flour, combining on low speed at first, and then increase the speed to medium and beat well. Change to the dough hook attachment of the mixer and beat on medium speed until the dough pulls away from the bowl and becomes smooth, approximately 3 to 4 minutes. Transfer to a well-oiled bowl, cover, and let rise for 1 hour or until doubled in size.

On a well-floured surface, roll out dough to 3/8-inch thick. Cut out dough using a 2 1/2-inch doughnut cutter or pastry ring and using a 7/8-inch ring for the center whole. Set on floured baking sheet, cover lightly with a tea towel, and let rise for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oil in a deep fryer or Dutch oven to 365 degrees F. Gently place the doughnuts into the oil, 3 to 4 at a time. Cook for 1 minute per side. Transfer to a cooling rack placed in baking pan. Allow to cool for 15 to 20 minutes prior to glazing, if desired.

Have fun with the toppings! I used coconut, sprinkles, chocolate glaze (recipe below), chopped pecans, cinnamon sugar, and normal glaze (powdered sugar + milk + a little melted butter + vanilla)

cream filling (skeptical - I tried this without the granulated sugar. I read reviews that said it was too grainy. Bottom line - I think bitting into a donut filled with pure shortening is disgusting. Maybe that's the way donut shops do it but I was not impressed.) 

chocolate glaze (Perfect.)

So, I know someone who is  ::clears throat:: slightly addicted to Cheerwine. Another Carolina favorite. And in case you missed out - like we did - Krispy Kreme and Cheerwine got together to make a limited edition Cheerwine flavored cream filled donut. So, I got this idea...if you can boil down balsamic vinegar to make a glaze/syrup couldn't you do the same with Cheerwine? Then add it to a plain cream filling to give it the Cheerwine flavor. In theory yes. In reality not so much. First I tried spiking a basic cream/custard type filling I used for the cream puff challenge. And even though I did not add the vanilla - the egg yolks gave it such a powerful flavor that you couldn't taste the Cheerwine.  Second go-round I tried the cream filling recipe from above (shortening + powdered sugar). I thought that since shortening is virtually a neutral in flavor, I would have no problem incorporating the Cheerwine. Well, to my most utter disappointment the Cheerwine gave no more than a pinkish color to the shortening mix. :-( I boiled down two 12 oz bottles of the soda. I refuse to boil down a 2 liter....As though spoon fulls of shortening and powdered sugar aren't enough - adding condensed soda is definitely not happening. 

Sugar Cookies

The biggest challenge this month was figuring out what shapes to cut my cookies for the "September" theme. October would have been easy: "Halloween".  March: "Birthday", November: "Thanksgiving",  May: "Flowers", June: "Summer Time".... but September???? I guess it might depend on what part of the world you are in but I can't really think of any "themed" holidays around here... I guess there is Labor Day but I don't really know anyone that decorates for that. ;) I found an interesting list of special days in September. Apparently, September is Cable TV Month; who knew? Maybe I should have done little Food Network cookies :-D 

I finally decided on "fall" for my theme; although, it is still about 95F in North Carolina. Not very fall-like to me. I should have made little runners because September is when it starts getting just a little cooler in the AM and I can really enjoy running outside. 

The colors didn't come together like I had hoped but the sugar cookie recipe was definitely a keeper as was the royal icing recipe. Decorating them will take a bit of practice, too. And kept in an air tight container these things last for ever! They actually get softer after sitting tight for a few days. Mine are still good and I made them a little over 2 weeks ago.

The September 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Mandy of “What the Fruitcake?!” Mandy challenged everyone to make Decorated Sugar Cookies based on recipes from Peggy Porschen and The Joy of Baking.

Basic Sugar Cookies:
Makes Approximately 36x 10cm / 4" Cookies

200g / 7oz / ½ cup + 6 Tbsp Unsalted Butter, at room temperature
400g / 14oz / 3 cups + 3 Tbsp All Purpose / Plain Flour
200g / 7oz / 1 cup Caster Sugar / Superfine Sugar
1 Large Egg, lightly beaten
5ml / 1 tsp Vanilla Extract / Or seeds from 1 vanilla bean

Directions

• Cream together the butter, sugar and any flavourings you’re using. Beat until just becoming

creamy in texture.

Tip: Don’t over mix otherwise you’ll incorporate too much air and the cookies will spread during

baking, losing their shape.

• Beat in the egg until well combined, make sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl.

Add the sifted flour and mix on low until a non sticky dough forms.

Tip: I don’t have a stand mixer so I find it easier to switch to dough hooks at this stage to avoid

flour flying everywhere.

• Knead into a ball and div

into 2 or 3 pieces.

• Roll out each portion between parchment paper to a thickness of about 5mm/1/5 inch (0.2 inch)

• Refrigerate for a minimum of 30mins.

Tip: Recipes commonly just wrap the whole ball of dough in clingwrap and then refrigerate it for an

hour or overnight, but by rolling the dough between parchment, this shortens the chilling time and

then it’s also been rolled out while still soft making it easier and quicker.

• Once chilled, peel off parchment and place dough on a lightly floured surface.

• Cut out shapes with cookie cutters or a sharp knife.

• Arrange shapes on parchment lined baking sheets and refrigerate for another 30mins to an hour.

Tip: It’s very important you chill them again otherwise they’ll spread while baking.

• Re-roll scraps and follow the above process until all scraps are used up.

• Preheat oven to 180°C (160°C Fan Assisted) / 350°F / Gas Mark 4.

• Bake until golden around the edges, about 8-15mins depending on the size of the cookies.

Tip: Bake same sized cookies together otherwise mixing smaller with larger cookies could result in

some cookies being baked before others are done.

Tip: Rotate baking sheets half way through baking if your oven bakes unevenly.

• Leave to cool on cooling racks.

• Once completely cooled, decorate as desired.

Tip: If wrapped in tinfoil/cling wrap or kept in airtight containers in a cool place, un-decorated

cookies can last up to a month.

Royal Icing:

315g – 375g / 11oz – 13oz / 2½ - 3 cups Icing / Confectioner’s / Powdered Sugar, unsifted
2 Large Egg Whites
10ml / 2 tsp Lemon Juice
5ml / 1 tsp Almond Extract, optional

Directions

• Beat egg whites with lemon juice until combined.Tip: It’s important that the bowls/spoons/spatulas and beaters you use are thoroughly cleaned and
grease free.
• Sift the icing sugar to remove lumps and add it to the egg whites.  Tip: I’ve listed 2 amounts of icing sugar, the lesser amount is good for a flooding consistency, and the larger amount is for outlining, but you can add even more for a much thicker consistency good for writing. If you add too much icing sugar or would like to make a thinner consistency, add very small amounts of water, a few drops at a time, until you reach the consistency you need.
• Beat on low until combined and smooth.
• Use immediately or keep in an airtight container.Tip: Royal Icing starts to harden as soon as it’s in contact with air so make sure to cover containers with plastic wrap while not in use.