Day after October 31st, morning after evening of fall festivity at our home. Ten hours of sleep after an afternoon (five and a half hours, estimate - be very impressed) of baking baking baking cooking baking.
I was so pleased with how everything (well, all but one thing) turned out, I thought I'd share the menu - and recipes - with you. Fortunately (and rather unusually), every recipe came from the web, so I link them here for you, with a little bit of commentary about what I did (or didn't do) differently. In order of advent-in-my-kitchen:
Chewy Molasses Spice Cookies
This was their third go-round in my kitchen, and their third share with other people, to happy response. If you recall my last winter's goal of finding the perfect ginger molasses cookie, akin to my favorites from local bakeries, it has been found. This is it. And please note: there is no ginger in it. That's right. My most perfect and ideal ginger cookie has no ginger.
What I did differently: Absolutely nothing.
Apple and Carrot Shortbread
These are the "but one thing" mentioned above. Shortbread is my favorite cookie to make (So quick! So easy! So satisfying!) . . . so many extras that can be added to the mix to make them distinctive (lavender, earl gray tea, rosemary). Surely you all know by now that my favorite shortbread addition is rosemary. Since I make these so often (I used to call them my Sunday Cookies, which will indicate to you just how often I did make them for awhile, and I have a rosemary bush growing in my backyard, mostly for the baking of these cookies), I'm pretty familiar with what goes in a good shortbread cookie. Butter. Butter, butter. And some more butter. I should have been alerted at the smaller-than-usual amount of butter in this recipe, but the idea of carrot and apple - especially for a fall party - charmed me. The carrot and apple did lend a nice, sweet flavor, but next time I'll just go ahead and use my own shortbread base with them, and play around with the moistness issues that will arise from the added apple. But that playing around will not involve reducing the butter at all.
What I did differently: Well, you know what I would do differently, but what I did do differently was
- use unbleached all-purpose flour in place of both types of flour listed in-recipe
- use regular cooking salt (hey, it's good enough for my rosemary shortbreads)
- use Trader Joe's Organic Evaporated Cane Juice (my latest favorite for baking) in place of the sugar listed in-recipe
- leave out the zest of one lemon called for, as I had no lemon
What you should know: These cookies made significantly fewer than the three dozen indicated. Perhaps two dozen.
That's right. Fantastic new make of the evening (at least till we get to the next item). I can count on three fingers the number of times I've made cupcakes - I'm just not a big cake fan. And never had a go at pumpkin cupcakes . . . probably because I really dislike the flavor of canned pumpkin. Can't stand to eat the tradition Thanksgiving pumpkin pie. That icky, over-sweet, strangely-textured, clearly from-a-can flavor! (Same response to the pumpkin soup I made and tried to eat fall a year ago.) Ew. So for these, I'll just say that they were amazing (really, really good), and I will jump directly to what I did differently, which is why I think I loved them so particularly. (Though I've never yet been disappointed by a sassy radish recipe, so if you were to follow her instructions to a fully-canned precision, and if you don't hate canned pumpkin as do I, I think you'd be pleased, anyway.
What I did differently:
- I used freshly-pureed pumpkin, a la these instructions. Also, I used one small pumpkin and one small, sweeter winter squash, which reduced the strong pumpkin flavor a bit (not entirely; just a bit), and added a nice, natural sweetness. And the pureeing wasn't difficult at all; the oven did the roasting, I scooped and food-processed, and that was that. I didn't have to add any water, though the instructions indicate you might - perhaps depending on the type of pumpkin or squash. I had quite a bit leftover, and to the freezer it went, for further pumpkin-puree additions to upcoming recipes. You should consider this as an alternative to buying the canned stuff: it is likely cheaper (two squash that probably would have equalled a dollar or dollar-fifty at this time of year produced four-ish cups of the stuff) and far healthier (no added sugar, no preservatives, nuthin' but the punkin).
- I made them small, using the cute little 24-a-sheet muffin tray. In the end, there were forty-eight cupcakes, with batter left over for - I'd say - four more big ones (stored in the freezer). P.S. I'm learning that people at a party - women, in particular, will eat at least several - if not more - teeny cupcakes when they wouldn't think of touching a full-sized cupcake. Something about the cues a full-sized cupcake gives: I'm loaded with fat! And sugar! I should actually be at a five-year-old's birthday party! I was probably bought at the grocery store bakery! But small cuteness trumps all. This is my new cupcake trick.
- I seriously adjusted the frosting according to what I had on-hand: one package cream cheese, 1/4 cup powdered sugar (same as called for on butter and maple syrup; we all know I'll never skimp on those). The result was: less icing (which was okay, as the cakes were teeny and as I didn't feel the need to slather them. Just a dollop did fine.) and cream-cheesier icing (which, in my opinion, was just fine).
What I did differently:
- I used only two pounds ground beef. Still a meaty stew.
- I left out the cocoa chili powder, and my paprika wasn't smoked. I'll never know what I missed, but it did taste fine as it was.
- I added two cans of black beans, as I'm a big black bean fan. Good addition.
What you should know: That thing about this recipe making quite the large pot: 6 quarts+
Mulled Wine
Ah. The mulled wine. Enunciate carefully when you tell people this is what you're going to be serving, else they'll think you're trying to pawn of some kind off moldy Halloweeny drink. But once they give it a try, it'll be gone before you know it. I've mulled a few wines in my day, but never really by recipe. This one (in my opinion) has a good ratio of water-to-wine, and (ingeniously; why didn't I think of this before?) boils the water with the sugar till the sugar is melted up good. The spice elements go in a tied-up bag of cheesecloth (also brilliant: no floaties in your mug). And - AND - it involves a vanilla bean. This was my very first. No scraping out the vanilla, just a slice down the length of the pod and then submersion. This is a fancy mulled wine. (Though I'm sure it would taste just fine without the vanilla bean.) And the requisite lemon and orange slices. I think the new seasonal rule in the Martin Household will be Mulled Wine starting October 31st. It just seems right.
What I did differently: I quadrupled the amount of wine, and thus water. Two (cheap) 1.5 L bottles of Burgundy and 6 cups water. However, I only used one vanilla bean and only doubled the amount of spices. More vanilla might have been tasty, but really, it was fantastic as-was. I'd estimate it filled 4 1/2 quarts of a pot, and after a party of 16 grownups, there're perhaps three mug-fulls left (in our fridge for reheating - is it okay to do that? I sure hope so, cause we're gonna.).
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