Chef Patti Anastasia
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Serving Southern New Hampshire &
the Merrimack Valley since 2003
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Great meals & the time to enjoy them!
Chef Patti Anastasia Serving Southern New Hampshire & |
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Table Talk » December 2007 Archives« November 2007 | Table Talk Home | April 2008 » December 26, 2007Twister - Our Christmas Morning Breakfast TraditionTwister is Tom's nickname for French Twist, the breakfast bread that my family has had for Christmas morning breakfast since I was a kid. I don't remember any other Christmas morning breakfast. This recipe came from Mrs. Ruth Schiff, a woman who summered on Priscilla Beach, where I grew up. My mother befriended Mrs. Schiff when I was a child. Mrs. Schiff's recipe became our Christmas morning breakfast. It's an interesting recipe, I'd love to know the origins of it. My mom and I were talking about it on our Christmas afternoon walk around her neighborhood and she doesn't know anything about the recipe's origins other than it came from Mrs. Schiff. I think fondly of Mrs. Schiff every Christmas Eve when I make it. It is baked on Christmas Eve and served at room temperature on Christmas morning (and for as long as it lasts, which isn't very long because we love it.) What is French Twist? It's a slightly sweet, moist yeast bread that is filled with meringue, cinnamon, and raisins and baked in a bundt or tube (angel food cake) pan. Mrs. Schiff's recipe baked in a tube pan, but the first time I made it, I didn't have a tube pan, so I used a bundt pan. I've been using a bundt pan ever since. My mom thinks that she added the raisins for my dad, who loves raisins and asks for raisins in everything.
I probably wouldn't figure out this recipe if I hadn't made it with my mother for years before attempting it on my own. First you cream the butter and sugar. This is my favorite step because I use vanilla that my dad and grandfather made in the 1950s using grain alcohol and vanilla beans. This vanilla is older than me and it smells so wonderful. The supply is dwindling, so every drop is precious. My mom gave me about 6 ounces of dad's vanilla in my stocking. Yay!
After mixing in all of the dough ingredients, you knead the dough for a few minutes. I do this in my KitchenAid mixer, but you can do it by hand. Here's the dough after kneading.
The dough rises in the refrigerator for a few hours, then you roll it out into a rectangle, spread the meringue over the dough and sprinkle with cinnamon and raisins. Some of the folks who eat my mom's French Twist with don't like raisins, so my mom puts raisins on only half of the dough for the raisin lovers. Tom and I love raisins, so I use lots of raisins. I prefer golden raisins, so that is what I use.
Now comes the tricky part. Rolling up the dough, cutting it into six pieces, and putting them in the pan to rise again. Unfortunately, I didn't get pictures of this because I was too busy (and sticky) with the rolling and cutting. You roll the dough like a jelly roll, rolling from one long edge to the other. Just try to keep as much of the meringue filling in the roll, but don't worry if it oozes out a bit. French Twist is baked in a bundt pan. Make sure that your pan is well-greased or it will stick. I use a silicone bundt pan that I spray with oil spray. After you roll it up, you have a long tube that you need to cut into six pieces. I cut it in half, then cut each half in thirds. Place each section upright in the prepared bundt pan. You'll have six towers in your pan. Cover the pan with a clean towel and let it rise for 2 hours. Here's what it looks like after rising.
After rising, it bakes at 325F for 50 minutes. Let it cool in the pan for 15 minutes, then turn it out onto a cooling rack. While it is hot, it is fragile, so be careful. I put a small, square cooling rack face down on top of the bundt pan and flip over the cooling rack and the pan. With the silicone pan, I tap it in a few places and the French Twist releases. I always had a heck of a time getting it to release from a metal bundt pan, but since switching to the silicone pan, it always releases beautifully. Cool it completely, the cover it or wrap it in plastic wrap. My French Twist is always coming out of the oven around 9:30 or 10 pm on Christmas Eve, so I cool it on our 3-season porch. On Monday, it was 40 degrees in the porch, so it cooled quickly. This recipe sounds more complicated than it really is. It takes time to make, but each step is easy. I can't imagine Christmas without French Twist. On Christmas afternoon, we were talking about French Toast and I wondered what French Twist French Toast would be like. If there is any left in a few days, Tom will be happy to be a French Twist French Toast tester.
Continue reading "Twister - Our Christmas Morning Breakfast Tradition" » December 24, 2007My contribution to the Mini Pie RevolutionAnn and Karyn over at The Mini Pie Revolution Headquarters are seeking to liberate the world from cupcake oppression by taking cupcake pans and using them to make mini pies. You already know that I am a fan of mini desserts. I read about the Mini Pie Revolution on Serious Eats just after making my mini pumpkin chiffon pies. Since Christmas is tomorrow, and Christmas means desserts, and I have a thing for mini desserts, and my dad loves lemon meringue pie. I made Mini Lemon Meringue Pies. OK, so before these pies, I've made pie crust twice in my life and both times were in the past month, and those pie crusts were gluten-free for one of my clients. I knew that the biggest challenge of making these mini lemon meringue pies would be figuring out how to work the miniature pie crusts. I decided to use foil cupcake pans to bake my pies. Why? Because I knew that if I had trouble getting the baked crusts out of the pan, I could use my kitchen scissors and release the crusts from the pans. My first attempt at the crusts was a wreck. Sorry, no picture. The crusts shrunk down to nothing. For Take 2, I did a better job of pricking holes in the crusts and I also placed a paper muffin cup liner inside each pie and filled it with dry beans to weigh down the crust. My second set of mini pie crusts didn't shrink. Yay!
December 21, 2007Eat Your Veggies in a BurgerMy favorite veggie burger is an adaptation of Eating Well's Mediterranean Burgers. Their recipe uses millet, which is hard for me to find, so I adapted it to use quinoa, one of my favorite grains. I knew that these veggies burgers would appeal to some of my clients, so I streamlined the recipe to make it easier and faster to prepare. Except for using quinoa instead of millet, I didn't make many changes to the ingredients. Rather than pan-frying them, which is time-consuming, I bake them so that I can cook them all at the same time and not have to watch them carefully while they cook. The burgers are packed with the hearty, whole-grain goodness of quinoa, along with spinach, onions, sun-dried tomatoes, basil, and feta cheese. A great way to eat your veggies. These veggie burgers are served with Olive Ketchup. This yummy condiment is so easy and the perfect topping for these burgers. In September, a client asked for these veggie burgers. They've requested them over and over again since they first tried them. These veggie burgers freeze very well. I vacuum seal the burgers and the olive ketchup separately and advise my clients to defrost, but not heat the olive ketchup. You can heat the burgers in the microwave, in a frying pan on the stovetop, or in the oven. Since the olive ketchup takes just a few minutes to make, you could make a small batch whenever you serve the burgers. Grr, there is no photo today because I just discovered that I didn't have a memory card in my camera when I took pictures of the veggie burger. You can get an idea of what the veggie burgers look like by looking at the picture on the Eating Well site. I puree the spinach in my version, so my burgers are green throughout, not brown flecked with spinach. Note to self, always check to see if there is a memory card in the camera before you start taking pictures. The next time I make these I'll come back here and update this post with a photo. Continue reading "Eat Your Veggies in a Burger" » December 14, 2007My Orzo is OrangeA few weeks ago I was searching for whole wheat orzo. My grocery store has RiceSelect Whole Wheat Orzo Pappardelle's orzos are are beautifully packaged, but the packaging isn't ideal for shipping. When my shipment arrived, two of the packages of orzo had broken open. I emailed the company, they quickly shipped replacement packages and those packages arrived in perfect condition. They told me that they were working on their packaging. I'm 100% satisfied with their customer service.
Last night, I tried the sweet potato orzo. While it doesn't have a pronounced sweet potato flavor, it does taste delicious and it adds a beautiful orange color to the plate. When Tom saw the sweet potato orzo in my order, he wasn't thrilled with the idea of it, but I think he'll like it. I was hoping for both pronounced sweet potato flavor and color, but I'll settle for good flavor and beautiful color. I tossed the sweet potato orzo with a bit of Parmesan cheese and some black pepper. Seared scallops over sauteed spinach rounded out the plate. Sweet Potato Orzo with Seared Scallops and Sauteed Spinach
December 9, 2007Whole Wheat Cheese Danish Biscuits for Maxine and RufusI recently got a "birth announcement" from one of my clients. They had welcomed Rufus, a 4 year old Papillon into their family. They've been looking for a friend for their Maxine for about a year and are delighted to have found Rufus. When I got the announcement, I was looking at Joe's blog and he had made some treats for his dogs. He inspired me to look at his collection of dog treat recipes and make something for Maxine and Rufus. The Whole Wheat Cheese Danish Biscuits caught my eye and I had everything that I needed to make them. I made one slight change to the ingredients. Joe uses canola oil. I use safflower oil. The technique is the same, except that I kneaded the dough in the mixing bowl (a trick my mom uses when she makes pizza dough) and to make cleanup easier, I lay out a large sheet of heavy-duty aluminum foil on the counter whenever I work with dough. If the foil shifts around, use freezer tape to tape it to the counter top. Maxine and Rufus are very small dogs, so I used a 1-inch star cutter to cut out the cookies. The cookies bake for 20 minutes, then you turn off the oven and leave them for 2 hours. These cookies are flavored with vanilla and they filled the house with the delicious smell of vanilla. When I added in the vanilla, I was thinking that I should really be using bacon extract! I have plans to make these biscuits for more of my dog friends. Instead of the vanilla, I want to try Savory Choice Beef Broth Concentrate Maxine and Rufus loved them! That's Maxine on the right and Rufus on the left.
Continue reading "Whole Wheat Cheese Danish Biscuits for Maxine and Rufus" » December 2, 2007Pumpkin Oatmeal for BreakfastOatmeal is so good for you, but I don't like the consistency of oatmeal cooked as a hot breakfast cereal. I want to add oatmeal to my breakfast, so I adapted my friend Marcy's recipe for baked oatmeal in the hope of making an oatmeal dish that I would like. With baked oatmeal, you get all the goodness of oatmeal, but the consistency is that of a dense bar. I made a few changes to Marcy's recipe; the most significant change was adding some pumpkin puree. Now I love oatmeal. Baked oatmeal that is! I've been making a batch of it on Sunday to have for breakfast during the week. I have a piece of baked oatmeal with some fruit. Sometimes I have it with an ounce or two of Hormel® Natural Choice® ham, which is a nitrate-free ham. Baked oatmeal is not the most photogenic food, but here it is. Baked Oatmeal with Pumpkin
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