Cookie sale

Thank you to all of those that have ordered my cookies! I hope you enjoy them!

Baked cookies are unfortunately not for sale anymore because my oven door broke this evening! My kitchen faucet broke last week (though I could still turn on the water from below the sink, and it's now been replaced) and now the oven goes!! I've been needing to get my kitchen remodeled anyway, so these problems are really kick-starting the project. Although, I did NOT plan on buying new appliances!

(Knocking on wood) My refrigerator and freezer still work, so I can still produce frozen cookie dough. Please place your order by 4:00pm on Monday, December 15th. The earlier the better, please, so I can plan for the ingredients and time in the kitchen. Luckily most of my orders have been for frozen dough, so that's what is most popular anyway.

To show you the quantities of some varieties, this is a full batch of Rosemary Butter Cookies:
Full batch of Cream Cheese Walnut:
Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip (plus 4 that are still cooling on the rack):

CHRISTMAS COOKIES FOR SALE

Chocolate Chunk Cookies with Walnuts or Pecans, optional (about 35 cookies)

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies (about 35 cookies)

Rosemary Butter Cookies (about 50 cookies)

Cream Cheese Walnut Cookies (about 40 cookies)

1 batch for $18.00

1 batch frozen dough for $15.00

10% off each additional batch purchased (rounded) (ie. 2 batches=$34.00; 2 frozen=$28; 1 batch and 1 frozen=$31)

The frozen dough will be balls or slices of dough ready to be placed on a baking sheet and popped in the oven.

I can't guarantee the exact number of cookies your batch will make, but I will give you the entire batch. The amounts above are what the original recipes indicate.

I can make deliveries in the Loudoun County area this weekend, December 13 & 14, and Wednesday, December 17. That is the latest date before Christmas that I'll be able to deliver.

Please comment or email me (jamiehak@gmail.com) to place your order!

Cinnamon Swirl Bread

You KNOW you want to bite into this bread right now! I had to slice it while it was still warm; I couldn't take it any longer. Although I just read in my Cooks Illustrated cookbook that technically bread is not finished baking until it's cooled. Hmm. Sometimes a loaf's gotta take one for the team I guess.

The texture of the bread part is dense but not too heavy, and overall the loaf is breadlike rather than cinnamon-roll like; it's actually not very sweet. It would make a mean French toast and in fact if there's any left in a few days it just might! The cinnamon I use, Penzey's Extra Fancy Vietnamese Cinnamon, is particularly strong and spicy, like Big Red gum. Ceylon cinnamon would be very good in this recipe since it is more mellow, and of course the regular cinnamon from the grocery store has the most traditional flavor that everyone loves.

There are a few reasons why I decided to make this bread. First, I wanted to make a treat for our good friends the Decker/Dawson family (and all the cookies and pies in the house are just not good enough, it's gotta be FOR them). Second, I promised myself that I'd try my hand at more yeast doughs since I have the big jar of yeast. And lastly, because I was flipping through one of my favorite huge baking cookbooks and this was on the page I landed on.

Cinnamon Swirl Bread
recipe from Baking Illustrated; also found online here.

Makes 1 loaf.

If you like, the dough can be made one day, refrigerated overnight, then shaped, proofed, and baked the next day. This recipe also doubles easily.

Ingredients
Enriched Bread Dough:
1/2 cup milk
4 tablespoons unsalted butter (1/2 stick), cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1 package dry active yeast (2 1/4 teaspoons)
1/2 cup warm water (110 degrees)
1/3 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons table salt
3 1/4 - 3 3/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

Filling:
1/4 cup sugar
5 teaspoons ground cinnamon
Milk for brushing

Glaze:
1 large egg
2 teaspoons milk

Instructions
1. For the dough: Heat milk and butter in small saucepan over medium heat until butter melts. Cool to lukewarm (about 110 degrees).

2. Meanwhile, sprinkle yeast over warm water in bowl of stand mixer fitted with paddle. Beat in sugar and eggs and mix at low speed to blend. Add salt, lukewarm milk mixture, 2 cups of flour; mix at medium speed until thoroughly blended, about 1 minute. Switch to dough hook attachment. Add 1 1/4 cups flour, and knead at medium-low speed, adding additional flour sparingly if dough sticks to sides of bowl, until dough is smooth and comes away from sides of bowl, about 10 minutes.

3. Turn dough onto work surface. Squeeze dough with a clean dry hand. If dough is sticky, knead in up to 1/2 additional cup flour to form a smooth, soft, elastic dough. Transfer dough to a very lightly oiled large plastic container or bowl. Cover top of container with plastic wrap and let rise until double in size, 2 to 2 1/2 hours. (Ideal rising temperature is 75 degrees.) After rise, punch down center of dough once (can be refrigerated, covered, up to 18 hours). Making sure not to fold or misshape dough, turn it onto unfloured work surface; let dough rest, to relax, about 10 minutes.

4. Grease sides and bottom of a 9-by-5-inch loaf pan. Mix sugar and cinnamon in small bowl.

5. Press dough neatly into an evenly shaped 6-by-8-inch rectangle. With short side of dough facing you, roll dough with rolling pin into evenly shaped 8-by-18-inch rectangle (flour counter lightly if dough sticks). After rolling out dough, brush liberally with milk. Sprinkle filling evenly over dough, leaving 1/2-inch border on far end. Roll up dough, pinching gently with fingertips. To keep loaf from stretching beyond 9 inches, use hands to occasionally push ends in as dough is rolled. Use fingertips to pinch the dough ends together very tightly to form a secure seam. With seam side facing up, push in center of ends. Firmly pinch outside dough edges together to seal.

6. Place loaf, seam side down, into prepared pan; press lightly to flatten. Cover top of pan loosely with plastic wrap and set aside to proof. Let rise until dough is 1 inch above top of pan, about 1 1/2 hours, or about 1 hour longer if dough has been refrigerated. As dough nears top of pan, adjust oven rack to center position and heat oven to 350 degrees.

7. Meanwhile, in small bowl, whisk together egg and milk. Gently brush loaf top with egg mixture; bake until loaf is golden brown and instant-read thermometer pushed through top side into center of loaf registers 185 to 190 degrees, 30 to 35 minutes. Remove bread from pan and cool on its side on wire rack until room temperature, at least 45 minutes. (Can be double-wrapped in plastic wrap and stored at room temperature for four days or frozen up to three months.)

For mixing by hand: Beginning with step 2, sprinkle yeast over water in large bowl. Follow instructions in step 2, using hand mixer or wooden spoon, thoroughly blending ingredients with 2 cups flour. Using wooden spoon, mix in 1 1/4 cups flour. Knead by hand until dough is smooth and elastic, 12 to15 minutes, adding additional flour if necessary. Transfer dough to lightly oiled container and follow rising instructions.

I doubled the recipe, and here's all the dough in step #3 after being punched down:Here's step #5:These are the loaves just before going in the oven. I have one silicon loaf pan and one non-stick one. I prefer.... neither. But as you'll see, the non-stick made a perfect loaf (for the first time in it's life! It usually burns things), and the silicon one doesn't hold it's own shape very well so the bread swells and billows out, which isn't preferable in this recipe because we're trying to keep the cinnamon-sugar filling rolled up and the edges pinched and sealed together. I was a proud baker when I pulled this out of the oven! I've never made anything that looked like that before:Here are the loaves cooling on their sides. They started out with the exact same weight of dough, and you can see how the silicon pan allowed the dough to spread out.

Thanksgiving

Sorry I've been so neglectful of my blogs! I have not been spending much time on the computer in the last few weeks, but I have been spending a lot of time in the kitchen.

My family spends every Thansgiving together at a cabin at Algonkian Park, which is within walking distance from my condo. I have a full house, and all the out of towners stay in the four bedrooms at the cabin. It's nice that it's no one's home base, and everyone pitches in with the food for four days, including the BIG meal. We've got it down to a science! We do send around a long email list of who's bringing what, but by the 8th or 9th year it's pretty much in stone. Here's a peek into our list:

ANYTIME SNACKS
Chex Mix - Jamie
Cookies - Jamie
Artichoke Dip - Carroll
Fruit - Henry & Lauren
Pimento Cheese - Hank

WEDNESDAY DINNER
Taco Soup - Patti
Corn Bread - Jamie

Jessi's Chocolate Cake - Jessi

THURSDAY BREAKFAST
Breakfast Before - Jessi
French Toast Casserole - Carroll

THANKSGIVING MEAL
Turkey + Turkey Breast - Patti
Gravy - Patti
Broccoli Bake - Patti
Stove Top - Patti
Rolls - Patti
Potatoes - Carroll
Sweet Potatoes - Jessi
Creamed Spinach - Jamie
Mac & Cheese - Jessi&Jamie
Henry's Cranberries - Legard
Canned Cranberry Sauce - Carroll
Legard salad - Legard

Pumpkin Pie - Jamie
Chess Pie - Hank
Pecan Pie - Jamie

FRIDAY BREAKFAST
Buttermilk Biscuits - Jamie
Apple Butter & Pumpkin Butter - Andy

FRIDAY DAY
Turkey & Dumplings - Patti
Leftover King - Erol

FRIDAY DINNER
If we need dinner Friday, we can all pitch in to make a spaghetti and meatball dinner?

SATURDAY BREAKFAST
Fried egg sandwiches - Patti

BEVERAGES
Coffee -
2% Milk -
Half & Half -
Apple cider and/or mulled cider - Hank
Beer - Erol & RT
Wine - Joel
Punch - Jessi&Jamie

NON-FOOD OTHER
Table cloths - Patti
Paper plates - Legard
Turkey time paper plates - Legard
Napkins - Legard
Paper towels - Jamie
Dish washing soap/sponge/gloves - Jamie
Hand soap for bathrooms - Jamie
General merriment - Andrew

Next year we probably won't even need a list. The only thing that changes is who's making Wednesday dinner and the breakfasts, for which we usually don't stick to the list anyway!

I just love Thanksgiving time. The food, the family, the games, the predictability, the everything. My recipes will be listed soon, and some pictures too, but I wanted to let you know that I'm still here in my messy kitchen!