Mouthing Off

The cover article of a recent House & Home section of the New York Times declared that the Slow Food movement—which aims to preserve traditional regional foods—is spreading over to the rest of the home. The once-old-but-new-again approach is known as Slow Design, and one of its more vocal proponents is Natalie Chanin of the housewares and clothing company Alabama Chanin, whose Alabama Stitch Book: Projects and Stories Celebrating Hand-Sewing, Quilting, and Embroidery for Contemporary Sustainable Design is being published in March by Stewart, Tabori & Chang.

But as Natalie and her friend Angie Mosier, known for her decadent Southern cakes, have shown in our pages, Slow Design and Slow Food intermingle nicely. In March, the duo will be joining their talents again in two weekend workshops together at the GAS Studio in Tuscumbia, Alabama—one will center on stitching corsets and creating fabric flowers, the other, on demystifying some of the most iconic Southern dishes, like deviled eggs, pan-fried chicken, skillet cornbread and fried pies. And of course, they'll be showcasing their Southern hospitality: The weekend will include a brunch, lunch, two cocktail sessions, and a dinner with, yes, a number of Southern cakes. Space is limited, and four scholarships are available.

I’ve long been a fan of whoopie pies, those luscious handpies made by sandwiching fluffy, marshmallow-like filling in between two chocolate-cake disks. A good whoopie pie is a cross between a Devil Dog (always too dry for my taste) and a Suzy Q, if you’ve ever tried those before. I don’t see whoopie pies too much, but I was reminded of how much I like them when I ate at Hook in Washington, DC. The pastry chef there, Heather Chittum, makes a dessert called Tic Tac Toe. She creates the board with chocolate sauce on a plate, then places two mini pies strategically on the board for the O’s. The X is a crispy vanilla shortbread cookie. How fun for me! I wish, however, that she had given me and my date each several X’s and O’s, so we could actually play the game...and get a little bit more dessert, too (sharing one of my tiny little whoopie pies was a bit of a downer).

We’ve tested some awesome whoopie pies from cookbooks in the last few years, so if you’re itching to make whoopie pies (or maybe play a winner-eat-all game of tic-tac-toe), our favorite recipes come from The Weekend Baker, by Abigail Johnson Dodge, and from The King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion.

The Ultimate Gifts, Period.

As my astute colleague Kate Heddings has noted, magazines and newspapers have been bombarding us all with gift suggestions. To simplify matters, here are the only 12 gifts you'll really need, also known as the Food & Wine Editors' Edible Gift Guide in our December issue. We polled the staff for their biggest successes and came up with our list of the most delicious, most failsafe, most irresistable crowd pleasers ever. A few highlights:

1. Need to win over your kids' teachers? Go with Tina Ujlaki's Best Ever Nut Brittle.
2. Overstaying your welcome with the relatives? Give them Kate's Cardamom-Spiced Crumb Cake. Present it in the porcelain casserole you bake it in, along with a bag of fresh-ground coffee and some rich cream, and you'll be sure to get invited back next year.
3. Just dropping by for drinks? Take along Melissa Rubel's addictive Rosemary-Maple Cashews; they’ll disappear before you leave the party.
4. Want to bring the drinks? Put together Nick Fauchald's Mock Gin and Marcia Kiesel's Pickled Pearl Onions, and you've got a glorious evening of Gibsons.
5. Got an overproductive Meyer lemon tree? (not a common predicament, but one I once enjoyed) Make this simplest Meyer Lemon Marmalade. It’s ok if you find it’s too good to give away; consider it a gift to yourself.

Many years ago, I remember thumbing through my mother's Christmas  cookie recipe file and seeing all these wonderful recipes from women's magazines—think lots of green and red glaced cherries.  It was (along with my mother's jewelry box) my favorite thing to rifle through. (It's something my 10-year-old daughter, Pia,  likes to do as well.)

December's challenge for Tasting and Testing  was Sugar Cookies—just right for the holidays.  (Let's not forget that I worked on this story in August.) I had to create an all-purpose sugar cookie dough and then come up with 3 variations.  It's usually a challenge to come up with variations  for this column (and fit them all onto one single page) but this one was a breeze. I only wish I had another page to continue on with the variations.  From one dough, the possibilities are nearly infinite. Here are a few more:

Almond-Cardamom Cookies—in place of the powdered and crystallized ginger, add  1/2 cup ground toasted almonds and 1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom, roll  out and cut or roll into a log, chill and slice. Drizzle with melted dark chocolate after baking and cooling.

Cherry-Chocolate Cookies—in place of the powdered and crystallized ginger, add  6 ounces mini chocolate chips and 1/2 cup chopped dried tart cherries. Roll out  and cut or roll into 1-inch balls and press to 1/4-inch

Green Tea-Ginger Cookies—add 1 teaspoon green tea powder (Macha) to the dough along with the crystallized and powdered ginger. Roll out and cut or roll into a log, chill and slice.

Pepper-Spice Cookies—add 1/2 teaspoon  each ground white pepper, cinnamon  and nutmeg  and 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves. Roll out and cut or roll into a log, chill and slice.

Lemon—Poppy-seed Cookies— in place of the powdered and crystallized ginger, add the finely grated zest of 1 lemon and 2 tablespoons poppy seeds. Roll out and cut, or roll into a log, chill and slice

White Chocolate-Cranberry Cookies—in place of the powdered and crystallized ginger, add  6 ounces mini white chocolate chips and 1/2 cup chopped dried cranberries. Roll out and cut or roll into a log, chill and slice.

For many, the best part about Thanksgiving is repurposing the leftovers. Not for me: I’m happiest when the dishes are done and the meal’s remnants are sent home in the hands of industrious cooks who will dream up soups, hashes, pot pies and other ingenious uses for recycled food.

So I surprised myself last night—after this year’s “Fakesgiving” dinner, my posse’s potluck warm-up to the big dance—when I chased down my friend Deana on her way out and begged from her the remains of her wicked-awesome pumpkin bars. (Had I not already known that they’d reappear in our office today, the leftover bourbon/apple/maple Jell-O shots Kristin Donnelly brought to the meal would also not have been allowed to leave the premises. I pray she gives us all the recipe tomorrow.)

This morning Deana emailed me the recipe. Like many great desserts, it's a decades-old hand-me-down—in this case, from Deana's mother, Sandy. She also gave me Sandy’s blessing to pass it on. If you make some, send me the leftovers:

Sandy’s Pumpkin Bars
Makes 16-20 bars
Crust:
One 18-ounce box yellow cake mix
1⁄2 c melted butter
1 large egg
Filling:
One 15-ounce can pumpkin puree
1/2 cup brown sugar
3 large eggs
2/3 cup 2 percent milk
2 teaspoons cinnamon
Topping:
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter, diced
1. Preheat the oven to 350°. Make the crust: Grease a 9-by-13-inch baking pan with cooking spray. Measure out 1 cup of the yellow cake mix and set it aside for the topping. In a small bowl, whisk the remaining cake mix with the melted butter and the egg until combined. Press the crust into the prepared baking pan.
2. Make the filling: In a medium bowl combine the pumpkin puree, brown sugar, eggs, milk and cinnamon and stir until combined. Spread the filling on top of the crust.
3. Make the topping: In a small bowl combine the reserved 1 cup of yellow cake mix with the sugar and diced butter. Stir until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Sprinkle the topping over the filling.
4. Bake the cake for 1 hour, until the crust is crispy and the filling is cooked through. Let cool in the pan, cut into bars and serve.

With Thanksgiving coming up, I’ve had whipped cream on my mind – or rather, delicious alternatives. Whipped cream is the key garnish to my father’s Thanksgiving pumpkin pie, and when I was little, it was my sister’s and my job to put the beaters and the bowl in the freezer before whipping the cream with Dad. Now when I make a pie or a cake, often without thinking I’ll chill my beaters to serve a little alongside. But now that the weather's finally chilly and perfect for baking, I’ve become preoccupied with other fluffy white accompaniments to pie: crème fraiche, mascarpone, soft fresh ricotta. To that end, I want to point you to a favorite recipe from our November issue: Octavio Becerra’s date cake, an incredibly moist concoction the Los Angeles chef serves with lebneh, Lebanese yogurt that the chef combines with crunchy pistacchios. Perfect for a chilly pre-Thanksgiving evening.

I'm working on a big sugar-y baking story for an upcoming issue (get ready!) that happens to call for a lot of chopped chocolate—pounds of chocolate. If you've ever chopped that much chocolate you know how important it is to use the right tool.

For large chunks, say 1/2-inch or more, the tip of a sharp chef's knife is great, but it puts holes in your butcher block.  I much prefer using a chocolate chipper.  The wood handle is easy to grip and the tines break the chocolate into  pretty uniform chunks—great for chocolate chunk cookies.

If I have to finely chop the chocolate, rather than use a chef's knife, I've found that serrated knives or scalloped-edged slicing knives work the best.   This one from Wusthof called the Super Slicer efficiently shaves the chocolate so finely that one pass is all you need.

It's such a treat whenever I have overripe bananas—it means waffles, pancakes and banana bread. My kids eat bananas two at a time (where do they put them?), sometimes not even waiting until the stems turn yellow (how do they digest them?). That is definitely NOT the case at work. We often have the better part of a bunch blackening and liquefying in our fruit basket, ready for the trash bin. Tina Ujlaki, our executive food editor, always asks us to freeze them for her to eventually make banana bread with. (We had about 10 pounds last time I looked...)  
Here's my recipe for chocolate chip banana bread. It makes 2 loaves, 24 muffins or 6 dozen mini muffins. This seems to disappear even faster than whole bananas do in my home.


Chocolate Chip Banana Bread
Active: 15 min total: 1 1/2 hrs
Makes 2 loaves (or 24 muffins or 6 dozen mini muffins)

1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, melted
2 cups mashed bananas (about 6 bananas)
3 large eggs, beaten
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup mini chocolate chips (6 ounces)

1.    Preheat the oven to 350°. Butter and flour 2 standard sized metal loaf pans (or line 24 muffin cups or 6 dozen mini muffin cups with paper liners).
2.     In a bowl, whisk the sugar, butter, bananas and eggs. In another bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and whisk until moistened. Stir in the chips. Divide the batter between the pans and bake for about 1 hour for the loaves (30 minutes for the large muffins or 20 minutes for the mini muffins). A toothpick inserted into the center should come out with a few moist crumbs attached. Let cool in the pans for 10 minutes, then turn out to cool completely. The banana bread can be wrapped and frozen for up to 1 month.