The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Baking made simple
Try some recipes that hark back to old-fashioned seasonal treats.
Like many people, I grew up in a world where holiday baking, candy-making and cooking-swapping seemed as mandatory as shopping for gifts and putting up a tree.
My grandmother baked oldschool fruit cakes, whiskey-soaked Lane Cakes and towering Japanese Fruit Cakes. My mother stayed up until the wee hours concocting snow-white Divinity candy (sometimes dyed pink or green, always topped with half a pecan or a cherry); bourbon balls; lady fingers; cheese straws and all manner of things coated with nuts and rolled in coconut.
But let’s be real: Who has time for such flour-slinging frenzy nowadays? I can barely spare a moment to decorate the mantle, much less dig out a pastry tube for painting faces on gingerbread guys.
All that said, I remain a dedicated holiday baker, always on the prowl for something new to add to my repertoire.
But I’m talking two or three memorable recipes, not the dozens of Mama and her ilk. And for the most part, I try to stick to simple techniques and minimal ingredients, no-fail recipes that store well, freeze well, travel well. I like sweets that pack flavor and inspire envy.
Luckily, this year we’ve witnessed a sleighful of baking cookbooks with bookoodles of ideas and inspirations.
With “Dorie’s Cookies” (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $35), Dorie Greenspan proves herself a cookie goddess extraordinaire. I can’t look through her recipe collection without wanting to try it all, from Sweet Potato Pie Bars to French Vanilla Sables to Snowy-Topped Brownie Drops. That latter confection packs the texture of gooey brownies inside a crackly, sugarcoated crust. These cookies are pretty and so easy to make.
Anne Byrn’s “American Cake” (Rodale, $29.99) is where I go to reflect on the legacy of my Southern grandmother, and to find something new. Many of Byrn’s cakes caught my eye for the holidays, but the real clincher was the Pink Champagne Cake with Pink Champagne Buttercream Frosting. Apparently, it’s a holdover from the 1960s, when wearing long white gloves and sipping pink bubbly was the height of fashion.
For some reason, pink didn’t seem all that Christmas-y to me (though my mother would probably disagree), so I decided to use regular bubbles and omit the pink food coloring.
The results: a magnificent threelayer study in ivory, with a fine, moist crumb and a luxurious amount of icing. The champagne gives the cake a delicate aroma of roses and honey. Make it for someone you love. Top it with flowers. Pour some bubbles, and celebrate the coming of a New Year. May it be as sweet and memorable as this cake.
Finally, I was delighted to thumb through Rosie Daykin’s “Butter Celebrates!” (Knopf, $35), a collection of recipes from her Vancouver sweet shop, Butter Baked Goods, and see chapters for the holidays. For Hanukkah, there’s Apple-Stuffed Challah and Chocolate Hazelnut Rugelach. For Christmas, Pecan Crescents, Orange Gingerbread Cake and Cranberry Pistachio Icebox Cookies. For New Year, Champagne Cupcakes (aha!) and Boozy Chocolate Truffles, among others.
But the recipe that really sang out to me was the so-called Eggnog-less Bars. So what’s up with the name?
Seems that on the fine June day Daykin set out to create this recipe, there was no store-bought eggnog to be had, so she had to improvise. And boy, did she hit pay dirt.
These easy-to-put-together bars have the texture of cheesecake, a hint of spice and a touch of booze. And even without the egg-
nog, they are delicious and evocative of the creamy holiday libation.
And so, friends, after some experimentation, I present a pair of recipes that are ideal for packing into cookie tins or putting out when friends stop by for coffee. And a special-occasion cake that will turn heads and make you flush with excitement.
One of these holidays, I’m going to get out the cookie cutters and the sprinkles.
I’m going to bring down all the ornaments from the attic and put up a tree, or three.
But for now, there’s work to do, gifts to buy — and parties. Happily, I can check off the holiday baking box, and with these three gems, you can, too.