use real butter

I’ve had this recipe in the back of my head for well over ten years. Jeremy and I were driving from Ithaca, New York down to Virginia to visit with my parents way back in the late 90s when we stopped by my friend’s house in Washington DC along the way. I lived in northern Virginia for one year during high school and became close friends with Emily. It was nice to see her parents again (I love them, they are the sweetest people) and introduce them to Jeremy for the first time. While we chatted, Emily’s mom - the consummate hostess - presented us with a platter of hot, crispy phyllo triangles filled with… crawdads. Crawdads (crayfish) are these delicious freshwater critters that look like small lobsters and are practically religion on the Gulf. Mmmmm, mmmm, good.

crawdads, onions, celery, and spices, parsley and green onions

I never did get a recipe, but this sort of thing isn’t too hard to throw together - if you have crawdads. I found some frozen cooked crawdad meat in the store the other day. This was about as close as I was gonna get to it out here in the Rockies. I instinctively grabbed the package and chucked it into my basket. Crawdad phyllo triangles would be perfect to round out our holiday menu of maritime indulgences.

sauté onions, celery, and spices in butter

add the crawdads and greens

To be perfectly honest, I would be happy to stuff any sort of seafood (well, almost any sort - I’ve tried sea cucumber and believe that is an acquired taste) into buttery layers of phyllo dough. They are great for entertaining, except on Christmas day, we were entertaining ourselves and no others. More for us - hee hee.

brush butter and fold, brush more butter and fold again

Once you get the hang of phyllo sheets, triangles are pretty easy to master. I butter half of a sheet, fold it on the long axis, then butter half again and fold it on the long axis once more.

ready to roll, er - fold

You fold triangles up like a flag or like those paper footballs that 8th graders invariably made in the classroom. It’s a forgiving fold too - because any bits that squish or ooze out can be tucked in and folded over and covered up. I usually drop a tablespoon of filling on the corner.

fold up the precious goodness

all set to go into the oven

This batch yields approximately 26 triangles. While we both enjoyed the triangles, there was a part of me that felt the filling was wanting for… for more heat or tang or umph. I based the filling on a crawdad turnover filling from Emeril’s Louisiana Real & Rustic. Having grown up on the Chesapeake Bay, I suspect that what I wanted was Old Bay Seasoning, something that blesses all good steamed Chesapeake blues (crabs). Perhaps next time I’ll put a Chesapeake spin on it.

serve hot and crispy

Crawfish Phyllo Triangles
modified from Crawfish Turnovers in Louisiana Real & Rustic by Emeril Lagasse

1 lb. crawfish tails, peeled and cooked
1 cup onions, diced
1/2 cup celery, chopped
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cayenne
3/4 tsp paprika
1/2 stick butter
3 tbsp parsley, chopped
3 tbsp green onions, chopped
2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1/2 lb. phyllo dough sheets, thawed
1 cup butter, melted

Mix the onions, celery, salt, cayenne, and paprika in a bowl. Melt the butter in a sauté pan over medium-high heat. Sauté the seasoned vegetables until soft and brown. Add the crawfish and cook for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat. Add the parsley, green onions, and Worcestershire sauce and stir well. Let cool. To make each triangle, set one sheet of phyllo on a clean work surface and brush melted butter on half of the sheet lengthwise. Fold the phyllo on its long axis in half. Brush melted butter on half of the phyllo lengthwise again, and fold on the long axis once more. You should have a long narrow strip of phyllo with 4 layers. Place a heaping tablespoon of filling on one corner of the strip and begin folding the dough over the filling like a flag. Continue folding until the dough is completely wrapped around the filling. Brush a little butter on the end to seal it down. Place triangles on a baking sheet so they are not touching one another. Bake at 375F for 18-20 minutes. Serve hot.

I trust everyone had a merry Christmas and/or federal holiday! I want to thank those of you who bid on my raffle prize as well as all of the other fabulous raffle prizes at Menu for Hope IV this year. What an awesome turnout. MfH raised 50% more than last year’s effort - over $90,000! That’s a whole lotta raffle tickets, kids!

Ever since I found out that my Aussie friends have lovely cold seafood picnics on the beach for Christmas, I have steadily rejected the traditional roasted animal - be it of feathered or four-legged persuasion - in favor of those animals who gurgle and bubble in the sea. Now *that* is a treat to me. I grew up on the water and spent far too much time in it or at its edge during my youth. This year we had lobster bisque, crawdad phyllo triangles (crawdads = crayfish = yabbies), shrimp cocktail, and king crab legs for our Christmas “meal”. The meal was neither lunch nor dinner, but a long drawn out noshing session. We didn’t have it in us to eat dessert. Who needs dessert after all of those lovely critters?

oh you little beauty

I’ll post the crawdad phyllo triangles later, because if you are going to try a recipe, the one I have for you today is a hands down winner. This was one of my most reliable desserts when I lived at sea-level. I had all but forgotten about it after moving to the mountains because various bundt and pound cakes behaved so abominably that those recipes were on indefinite hiatus. For some reason, while racking my brain for a new cake to take to the neighbors, I was reunited with this beloved tea cake - and I’m so glad!

raspberries and almond pair well here

The instructions in the recipe threw me for a loop the first time I ever made this cake. Renny Darling nonchalantly says to mix the first seven ingredients together. Well… if you buy the almond paste that I buy (because it’s the only one I can find), then it ain’t mixing with anything. No, what you will want to do to save yourself some cursing and angry stickiness is to pulse the almond paste and the sugar together in a food processor first. Then you can proceed per her instructions.

blissful cake-making: give the almond paste a whirl with the sugar first

now mix everything together

The biggest concern for me is that cakes or cookies will rise too fast in this thin air. They rise too fast and then collapse - it’s like bad sex. I tinkered with the amount of baking powder, reducing it considerably for my elevation. However, if you are baking at sea-level, the recipe works perfectly.

folding in the raspberries

The baking time guidelines are on the nose for a single batch. I typically make a double batch because the recipe makes for a short (but cute) bundt cake. A double ends up baking for an hour and 5 minutes. Don’t let the color of the cake top fool you. It will be pale, but the cake that touches the pan will be browning up nicely. Use the toothpick test: moist crumbs okay, gooey needs more time.

pleasing to the eyes, nose, and tastebuds

The crumb of this cake is on the dense side, but the flavors of almond and raspberry are light in contrast. A slice is perfect with a cup of tea or coffee. You can serve this as a breakfast cake, for afternoon tea, or even as a dessert after dinner. I omit the almonds in the glaze, and if I’m not serving the whole cake, then I only glaze each slice, but do whatever floats your boat. It’s an easy and delicious bite of happiness.

raspberry almond tea cake

Royal Raspberry and Almond Cake with Toasted Almond Glaze
from Easiest and Best Coffee Cakes and Quick Breads by Renny Darling

1/2 cup almond paste
1/3 cup oil
1 egg
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup sour cream
1 tsp almond extract
2 cups flour
1 tbsp baking powder (3/4 tsp for 8500 feet elevation)
3/4 cup raspberries

toasted almond glaze
1 tbsp cream
1/4 tsp almond extract
3/4 cup sifted powdered sugar
3 tablespoons finely chopped toasted almonds

Preheat oven to 325F. *Jen’s note: Pulse the almond paste and sugar together in a food processor until fine grained and mixed. Combine the first seven ingredients together until blended. Add flour and baking powder and stir until dry ingredients are just moistened. Gently fold in the raspberries. Place batter into a greased 10-inch tube pan (or bundt) and bake for 45 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean. [For a double batch, bake for about 1 hour and 5 minutes]. Allow to cool in pan. To make the toasted almond glaze, stir together all of the ingredients until blended. When cake is cool, remove from pan and drizzle top with toasted almond glaze. Serves 8 to 10.

Does it suddenly feel like you’re walking through the enchanted forest with all of the yule logs popping up on food blogs? Enchanted, indeed. It’s the Daring Bakers challenge for December! This month our most beloved founders: Lisa of La Mia Cucina and Ivonne of Cream Puffs in Venice are hosting the challenge and they picked this traditional pastry.

we knead to bake - oh yes! we most certainly do…

I had never made a yule log (aka bûche de noël) before, but I was familiar with all of the components. The three major parts were: meringue mushrooms, buttercream frosting, and the genoise. I began with the mushrooms.

beat the egg whites to stiff peaks

piping tops and stems

Aside from the final assembly, this was by far my favorite part of the challenge. I made my mushrooms small because I am small-food obsessed, remember? Because I love to hike and backpack, I have spent many hundreds of miles walking gorgeous woodlands admiring the different plant life that adorns trees - both fallen and living. I made the required mushrooms, and then I made some shelf mushrooms, and then I cut some little fungi (tree ears) from orange and yellow fruit roll ups while Jeremy ate all of the scraps. The meringues required much longer baking time than the suggested 50-55 minutes. I baked mine for an hour and 45 minutes.

a little daub of wet meringue at the base of each top

assembled shrooms ready for a little more baking

The assemblage of the mushrooms was terrific. I used the tip of my digital candy thermometer to poke a small hole in the base of each mushroom top, piped a bit of wet meringue for glue and attached a stem to each one. Every single mushroom was just too flipping cute.

Next up was the buttercream. I have a good standard Swiss meringue buttercream recipe that I use extensively. This one was pretty similar, except it called for a lot more butter. Based on my experience, I thought the resulting amount of buttercream would be cutting it close. I am risk-averse, so I decided to increase the recipe by 50%. I heated the egg whites and sugar to 140F and then whipped them for a loooong time (20 minutes or more) before it cooled down enough to accept softened butter without melting it.

gorgeous swiss meringue

I didn’t think the coffee buttercream in the recipe would be very dark, so I made half of the batch coffee and the other half chocolate. Unfortunately… I increased everything by 50% except for the butter. I think I’m so used to my standard recipe that the original amount of butter (3 sticks) sounded right for my increased 6 egg whites when I should have used 4.5 sticks.

chopped semi-sweet chocolate

folding the melted chocolate into the buttercream frosting

The genoise recipe looked suspect to me. I’ve made a lot of genoise recipes and this one had far more egg yolk content than I was used to. It whipped up in volume just fine.

the batter should hold a ribbon for 8 seconds

spread onto a prepped half sheet

After folding in the flour and cornstarch, I poured the batter into a jelly roll pan. As it baked, it seemed to do just fine. When I pulled it out of the oven, I noticed that the crumb structure was too egg-ish. Perhaps it is my elevation, but instead of a moist and airy crumb, I had larger air pockets and a stiffer structure to the cake. *unhappy*

spreading coffee buttercream

rolled like a ho-ho

I barely had enough coffee buttercream to cover the entire cake with a thin layer. It rolled up without too many problems, although the cake was more brittle than other genoises that I’ve handled. Once rolled, I wrapped it in wax paper and chucked it into the refrigerator to chill for an hour. I lopped off one end that looked a little ragged and then cut both ends on the diagonal. The chocolate buttercream was definitely darker and better looking for the log’s exterior.

happy cluster of mushrooms

I dusted with cocoa powder for that dirt effect. Then I dusted with powdered sugar for that snow effect. I cut up green fruit roll ups to mimic pine needles.

where fungi love to grow

my absolute favorites: shelf mushrooms

Overall, this cake was too sweet for my liking. I thought it was heavy on the buttercream frosting and that the texture of the genoise was horrid. That could have been my altitude, but I’m suspicious of a spongecake that is so heavy on the egg yolks. The mushrooms were fan-freaking-tabulous and our friends sat around popping one mushroom after another into their mouths. If I were to make this again, I’d use whipped cream for filling with a softer and lighter (less egg yolk) cake base. I’d keep the meringue mushrooms and would have to think hard about replacing the exterior frosting with a whipped cream base (I do think the buttercream looks better for the outside). A good and fun challenge and a springboard for new variations. Thanks so much, Lis and Ivonne!! Be sure to check out ALL of the other Daring Bakers yule logs. Happy holidays to all.

ye olde yule log

Yule Log
from Perfect Cakes by Nick Malgieri and The Williams-Sonoma Collection: Dessert

Serves 12. Cake should be stored in a cool, dry place. Leftovers should be refrigerated.

plain genoise
3 large eggs
3 large egg yolks
pinch of salt
¾ cup of sugar
½ cup cake flour - spoon flour into dry-measure cup and level off (also known as cake & pastry flour)
¼ cup cornstarch

one 10 x 15 inch jelly-roll pan that has been buttered and lined with parchment paper and then buttered again

Set a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 400 degrees F. Half-fill a medium saucepan with water and bring it to a boil over high heat. Lower the heat so the water is simmering. Whisk the eggs, egg yolks, salt and sugar together in the bowl of a heavy-duty mixer. Place over the pan of simmering water and whisk gently until the mixture is just lukewarm, about 100 degrees if you have a thermometer (or test with your finger - it should be warm to the touch). Attach the bowl to the mixer and, with the whisk attachment, whip on medium-high speed until the egg mixture is cooled (touch the outside of the bowl to tell) and tripled in volume. The egg foam will be thick and will form a slowly dissolving ribbon falling back onto the bowl of whipped eggs when the whisk is lifted. While the eggs are whipping, stir together the flour and cornstarch. Sift one-third of the flour mixture over the beaten eggs. Use a rubber spatula to fold in the flour mixture, making sure to scrape all the way to the bottom of the bowl on every pass through the batter to prevent the flour mixture from accumulating there and making lumps. Repeat with another third of the flour mixture and finally with the remainder. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake the genoise for about 10 to 12 minutes. Make sure the cake doesn’t overbake and become too dry or it will not roll properly. While the cake is baking, begin making the buttercream. Once the cake is done (a tester will come out clean and if you press the cake lightly it will spring back), remove it from the oven and let it cool on a rack.

coffee buttercream
4 large egg whites
1 cup sugar
24 tablespoons (3 sticks or 1-1/2 cups) unsalted butter, softened
2 tablespoons instant espresso powder
2 tablespoons rum or brandy

Whisk the egg whites and sugar together in the bowl of an electric mixer. Set the bowl over simmering water and whisk gently until the sugar is dissolved and the egg whites are hot. Attach the bowl to the mixer and whip with the whisk on medium speed until cooled. Switch to the paddle and beat in the softened butter and continue beating until the buttercream is smooth. Dissolve the instant coffee in the liquor and beat into the buttercream.

Filling and frosting the log: Run a sharp knife around the edges of the genoise to loosen it from the pan. Turn the genoise layer over (unmolding it from the sheet pan onto a flat surface) and peel away the paper. Carefully invert your genoise onto a fresh piece of parchment paper. Spread with half the coffee buttercream (or whatever filling you’re using). Use the parchment paper to help you roll the cake into a tight cylinder. Transfer back to the baking sheet and refrigerate for several hours. Unwrap the cake. Trim the ends on the diagonal, starting the cuts about 2 inches away from each end. Position the larger cut piece on each log about 2/3 across the top. Cover the log with the reserved buttercream, making sure to curve around the protruding stump. Streak the buttercream with a fork or decorating comb to resemble bark. Transfer the log to a platter and decorate with your mushrooms and whatever other decorations you’ve chosen.

meringue mushrooms
3 large egg whites, at room temperature
¼ teaspoon cream of tartar
½ cup (3-1/2 ounces/105 g.) granulated sugar
1/3 cup (1-1/3 ounces/40 g.) icing sugar
unsweetened cocoa powder for dusting

Preheat the oven to 225 degrees F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment. Have ready a pastry bag fitted with a small (no. 6) plain tip. In a bowl, using a mixer on medium-low speed, beat together the egg whites and cream of tartar until very foamy. Slowly add the granulated sugar while beating. Increase the speed to high and beat until soft peaks form when the beaters are lifted. Continue until the whites hold stiff, shiny peaks. Sift the icing sugar over the whites and, using a rubber spatula, fold in until well blended. Scoop the mixture into the bag. On one baking sheet, pipe 48 stems, each ½ inch (12 mm.) wide at the base and tapering off to a point at the top, ¾ inch (2 cm.) tall, and spaced about ½ inch (12 mm.) apart. On the other sheet, pipe 48 mounds for the tops, each about 1-1/4 inches (3 cm.) wide and ¾ inch (2 cm.) high, also spaced ½ inch (12 mm.) apart. With a damp fingertip, gently smooth any pointy tips. Dust with cocoa. Reserve the remaining meringue. Bake until dry and firm enough to lift off the paper, 50-55 minutes. Set the pans on the counter and turn the mounds flat side up. With the tip of a knife, carefully make a small hole in the flat side of each mound. Pipe small dabs of the remaining meringue into the holes and insert the stems tip first. Return to the oven until completely dry, about 15 minutes longer. Let cool completely on the sheets. Garnish your Yule Log with the mushrooms.

marzipan mushrooms
8 ounces almond paste
2 cups icing sugar
3 to 5 tablespoons light corn syrup
Cocoa powder

To make the marzipan combine the almond paste and 1 cup of the icing sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat with the paddle attachment on low speed until sugar is almost absorbed. Add the remaining 1 cup of sugar and mix until the mixture resembles fine crumbs. Add half the corn syrup, then continue mixing until a bit of the marzipan holds together when squeezed, adding additional corn syrup a little at a time, as necessary: the marzipan in the bowl will still appear crumbly. Transfer the marzipan to a work surface and knead until smooth. Roll one-third of the marzipan into a 6 inches long cylinder and cut into 1-inch lengths. Roll half the lengths into balls. Press the remaining cylindrical lengths (stems) into the balls (caps) to make mushrooms. Smudge with cocoa powder.