Lean holiday goodies from the kitchen
If you're like me, you've started thinking about Holiday gifts. When it comes to homemade food and gifts, friends and family expect lean Holiday goodies from my kitchen. But, are you considering what to buy for a friend or relative who cooks that also doesn't lean out your savings, too? Here's some good ideas for this years gift giving.
There's two kitchen tools I would have a very hard time living without: my digital thermometer and digital scale. Both go a long way to guaranteeing mealtime success in my kitchen.
Digital instant-read thermometers have been around for years and I've owned several. Digital thermometers range in price from as low as $10 to a high of $100.
My brother, Tom, a chef, gave me a Cooper Digital Pocket Thermometer ($35-50), that I've used for a few years now and really like it. It can be turned on and off (some are always on), quickly registers temperatures (a few seconds) and its battery can be replaced easily. Too pricey? Consumer Reports ranked the Taylor Weekend Warrior 806 their number one with a $16 price tag. Good deal.
Leave-in digital thermometers that leave the probe in the meat with a wire snaking out the oven door for a constant temperature reading have a definite place in the kitchen. They're great for not opening an oven door while continuously monitoring roasting progress. Consumer Reports recommends the Polder THM-360 ($35), which has dual probes (for multi-tasking) and can be pre-set to let you know when meat or anything else you're monitoring reaches that temperature.
My digital scale's no longer being manufactured. It's still a little kitchen workhorse, though, and after I bought it I wondered how I'd ever done without one. I measure everything from breakfast cereal (one-ounce servings of different cereals can vary in volume) to meatballs, flour, sugar and grated cheese. This September, Cook's Illustrated rated Oxo's Good Grips Food Scale with Pull-Out Display ($50) their winner.
In June I wrote about Misto's Oil Sprayer ($9.95) a hand-pumped vegetable oil sprayer in which you can use whatever oil you chose. Supermarket aerosol oil sprays generally use inexpensive, lower quality oils. With your own sprayer you can use whatever oil you want.
Sprayers may be used to lightly coat a waffle iron or a pancake pan, or a sauté pan for eggs or veggie stir-fries, or meat or fish before sautéing or grilling; salad greens (just add a couple spritzs of good-quality vinegar), bread for grilling or easily basting a roasting turkey breast.
Several cookbooks were released this year that would make terrific holiday gifts. I wrote about James Peterson's very solid book "Cooking," which is a terrific teaching cookbook. There's a wealth of pictures to help guide the reader through a wide variety of cooking techniques and over 600 recipes. Any good cook, from a talented teen to a jaded adult would enjoy receiving this book.
You may have seen Shirley Corriher on the Food Network or read her 1997 cookbook: "CookWise." Shirley's a food scientist with a humorous knack for explaining all things scientific about food. In her newest effort, "Bakewise," Corriher takes on baking and all of its complexities. It's a beautifully done book with recipes and explanations and will make a very good gift.
Around the holidays I really enjoy making and sharing cookies. One of my favorite at this time of year is a ginger cookie, and this one is one of the best. It looks good, tastes great with less fat and fewer calories. Tough to beat. Give it a try.
Double Ginger Crackles
23/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
1 cup sugar
11/2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled
1 large egg
1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon milk
21/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
21/4 cups powdered sugar
71/2 teaspoons meringue powder
1/4 cup water
Decorating sprinkles or sugar
Special equipment
3-inch ornament-shaped cookie cutter
Piping bag with narrow tip
In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
In a large bowl, combine the butter and sugar. Use an electric mixer to beat on medium-high speed, scraping the bowl as needed, until pale and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Reduce the mixer to medium and add the melted chocolate.
Add the egg, egg yolk, milk and vanilla, then mix on medium speed until fully incorporated. Reduce mixer speed to low and add the dry ingredients 1/4 cup at a time, mixing until fully incorporated.
Divide the dough in half. Place each half between 2 sheets of waxed or parchment paper. Roll out each dough to about 1/4-inch thickness. Refrigerate the dough discs (it's fine to stack them) until cold and slightly firm, about 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, heat the oven to 375 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper or coat them with cooking spray.
Remove 1 dough disc from the refrigerator and lift off the top sheet of parchment paper. Use the cutter to cut cookies from the dough, gathering and rerolling scraps as needed to use up all the dough.
Carefully transfer the cookies to the prepared baking sheets, leaving about 11/2 inches of space between each cookie. If the cookies are too soft to move, place them (still on the bottom sheet of parchment) in the freezer for 5 minutes.
Bake the cookies, rotating the sheets front to back and top to bottom halfway through, until set at the center, about 10 minutes. Use a spatula to transfer the cookies to a cooling rack to cool completely.
Repeat this process with the second piece of dough.
Once all of the cookies have been baked and cooled, make the icing. In a medium bowl, combine the powdered sugar, meringue powder and water. Use an electric mixer with the whisk attachment to whip for 10 minutes.
Transfer the icing to the piping bag. Pipe decorative designs on each cookie. As you finish each cookie, sprinkle it with candy sprinkles or decorating sugar. Let the cookies set for at least 5 minutes, then gently tip to remove excess sprinkles.
Cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature up to 1 week.
Makes about 30 cookies.
Associated Press