Advent Shadowbox 2012: Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!

Thanks for joining us for our Advent Shadowbox 2012 Calendar! 
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Advent Shadowbox 2012: Day 24, Christmas Eve Checklist

□ Make sure there are enough cookies for Santa. If not, make some more!

□ Prepare the Cannoli Buche de Noel for tomorrow’s Christmas dinner.

□ Go to Family Mass

□ Indulge in the Feast of the Seven Fishes

□ Drink Hot Chocolate and Sing Carols.

□ Leave Cookies, Milk, and Maybe Even Some Reindeer Biscuits by the Fire

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Advent Shadowbox 2012: Day 22, P.M. Pajama Party – Make Cookies for Santa!

Since we have some plans for this morning, we’re going to have a bit of a late night cookie-making party in our pajamas. It’s time to make a few of our classic family recipes: Santa Baby Cookies & Cookie Meteors.

Here are reprints of those recipes:

Santa Babies

Makes 5 dozen

Ingredients

1 c unsalted butter, softened
1.5 c brown sugar
.5 c granulated sugar
2 eggs, room temperature
2 tsp vanilla
2 c all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
.5 tsp salt
1 c oats
2 c semi-sweet chocolate chips
4 skor bars, crushed
OR
.5 – 1 c toffee bits
1 c flaked coconut (sweetened or unsweetened)
1 c chopped pecans

Method

Heat oven to 350f.
Cream butter and sugar until fluffy.
Add eggs and vanilla and mix until creamy.
Separately, mix flour, salt and baking soda.
Add these dry ingredients to the wet ingredients.
Separately, mix chocolate chips, toffee bits, oatmeal, coconut and pecans.
Add these mixins to the cookie batter, mixing first by machine, then, fully incorporating with spatula.
This dough is very stiff and bursting with mixins.
Drop 1-2 tbs of dough 2 inches apart on parchment or silpat-lined cookie sheets.
Bake 10-12 minutes.

Cookie Meteors
makes 16 large or 32 smaller cookies

Ingredients
1 cup chocolate chips, semi-sweet or dark
2 squares unsweetened chocolate, chopped fine
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
2/3 cup white sugar
1/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 large eggs
1.5-2 tsp vanilla
1 additional cup of semi-sweet, dark, or milk-chocolate chips or chunks
1/2-1 cup walnuts, pecans, white chocolate chips or other mix-ins (holiday mint M&M’s are always a hit.)

Method

Preheat the oven to 350F.
Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper or silpats.
In a high-heat-friendly glass bowl set 0ver a pot of boiling water, melt the butter, the first cup of chocolate chips, and the chopped unsweetened chocolate.
Set the bowl aside to cool for a few mintues OR transfer the melted chocolate mixture to another mixing bowl.
Add the sugar, flour, and baking powder to the chocolate mixture, stirring until combined. The mixture will now look thick and slightly grainy.
Stop to test that the mixture is cool enough, at this point, to add eggs without scrambling them and chocolate chips without melting them. It might be hard to leave things at this stage, but better to be careful than to have to start over.
Once the mixture is relatively cool, add the eggs one at a time and the vanilla. The mixture will now begin to shine.
Add your additional 1 cup of chocoalte chips and your 1/2 – 1 cup of white chocolate chips (or other mix-in).
Using a large tablespoon, drop large dollops of the cookie dough onto a parchment-lined cookie sheet. (Use a teaspoon if you’d like to make smaller cookies.)
Bake for 7-12 minutes, until the cookie looks shiny but not dark/wet in the middle. It will still be a little soft to the touch, though. Don’t overbake!
Carefully move the parchment or silpat of cookies onto a wire rack. Cool for as long as you can before sampling!
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Cannoli Bûche de Noël

Each year, for Christmas, I make a Bûche de Noël. For the past decade, I have been making my mom’s classic, 1970’s recipe with an easy chocolate cake, a lovely mocha whipped cream filling, and a heavenly chocolate icing: Click Here for that Classic Bûche de Noël Recipe. This year, I thought I’d take it to another level, and, sustaining my obsession with the New Jersey cannoli, the Patterson/Passiac italian bakery cannoli to be precise, I came up with a recipe for a good Cannoli Bûche de Noël. The test results have been superb, but I’m still undecided as to whether I’m going to use chocolate cake or white cake, a rum glaze or no glaze, and chocolate mascarpone icing or a vanilla mascarpone for the acutal feast day. So, I’ve provided you with not one but three cake recipes, a “Boozy” Glaze option for those who like a little “punch” in their holiday treats, a classic ricotta Cannoli Filling, and a Mascarpone Icing with a Chocolate Option. Some assembly is required. So, of course, te instructions follow. Enjoy!

Cannoli Bûche de Noël

STEP ONE: Choose from and bake any one of these three roll cakes:

I. Easy Chocolate Cake

Easy Chocolate Cake Ingredients

1 cup sifted cake flour or 1 cup minus 2 tbs sifted all purpose flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
3 eggs
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup water
1 tsp vanilla
icing sugar & a clean kitchen towel for rolling the cake

Easy Chocolate Cake Method

Heat oven to 375f.
Grease a 15x10x1 baking or jelly roll pan.
Line it with a waxed paper rectangle cut 1/2 inch smaller than the pan (14×9).
Grease the paper.
Sift flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt into a bowl or onto another sheet of waxed paper.
Beat eggs until thick and creamy.
Beat in sugar, 1 tbsp a time until mixture is thick.
Stir in water and vanilla.
Fold in flour mixture.
Spread batter evenly into prepared pan.
Bake 12-15 minutes until center spring back when pressed lightly with a fingertip.
Cut around warm cake 1/4 in from the edges of the pan with a sharp knife.
Invert pan onto a clean towel dusted generously with icing sugar.
Peel off waxed paper.
Gently roll wider length of cake jelly roll style in towel.
Cool rolled and wrapped cake completely on a wire rack.

II. & III. Slightly More Complicated White [Or Chocolate] Cake

Slightly More Complicated White [or Chocolate] Cake Ingredients

.5 c all purpose flour [reduce TO .3 for a Chocolate version]
1 tsp baking powder [omit this ingredient for a Chocolate version]
[add .25 c cocoa powder for the Chocolate version]
[add .25 tsp baking soda for the Chocolate version]
4 room temperature eggs, separated
.3 c sugar to be added to the beaten egg yolks.
.5 c sugar to be added to the soft peaked egg whites.
1 tsp vanilla
icing sugar and clean towel for rolling the cake

Slightly More Complicated White [or Chocolate] Cake Method

In a mixer, beat eggs yolks and vanilla until thick and yellow.
Add the sugar and beat on high until dissolved.
Set the mixture aside in the refrigerator.
Wash the mixer bowl and beater, dry it, and place the mixer bowl and egg beater/whip in the fridge or freezer for a moment.
Heat oven to 375f.
Grease a 15x10x1 baking or jelly roll pan or spray it with baking spray.
Line it with a waxed paper rectangle cut 1/2 inch smaller than the pan (14×9).
Grease the paper or spray it with baking spray.
Sift flour, [cocoa powder], and baking powder [or soda] into a bowl or onto another sheet of waxed paper.
In your cold mixing bowl, using cold beaters, beat the egg whites on medium until soft peaks form.
Add the .5 sugar slowly and beat until stiff peaks form.
Fold the egg yolk mixture from the fridge into the beaten egg white mixture with a spatula.
By hand, fold in the flour[/cocoa] mixture.
Spread batter into the pan.
Bake 12-15 minutes until center spring back when pressed lightly with a fingertip.
[Optional] Cut around warm cake 1/4 in from the edges of the pan with a sharp knife. [This cake is more springy than the easy version.]
Invert pan onto a clean towel dusted generously with icing sugar.
Peel off waxed paper.
Gently roll wider length of cake jelly roll style in towel.
Cool rolled and wrapped cake completely on a wire rack.

STEP TWO: Make the [Optional] Syrup, the Cannoli Filling, and the Mascarpone Icing

Boozy Syrup [Optional]
Makes about .5 c
Recipe May Be Doubled

Boozy Syrup Ingredients
.5 c sugar
.3 c water
.25 c rum, brandy, or other fantastical (non-creamed) spirit of choice!

Boozy Syrup Method
Place the sugar and water in a small pan and heat until the sugar has dissolved.
You do not need to boil this.
Remove from heat.
Add alcohol.

Cannoli Filling

Cannoli Filling Ingredients
1 15-16 oz container of Ricotta Cheese, strained if runny
[we used light ricotta and strained it for only an hour over a fine mesh sieve/bowl]
.75 c icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla
.25 tsp organic lemon or orange extract [optional]
up to 1 c semi-sweet mini chocolate chips OR 1 c shaved or finely diced semi-sweet chocolate
[we used .5 c of bits from a dark chocolate bar we pulsed like crazy in the food processor; you can save the rest for garnish]

Cannoli Filling Method
Beat the sugar and ricotta until smooth.
Incorporate the vanilla and optional citrus extract.
Incorporate up to 1 c chocolate or chips to taste.

[Chocolate] Mascarpone Icing Ingredients
~16 oz Cold Mascarpone Cheese [2 of the small tubs]
.75+ c icing sugar
.25 c milk or cream
1 tbs vanilla
[4 oz unsweeted chocolate, melted and cooled! for the Chocolate version]

[Chocolate] Mascarpone Icing Method
Beat the cheese, sugar, and vanilla on high until incorporated.
[For the Chocolate version, incorporate the cooled melted chocolate.]
Gradually, add the milk or cream 1 tbs at a time until the icing becomes as spreadable as you would like.
You may also add additional icing sugar if desired.
[We added an additional.25 c icing sugar to our batch this time to balance out the bitterness of the chocolate].
Refrigerate until ready to use.
Ice exterior or rolled, filled cake.

STEP THREE: Assemble & Decorate the Bûche de Noël
[see pics below]

Cannoli Bûche de Noël Assembly
Unroll your cake from the towel.
[Optional] Using a pastry or basting-style brush, spread syrup gnerously onto the [inside] surface of the roll cake.
[We only used about 1/16 of a cup of our syrup]
Spread the inside/top surface of the unrolled cake with the Cannoli Filling.
Gently re-roll the cake.
Place the filled cake on a serving plate.
Cut a 1/2in-or-thicker slice(s) from the ends of the cake roll to use as knot(s) or trimmed limb(s) of cake.
Use the Mascarpone Icing to attach these knots and limbs to the cake roll.
[Optional] Take a small bit of the Mascarpone Icing and “dirty” ice the exposed/cut cake edges with a thin coating of Icing.
Frost the cake roll with the remaining Mascarpone Icing.

If desired, use the tines of a fork or an icing spatula to make the icing look like realistic “bark.”
If desired, sprinkle the ends of the roll and/or the knots/limbs with mini chips, shaved or diced chocolate, icing sugar or chopped pistachios.
[This time, we used icing sugar shaken onto the cake via a tea-ball and shaved chocolate]
If desired, decorate with Make-Ahead Meringue Mushrooms.
Chill until 10-20 minutes before serving time.
                               
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