December Daring Bakers: Home for the Holidays!

The December 2009 Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to you by Anna of Very Small Anna and Y of Lemonpi. They chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ everywhere to bake and assemble a gingerbread house from scratch. They chose recipes from Good Housekeeping and from The Great Scandinavian Baking Book as the challenge recipes.

I had originally planned to print out a gingerbread house template online, but Alex asked if he could design it by hand. Who am I to say no? My guy had a blast measuring and cutting all the pieces, for both the house and my extra gingerbread structure. He did a great job! I used the recipe that Y selected (see below) and transported the pieces to my in-laws so that my mother and sister-in-law could help me decorate.

We had a few gingerbread casualties on the drive over and I began to lose heart. However, my mother-in-law is an architect (and professor of architechture), and it turns out that one of her end-of-term projects was to have her students build gingerbread houses from scratch. Did I pick the right partner or what? She had all sorts of tricks and tips for emergency repairs and structural support.

Broken pieces salvaged with royal icing "glue" and a cookie "support beam"

In-process structure supported by cans of beans. With cookie support in the background.

The house, before the decorating team arrived

Decorators hard at work

Isn't it great?



Look at this detail! Ivy and french doors? I would love to live here...

It's a Jewish Gingerbread Hanukkah House! See the menorah in the window and the mezuzah on the door?

When the challenge was first announced, I knew that I wanted to try to make something different. I always associated gingerbread houses with Christmas, so there really wasn't any reason for me to make one, but I did, to honor the Daring Bakers rules. However, I decided to also make a gingerbread dreidel just because it would be awesome. And it totally is.

I had a little driedel
I made it out of gingerbread
And when it's dry and ready,
I'll post it on the interweb...

*****************************************************

Scandinavian Gingerbread (Pepparkakstuga)
from The Great Scandinavian Baking Book by Beatrice Ojakangas

Ingredients:
1 cup butter, room temperature [226g]
1 cup brown sugar, well packed [220g]
2 tablespoons cinnamon
4 teaspoons ground ginger
3 teaspoons ground cloves
2 teaspoons baking soda
½ cup boiling water
5 cups all-purpose flour [875g]

Instructions:
1. In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar until blended. Add the cinnamon, ginger and cloves. Mix the baking soda with the boiling water and add to the dough along with the flour. Mix to make a stiff dough. If necessary add more water, a tablespoon at a time. Chill 2 hours or overnight.

2. Cut patterns for the house, making patterns for the roof, front walls, gabled walls, chimney and door out of cardboard.

3. Roll the dough out on a large, ungreased baking sheet and place the patterns on the dough. Cut out the pieces with a knife, but leave the pieces in place.


4. From Y's notes: [I rolled out the dough on a floured bench, roughly 1/8 inch thick (which allows for fact that the dough puffs a little when baked), cut required shapes and transferred these to the baking sheet. Any scraps I saved and rerolled at the end.]

5. Preheat the oven to 375'F (190'C). Bake for 12 to 15 minutes until the cookie dough feels firm. After baking, again place the pattern on top of the gingerbread and trim the shapes, cutting the edges with a straight-edged knife. Leave to cool on the baking sheet.

Royal Icing

Ingredients:
3 TBS Meringue powder
4 cups sifted powdered sugar
5-6 TBS warm water

Instructions:
Combine all ingredients and using either a stand or hand mixer, beat on high until stiff peaks form, about 6-8 minutes.

TWD: My Favorite Pecan Pie (my pick!!)

When I first joined TWD last year, the blogroll list was so long that I calculated my turn would be sometime around late 2010. Guess I miscalculated, huh?

I was so excited to pick this week's recipe. I carefully perused Baking: From My Home to Yours and marked the recipes I wanted to bake (Cranberry Upsidedown Cake! Chocolate Chocolate Chunk Muffins! Sweet Cream Biscuits!) and then handed the book over to Alex for his input. If you haven't ever heard me mention it before, my husband loves pie. Loves it more than I love shoes (which is a LOT.) Once he spied the recipe for My Favorite Pecan Pie and turned those puppy eyes to me, I couldn't say no. Seriously, folks...this man loves pie.

Oh, boy, is this recipe a doozy! Dorie takes your ordinary pecan pie and turns the volume WAY up with the kick of espresso powder and bittersweet chocolate. It's rich, decadent, and perfectly oooey gooey, with just the right counter-balance to the sweetness. I made it for my work potluck on Monday and had to snag a small piece before it totally disappeared*.

I am going to make this again for Christmas dinner on Friday, but I'll cut the espresso powder down to one teaspoon instead of two. I loved the coffee flavor, but thought that it overpowered the chocolate and pecans just a little too much. Thank you, TWD Bakers, for baking along with me this week and for indulging my husband's choice of recipe.

Happy Holidays to you and your families and thank you for a wonderful year of recipes!!

Dorie's (and now Alex's) Favorite Pecan Pie

Ingredients:
3/4 cup light corn syrup
1/2 cup (packed) light brown sugar
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
3 large eggs, preferably at room temperature
2 teaspoons instant espresso powder
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups (about 7 ounces) pecan halves or pieces
3 ounces bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
1 9-inch single crust made with Good for Almost Everything Dough, partially baked and cooled

Instructions:
Getting ready: Position a rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Put the pie plate on a baking sheet lined with parchment or a silicone mat.

In a large bowl, whisk the corn syrup and brown sugar together until smooth.. Whisk in the melted butter, then add the eggs one at a time, beating until you have a smooth, foamy mixture. Add the espresso powder, vanilla, cinnamon and salt and give the batter a good mix. Rap the bowl against the counter a couple of times to pop any bubbles that might have formed, then stir in the pecans and chocolate. Turn the filling into the crust.

Bake the pie for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, make a foil shield for the crust by cutting a 9-inch circle out of the center of an 11-or 12-inch square of aluminum foil.

Lower the oven temperature to 350 degrees F. Place the foil shield on top of the pie—the filling will be exposed, the crust covered by the foil. Bake the pie for another 15 to 20 minutes (total baking time is 30 to 35 minutes), or until it has puffed (the middle and the edges should be fairly evenly puffed), is beautifully browned and no longer jiggles when tapped. Transfer the pie plate to a rack, remove the shield and cool to room temperature.

Serving: Pecan pie is good at any temperature, and different at each one. It’s softest and most puddingish eaten warm (about 45 minutes out of the oven), most flavorful eaten at room temperature and most candy-like when it is chilled. At any temperature, it’s good with ice cream—vanilla, chocolate or coffee would be my choices.

Storing: Once cooled to room temperature, the pie can be covered and refrigerated for 1 day.

Playing Around: If all you want is a great plain pecan pie, omit the cinnamon, espresso and chocolate. If you want a sweeter pie, increase the amount of corn syrup to 1 cup.

*someone pointed out the hilarious irony that Alex selected this recipe and then didn't get to taste any of it! He was stuck in Brooklyn an extra night due to the snow, poor guy! No worries, though, I'm making a second pie and he can have as much of it as he wants.

So many raisins to smile...

When Alex and I celebrated Valentines Day a few years ago, I gave him a card that still makes me giggle to this day. On the cover was an oatmeal raisin cookie and inside it read:

You give me so many raisins to smile.

I couldn't resist a card like that, since he knows I'm a pun-slinger. What's a pun-slinger, you may ask? We are a rare and sophisticated breed - able to sling creative puns back and forth, no matter what the topic. Alex will just quietly roll his eyes when my Dad and I get into shooting jokes back and forth. But suddenly, he'll pull out the big guns and crack the Pun to End All Puns, leaving me and my Dad in silence, thinking "man, I wish I thought of that one!" Yet another reason why I love that husband of mine.

Quaker Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
adapted from Quaker Oats website

Ingredients:
1/2 cup (1 stick) plus 6 TBS butter, softened
3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt (optional)
3 cups oats (quick or old fashioned, uncooked)
1 cup raisins

Instructions:
Heat oven to 350°F. In large bowl, beat butter and sugars on medium speed of electric mixer until creamy. Add eggs and vanilla; beat well. Add combined flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt; mix well. Add oats and raisins; mix well.

Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets. (This gave me a chance to use my new cookie scoop - amazing little invention! Loved it!)

Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until light golden brown. Cool 1 minute on cookie sheets; remove to wire rack. Cool completely. Store tightly covered.

Homemade Bread - Snow Storm baking

Mother Nature came along and dumped about 2 feet of snow on us in Baltimore this weekend. And I loved every second of it! Well, okay, I didn't love going out to walk the dog (friend's dog that I was watching this weekend) at 7AM, but aside from that...I loved it.

My favorite part of a snow storm is the absolute silence. You can actually hear the silence, it's so all-encompassing. To me, it's a profound and calming sense of solitude that comes with standing outside in the snow. If you live in an area with snow, you know what I mean. I can't explain it any better than that. Next time you have a snow storm (and I mean more than just 2 inches), go stand outside and just listen.

Snow storms also inspire me to bake. I decided to finally try my hand at homemade bread, since I've never done it before. I wanted something fresh to go along with a batch of Cumin Lentil soup I made, so I googled around until I found one I could make with my limited pantry supplies.

I don't think it turned out too badly for a first attempt! I think my yeast was past its prime, so the dough didn't rise as quickly as I had hoped. The overall loaf was tasty and fresh, but a little dense. That might be the nature of homemade whole wheat bread - or possibly because I didn't knead it correctly. But I do know that a hot slice of freshly baked bread slathered in butter (okay, SmartBalance) certainly made my day.

Ingredients:
adapted from wholewheatbread.blogspot.com
3 1/2 cups Whole Wheat Flour
1/3 cup milk
1/4 cup honey
1 cup warm water
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 packet of dry yeast

Instructions:
In a large mixing bowl, combine the yeast with the water, and stir to dissolve. Mix in the milk, honey, oil and salt. Mix in the flour and stir until the dough pulls away from the edges of the bowl. (I tried to use my kitchenaid with the dough hook at this point and it didn't work out so well. I've never used it before so I didn't exactly know what I was doing.)

Place the dough on a lightly floured surface and knead for 6-10 minutes, until it becomes smooth.
Place a small amount of oil in a large bowl and place the dough in the bowl and flip the dough to ensure that it's thorougly coated with oil. Cover the bowl with a towel and let the dough rise for approx. 1 hour. It should double in size. Note: This made take longer if the room is cold.

Take the dough out of the bowl and place on a lightly floured surface, shape the dough into a 8 inches log and place into a lightly grease loaf pan. Loosely cover the pan with lightly oiled plastic wrap and let rise for 30 to 60 minutes, until it rises approx.1 inch above the top of the pan. Preheat the oven to 350.

Place the pan in center of oven and bake for about 40 minutes, total. After the first 20 minutes, loosely cover the pan with aluminum foil. You can test if the wheat bread is done by thumping the bottom of the bread. When it's done, it should sound hollow. Allow to cool and then slice. Or be like me and slice off the end when it's steaming hot.

Curried Sweet Potato Latkes

Being Jewish, there are certain names that I hear tossed around all the time. I have an instant recognition of these people, even though I've never met them.

Mel Brooks...
Steven Spielberg...
Barbara Streisand...
Adam Sandler...

Jerry Seinfeld...

Dr. Ruth...

Joan Nathan...

Now, some of you might not recognize that last name. But if you grew up in a household with homemade brisket, challah, matzah ball soup, and any other dishes with Yiddish/Hebrew names, Joan Nathan should be familiar to you. In my humble opinion, she's to Jewish cooking what Paula Deen is to Southern cooking.

Jewish Cooking in America is a staple in many Jewish kitchens. If I'm looking for a classic Jewish recipe (and I can't find it amongst my mom's or Bubbie's collection), I'll turn to Joan Nathan. If I'm about to eat something, and the cook says "Oh, I used Joan Nathan's recipe..." I know it's going to be good. She never lets me down!

These latkes were outstanding. The perfect combination of sweet and spicy, they warmed us up last night even when our house was 50 degrees (busted furnace.) The only complaint I have is that the batter had some sort of chemical reaction to the oil, so by the end of the batch, it was all foamy and didn't fry the last ones very well. That could very well be user-error!

Nonetheless, you should definitely make these. Latkes like shouldn't be saved until Hannukah only. Where's the fun in that?

Ingredients:
adapted from Jewish Cooking in America
1 pound sweet potatoes, peeled
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2 tsp sugar
1 tsp brown sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cayenne powder
2 tsp curry powder
1 tsp cumin
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
2 large eggs, beaten
1/2 cup milk (approximately)
Peanut oil for frying

Instructions:

Grate the sweet potatoes coarsely. In a separate bowl mix the flour, sugar, brown sugar, baking powder, cayenne pepper, curry powder, cumin, and salt and pepper.

Add the eggs and just enough milk to the dry ingredients to make a stiff batter. Add the potatoes and mix. The batter should be moist but not runny; if too stiff, add more milk.

Heat 1/4 inch of peanut oil in a frying pan until it is barely smoking. Drop in the batter by tablespoons and flatten. Fry over medium-high heat several minutes on each side until golden. Drain on paper towels and serve.

Black Bean Mushroom Burgers

These were good, but oh-so-messy! The original recipe said to divide the mixture into 4 patties, but they were so huge that we couldn't quite eat them right. I ended up breaking mine into pieces on the plate and using a fork to pick up all the fallen bits. Delicious fallen bits, though.

Ingredients:
Adapted from Brown Eyed Baker
1 TBS canola oil, plus more for brushing
1 cup finely chopped onion
8 ounces cremini mushrooms, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
½ tsp cumin
½ tsp smoked paprika (I only had regular paprika)
4 slices whole wheat sandwich bread, lightly toasted
15-ounce can black beans, rinsed and drained
2 ounces (about ½ cup) shredded cheddar cheese
Salt and freshly ground black pepper4
English muffins, sandwich pockets, or hamburger buns, split and toasted (I used our sandwich thins)
Salsa and sour cream, for serving (optional)

Instructions:
In a large skillet, heat canola oil over medium-high heat. Add the onion and cook until golden, about 3 to 4 minutes. Stir in the mushrooms, garlic, cumin and paprika and cook until mushrooms have released their juices, about 4 to 6 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside to cool slightly.

Tear toasted bread into pieces and place in food processor. Process until broken down into crumbs. Pour the crumbs into a medium bowl. Add the mushroom mixture and beans to the food processor; pulse until combined, but not smooth – leave some chunky bits. Scoop mixture into the bowl with the bread crumbs; add the cheese and season with salt and pepper.

Mix ingredients together and divide into 6 portions. With dampened hands, shape each portion into patties. Lightly brush each side of all patties with canola oil.

Heat a grill, grill pan or skillet over medium heat. Place patties on the surface and cook until thoroughly heated through and the outside has crisped, about 5 minutes per side. Serve burgers on toasted buns and topped with salsa and sour cream, if desired.

(Adapted from Culinary in the Country)

TWD: Beth vs. the Volcano (cookies)

Okay, so making this week's TWD recipe did not give me a brain cloud and an overwhelming desire to jump into a volcano...but the name of the cookies reminded me of that great 90's classic:


If you haven't seen Joe vs. the Volcano, I highly recommend it. I also think that the natives of Waponi Woo would have liked these cookies.


The nuts (walnuts, almonds and pecans) make them all bumpy so that they look like little mountains. And then when you eat them, they sizzle and pop just a little bit - like a cookie pop rocks.

It's probably one of the easiest Dorie recipes we have done so far - toast nuts, mix with sugar, egg whites and espresso powder, bake. Eat. I will make these again for a quick cookie fix, but I'll double the espresso since most of it seemed to disappear after baking. Great choice, Macduff!

Stay tuned for next week's Dorie pick - chosen by ME! FINALLY!

Was it gouda for you, too?

I do love potato latkes. The simple crispy cakes, hot from the stove and topped with sour cream and applesauce, are a piece of my childhood. My Bubbie made them from scratch, as does my mother. In the past few years, though, I have cheated and gone with the frozen Trader Joes latkes. They are really good, and a lot less work! This year, though, I knew I had to get down and dirty and make them myself.

I wanted to play around with the basic recipe, so I turned to an old Rachael Ray favorite. I know, I know...some of you can't stand her, but I think she's pretty fun. This version is delicious, but a bit messy to make. Frying anything leads to spatters and burns, with lots of oil drips all around. Just be ready to clean up afterwards!

Oh, and don't be like me and grate everything by hand. How on EARTH did I forget that I have a grater insert for my Cuisinart?? That was a fun realization. I was talking to my cousin, Paige, who made 3 dozen (!!!!!) latkes for a family Hanukkah party. I commented that I got such a good arm workout from grating everything, and she just stared at me and said "Um, I used my food processor."

Oh. Biker.

::facepalm::

Potato and Gouda Latkes
adapted from Rachael Ray

Ingredients:
2 pounds all purpose potatoes, such as Russets, about 3 large potatoes, peeled and shredded
1 small onion, grated
3 TBS all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cups shredded smoked gouda cheese, the yield of an 8-ounce piece
Vegetable oil, for frying

Instructions:
Heat a nonstick skillet over medium high heat. Add a thin layer of olive oil or vegetable oil to the pan, just enough to coat the bottom.

Combine potatoes with onions and flour. Mix in shredded cheese. Spoon piles of potato and cheese mixture into the pan, making 3-inch rounds, 1-inch apart. Cook cakes until golden and crispy, about 4 minutes on each side. Remove cooked cakes and repeat process.

Serve hot with sour cream and applesauce.

Hannukah Cookies with Royal Icing

Why should Christmas cookies have all the glory? Hanukkah cookies are just as deliciously adorable! In the past, I've tried dozens of sugar cookie recipes and they all let me down by spreading as they baked. My Jewish stars and dreidel cutouts became unrecognizable blobs that tasted nice, but didn't look especially cute.

This year, I was determined to have cute Hanukkah cookies that could be flooded with royal icing, just like all those cute Christmas cookies. So I turned to the What's Cooking Nesties for a sugar cookie recipe and received the glorious gift of this: Dr. Annie's Sugar Cookie recipe and royal icing tutorial. 'Scuse me while I bow down to her.

Folks, these cookies are the best sugar cookies I've ever made! They don't spread. Let me repeat that...THEY. DON'T. SPREAD. At all. I could lay the cutouts right next to each other on the baking sheet and they didn't touch. It was so glorious. And the flavor - perfect! They are buttery and soft when you bite into them, but remain hard enough to hold up to the weight of icing and decorations. Make these. Now.

I'm going to do a brief tutorial on using royal icing, but for a detailed one complete with great pictures, please check out Annie's Eats.

1) Bake the cookies (recipe below) and allow them to cool completely.


2) Make the icing (recipe below.) Royal icing should be stored in airtight containers and always covered when you're not using it. It hardens pretty quickly. Fit your pastry/piping bags with a #2 Wilton tip and fill with the icing. It should be thin enough to easily spread, but not too runny.

3) Carefully pipe an outline around each cookie. Keep the tip of the piping bag close enough to the cookie so you don't lose control of the icing. This took some practice for me, as I don't have the steadiest hands! You can see some of my unintentional squiggles and loops. Let the outlines set for about an hour.

4) While you wait, thin out the rest of your icing. Add water to each color, about a teaspoon at a time, until it's thin enough to run off the back of a spoon. A dribble of icing should disappear back into the rest of the icing within a 5-8 second count. Fill squeeze bottles (available at any craft store) with the thinned icing.

5) Carefully flood the cookies! Squeeze a bit of icing into the center of the cookie and use a toothpick to move it out and fill in the edges. Wait a few seconds and then use the toothpick to pop any bubbles that rise to the surface. Now would be the time to do color swirls, if you want. Simple put more than one color icing onto a cookie and use a toothpick to swirl them together.

6) Let the cookies harden for a few hours (overnight is best!). Once they are dry, you can continue with more decoration. Use the same consistency icing as outline piping. You can change icing consistency easily by adding more powdered sugar to make it thicker or water to make it thinner.

I decorated the cookies with blue and white icing, and used the Hebrew letters of the dreidel for accuracy: Nun, Gimel, Hey, Shin. They represent the sentence Nes Gadol Hayah Sham, A Great Miracle Happened There.

The cookies were a great hit and I ran through 40+ of them pretty darn quickly. I've got another batch of dough waiting in the fridge and I can't wait to try it all again. Have fun!

Dr. Annie's Amazing Sugar Cookies

adapted from Annie's Eats
Ingredients:

1 cup butter (2 sticks) at room temperature

1 cup powdered sugar

1 egg, beaten
1 ½ tsp almond extract (I didn't have, so I just used vanilla)

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp salt

2 ½ cups sifted flour

Instructions:

Using a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, cream the butter until it's fluffy and pale. Add the powdered sugar, and mix. Blend in the egg, almond extract, vanilla, salt and flour. The dough will be really sticky and soft.

Divide the dough in half and put each part into plastic wrap, shaping it into a disc. Chill dough until firm, at least 2 hours. Roll to ¼” thickness on well-floured surface and cut with cookie cutters. Place on grease or parchment covered cookie sheets. Bake at 375° for 8-10 min. Cookies should not brown. Frost and decorate when cool. Yields ~40 cookies.

Royal Icing

adapted from Annie's Eats

Ingredients:

4 cups powdered sugar, sifted

2 TBS meringue powder (available at any craft store)

5 TBS water

Instructions:

Combine all ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on low speed until the sheen has disappeared and the icing has a matte appearance (about 7-10 minutes). Transfer the contents of the mixing bowl to an air-tight container.

This will be the stiffest consistency of the icing, and at this point it is too stiff to use for decorating. Add water a very small amount at a time (about a teaspoon or so) and stir by hand until fully incorporated. Continue until the icing has reached a consistency appropriate for piping. (Remember, if you are having any difficulty piping, it is still too thick. Add a little more liquid and try again.)

Put on your yarmulke...here comes Hannukah...

How do YOU spell it?

graphic credit to Unbecoming Levity

Hannukah.

Chanukah.

Hanukkah.

Channukkahh.

Hannukkah.

Chanuka.

Hanukah.





No matter how you spell it, it's here!!!

HAPPY HANNUKAH!

coming soon....cookies and latkes

TWD: Chinese 5-Spice Sables

This week's TWD recipe was chosen by Barbara of Bungalow Barbara. She chose Sables, which are a delicate French shortbread cookie.

Dorie suggested a few options for "playing around" with this recipe, so I decided to try a few tablespoons of my Chinese 5-spice powder. It contains fennel, cinnamon, cloves, ginger and anise and is used in both cooking and baking. It's got a great spicy punch, and I loved the smell of these cookies.

Sables (and all other shortbread) are at their best after they have cooled and rested for a little bit, even better overnight. If you eat one while they are still hot, it crumbles immediately, dissolving into a buttery, almost insubstantial, mess of nothingness in your mouth. Not fun for a cookie! Give them a day and they are a bit heartier with much more flavor. The 5-spices really came out after they had sat for a few hours.

This cookie recipe (here on Barbara's blog!) is incredibly easy and would make a great holiday cookie gift! I'm still not a shortbread (or sables) girl, as I'd rather have a good ol' chocolate chip cookie, but these were a hit for Alex. So all is well in my kitchen.

Chocolate Sauerkraut Cake

No, I'm not kidding.

The existence of this cake has been a long-running joke in Alex's family. No one remembers the exact details (some people think it was a chocolate cookie instead), but the general memory is that his grandmother, Omi, once tried to recreate this recipe for a family gathering. Apparently the cake is a very popular dessert at Gertrudes in Baltimore; however, the version that Omi made was far from edible. Whenever someone tells the story of Omi's Chocolate Sauerkraut Cake, they shudder just a little bit, as if remembering the awful taste of sauerkraut and chocolate.

Then we lost Omi in early November, which just broke our hearts. Almost as if by fate, the Washington Post printed the cake recipe a few days later, and we knew it had to be a part of our Thanksgiving. Alex's cousin, Megan is a fabulously talented baker and she took on the task of baking the cake for everyone.

Of course, we all had to try some. And it's good...really good! The cake is rich, dense and moist, with a slight tang from the sauerkraut. It's chopped very finely, so you don't have big chunks of it in the cake, but you know it's there. If you like chocolate, and are a little bit adventerous in your eating, you have to make this cake.

Chocolate Sauerkraut Cake

adapted from Gertrudes in Baltimore, printed by The Washington Post

Ingredients:
10 2/3 TBS (1 stick plus 2 2/3 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature, plus more for greasing the pans
2 1/4 cups flour, plus more for the pans
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup water
2/3 cup homemade or store-bought sauerkraut, rinsed, drained and finely chopped

Instructions:

Position an oven rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 325 degrees. Use a little butter to grease two 8-inch cake pans; then flour them, shaking out any excess flour. If desired, place 8-inch circles of parchment paper or wax paper in the bottom of each pan.

Combine the butter and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer or hand-held electric mixer; beat on medium speed for 5 minutes, until smooth, stopping to scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.

Add the eggs one at a time, beating to incorporate after each addition, and the vanilla extract.
Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, salt and baking soda on a sheet of wax paper or parchment paper.

Reduce the speed to low; add the flour mixture alternately with the water, beating until smooth.
Use a spatula to fold in the drained, chopped sauerkraut until well incorporated. Divide the thick batter evenly between the 2 prepared pans, leveling the surfaces.

Place both pans on the middle rack and bake for about 30 minutes or until the cakes spring back lightly when touched. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Apple Cranberry Pie

Given his choice of any type of pie, Alex will always choose a fruit pie. Our conversation went something like this:

Me: What kind of pie should I make for Thanks---

Alex: Fruit pie, please.

Me: ---giving. What?

Alex: Fruit pie, please.

Me: Um, okay! Done.

I didn't want to make a typical apple pie, even though it's always delicious. I also had a large bag of dried cranberries that needed a home, so I scoured allrecipes.com for some suggestions and found a winner. This pie is a perfect combination of sweet, spicy and tart. The filling is just sweet enough and the little bites of cranberry add to the unique pie personality! The only changes I made was to use cinnamon instead of allspice, and I left out the brandy because Alex's cousin is pregnant and there were a few kids who might eat the pie. This recipe is definitely a keeper.

Ingredients:

1 cup dried cranberries
2/3 cup white sugar
3 TBS all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp ground allspice (I used cinnamon, which I think is a better choice!)
2 1/4 pounds apples - peeled, cored and thinly sliced (I used Granny Smith)
1 1/2 tablespoons brandy
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 recipe pastry for a 9 inch double crust pie

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C.) Position oven rack in the bottom third of the oven.

In a medium bowl, toss together the dried cranberries, sugar, flour and allspice. Mix in the apples, brandy and vanilla. Place bottom crust into a 9 inch round pie pan so that it hangs 1 inch over the edges.

Pour filling into the crust and cover with top crust. Seal and flute the edges. Cut slits in the top using a small knife, and place the pie on a baking sheet to catch drips.

Bake in the preheated oven for 60 to 65 minutes, or until apples are tender and crust is golden.