Honey Cashew Morning Buns

I like the idea of cutting back on sugar. I’ve been doing just that for a while now. I’ve been baking fewer sweet treats and looking for ways to incorporate natural sweeteners other than refined sugar. So, I was delighted to find out that Joanne Chang’s newest book is all about Baking With Less Sugar, and I received a review copy. She set out to recreate some of her favorites using much less or in some case no refined white sugar. There are no manufactured sugar substitutes here, just reductions in total sugar used or appearances of honey, maple syrup, molasses, or fruit for sweetness. And, something I love about Joanne Chang is that she always gives you the facts about how and why recipes work. There are a few pages at the front of the book with explanations about what sugar does in baked goods and how it affects browning, texture, coagulation of proteins, etc. It makes it clear that you can’t just eliminate sugar and expect to get the same results as when it’s used, and there are reminders about these facts throughout the recipes. I marked a lot of pages of things to try while reading this book. Almost every page of the Just Chocolate chapter has a flag on it, and I’m not even a serious chocoholic. These recipes highlight the sweetness already found in chocolate and have no additional sugar. Double-Chocolate Whoopie Pies, Chocolate-Fudge Bourbon Ice Cream, Mint Chocolate Ice Cream Sandwiches, and Mocha Shaved Ice with Vanilla Cream all got my attention. I already baked the Peanut Butter Honey Cookies with oats and chopped peanuts. They’re made with natural peanut butter, butter, and honey with no sugar added. The cookies were nutty and perfectly sweet enough and very tender. As warned in the recipe headnote, without the sugar these cookies are soft and cake-like rather than crispy or chewy. They might not hold up well for packing and sending, but they were great for snacking right at home. Next, I had to try the Honey Cashew Morning Buns. 

Again, this recipe had no refined sugar. The yeasted dough for the buns contained no sugar or honey, and the sweetness all came from the “honey goo” in which the buns were baked. This is a lightened-up version of the famous Flour Bakery sticky bun. The dough was made in a stand mixer with water, yeast, flour, salt, and olive oil. It was covered and left to rise for a few hours. Meanwhile, cashews were toasted and chopped for the filling. The filling was a mix of softened butter, cinnamon, and the chopped cashews. The risen dough was rolled into a square, and the filling was spread across the surface before the dough was rolled into a jelly roll. I cut the individual buns and chilled them in the refrigerator overnight. The next day, I made the honey goo which included melted butter, honey, heavy cream, water, and salt. Once cooled to room temperature, the goo was poured into a baking pan and the rolls were set into it. They were left for a second rise for about an hour or so before baking. The finished rolls need to be served warm so the sticky glaze can be scooped up with each one. 

The rolls were decadently gooey in the best way. There was plenty of sweetness from the honey and lots of great flavor from the cinnamon and nuts. I can’t wait to try all those chocolate recipes, but the Pineapple-Coconut-Banana Sorbet sweetened only by the fruits in the recipe is a top contender to try next too. Looks like we might start having dessert more often than we have been lately around here. 

Honey Cashew Morning Buns 
Recipe reprinted with publisher's permission from Baking With Less Sugar.

Our famous sticky bun at Flour is unapologetically sweet. It’s drenched in a brown sugar-honey “goo” and chock-full of cinnamon sugar and pecans. Not only did it beat Bobby Flay in a Throwdown episode on the Food Network, he also graciously picked it as his choice for The Best Thing I Ever Ate in another TV show. It has become a signature item, and it has put us on the map. I confess that I can only eat a few bites and then I’m done. It’s incredibly rich, which is what makes it so good, but I longed for something just as decadent but in a lighter, less sugary way. These morning buns are the answer. Made with a light, yeasted, unsweetened dough, they get filled with chopped cashews (my favorite nut) and then baked in a honey goo that is rich with cream and butter, and sweet with a little honey, but not so much that they hide the flavor of the bun or cashew. I especially love the caramelized pieces on the edge of the pan. 

BUN DOUGH 
240 g/1 cup water, at body temperature (when you put your finger in it, it should feel neither cold nor hot) 
1/2 tsp active dry yeast or 3 g/0.1 oz fresh cake yeast 
350 g/2 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour, plus up to about 35 g/1/4 cup more, if needed 
1 1/4 tsp kosher salt 
50 g/1/4 cup olive oil or other mild vegetable oil 

HONEY GOO 
115 g/1/2 cup unsalted butter 
170 g/1/2 cup honey 
120 g/1/2 cup heavy cream 
120 g/1/2 cup water 
1/4 tsp kosher salt 

BUN FILLING 
240 g/2 cups raw unsalted cashews, chopped 
115 g/1/2 cup unsalted butter, very soft 
2 tsp ground cinnamon 

1. To make the dough: Lightly oil a large bowl. 
2. Using a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook attachment, combine the water and yeast and let sit for 20 to 30 seconds to allow the yeast to dissolve and activate. Dump the flour and salt onto the yeast mixture, and carefully turn on the mixer on low speed. Let the dough mix for about 10 seconds. (To prevent the flour from flying out of the bowl, turn the mixer on and off several times until the flour is mixed into the liquid, and then keep it on low speed.) When the dough is still shaggy looking, drizzle in the olive oil, aiming it along the side of the work bowl to keep it from splashing and making a mess. 
3. With the mixer still on low speed, knead the dough for 4 to 5 minutes, or until it is smooth and supple. The dough should be somewhat sticky but still smooth, and have an elastic, stretchy consistency. If it is much stiffer than this, mix in 2 to 3 Tbsp water; if it is much looser than this, mix in 2 to 3 Tbsp flour. 
4. Transfer the dough to the oiled bowl. Cover the bowl with a piece of plastic wrap or a damp lint-free cloth. Place the bowl in a draft-free, warm place (78 to 82°F [25 to 28°C] is ideal; an area near the stove or in the oven with only the pilot light on is good) for 2 to 3 hours. The dough should rise until it is about double in bulk. (This is called proofing the dough.) 
5. Meanwhile, make the honey goo: In a medium saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat and whisk in the honey, cream, water, and salt. Remove the pan from the heat and let the goo cool for about 30 minutes before using, or until room temperature. The goo can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks. 
6. To make the filling: Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 350°F [175°C]. Put the cashews on a baking sheet and toast for 8 to 10 minutes, or until lightly toasted. Turn off the oven and set the cashews aside to cool. 
7. Punch down the dough to deflate it—literally give it a punch in the center of the puffy dough, which will allow you to roll it out more easily. On a floured work surface, roll out the dough into a 12-in [30-cm] square about 1/4 in [6 mm] thick. It will be a bit stretchy and it may spring back, but keep rolling gently until it roughly holds its shape. 
8. In a small bowl, with a wooden spoon, mix together the butter, cinnamon, and cashews. Spread this mixture evenly over the entire surface of the dough square. 
9. Using your hands and starting from the top of the square, and working your way down, roll the dough loosely like a jelly roll until the entire sheet is rolled up. Using a sharp knife, trim both edges of the dough roll about 1/4 in [6 mm] to even out the ends. Using a bench scraper or a chef’s knife, cut the roll into 12 equal pieces, each about 1 in [3 cm] thick. (At this point, the unbaked buns can be tightly wrapped in plastic wrap—either individually or stack them all and wrap as a tower—and frozen for up to 1 week. When ready to bake, remove the buns from the freezer. Leave them wrapped and thaw in the refrigerator over¬night, or at room temperature for 2 to 3 hours; proceed as directed.) 
10. Pour the goo into a 9-by-13 in [23-by-33 cm] baking pan. Place the buns in the pan, evenly spaced. If some of the buns have become oblong or oddly shaped from the cutting and moving around, feel free to arrange them once they are in the pan into round spirals. Cover the pan loosely with plastic wrap and let the buns proof at warm room temperature (78 to 82°F [25 to 28°C] is ideal; an area near the stove or in the oven with only the pilot light on is good) for 1 to 2 hours, or until the dough is puffy, pillowy, and soft and the buns are touching. 
11. About 15 minutes before the buns are ready to bake, place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 400°F [205°C]. 
12. Bake for 40 to 50 minutes, or until the buns are pale and light golden brown. Remove from the oven and let cool in the pan on a wire rack for 10 to 20 minutes. 
13. Using a spatula, invert the buns, one at a time, onto a serving platter. Serve warm. (These are best served warm or within 4 hours of baking. You could make them one day and serve them the next after warming them in a 300°F [150°C] oven for 6 to 8 minutes.)

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Honeyed Buttermilk Ice Cream in Kataifi Nests

It’s gotten to be that time of year. It’s the season during which all I want to eat is ice cream. Ice cream or sorbet or granita for every meal would be fine with me. Luckily, I received a review copy of Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream Desserts so now I have some new options to keep my all-ice cream meals more varied. Here, you’ll find the same fabulous style of ice cream-making as that in Jeni Britton Bauer’s first book. There are unique flavor combinations, there’s some cream cheese in the ice cream base to give the texture more body, and there are also gluten-free, dairy-free, and vegan recipes. In this book, there are also cakes, tarts, biscuits, cookies, cream puffs, waffles, and empanadas. There are suggestions for sundaes and parfaits, ice cream bars, layered ice cream cakes, and even cocktails made complete with frozen treats. Last, you’ll find recipes for sauces and crunchy gravels, and of course, you can mix and match to create your own desserts. Let’s start with some of the ice cream flavors. The Cream Biscuits with Peach Jam Ice Cream has crumbled biscuits along with the jam mixed right into the ice cream. The Double-Toasted Coconut-Cajeta Ice Cream is suggested as a good option to make into a chocolate-dipped ice cream bar, and I’d love to try that. The sorbets have some lovely additions like sprigs of tarragon for the Grapefruit Sorbet and Jonesy old tawny port for the Melon Jonesy Sorbet. The desserts with multiple components include delicious-looking dishes like The Salty Grahama with Salty Vanilla Frozen Custard, Sliced banana, Whiskey Caramel Sauce, Salty Graham Gravel, and Whipped Cream; The Key Lime Parfait with Graham Cracker Ice Cream, Lime Curd, Chocolate Gravel, Whipped Cream, and a fresh cherry for garnish; and The Little Havana Cake with layers of Lady Cake, Guava Jam, Cajeta, Double-Toasted Coconut Ice Cream, Whipped Cream, and Meringues on top. Of all the tempting desserts, the first one I had to try was the Honeyed Buttermilk Ice Cream and the Kataifi Nests. 

The Kataifi Nests are delicate, little serving containers just the right size for one nice scoop of any ice cream or sorbet. I thought they’d pair nicely with a honey-sweetened ice cream. To make the nests, a package of kataifi, which is shredded phyllo dough, was thawed. Then, you just take a handful of strands of dough, and wrap them around one hand forming a circle. Set the circle on a baking sheet setting the loose ends into the circle. There will be stray strands of dough here and there, and that’s just what you want. Once you’ve formed as many nests as you need, they’re baked at 375 degrees F for about 15 minutes until golden. When they come out of the oven, they’re brushed with melted butter mixed with honey and sprinkled with flaky sea salt. They can be stored at room temperature in an air-tight container for a few days. For the ice cream, honey and cream were heated and stirred until the honey melted. Buttermilk was added, and the mixture was brought to a boil. A cornstarch slurry was made with a little buttermilk, and that was added to the boiling buttermilk mixture. It was cooked while stirring until thickened. In a heat-proof bowl, some cream cheese had been combined with salt, turmeric, and a pinch of cayenne powder. The hot buttermilk was slowly whisked into the cream cheese mixture, and then it was left to cool. I chilled it in the refrigerator overnight before churning the ice cream.

The sweet, salty, crunchy, honey-coated kataifi nests were ideal ice cream holders. And, the Honeyed-Buttermilk Ice Cream was just sweet enough and not too sweet with tanginess from the buttermilk. It was a lovely yellow color from the turmeric too. I topped the ice cream with some fresh, local mulberries. With all the other flavor options in this book and all the possibilities for embellishing them, I’ll have countless ways to satisfy my ice cream cravings. 

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Blueberries and Yogurt with Buttermilk Crepes

We all know that some foods are healthier than others, but not everyone considers how specific foods can make us feel better from day to day. I know I have more energy when my menus include lots of fresh vegetables and whole grains, but I’m lucky to not specifically depend on any particular ingredients. For Chef Seamus Mullen, he’s found that eating certain foods has a positive effect on the inflammation he experiences that’s caused by rheumatoid arthritis. He explains, in his very down-to-earth approach, the benefits of filling his diet with those foods in his new book Seamus Mullen's Hero Food. But, the book isn’t a health-food, diet book at all. It’s a tour of eighteen ingredients that he’s come to appreciate, and they’re presented in dishes that fit into his style of cooking. I received a review copy from the publisher. The hero foods include things like olive oil, almonds, berries, good fish, mushrooms, and good meat. Many of the dishes are influenced by traditional Spanish cooking, since he lived and worked as a chef there and has operated Spanish restaurants in New York, and others are inspired by dishes served at his family’s Vermont farm. The food is seasonal, fresh, full of big flavors, and made with a few interesting techniques just like you’d expect from a chef. For instance, he includes instructions for making smoked olive oil which can then be used to impart smoky flavor to whatever is cooked in it. There are lists like “10 Things to do with Corn” and “10 Things to do with Almonds” that are above and beyond recipes. And, the recipes range from the decadent egg fried in olive oil and served with sweet potatoes and sobrassada to crispy grilled Tuscan kale.

Moving from season to season through the sections in the book, Mullen repeatedly mentions the provenance of ingredients. He refers to “good eggs,” “good fish,” etc., and that means they’ve been well-raised, are sustainable, and are environmentally safe foods. Regarding good fish, choices like sardines, trout, salmon, and anchovies are both environmentally safe and high in omega-3s, and that’s why they are hero foods. As for choosing fruits, for him, it’s not enough that berries are good for you. He’s more interested in berries when they’re in season and picked at the height of ripeness. When fruits are picked fully ripe, they have a chance to develop more nutrient density than when picked early for distant shipping. Of course, these well-chosen, fresh ingredients also happen to taste better than others. In keeping with the theme of the book, I wanted to use some locally grown blueberries I had just received from my CSA. In the berries chapter, there’s a pretty stacked cake made with crepes, layered with sweetened yogurt, and topped with berries. It’s shown with raspberries, but any fresh berries would be great here. It has tangy flavor from buttermilk in the crepe batter, and the yogurt spread between stacked crepes was sweet from honey and spiced with freshly ground black pepper. You can taste as you add the pepper to decide how much you prefer, and it’s a surprisingly good match with berries.

I know I’ll be flipping back through this book often for recipes like the Five-Minute Eggs with Romesco, the Salt-Baked Carrots and Beets, the Salbitxada sauce for grilled vegetables, the Pickled Plums, the Line-Caught Atlantic Cod with Picada, and the Autumn Squash Salad. I’ll be eating lots of healthy things with these dishes, and I know it will be great-tasting food.

Blueberries and Yogurt with Buttermilk Crepes
Recipe re-printed from Seamus Mullen's Hero Food by Seamus Mullen/Andrews McMeel Publishing.
(Note: this is Raspberries and Yogurt with Buttermilk Crepes in the book.)

Serves 4

Most people think of crepes as breakfast food, but I prefer a savory breakfast. The tart yogurt filling and the buttermilk in the batter balance really well with the sweet raspberries (or blueberries).

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 1/4 cups milk 
1/4 cup buttermilk
4 tablespoons clarified butter
Zest of 3 lemons
1 1/2 cups plain unsweetened yogurt
2 tablespoons honey
Freshly ground black pepper
1 cup fresh blueberries
Sprinkle of confectioners’ sugar

Mix together the flour, granulated sugar, and salt. In another bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, buttermilk, 3 tablespoons of the clarified butter, and the zest of 1 lemon. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and whisk into a nice, thin batter. If the batter seems too thick, add a bit more buttermilk.

Heat a crepe pan or 10-inch nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Brush the pan with butter. Add about 2 tablespoons batter, lift the pan and roll the batter around to create a thin, even layer. Once the crepe starts to form little holes, bubble a bit, and begins to turn golden brown, it’s ready to turn. With a spatula, carefully flip the crepe over and cook another 30 seconds. Remove the crêpe to a large plate and repeat until you’ve used all the batter, making about 10 crepes.

In a small bowl mix together the remaining zest, yogurt, honey, and pepper. Place one crepe on a large plate, smear on a thin layer of yogurt, and top with another crepe. Repeat until you’ve layered all the crepes into a beautiful cake. Top with raspberries and confectioners’ sugar.

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Marinated Grilled Quail

When we were in Scottsdale in September, we visited the Heard Museum which prides itself on an accurate display of arts and cultures of Native peoples, especially those from the Southwest US. The collections include Southwest American Indian cultural art, fine art, and contemporary pieces in addition to beautiful jewelry, textiles, baskets, ceramics, and beadwork. After exploring the museum, I somehow landed in front of the book shelf in the gift shop, and that's where I found the James Beard Foundation award-winning book Foods of the Southwest Indian Nations by Lois Ellen Frank. This informative book tells of food traditions that continue today, the seasonality of the food, and the sustainable ways in which food has always been hunted and gathered by Native peoples. The recipes range from very traditional ones such as piki bread, which a young woman must master before being considered a suitable bride, to the more modern pumpkin corn soup with ginger-lime cream and blue corn gnocchi with guajillo chile sauce. The 100 plus dishes in the book have all been adapted to current tastes and modern kitchen equipment. There's an entire chapter devoted to chiles which I'll be turning to frequently. It includes fresh green chile soup with tumbleweed greens, chile turnovers, and red and green chile sauces. With chiles in mind, I had to try the marinated grilled quail which was served with a dried chile and honey glaze.

I really like quail and usually order it when it's featured on a restaurant menu, but for whatever reason, I had never before cooked quail at home. We always have fresh, local quail ready and waiting at Whole Foods, and I finally bought some. The quail were washed, patted dry, and their tiny, little wings were removed. The wings went into the freezer for stock some other day. Then, the quail were marinated in a mixture of chopped sage, parsley, rosemary, chipotle chile powder, chopped fresh serrano chile, olive oil, minced garlic, lemon zest, and salt and pepper. They sat in the marinade in the refrigerator for several hours. Then, the glaze was made from rehydrated, dried New Mexico chiles, and I added a dried cascabel just because I had it. The softened chiles were pureed in the blender with some of their soaking water and honey, and then the puree was passed through a sieve. The quail were cooked on the grill for about five minutes per side, and then I spooned some of the glaze over them and let them grill for another minute per side. I sauteed CSA zucchini, corn, and green beans for a side dish, and the quail were served split in half with more glaze drizzled over top.

If you haven't had quail, it's mild for a game bird, and you definitely don't want to overcook it. Five minutes per side of grilling was just right for these birds, but any smaller and the time should be reduced. The searing heat of the grill crisped the skin, and the marinade left the meat flavorful and tender. I especially liked the glaze with its earthy chile heat tempered by the honey. Next from the book, I want to try the spicy pinto bean ravioli or maybe Indian tacos with frybread.

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Brioche Pizza with Fried Pistachios and Honey

This might sound like a curious mix of things to call a pizza, but stick with me because this was exciting. Back when I first talked about the book Stir: Mixing It Up in the Italian Tradition, I said something about how it wouldn’t be long before I tried the brioche pizza. Well, it was only a couple of months, and the brioche pizza is but one part of the story. This is also about how I finally made homemade ricotta. You see, one of the ingredients for the pizza is fresh ricotta, and there’s a recipe for that in the book too. I had been saying for months that I wanted to try making ricotta and quark and mascarpone, but I kept avoiding those projects. Everyone told me how easy it is to make ricotta and asked why I’d never done it. Deeba at Passionate About Baking inspires me by making several fresh cheeses including ricotta, and the Cosmic Cowgirl has instructions for three different ways of making it on her site. And so, at last, it was time, and if I was going to do this, I was going to do this right. I headed out to a farmers’ market on a chilly first day of spring morning and purchased a gallon of incredibly fresh, locally produced cow’s milk from Way Back When Dairy. I quickly learned that making ricotta is so easy it’s silly and that really fresh milk makes really delicious ricotta.

That gallon of whole milk, three quarters of a cup of distilled white vinegar, and a tablespoon of salt were placed in a large pan and brought up to 140 degrees F while stirring constantly. Then, it was left to continue warming to 175 degrees F. The separated curds were then spooned into a cheesecloth-lined mesh strainer with a base that was sitting in a large bowl. The strainer needs a base so that it can stand above the liquid that drains. It drained for about an hour, and voila, beautiful ricotta was born. That was the key to this pizza’s toppings. Ricotta with honey and pistachios is a natural fit, and then pushing those flavors a little by contrasting the sweetness with some savory heat was what resulted here. Those toppings just happened to have been on brioche dough.

Don’t call the butter police. I know this will sound like a lot of butter, but that’s brioche. The dough was started by mixing sugar, warm water, and yeast. Flour, additional sugar, and salt were combined, and then eggs and the yeast mixture were added to that in the bowl of a mixer fitted with a dough hook. While mixing the dough, it was necessary to stop from time to time and pull the dough down off the dough hook and then continue. Then, softened butter was added one tablespoon at a time allowing each bit to be incorporated before adding more until the 16 luscious tablespoons of butter had been added. The dough was briefly kneaded by hand on a floured surface and was left to slowly rise in the refrigerator for at least four hours or up to two days. It was a lovely dough that was actually very easy to roll out for pizzas.

To make these pizzas, pistachios were fried in olive oil and then removed, drained on paper towels, and were coarsely chopped. After the olive cooled a little, red pepper flakes and sliced garlic were added to it. That flavored oil and some of the pepper flakes and garlic were brushed onto the rolled out pizza dough. The oil was topped with chopped pistachios and scoops of fresh ricotta. The pizza baked for about thirteen minutes, and then it was drizzled with honey and sprinkled with fleur de sel. I should explain that this isn’t really the kind of pizza to serve for eating several big slices while watching the game although I’m sure it would taste just as good whether a game was being watched or not. Rather, this is more of a pizza to cut into small pieces to be enjoyed with a cocktail. The rich dough was a very suitable platform for the creamy ricotta, sweet honey, and spicy hit of pepper. I wasn’t sure Kurt would love this, and neither was he. After tasting it, he claimed that the toppings really worked well together, and I couldn’t have agreed more. I also thought it was a great use of my very first fresh ricotta.




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Honey Pecan Caramels

If there is one thing my Mom and I most certainly have in common it is our weakness for caramels. When I lived at home and we’d go out running errands or shopping, we always found an excuse to stop by the candy store where we got our praline fix. Caramel with pecans is a match that’s meant to be. So, for Mother’s Day, I decided to make some homemade caramels for Mom, and I turned again to Pure Dessert by Alice Medrich. Each time I use this book, I appreciate it more. There’s a preciseness to the flavor combinations and an intentional simplicity which allows certain flavors to come forward. I previously made the fleur de sel caramels which were positively incredible. That recipe is found in the ‘flavors of herbs and spices, flowers and leaves’ section, and it, of course, highlighted the play of salt vs sweet. The caramels I made for Mom, are from the ‘flavors of honey and sugar’ section, and Medrich recommends experimenting with different honeys for this. I could do that on an on-going basis and run out honey varieties before getting tired of the caramels.

I chose a local, Texas wildflower honey for these. The honey was combined with corn syrup, sugar, and salt in a saucepan and cooked until simmering. A candy thermometer was attached to the pan, and the mixture was brought up to 305 degrees F. At the same time, cream was warmed in a small saucepan. Butter was added to the honey mixture off the heat, and then the cream was stirred in as well. It was returned to the stove and brought up to 245 degrees F, and then there was the opportunity to decide how chewy you want your caramels. For soft chewy, you let it go to 248 degrees, and for firmer chewy, it goes to 250. I chose soft, and at 248 and not a degree higher, I turned off the heat, added the vanilla, and poured the bubbly goodness over some pecans in a pan lined with buttered foil. Medrich suggested walnuts, but I used pecans. See above statement regarding caramel and pecans.

I left the pan of caramel to cool overnight, and cut it into pieces the next day. These were much stickier than the sea salt caramels I made before. I’m not sure if that was due to the honey or our off-the-charts humidity. Or, maybe I let the sea salt caramels get to a slightly higher temperature, and they set up to a firmer state. Storing them in the refrigerator also makes them firmer, and some chilling time made them easier to cut. Were they delicious? Let me just say that cutting and wrapping them individually in cellophane was slow going. I ate every other one I cut and then had to pause and rinse my hands so as not to leave sticky fingerprints on the cellophane. I finally wrapped enough of them to fill a box for Mom. The rest are mine, and I’m not sharing.


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Honey Peanut Wafers

These honey peanut wafers are also from The Modern Baker, and there are a couple of other cookies in the book I’m planning to bake in the next week too. Since these seemed like they would freeze well, I started with them. The use of honey and the simplicity of the dough drew me in instantly. It’s a very straightforward recipe with no stand mixer required. Honey, sugar, and an egg are whisked together with melted butter, and then flour, baking soda, and chopped nuts are incorporated. In the notes, Nick Malgieri mentions that the idea of using honey roasted peanuts came from Maida Heatter. Can you imagine a conversation about baking between those two? Honey roasted peanuts were perfect here, and chopping them works well for these thin cookies that spread a lot while baking. I used a natural brand called Flavor Tree. They were just sweet enough but not too much so, and they were crunchy without that usual shellacked surface.

Once the cookie dough is stirred together, tablespoon-sized mounds, spaced about four inches apart, are placed on a baking sheet. I fit six cookies on each standard, half-sheet pan. They are a little delicate when transferring to cooling racks and then to a storage container due to their thinness and slightly sticky surface. Parchment paper between layers is necessary for stacking them. But, the flavor? So good. Very possibly a new favorite. The caramelized honey and sugar on the bottoms of the cookies becomes toffee-like. If that weren’t enough, the chopped nuts are crunchy and peanutty while the cookie is much less dense than a peanut butter cookie would be. They’re thin but chewy and nutty and addictive. As soon as they were cool, they went right into the freezer for safekeeping.

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