Witchy Kitchen

Category: baking and desserts

  • Upside Down Eggos

    Upside Down Eggos

    Like most everyone else, I got completely swept up in Netflix’s Stranger Things – spooky shit painted with a layer of nostalgia? Yes please. I love the look and feel of the show, and on the homage vs. ripping-off debate, I am firmly in the former camp. The show stands on its own without all the references, but picking out the elements taken and remixed from all the 80s movies we loved is super fun! (Especially ET, one of my favorites as a kid, and The Thing which I saw for the first time just a few weeks ago). And yesssss, hit me with that sweet synth soundtrack.

    (Don’t worry, this will be spoiler free, either just general thoughts on the show, or just plot points from the first episode.)

    Winona Ryder as the frazzled single mother desperately trying to find her kid is fantastic, but my favorite performance is little Millie Bobby Brown as Eleven. Child actors are usually not great, but she beautifully conveys the fragile fear of a child, the strength of having strange powers, and the sweetness of making a new friend, all with limited dialog. She also loves Eggo waffles, which is both funny and sad as this mundane pleasure means so much to her after a life of being hooked up to wires and floating in isolation tanks.

    alb-eleven

    I love this beautiful watercolor by ALB

    Another thing I love about the show is the look of the Upside Down – the world that is a shadow of ours – darker, colder, scarier. The design is simple, but effective; it’s very dark, with these spooky snowflake particles swimming through the air, and everything is coated with this seaweedy, fungal slimy mesh.

    When brainstorming something to make, I thought about how Eleven’s beloved Eggos would appear in the Upside Down. Darker of course (these waffles are chocolate maple), and layered with my amateur attempt at maple spun sugar – it’s not the beautiful wisps of a professional, I purposely let it get lumpy and veiny and more Demagorgony!

    Upside Down Eggos

    For the waffles
    Adapted from Maple Chocolate Cake on Epicurious

    • 3/4 cup cake flour (all purpose flour is fine)
    • 5 tablespoons cocoa powder
    • 3/4 teaspoons baking soda
    • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
    • 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
    • 1/2 pure maple syrup
    • 1/2 cup Greek yogurt
    • 1 egg
    • 1/2 cup canola oil
    • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
    • 2 tablespoons melted butter
    • upside down spun sugar mesh (see below)
    • sweetened coconut flakes for garnish

    Heat waffle iron (if you don’t have a waffle iron, you can easily make these as pancakes).

    In one mixing bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and sea salt. In another, whisk together maple syrup, Greek yogurt, egg, canola oil, and vanilla extract. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir until combined.

    Cook according to waffle iron instructions, and brush the tops with melted butter.

    For the gnarly spun sugar mesh
    Adapted from Food Network

    • 1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
    • 1/4 cup maple syrup
    • 1/4 cup water

    Spread a sheet of baking parchment on the counter, and have a mixing bowl half filled with water and a fork handy.

    In a saucepan on medium high heat, heat the mixture, swirling only and not stirring (mine did get a little grainy as you can see in the picture, although it started off nice and clear), until it is 300° on a candy thermometer.

    Cool the saucepan by dipping it in the water bath until the mixture is 275° Dip the fork tines in the mixture, and quickly wave it back and forth (both vertically and horizontally) over the wax paper. Let it get a little lumpy to look more Upside Down-like. When it cools, gently lift from the paper (I used a metal spatula) and gently place pieces over your waffles.

    You can sprinkle a few coconut flakes for that artifact effect.

  • Khobz Eddar – Algerian Bread of the House

    Khobz Eddar – Algerian Bread of the House

    The MENA Cooking Club celebrates the food of the Middle East and North Africa, and this month we’re cooking Algerian food! I chose to bake khobz eddar, or “house bread.”

    You can learn so much about a country from its folklore, so I spent some time reading about the stories from Algeria. Lots of tales trace back to the Kabyle people, a Berber group from the northern side. For the most part, the stories are about clever animals playing tricks and getting stuff done, but I was most excited to see that there is an Algerian Snow White story, similar to the Grimms version those of us from the West are more familiar with, but with some distinct Algerian flavor.

    yvonne-gilbert-snow-white
    Illustration for Snow White by Yvonne Gilbert.

    It’s very common in Algeria to bake bread at home to accompany meals, so certainly little Snow White regularly baked khobz eddar for the seven ogres! I made some to accompany my Algerian meal, which included a white bean stew and Teal Tadjine’s lovely garlicky meatballs.

    Khobz Eddar

    Adapted from La Petit Panière

    • 1 packet yeast
    • 1 teaspoon sugar
    • 1 cup warm milk
    • 200 grams semolina flour
    • 200 grams all purpose flour
    • 1 teaspoon salt
    • 1 egg
    • 1 egg yolk for the brush
    • nigella seeds for garnish

    In a mixing bowl, mix yeast, sugar and warm milk and set aside until foamy, about five minutes.

    In another bowl whisk together flours, and salt. Lightly beat the egg and combine with to the yeast and milk mixture. Gradually add the flours to the yeast mixture until a sticky dough forms (you may not use all flour). Knead for 10 minutes on a floured counter, adding a little flour if the dough gets too stick. Roll into a ball and place in a clean, greased bowl to rise, covered, for one hour.

    Knead the dough again for about 10 minutes. Grease a 9 inch cake pan. Flatten and spreadthe dough with your hands into a nine inch circle, and place in the pan. Brush with egg yolk, sprinkle with nigella seeds and slice the top into 8 wedges. Cover and let rise for another hour.

    Heat oven to 400° Bake for 30-35 minutes until golden brown. Cool, slice, and serve!

    Story time! This is a little long and winding, but there are some interesting details – the wicked woman is the girl’s own mother, the moon is an oracle, tricks with henna, and death from needles. Oh yeah, and ogres!

    More Beautiful than the Moon

    A beautiful and vain woman asked the moon each night “Is there anyone more beautiful than me?” to which the moon responded “I am pretty and you are pretty, but no one is prettier than you!”

    The woman had a child, a girl, who grew very lovely. One night when the girl was still very young, when asked the moon responded, “I am pretty and you are pretty, but the girl is prettier than everyone.” The woman was jealous and asked the moon if she should kill the girl. The moon allowed her to wait until the girl grew older, learned to cook and sew, then told the woman “now she is old enough to marry and have children; kill her or I will kill you!”

    The woman paid a butcher in jewels to take her daughter to the forest and kill her, returning with a flask of her blood that she could drink. The butcher tried, but could not bring himself to kill the beautiful girl, so he hid her in a cave.

    She fell asleep, and when she awoke she was surrounded by seven ogres. They made her their sister, and she stayed with them and kept their house.

    Meanwhile the woman revisited the moon, who told her her daughter was alive still, so she was killed.

    The ogres fell in love with the girl and all wished to marry her. To decide which one she would marry, she put henna on their hands, covered them in cloth, and told them she would marry the one whose henna turned the reddest. In the morning, none of the ogres’ hands were red at all, as she had tricked them by using another herb, so she remained unmarried as their sister.

    One day when the ogres were out, the girl was visited by an ogress who put seven needles in her head, so that when the ogres returned they thought she had died. They put her body on a horse and led her through the forest, where they came upon a prince who was hunting. He fell in love with the beautiful dead girl, but his father the king insisted she be buried; however, the undertaker discovered the needles and removed them and she awoke. She was married to the prince and they had a son.

    The son grew, and asked his mother about her family. She took him to see the seven ogres, who thought she had died, and embraced her with happiness. They visited the house of the ogress that had stuck her with needles and set her on fire. They discovered the ogress had seven daughters, to which the ogres were married, and lived happily ever after with the girl and her prince.

    Original story can be found in Tales Arab Women Tell by Hasan M. El-Shamy

    More MENA Cooking Club Recipes


  • Imperius Pears

    Imperius Pears

    These Imperius Pears, poached in red wine and bathed in chocolate, are one of the unforgivable dishes. They cast a pleasant thrall over those who eat them; there’s a darkness tinged with spices, especially the unusual black pepper, but the chocolately sweetness is so dreamy that the eater doesn’t mind losing their will.

    Only the wizard with exceptional strength is able to resist – but why would they want to?

    Harry Potter Imperius Pears

    • 4 Bosc pears, almost ripe
    • 2 1/2 cups red wine (such as cabernet)
    • 3/4 cups sugar
    • 1 vanilla bean, split
    • 12 black pepper pods
    • 1/2 inch ginger, sliced into coins
    • 1 1/2 tablespoons cocoa
    • pinch salt

    Peel the pears and scoop out the core at the bottom with a spoon.

    In a small saucepan, heat wine, sugar, vanilla bean, black pepper pods, and ginger to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and submerge the pears two face up, two face down.

    Simmer for approximately 20 minutes, then flip pears and simmer another 20 minutes. Check to see that they are easily pierced by a fork but not falling apart. Remove to a plate.

    Strain the remaining wine mixture and return to the saucepan, add cocoa and salt, and bring to a boil. Lower heat slightly and simmer until mixture thickens, coating a spoon. Remove from heat and cool.

    Arrange pears on a plate and drizzle with the wine and chocolate reduction. Service with more on the side.

    potter-week-gold

    Submitted for PotterPowers day of Common Room’s PotterWeek – check out #PotterWeek around social media for tons of fun Harry Potter-related goodness!

    Mischief managed.

  • Rosemary Lemon Cakes

    Rosemary Lemon Cakes

    No Game of Thrones menu, especially one themed Queen in the North, is complete without the iconic lemon cakes.

    Previously I had made a southern Highgardenish version delicately flavored with rosewater, dolloped with a rosey lemon curd. Now that Sansa is back up north outside of Winterfell, presumably heading to the Wall, I started dreaming of a fragrant, piney, northern version of her favorite treat. Rosemary pairs so perfectly with lemon, and I made pretty candied lemon slices to decorate.

    These turned out delicious, and were even better over the next couple of days.

    Rosemary Lemon Cakes

    For the candied lemon slices

    • 1 cup sugar
    • 2 sprigs rosemary
    • 1 large lemon, cut into thin slices

    In a saucepan, heat sugar with 1 cup water and the sprigs of rosemary. Bring to a boil, swirling the sugar to dissolve it. Gently drop in lemon slices in a single layer and lower heat to medium low. Simmer gently, flipping occasionally, for 15 minutes, until rind softens. Remove to a wax-paper lined baking sheet, cool for an hour, then move to the fridge for an hour. When ready to use, slice the lemon slices into quarters.

    Reserve the syrup, you will use it for the lemon cakes.

    For the lemon cakes

    • 6 tablespoons butter, melted
    • 1/3 cup honey
    • 3 egg yolks
    • zest and juice of one large lemon
    • 1 tablespoon rosemary, finely chopped
    • 1 1/4 cups all purpose flour (spoon very lightly into measuring cups to measure)
    • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
    • 1/2 teaspoon salt
    • candied lemon slices (above)
    • lemon rosemary syrup (above)

    Heat oven to 275°

    Whisk together well butter and honey, then whisk in egg yolks one at a time. Whisk in lemon juice and rosemary.

    In a separate bowl, mix flour, baking soda and salt, then stir into wet ingredients until just combined. Spoon into greased mini muffin cups, and bake for 15-17 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.

    Cool for a few minutes in the pan, then overturn onto a plate. Brush liberally with the reserved lemon rosemary syrup (slighly warmed), and top with a candied lemon slice. Cool completely.

    Even better the next day!

    From Game of Thrones menu Queen in the North

  • Rose Creams

    Rose Creams

    Eid is right around the corner! This has been a lovely and peaceful Ramadan. Every year I celebrate it, along with family and friends, but also in my own way, choosing some piece of personal improvement to work on for the month. This year however, I chose to do what everyone else does, which is to think nice thoughts, act with generosity and kindness…and fast.

    I only fasted the first ten days. “That’s not very much!” I was told. Um, true, but afterwards I just couldn’t keep up. I have major respect for those of you with the devotion to fast while still maintaining your responsibilities – it’s absolutely not easy, and not for the faint-hearted!

    These ten days weren’t lost on me. The first few were frustrating, I had difficulty focusing at work and difficulty keeping up with housework and kids. However, this really did force me to prioritize what is important in my life. At work I started clearing the clutter (goodbye podcasts, goodbye Twitter, I’ll miss you) and setting lots of minitasks for myself that were completely manageable, less daunting. At home I slowed down on pretty much everything but spending time with my kids. If the house isn’t perfectly clean, if an elaborate meal isn’t cooked, if my blog is neglected, if I take a break from yoga, none of that matters that much. Fasting cleared my vision and showed me what was truly important in my life.

    During this time I coincidentally was reading a marvelous book for our Fiction Kitchen podcast, Chocolat (the book is SO much better than the movie by the way) about a woman who opens a chocolaterie during Lent. There are so many parallels between Lent and Ramadan, so it felt interesting reading this at the same time. We talk about it on the episode.

    So of course I had chocolate on my mind when thinking of a recipe for Eid Eats, which I was delighted to see Sarah from Flour & Spice, Asiya from Chocolate & Chilis and Henna from My Ninja Naan were organizing again this year! I participated last year and have enjoyed interacting with these ladies over the course of the year – including cooking their delicious recipes!

    In the book Chocolat, the main character Vianne has a knack for guessing everyone’s favorites, and I imagined if she guessed mine it would be something floral – I have a mild rosewater obsession, am intrigued by edible flowers, and love floral notes in all kinds of foods, from drinks to sweets to biryanis. These rose creams are an old-fashioned sweet, but made with Rooh Afza, the Pakistani rose syrup that we’ve been making into a refreshing drink almost every night this Ramadan. It seemed fitting to end the month on a sweet rosy note.

    I attempted to follow this recipe from The Daily Mail, but it appears making fondant in cool, crisp England may be different than in the sticky, humid American South, so these are the instructions that ended up working for me.

    Rose Creams

    • 3 tablespoons each heavy cream and Rooh Afza syrup. Next time I might tweak this to 4 tablespoons cream, 2 Rooh Afza
    • 10+ ounces powdered sugar
    • 12 ounces semisweet chocolate chips
    • 2 teaspoons peanut oil

    In a medium bowl, whisk together heavy cream and Rooh Afza syrup. Sift 10 ounces of powdered sugar and stir into the liquid until thoroughly combined. Add more sugar by the tablespoon until the mixture is very thick and starting to come together as a ball (although the Daily Mail wants you to be able to knead this on the counter, mine wasn’t anywhere close to that and wasn’t getting there even after 6 tablespoons, so I stopped there. Things worked out ok).

    Cover with plastic wrap and put in the fridge for at least an hour and up to overnight.

    Use the mixture to make 1/2 tablespoon-sized balls, which you can flatten slightly into disks, then place them in two batches on powdered sugar-dusted plates. Make sure the mixture stays cool so it doesn’t get too sticky, and coat your hands well with powdered sugar to make rolling them more manageable. Place in the fridge while you prepare the chocolate.

    In a double boiler, melt the chocolate chips with the peanut oil, stirring occasionally. When they are thoroughly melted, remove from heat and cool for 10 minutes.

    Line a baking sheet with wax paper. Using two forks, dip and roll each of the rosy fondant disks in the chocolate to coat, working quickly so as not to melt them. Place each on the wax paper and cool completely until the chocolate has hardened.

    Makes about 30 with a couple leftover disks I didn’t have enough chocolate for 😉

    16th-june-2015-273 (1)
  • Smokey Cardamom Ginger Molasses Cookies

    Smokey Cardamom Ginger Molasses Cookies

    The day December hits, right on schedule, visions of Christmas cookies are dancing in my head. I love peanut blossoms, pretty linzer squares, chocolatey chili cookies – and especially a wintery spice cookie.

    I don’t have one that in particular that I normally make, so this caught my eye when I saw it: Carey Nershi’s Smokey Cardamom Ginger Molasses Cookies on Food52. It had me at black cardamom; which if green cardamom is the Queen of Spices, black cardamom is the sophisticated, mellowed, and camphorous Queen Mother. This recipe not only uses the seeds as part of the spices but infuses the butter with the pods.

    I have adapted nothing about this recipe – I EVEN procured bread flour when AP would probably suffice, but after some light Googling I learned bread flour is higher in protein and therefore yields chewier baked goods – but I wanted to share it because it’s spicy and lovely and will likely become a regular part of my Christmas cookie repertoire.

    Smokey Cardamom Ginger Molasses Cookies

    From Smokey Cardamom Ginger Molasses Cookies on Food52

    • 14 tablespoons butter
    • 1 cup bread flour
    • 1 cup all-purpose flour
    • 2 teaspoons baking soda
    • 1/2 teaspoon salt
    • Spices: 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger, 1/2 teaspoon cloves, 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg, 1/8 teaspoon black pepper
    • 5 black cardamom pods
    • 1 cup sugar
    • 1/4 cup molasses
    • 1 egg
    • 1/2 cup sugar (for rolling)

    Crack open cardamom pods and remove the seeds. Grind seeds with a mortar and pestle and set aside.

    In a small saucepan, combine butter and empty cardamom pods and heat on medium low until butter is melted and slightly foamy. Remove from heat and let stand, covered, for 30 minutes.

    Remove the cardamom pods and transfer butter to a mixing bowl; let cool to room temperature.

    Whisk together the flours, baking soda, salt, reserved cardamom and the rest of the spices.

    Add the sugar to the butter and beat until light and fluffy. Beat in the molasses and the egg. Stir in dry ingredients until just combined. Cover and chill in the fridge for at least 2 hours, or up to 2 days.

    Prepare a baking sheet with silpat or parchment and preheat oven to 375° F. Put 1/2 cup sugar for rolling in a small bowl. Scoop heaping tablespoons of batter, form into balls, and roll in the sugar. Place two inches apart on the baking sheet.

    Bake cookies in batches for 8 to 10 minutes. Let cool on the baking sheet for 2 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack.

    These were delicious straight from the oven, but chewier and even more delicious after a couple of days. Happy holidays!

  • Dulce de Leche Apple Muffins

    Dulce de Leche Apple Muffins

    A couple weeks ago, my friends made caramel apples (salted caramel apples to be exact). Melty caramels + tart Granny Smiths = me almost losing a bracket but it was worth it! #bracelife

    Ever since I’ve been dreaming of them, so these are caramel apples in muffin form. I used the apple muffin recipe for King Arthur Flour with a dollop of dulce de leche in the middle – and another one on top. I put a little sprinkle of sea salt too just for good measure.

    Side note, if you are wont to Google things like “dulce de leche vs. caramel,” these is a nice succinct (and yet questionable? Carmel?) answer by “therealchiffonade” on this Serious Eats thread:

    Dulce De Leche = milk + sugar cooked till lightly brown.
    Caramel = Water + Sugar cooked to a specific stage.
    Carmel = Cream + the water and sugar you cooked to reach the caramel stage, above.

    So there you go. (Edit: Woah, cajeta is made from goat’s milk!)

    Dulce de Leche Apple Muffins

    Adapted from King Arthur Flour

    For the dulce de leche

    • 1 14oz can sweetened condensed milk

    I used to make this in the oven, but now use the ingenious method of cooking this in your crockpot for 8-10 hours – which doesn’t seem like it should work but it does. (I know this is not news to anyone, but I am still fascinated). I did it on high for an hour, then on low 8 hours or so overnight, then 1 more hour on high in the morning.

    For the muffins

    • 8 tbsp (1 stick) butter, room temp
    • 1/2 cup granulated sugar
    • 1/4 cup brown sugar
    • 1 large egg
    • 1 cup plain yogurt
    • 1 cup whole wheat flour
    • 1 cup unbleached all purpose flour
    • 1 tsp baking powder
    • 1 tsp baking soda
    • 1/4 tsp salt
    • 1 tbsp ground cinnamon
    • 2 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, and smallish diced

    Heat oven to 375° and prepare a muffin tin. I used liners because I had some cute one but usually would just do this in the pan.

    Beat butter, sugar and brown sugar until fluffy. Mix in egg, then gently mix in yogurt.

    Whisk together whole wheat flour, all purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon, then stir into the wet ingredients until just combined. Fold in apples.

    Spoon into the muffin cups until half full, then spoon about a tablespoon of dulce de leche into each one, then spoon more batter until they are full. Bake 25 minutes, then add a spoon of dulce de leche on top of each one then bake two minutes more. Finish with a sprinkle of sea salt. Cool for 5 minutes in the pan, then remove to a rack to cool the rest of the way.

  • Calabaza en Tacha

    Calabaza en Tacha

    October treats are not complete without something for the Mexican Day of the Dead, a remembrance of those that have passed, when families visit the graves to tend to them and make offerings. Calabaza en tacha is candied pumpkin (or in this case butternut squash), cooked in a brown sugar syrup then served with the syrup reduction and evaporated milk.

    I chose Spicie Foodies’ version of calabaza en tacha because of the lovely spices, but whereas she left her pumpkin in slices (which looks really pretty), my butternut squash wouldn’t have been uniform so I cut it up into chunks. I am not sure why this has brown sugar, sugar, and molasses…but it turned out delicious so who am I to ask questions?

    Calabaza en Tacha

    Recipe from Spicie Foodie

    • 1 medium butternut squash (about 2 pounds), peeled, seeded, and cut into chunks
    • 2 cups water
    • 2/3 cups brown sugar
    • 3 tbsp granulated sugar
    • 1 heaping tbsp molasses
    • pinch salt
    • zest of half an orange
    • 2 cinnamon sticks
    • 3 cardamom pods, bruised
    • 3 cloves
    • 3 allspice berries
    • evaporated milk for serving

    Bring water, sugars, and all spices to a soft boil. Lower the heat and add the squash, and simmer until very fork-tender (45 minutes to an hour).

    Strain out squash and spices with a slotted spoon, then turn up the heat and reduce the liquid to a syrup. Remove from heat. Serve squash drizzled with syrup and evaporated milk.

    I saw recipes using piloncillo, which is Mexican brown sugar – I’d love to get some to try. I also think this would be really nice made with jaggery.

  • Fig and Ginger Barm Brack

    Fig and Ginger Barm Brack

    Barm brack is an Irish sweet bread studded with dried fruits and candied peel. Though traditionally made with sultanas, I changed it up with dried figs and ginger, one of my favorite combos. It’s a Halloween tradition to eat it and play a fortune-telling game for the coming year based on little trinkets wrapped in muslin cloth baked into the bread.

    A pea: no marriage for you this year
    A stick: even worse, an unhappy marriage, or continual disputes
    A cloth or rag: rotten luck, poor poor poor

    ….hmm so far not sure I want to play this game…but then!

    A coin: good fortune, riches!
    A ring: marriage! This year!

    (Thanks again my favorite academic source Wikipedia)

    I am not even going to bother linking to the recipe I worked from because the liquid to flour measurements were way off! (At least for me). I had to add almost double the flour the recipe called for before it would come together in a dough…however, through some unexplained wacky kitchen witchcraft the end result was madly marvelous!

    So because of this, apologies for the flour measurements, but if you add a little at a time you can’t go wrong. This was fantastic, so I will definitely make this again and try to close the margin a little.

    Fig and Ginger Barm Brack

    • 1 packet (.32 oz) rapid rise yeast
    • 3/4 cup warm water
    • 4 tbsp sugar, divided
    • 3-4 cups all purpose flour, plus more for kneading
    • 1 tsp salt
    • 4 tbsp (half stick) butter, melted
    • 2 eggs, lightly beaten
    • 4 oz dried figs, chopped
    • 2 oz candied ginger, chopped

    In a small bowl, combine yeast, warm water and 1 tbsp of the sugar and let stand for 10 minutes or so (after which time it should be foamy – if not, use new yeast).

    Meanwhile, whisk together 3 cups of the flour, remaining 3 tbsp sugar and the salt, then stir in butter and eggs (does not need to be homogenous). Add fruit and the yeast mixture, stirring and adding more flour little by little, just enough until a dough forms (will be a little sticky).

    Turn out onto a floured board (or your counter) and knead for 10 minutes, adding sprinkles of flour as needed as it gets too sticky to handle. Roll into a ball and place into a lightly oiled bowl and cover with a tea towel or plastic wrap. Put in a warm spot to rise for one hour.

    After an hour, lightly oil 9×5 loaf pan. Knead the dough for a few minutes and spread the dough into the loaf pan. Cover and allow to rise for 30 minutes.

    Bake at 400° for 30 minutes – near the end if it starts getting too brown on top you can cover with foil and finish baking.

    Cool in the pan.

    Have with tea, sliced, toasted, slathered with butter and sprinkled with sea salt.

  • Pumpkin Cider Bread

    Pumpkin Cider Bread

    Pumpkin bread is an autumn classic. From the many recipes out there, I chose the Pumpkin Cider Bread from the the October 1991 issue of Gourmet magazine (RIP); what drew me to this one was the lovely-sounding reduced cider as an ingredient. I love reducing liquids to syrupy sweetness, be it pomegranate molasses, tamarind chutney, red wine sauce, or balsamic reduction.

    In the comments someone said she made this with apple juice concentrate and got the same results, and she’s probably right, but I’m going to pretend I didn’t read that.

    This was adapted just slightly to use spices I already had in my kitchen, and to use melted butter instead of vegetable oil, which btw you can substitute at a 1:1 ratio. Also skipped the baking soda but only because I totally missed that on the list, heh (I did use the baking powder).

    This bread is fine as is, but becomes glorious when toasted right in the toaster, slathered with butter, and sprinkled with sea salt.

    Pumpkin Cider Bread

    Adapted from Epicurious

    • 1 cup apple cider
    • 1 cup pumpkin puree
    • 2 eggs
    • 1/4 cup butter, melted
    • 3/4 cup brown sugar
    • 2 tbsp orange zest
    • 1/2 tsp salt
    • 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
    • 1/2 tsp ground ginger
    • 1/4 tsp ground allspice
    • 2 cups flour
    • 2 tsp baking powder
    • 1/2 cup chopped walnuts, toasted

    Preheat oven to 350° F and butter a loaf pan.

    In a small saucepan, boil cider until it is reduced to 1/4 up and let it cool. Whisk together pumpkin puree, eggs, melted butter, brown sugar, orange zest, cider, and spices.

    Separately, whisk together flour and baking powder, then mix with wet ingredients until just combined. Stir in walnuts.

    Bake for 1 hour, or until a toothpick comes out clean (start checking at 50 minutes, and if the top is getting too brown cover with foil. Didn’t need to with mine). Cool in the pan.