Or yourself!  It’s the run into Christmas and when I’m not baking or decorating, I’m Christmas shopping.  I try and give only gifts that people want.  Seems simple, but it can be surprisingly time consuming.

Here’s my list of 13 great gadgets for a baker that will fit in a Christmas stocking. Well,  maybe not in the min-stocking in the photo.  All really useful and none very expensive.  I am possibly Amazon’s biggest customer in the UK but all of these should be fairly widely available via a google search.

But first, why is a bakers dozen 13? Are bakers just bad at counting? Not really.

The most widely accepted theory is about avoiding a beating.  There were laws in England that based the price of bread on  the price of the wheat used to make it. Bakers who cheated  their customers by overpricing or selling undersized loaves or rolls were  punished by fines or flogging.  We all know its hard to make baked goods uniform and medieval bakers did NOT have a digital scale to help them.   The bakers would add that bit extra to ensure their goods didn’t come up ‘short’.  Hence, the baker’s dozen.

1. Dough scraper: a nice plastic gadget that gets all the batter out of the bowl, handy for kneading wet dough,  scraping stuff off the counter tops, mixing heavy dough, cutting dough.   Upper right corner.
   

   Clockwise from top left; countertop protector, dough scraper, fast read thermometer, cheap shower cap.

2. Plastic shower caps – but not the cheapest ones.  You can buy 100 on Amazon or eBay for £6.50 but they are so cheap it’s essentially single use plastic. We’re not fanatics but we’re trying to avoid plastic waste. So, give  the boxed ones that are 10 for £3 a try.  They last longer and survive a gentle rinse out if you get dough on one.
3. Thermometer(s).  Baking (all cooking actually) is essentially a chemistry experiment.  It’s good to be precise when it makes a difference.  There are instant read thermometers that will tell you if you roast is cooked,  your bread is ready or your boiling sugar is hard crack.   And things like oven temperature can be the difference between an exploding chocolate cake that creates an oven cleaning emergency or a mouth watering Sacher torte.  I have three I rely on; one to check the temperature of baked goods, one to leave in the roast and one to check oven temperature.  Search ‘instant read thermometer’ ‘oven thermometer’ ‘roast thermometer’.
   
   
4. Loaf pan liners. Paper liners save greasing pans, make clean up easier and a way less fiddly than cutting parchment to fit.   They come in 1 and 2 pound sizes.  There’s also pan liners for round cakes.   And the amount of fat that is used to grease a cake pan can destabilise the chemistry of your cakes.  Some day I will write on blog post on my struggle with making a Victoria sponge cake.  It’s my nemesis.  But pan liners helped me get there.
5. Offset spatula. Nerd alert here.   An offset spatula allows for better control and precision when icing cakes or lifting and moving cookies, chocolates or anything delicate.  Better yet, a set of three offset spatulas in different sizes.  The baking nerd in your life will love you. 
6. Pastry mat. A pastry mat is a flat sheet of plastic with markings that helps you eyeball when the dough has been flattened to a six inch diameter disk., for example.  A great short cut.  Also really speeds clean up.  Instead of painfully scraping up dough or flour you can just put the whole thing straight in the sink.  Roll it up tight and it should fit in the Christmas stocking. 
7. Egg whisk. Okay, more nerd stuff.  I went on an all day ‘egg’ course with my mate Lisa.  We cooked and ate a LOT of eggs.  Fried eggs, poached eggs, omelettes, scrambled eggs.  We learned the ‘right’ way to crack an egg (and a one handed crack method).  The best gadget we saw was a specialist egg whisk.  Lisa bought one for me later.  Here it is.
   
8. Miniature tape measure. I have a tiny tape measure in a magnetic case that lives on the extractor fan in my baking kitchen.  It means I don’t have remember (or guess) the dimensions of my multitude of pans, tins, baking trays etc.  It’s the kind of thing you might get in a Christmas cracker, but it’s a super little tool.
   
9. Spacers for rolling dough and sugar paste icing.  Back to our desire for precision.  If you’re making cookies or some kinds of dough or pastry – you want to roll it out to an even thickness.  Spacers are simple plastic guides – you put them on your pastry mat, whack the dough in between them and roll away.  Here’s a link to a YouTube video because it’s hard to visualise these until you’ve used them. 
10. Active dry yeast. Many bakers may have a favourite type of yeast, you can take a peek in your baker’s cupboard and see.  But if they make bread,  active dry yeast is a good bet.  I use a French brand ‘saf-levure’ that comes in 500 gram tins.  It might be a tight fit in the Christmas stocking but its top quality and its about 1/4 the price of supermarket purchases on a per gram basis. 
11. Cookie cutters.  Shaped cookies are not just for Christmas anymore.  So many shapes, themes and materials these days.   You can cut cookies for any holiday or special occasion. Find a shape that is special to them (I have a friend who’s a unicorn freak and I have a unicorn cookie cutter to make cookies for her) or maybe find them an antique biscuit cutter.  I have a set of Star Wars cookie cutters.  Serious Star Wars nerds in our house.
    
    

    One of my first forays into royal icing.

12. Good quality hand cream. Bakers wash their hands about 500 times a day.  I don’t actually know, I’ve never counted but it’s a lot.   I have two pricy favourites; ‘Occitane en Provence’ shea butter hand cream or ‘iColoniali’ myrrh hand cream.   Find a scent that your baker loves.
    
13. And finally – edible gold glitter (or any other special sprinkles for your baker).   Try this website for some fun and funky sprinkles.
    

Have a lovely Christmas, and bake on everyone.

Okay, I couldn’t resist just one more.  A stand to help fill your piping bags…….

A plastic gadget that should be cheaper but works a bomb.

Merry Christmas all…….

Buttery flaky crust, crisp on top, gooey and sweet in the middle. Nutty and chocolately.

Thanksgiving is a day of feasting, family and friends, practically sacred to all Americans.   You can do your own thing at Christmas time but you better show up at home for Thanksgiving.  Or perhaps – where you are for Thanksgiving is your home.

Pumpkin pie reigns supreme on the dessert buffet on Thanksgiving but pecan pie has always been my top choice.  I will eat (and make) pumpkin pie but there is something a little odd about a vegetable based dessert.  Just saying.

My recipe takes pecan pie to a new  level – making them individual sized and adding chocolate.  Chocolate and pecans – a match made in heaven.   And I’ve noticed that people might be reluctant to grab a knife and hack off a piece of pie and put it on a plate, find a fork and THEN eat.  So much easier to pick up one of these little beauties and pop it in.  Either with or without a little dollop of whipped cream.  It’s all about portion control.

One unique feature of this blog post; the crust recipe makes about twice what you need for 12 mini pies.  I used my usual pie or sweet tart pastry recipe.  I tried making a half batch but the dough just went sulky and wouldn’t come together.  No idea why.  You can try cutting the ingredients in half (or doubling the filling recipe).   Or you can put the extra dough in the refrigerator and wait for inspiration to strike.  And I’m doing mince pies over the weekend.

The only specialised equipment you need for this recipe is a 12 hole muffin tin.  Here we go……

Ingredients

Crust

320 grams plain flour

2 teaspoons caster sugar

1 teaspoon salt

115 grams chilled unsalted butter

95 grams cold vegetable shortening (Trex or Crisco)

120 mls very cold water

(Note: this makes roughly twice as much crust as you need for the mini-pies).

Filling

105 grams brown sugar (light or dark, both good)

1/4 cup or 115 grams of Karo light corn syrup or Tate & Lyle golden syrup

1 egg

15 grams of melted butter

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

85 grams chopped pecans, plus 12 pecan halves for decoration

75 grams dark chocolate or semi sweet chocolate bits

Making the pastry

1.  Make sure your butter and Trex are well chilled.
2. Mix the dry ingredients together in a wide shallow bowl.
3. Cut the butter into cubes.   Try not to touch the butter and Trex with your hands more than you absolutely have to. Here’s an important distinction between dough and pastry.  (say for bread) is all about transmitting warmth from your hands to the dough to encourage the incorporation of any fat and the development of the yeast.   Pastry is about keeping it cool and NOT completely incorporating the fat.  Add the  butter and Trex to the dry ingredients.
   

   Try to handle the butter as little as possible.

4. Cut together the dry ingredients and the fat with either a pastry blender or two table knives working back and forth.  I think a high quality pastry blender is an important tool.   I clean the pastry blender with a table knife, rather than with my fingers.
   Again, trying to keep the butter and Trex cool (rather than melting it into the pastry).   The pastry should look like peas, coated with flour once combined.
   

   Those butter lumps look a bit big in hindsight.

5. Add the water to pastry one tablespoon at a time.  I like to have the chilled water in jug and pour it in, then stir.  The pastry should start to come together but it will look quite shaggy,  even after all the water is in.  Tip the pastry out onto a lightly floured surface and pat it together. (You’re allowed to touch the pastry with your hands here).  Divide the pastry into two equal portions, wrap each one in cling film and refrigerate for at least an hour.
6. Your pastry will have some visible butter lumps in it.  Provided they aren’t too big this is okay.
   

Making the filling

1. Melt the butter in a plastic bowl (15 seconds in the microwave should do it).
2. Combine the butter with the brown sugar, the Karo or golden syrup and the egg.  Stir in the chopped pecans, the chocolate bits and the vanilla.  Beat it together until smooth.

Assembly and baking the individual pies

1. Preheat the oven to 170C (160C fan).
2. Spray the muffin tin generously with non-stick spray (I have coconut based spray that I use for baked goods vs the olive oil one for savoury dishes).
3. Take one of the packages of pastry from the refrigerator.  Cut it into 12 even pieces (weigh it on a piece of cling film and then divide by 12).
4. Press a piece of pastry into a flat disk (yes, you can use your hands now). Place one into each muffin cup.  Flatten out the bottom and press the pastry up the sides of the cup.
5. Put a scoop of filling into each pastry shell.  I have a small trigger scoop that is about the size of a tablespoon.  Or, you could whack the filling in a pastry bag and pipe it in.  You should have just enough filling for 12 mini pies.  Don’t fill above the pastry shells or you’re going to have a sticky mess to clean up when it comes out of the oven.  Put one of your reserved pecan halves on the top of each pie.
   
6. There will be barely enough left in the bowl to make it worthwhile for the Davinator to sneak in and ‘clean’ the bowl.
   
7. Bake the mini pies for 30 to 35 minutes.  The pastry above the filling should be a toasty brown colour.   Cool in the muffin tin for about ten minutes, then gently remove to cool completely. You may have to loosen the pies with a flat knife.  Let them finish cooling before you eat them – or you might burn your tongue.
   

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Gratitude is a choice, count your blessings and be thankful.

Home made cream filled chocolate sandwich cookies.

Or should I say ‘cream filled chocolate sandwich cookie’? I stumbled across this recipe from the amazing Sally of Sally’s Baking Addiction.  I made it and the  cookies were so delicious it changed how I thought about ‘convenience’ foods.

Note: the terms biscuit and cookie are used interchangeably in this blog post.

This recipe started me on my quest to re-discover food that has been stolen from us by big food companies pushing ‘convenience’.  These cookies are what the inventor of the Oreo imagined.  Then the cost accountants said ‘cheaper ingredients please’ and the marketing team said ‘must last for 18 months in the package’ and the logistics team said ‘oh and should survive a 3 story drop without crumbling’.

Nobody actually NEEDS cookies. We WANT cookies.  If you’re going to indulge in a cookie (biscuit), make it one of these cream filled chocolate beauties.

I’ve made a couple of process improvements and tweaked the recipe ever so slightly for non-American bakers.  My version of the recipe makes three dozen (36) filled sandwich cookies, 75 to 80 individual biscuits.  It’s about double the original recipe. but believe me you won’t have any trouble with ‘disposal’ of these cookies.

They are a great way to win friends and influence people.  And the 3 dozen includes ‘wastage’ like when the Davinator sneaks into the baking kitchen and steals some dough or a fresh baked cookie.  For a big man, he can be stealthy.

My instructions below include three innovations that help me get consistent results with the recipe: melting the butter for the dough, weighing the dough for each biscuit and piping the filling onto the biscuits.

Some genius at Cooks Illustrated came up with the idea of melting butter to combine it with sugar.  I tried it first in my brioche and I’ve never looked back.  Just about any recipe that combines butter and sugar (not icing sugar) works well with melted and cooled butter rather than ‘room temperature’ butter.   Cooks Illustrated is the only online cooking resource I pay for, by the way.  Love it.    Occasionally frustrating because they sell cookbooks and gadgets you can’t get in the UK.  

Weighing the biscuit dough seems fiddly but it means that you have uniform pieces when it comes to assembly of the sandwiches.  In other words – they all match.  I pipe the cream on because it’s neater (once you get the hang of filling and working with the bag),  and you can weigh the filling as you put it on.

Piping the filling is quicker than spooning it on – it means you eat less of the filling. If you bake as much as I do – it makes a difference.

There seem to be a lot of steps in the recipe but don’t worry.  It’s to break the recipe down for the less confident bakers.

Bake away people!

Recipe

Chocolate sandwich cookies

• 320 grams plain white flour (not self raising, I don’t get on with it)
•  85 grams unsweetened natural cocoa powder – I use Callebaut and get mine from Amazon
• 2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 225 grams unsalted butter melted then cooled (see below)
• 300 grams fine white caster sugar
• 100 grams brown sugar (I find that light or dark doesn’t matter)
• 2 large eggs at room temperature
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Cream Filling

• 120 grams unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
• 95 grams vegetable shortening (Trex or Crisco), room temperature
• 420 grams icing  sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Instructions

Making the chocolate biscuits

1. Melt the butter in a plastic bowl or other microwave safe container. I do 30 second pulses and it takes 2 or at the most 3.   Let the butter cool for about 10 minutes.  You can get the rest of ingredients ready while it’s cooling.
2. Put the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl.  Whisk to combine.
3. Combine the sugars in the bowl of your stand mixer.  Put the paddle attachment on.  Pour in the melted cooled butter and beat at a low speed.  It might take a minute or two but is much quicker than creaming even true room temperature butter.   Beat in the eggs and the vanilla until well combined.
4. Add the dry ingredients.  Beat slowly.  Stop and scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl.  Beat for another minute.  Then cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a shower cap and refrigerate for an hour.
5. Preheat the oven to 190C (170C fan).  Line your baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking sheets.
6. Take the dough out of the refrigerator.. It should be firm and easy to handle. Divide it into four roughly equal portions.  Get your scale ready – put a piece of parchment on it, zero it.
7. Roll one of your portions into a log about 3 cms (an inch and a bit)  in diameter.  Cut off about a 2 to 3 cm piece and weigh it.  You want each biscuit to be about 15 grams.   Divide the dough into 15 gram portions.  Roll each 15 gram piece into a ball and place on the baking sheet.  You will get good at ‘feeling’ when they are right weight and your speed will pick up.
8. Fill 2 baking sheets, leaving enough room between each biscuit because they will spread.  Crush each ball so that they become disc shaped.
9. Put the baking sheets in the oven and cook for 7 -8 minutes.  You can do a test biscuit on it’s own (also fun to eat) to see how your oven is baking.   I don’t rotate the baking sheets or move them up or down the oven racks because I don’t think it makes a difference for a cooking time that short.  If you find it does, then I would do one baking sheet at a time.
10. When the biscuits are cooked, remove them from the oven, cool on the sheet for about 5 minutes and then move to a rack or a clean tea towel.  I use an offset spatula and move one biscuit at a time – resisting the impulse to use my fingers or do two at a time.  It’s quick enough. Cool the biscuits well before adding the cream filling.

Making the ‘cream’ filling

1. Beat together the butter and the vegetable shortening using the paddle attachment in your mixer.  This is NOT the time to try the melting butter trick.  You’ve just got to wait for the butter to soften.  Add the icing sugar and the vanilla.  I throw a damp towel over the mixer rather than rely on the Kitchen Aid splash guard (that is the most useless piece of kit ever, actually makes more mess than it prevents).  Beat until smooth.
   

   No actual ‘cream’ and should be a bit stiff.

   Now it’s time to get out the piping bag and do your assembly.

Two great gadgets come together now: disposable piping bags and the piping bag filler.  It’s a plastic cone shaped thingy (see below) and helps you fill the pointy end of piping bag.  I buy the piping bags in a big roll and use them for buttercream,  mashed potatoes, filling cookies and putting dough into things like donut pans.

A plastic gadget that should be cheaper but works a bomb.

Assembly

1. Fill your piping bag. DO NOT CUT OFF THE END – YET.  You don’t need a metal nozzle. Gather up the top and twist it about 10 times.  Then swing it over your head like a bolo or a lasso.  This forces the filling to the pointy end.  NOW cut off the end of the piping bag. Repeat: DO NOT CUT THE END OFF BEFORE THE LASSO STEP.  Learn from those of us who may have redecorated the kitchen with buttercream icing.

Lay out your biscuits in pairs and match any that may have been 14 or 16 grams.  I put the filling on the ‘smooth’ side and then put the smooth sides together.  The smooth side would have been the bottom when baked.

Lay out your sandwich pieces and improve any size mis-matches.

Put a biscuit on the scale and zero it (smooth side up).  Apply about 15 grams of cream filling to the biscuit and then smoosh another (matching) cookie on top of it.

The piping bag really helps with speed and uniformity. Also you eat less icing….

Fill away, smoosh the pieces together and enjoy.  These keep in a sealed Tupperware container for at least a week.   I’ve never had these cookies go stale – they get eaten too fast.

Happy baking!