Sbrisolona

Sbrisolona

The Ultimate (Gluten-Free) Crumb

Adapted and modified from David Lebovitz by My Little Blue Heron

Crumb is why we bother to eat crumb cake, any crumb pie, crumble, and why Entenmann’s “Fine Baked Goods” one-upped their crumb coffee cake to  “Ultimate Crumb Coffee Cake".  

Sbrisolona is from Mantua, Italy, and it dates back to about the year 600. In its local dialect, brisa means (give up?) "crumb." In 600, basic ingredients were used: corn flour, lard and hazelnuts. (Almonds were a luxury item.) 

My preference is to add anise seed. Gluten-free baking tastes better, even shines, when strutting strong flavors. Grind the seed (coarsely) in your spice grinder (If you don't own one, get a coffee grinder .. the blade kind, and label it, “for spices only”), with a mortar and pestle (did you know that you pronounce it : pɛsəl?), or with a Japanese suribachi. This Japanese mortar and pestle is my favorite grinder. Its greatness lies within its ridges. Because of its design, you can effortlessly grind spices, seed, other dried or semi-dried foods, and sesame seeds into a paste. Here's a link for one in the U.S. on Amazon. 

If you make your own GF blend, I recommend using superfine brown rice and superfine white rice flours. 

Still in its youth, gluten-free baking and flours have begun to grow up. Superfine flours have eliminated that mouthful of sand quality to baked goods. Balancing rice dominance with softer flours and varied starches are producing flour blends that are finally merging taste with texture.

You can substitute wheat flour for gluten-free flour (that felt great!) 

The only dairy I include in my diet is butter, and this recipe screams butter. If you don’t use butter, use the finest butter substitute you can find. I haven’t made this dairy-free, but there are excellent quality non-dairy butters available. If yours has sodium (I haven't seen any "sweet" or "salt-free" non-dairy butters, have you?), omit the salt in the recipe.

If you don't like touching things, you'll need a helper. If you loved Play-Doh, this is like getting the blue. You can use a pastry blender, but there’s no way out of using your hands for the final step of putting this wonderful dough together.

To achieve excellent crumb, be vigilant and patient; and make sure you bake it until it’s golden-brown.

from my little blue heron’s kitchen to yours,

with peace and love,

jane

R. Crumb

Sbrisolona

Ingredients:

1 ½ c./170 g. almonds, toasted for about 6-8 minutes in a preheated 350º oven, until lightly toasted, then cooled

1 ¼ c./175 g. gluten-free flour mix of choice (xanthan gum added)

If no xanthan gum has been added, add ¾ tsp. xanthan gum

¾ c./110g. stone ground cornmeal

½ c./100 g. granulated white sugar

¼ c./45 g. packed, light brown sugar

¾ tsp. Kosher salt

8 oz.(2 sticks)/225 g. unsalted butter, CHILLED and cubed

2 large egg yolks (you can freeze the whites for later use)

½ tsp. each: vanilla extract I highly recommend Baldwin's of West Stockbridge, Mass., almond extract, Fiori Di Sicilia (click here for link to this fantastic flavoring, a distinctively Italian combination of vanilla, orange and citrus.)

zest of one unsprayed or organic orange (JUST the zest .. no white pith)

1 tsp anise seed, coarsely ground optional (but highly recommended)

L-R, Back to Front: whole anise seed, Baldwin's Vanilla Extract, King Arthur Flour "Fiori Di Sicilia"
Japanese suribachi (grinding bowl)

Procedure:

Getting ready: Preheat oven to 350º F. (180º C.) Butter a quarter sheet pan, or a 9-10” square or a round cake pan. Cut butter into small cubes and refrigerate. The butter must be very cold.

Remove 1 c./110 grams of the almonds and ¼ cup/35 g. of the GF flour blend and put in the bowl of your food processor. Pulse until almonds are in small pieces, but are still recognizable as almonds. Don't go all perfectionist about getting them all the same size. Transfer to a large mixing bowl. MLBH Truc: When you pull out a mixing bowl, return it and pull out a bigger one. Always.

Place the remainder of the almonds in the bowl of the food processor and pulse several times until they are in large(r) pieces. For now, leave them in the bowl.

Add the remainder of the dry ingredients to the large bowl that has the first batch of chopped almonds that you pulsed with the flour, mixing well (with a whisk or with your hands.)

In a small bowl, whisk together the orange zest, egg yolks and extracts. Set aside. (If you do this in advance (mise en place), cover with plastic wrap to keep this mixture nice and moist.

Add the cold, cubed butter, and with your hands (or with a pastry blender), cut in the butter or rub with your hands into the dry ingredients until the mixture resembles small peas. Again, irregular pieces are fine. What is important is that the butter doesn’t soften too much from the warmth of your hands (work quickly and with your fingers and not the ‘warm’ part of your hand.)

Now, dump in the larger almond pieces and the orange zest/egg yolk/extract mixture. Use a spatula to get every last drop of the wet ingredients into the dry/butter mixture.

With your hands, mix together, squeezing gently, until dough comes together in clumps.

Transfer into your prepared pan. DO NOT pat down the mixture. Leave is in clumps. It’s okay if there’s space between the clumps .. like a crumb topping. It’s critical that you don’t press down or compact the mixture. 

N.B.(If you like raw dough, this recipe is fantastic because it isn't highly sugared. Next time, double the recipe and mix this into vanilla ice cream or some chocolate sorbetto. Three cheers for your next binge/pity party decadent/comfort-food blue ribbon Americanized dessert!)

Bake in preheated oven until golden-brown, approximately 30-40 minutes.

Remove from oven and cool completely before breaking up into uneven pieces. 

Store in an air-tight tin/container for about 5-7 days at a cool room temperature. Freeze Sriboslona for up to two months. 

Oatmeal Cookies

Mimi Sheraton/Dieter Schorner's

Oatmeal Cookies

This recipe was published fairly recently in the NY Times, but it was originally published in the paper in 1981. The recipe is from Sheraton's book “Visions of Sugarplums”, one that I picked up a couple of years ago at Kitchen Arts and Letters, an incomparable bookstore in New York that specializes in everything food and drink. If you're ever looking for a cookbook or have a question about anything to do with cooking or baking, call them.

The Times credits Mimi Sheraton with this recipe because she published it, but Mimi credits Dieter Schorner. Schorner was the pastry chef at Le Cirque in 1981 when Le Cirque wore diamonds on the soles of its shoes.

This is a simple recipe from Schorner's childhood, an extraordinary recipe of memory.

In the Times, Sheraton writes, “Dieter Schorner, the pastry chef at Le Cirque, uses the following recipe to bake the cookies he remembers from his childhood in Germany. He loves the cookies still warm from the oven.” In her book, she quotes Schorner: “When we were children at home, it was our dream to eat these simple cookies warm from the oven.” 

She suggests you try them after only a few minutes of cooling, but in her recipe writes they are “really” meant to be eaten cold. You’ll decide if they’re better warm or cold. You’re the boss.

These aren’t American-style oatmeal cookies. They're neither crispy nor chewy; and they're not "natural" or "earthy." With no spices, save for some pure vanilla extract, you'll taste pure ingredients. No to brown sugar and no to eggs. Butter, flour, oats and raisins merge to produce perfect flavor and texture. Shortbread meets oatcake – cookie nirvana. I froze the lemon sole and ate them for dinner.

I’ve converted volume to weight measure (but retained the original measurements too .. phew), opted for unbleached flour and some organic ingredients and used European style butter. I adhered to Mimi’s/Dieter’s procedure. 

Always use the best quality ingredients you can obtain. It makes a difference.

Truc: If you don’t want to bake off all 5 dozen cookies at once, scoop cookies into balls and place them on a sheet pan that you’ve lined with either parchment or waxed paper. Place in the freezer. Once frozen, wrap well and store in an airtight container or plastic bag. Bake them directly from the freezer, adding time to the bake.

There are just seven ingredients in this recipe. Measure everything out. Grow accustomed to the luxury of mise en place.

To a beautiful and peaceful fall.

peace and love,

jane

Oatmeal Cookies

Adapted by Blue Heron Kitchen from Mimi Sheraton’s "Visions of Sugarplums"

Ingredients:

340.2 g./12 oz. unsalted butter, European style is best

214 g./7.5 oz. or 1 c. granulated sugar

1 tsp. pure vanilla extract (I always use Baldwin's)

2 tsp. sifted baking soda (sift it, it won't be clumpy)

264 g./9.3 oz. or 2 ¾ c. Old-Fashioned oats  - don't use instant!

      (I used Bob’s Red Mill organic oats. The recipe calls for Quaker brand.)

354 g./ 12.5 oz. or 2 ⅔ c. unbleached all-purpose flour

264 g./9.3 oz. or 1 ½ c. organic raisins

Procedure:

Preheat oven to 375º F.

Butter a cookie sheet and line with parchment. (Do this!)

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

Stir in vanilla.

Add sifted baking soda and stir in.

Add oatmeal, flour and raisins and stir in thoroughly. Mix well.

Using your hands or a small cookie scoop, form dough into balls, each just a little larger than a walnut.

Place them about one inch apart on parchment-lined cookie sheet.

Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until pale golden brown. (Despite the baking soda, these will not spread much at all.)

Remove from paper and cool on rack. Although delicious when warm, “these are really meant to be eaten cold.” (Mimi Sheraton)

When cookies have cooled completely, pack in airtight containers.

Yield: approximately 5 dozen

Gluten-Free Oatmeal Cookies

Gluten-Free Oatmeal Cookies

Adapted from Gluten-Free Girl by Blue Heron Kitchen

I've been fooling around with this really great gluten-free oatmeal cookie recipe for a while. The original recipe uses coconut flour and dried cherries (and it's fantastic!). But, for St. Patrick’s Day, gimme oats and currants. These are light, crisp, buttery and the dried fruit plays a starring role. 

Ingredients are by weight. Please use your kitchen scale. If you don’t have one yet, take a look at this one (in the U.S.) It's about $11.

If your almond flour isn’t finely ground and you have a Vitamix or a similar kitchen power tool, throw your almond meal into the dry mix container and pulse until finely ground. (Similarly, you can ‘mill’ your own oat flour from oats in a Vitamix!)

Truc: Mis-en-place! Be prepared! – Measure out all your ingredients and have them ready to add, one at a time. This will make you feel like Julia Child – or if don't know what the hell I’m talking about, think your favorite hottie from the TV Food Network or any cooking show you like on television.

These are so good that people who eat wheat will like them. 

In Irish, you’ll shout, “Tá mo Celia sásta!” (“My celia are happy!”) 

In any language, you won’t find a morsel of gluten in these fianáin iontach (fantastic cookies.)

peace, love and Bon folláin!

jane

Gluten Free Oatmeal Cookies

            Blue Heron Kitchen

Ingredients:

160 grams almond flour

20 grams oat flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. kosher salt

1 tsp. cinnamon

180 grams (13 Tbsp.) unsalted butter, room temperature

200 grams brown sugar (light or dark, your choice)

150 grams granulated white sugar

1 egg, size large, room temperature

1 tsp. pure vanilla extract (Baldwin’s is a wonderful choice.)

250 grams gluten-free oats (use "old-fashioned" and not "quick" oats)

250 grams dried currants (or raisins) (gluten-free)

Procedure:

Preheat oven to 350º F. and line baking sheets with parchment paper.

Whisk together the flours, baking soda, salt and cinnamon and set aside.

Weigh sugars and set aside.

Weigh oats and set aside.

Weigh currants (or ‘other’ dried fruit) and set aside.

Crack egg into small cup and set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter, by itself, until light and fluffy.

Add the sugars and continue to mix until thoroughly combined.

Add egg and vanilla and mix thoroughly.

Dump in flour mixture and mix on low speed until it is incorporated, scraping down the bowl, as needed.

Add oats and dried fruit and mix until incorporated.

Using a cookie scoop or two teaspoons, space the cookies about 1 ½” apart on the cookie sheet, leaving them mounded.

Bake for about 8 minutes. Open the oven, and with the back of a fork, gently flatten or “deflate” each cookie.   

Turn the sheet front-to-back and continue to bake for approximately 5-8 minutes, depending on how large your cookies, how accurate your oven; and how you like them ‘done’.

Remove and cool until firm enough to remove from sheets. Transfer to racks to cool completely. Store in an airtight tin.

Yield: approx. 5 1/2 doz. - 2 1/2" cookies








Truc: If you don't want to bake them all at once, freeze the scooped raw cookies on a sheet, lined with waxed paper. Once frozen, wrap well. When you want to bake them off, don't defrost, bake directly from the freezer, adding additional baking time.