Walnut Sweet Bread & Apple Pie Rose Bites

Last Monday was the birthday of a team member Ana. She was born & raised in Romania and I wanted to make something special for her. Having just finished up the holiday season I was a little bit sugared out on cookies & cakes, but I knew I wanted to make her something sweet that was also traditional Romanian. 

What I opted for is a Walnut Sweet Bread, aka Cozonac cu Nuca I won't give you the recipe here, but I can provide the ingredients list at least.

It has a lovely light taste, somewhere in between the flavors of a Hawaiian King Bread & Challah. It does take a bit of time to make (2 rising times) but it is definitely worth it and I think I'll be making it again around Easter time.

Ingredients
0.6 oz (16 g) Dry Yeast or 2 oz (60 g) Fresh
8.8 oz (250 g) chopped Walnuts or Pecans
2.3 lb (1 kg) All Purpose Flour
10.5 oz (300 g) White Sugar
5 Eggs
2 cups (500 ml) Milk
8.8 oz (250 g) Butter, melted
2 tsp Vanilla Extract
2 tbsp Cocoa Powder
½ cup Raisins
¼ cup Vegetable Oil
1 Zest from one Lemon

+ 2Tbsp warm milk, 1 Tbsp sugar, 2 Tbsp flour
+ 2 more Tbsp sugar

The link above is a pretty good guide by I do have a couple of notes to add.
1) Notice the inclusion of Vanilla in the ingredients, but not in the instructions. Another Romanian friend who was able to try the bread, remembers making this with her mom as a child.  She said you should add the vanilla into the egg white/sugar/nut mixture.

2) There are a couple of places where you will need too add additional milk or sugar & flour.  The first time it tells you how much, the second time it doesn't.  I opted for 2 Tbsp of sugar on the second time, it came out delicious.

3) The recipe is intended to create 3 full size loaves.  I wanted to be able to make a small gift loaf so I modified it just a bit and one of my main loaves is a bit smaller.  The sweet roll pan is filled with the ends from my 4 loaves.  Somehow I ended up making one loaf to wide so I had a little bit of extra width to cut.
(this makes amazing sweet bread by the way).

I also made some apple roses.  This was really fun to do and they came out great. They had a lovely delicate flavor and texture.  My only complaint is that my single pie dough recipe only left me enough to make a small amount of roses... 18.  Because the dough was a little over worked and I wasn't going to get it to pull together for a successful additional few, I used some of my leftover apples and the pie dough to make a gallete.  My husband and I had that for dessert and it was a perfect little sweet treat.

 

The recipe I went with is this...

Select 4-5 red apples (I used Pink Lady, but it doesn't really matter...you want a nice sturdy apple that can hold up to boiling)

4 cups unsweetened apple juice

2 cups sugar

a mandolin slicer & apple corer could make this easier too

1 pie worth of pie dough or even puff pastry - pick your favorite. I used Alton Brown's recipe

No need to peel your apples, but what you do want is even and thin slices, I cut mine down the center vertically, then in half again.. took those to the mandolin and sliced them straight into water (to keep from browning).  Once all your apples are sliced, boil in the apple juice & sugar for 10 minutes.  

Drain carefully, reserving your apple juice (collander in a bowl works great).

Give your apples some time to cool so you don't burn your fingers and put your juice back on the stove to reduce further.  (You'll end up with a really nice apple flavor syrup that is not only used to drizzle over the top of your finished roses, but makes a really great pancake syrup).

Peek over here to see how they are assembled.  

Bake at 400 Fahrenheit for about 15 minutes.  This was more like an experiment.  Yo might find a lower temp and longer time gives better results. I was watching for my dough to be cooked through and the tips of my roses browned.  

After removing from the oven, drizzle your apple syrup over the top, let cool and enjoy.

New Years Clock Confetti Cookies

With the help of Pinterest, I've been eyeing these confetti pinata cookies and wanting so badly to
make some.   Here are just some of the prettier ones I've found as made by other folks.

Candy Corn @ Becca Bakes

Cookie Pinata @ She Knows Food & Recipes

Pumpkin Treasure Cookies @ Glorious Treats

Christmas Tree @ Wilton

Trick or Treat @ Not Martha

Valentine Box @ Glorious Treats

Then just this last week I came across these at Repeat Crafter Me

With the help of this for inspiration & of course my blog goal for 2014, I decided it was finally time to give it a try. I have a team of 15 people at my work, so I had plenty of folks to share it with to and I was able to give them all a new years surprise cookie.  Everyone loved the idea and I have to say it was really very fun to do.

 So first I needed a recipe.

I chose one from the Favorite Brand Name Cookie Collection that I think I found at my local dollar books store. (so love that place).

Available at Amazon

Ingredients	Tools	Notes
1 cup softened butter 8oz softened cream cheese  1 1/2 cups sugar 1 egg 1 tsp vanilla 1/2 tsp almond extract 3 1/2 cup - all purpose flour 1 tsp baking powder ALSO sprinkles/confetti Royal Icing  5 Tbsp Meringue Powder 2/3 tsp Cream of Tartar 2 lbs powdered sugar 2 tsp light corn syrup 1 tsp glycerin oil free gel food coloring 1 tsp oil free vanilla 1/2 tsp oil free almond extract 1/3 tsp oil free butter flavoring	Stand Mixer / Paddle Attachment Rubber Spatula Small Bowl Sifter Measuring Cups Measuring Spoons Cling Wrap Also Rolling Pin Rolling Surface Cookie Cutters  Cookie Sheets Silicon Baking Mat or Parchment Paper Piping bag & tips	Prep time: dough mix 15 minutes 1 1/2 chilling time 5-10 minutes baking time 2+ hours assembly time Servings: I made 22 2 1/2" cookies (that's 66 rounds) & 7 2" cookies (21 more rounds)

Instructions:
In stand mixer, cream together butter & cream cheese.  Add Sugar, beat until fluffy. Add egg, vanilla & almond extract, mix all until well combined.
In separate bowl sift together flour & baking powder. Add dry ingredients to cream cheese mixture and combine well.
Divide dough in half, wrap each half in cling wrap and refrigerate for about 1 1/2 hours.


Prepare Royal Icing
If you don't already have a royal icing ready to go, now is a great time to make one.  I'm not going to go through the instructions on this piece, but I will offer that I've only just made my first Royal Icing & this is where I got the recipe: Sugar Kissed .net. I have included the ingredients above for your shopping trip though.

Rolling Dough
The book recommends an 1/8 inch thick cookie, and baking at 375 degrees for 8-10 minutes.  I found that in my oven 8 minutes burned the bottoms.  From then on I dropped to about 5 minutes with a careful eye and that gave me better results.  I suspect dropping the temperature to 350 would also be advisable.   I lined my sheets with either my Silpat, or parchment paper - both worked well though I think the parchment might have even done just a bit better.



There is a trick to cutting the cookies out.  You want to be sure you have two different cutters.  Your primary outside shape, and something smaller to make the center cut out.  I ended up using 2 different biscuit cutters, and the tube for my mini plunger measuring cup.

Best practice - Cut your larger cookie shape out and place it on your baking sheet.  Then while on the sheet go to it with your smaller cutter to remove the centers of 1/3 of your cookies.  If you do this from the baking sheet you don't have to worry so much about keeping them all the same shape.

After baking, remove to a wire rack for cooling.

All cooled and ready to decorate.  Notice the colors of some are a little over golden.  This recipe tastes best if you can get your cookie to just set, with little to no added color. Make sure you flip 1/2 of your whole cookies upside down so the outside is pretty all around.

Decorating.   Pictures shows icing a ring around the bottom cookie.  I found though, that it was easier to ice the ring and set it to the bottom.  Once you've got the first cookie attached to the ring it's time to fill them up.  I used mini m&m's, some sugar sprinkles and some sugar confetti.  When you've got them all filled, time to ice the ring again and put on the tops.

Before you move on to icing the tops, I recommend you give them a short while to set up, then come back around each cookie and look for any gaps that might be in your seals.  It ruins the surprise if the insides fall out before they get delivered. 

Then it's time to decorate the tops.  I used a plain white base, and added a ton of water colors (because I didn't buy any gels) to do the piping on the clock face.  Not a professional look by any means, but for my first attempt ever at not only making royal icing, but also working with it, I think they came out kinda pretty. 

Wrap in pretty little packages to deliver & enjoy.

Mom's Butterscotch Chews

Butter Scotch Chews

Printable version here

This is something my mom made a lot while we were growing up.  You might also think of these as blondies (which is really like a brownie minus the chocolate.) The bulk of the flavor comes from the molasses that makes brown sugar just that little bit more special. Every time I bite into one it's like a little bit of heaven. They have a rich butterscotch flavor, without the finicky process of making a caramel.

The prep is easy, the ingredients are few and the pay off is most definitely worth it.

 I don't know where she first learned them, but I make them so much that I have it memorized now.  In fact my actual written recipe is more like a basic guideline.  But these are so simple, I'm sure you'll enjoy not only making them, but eating them too.

Ingredients	Tools	Notes
1/4 cup - unsalted butter 1 cup - brown sugar 1 - egg 3/4 cup - all purpose flour 1 tsp - baking powder 1/2 tsp - salt 1 tsp - vanilla Optional Additions 1/2 cup - chopped nuts Powdered Sugar for dusting	Saucepan Wooden Spoon Rubber Spatula Sifter Small bowl Measuring Cups Measuring Spoons Brownie Pan	Prep time:      about 45 minutes Servings:     12+ (depending on size)

Instructions:
In Saucepan, melt together butter & brown sugar. The goal is to melt, not boil. As soon as the mix looks like a loose peanut butter, you're ready to remove from the heat.  Now you wait, about 10-15 minutes.  You need the mixture to cool so the next step doesn't create scrambled eggs.

 

While you wait, grease your brownie pan (paying special attention to the corners), and preheat oven to 350 degrees.   I use a brownie pan which makes a thinner result, but you could also use an 8x8 if you want a thicker bite or even a small cake round for a cookie shaped one.

In a separate bowl, sift together flour, baking powder & salt - set aside. 

When melted sugar has cooled, it will have hardened a little, looking almost like a brittle.  Don't worry, once you've added the egg and vanilla, and spent a little bit of time working it to remove the lumps, you'll be all set to move on to the next step.

 

Add flour mix to saucepan batter - mix with wooden spoon until just combined.

 

If you opted for nuts, now is the time to add them.
Pour out to greased brownie pan. 

Spread evenly and bake for 20 minutes.

It should be evenly browned and a toothpick inserted in the center will come out clean.

Allow to cool completely before cutting, and if you opted for powdered sugar, dust just before serving.

About 4 Square Feet

Today is day 1 of a new blog.  I don't see it being an every day thing, but I'm hoping for something close to once a week.

I moved to Southern California two years ago.  My time here started with December in a hotel, getting to know my new team.  I was able to go to my last Christmas back home with family and then we moved in January. 

Before we moved I worked in a team of 3.  After moving I am leading a team of 14 so co-worker Christmas is quite a lot bigger than I've ever experienced previously.  In both offices I bake.  Birthday, holiday & sometimes just because.    Always looking for new recipes to try, why not I have lots and lots of taste testers on my team alone, but up to 150 in just the office I work in, not to mention friends & family.

My first Christmas in the office, I prepared little tins with a bunch of treats in them.  Best Ever Cocoa Brownies (by the Smitten Kitchen), Shortbread Cookies, Mock Turtles, Meringue Christmas Trees & my Mom's Butterscotch Chews (recipe in next post).

This year I opted for more recipes and a different delivery method.  Instead of little individually packaged tins, they got a couple of days to pick from a variety tray AND that gave me the chance to offer treats to more people too.

My second round had those same cookies again, plus Sweet Potato Fudge, Chocolate Haystacks, Chewy Oatmeal Raisin, Brownies, Mom's Butterscotch Chews, Spritzer Cookies & Melomakerona. 

So why this blog? 

Today I discovered

The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap

OMG I am super inspired and have already put my name on the notice list to participate next year. But that means I need a food blog, so today I start one...

Since I'm still in the baking mood, I have a couple of days worth of posts already dreamed up.  Why 4 Square Feet?  Well you'll see why as I begin posting.  My kitchen is itty bitty and I have very limited space in which to work, maybe I'll show it to you soon.  I have an oven, the top of a lift top freezer, a sink, a bunch of gadgets, small appliances, baking tools and about 4 square feet of counter space in which to make amazing things happen.  Hey, if the Smitten Kitchen can do it, why can't I.

I take inspiration from blogs, pinterest, tv and oh so many cookbooks.  I will always show you my sources and I wish I could share my treats with you too.  If you are thinking that you can't bake, or that it's too hard... stop, and give any of the recipes I hope to share with you, a try.  I hope you enjoy.