Holiday Thumbprint Cookies

I love Thumbprint Cookies, and they're so easy to make. Betty Crocker has two great recipes that can be made festive by adding holiday sprinkles and holiday Hershey's kisses. These are the perfect cookies to give or keep! And, I'll bet Santa would love a plate after his long ride.

PEANUT BUTTER THUMBPRINT COOKIES

Ingredients
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 egg
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
Additional:
granulated sugar
About 36 Hershey's® Kisses®, unwrapped

HOLIDAY THUMBPRINT COOKIES
This recipe uses a Betty Crocker cookie mix, but you can always substitute your own sugar cookie recipe.

Ingredients
1 pouch (1 lb 1.5 oz) Betty Crocker™ sugar cookie mix or any flavor
4 tablespoons colored sugar
36 Hershey's® Kisses®, (any variety) unwrapped

Directions
Heat oven to 375°F.
In medium bowl, make dough as directed on pouch for drop cookies.
Shape dough into 36 (1-inch) balls; roll in colored sugar. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets.
Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until light golden brown. Immediately press 1 chocolate candy in center of each cookie. Remove from cookie sheets.
Cool completely, about 20 minutes.
Store cookies in tightly covered container.

Ice Cream Cake Bûche de Noël

The Winter Solstice is upon us, and what could be more fitting that a Yule Log aka Bûche de Noël. Yes, it can be served for Christmas, but we all know about the cross-over traditions of winter holidays.

The tradition of the Yule Log spans millennia and actually precedes Christianity. Peasants used to burn a yule log on the Winter Solstice in December to keep evil spirits away, which they presumed might come because of the prolonged darkness at the Winter Solstice.

As Christianity grew, the yule log became more commonly associated with Christmas celebrations and Christianity adopted the Yule log tradition. For centuries, Christians cut their own yule logs at Christmas time or they would try to find a yule log to burn. During the 1700s and 1800s, it was a regular Christmas tradition for men to go out in search of a yule log. Many European countries had traditions surrounding the Yule log, but a Yule log was burned either in the days preceding Christmas or on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day.

For the purposes of this blog, the expression "Yule log" has also come to refer to a log-shaped Christmas cake or "Bûche de Noël." This week I posted a recipe for a Bûche de Noël. I also posted a list of bakeries and patisseries in the San Francisco Bay Area where you can purchase a Bûche de Noël for your holiday celebration.

Here's a simple recipe adapted from the Breyers Ice cream site for a Buche de Noel aka Yule Log Ice Cream Cake. You can always change the ice cream to a flavor you like best. Personally I think chocolate looks the best! How easy is this?

ICE CREAM YULE LOG aka BUCHE DE NOEL

1 box (16 oz.) angel food cake mix or Duncan Hines Chocolate Cake mix (guess which one I use?)
1 Tbsp confectioners sugar PLUS extra for garnish
1 container (1.5 qt.) Chocolate or Chocolate Chip Ice Cream (original recipe uses strawberry)
3 large marshmallows
6 mini marshmallows
Unsweetened DARK cocoa powder
1 can (16 ounces) chocolate frosting
Fresh mint sprigs
Cranberries
Ground cocoa nibs

Directions
Preheat oven to 350° Line 15-1/2 x 10-1/2-inch jelly-roll pan with parchment paper; set aside.
Prepare cake mix according to package; pour into prepared pan. Bake 22 minutes or until golden brown and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. On wire rack, cool 15 minutes.
Run metal spatula around edges of cake to loosen; sift 1 Tbsp sugar onto cake. Invert onto clean kitchen towel; remove parchment paper.
Starting at short end of cake, roll up tightly, jelly-roll style, folding towel into cake; refrigerate 30 minutes or until chilled.
On cutting board, unroll cake. With scissors, cut carton from softened (leave out for 10 minutes) Ice Cream (or if you're using another brand of ice-cream, let it soften until you can spread it). Arrange Ice Cream on its side, then cut crosswise into 8 slices. Arrange slices on cake leaving 1-1/2-inch border at one end of cake; pressing to form an even layer. Roll cake up tightly, using towel to help roll cake; freeze 3 hours or overnight. Freeze serving platter 30 minutes before serving.
Meanwhile, for ''mushrooms'', with scissors, snip large marshmallows in half crosswise; press mini marshmallows onto sticky side of large marshmallows. Sift cocoa powder over mushrooms; set aside.
On cutting board, remove towel from cake. With serrated knife, slice 1-1/2-inch diagonal piece off one end of cake. On chilled serving platter, arrange large ''log.'' Place diagonal slice against side of ''log'' to form ''branch.''
Frost "log" and "branch" with chocolate frosting, leaving ends unfrosted. Drag fork across frosting to create "bark"; press on "mushrooms." Return to freezer to firm up.
To serve, garnish with cranberries and mint and sprinkle with additional confectioners sugar. Serve on a bed of ground up cocoa nibs!

TIP: The frosting will cover any cracks you may get in the cake when rolling.

Don't have time to do this? Baskin & Robbins has Ice Cream Buches de Noel for sale. You get to pick the ice cream flavor you like. They're ready for take-out or they'll customize it for you.

Photo: Breyer's with strawberry ice cream

Gluten Free Sacher Torte: Guest post by Wendy Hornsby

Today I welcome back Wendy Hornsby. I love when my mystery and chocolate worlds collide. Edgar-award winner Wendy Hornsby is the author of 11 mysteries. Next from Wendy Hornsby, Disturbing the Dark, from Perseverance Press, April 2016. 

Wendy Hornsby:

When we sit down to a meal, we want everyone at the table to be able to enjoy every dish we set before them. Accommodating special dietary needs might take a little extra thought, but doesn’t really take much extra effort, if any, to prepare. I would certainly never put something deliciously chocolate in front of my gluten-intolerant daughter and tell her she couldn’t have any.

Last Christmas my family enjoyed the rich Sacher Torte Janet posted on Dying for Chocolate. Because the Sacher torte uses very little flour, it was easy to make a gluten free version. I just substituted the same measure of all purpose Namaste gluten free flour for wheat flour (there are several brands out there, Namaste is the one I use). GF cakes are more delicate than cakes that have wheat gluten to bind them, so I sliced the torte into only two layers instead of three, though a braver person might try three. Once I converted ounces of sugar and butter to tablespoons, the cake was fairly easy to make. My version and notes are attached.

The chocolate Genoise sheet of the Buche de Noel recipe you posted the other day also uses very little flour, so simply substituting gluten free flour should work. I would add a fourth egg yolk as extra binding. Do check to make sure the baking powder is gluten free. I make my own baking powder as I need it so I can certain of what’s in it. The formula is 1 measure (i.e. teaspoon) of baking soda to 2 measures of cream of tartar.  If you make a quantity and want to store it, add 1 measure of corn starch to stabilize it. Gluten free cakes and breads generally don’t hold up for very long, so it’s risky to make them very far ahead of serving them.

Gluten Free Sacher Torte 

Cake:
6 ozs. good bittersweet chocolate cut into small pieces
2 Tbsp butter
4 egg yolks
2 ¼ Tbsp sugar, plus 7 Tbsp (a scant ½ cup)*
5 egg whites
¼ tsp. salt
1/3 cup all purpose gluten free flour, such as Namaste or King Arthur gluten free

Apricot filling:
1 ½ c. apricot preserves
1 Tbsp apricot brandy

Glaze: 
6 ozs. Bittersweet chocolate cut into small pieces
2 Tbsp butter
2 ozs. heavy cream (whipping cream)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour a 9” by 2” cake pan

For the cake: 
In a bowl, combine chocolate and butter and melt over a double boiler. Set aside to cool. Whip egg yolks with with 2 ¼ Tbsp sugar until light colored and ribbony. Beat in cooled chocolate mixture.

In another bowl, beat egg whites and salt until soft peaks form. Slowly add remaining 7 Tbsp sugar and beat until stiff peaks form. Fold in flour. Fold 1/3 of egg white mixture into chocolate. Carefully fold in remaining egg whites, thoroughly but gently. Pour into prepared pan and bake for 40 minutes or until paring knife inserted into middle comes out clean. Remove from rack and cool on rack.

The filling: 
Puree the preserves. Stir in brandy. Slice the cake into 2 or 3 equal layers.** Spread filling on top of each layer. Stack the layers and chill for at least 30 minutes.

The glaze: 
in a bowl, combine chocolate and butter and melt over a double boiler. In a small pan, bring the cream to a boil. Stir into melted chocolate. Cool until it reaches glazing (spreadable) consistency. Spread over top and sides of cake. Chill at least 30 minutes before serving. Serve: the torte is very rich. Cut into cut into narrow slices (about 2-3 inches at the wide end) and serve with a dollop of unsweetened whipped cream on the side of the plate.

*Measurement notes: I converted the measurements for ounces called for in the original recipe posted on the Dying for Chocolate blog to Tablespoons for butter and sugar. 1 ounce of sugar = 2 ¼ Tbs. and 3 ounces of sugar converts to 6 ¾ Tbs., or .4375 cup (a very scant half cup); I rounded it up to 7 Tbs. By weight, 1 ounce of butter = 2 Tbs. 

**Assembly note: Gluten free flour makes a more fragile cake than all purpose wheat flour, so I cut the cake into 2 layers instead of 3 rather than risk having it fall apart.

Bûche de Noël: Where to Buy in the San Francisco Bay Area

Not everyone has the time or skills to make a Bûche de Noël for the holidays, but there are lots of places you can buy a Bûche de Noël. Of course, you'll want to get your order in soon.

If I were in Paris, I would probably have an impossible decision to make if I were to buy only one Bûche de Noël since almost every patisserie makes a Buche de Noel. Sadly, I won't be in Paris, but if you are, here are two outstanding places.

There are beautiful Bûches de Noël by Pierre Herme (Paris). One of the Bûche de Noël is a Chuao Chocolate Buche with Cherry Accents and another is a Buche with chocolate and caramel. Alexis Mabille has created a couture Bûche de Noël for Chocolaterie Angelina. Mabille put his stamp on the traditional yule log with the pastry chef Sebastian Bauer, opting for a heart of creamy chestnuts, candied apple and a confit of yuzu and lime surrounded by milk-chocolate ganache and crisp pecans. Mabille’s bûche is not a log, but a "Cocoa" Chanel bag: quilted and studded with edible silver buttons, topped with Mabille’s signature silver bow. And, almost every patisserie has its own version.

And, since I'm located in the San Francisco Bay Area, I thought I'd post several (but definitely not all) bakeries in the area that make Buches de Noel. Get your orders in now.

Buche de Noel: San Francisco Bay Area:
 
Tartine (SF) (Genoise filled with espresso buttercream, meringue mushrooms, pistachio moss, Valrhona chocolate Glaze)
La Farine, (Rockridge, Piedmont, Fruitvale)
b. patisserie, (SF): 4: Chocolate Coffee Caramel, Coconut/Passion Fruit//Pineapple//Mango, Smore and Vanilla with Red fruits.
Bi-Rite (SF): TCHO Chocolate Buche de Noel
Miette (SF, Marin, East Bay): Traditional
Craftsman and Wolves (SF- 2 locations): Coffee, Hazelnut, Yogurt & Caramel
La Boulangerie de San Francisco (multiple locations)
Bouchon (Napa). Two sizes of traditional Buche
La Bedaine (Berkeley): Three flavors
Sweet Things (Tiburon & SF)
Fleur de Cocoa (Los Gatos)
Douce France (Palo Alto)
Tout Sweet Patisserie (San Francisco and Palo Alto)
Cafe Madeleine (San Francisco)
Arizmendi Bakery (Oakland)
Masse's Pastries (Berkeley)
Sweet Bar Bakery (Oakland)
Fournee Bakery (Berkeley)
Sweet Adeline Bakeshop (Berkeley)

Most fine bakeries and patisseries make Bûche de Noël for the holiday. Check out your local.

And, lastly if you don't want a whole Bûche de Noël, several restaurants have Bûche de Noël by the slice on their dessert menus.  Check with your favorite French restaurant.