Anyway, the classic bunny cake made with box mix was, the internet says, popularized by a collaborative 1970s ad campaign from Pillsbury and Baker’s Coconut. It involves cutting one of the round layers of a two-layer cake into two fat canoe-shaped ears, leaving the remaining part, which is shaped like a bow tie. Then you arrange the bunny head, frost it, and make it look fluffy with coconut. It’s more about looks than flavor. And maybe that’s all you want to do. If so, bunny-hop to the part of the recipe that shows you how to assemble one. But, if you want your bunny cake to be delicious, read on.

Some years ago, I came across a mysterious recipe in mom’s box titled, “Carrot Cake Julia’s Favorite.” The recipe has all the fiber: chopped walnuts, applesauce, golden raisins, shredded coconut and canned pineapple tidbits. Plus cream cheese frosting. It’s also easy to make gluten-free by subbing in one cup almond flour and one cup gluten-free flour mix. I discovered after making it that it is still my favorite, lighter than most carrot cakes and full of great, textured sweet-crunchy bites. Baking it into a freaky bunny cake makes the best kind of magic: It turns a kid-pleasing thing into a kid- AND adult-pleasing thing. Anyway, maybe you just want carrot cake. You can, in that situation, skip the bunny part of this recipe altogether. If you’d like to make the bunny carrot cake, my only decorating advice is less is more. But your kids will never agree to that. I just scrape the pastel M&Ms off the next morning when I have a piece with my coffee.

Bunny carrot cake

Serves about 12

For the cake:

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 3/4 cups sugar

3/4 cup olive or avocado oil

4 eggs

3 cups grated carrots

1 cup chopped walnuts

3/4 cup pineapple tidbits, drained

3/4 cup golden raisins

3/4 cup unsweetened applesauce

1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut

Frosting:

1 stick or 1/2 cup salted butter at room temperature

1 8 ounce brick regular — not whipped or low fat — cream cheese, softened

Four cups powdered sugar

1 tablespoon whole milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Decoration ideas: Shredded coconut, pastel M&Ms, jelly beans, licorice whips, store-bought pink decorator frosting for the mouth and ears

Method: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prepare two 8- or 9-inch round cake pans by tracing the bottom of the pans on parchment paper and cutting out the circles to make liners for the bottom of the pans. Spray the pans well with kitchen spray and place the liners in each. Alternatively, grease and flour the pans. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, soda and salt. Set aside. In another medium bowl, combine carrots, walnuts, pineapple, raisins, applesauce and coconut. Set aside. In the bowl of a standing mixer, or using a hand mixer in a large bowl, combine sugar, oil and eggs on medium speed. With the mixer running, gently shake in the dry ingredients. When the dry ingredients are well incorporated, turn the mixer to low and shake in the carrot mixture. When that mixture is incorporated, divide the batter into the two prepared pans. To make sure you are dividing the batter equally, you can set the pans on a kitchen scale as you fill them and adjust the amounts accordingly. Bake for 45 to 50 minutes or until the tops of the cakes spring back when you touch them. Overturn the cakes gently on cooling racks and allow to cook completely.

For the frosting: In the bowl of a standing mixer or with a hand mixer, whip the butter and cream cheese until fluffy. Shake in the sugar a cup at a time. Add milk and vanilla. Whip for 2 minutes.

To build the cake: Once the cake is completely cool, carefully cut one of the circles into ears and bow tie. (See picture) Compose the cake on a serving platter, using a spoonful of frosting under each piece to hold them in place. Frost and decorate.

The post Make a bunny cake, but swap box mix for a vintage carrot cake appeared first on Julia O'Malley.

The almond croissant, blanketed in powdered sugar with a shatteringly crisp outside and a dense, not-too-sweet frangipane inside, tasted like everything I expected of Paris: refined, traditional, understatedly genius. Ever since, I have been thinking about making a dessert inspired by a French apple tart called “Tarte aux Pommes Normande” with salted butter crust, dense almond filling, and roasted Honeycrisp apples. Thanksgiving will be my moment.

The directions below may seem a little longer than my usual recipe, but I did my best to remove all the fussiest parts of tart-making. The little extra attention to detail here is worth it. The crust requires no rolling. It turns out that frangipane or almond custard is shockingly easy to make. After that, all you have to do is thin-slice the apples. I like Honeycrisp, but you can choose your favorite. You can absolutely make this tart gluten-free by subbing in a cup-for-cup flour blend. If you have a nut allergy, this tart can be made without the almond layer — just use the thin-cut apples and then sprinkle more extra-thin slices to fill the space around them.

You can also change the apple design, arranging thin slices however you’d like (the internet is full of inspiration). One very important thing is that you should never handle a tart pan with removable sides until it’s totally cool. It’s just asking for catastrophe, such as the pan and crust falling apart while you have a hot tart inside. (Ask me how I know.) Instead, always work with a tart pan on a sheet pan. Once it is cool and the filling is set, you should have no problem removing the sides and carefully sliding it off of the bottom of the pan onto a cake plate. This tart can be baked a day ahead and refrigerated.

Apple-Frangipane Tart

Serves 10

Ingredients:

Crust

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1/3 cup powdered sugar

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1 4-ounce stick salted butter, melted

1 to 2 teaspoons water

Filling

3 tablespoons salted butter, melted and cooled

1/2 cup almond flour

1/3 cup sugar

1 large egg

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon almond extract

3 to 4 apples, washed, skin on

a generous pinch of kosher salt

1 tablespoon powdered sugar to garnish

Method:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9-inch tart pan with a removable bottom. Ready a sheet pan by covering it with parchment paper.

Make the press-in crust: Whisk flour, sugars and salt in a medium bowl. Pour melted butter into the dry ingredients and work it through with your hands to make a ragged crumble. If the mixture seems dry, add water, a teaspoon at a time. You want to avoid it being too sticky, but you also want all the flour mixture to be incorporated. Once the dough is well mixed, pour about half of it around the inside edges of your tart pan and then press it against the sides, turning the pan as you go and shaping the sides. Pour the rest of the crumbly dough into the center of the pan and press it to cover the bottom. You want the sides to be just a tad thicker than the bottom. You can, if you like, spray the bottom of a quarter-cup measuring cup with non-stick spray and use it to press and smooth the dough along the bottom of the pan. Poke the bottom of the crust with a fork. (This can be done up to a day ahead. And raw crust can be refrigerated.) Now put it on a sheet pan to par-bake it. Place a sheet of foil over the tart, mold it onto the tart crust, pressing it gently around the inside diameter and folding over the top edge. Fill it with raw beans, uncooked rice or pie weights. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove the pie weights and foil and carefully reshape any parts of the edges that have drooped with your fingers. The tart should cool for at least 15 minutes before you fill it. You can refrigerate it to hurry the process.

Make the filling: In a medium-sized bowl, mix melted butter, almond flour, sugar, egg, pinch of salt and extracts, set aside. Prepare the apples. Cut four apples in half, core them, lay them cut-side down on the cutting board and slice them, holding your knife vertically to the bottom of the apple, very thin. Important, do not cut the apples all the way through. That way the apples stay together. One method for doing this is to place a set of chopsticks, one on the stem top and the other, parallel, at the bottom of the apple half, and slice until the chopsticks stop your knife, leaving the slices attached.

Assemble tart: when the crust is cool to the touch — without removing it from the sheet pan — spread almond filling inside it. Arrange apples evenly on top of the almond filling, thin-sliced sides up, with one in the middle and the other surrounding it, the lines of the thin-cut sides pointing in whichever directions please your eye. The apples will sink into the almond mixture and the mixture will climb the insides of the tart. You may have one half apple extra, depending on the size of the fruit.

Slide the sheet pan with the tart on it into the oven. Bake for 25 minutes, until it begins to brown, then cover it loosely with foil and bake for 10-15 more minutes, until it appears slightly browned and set in the middle. Allow to cool completely before garnishing by shaking a fine mesh sieve of the powdered sugar over the top.

The post This roasted apple tart brings Parisian flavor and elegance without too much fuss appeared first on Julia O'Malley.

Flavored with toasted sugar and pumpkin puree, this pie has all the silky, nutty beauty of homemade butterscotch pudding, plus enough traditional pumpkin pie gravitas that it could be the pumpkin pie on your dessert table this year. And, you don’t have to make pie crust if you don’t want to.

This pie plays best in a cookie crust. Cracker crusts are quick and easy to make and there are plenty of recipes out there. You could use graham crackers or Biscoff cookies or gluten-free ginger snaps. Or, you can just give yourself a break and buy a totally respectable pre-made cookie/graham cracker crust. Most stores carry gluten-free cookie or nut flour versions of these, if that’s a concern. When I’m short on time, this is exactly what I do and I don’t feel bad about it at all.

The filling does take a little attention — it is imperative you read the whole recipe before you launch. You’re making a luscious milk pudding thickened with both egg and cornstarch, so there are some steps. I highly recommend measuring out all the ingredients before starting, too, just so you don’t get distracted, like I often do, and forget something. It does feel pretty great to get it done a day ahead and slide it in the fridge. Then you just plop a big beautiful dollop of whipped cream on it before serving and call it a win.

Butterscotch pumpkin pudding pie

Makes one 9-inch pie

Ingredients:

One homemade or store bought 9-inch graham cracker pie crust, gluten free or regular

6 egg yolks, beaten

3/4 cup white sugar

1/4 cups warm water

1/4 cup heavy cream

1/3 cup dark brown sugar, packed

1/3 cup cornstarch

1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

1 teaspoon sea salt

3 cups whole milk

1 cup pumpkin puree

1 tablespoon salted butter

1 cup heavy whipping cream

2 tablespoons powdered sugar

Optional: one teaspoon vanilla or butterscotch liqueur

Ground nutmeg or cookie/graham cracker crumbs

Method: Beat the egg yolks in a bowl that can hold at least four cups, set aside. In a small saucepan over medium heat, whisk sugar and water together until the sugar dissolves. Let it bubble over the heat, swirling frequently, until it reduces and turns amber-colored, about 10 minutes. Pull it off the heat and stir in the cream until well combined. Set aside. In a larger saucepan, without turning on the heat, whisk together brown sugar, cornstarch, pumpkin pie spice and sea salt. In a separate bowl, whisk together toasted sugar mixture, pumpkin puree and milk until smooth. Slowly whisk the puree and milk mixture into the cornstarch mixture. When combined, turn the burner to medium. Heat, stirring constantly, until bubbly and thickened. Pull off the heat. Temper the eggs. To do this, whisking eggs constantly, slowly pour 1/4 cup of hot pudding into the eggs at a time, until two cups of pudding have been combined with the eggs. Now whisk the egg mixture back into the saucepan of pudding and return it to medium heat. Stir constantly until it bubbles, allow it to thicken for a minute or so. Remove from the heat and stir in the butter until combined. Pour into a prepared pie crust. Refrigerate overnight or for at least 6 hours. To serve: whip cream with sugar and vanilla or liqueur. Serve with cream and a sprinkle of nutmeg or cookie crumbs.

The post Let this butterscotch-pumpkin pudding pie solve all your (pie) problems appeared first on Julia O'Malley.

I have been riffing on star-shaped breads a bunch lately. They really aren’t that hard, and they look cool and make a great gift. Recently, I decided to do a mash-up Bake Shop tribute star. (Their sweet roll recipe is online if you want the real thing, btw.) I don’t glaze mine or sprinkle almonds on top, favoring butter, but you could do that if you wanted to really go with theme.

This dough recipe is really flexible and forgiving. Some people can’t deal with anise, and you can absolutely leave those spices out. You make your star savory with pesto and goat cheese or parm. You can make one with Nutella. It’s a great thing to bring to a Christmas party. The main thing, though, is you have to leave yourself time for the dough to rise. If you want help with how to form the star (it’s easier that it looks) there are many videos on YouTube.

Bake Shop tribute Christmas star bread

For the dough:
⅔ cup whole milk, warm (roughly 110 degrees)
1 tablespoon sugar
¼ cup salted butter, melted
1 packet or 2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
2 eggs, beaten
½ teaspoon anise seeds (optional)
½ teaspoon mace or nutmeg (optional)
½ teaspoon salt
3¼ cups all-purpose flour

For the filling:
2 tablespoons raspberry jam
5 tablespoons butter, melted
1 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon

One egg, beaten

Optional glaze:
1 ½ cup powdered sugar
Juice of one lemon

Optional: Slivered almonds

Instructions:
To make the dough: combine warm milk, sugar, melted butter and yeast in the bowl of a standing mixer. Wait about 10 minutes or so, until the yeast is bubbly. Attach the paddle attachment and mix in the eggs on low speed. Add the salt and spices. Add the flour a cup at a time until a soft dough forms. Remove the ball of dough from the mixing bowl, scrape it out, spray the bowl with cooking spray, and return the ball to the bowl. Cover with a damp dishcloth and put in a warm place. Allow to rise for an hour until it doubles in size.

To assemble: Make the filling by combining the melted butter with the brown sugar and cinnamon, set aside. Turn the dough out onto a sheet of parchment. Slice it into four equal pieces and gently shape them into balls, taking care not to over-handle. Roll the first ball out on the parchment until it’s a rough circle, about 9 inches in diameter (you can use a round cake pan for a guide if you want). Place the whole thing, parchment and dough, on a sheet pan. Spread with a nice layer of the cinnamon mixture. Roll the next layer on a new piece of parchment and turn it over on to the first cinnamon-covered layer, carefully peeling off the parchment. Spread it with a thick coat of jam. Repeat with the next layer, spread with cinnamon mixture. Finish with the last layer. If you’d like, you can place a 9-inch cake pan over the stack of layers and cut around it to make a perfect circle. I prefer my stars a little more free-form.

To form the star: Lightly press the base of a small, round drinking glass, roughly 2 ½ inches in diameter, in the center of the stack of dough sheets. That part won’t be cut and will become the center of the star. With a large knife, big pizza cutter or metal pastry scraper, working from the edge of that circle to the edge of the dough stack, make four slices like a clock, at 12, 3, 6 and 9, cutting into four equal parts. Then slice each of those sections into four equal parts for a total of 16 sections. Gentle take two sections at once and twist them away from each other twice. Pinch the ends together and tuck them under to form the points of the star. Once you’ve formed the star, brush with beaten egg and allow to rise for 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Bake the star for 20 minutes, or until the middle sounds hollow when you tap it.

Optional garnish: Stir together powdered sugar and lemon to form a glaze. Drizzle it generously over the star after you pull it from the oven. Sprinkle with slivered almonds.

You can also find this recipe in the Anchorage Daily News.

The post This stunner Star Bread tastes like sweet rolls from the Bake Shop in Girdwood appeared first on Julia O'Malley.

Old recipe boxes are full of ghosts, and this isn’t different. It’s based on a famous cheesecake recipe from a restaurant called The Restaurant that existed long ago in Anchorage, at 3rd Avenue and E Street. It says right on it that it was stolen, either by an aunt or a long-deceased family friend. It was modified from restaurant bulk proportions down to one cake, though it still lists the ingredients by weight.

Tommy honed it a bit, making alchemic notes like “use a scant cube of butter.” It is a most perfect cheesecake recipe. Its flavor and texture are exactly what you want. It doesn’t crack. It holds up to a layer of chocolate ganache or rhubarb compote or any arrangement of berries or fruit. But over time, it’s become more than that.

It started with my Aunt Terry, Tommy’s wife. When she had cancer a decade ago, it was the only thing she could eat. Chemo ruins a person’s mouth and appetite, but cheesecake is rich, neutral, and sustaining, even when you can only stomach a few bites. Beyond that, it’s justice. When life has dealt you the cancer card, you get to eat a sublime, caloric dessert without a whiff of regret. Did the cake heal her? We’ll never know. But now, when someone gets that dreadful news, and the initial shock fades, and they find themselves deep in the grim routine of chemo and radiation, Tommy makes them the cake.

My dear friend has cancer as I write this, and by the time you read it, there’s no telling what will have happened. Her cancer is advanced, and she is young. And there are no answers to all the questions we have about the outcome. I made her the cake yesterday and brought it to her door. She was asleep, and so I left it. And then I drove home through the trees, hoping that in whatever mysterious way the world works, it might do some good.

Stolen Cheesecake

Method: Preheat the oven to 350° F. Butter a 10-inch springform pan and then cut a circle and a strip of parchment paper and use them to cover the interior sides and bottom of the pan (the butter holds it in place). Mix graham cracker crumbs, sugar, and butter. Press the mixture into the bottom of the pan. Bake for 15 minutes, and then remove to cool. Turn the oven down to 325° and place a cake pan filled with water on the bottom rack.

To make the filling, beat the cream cheese until smooth in the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Add the sugar. Beat until well combined. Add vanilla and almond extract, and the beaten eggs and yolks. Continue beating at medium speed, stopping to scrape down the sides, until smooth and well combined. Add sour cream. The final mixture should be very smooth. Pour it into the pan with the crust. Bake for an hour or slightly longer, until the filling is set and no longer shiny. It will continue to set as it cools. Cool completely at room temperature before refrigerating to avoid cracking.

Find  the recipe in Edible, where it was originally published. Subscribe to Edible Alaska. 

The post A stolen, bulletproof cheesecake recipe from an old Anchorage restaurant appeared first on Julia O'Malley.

I developed the recipe for Winter Coconut Truffles as an anti-pumpkin spice offering.  You can make a real from-scratch production of it by roasting your own winter squash and candying your own ginger (recommend!), but there’s no shame in canned pumpkin and bulk bin candied ginger.  These truffles can be made coconutastic – and vegan to boot! – by subbing in a nice fatty coconut cream for the dairy cream.  I love the combination of hearty, homey, super-seasonal winter squash with the zing of ginger and tropical tranquility of coconut.  

Additionally, truffles hand-rolled in chocolate and then tossed in fun stuff like shredded coconut are way more fun and forgiving when Chef Kid is in the kitchen!

Winter Squash Coconut Truffles

makes 30-40 truffles

This recipe involves using tempered chocolate to coat the ganache.  Tempering can be an intimidating task for the home cook new to chocolate work, but fear not!  You can do this!  A good definition and set of directions/explanations for tempering chocolate can be found here.  

Ganache (for INSIDE the truffles)

1 ¼ Cup (6.5 ounces) finely chopped dark chocolate, 60-70% cacao

½ Cup heavy whipping cream

1/3 Cup winter squash puree (pumpkin, butternut, buttercup, acorn…)

1 Tbsp. + 1 tsp. maple syrup

1 Tbsp. unrefined coconut oil or coconut butter

1/3 – ½ Cup chopped candied ginger

¼ tsp. powdered ginger

Pinch salt

For coating

Approx. 2# dark chocolate

3 Cups unsweetened shredded coconut, toasted in a pan and cooled completely

The day before, making the ganache:

Dump chocolate in a small-to-medium bowl, set aside.  

Caramelize your squash of choice: place puree into a wide skillet or pot.  Over medium heat, push and fold the puree around until the color deepens and puree seems slightly drier/stiffer, 10-15 minutes.  

Combine remaining ingredients in a small saucepan.  Set over medium heat and stir frequently until mixture bubbles and stirring does not disrupt bubbling.  Pour hot mixture over chocolate and briefly stir to moisten chocolate.  Let rest 3-4 minutes, allowing the hot cream mixture to melt the chocolate.  Once nicely melted and slightly cooled, fold gently with a rubber spatula until mixture is smooth and homogenous.  If mixture looks greasy, whisk briefly to bring together.  Scrape down sides of bowl and place a piece of plastic wrap directly on the surface of the ganache.  Cover the bowl with another piece of plastic wrap.  Set aside 8 hours or overnight.

Portioning the ganache:

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.  Portion ganache as you would cookie dough using two spoons or a small cookie scoop.  Grape/olive size or slightly larger is perfect.  Cover sheet tray with plastic wrap and refrigerate 1 hour. (If you have not toasted the coconut, you can do this while you wait.)

Coating the ganache balls:

Place toasted coconut in a large, wide bowl, and grab a couple spoons, too.  Bring portioned ganache back to room temperature while you begin tempering your coating chocolate. Once coating chocolate is tempered, set aside.  Working with clean, dry hands (or latex gloves) to quickly roll the portioned ganache into round-ish balls.  The heat of your hands will melt the ganache if you dawdle!  

With the portions all rolled into ball-ish shapes, work one-by-one to apply a coat of tempered chocolate to each ball: with clean, dry hands make a small puddle of chocolate in the palm of your non-dominant hand and use the other hand to roll the ball around and around until totally smothered in chocolate.  Immediately toss into toasted coconut and quickly bury to coat completely.  Remove from coconut, proceed with remaining balls.(We also experimented with cocoa powder.)

Truffles can be stored at cool room temperature for 3 days, or in an airtight container in the refrigerator for a week.  Bring back to room temperature before enjoying!

Left-over chocolate!  Dip some stuff in it!  Figs, candied ginger, nuts, orange slices…  The chocolate can also be recycled for future baking projects: spread in a thin layer on parchment paper.  Once dry and firm, chop it up and store in a zip-top bag.

Lindsay Clark spent a very formative life-changing 5 years chocolatiering in Alaska at Modern Dwellers Chocolate Lounge before moving to Pittsburgh and starting her business Coddle & Cosset in 2014.

The post City Kitchen:Coconut winter-squash truffles with Lindsay appeared first on Julia O'Malley.

I’ve got the holiday spirit. Bad. And it’s all thanks to our 3-year-old son.  Seeing his little face light up at every holiday detail fills me with warmth and joy. We turned on the car radio the other morning as little Michael Jackson was belting out “Santa Claus is Coming to Town.” Jack was giddy and screamed, “We sing this at preschool! I know this song!”

The magic is real and I want to be a part of it.

Here are some ways we’ve been keeping the holiday spirit alive in our Anchorage household. Share yours in the comments!

1. Portable North Pole

A friend told me about Portable North Pole, a free online program where you enter a few generic bits of information about your child, what you’d like him to work on this year (we went with “brush teeth every night”) and a photo. In a few minutes you have a personalized video message from Santa.

Our son Jack was stunned when he watched it. He made us replay it four times. Let the Christmas joy begin.

2. Get into the kitchen

Our preschooler loves to help out in the kitchen. At Thanksgiving he helped me make pumpkin pie and it was a kitchen bonding experience. He measured the flour, cracked the eggs and turned on the mixer.

Last week we made perfect potato latkes and Jack was a terrific sous chef.

Whether it’s Christmas cookies or candy cane bark, there’s plenty of ways to get your kids culinarily involved.

3. Donate to a local shelter

Each year Bean’s Cafe, a local homeless shelter, turns to the community to help out with Beanie Boxes, which are wrapped shoeboxes filled with necessities such as deodorant, toothbrushes and socks. Have your child help you fill up a shoebox with goodies, pick out the wrapping paper and ribbon and drop it off.

This year we collected items for AWAIC, the local women’s shelter. I made a list based on what they asked for and included little clip art pictures of each item to make it visual. Jack and I went to the store and he selected three items from the list to donate.

4. Felt Christmas Tree

This is a project I put together two years ago, but it’s still fun to play with. Buy a couple of yards of green felt and cut out a tree shape. On several different colors of felt draw some simple shapes and have your child cut them out to create ornaments. Pin the tree to the wall and let him decorate his tree to his heart’s content.

Click here for a more detailed tutorial.

5. Go to a holiday movie

Up till now we’ve avoided taking our son to a movie theater. I remember being a non-parent and cursing the world whenever a screaming kid was seated at our movie.

Thankfully there are kid-friendly options. We recently took Jack to Williwaw where they were showing a kid-themed Christmas film as a fundraiser for Special Olympics. It was Jack’s first movie theater experience and a positive one. The manager passed out free popcorn and families roasted marshmallows over a s’mores kit.

Williwaw has several more movie nights planned. There are two show times so you don’t have to worry about staying out past bedtime. Plus it saves you a night of having to cook dinner! Click here for show times.

If you can’t make it to Williwaw, there’s always the peanut gallery at Bear Tooth Theaterpub. Tickets are cheap and if you catch an early show you don’t have to feel bad about making noise in the balcony area.

6. Make snowflakes

Many tiny tots are hard at work on their fine motor skills. Ours loves cutting out paper. Work on making paper snowflakes together. Jack was happy with just cutting up pieces of paper and taping them to the window. We’ve got sort of an abstract impressionism vibe going on.

Here’s a simplified way to make paper snowflakes that is perfect for new scissor users.

7. Visit the Gingerbread Village

Every year the Hotel Captain Cook sets up an elaborate gingerbread house village in their lobby. Check out their live gingerbread web cam to catch a glimpse.

Afterwards, head the the store for some graham crackers, powdered sugar, gumdrops and Necco wafers and build your own.

8. Write holiday cards

I’m a big supporter of snail mail. Have your child help you with your holiday cards by including their scribbles and drawings. Jack actually drew a Christmas tree for his preschool teacher, so that definitely was included.

9. Look at the lights

Kids tend to love sparkly things that light up. Thankfully it’s dark most of the time here right now so it’s easy to find trees and houses adorned with twinkly lights. Start off at Town Square Park, which has some of the most stunning blue lighted trees.

If it’s not too cold, take a stroll through the Alaska Zoo at their evening Zoo Lights event. All the pathways are illuminated by animal-shaped light fixtures, some of which are animated. If you’re lucky you might spot a real, non-napping animal.

This week, Jack rushed inside after school to tell me his wish finally came true: the shooting star was on. A house over on Elmore and Huffman has a tall pole that lights up to the rhythm of holiday music that you tune to your car radio. Jack’s been waiting for it all year; and it’s free!

10. Have Santa mail a letter

Ok, this one is a little manipulative, but I had to give it a try. We have started a tradition in our family that in order for Santa to deliver toys to us, we have to give toys away to someone else who needs them. Instead of boring old parents telling their children to give away their toys, why not have Santa ask?

Santa mailed Jack a letter explaining that sometimes the elves fix up old toys in the workshop to give to other kids who don’t have many things. It worked like a charm. Be sure to put the correct return address.

The post Guest post: 10 ways to get into the holiday spirit with kids appeared first on Julia O'Malley.

This particular pud was made for me and my brother who are gluten-free, so Dad subbed in King Arthur GF flour, cup-for-cup. There are all kinds of ingredients for steamed puddings. Dad makes his with persimmons. They make for a lighter pudding.

The main special thing you need to make a pudding is a mold. Dad’s is an old one and it looks like this one:

And, because it is coming on New Years Eve, you might consider hiding something in the cake like a nice shiny dime. If you get the dime in your slice, the tradition says you’ll have good luck for the year to come. (Just be careful when you’re eating not to break a tooth.)

The other thing you need is time. It takes two hours steaming in the mold in a big soup pot. Here, while you wait, is a super meta picture of Aunt Barbara taking a picture of me taking a picture of the holiday basket she brought for us on the night we were going to exchange gifts and eat pudding. (After a traditional meal of take-out Indian of course.)

While it cools, you make the foamy sauce. See:

The recipes both come from the old Fanny Farmer Cookbook

Here’s how to make a pud, adapted from Fanny Farmer:

Ingredients:
1 cup puréed persimmons (about 3 persimmons with skins removed)
2 teaspoons baking soda
¼ lb butter, at room temperature
1½ cups sugar
2 eggs
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 tablespoons rum
1 cup all-purpose flour (or GF flour)
1 teaspoon cinnamon (you might also add a dash of clove and some Allspice)
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans (optional)
1 cup raisins (you can soak these in rum for at least an hour beforehand if you want)

Instructions:
Fill a pot that is large enough to hold a pudding mold with enough water to come halfway up the sides of the mold. The mold must have a lid. Also there must be a rack or mason jar rings on the bottom under the mold so the water can move freely while the pudding is steaming. Grease the mold. Put the persimmon purée in a small bowl and stir in the baking soda. Set aside. (The persimmon mixture will foam and thicken). Cream the butter and sugar. Add the eggs, lemon juice, rum and beat well. Add the flour, cinnamon, and salt, and stir to blend. Add the persimmon mixture and beat until well mixed. Stir in the nuts and raisins. Spoon the batter into the mold, cover, lower into the water, bring to a boil and steam for 2 hours. Remove from the pot, and let rest for at least 5 minutes. Turn mold onto plate. Serve warm.

Foamy Sauce:

Ingredients:
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup confectioners’ sugar
1 large egg, beaten
2 tablespoons brandy (or vanilla)

Instructions:
Cream together the butter and sugar until fluffy; add in the beaten egg and brandy (or vanilla). Transfer to the top of a double boiler and heat over simmering water, stirring continuously, until warm and thickened. Spoon over sliced pudding.

Here is a silly video of us bringing a piece of pudding to my parents’ neighbor Jack Roderick. Naturally we’re singing. (You have to turn your phone sideways to watch it, because my blog won’t upload vertical video. Blogger lesson learned.;))

[wpvideo bu6aWNnY]

For more holiday delights, go here.

The post Bring us some of Dad’s (GF) figgy pudding (for New Year’s Eve!) appeared first on Julia O'Malley.

The next year. we did our research, delving into family recipes. My family biscotti recipe comes from my grandmother, Lidia. Here she is right here:

Look at the Euro bangs! Anyway her yolk-yellow anise biscotti, thin-cut and crispy, absolutely taste like Christmas to me. She grew up in Florence, and I always imagined that she carried her biscotti recipe from there, like, maybe, written on one of those pieces of Florentine stationery. But then I looked in her recipe box and I found out where the recipe actually came from:

Alrighty then. Festive foreign fixin’s. Not the easiest thing being an Italian immigrant in the 1960s in Anchorage, Alaska. Here’s the thing about that recipe, though: when Tommy and I made it, it wasn’t that good. It tasted sort of like I remembered, but the texture was all wrong. My grandmother must have doctored it one way or another, but she died in 1999, so I couldn’t ask.

It happened that around the time we were making the biscotti, a tin arrived from Sara’s Aunt Maria in Leechburg, Pennsylvania. In it were biscotti made from a recipe belonging to her centenarian great aunt Notta. Sara’s family is also Italian and Notta worked at an Italian restaurant for maybe 70 years, making ravioli, pies and other baked goods, including biscotti. (Nota’s full name is Domenica, which is Sara’s middle name.)

Here she is:

We called up Aunt Maria and got Notta’s recipe. It was pretty old school, written for restaurant quantity and called for Oleo and butter flavoring, but when we made it, the biscotti had the most perfect texture. I wrote it on the back of an envelope and Tommy kept in it his recipe collection.

We experimented with combining the two recipes until we developed a biscotti recipe that was light, crisp and not too sweet. But then, after I had Leo, an allergy I had to wheat became severe. And so it was back to the drawing board, but we experimented again and now I think our GF version is ready. Here’s how it goes (there are notes for making the regular version as well):

Now bake them for 20 minutes or so in a 400-degree oven until the loaves have a hollow sound when you tap the top. It will look like this:

Then take the loaves out and let them cool at least 20 minutes. After that, slice them on the diagonal, in slices no more than a centimeter wide. Place the slices on a cooling rack and place the rack back on the sheet pan. Put them in a 200-degree oven for about 20 minutes until they crisp up. After that, I also like to leave them out overnight for extra staleness. Dip them in your coffee.

Notta/Nonna Anise Christmas Biscotti

Ingredients:

– 2 cups + 1/2 to 1 cup additional King Arthur Gluten-Free flour (for regular wheat flour, it would be less additional flour, maybe 1/4 cup -1/2 cup… Go slow and watch the video to get the texture right.)

– 2 tsp baking soda (use 1 tsp if using regular flour)

– 1 tsp xanthan gum (omit if using regular flour)

– 1 1/2 cups sugar (use one cup with regular flour)

– 3 eggs + 1 beaten egg for brushing the loaves

– 1 tsp vanilla

– 2 tsp anise seed

– 1/2 cup butter, melted

– 1/2 tsp salt

Method:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Whisk the dry ingredients to together, except the baking soda. Sift that into the dry ingredients. Mix eggs, sugar, melted butter, vanilla and anise. Combine dry with wet and then add a little extra flour until your dough has enough structure to be formed, a thicker than the texture of thick muffin batter. Flour your hands and shape the dough into two rectangular loaves on a parchment-covered pan. Brush with beaten egg. Bake 20 minutes or until the loaves sound hollow when you tap the tops. Cool for at least 20 minutes. Slice on the diagonal in thin slices, no more than a centimeter wide. Put on a cooling rack, set the rack on top of a pan, put in a 200 degree oven for 20 minutes. For extra crispness, leave out overnight.

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This is Uncle Tommy. He watches Neri two days a week. He is also the world’s best pie-maker. We call him His Pieness. Because my brother has celiac disease and I don’t eat wheat, Tommy has been perfecting a gluten-free version of his famous pie crust. He’s been working on it two and a half years and now it’s finally ready for prime time. (And he made it for me this week WHILE watching Neri. Best. Uncle. Ever.) You can follow this technique for wheat crust as well. But, if you have had all the terrible GF pie crust I have had, you will find that this recipe is a MIRACLE.  

Step one, the ingredients:

Yes, that’s lard right there. Don’t freak out. Unless you think you’re going to make pie every week. We used Cup For Cup GF flour. Other flours work as well. If you don’t have Cup For Cup, use half tapioca and half white rice. If you’re not gluten-free, Tommy likes King Arthur unbleached. (King Arthur GF flour is my favorite.)

Next, measure out the flours, the sugar and the salt. If you can’t handle the lard, just use salted butter, but omit the salt:

Now, SIFT in the baking powder. Tommy still has trauma from the baking powder lumps in my grandmother’s pie crust. Add a HEAPING 1/4 tsp of xanthan gum.

Mix it around:

Now comes the fat. Tommy says the fat should be about 65 degrees. In Alaska, this is the temperature it gets to if you leave it out of the fridge for a half hour. (Not so in Hawaii.) It shouldn’t be hard, but it should be still firm to the touch and cool. DO NOT MICROWAVE IT. Because then your pie crust will suck.

Next comes cutting the fat into the flour. “This has to be done with finesse,” Tommy says. He uses a pastry cutter. If you don’t have one, he says to wash your hands under cold water and then dry them before starting.

Here’s a video of Tommy mixing from start to finish. It takes 30 seconds. (Do just like he does, except you should probably try to avoid dropping a binkie in the bowl. )

[wpvideo MY0mcOBh]

Don’t overmix it. Crust making is a temperature thing. You want the fat next to the flour, not melted into it. At the end, there should be chunks of floured butter, about the volume of a pea but flatter in shape. (There are different schools on this point. Aunt Peggy, also a noted baker, disagrees with Tommy. She likes it uniform. She makes her pie dough in the food processor for this reason. You can too, if uniformity is your thing.) Here’s what Tommy’s mix looks like.

“The whole idea is the flour is up next to the shortening, but not melted into it,” Uncle Tommy says.

Now comes the ice water. Splash in one tablespoon. Then the next. 

Mix it with the pastry cutter. It should start forming up. Add one more tablespoon. The dough should be about the consistency of Play-Doh. If it isn’t, carefully add a half tablespoon of water, mix, maybe add one more. GF flour tends to take just a little bit more water.

That up there is the texture you’re going for.

Now you want to press it together quickly with your hands. (Don’t knead it. You are trying to keep it cool.) Make it into a disk shape.

Put a generous amount of flour on the wax paper. Press the dough disk into it. Flip the disk over. Repeat. Roll it out.

It should be roughly as wide as the wax paper and an eighth of an inch thick.

Carefully turn it over into the pie pan. In this case we used my Nonna’s pie pan. Tommy says her crust influenced him even if he was only related to her by marriage.

Tommy says it’s natural for GF crust to crack a little on the inside. Do your best to repair.

“Nobody sees what’s under the filling.”

Remove the excess. And smooth out the edges.

Tommy uses a measuring spoon to make it fancy.

We’re going to make a pumpkin pie, but you can now use it however you like. One last touch: Tommy always puts an egg wash on.

Here’s the recipe (makes one crust; double it for two):

1 c Cup For Cup gluten free flour or 1 cup regular flour or 1/2 c tapioca flour plus 1/2 c white rice flour.

1/4 c sugar

1/4 tsp salt (omit if you’re not using lard)

1 tsp baking powder

1 heaping 1/4 tsp xanthan gum

1/4 c butter and 1/4 c lard (or a half cup butter, which is one stick) at about 65 degrees

3 to 4 tbsp ice water

1 egg, beaten

Instructions: Mix flours, salt, xanthan gum. Sift in the baking powder. Combine. Using a pastry cutter, quickly cut the fats into the flour mixture. Combine until the fat is in small pieces, about the volume of peas, but flatter and less uniform. Splash in 2 tablespoons cold water. Mix with the cutter. Add an additional tablespoon. Dough should be starting to form. If it’s too crumbly, add a little more water. (GF tends to take more water, wheat flour takes less.) The texture should be similar to Play-Doh. Form it into a disk but don’t knead. Flour a sheet of wax paper. Press the disk into the flour. Flip and press the other side, so both are well floured. Roll out until the tips of the dough circle reach the sides of the wax paper. It should be about 1/8 inch thick. Carefully turn over into a pie pan. Trim and smooth edges. Brush with egg. Use for your favorite pie filling recipe.

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