A Holiday Recipe Corner Extravaganza!
Normally this space is reserved for a singular member of our Met family with a favorite recipe to share. But we can all agree that this year, we’re going to need a lot more than one batch of cookies to get through the pandemic holidays. So strap in, because you’re about to experience an avalanche of recipes from a few members of the Met Artists Newsletter team, plus one very special guest. Whether you’re in the mood for cookies, cupcakes, or even a spiced chutney, we have the sweets that can satisfy the most savage holiday appetite. Enjoy!
Meet Abby Mitchell
Soprano Abigail Mitchell has been a member of the full-time chorus for three years, and was only roped into joining the newsletter team in the past year or two. When she’s not baking cookies, Abby is hiking with her husband Oliver and her 2-year old son Arthur, and spending the lion’s share of her pandemic quality time making serious headway writing her first novel.
Abby has this to say about her holiday offering:
“My philosophy when it comes to cookies, and dessert in general, is ‘Go Chocolate or Go Home’. Also, I am in love with peanut butter. Therefore, my favorite Christmas cookie recipe is peanut butter kisses! What makes these “Christmas cookies” and not “any time of year cookies”? Unclear! But in my family we always make these at Christmas and never make them at any other time, so I’ve always associated them with Christmas.”
Peanut Butter Kisses
½ cup granulated sugar
½ cup packed brown sugar
½ cup creamy peanut butter
½ cup butter, softened
1 egg
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
¾ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
1 bag Hershey’s kisses
Heat oven to 375°F. In large bowl, beat granulated sugar, brown sugar, peanut butter, butter and egg until well blended. Stir in flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt until dough forms. If you have time, or covet a chewier cookie, chill the dough in the refrigerator for 30 min-1 hour. Probably you could chill it overnight if you’re one of those “plan ahead” types.
Shape dough into 1-inch balls. A lot of recipes say to roll the balls in granulated sugar, but we never do that. If you want to, though, I’m not going to stop you. On ungreased cookie sheets, place cookies about 2 inches apart. While baking, unwrap your kisses. Eat half of them.
Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until edges are light golden brown. Immediately press 1 kiss in center of each cookie. Remove from cookie sheets to cooling rack.
Variation for Non-Chocolate Lovers: First, question your life choices that brought you into close contact with someone who doesn’t like chocolate. Next, rejoice that this means more chocolate for you! Last, press each cookie with a fork to get a pleasant crisscross design. You can do this before or after baking.
Variation for Hershey’s Hugs, caramel kisses, or other kiss variety: NO. This recipe is for the classic milk chocolate kisses only! Tradition! (Though dark chocolate kisses would probably be ok.)
Meet Sara Heaton
Newsletter team member and Met Chorus soprano Sara Heaton went all out and shared not one, but two beloved traditional Heaton family recipes, which is fairly impressive since she just recently gave birth to her precious daughter Penelope. Since the pandemic began and the Met closed, Sara and her husband Justin have decamped to her parents’ farm in New Hampshire, so the silver lining of this horrible year is that she’ll certainly have many opportunities to make these delectable treats with her family.
“My dad’s mother’s name was Dora, but her nickname was Dodie. She also went by Justine, but that’s another story. Anyway, she made these almond crescents every Christmas. No matter where we gathered as a family, she would bring at least two of those old fashioned round metal tins full of these buttery, sugary treats.”
Dodie's Almond Crescent Cookies
1 cup soft shortening (Editor’s note: some family members replace half the shortening with butter, while others eschew the shortening altogether and use all butter. Dealer’s choice.)
1/3 cup sugar
2/3 cup ground blanched almonds
1-2/3 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup confectioner’s sugar
Mix together thoroughly the shortening, sugar, and almonds.
Sift together the flour and salt and combine with other ingredients to make dough.
Chill dough. Roll with hands pencil thick. Cut in 2 1/2" lengths. Form into crescents on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake until set - not brown. Cool on pan. While slightly warm, carefully dip in 1 cup confectioner's sugar.
Bake at 325º for 14 to 16 minutes.
Makes 5 dozen cookies.
Pro Tip: Do not grind the almonds too finely. You should be able to detect small chunks.
Image: Shutterstock.com
“The lace cookies are a beloved thanksgiving tradition for us. Growing up our thanksgiving was a huge gathering of family friends. Usually about 25 of us would get together at our house, always a nice mixture of adults, kids of different ages, people from all over the world. We often adopted people from out of town or out of country and introduced them to our version of thanksgiving. The toasts would take about 30 minutes because we required there to be a toast in every language represented. I digress. The meal was a combined effort, and much of the cooking started the day before with the lace cookies. The kids would come to our house on Wednesday afternoon and help my dad make mountains of these cookies. Over the years we perfected the technique of which spatula to use, and exactly how much time to let them cool before attempting to take them off the pan. This part can be tricky and end in either a mushed up cookie, or a pan that requires some serious elbow grease to clean. Worth it.”
Lace Cookies
1 cup finely chopped walnuts (about 4 ounces shelled nuts)
1 cup sifted all-purpose flour
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1/2 cup butter (1/4 pound)
2/3 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
Preheat oven to 375º. Thoroughly grease two cookie sheets. The easiest way to chop the nuts is to put them in a blender (or food processor), an ounce or so at a time. Blended for a few moments at high speed (with metal blade), the nuts will be the right consistency. Combine the nuts with the flour and set aside. Put the corn syrup, butter and brown sugar in the top of a double boiler and bring the mixture to a boil over direct heat, stirring constantly. Remove from the heat and beat in flour and nuts. Put pan over hot water to keep the batter from cooling and getting too stiff. The batter will be too hot to push off a spoon with your finger, so use two teaspoons – one for measuring and one for pushing – and drop batter by rounded teaspoonfuls onto the baking sheets. Space cookies at least three inches apart – they will spread out quite a bit. Bake for 6 or 7 minutes or until lightly browned around the edges. Remove from the oven and allow the cookies to cool for about 3 minutes* on the baking sheets. Remove the now-crisp cookies from the sheets carefully with a wide metal spatula and put them on wire racks to cool. Makes about 4 dozen cookies.
Tips
Do not overcook – remove when just browning at the edges.
Remove the cookies from the cookie sheet as soon as they hold shape (1 to 2 minutes). Do not try to remove cookies before they set, otherwise they may break and go limp.
Have at least 3 cookie sheets going at once, staggered.
Keep the cookie sheets well greased.
Meet Ray Menard
You’ve all met our union president and Met Opera Production Stage Manager in a prior recipe corner, where he shared his deliciously comforting oatmeal pancakes. Honestly, though, we were all hoping he was going to share this gem, his famous cranberry chutney. Ray makes this every year for the Bake Sale the chorus hosts that benefits the AGMA Relief Fund. These little jars of goodness sell out in a flash, leaving Met employees despondently begging for the recipe so they can recreate it at home. Since there was no Bake Sale this year (and no Met season), Ray wanted to make sure you could still enjoy this holiday-spiced condiment in your quarantined homes. My freezer is stocked with cranberries and I’m certainly ready to give this a try, so you should, too!
Ray Menard’s Famous Cranberry Chutney
1 cup water
1 cup sugar
1 (12-ounce) package fresh or frozen cranberries
½ cup apple cider vinegar (or to taste)
½ cup golden raisins
½ cup peeled, diced apple (I use Granny Smith)
¼ teaspoon allspice
¼ teaspoon ground ginger
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
Combine water and sugar in a medium saucepan. Bring to boil over medium heat.
Add remaining ingredients and return to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes or until apples are tender. (If you like thicker chutney, simmer the mixture for an addition 15 minutes or more.)
Place a piece of plastic wrap directly on the sauce. Cool to room temperature and refrigerate overnight to allow flavors to meld. Serve at room temperature.
May be made a few days in advance and kept refrigerated. Yields about 2 ½ cups.
Meet Brandon Mayberry
Alright, loyal readers. Are you ready to pop on an apron and flex your “Great British Bake Off” muscles? If so, this recipe is for you, because it is not a simple cake-from-a-box endeavor. But we’re not surprised that Brandon, along with his former business partner and recipe mastermind Pam Rose, came up with this incredible creation, as the two of them once co-owned Chicago’s Swirls Cupcakes, a mecca for all things delicious and cupcake-y.
If you think that this recipe is full of tricky twists and turns, then you’ll be amused to hear Pam’s notes on its current incarnation. Like Paul Hollywood, she is honest about this recipe being a baking challenge: “Believe it or not, this is the scaled-down, slightly-abridged recipe/instructions for the lovely Gingerbread cupcakes. I did however, still have to be very specific or the recipe could easily fail. And I know how upset I get when recipes do not work----especially around the holidays when there's no time for failure!”
If you take a crack at this, please tag us on Facebook or Instagram! We’d love to see how these beauties turn out, because they can’t be anything other than divine, winter-spiced holiday masterpieces!
Holiday Gingerbread Cupcakes from Swirlz Cupcakes ®
Yield: 12 – 16 cupcakes (depending on size of your muffin tins)
Swirlz “success notes”:
Please practice Mise en Place (everything in it’s place). Measure out your ingredients ahead of time and have them ready before you start mixing to reduce the chances of accidentally leaving something out.
All ingredients should be at room temperature. Use a kitchen scale and/or measure carefully, as random substitutions may cause the recipe to fail.
For the Gingerbread Cupcakes:
Ingredients
1 1/3 cup (160g) all-purpose flour
½ cup (96g) white granulated sugar
¾ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon allspice
¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ cup (½ stick/57g) unsalted European style butter, softened
¼ cup canola oil
½ cup unsulfured molasses
2 large eggs, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ cup (120g) sour cream, room temperature
Cupcake Directions:
Preheat oven to 350° F. Line a cupcake pan with baking cups.
With an electric mixer, beat together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, spices and salt on low speed for about 20 seconds. Add softened butter and oil and mix for about 1-2 minutes to coat the flour, until mixture resembles wet sand.
In a small bowl, whisk together molasses, eggs, vanilla, and sour cream until smooth. Slowly add the wet mixture on low speed. Scrape down bottom and sides of bowl. Increase to medium speed and beat for about 1 minute until the batter is smooth. (note: batter is slightly watery)
Distribute the batter between the baking cups, filling about 2/3 full. Bake for 16-22 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Bake time will depend n the size of your muffin tin so check for doneness. Transfer to wire rack to cool completely before frosting.
Italian Meringue Buttercream
Yield: 8 cups
Equipment: Stand Mixer with whisk attachment and candy thermometer
Ingredients
16 ounces granulated sugar
8 ounces water
¼ teaspoon salt
8 large egg whites
24 ounces unsalted European style butter, softened
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
(optional: 4 ounces of softened cream cheese)
Meringue Buttercream Directions:
On a stovetop, mix together the water and sugar, cover with a lid and bring to a boil on medium-high heat.
Keep the lid on the pot for 3-4 minutes and be sure that all the sugar granules are dissolved, otherwise your sugar can get gritty and crystalize.
Remove the lid, insert the candy thermometer carefully and continue cooking on medium-high heat until the syrup reaches 240°F.
When the sugar solution is at about 235°F, begin whipping the egg whites in the stand mixer on high speed. Add the salt to the egg whites.
When the egg whites reach soft peaks, begin pouring the sugar solution in a steady stream on to the whipping egg whites while mixing on low speed.
Continue whipping the egg/sugar mixture until it reaches stiff peaks. The meringue will now need to be cooled. You may scoop it out of the bowl and place in the refrigerator for 15 minutes or wrap a linen towel around the bowl with an ice pack to cool the meringue down without moving it to a different bowl.
Once the meringue is cooled, whip in soft butter (butter must be soft, not melted!) and vanilla until the buttercream is light and fluffy and no longer tastes like butter.
Optional Cream Cheese: Once your butter has been incorporated and is light and fluffy, you may add the cream cheese, whip until fluffy again. (Do not over-mix.)
Pipe or spread on top of cooled cupcakes. See note below with regard to an additional/optional “layer.”
Cake “schmear” / Optional
At Swirlz, prior to piping the Italian buttercream frosting on to the cupcakes (which is sometimes made with the cream cheese addition) we would melt a small amount of Cacao BARRY Chocolat Blanc (white chocolate) in a glass measuring cup in the microwave, until soft. Using the back of a teaspoon, we would “schmear” the tops of the cooled cupcakes with the white chocolate, let it cool completely and then continue to pipe or spread the Italian buttercream onto the cupcakes. Top with holiday sprinkles or tiny gingerbread men.
