Sweet Sensations

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Sweet Sensations

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Chocolate Coffee Cake with Cranberry-Pistachio Streusel
Anyone who frequents the North Asheville Tailgate Market is no stranger to Aimee Mostwill’s scones, muffins, and cookies. But during this festive season, she relishes the chance to experiment in the kitchen. “I bake nine months out of the year,” says Mostwill, “but during the holidays you can make all these fun and interesting things.”

One of those creative confections for Christmas morning—or anytime really—is chocolate coffee cake. The not-too-sweet cake makes the perfect bite with a mug of tea or coffee. Brightly hued cranberry-pistachio streusel adds a tartness and earthiness that balances the chocolate. “Cranberries and pistachios are two of the few baking ingredients that keep their beautiful colors when you take the finished item out of the oven,” she says.

White Chocolate Cranberry Clusters
Though she bakes intricate cakes and pastries at Well-bred Bakery in Weaverville, Laura Bogard loves the simplicity of this “splashy party sweet.”

“I like to make and eat food that looks beautiful,” she says. “The clusters are colorful, eye-popping little jewels, bursting with equal parts sweet and tart.”

Bogard knows planning and prep work are key to enjoying one’s own event. “When I’m hosting, I make sure I get as much done as possible before my guests arrive so that I just have to add the finishing touches,” she notes. “These sweets can be made the day before a party and used as a garnish or eaten alone.” 

Tree Nut Cake
Growing up in Poland, Magda Sanders liked the winter holidays best for baking and cooking. Today, the Cherokee-based baker creates spectacular cakes with family recipes, which means many of them feature European-style hazelnut creams, nut flours, and fresh fruit.

Her nut torte has feather-light layers that have been flavored with brandy and iced with whipped-cream filling. “After the holiday dinner, when everybody is full from eating all kinds of savory dishes, but still wants something sweet, this butter-less cake is a perfect choice,” says Sanders. “It’s light, not too sweet, but still has a holiday feel about it with the mixture of tree nuts.”

Stollen
Bill and Debbie Tellman, owners of Bracken Mountain Bakery in Brevard, are partial to German Christmas bread, or stollen. They first acquired a taste for European-style loaves and confections while living abroad more than 30 years ago. Today, they share their recipes at the family business, with daughter, Julia, working the counter.

Stollen is a buttery, sweet bread studded with currants, sultanas, and other dried, but not cloying, fruit. “Traditionally, it’s baked a month or two ahead of the holiday season because it keeps well, and actually improves over a long period of time,” Debbie says. “It smells wonderful when it’s baking, and gets you in the mood for the holidays.”

Vegan, Gluten-Free Pumpkin Pie
Thanks to her Italian roots, Mary Tantillo O’Shields grew up enjoying holiday baking with exotic figs, almonds, and honey. So when her eldest son developed severe food allergies and had to miss out on holiday treats, she began adapting family recipes to create vegan, gluten-free versions of her childhood favorites. When she experimented with all-American specialties, one of the most popular results was a silky, no-dairy, gluten-free pumpkin pie. It’s now a staple of her vegan dessert business, which sells baked goods at Greenlife Grocery and Earth Fare in Asheville.

“My goal is to reach out to people with food allergies and treat them to something they long for,” O’Shields says. “I also aim to make desserts that everyone can eat, even the person who doesn’t require a special diet. This pie is so creamy and delicious, everyone will love it.”

Chocolate Coffee Cake with Cranberry-Pistachio Streusel

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Servings: 

10

Ingredients: 

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground cardamom
8 Tbs. unsalted butter, cold
3/4 cup chocolate, chopped, or chocolate chips
3/4 cup pistachios, chopped
3/4 cup dried cranberries, chopped

2 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1¼ cups buttermilk
1½ tsp. vanilla extract

Directions: 

Streusel
Mix flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, and cardamom in a bowl. Using a pastry cutter or fingers, cut or rub in butter until coarse crumbs form. Stir in chocolate, pistachios, and cranberries until well blended. Set aside.

Cake
Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour a 9x13-inch pan. In a bowl, sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. In another bowl, using an electric mixer on medium speed, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, and beat thoroughly. Add dry ingredients, buttermilk, and vanilla to mixture in two or three increments, alternating between dry and wet ingredients while continuing to blend. Beat on low speed until smooth and fluffy, about two minutes. Spread batter evenly in pan. Sprinkle with streusel. Bake about 40 to 45 minutes until topping is golden brown. Transfer pan to a wire rack and let cool completely before serving.

White Chocolate-Cranberry Clusters

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Servings: 

12

Ingredients: 

1 cup sugar
1/2 cup plus 2 Tbs. water
1/8 tsp. cream of tartar
1½ cups fresh cranberries
4 oz. white chocolate, finely chopped

Directions: 

Combine sugar, a half cup of water, and cream of tartar in a small, thick-bottom saucepan. Cook over medium heat until sugar dissolves, then increase heat to high and cook until the sugar is amber, forming a caramel. Remove from heat and add two tablespoons of water to cool slightly. Stir caramel with a fork until the bubbles subside. Drop approximately 10 cranberries in the caramel and stir with a fork until the berries are coated and stick together. Remove and place on parchment paper. Repeat process with remaining cranberries. Let the clusters cool for 10 to 15 minutes until the caramel hardens.

Melt white chocolate in a double boiler, stirring constantly until smooth. Or, place in a bowl and microwave in 30-second increments, stirring between cooking sessions until the chocolate is smooth. (Be careful not to burn chocolate.)

Dip clusters in melted chocolate, covering the bottoms, and place on cookie sheet lined with parchment or wax paper. Clusters are ready when the chocolate is set. Serve immediately or store in an air-tight container in refrigerator.
 

Tree Nut Cake

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Servings: 

8

Ingredients: 

5 eggs
5 Tbs. sugar
1⅓ cups walnuts, ground
5 Tbs. flour, sifted
1/2 tsp. baking powder

2 cups milk
16 pecan halves
2 cups pecans, chopped
1 cup sugar
1 qt. heavy whipping cream
4 Tbs. confectioners’ sugar, sifted
3 Tbs. Nutella

1 cup water
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup brandy

Directions: 

Sponge Cake
Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour bottoms of two nine-inch pans. Separate egg whites and yolks. Whip egg whites, and add sugar. Add yolks, stirring lightly. Stir in nuts with a spatula. In a bowl, mix flour and baking powder, then add to egg mixture, folding in gently with a spatula. Pour into pans and bake for about 20 to 30 minutes, until golden brown. (Don’t open the oven early because the cakes may collapse.) Allow to cool slightly for 15 minutes, and gently lift cakes from pans.

Cream Filling
In a saucepan, boil milk. Add pecan halves and chopped pecans and remove from heat. Let soak for 10 minutes, then strain nuts. Preheat oven to 350°F degrees. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. In a bowl, mix pecan halves with sugar to coat, then arrange in a single layer on a cookie sheet. Toast for about six minutes (watch closely, because pecans burn easily); allow to cool. Using a mixer, whip cream with confectioners’ sugar on high until light and fluffy. Reserve half the cream to ice the cake. Separate the remainder of the cream in half, mixing one portion with Nutella, and folding in one and one-third cups of chopped pecans into the second portion.

Syrup
Prepare simple syrup by heating sugar and water in a saucepan until sugar is dissolved. Add brandy and stir. Cut each cake into two layers. Drizzle each layer with simple syrup. Stacking the cakes, spread half the pecan cream on the first layer; the hazelnut mixture on the second; pecan cream on the third; and top with the fourth layer of cake. Using a spatula, ice cake with plain whipped cream. Press remaining sugared pecans onto side of cake; decorate the top with pecan halves. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Stollen

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Servings: 

10

Ingredients: 

(For two loaves, each serves 10)

1/2 cup sultanas (golden raisins)
1/2 cup raisins
3/4 cup dried cherries
1/2 cup rum
6 cups bread flour
1/2 cup water
1½ tsp. instant yeast
2/3 cup milk
1/2 tsp. almond extract
1 Tbs. vanilla extract
3/4 tsp. salt
3/4 cups sugar
9 oz. unsalted butter, plus 1/4 cup butter, melted
2 Tbs. candied orange peel
2 Tbs. candied lemon peel
1 cup almond slivers
Powdered sugar

Directions: 

In a covered container, soak sultanas, raisins, and cherries in rum for one week. In a bowl, mix one cup of flour, water, and a half teaspoon of yeast, and allow to sit at room temperature overnight.

Add milk, one teaspoon yeast, and extracts to the mixture and set aside for 15 to 20 minutes. Add remaining flour, plus salt and sugar to the wet ingredients. Using a mixer, blend on low speed until smooth and silky. (It is very dry, and will work the mixer.) Add nine ounces of butter gradually, and mix until dough comes back together. It will start out loose and will incorporate the butter and become smooth again. Add soaked fruit, citrus peels, and almonds. Mix just long enough to fully blend. (The fruit is fragile and will fall apart if over-mixed.) Allow dough to rise for three to four hours at room temperature. Separate the dough into two pieces. Shape into flattened loaves and allow to rest on a cookie sheet for two hours. Preheat oven to 350°F. Brush loaves with a quarter cup of melted butter and sprinkle with sugar. Bake for 30 minutes. Rotate pan in oven, and bake for another 30 minutes or until rich brown. Allow to cool completely, then sift powdered sugar over top. Serve toasted with butter for breakfast or thinly sliced with coffee or a dessert wine.

Vegan, Gluten-Free Pumpkin Pie

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Makes two eight-inch pies

Ingredients: 

1½ cups brown rice flour
1/2 cup potato starch flour
1/4 cup tapioca starch flour
2 Tbs. cornstarch
1 tsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. salt
6 Tbs. margarine
6 Tbs. shortening
3-4 Tbs. ice water

1¾ cup (1 package) silken tofu, drained
1 can (15 oz.) pumpkin puree
1 tsp. cinnamon
1¾ tsp. pumpkin pie spice
1/2 tsp. salt
1/3 cup canola oil
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup sugar
1½ Tbs. molasses

Directions: 

Pie Crust
In a bowl, mix dry ingredients. Cut in margarine and shortening with a fork until pea-size pieces form. Mix in ice water a little at a time. With hands, make two equal-size balls of dough. Between two pieces of wax paper, roll out each ball. Remove top piece of wax paper and invert dough into eight-inch pie dish. Remove wax paper and press dough onto rim, crimping edge if desired. Repeat with second crust. If making one nine-inch pie, remaining crust can be frozen and used later.

Filling
Preheat oven to 350°F. (Do not use a convection oven.) Combine all ingredients in a food processor or blender until smooth. Pour batter into pie crusts. Bake for 51 minutes. Remove from oven, allow to cool and set. Keep refrigerated. For one nine-inch crust, use three cups of batter. (Extra batter can be baked in a soufflé or individual Pyrex bowls.) Bake nine-inch pie for 60 minutes.