| I could write you yet another newsletter about pop culture. But since I figure that a fair number of you are settling in for Christmas celebrations or hitting the road in preparation for them, I’d make an exception and try out a different kind of service journalism. I celebrate both Christmas and Hanukkah, so this time of year brings a lot of celebrating, and I’ve developed some fairly strong opinions about Christmas-related and Christmas-adjacent baking. So in case you’re looking for last-minute recipes, I thought I’d share some of my favorite easy-but-delicious ones with you. For basic cut-out cookies, my absolute go-tos are Deb Perlman’s nutmeg maple butter cookies and Carole Walter’s rich chocolate cookies. I think there’s a tendency to assume that cookies in simple, cheerful shapes are inherently going to be boring compared to those that are more obviously complex, but that absolutely doesn’t have to be the case. The former have a rich flavor profile, and you can play with the spices a bit — I tend to substitute cardamom for the nutmeg. And the latter are so rich that I tend to eat them plain, though you could dress them up nicely with some icing. For Christmas morning, I traditionally bake my family’s coffee cake recipe, which I’m going to share with you here. You can make it a couple of days in advance and keep it in the fridge, and it’ll still be perfectly moist and decadent: It’s the perfect thing to eat while opening presents, or, truly, any time you are craving the ideal New York-style sour cream coffee cake. And it’s relatively foolproof. Cake ingredients: 1 stick butter 3/4 cup white sugar 1 teaspoon vanilla 2 eggs 2 cups flour 1 teaspoon baking powder 1 teaspoon baking soda 1 cup sour cream Topping ingredients: 6 tablespoons butter 1 cup brown sugar 2 teaspoons cinnamon Instructions Preheat oven to 350 degrees (F) and set rack in the center, with room for a 10-inch tube pan. Wrap foil around the bottom of said 10-inch tube pan to prevent leaks, and butter and flour the inside. If you’re mildly paranoid like me, set the pan on a cookie sheet, just for safekeeping. Cream butter, white sugar and vanilla. Beat in both eggs. Sift flour, baking powder and baking soda, and add to the other ingredients, alternating to beat in sour cream. Once everything’s reasonably smooth, distribute evenly into the tube pan. Make the topping: Cream together butter, brown sugar and cinnamon. It’s okay, and in fact even advisable, for these ingredients to be a little lumpy so they’ll distribute through the cake batter in surprising ways. Sprinkle over the top of the batter evenly. Bake for about 50 minutes. I’m firm about the “about” here because I’ve found that this recipe works really differently in different ovens: It has taken an even 50 in my Breville Smart Oven, and longer in various conventional ovens. As with all cakes, test this one with a skewer at 50 minutes, and then add more time as needed in five-to-10-minute increments, depending on how confident you are that you and your oven are in close communion. Beyond that, eat whenever you feel like it, and enjoy. For those of you celebrating Christmas, I hope you have a happy one. For those of you not celebrating, I hope you get a break, and some fabulous eating. See you back here on Tuesday. |
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