The 30 Year Old Cookie Roll

"Festive Chocolate Cookie Roll" doesn't sound like the most inspired name for a dessert does it? Still, in 1982 when I was a newlywed searching for the perfect Christmas dessert, Bon Appetit's "Too Busy To Cook" column provided the answer.

(Some background here: I was barely 19 and had been reading Bon Appetit for years. My favorite babysitter activity?  Wait until the kids went to bed and start copying recipes. I am sure I based my childcare preferences on the wife's cookbook collection.  Also, "Too busy to cook" definitely fit my life. At the time I was enrolled full time at the University of Houston and expecting baby #1 due the next June.)

Yule Log, or even the more correct "Buche de Noel", would have sounded prettier, but the cover photo convinced me that I could do this. Almost every year afterward this was our standard Christmas Eve or Christmas day dessert. This year - horrors - I couldn't find the recipe. I searched in every cookbook, recipe box, computer file - nothing. I tried Google. Nothing. How could one little worn, 30 year old piece of paper cause such despair? This wasn't just a dessert; this was history!  Back to Google. I tried every variation of the title. I went to all the best known recipe sites and searched by ingredients. No good. Finally, it occurred to me to put the recipe title in quotation marks while I searched. Bingo! Success on two counts: The recipe showed up in a little Michigan newspaper AND the magazine was available on Ebay. Would I spend $6.90 to retrieve a precious piece of family lore? You bet I would!

So here you go. The meringue mushrooms are a nice addition but you'll have to find your own recipe for that. I've been known to grab whatever plastic floral pick is handy and artistically place it near the platter.

Festive Chocolate Cookie Roll

8 Servings

Creamy Chocolate Frosting:
1 C semi-sweet Chocolate chips
2/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 egg yolk
3 oz. cream cheese, room temperature
½ tsp. vanilla
½ tsp. cinnamon
Pinch of salt
1 cup Whipping cream, whipped

Cake:
1/3 cup all purpose flour
½ tsp. baking powder
14 Oreo cookies, crushed
5 eggs separated, room temperature
½ cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 T powdered sugar

Filling:
1 cup Whipping cream, whipped
½ cup slivered almonds, toasted
¼ tsp. almond extract

For frosting:
Melt chocolate chips in small saucepan over low heat. Combine brown sugar, cream cheese, vanilla, cinnamon and salt in a large bowl. Add yolk and beat until fluffy. Stir in chocolate, fold in whipped cream. Chill 1 – 1 ½ hours or overnight.

Cake:
Preheat oven to 350. Grease 10 ½ x 15 ½ jelly roll pan (or cookie sheet). Line with foil. Sift flour and baking powder into a medium bowl, stir in cookie crumbs, set aside. Beat yolks with sugar at medium speed in large bowl of electric mixer until just blended. Stir in vanilla and set aside. Beat egg whites in another bowl until stiff. Stir 1/3 of crumbs into yolk mixture; gently fold in 1/3 of egg whites. Repeat twice. Spread batter evenly into pan. Bake until tester inserted in center comes out clean – Approximately 15 minutes. Sprinkle powder sugar over a towel. Remove cake from oven and invert cake onto towel. Remove pan and gently peel off foil. Carefully roll up cake; starting from short end using towel as aid. Cool 30 minutes on a rack.

Filling:
Combine whipped cream, almonds and extract in a bowl.

Assemble Cake:
Unroll cake, remove towel. Spread filling, almost to edges of cake. Gently re-roll cake. Transfer to serving platter. Spread frosting over cake and ends. Make log-like markings using fork tips. Refrigerate until ready to serve. 

Christmas Dinner–Just in Case

With Jaimee’s due date just days away, I thought an early Christmas dinner might not be a bad idea! This menu gave me a chance to try out several new recipes, all of which I can attest are easy to do after spending the day in line at the post office and grocery store. Enjoy!
Menu: Salmon with Cider Sauce, Butternut Squash Bake, Sauteed Spinach, Grand Marnier Cake with Chocolate Glaze.
(Note – I’m going to make an effort – gulp! – to use this space to keep track of recipes that work. I’m not a food photographer by any means; I’m a teacher. I can’t promise gorgeous pics, but I’ll do my best to explain things clearly. If you have questions just holler.)
Simple Salmon with Cider Sauce
1 salmon filet, fresh, figure about 1/2 lb. per adult serving
Seasoning, your choice. I like Paul Prudhomme’s Magic  Salmon Seasoning (grocery store) or Williams Sonoma Potlatch Seasoning
Olive Oil
Flour
Directions: Line a baking sheet with foil and spray with Pam. Place the salmon, skin side down, and drizzle with olive oil. Sprinkle with seasoning. Dust with flour. Cook under preheated broiler, close to the element, until done on the inside (some like it more rare – your preference) and crusty on top. Should take around 10 minutes or so at the most. Serve with Cider Sauce.
Cider Sauce (can make ahead and warm later)
1 can frozen apple juice concentrate
3 large or 4 small shallots, sliced
2 T. whole black peppercorns
Directions: Boil the ingredients together until sauce is reduced by 1/2. You’ll have about a cup or so of liquid. Drain. Serve warm drizzled on top of salmon.
Butternut Squash Bake
(This is a nice change from the super-sweeet “It’s really a dessert” squash recipes that are common this time of year.)
2 small or 1 large butternut squash. Use a potato peeler to peel the skin off. Cut off the bottom rounded part and cut in half. Use the peeler to scoop out the seeds. Using a large chef’s knife slice the whole thing into 1/4” slices.
4 T. butter for sautéing squash
salt, pepper, freshly grated nutmeg
1 c. heavy cream mixed with 1/3 c. sherry
1/2 c. chopped pecans
1/2 c. Panko bread crumbs
2 T. butter for sautéing bread crumbs
Directions: In a large skillet melt 4 T. butter and sauté slices until brown, about 7-8 minutes. Season with salt, pepper, and a little grated nutmeg. Place half of slices in a buttered casserole dish (I actually used a deep dish pie plate. It was red. I love red.) Top with 1/2 of cream-sherry mixture. Repeat.
In the skillet where you sautéed the squash, melt the remaining butter and toast the pecans for just a minute. Mix in the bread crumbs. Sprinkle topping over squash. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

Technorati Tags: Menu,mains,salmon,sides,squash,recipe

Ten for Tuesday: Why I’m Glad I Live in Texas

10. Our snowfall lasted less than an hour and looked beautiful. That’s enough for me.
9. Neighbors don’t shovel your driveway, but they do share their generator during a hurricane.
8. I can look out my window and see these same neighbors boiling the head of a deer in their driveway…
7. …because their sweet little freckle-faced daughter shot her first buck!
6. And she’s a cheerleader. This is Texas and we know how to cheer. And shoot.
5. Our state capitol is so beautiful that we have an ornament from the same on our tree.
4. I can  go Christmas shopping without hauling around a winter coat.
3. Best homeschooling laws in the country.
2. Every person in our immediate family has a town with their name in it. Stephenville, Alice, Kyle, Katy, Cooper, Joy, and Kelsey. Oh, and don’t forget Mathis, Texas (pop. 5295)
1. George Strait’s “When It’s Christmas Time in Texas” (Sorry you other 49!)