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Entries in Travel (3)

Sunday

Dec062009

Brussels at Christmastime / Speculoos

Sunday, December 6, 2009

For those of you who celebrate it, Happy St. Nicholas Day! Speaking of places where this is a major holiday, last weekend we were in Brussels, Belgium, visiting with family. During a stroll in the city Saturday afternoon, I decided to resume my search for a baking tool that has long eluded me but which I know to exist: a carved wooden St. Nicolas speculoos mold. Being the Christmas season and all, I figured that if ever there would be a time to find one, this was it.

Speculoos is a crunchy, stamped cookie made primarily of butter, flour, brown sugar and spices. They are perfect for dunking in coffee or milk, crushed over ice cream or just by themselves. You can enjoy speculoos year-round in Belgium, but they are especially popular on St. Nicolas Day.

Between last Saturday's jaunt and past visits to Brussels, I've searched high and low for a St. Nicolas mold, in kitchen supply stores and department stores, amongst the Christmas market stands and those at the Sablon Antiques Market. Unfortunately, it looks like the search will have to continue. I had no luck last weekend, but did chance upon one of wooden windmill mold and another with a ship and what I believe to be a rooster, which I used to make the speculoos pictured below (recipe at the end of this post).

I may not have found the speculoos mold, but I did take some pictures of the windowfront at Brussel's most well-know purveyor of speculoos, Dandoy. They had some amazing St. Nicolas speculoos on display, with one that must have been at least 3-4 feet tall.

And let us not forget Brussel's most appreciated export: chocolate. I just love looking at all the windowfronts at Christmastime.

And of course no trip to Brussels is complete without a visit to the breathtaking Grand Place. We arrived just in time to see the light and sound display on the Town Hall. I took a short video with my camera but am having trouble uploading it. Here is a link to a video of this year's show.

Spekulatius / Speculoos / Speculaas

Adapted from the 1997 version of the Joy of Cooking

Yield: 1-2 dozen cookies, depending on size

2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

1 1/4 teaspoons ground allspice

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

12 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

1 1/4 cups packed dark brown sugar

1 large egg

1 tablespoon milk

2 1/4 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest

Whisk together the flour, cinnamon, allspice and nutmeg in a medium-sized bowl. Beat the remaining ingredients on medium speed until well-blended. Stir in the flour mixture until well-blended and smooth. Wrap the dough in plastic and refrigerate for at least 8 hours or up to 3 days.

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Shape the dough by either using a mold or by rolling it out and cutting with a knife or cookie cutters. If using a mold, be sure to dust it with flour between each impression. Space the cookies about 1 1/2 inches apart and bake, one sheet at a time on the center rack, for 15 to 25 minutes until the cookies are tinged with brown at the edges. Remove the sheet to a rack and let stand until the cookies firm slightly. Transfer the cookies to racks to cool.

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Saturday

Nov072009

Loot from London

Saturday, November 7, 2009

Last Thursday and Friday I was in London on a business trip and instead of hopping on the first train out after the workday had ended, I decided to take the last one instead. I had promised a colleague that if I had the time, I would pick up a Westie Shopper Bag from Harrods for her, plus I thought I would do some strolling in the city as well.

Now the only reason she even asked me for this favor is because she knows that I am crazy about these Harrods bags. I bring one with me nearly every day to work. The medium bag is the perfect size for my laptop computer, magazines (ahem, paperwork) and anything else that I can't fit into my purse. And to top it off, they're made of oilcloth (read: waterproof).

So off I went on the Tube to Knightsbridge to the lower level of Harrods, which I can confirm still has the Diana / Dodi memorial, ensuring lots of escalator exiting fun. Of course, after finding the bag I had come for, I just had to take a look around to see if there was anything I couldn't live without. Not surprisingly, I fell hard for one of the current prints they carry -- cakes on a pink pastel background, what's not to love?! -- and decided against my better judgement to get not only the bag but the matching mug and tea cosy as well (I've always wanted one of these and would try to knit my own if I thought it wouldn't take me 3 years).

Now I wish I could say that it stopped there, but I simply can't leave England (or most grocery stores, much to my husband's consternation) without buying some tea. The food halls were calling my name, and I obeyed them. I bought a few boxes of black tea to bring to work as we've recently acquired a tea kettle for our office, and I picked up an infusion for home.

I also forgot that it's impossible for me to leave England without buying some Marmite, Cadbury and winegums. The Marmite I can rationalize -- I can usually only find teeny-tiny jars here in France and they're always expensive because they're imported. I can't really justify buying the candy, but I had a chunk of spare change and, let's face it, its boring waiting for that Eurostar to board.

Unfortunately, I never got to the strolling part of my itinerary. Two stations away from my intended stop, the line was suspended due to a smoking train or something of the sort. I ended up having to take 3 different lines to get back to my destination, leaving me very little time to do anything other than pick up my bags and head to the train station. Which is a shame really, since there's much more to see in London than the inside of a department store.

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Tuesday

Sep292009

Vienna's Sachertorte

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

The other day my husband and I were reminiscing about a trip we took almost 2 years ago to Prague and Vienna. We loved every minute of it and dream about going back someday. Our visit took place in mid-autumn when the leaves had changed color but were still on the trees and the weather was cool and crisp yet you felt perfectly comfortable in just a sweater. In other words, the weather was perfect for outdoor sightseeing and long, leisurely walks in both cities.

The other day over homemade lattes, I was lamenting to my husband about how I wished that there were more places in Paris where you could drop in for a cup of coffee and a piece of cake and stay as long as you like (NB: I currently have no children or other similar preoccupations in my life so, yes, completely frivolous concerns like this tend to pop into my head from time to time).

There is, of course, no shortage of cafés or bakeries in Paris. But what I am looking for is one of the coffeehouses or cakeshops that seemed to be on every other corner in Vienna: the decoration might be modern or traditional, but there is always a multitude of tiered cakes either in the windowfront or greeting you on the counter in large, glass domed cake platters. And for the price of a cup of coffee, the table is yours for as long as you wish.

Since we can’t justify a trip back to Vienna for coffee and cake, I thought I would try to bring it to us. We stopped at our fair share of Kaffeehaus and Konditorei during our trip, but one of the cakes stood out above the rest: the Sachertorte. This is a dense, dry (yes, dry) chocolate cake made of two layers with apricot jam in between and a dark chocolate glaze on top. A slice of Sachertorte is always served with a dollop of whipped cream on the side.

The recipe I followed is off of epicurious. Given the trouble I sometimes encounter using non-French source recipes with French products, I was pleasantly surprised that this Sachertorte turned out nearly exactly as it was meant to. The glaze cooked perhaps a little too long (it never quite reached the temperature indicated in the recipe and the waiting took its toll on the texture...), but this extra time on the stovetop is what made the icing so glossy and, I think, even prettier in a way. If you look closely, you can even see the reflection of my pink shirt...