- Channeling Mom: The best oatmeal cookies ever

I was slowly sinking into the sofa, getting more horizontal and closer to sleep by the minute … a common enough occurrence after a long day of work and a good dinner.  But something kept tugging at the edges of my consciousness, much as I tried to ignore it.  It became an irresistible impulse, and I found myself heading into the kitchen to make cookies.

Although the truth is, cookie making has been something of a disappointment since we came out to Texas.  I miss my convection oven, and the chocolate chip cookies that were my pride and joy in Virginia just don’t come out the same since we moved.  Still, I love chocolate and what I craved was my Mom’s oatmeal cookies with chocolate chips.  Just one problem:  I have yet to succeed at making them.

Mom’s cookie recipe came from a 1959 cookbook created by the gentle women of the Shelter Island Presbyterian Church.  The brown-edged pages betray its age, and page 70 in particular is covered with spatters of butter, eggs, and vanilla from years gone by.  

The red penciled notes still visible in Aunt Libby’s recipe for Oatmeal Coconut Wafers leave one to wonder if Mom’s “excellent” refers to the original recipe or her variation on it.  She never went back to insert a note about adding chocolate chips, but one thing’s for sure: her substitution of wheat germ for coconut was inspired.  Mom’s oatmeal cookies were always lacy thin, with a crisp finish that eluded me every time I tried to duplicate them. 

“Just bang the pan halfway through baking them,” she would say when I called to bewail my latest failure.  And so I’d try again, slamming the pans against the oven door to no avail.

“Maybe it’s the weather,” she said on yet another attempt. “You really should only make them when the weather is dry and it’s awfully humid down your way.”

Well, with the recent Texas hydrology report of rainfall at 150-450% above normal, I figured I was doomed to failure yet again.  Flipping open the cookbook, I pondered how to adjust the recipe and tossed ingredients into the bowl.  Tasting the end result, I decided that it wouldn’t much matter if the cookies didn’t come out … the dough was delicious.  I wrote down the recipe, just in case it was worth keeping.

It was, and it is.

Garrison Trail Granola Cookies 

(makes 3 dozen)

1/3 cup Land O Lakes Spreadable Butter with Canola Oil

1/3 cup white sugar (scant)

1/3 cup brown sugar (generous)

½ tsp vanilla (more or less)

Revised 8/28: 1/6 cup beaten egg (half of a 1/3 cup measure)

1/3 cup flour

1/3 cup Kretschmer Original Toasted Wheat Germ

1/3 cup chopped Ghirardelli 60% Cacao Bittersweet Chocolate Chips

¼ tsp. baking soda

¼ tsp. baking powder

¼ tsp. salt

1 cup Garrison Trail Granola (see recipe index to the right)

Cream butter and sugars.  Beat in vanilla and egg.  Fold in dry ingredients.  Batter will be quite moist.  Scoop ½ tsp. portions onto parchment paper (trust me, you don’t want to bake these directly on the cookie sheet, no matter how well you butter it).

Bake 6 minutes at 350:

When cookies have puffed up, slam the pan on the oven door to flatten them:

Bake 2-3 minutes longer until dark golden brown:

Slide the cookies, parchment paper and all, onto a wire rack to cool.  BTW, these are insanely good broken up and sprinkled over Haagen Dazs vanilla ice cream.

Bigger Batch

1 cup Land O Lakes Spreadable Butter with Canola Oil

1 cup white sugar (scant)

1 cup brown sugar (generous)

1 tsp vanilla (more or less)

2 eggs

1 cup flour

1 cup Kretschmer Original Toasted Wheat Germ

1 cup chopped Ghirardelli 60% Cacao Bittersweet Chocolate Chips

3/4 tsp. baking soda

3/4 tsp. baking powder

3/4 tsp. salt

3 cups Garrison Trail Granola (see recipe index to the right)

- Comfort Food: Chicken Pot Pie

Long ago and far away, I traveled to Wisconsin a fair bit. Strange, but the integrated library system that we used at Colonial Williamsburg was licensed from a firm in Brillion, so trips to users group meetings in the Green Bay area became an annual event. One of the earlier jaunts lasted several days, and I soon tired of restaurant food and motel accommodations. By the time we headed back to Virginia, all I could think of was a home cooked meal and my own bed.

Flying into O’Hare late in the afternoon, facing a fairly extended layover, we decided to get an early dinner … one last meal out. Fortunately, we found our way to a diner where I ordered chicken pot pie. It was the ultimate comfort food. A buttery brown crust broke open to reveal a rich chicken broth, shreds of real chicken, chunks of floury potato, and nuggets of sweet carrot. Granted, it did have some tired peas, but they were easily fished out and put aside (peas should never be subjected to extended cooking, imho). The pot pie was so good that I tried to imitate it when I got home. And I’ve been refining the recipe ever since.

The most recent version got us through a rainy gray day, with leftovers to spare. Give it a try next time you find yourself debating what to do with a leftover rotisserie chicken.

Chicken Pot Pie

½ rotisserie chicken

2 small to medium potatoes

2 small or 1 large carrot, shredded

A handful of mushrooms, sliced relatively thin

1 shallot, sliced fine

1 cup Bisquick

1/3 cup milk

Butter and flour for roux

Take the meat off the chicken and set aside. Cover the leftover bones and skin with 6 cups of water and simmer for an hour or so until you have about 4 cups of rich broth.

Make a roux by melting 2 Tbs. of butter and adding 2 heaping Tbs. flour. Whisk in the broth and cook until thickened.

Nuke the potatoes until tender, leave the skins on and cut into rough dice. Put in the bottom of a 2 quart casserole. Top with shredded carrot, sliced mushrooms and sliced shallots. No need to cook the veggies … they will be get all the cooking they need in the oven. Layer on bite sized pieces of chicken.

Pour in warm, thickened broth until it just covers the chicken. Top with a biscuit crust made by quickly mixing 1/3 cup of milk into 1 cup of Bisquick with a fork. Handle the dough gently … rolling it out on a pastry cloth, flouring the rolling pin a bit to keep it from sticking.

Bake at 425 until the crust is golden and the sauce is bubbling (easy to see if you use a clear Pyrex casserole dish) … about 15 minutes, give or take.

- Crafting Christmas eggs

“So how’d you do that?” was the gist of a question about my ornamental Hill Country Christmas eggs. Herewith a recipe of sorts for how to make your own …

Click here for another view

Egg Ornaments

One old school compass
Turkey brining needle (not pictured)
Eggs (more than you think you need … some won’t make it)
Wrapping paper scraps (thinner is better … old Paper Factory Christmas paper was my go-to)
Decorative edge-cutting scissors (a scrapbooker’s delight)
Fine cuticle scissors
Paintbrush
White glue (with a little water added) or Mod Podge
Buttons
Foil wrapped plastic cord, or other flexible wire (make sure it will fit into the button holes)
Hair spray (for a slight gloss)

The hardest part is blowing the insides out of the eggs. Using the compass, poke a small hole in one end of the egg, a larger hole in the other end. Blow through the smaller hole, forcing the eggs out of the larger hole. Be careful not to burst your eardrums (easier said than done).

To clean the inside of the eggshell, fill a turkey brining needle with warm water, inject the water into the eggshell, shake gently, and blow out the water. Let the egg dry thoroughly for at least a day or two. I actually stored up several dozen eggs over the course of two months.

Cut out pieces of wrapping paper using decorative or cuticle scissors (depending on what kind of edge you want). Snip ¼ -½” cuts around the edges of each design so it will flex around the egg without buckling.

Mix a little white glue with water. Coat the back of a design, carefully mold the design onto the egg, and smooth the paper down along the edges. Your fingers will get sticky, so be prepared to wash up as you go.

Once the glue is dry, probe for the hole at the top of the egg with the compass. Then gently create a second hole close to the first hole (the paper you have glued onto the egg should provide enough support for the egg to sustain two holes … trust me, it’s hard to punch two holes in the top of an eggshell before you glue down the design, so don’t try to create two holes in advance).

Thread a 3” piece of cord/wire through two holes of a button, then poke the cord/wire through the two holes on top of the egg. Put a dab of glue on the side of the button facing the egg, then push the button down until the glue holds the button onto the egg. Adjust the length of the wire to create a loop.

Once the glue is completely dry (preferably once you have made a bunch of eggs), hang the eggs on a branch, drying rack, or clothes line and spray with hairspray.

Metaphorical moment: When an egg breaks (and this is inevitable), do not despair. Simply cut out a design to fit over the hole, glue the design on, and continue. Unless of course the break is beyond repair. In which case, chalk it up to experience and try, try again.

And while I had high hopes for embellishing the eggs with rubber stamps and embossing powder, I wouldn’t recommend it. Some ideas just don’t pan out (pun intended).

Last, but not least: you might have noticed that one of the finished eggs has a scallop shell motif on it. The image, taken from the Internet, was printed on Staples double-sided matte photo paper. I’m going to be experimenting with photographs next to see if I can create some “wedding eggs.” Hope they work out better than the embossing powder idea did.

- ROMHT: My cookie dough obsession started early

I recently received a Facebook friend request from my niece in New York. I was flattered, actually. But of course, most of her posts are in a code I can’t decipher. Which is as it should be.

Back in the day, we had our own code. Finding a Wheatley High School (class of 1974) cohort on Facebook I dropped her a line and wondered if she remembers ROHMT and Molasses Cookie dough.

Pro’ly, I'm thinking.

Molasses Cookie Dough

¾ cup butter
1 cup sugar
¼ cup molasses
1 egg (or ¼ cup Better ‘n Eggs if you’re salmonella/E.coli risk averse)
2 cups flour
2 tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. each of cloves and ginger
1 tsp. cinnamon


Melt butter. Cool and mix in other ingredients. Chill in the fridge. Really, that’s all you need to do, as this is the best raw cookie dough ever. However, if you insist on baking it into cookies, roll small balls of dough in sugar and bake on greased cookie sheets at 375 for 8 minutes.

- A Midwinter Night’s Dream: Christmas in Austin

I made the mistake of saying that moving to Texas had gotten us out of the house more than we used to in Williamsburg. “So you want to go to the free concert in Zilker Park tomorrow night?” Don asked.

“Umm, well … I guess so,” was my lukewarm reply. After all, it was Sunday night and we had just returned from Austin, where Meg and I had taken in Ballet Austin’s Nutcracker matinee. Christmas was only five days away and I had a long list of things to do.

None-the-less we called Meg and Paul to see if we could bring dinner in exchange for use of their guest room the following night, and invited them to join us at the concert … on a work night, no less. “You don’t really have to come,” I offered. But come they did, with Meg observing that they probably wouldn’t have made it of their own volition (such is the power of newcomers to inspire a reawakened awareness of one’s environs).

On a cool Austin evening, we joined the long line of cars queuing into Zilker Park, drawn by the tree of lights and the promise of free entertainment by Asleep at the Wheel, with a hoped-for guest appearance by Shawn Colvin.


There were throngs of people and a festive air, enlivened by the heady aroma of kettle corn and the flickering lights of toy swords purchased from vendors and wielded by tiny hands. After listening to the music for awhile, Meg suggested we walk through the light displays, which were scaled back from years past.  Not that I would have known. It was a Grand Illumination, Texas style.

We walked into a wonderland, greeted by Maurice Sendak’s Max,

 

an armadillo rodeo,

  

Mother Goose's cow jumping over the moon,

 and a vision of the Austin skyline straight out of the Jetsons.

I'm thinking Logan would have loved every bit of it.

Wearied at last, we trekked back to the car as the Frost Tower glimmered in the distance ... making our way to warm beds, to sleep, perchance to dream.

- Let's do brunch ... Hill Country style

The breakfast taco is a wonderfully civilized way to put a lot of great flavors and textures together. The palate is as varied as you choose to make it, and with a little advance planning, can make for a simple brunch where you actually get to sit down and enjoy your company.

Of course, in Texas we have the distinct advantage of having access to amazingly fresh food, even in the middle of winter. It’s one of the things I hoped would be true when we headed west, and we’re endlessly delighted by what makes it onto the table every day.

Freshly made flour tortillas are readily available at some of our grocery stores and are the basis for any good taco. However, refrigerated flour tortillas come close, with shelf-stable tortillas a distant third. Or you can make your own (just check the blog index for the recipe).

Fresh chorizo sausage is another Texas joy, found at the HEB (they don’t lie when they say “Here Everything’s Better”). Dried chorizo is a reasonable substitute, just remove the casings and dice it fine. Then there’s the Cotija cheese, (pronounced co-tee-ah). We found a "vaca rica" version that translates as “rich cow.” Ha! Wonder how much fat that has in it? It’s a lick better than the Cotija I used to buy at the Food Lion in Williamsburg, but that will do in a pinch.

Of course my favorite ingredients are the green, tan, and brown eggs from the Dripping Springs Farmers Market. Lucky us, even though the market has closed for the winter, the farmer gives us a call every couple of weeks asking if we want some eggs. It has a slightly illicit feel to it, but we happily go to pick up our stash whenever the opportunity presents itself.

By the way, the eggs were so beautiful that I couldn’t bear to crack them open and throw out the shells. So I carefully blew the insides out and several dozen ended up as Christmas ornaments on our tree this year.

Last, but not least, the produce doesn’t have to travel far to reach us, so Campari tomatoes, jalapenos, organic cilantro, and blissfully ripe avocados are standard occupants in the fridge. Life is good indeed.

Sadly, no pictures were taken the day we had everyone over for breakfast tacos, but since Meliss requested the frittata recipe I figured it was worth a blog. We regret that the Walkers are currently shivering through 6 degree weather in St. Louis. Maybe a Sunday brunch will banish the chilblains and bring back warm memories of the day we played Bagg-o and got sunburned … in December!

Pico de Gallo

Diced Campari tomatoes (or grape tomatoes if you can’t find Camparis)

Finely diced jalapeno (remove seeds and inner membrane with a spoon if you want to lessen the fire)

Finely diced red onion

Chopped cilantro

Lime juice

Kosher salt

I know … no amounts here, but you really can’t do this wrong,

Chorizo Frittata

8 oz. cream cheese (low fat works, ‘though it's sorta pointless here)
8-12 oz. Cotija
Chipotle chilies in adobo sauce (canned)
9 large eggs
¾ cup flour
1 ½ tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
1 cup shredded cheese (Mexican mix, Colby, Monterey Jack, whatever)
12 oz. small curd cottage cheese (I used low fat, also sorta pointless)
¼ lb. chorizo sausage (bulk, or taken out of casings and diced)

The night before, melt cream cheese and shredded Cotija together with a couple of diced chipotle chilies and some adobo sauce. This will not make good queso (which is what I was originally trying to make), although it won’t hurt to dunk a few chips in to be sure it tastes okay. Put in a bowl and refrigerate overnight. Cut into cubes once it's firmed up.

Pan fry chorizo until cooked through and set aside.

Beat eggs, then whisk in flour, baking powder and salt. Fold in cottage cheese, shredded cheese, cubed Cotija/cream cheese, and chorizo. Pour into a 9” x 13” casserole sprayed with Baker’s Joy. Bake at 350 … start watching after 30 minutes and take out when set in the middle.

Breakfast Tacos

Flour tortillas (figure on two 6-8” tortillas per person, more if you’re really hungry)
Frittata sliced into tortilla-long fingers (or scrambled eggs if you want to keep it simple)
Shredded cheese
Sour cream
Pico de gallo
Avocado wedges
Optional: scallions, potatoes, bacon, sausage, leftover grilled meat or veggies, shrimp … the list is limited only by your imagination

Alternate tortillas with damp paper towels. Nuke in the microwave for 20 seconds on high to warm the tortillas. Flip the stack and repeat if necessary.

Put out the ingredients and let everyone build their own tacos to taste.

- Top (Cookie) Chef … or “Pack your butter and go” (gently revised in 2016)

This year was our first Christmas season in Texas, and I’ve decided I can definitely get into the spirit even when the temperature is in the 70s. Meliss and Jake flew in from St. Louis on a cool, clear Christmas afternoon … much better weather than their October venture. Meg and Paul hosted dinner at their house, serving us an amazing surf and turf of prime rib and lobster tails, with asparagus, horseradish potato cake, and salad with fig balsamic dressing, pine nuts, red grapes and feta.

We had Christmas cookies for dessert, a tradition from the many years we spent celebrating with the Laroche family. Don decided that a competition for Top Cookie would liven up the festivities, and designed a ballot for the four entrants which were to be judged on taste, texture and presentation.

First up, my Mom’s shortbread, which I’ve often imitated, but never duplicated. Though we made shortbread using a recipe from my Grandma Munson (born Scotswoman Jesse Watson, who surely knew what she was doing) when I was a child, Mom changed recipes once I left home, so I never got to watch her make it … she just brought it with her each year when she and Dad came to Williamsburg to celebrate Christmas with us. This time around my version wasn’t quite as crisp as hers, a bit thicker than it should have been and I dosed it with a too much sugar, but it was still recognizable and the sentimental favorite.

Next, a perennial entry: Greek Kourambiades, which I first made in high school as part of a social studies assignment to create a Middle Eastern dish. [A side note on my high school: it was different, to say the least. No substitute teachers, for one. Instead, we had a choice of guest speakers, open study halls, or Watergate hearings to watch. Even better, our teachers had virtually unlimited sick leave … and used it since they didn’t have to write sub plans. But I digress]. While others brought falafel and pita bread to the Middle East luncheon, my research focused on finding a dessert with lots of butter. Some things never change. The recipe replaced Aunt Yetta’s pinkie cookies as the go-to nut cookie recipe and came with me when I started making my own cookies as a young bride in Virginia (32 years ago this week).

The Mocha Christmas Tree Cookies were also a high school find, from a New York Times cookbook that I read at our next door neighbor’s in East Williston. I’m not quite sure how I came to be reading a cookbook in the Presti’s kitchen, but the recipe has gone through a number of revisions over the years, all good. Meliss prefers her cookies sans chocolate (making them coffee cookies rather than mocha) … a plainer presentation to be sure, but toothsome just the same. And I used my grandmother’s Mirro cookie press, one of my favorite inheritances.

Last, but far from least, was a new entrant: LaCoursier family Nutmeg Logs courtesy of Meg’s husband Paul. I got a bit nervous as I made these, realizing I’d never actually seen or tasted the original cookies and was setting myself up by making substitutions in a recipe I never made before. But I bluffed my way through and hoped for the best. And best they were, winning the Top Cookie prize when all the ballots were counted. I’m guessing it was the Haitian Barbancourt Rhum substituted for the rum extract in the recipe that put them over the top. Of course, ¾ of a pound of butter didn’t hurt either. Whatever. Nutmeg Logs are destined to be part of the Ackert family Christmas cookie rotation in perpetuity.

Nana Ruth’s Shortbread

½ lb. butter (salted)
½ cup sugar
2 cups flour

Cream butter and sugar. Mix in flour. Divide into three parts, flattening each into a circle about ¼” thick on parchment paper. Score into 8 wedges and prick with a fork. Bake 25 minutes at 325. Sprinkle with sugar while still warm. Cut into wedges along the scored lines. Pack in an airtight container with wax paper.

Kourambiades (I have no idea how to pronounce this)

½ lb. melted butter (salted)
¼ cup sugar
½ cup chopped walnuts (I use the food processor)
2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking powder

Mix ingredients together. Shape into small balls (1 tsp.) Bake on parchment paper for 15-20 minutes at 350 until slightly golden on the bottom. Cool slightly, then sift confectioners on top (being very generous as some will fall off when the cookies are moved).

Mocha Cookies (but only if you include the chocolate ... otherwise they're Espresso Cookies)

8 ounces butter (salted, softened)

¾ cup sugar

1 small egg
1 tsp. vanilla
¼ cup espresso powder (the original recipe called for 1 Tbs. of instant coffee)
2 cups flour
1/8 tsp. baking powder
4-6 oz. Ghirardelli 60% or Guittard chocolate chips
Nonpareils (Mom also used chopped nuts on hers)

Beat egg in a cup with vanilla and espresso powder. Cream butter and sugar. Beat in egg mixture. Fold in flour and baking powder. Dough will be soft and may need a bit more flour to keep it from being sticky … but be careful not to overdo it. Use a Christmas tree or wreath template in a vintage Mirro cookie press … be assertive, quickly twisting the handle 180 degrees and rapidly lifting the press between cookies. If you use one of those new-fangled cookie presses you're on your own. Bake 9-10 minutes at 375 until crisp.

When cookies come out of the oven, carefully place a few chocolate chips on each one, spread the chocolate as it melts to cover each cookie, then sprinkle with whatever suits your fancy (or leave them plain … which is much easier, and Meliss would approve).

Joyce Levine's Nutmeg Cookies

½ lb. butter (salted, softened)

¾ cup sugar

1 egg
2 tsp. vanilla
1 Tbs. Barbancourt rum (this is non-negotiable … just ask the Laroche family)
2 ½ cups flour
1 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg
¼ tsp. salt

Cream butter and sugar. Beat in egg, vanilla and rum. Fold in flour, nutmeg and salt. Roll into “snakes” about ½ inch in diameter. Cut into pieces about 2 inches long. Bake on parchment paper for 12-15 minutes at 350 until golden brown. Cool while making the frosting.

Frosting

4 Tbs. butter (1/2 stick)
1/2 tsp. vanilla
2 Tbs. Barbancourt rum
1 cup confectioner’s sugar
Freshly grated nutmeg

Soften the butter in the microwave (30 seconds at 50% power). Beat in remaining ingredients. Spread over cookies and grate nutmeg over the top.

- Merry Christmas

Wishing you peace and much joy this Christmas Day and in the New Year.

With love from the Texas Hill Country.


N.B. The ornaments on the tree were made using Hill Country eggs.

- Good news, bad news: Thanksgiving leftovers

The bad news was that I couldn’t find Pepperidge Farm white bread for turkey sandwiches. The good news was that Paul scored some at the Central Market.  But there was more bad news: it didn’t taste quite right. Was it because Pepperidge Farm changed their recipe or is this one tradition that we've simply outgrown?  No matter, there was good news in the end: muffins.

These particular muffins have made guest appearances with smoked turkey in the past, so leftover Thanksgiving turkey seemed like a good fit. I whipped up a batch for lunch and we paired the resulting sandwiches with some Fat Tire ale … a wicked brew that can be found just about anywhere in Texas as well as selected Outer Banks groceries, and which, to my unsophisticated palate, insists on reminding me of egg creams from yesteryear. For those of you who have not experienced a true New York style egg cream, there is neither egg nor cream to be had ... rather, chocolate milk charged with hyper-carbonated seltzer water. Maybe the malt in the Fat Tire echoes some subtle note in Bosco chocolate syrup. No matter. It tastes extremely good.

And so it was that Don was asked, yet again, to delay a perfectly good meal in the service of the photographic muse, the better to portray what we enjoyed after our two mile walk through Woodcreek. If you are looking for a way to dispatch your leftover turkey, you might want to give this a try.

Apple Onion Walnut Muffins (makes six, doubles with ease)


2 Tbs. melted butter
1 egg
½ cup milk
¾ cup flour
1 ½ tsp. baking powder
¼ tsp. kosher salt
1 small Granny Smith apple, shredded
1 small sweet onion, similarly shredded
1 handful of walnut pieces (¼ - ½ cup)


Whisk eggs and milk together.  Add melted butter.  Fold in the remaining ingredients, being careful not to overmix, which makes for tough muffins.  Put in six greased muffin tins (I use Baker’s Joy) and bake at 425 for 12-15 minutes.


And if you want to gild the lily, whip up some cranberry jelly, too.

Cranberry Jelly

12 ounces fresh cranberries
1 ½ cup water
1 ½ cup sugar

Simmer cranberries and water for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally to avoid scorched berries. Press cooked berries through a strainer to remove seeds and skins, and return to the pan with sugar. Cook another 3-5 minutes. Refrigerate until set.

- A Noah’s Ark Thanksgiving

We had two of everything for Thanksgiving yesterday: a fried turkey and a roasted turkey, mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes, plain stuffing and sausage onion stuffing, smooth cranberry jelly and chunky cranberry orange relish, green olives and black olives, carrots and celery, red wine and champagne … along with matched sides of Levine family green bean casserole and buttered corn versus Ackert family creamed onions and sautéed turnips.  Dessert would have continued the two-by-two theme with coconut cream pie and pecan pie, but Kristen and her family saved the day from cliché by arriving with a chocolate frosted cheese cake.

It’s a good thing we decided up front to eliminate pumpkin pie and apple pie from the menu, as dinner was so good that there wasn’t much room left for sampling all the desserts. However, pumpkin did make a pre-dinner appearance in a “new for this year” brunch pairing of pumpkin rolls with, you guessed it, two fillings. One was a straight take on an Ina Garten recipe I caught on the Food Network the other night, but the second was a riff on strawberry trifle, as odd as that might sound.

So see for yourself. Snag the original Pumpkin Roulade recipe from the Food Network, cut the pumpkin cake in half after it’s cooled and fill one side with a half recipe of the mascarpone filling. Then whip up a trifling half. It won’t be as pretty, but in my book it wins the prize for taste.

Trifling Pumpkin Roll

½ Ina Garten pumpkin roulade cake
1 small box Jell-O Vanilla Cook and Serve pudding (not instant!)
1 ½ cups milk (whole milk is best, but 2% will do)
½ cup whipping cream
½ cup toasted chopped hazelnuts (filberts)
Sherry or Vin Santo

Cook the pudding mix and milk in the microwave until thickened. Place a sheet of plastic wrap directly on top of the pudding to prevent a skin from forming as it cools. Whip ½ cup cream (don’t add any sugar), and fold into the chilled pudding.

Chop the hazelnuts and then toast them for 3-6 minutes in a 350 oven until they are nicely browned. Cool.

Spritz the pumpkin roll with sherry (I stick my thumb into the bottle opening to control the flow). Slather the cake with a layer of the pudding/cream mixture. Sprinkle with chopped hazelnuts. Roll carefully and expect it to sag, as the cream filling is not as firm as the mascarpone version.

Conduct your own taste test and may the best cake win ;-)