Snowball Fight!

I've been running this blog for a little over a year now, and by far the biggest reaction to any posting has been to my original entry about the Baltimore snowball. Many people wrote in with a great sense of nostalgia for the snowball after having lived here and moved away; some people shared stories of the snowballs of their childhoods. And then....there was a mad crowd from New Orleans who flew into a collective rage with their insistence that Baltimore "copied" the original New Orleans snowball and that New Orleans originated the icy treat. Oh, and one person went so far as to claim that New Orleans invented the crabcake. The crabcake? Seriously?

So, for the record: I don't know, and I don't care, who "invented" the snowball. I never said Baltimore invented it. I think probably some cavewoman invented it. What I did say in my original posting, and what I'm shouting from the rooftops now, is that Baltimore perfected the snowball. Because a snowball in summertime is as Baltimore as Chuck Thompson on the radio, jogging around Lake Montebello, steamed hard crabs, and crooked politicians. We love our snowballs here.

In Baltimore, a snowball is not just for kids. Sure, we take our kids and grandkids to the snowball stand. But no one bats an eye when a guy in a business suit stops in for a midday snowball, all by himself. And the snowball stand is the great public square of a Baltimore summer day: here all kinds of people stand patiently in line and the most heated discussion you'll hear is a debate over the best flavor.

And while people definitely have loyalties to "their" snowball stands, most people would agree that it's hard to have a bad snowball. There just aren't that many elements that can be screwed around with. The best snowball stand on any given day may well be the one without the line - because a snowball is a fleeting thing, and a big melty mess if you don't eat it right away. As one stand owner said to me when I, alone, purchased two different snowballs: "Are ya familiar with how to eat a snowball?" (I bought two for the photo, but I could only get to one before the heat got the other one.)

Of course we Baltimorons will endlessly debate the "marshmallow or no marshmallow" controversy. Some people would not dream to eat a snowball without marshmallow on top:

Some people think that marshmallow's gooeyness on top of the clear texture of the ice is sacrilege. And never the twain shall meet.

You may like your snowball stand "basic," just a little shack with a few plastic lawn chairs out and the characteristic "snowball" sign flying:

Or you may like your snowball stand to have more of a tropical theme:

My personal favorite snowball stand "style" is a couple of kids, a folding table, an ice-shaving machine and a few squirt bottles of syrup, but the Health Department has kind of made those operations fewer and far between. When I was growing up, you'd find at least one stand like that in every neighborhood and I lament their passing. One of the most venerated of Baltimore's snowball stands is One Sweet Moment, on Hamilton Avenue just west of Harford Road. This stand has been around for 17 years and still packs in the customers, no matter the time of day. Here it is on a Wednesday in the middle of the day in June:

One Sweet Moment is the kind of snowball stand that, after you've made your choice you inevitably think "Darn. I wish I had gotten that other flavor...." There are so many flavors and sizes to choose from that I'm going to study the flavor chart on their website before I go next time!

Best of all, a snowball is cheap. Ridiculously cheap. Like, 80 cents for a child's-size snowball, at most snowball stands around town. The biggest one you can get, with the most exotic flavor and marshmallow topping, can't cost you more than $3.50 anywhere. And that's why I think snowballs are such a huge hit in our strapped urban hometown. The colors are fun, the choices are nearly infinite, the sugar rush is immediate, and the price is right. When the snowball stands of summer get crankin' in the sweltering heat of Baltimore, I know I'm home.

Photos: the bottles of syrup and the pink lemonade snowball with marshmallow topping came from Parkville Sno-Balls in the Parkville Shopping Center parking lot on Harford Road. The "snowballs" sign and the "snowball hut" were taken at J P's Snowballs, 7604 Harford Road, which is where the owner asked me if I knew how to eat a snowball as I bought the egg custard and orange snowballs also depicted in this posting. The hand holding the blue and red snowballs, the multicolored snowball (the "Aladdin" flavor), the photo of people enjoying the porch at One Sweet Moment, and the photo of the many cup sizes all were taken at One Sweet Moment, Hamilton Avenue just west of Harford Road. The blackberry snowball with marshmallow topping and the photos of the tropical-style snowball stand were taken at Dean's Shaved Ice, 8402-ish Harford Road. As goes without saying, Harford Road is the Main Street of Baltimore snowballs! There are too many snowball stands in Baltimore to cover them all, but here is a link to a few of them.

If you have photos of your Baltimore snowball experience, whether of snowballs, snowball stands, people eating snowballs, snowball gear, or anything relating to snowballs in Baltimore, please join my Flickr group, THE BALTIMORE SNOWBALL, and submit your photos!

Quite A Stir

For the most authentically down-home Southern-style, fresh, made-from-scratch, preservatives-free desserts this side of Savannah, get yourself to a local farmers' market and sample the wares of Julie Salter, owner of Quite A Stir bakery. All 780 pounds of me were lucky enough to run into Julie last Tuesday as I, "fresh" from the gym, checked out the Tuesday farmers' market at Cross Keys. There, beneath that tantalizing cupcake banner (this is how ships crashed on the rocks when the mermaids sang, I thought to myself) I found Julie, who is the most engaging, down-to-earth, earnest professional baker I've met in a very long time.

After a career spent in advertising and special events planning, Julie, who has been diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis, decided to follow her passion and began baking professionally. Quite A Stir, now in its fifth year of operation, has won "Best of Baltimore" accolades, and deservedly so. The bakery specializes in beautiful, traditional Southern-style offerings, following Southern family recipes. Julie's glorious Southern pound cakes (I am a sucker for a Southern pound cake) have been made modern by downsizing them into individual portions she calls "pound cuppies" - a pound cake baked in the size of a cupcake. Pound cuppies come in the traditional sour cream variety as well as lemon zest, fudge ribbon and apple cinnamon.

No Southern lady would be without her recipe for spiced nuts, or cheese straws, and Julie's could be sold in any tea shop in Charleston. Homemade soft caramels have a delicious pecan center. And of course when the weather isn't so blisteringly hot, she makes chocolate cakes and fudge.

You can find Julie on Tuesdays at the Cross Keys farmers' market and on Saturdays at the just-opened Greenspring Station farmers' market, as well as at several retail outlets around town. Everything's baked fresh from scratch in Towson. If you can't manage to get to one of these farmers' markets, you can order from Julie online here. She ships anywhere in the continental U.S. A portion of each sale is donated to the Maryland chapter of the Arthritis Foundation. Julie bakes for corporate gift-giving, by special request, and is truly devoted to customer service.

It takes a lot of confidence, and even more talent, in my opinion, to bake and present a truly Southern dessert shorn of frou-frou and brimming with down-home deliciousness. When I was new to Mr B M S's annual family reunions, I'd often find the desserts I'd brought would sit around on the table for a while before someone would catch on and give my homespun-looking pound cake a try. Once they tried it, of course, the cake would disappear faster than an ice cube in August. And now I have to fend off the family with a big stick when I bring my Southern-style desserts to the reunion table. Julie Salter's Southern-style desserts are like that, too: comforting, homespun, and pure delight. As is Julie!

You can reach Quite A Stir on the web, or by calling 410.823.7042. The Cross Keys' farmers' market is open on Tuesdays from 10 AM to 2 PM in the Village of Cross Keys, 5100 Falls Road. The Greenspring Station farmers' market is open on Saturdays from 2 to 530 PM at Greenspring Station, Falls and Joppa Roads.

Flag-Waving Desserts

Mr B M S and I got married on Flag Day (June 14), so our anniversary celebrations tend to trend toward a red, white and blue theme. This year we threw a party for our neighborhood and, as usual, I set up the dessert buffet. Since everyone seems to be watching his or her waistline at this time of year, we had a lovely local-fruit-in-season watermelon basket (which I was unable to spike with a bottle of vodka because there were a bunch of kids at the party):

I wanted to keep the desserts simple and sweet, and capable of being picked up and eaten out of one hand, no utensils required. The cupcakes were plain white cake with good old Domino's sugar frosting on top and some red, white and blue sprinkles from Crate & Barrel (from which the cupcake papers were also acquired.) There wasn't a cupcake left by the end of the party.

But for the "wow" factor I turned to the extremely reliable and always ridiculously delicious Paula Deen. And from her special issue Paula Deen's Best Desserts, I chose two to make for the party: lemon blossoms and white Texas sheet cake.

Let me say this: I would have posted a photo of the lemon blossoms, but people ate them all before I could get there with my camera. (insert image of Paula Deen's lemon blossoms here) Lemon blossoms are mini lemon-flavored cupcakes dipped and rolled around in a thick, lemony glaze. They are every bit as decadent as they sound.

The white Texas sheet cake is a delicious variant of a traditional Texas sheet cake, the latter being a chocolate cake on top of which a fudgy frosting is spread while the cake is still warm. The white Texas sheet cake consists of an easy-to-make light white cake made in a jellyroll pan and spread, while warm, with a butter frosting, then topped with some toasted chopped pecans. The resulting cake is like a cross between a brownie and a piece of white fudge, with a dense, chewy bite and an outrageously sweet taste. I cut the cake into small pieces and piled them inside red, white and blue Chinese takeout-style containers:

I am personally not a fan of flag-themed cake productions (or the massing of red, white and blue cupcakes in a certain arrangement that approximates the look of the American flag.) But these easy-to-make and easy-to-eat desserts hit just the right note for a summertime party.

Comings and Goings

One of my truisms (one that is actually true) is: "Everyone thinks he can sing." This is my way of explaining why people think it's ok to pirate copyrighted music (because, after all, writing original music can't be all that hard, because think of that crap you've heard on W-X-Y-Z, and those guys made a million dollars!), and everyone thinks he or she sounds just great in the shower, and while everyone is humiliated when Uncle Elmo belts one out at the family wedding, it would be an entirely different story - entirely different - if you did.

To this truism (which is oh so true) I now add: "Everyone thinks she can run a bakery." People with a little baking talent often think, "How hard can it possibly be? Because my cookies are, like, to die for!" And then they dream of just baking a few thousand dozen cookies in their own home kitchen and becoming cookie zillionaires while having the luxury of time to spend with little Ethan or write the great American novel or, at least, drop out of that rat race at the office.

But running a bakery is hard, hard stuff. To keep your product quality high, if you are a talented baker you need to be involved yourself in every step of the operation, and not farm it out to the staff. You have to get up when most people are going to bed so that your goodies are all fresh and warm and aromatic for the morning rush hour. You need to keep your costs down, way down, because the economy is bad and because people are only willing to pay so much for a cupcake. You need to bake stuff that other people like even if you, personally, don't care for it. And in addition to being a top-notch baker, you need to be a businessperson. With a business plan. Who runs a business.

So we shouldn't be surprised by some changes coming to the Baltimore baking scene. On the positive side, the den of deliciousness known as Tenzo Artisan Bakery is looking to expand! Plans are tentative but definitely in the works for the amazingly talented and brainy Dr. Janice Shih, baker and owner, so watch this space for these exciting plans! We hope Janice takes over the world with her baking - it's that good. Don't tell the kids: it's also good for you. Tenzo is located at 1016 S. Charles Street in Federal Hill but we hope to see a Tenzo outpost in every neighborhood very soon.

Sadly, the gorgeous and talented Catherine Hamilton of Perfect Cupcakes is looking for a buyer for her operation in the Inner Harbor. Catherine's facing some significant health issues herself and needs to deal with those, so she's hoping to see someone with talent and energy take over for her! Perfect Cupcakes is an adorable operation, with a little truck, a recognizable logo, a delicious, bright cupcake product, and a registered trademark! So if you are interested, you should contact Catherine at 443.463.9955. And everyone who's reading B More Sweet is wishing nothing but the best for L'il Miss Cupcake, Catherine Hamilton.

Finally, ch-ch-ch-ch-changes are coming to Dangerously Delicious Pies. The Hampden outpost, known as Savory House, is closing. But according to an interview he gave to the Daily Record, owner Rodney Henry has plans for a D. C. expansion! (Say it ain't so, Rod! D.C. is so.....well....) The irrepressible Rodney is also busy envisioning a traveling pie wagon, which I personally endorse most heartily and hope to call in using my super GPS powers, or maybe my Twittering abilities! As of now there are no concrete plans for the DD Pies opening in D.C., so we'll all need to stay tuned. The Federal Hill store will remain deliciously open.

Daring Bakers Challenge: The Bakewell Tart

The June Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Jasmine of Confessions of a Cardamom Addict and Annemarie of Ambrosia and Nectar. They chose a Traditional (UK) Bakewell Tart... er... pudding that was inspired by a rich baking history dating back to the 1800's in England.

What follows, for the most part, per the Code of the Daring Bakers, is/are the directions exactly as given. Where I've made modifications, I've made note of them, and the photos are entirely mine. The Bakewell Tart is interesting to make, because it's unlikely that you've eaten one other than in England (and even then, you may not have), but it's really not hard at all to make. You'll be making a pretty easy pie crust and a nut-based filling, and spreading the crust with jam that you either buy or make yourself. I used Smucker's seedless blackberry jam and it worked just fine. Here's the process, straight from this month's Daring Bakers Challenge (the word usage following is not mine):

Like many regional dishes there’s no “one way” to make a Bakewell Tart…er…Pudding, but most of today’s versions fall within one of two types. The first is the “pudding” where a layer of jam is covered by an almondy pastry cream and baked in puff pastry. The second is the “tart” where a rich shortcrust pastry holds jam and an almondy sponge cake-like filling.

Bakewell Tart History and Lore:

Flan-like desserts that combine either sweet egg custard over candied fruit or feature spiced ground almonds in a pastry shell have Mediaeval roots. The term “Bakewell pudding” was first penned in 1826 by Meg Dods; 20 years later Eliza Acton published a recipe that featured a baked rich egg custard overtop 2cm of jam and noted, “This pudding is famous not only in Derbyshire, but in several of our northern counties where it is usually served on all holiday occasions.”

By the latter half of the 1800s, the egg custard evolved into a frangipane-like filling; since then the quantity of jam decreased while the almond filling increased.

This tart, like many of the world's great foods has its own mythic beginnings…or several mythic beginnings. Legend has it in 1820 (or was it in the 1860s?) Mrs. Greaves, landlady of The White Horse Inn in Bakewell, Derbyshire (England), asked her cook to produce a pudding for her guests. Either her instructions could have been clearer or he should have paid better attention to what she said because what he made was not what she asked for. The cook spread the jam on top of the frangipane mixture rather than the other way around. Or maybe instead of a sweet rich shortcrust pastry case to hold the jam for a strawberry tart, he made a regular pastry and mixed the eggs and sugar separately and poured that over the jam—it depends upon which legend you follow.

Regardless of what the venerable Mrs. Greaves’ cook did or didn’t do, lore has it that her guests loved it and an ensuing pastry-clad industry was born. The town of Bakewell has since played host to many a sweet tooth in hopes of tasting the tart in its natural setting.

Bakewell tarts are a classic English dessert, abounding in supermarket baking sections and in ready-made, mass-produced forms, some sporting a thick sugary icing and glazed cherry on top for decorative effect. (I note that when I consulted two of my British friends about Bakewell tarts, they both grimaced and said, "Oh, yes, they're very popular in England...but I don't like them...." And in truth, if you don't care for almonds, you're not going to like a Bakewell tart, which is essentially three layers: pie crust; jam, either homemade or store-bought; and frangipane.)

Enjoy the tart with a cup of tea or coffee or just eat it sneaky slice by sneaky slice until, to your chagrin, you realise the whole tart has somehow disappeared despite you never having pulled out a plate, fork or napkin with which to eat it.

Makes one 23cm (9” tart)

Prep time: less than 10 minutes (plus time for the individual elements)

Resting time: 15 minutes

Baking time: 30 minutes

Equipment needed:

23cm (9”) tart pan or pie tin (preferably with ridged edges)

rolling pin (rubber rings for the pin are helpful to get the dough's thickness just right)
one quantity sweet shortcrust pastry (recipe follows)

bench flour (all-purpose flour) for rolling

1cup (8 US fl. oz) jam or curd, warmed for spreadability

one quantity frangipane (recipe follows)

one handful blanched, flaked almonds

Process note from B M S: I found the most efficient way to make this tart was to first make the crust, which must be chilled a while before rolling; then grind the nuts; then roll the dough, place it in the tart pan and freeze it; then make the frangipane and assemble the tart. If you plan to make your own homemade jam, you might want to do that well ahead of time in order to allow it to set up; but unless you're really a homemade jam fanatic, I think a nice jar of your favorite will do just fine, because you really don't use that much of it anyway (no more than about 1/4 or at most 1/2 c.) Though there are a few steps to take before the tart is ready, you can easily knock this dessert out in a morning or an afternoon.

Assembling the tart:

Place the chilled dough disc on a lightly floured surface. If it's overly cold, you will need to let it become acclimatised for about 15 minutes before you roll it out. Flour the rolling pin and roll the pastry to 5mm (1/4”) thickness, by rolling in one direction only (start from the centre and roll away from you), and turning the disc a quarter turn after each roll. When the pastry is to the desired size and thickness, transfer it to the tart pan, press in and trim the excess dough. Patch any holes, fissures or tears with trimmed bits. Chill in the freezer for 15 minutes.

Preheat oven to 200C/400F.

Remove shell from freezer, spread as even a layer as you can of jam onto the pastry base. Top with frangipane, spreading to cover the entire surface of the tart.
Smooth the top and pop into the oven for 30 minutes. Five minutes before the tart is done, the top will be poofy and brownish. Remove from oven and strew flaked almonds on top and return to the heat for the last five minutes of baking.

The finished tart will have a golden crust and the frangipane will be tanned, poofy and a bit spongy-looking. Remove from the oven and cool on the counter. Serve warm, with crème fraîche, whipped cream or custard sauce if you wish.

When you slice into the tart, the almond paste will be firm, but slightly squidgy and the crust should be crisp but not tough.

Sweet shortcrust pastry:

Prep time: 15-20 minutes

Resting time: 30 minutes (minimum)

Equipment needed: bowls, box grater, cling film (Saran wrap), 225g (8oz) all purpose flour,30g (1oz) sugar, 2.5ml (½ tsp) salt, 110g (4oz) unsalted butter, cold (frozen is better), (2) egg yolks, 2.5ml (½ tsp) almond extract (optional), 15-30ml (1-2 Tbsp) cold water

Sift together flour, sugar and salt.

Grate butter into the flour mixture, using the large hole-side of a box grater. Using your finger tips only, and working very quickly, rub the fat into the flour until the mixture resembles bread crumbs. Set aside.
Lightly beat the egg yolks with the almond extract (if using) and quickly mix into the flour mixture. Keep mixing while dribbling in the water, only adding enough to form a cohesive and slightly sticky dough.
Form the dough into a disc, wrap in cling and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes

Frangipane:

Prep time: 10-15 minutes

Equipment needed: bowls, hand mixer, rubber spatula, 125g (4.5oz) unsalted butter, softened; 125g (4.5oz) icing (confectioners') sugar; (3) eggs; 2.5ml (½ tsp) almond extract; 125g (4.5oz) ground almonds; 30g (1oz) all purpose flour

Cream butter and sugar together for about a minute or until the mixture is primrose in colour and very fluffy. Scrape down the side of the bowl and add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. The batter may appear to curdle. In the words of Douglas Adams (B More Sweet says: who?): Don’t panic. Really. It’ll be fine. After all three are in, pour in the almond extract and mix for about another 30 seconds and scrape down the sides again. With the beaters on, spoon in the ground nuts and the flour. Mix well. The mixture will be soft, keep its slightly curdled look (mostly from the almonds) and retain its pallid yellow colour.

Bakewell tart on the web:

There's a Bakewell Tart Shop and Coffee House (in the U.K., of course), which will send you a genuine Bakewell tart most anywhere in the world! You can click here for another recipe for the tart, as well as recipes for most anything usually considered traditional British food. And Google images has a bunch of photos of Bakewell tarts made with and without the icing and cherries on top.

Document your Snowballs!

It's that time of year for a snowball stand in every neighborhood, and I'm collecting photos of the Baltimore Snowball Experience on Flickr! Click the link on the sidebar at right to see my own photos of the snowball thang, and to submit your own. I'll be doing a lengthy post about snowballs in a couple of weeks and would love to include your snowball pix!

Cookies for the Fourth

It's not always easy to come up with a good non-ice cream dessert for the sultry days of summer; you don't want anything too heavy, icing melts in the heat, cheesecake gets funky runny weird... But a well-done cookie seems just the ticket: crispy and crunchy, and small, providing just a jolt of sweetness on a hot summer day. I made these cookies with just a tiny modification from a recipe in the June 2009 Bon Appetit.

Things to think about when making these cookies: you must make each layer of the cookie pretty thin, because if you make them thick, you will not have the right ratio of cookie-to-filling to make this cookie successful. Bon Appetit suggested rolling the dough into two logs, refrigerating them, and slicing them into cookies for baking. I don't know about your cookie log-making skills, but mine are not good enough to turn out identical shapes and sizes for tops and bottoms. Therefore, I chilled the dough in two disks and rolled it out, using a small round biscuit cutter to make the shapes. I also found that the quality of these cookies was improved dramatically by my use of homemade blueberry jam. I used Smucker's strawberry jam for the red cookies and while those achieved a flatter overall consistency due to the lack of lumpy fruit in the commercial jam, even with the wonkiness of lumpy blueberries in the middle the cookies with the homemade jam kicked the others' cookie behinds. So, if you have the time, you can really dramatically improve these cookies by making your own jam. (It was my first time making "pan jam," and it was shockingly easy.)

The other thing I did to my cookies that the recipe didn't call for was to brush the tops of the top-half cookies with egg white before sprinkling them with demerara sugar. I just don't find that sugar adheres well enough to cookie dough without some liquid glue, so I used the egg white wash. That gave the cookies a nice brown appearance as well. So, with those modifications, here's the recipe for an easy and delicious summertime cookie:

Blueberry Jam Sandwich Cookies

(from Bon Appetit, June 2009, p.111)

For the jam:

2 c. fresh blueberries, picked over and stems removed (12 oz.)

2 Tbsp. powdered fruit pectin

1/2 tsp. unsalted butter

1 c. granulated sugar

For the cookies:

1 c. (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temp

1 c. granulated sugar

3 Tbsp. finely grated lemon peel

1/4 tsp. salt

2 large egg yolks

2.25 c. all-purpose flour

demerara sugar and egg white for topping

First, make the jam: Combine blueberries, fruit pectin, and butter in a large nonstick skillet. Stir constantly over medium-high heat until mixture boils. Add sugar and return to boil, stirring until sugar dissolves. Boil until mixture is reduced to 1.5 c., about 5 minutes. Remove from heat. Transfer mixture to small glass bowl; cover and chill until jam is cold, at least 6 hours (jam will thicken slightly while chilling.) This can be done one week ahead; keep it chilled.

These are the steps your jam will take:

(1)
<-- berries, sugar, butter and pectin in skillet

(2) < -- everything's percolating, pectin's taking hold

(3)
< -- beautiful mad boiling; color turning gorgeous

(4) < -- we be jammin'

Next, make the cookies: Using the electric mixer, beat butter, 1 c. sugar, lemon peel and salt in the bowl until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add yolks and beat until blended. Add flour in 2 additions, beating just until blended after each addition. Gather dough together; divide in half. Flatten each half into a disk and place inside a plastic bag for at least 4 hours, or, preferably, overnight; dough should be firm when you remove it from the fridge.

Roll the dough out to 1/8" thickness and cut with a medium-sized round biscuit cutter. Place the rounds on parchment-covered cookie sheets. Brush half the cookies with beaten egg white and sprinkle with demerara sugar; these will be the top halves of your cookies. Leave the other half of the cookies plain; these will be the bottoms. Bake at 400 for about 10 minutes or until the cookies begin to brown at the edges. Remove to wire racks to cool. When the cookies have thoroughly cooled, spread the bottom halves with jam and place the sugar-coated cookies firmly on top.