Mad About Maida

Corn Melba Source:  Maida Heatter's Cookies (Andrews & McMeel Publishing, 1997 ed.) , pg. 284 . I approached this recipe with a lot of trepidation and uncertaint y. The th ought of making homemade crackers seemed difficult and I was so afraid I would make a mess of it. Michael makes a really great chicken noodle soup and he had mentioned finding some unique crackers to serve with it. I happened to remember seeing this recipe in Maida's book , so I looked it up. In the end, it turned out great and the crackers were a huge hit. They vanished in no time and the raves made it all worth while!  The se crackers are super thin and crisp . The recipe is hard to describe but it isn't really that difficult. It requires constant attention to the oven because the crackers bake at different time periods and you have to keep removing the pan in and out of the oven to take the c rackers that are ready of f the pan. I found that the crackers on the out er edge of the pan b r...

Macadamia Shortbread Biscotti Source:  Maida Heatter's Brand-New Book of Great Cookies (Random House, 1995 ed.) , pg. 40 . It has been a year since I made my first and so far only biscotti recipe ( Barbara's Milk Chocolate Biscotti ) . We ha d some friends over last night for dinner and games. I had a ton of desserts that I've been working on the past week and had the biscotti on a tray w ith the pfeffernusse and peanut brittle . The biscotti got the most raves. This one will definitely be a repeater. I had started to make this a few mornings ago and was in the process of mixing the ingredients when the power went out. It came back i n 5 minutes only to go off again a few minutes later. Fortunately the outage was brief and by the time I was ready to bake , it didn't happen again.   4 oz. (1 stick) unsalted butter (softened) 1 tsp. vanilla extract 1/2 t sp. almond extract or 1/4 tsp. bitter almond extract 1/4 tsp. salt 1/2 cup granulated sugar 1 l...

Orange Cake (T exa n) Source:  Maida Heatter's Book of Great Desserts (Andrews & McMeel Publishing, 1999 ed.) , pg. 130 . Back in the summer, I made the Spanish Orange Cake which was delicious. I had extra oranges in the kitchen so I decided to make another orange juice from Maida's first book, the Texan O range Cake. I expected the first cake to be stronger in orange flavor since the orange juice was baked into the cake. Not exactly so. This cake is just as flavorful and perhaps even more moist. There is only orange zest in this batter so the orange juice is applied as a glaze. Wonderful!   3 1/2 oz. (3/4 cups) raisins 2 1/2 cups sifted all-purpose flour 1 tsp. baking soda 1/4 tsp. salt 1/4 lb. (1 stick) butter (softened) 1 tsp. vanilla extract 2 cups firmly packed brown sugar 3 eggs 1 cup unflavored yo gurt Finely grated rind of 2 large or anges For the glaze: 1/2 cup sugar 1/2 cup orange juice (or 1/4 cup orange juice and 1/4 cup light ru...