07.02.09
Posted in Cuisines, Dinner, Dips & Spreads, Italian, Pastas, Quick Breads at 5:02 pm by julie
I’ve made this recipe so many times I’ve lost count, and was actually surprised to discover that I hadn’t written it up on the blog before. It is a good way to use up that extra bit of ricotta you’ve neglected in the fridge, its remaining ingredients are all pantry staples, and the sauce takes no more time to cook than the pasta, so it is a particularly good recipe to have in the arsenal for those days when you’re looking around the kitchen at dinnertime, scratching your head and trying to figure out what to sling together (or maybe that’s just me!).
I’ve made it alternately with orecchiette, fusili, and these radiattore, and usually serve with some sort of bread for my bread fiend to dunk in the sauce. On this occasion, I went with parmesan popovers and garlic butter, as a quick take on garlic bread. They were alright, but the garlic butter really seemed to make all the difference, because I found the plain popovers on the bland side.
Pasta Pomodoro e Ricotta
3/4 lb. pasta (orecchiette, fusilli, or radiattore work well)
14 1/2 oz. can diced tomatoes
2 T tomato paste
1 T chopped fresh basil, or 1 tsp dried basil
6 oz. ricotta
salt and pepper, to taste
Boil pasta, as described on the package. Meanwhile, place the diced tomatoes and tomato paste in a medium sauce pan. Add the the ricotta and puree with a stick blender until the sauce is smooth (or alternately, combine the tomatoes, paste, and ricotta in a blender and puree before pouring in the sauce pan), and heat through, allowing the cheese to melt and combine with the tomatoes. Add the basil, and salt and pepper to taste. If desired, throw in a handful of baby spinach and let it just wilt from the heat of the sauce; a handful of frozen peas stirred in at the end would be another nice alternative.
When the pasta is ready, spoon it on a plate and top with the tomato sauce. Sprinkle with additional basil, ground pepper, or parmesan.
Source: Slightly adapted from Accidental Hedonist.
Parmesan Popovers
1 C AP flour
2 extra-large eggs
1 C whole milk
2/3 C parmesan
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/2 tsp herbs de Provence
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
In a blender, combine all ingredients. Blend on medium speed until combined. Spray a muffin pan with nonstick cooking spray. Pour the batter into the muffin cups, filling each cup 3/4 full. Bake until puffed and golden brown, about 40 minutes. Remove popovers from pan, and cut a slit in the top of each one to allow excess steam to escape, which will keep them from getting soggy. (As an added bonus, slather the insides of the popovers with garlic butter while they’re warm. I make mine with unsalted butter, lots of pan-roasted garlic—toast the cloves in a dry, hot skillet with their skins still on, until the skins brown up in spots, then flatten them with the side of your knife, remove the skins and mash them—some grated parmesan, a good pinch of salt, and a little paprika for color.)
Source: Adapted from Epicurious and Everyday Italian.
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07.01.09
Posted in Dinner, Dips & Spreads, Lamb, Meats, Pastas, Sides at 4:01 pm by julie
This was a really simple, flavorful way to cook lamb chops, and you know I am always looking for good lamb recipes. I used loin chops, did my usual pan-sear-and-finish-in-the-oven trick, and then tossed more compound butter with hot orzo, peas and some feta to accompany them, a nice alternative to the usual starch options.
Lamb Chops with Sun-Dried Tomato Butter
1 garlic clove
1/4 C chopped sun-dried tomatoes packed in oil, drained
1/2 C walnuts
1/4 tsp ground coriander
1/4 tsp cayenne
1 T chopped flat-leaf parsley
1/2 stick unsalted butter
1/2 tsp fresh lemon juice
8 lamb chops (3/4 inch thick; 2 pounds)
Pulse salt, garlic, sun-dried tomatoes, walnuts, coriander, cayenne, parsley, and 1/8 teaspoon black pepper until finely chopped. Blend in butter and lemon juice, then season with salt.
Preheat oven to 350F. Pat lamb chops dry and sprinkle with 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper (total), and heat a cast iron skillet over medium-high heat. Drizzle in a little olive oil, and pan-sear the chops to a nice golden brown on both sides. Transfer to the oven for 5-10 minutes; I bring mine to about 150-155F because I like them closer to medium. Spread tomato butter over chops, and serve with orzo tossed with some extra compound butter, peas and crumbled feta.
Source: Epicurious
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06.29.09
Posted in Beef, Cuisines, Dinner, Italian, Meats, Pastas at 2:07 pm by julie
I’m always asking Jeremy for meal suggestions, but most of the time he asks for the same things over and over again, which is flattering because I know he really likes it, but gets kind of boring for me after a while. I’ve made this recipe twice in the last month already, and I can tell it is going to go in that category, especially since our 15-month old “big boy” likes them too. Fortunately, it is a pretty easy meal to make, particularly if I’ve got jarred spaghetti sauce on hand.
This is a Rachel Ray recipe, and I could probably bang it out in 30 minutes if I had everything organized. But that’s just not going to happen, and I usually have to do some cleaning up as I go, so it took me a little bit longer. Not much, though, and I was shocked at the reviewers who said this recipe took them half the day to complete. I also made several adjustments to work with ingredients I had on hand: fresh bread crumbs, dried sage, and ordinary spaghetti. I actually don’t think I’ve ever seen bucatini for sale in my area. I had no pancetta, so I left it out the first time, and subbed in some bacon the second time. The first time around I used a jarred sauce with portobello mushrooms, and the second time I made a quick version of Marcella’s basic tomato sauce with onion and butter. I prefer smaller meatballs in my spaghetti, so I used a 2 T disher to shape them, and then baked them off for about 10 minutes.
Spaghetti with Big Boy Meatballs
1 1/2 lb ground sirloin
1 medium yellow onion, grated or very finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 egg
1/2 to 2/3 C Italian bread crumbs
1/2 C grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, plus some to pass at table
1/4 tsp ground allspice
3 T nonpareil capers in salt, soaked and drained
2 T chopped sage leaves, or 1 tsp dried sage
A couple generous handfuls flat-leaf parsley, chopped
Salt and pepper
3 T extra-virgin olive oil, plus some for drizzling
1 lb spaghetti
1/4 lb pancetta or bacon, chopped
Preheat 400 degrees F. Place a large pot of water over high heat and bring to a boil.
Mix meat with the grated onion, 3 cloves chopped garlic, egg, bread crumbs, cheese, allspice, capers, sage, a handful of the chopped parsley, salt and pepper and a healthy drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil. Mix meat, score the meat into 4 sections and make 3 very large balls from each section. Arrange the 12 balls on a nonstick cookie sheet and roast 15 minutes until firm but not hard.
Drop bucatini in salted boiling water to cook off. Drain.
Add another tablespoon of extra-virgin olive oil to the skillet and the pancetta. Cook 3 to 4 minutes then add the remaining garlic and mushrooms to the pan and cook 5 minutes. Season the mushrooms with salt and pepper. Add remaining chopped onion and deglaze the pan with wine, cook off 1 minute, add in stock and whisk up remaining drippings. Stir in the tomatoes and season sauce with salt and pepper, if necessary. Stir in parsley. Simmer 5 minutes.
Toss pasta with half the sauce. Remove balls from oven and add to remaining sauce and turn to coat. Serve large balls, 3 per person, along side pasta. Spoon any remaining sauce over the pasta. Pass extra cheese at the tables.
Source: 30-Minute Meals
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06.27.09
Posted in British, Cuisines, Dessert, Dips & Spreads, Foodblog Events, Fruits, Pies & Tarts at 12:55 am by julie
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. This was a fun one for me because I’d heard of bakewell tarts, but never seen or tasted one. They turn out to be surprisingly easy to make, and scrumptious with tea—go figure!
Although there are a variety of ways to make a bakewell tart, our recipe was composed of a rich shortbread crust topped with layers of jam and frangipane, a moist almond filling. We were allowed the option of using either store-bought or homemade jam, and since it is strawberry season AND right around Father’s Day and our 10th wedding anniversary, I made fresh strawberry jam for Jeremy, his favorite.
Now, I’ve done jams a few times in the past and it is not my forte. I tend to get paranoid that it hasn’t cooked long enough, thereby far overcooking it and ending up with fruit candy that won’t come out of the jars. This time I carried home 4 pints of gorgeous Oregon strawberries a mile home from the market, and promptly dumped every last one of them out on my front porch as I tried to dig my key out of my pocket. An inauspicious start, to say the least. Since my berries were now all bruised and dirty, the clock was really ticking. I immediately rinsed them all off individually and used them right away, since bruised and/or wet berries will spoil in the blink of an eye. Considering my previous track record, I decided to try my hand at freezer jam, which apparently uses an ungodly amount of sugar and gives the berries a kind of artificial citric acid tang. It was totally easy to do, but I think it didn’t really show off the natural flavor of the fruit, and it set up pretty soft. I followed the instructions exactly, but my berries were quite juicy, so I wonder if that affected the outcome. In the end, I really think I just need to come to terms with traditional jamming and keep practicing.
The next day, with 5 pints of sort-of set strawberry freezer jam at the ready, I proceeded with my tart. I did my crust in the food processor, and it came together in no time. After giving it a short stint in the fridge, I rolled out my crust and got it into the tart pan with a little help from plenty of bench flour and a jumperoo to keep the baby from making a break for the dog’s water bowl every 10 seconds. Then we made frangipane to the tune of “Oh Susannah” and “London Bridge is Falling Down” while the crust set up in the freezer for 15 minutes. Quick smears of jam and almond filling, and the tart went into the oven for half an hour.
It came out darker than I expected, which may be because 200 degrees Celsius is actually 392F, not the 400F that the recipe indicated. Guess I should have looked up the exact conversion. I got it out in time, but I wouldn’t call this frangipane “tanned”.
We gave it a few minutes to cool and set, and then dove into it with dollops of vanilla whipped cream. It was absolutely delicious; all three of us loved it, and it only lasted us about two days. I think I see many more bakewell tarts in our future! In the meantime, be sure to check out all the daring tarts at the blogroll.
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06.25.09
Posted in Dinner, Fish, Seafood, Veggies at 2:20 pm by julie
The more perceptive among you may have noticed the casual inclusion of zucchini in a previous post. I’ve always struggled with the texture and blandness of zucchini, but I’ve decided that this will be my year to come to terms with summer squash, and I’ve already made a good start. There wasn’t a whole lot in the way of fresh produce at the farmer’s market yet, being a little early, but I came home with pints of strawberries, bags of wild mushrooms, a mound of fresh dill, and three large zucchini (it’s a little early for them too, I know; I think they were locally grown in a hothouse). The lamb kebabs was my first effort to integrate zucchini into a meal, and it worked out pretty well. The quick marinade I used gave it some flavor, and grilling made it nice and tender without turning to mush.
But that only used up one of my three zucchini. That left one for Z-P muffins, and one for… something else. I wanted to put my new kevlar glove, courtesy Mother’s Day, to work, so I decided on halibut wrapped in paper-thin slices of zucchini, which required the use of my mandoline. I’m not really happy with the one I have—it doesn’t have a kickstand base, and there is a big hook on one end for the hand-grip (which I no longer need thanks to my handy-dandy glove) that gets in the way when I have to slice something long, like zucchini for instance. Half of my strips were consequently sort of mangled, but I got enough nice ones to wrap my fish with, and the rest took a spin in the food processor to become muffin fodder.
As for the fish, I used chunks of wild halibut, seasoned with kosher salt, lemon pepper and sprigs of fresh dill. The zucchini strips formed a little packet around the fish, keeping it moist as it sauteed but adding very little flavor or texture of its own. I turned up the heat at the end to give the zucchini a little color, and served it with garlic-mashed potatoes and a quick white wine-butter sauce.
Zucchini-Wrapped Fish
2 (6- to 7-inch-long) zucchini, trimmed
3 T extra-virgin olive oil, divided, plus additional for brushing
16 fresh basil leaves, or sprigs of fresh dill
Lemon pepper
4 (6-ounce) pieces halibut or salmon fillet (preferably wild), skinned
1 T fresh lemon juice
1/2 C white wine
2 T white wine vinegar
4 T heavy cream
8 T butter (1 stick)
Kosher salt and fresh ground pepper
Shave zucchini lengthwise into very thin ribbons with peeler, or use a mandoline.
For each piece of fish, arrange about 5 slices of zucchini on a work surface, side by side, overlapping each slice by half. Brush zucchini with oil, then lightly season with salt and pepper. Lay fresh herbs across center of each group of zucchini slices.
Pat fish dry, then sprinkle with kosher salt and lemon pepper and arrange crosswise on zucchini, covering herbs. Top each piece of fish with more herbs, then wrap zucchini around fish, overlapping ends. This can be done several hours in advance, if desired.
Put 1 tablespoon oil in a 12-inch nonstick skillet and swirl to coat bottom, then arrange fish, seam sides down, in oil. Lightly brush tops of zucchini and fish with oil.
Cover skillet and cook fish over medium heat, without turning, until barely cooked through, 6 to 9 minutes, depending on thickness of fillets (fish will continue to cook from residual heat). Turn heat up to medium high and continue to cook just until the zucchini begins to brown, then carefully turn and brown the other side slightly.
Transfer fish to plates, then deglaze the pan with the white wine and vinegar. Simmer the mixture until practically all the liquid has evaporated, then add the heavy cream. (If the cream is not being used, the same amount of another liquid, such as water, should be added, or the sauce will be too thick.) Cut the butter into 1-inch cubes, and add them to the wine reduction, whisking continuously until all the butter has been incorporated. Don’t let the sauce boil or it could break (as mine did, partly because I had no cream—oh well, it still tasted good.)
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06.14.09
Posted in Chinese, Cuisines, Dinner, Foodblog Events, Meats, Pork and Ham at 11:51 pm by julie
It’s time for the second Daring Cooks challenge, chosen by Jen of use real butter—potstickers! Now, I’ve made pork potstickers several times before, and I’ve even made my own wrappers, but my folding technique was less than stellar, and I’m always up for an opportunity to practice. When it came right down to brass tacks (read: a few hours ago for dinner), all I had on hand was a huge pork loin and some broccoli, so I improvised on the filling pretty extensively, but I think it worked out alright.
I quickly made the dough, which was very simple but required a few extra tablespoons of water to become supple, and let it rest under a damp towel while I made my filling. For this, I halved the filling recipe and minced up some pork loin in my food processor rather than in the grinder, as it was a pretty small amount of meat. I also steamed some fresh chunks of broccoli, heavy on the stems, quickly chilled it in an ice bath, and minced it up to go in the filling along with some rehydrated shiitakes (popped into the boiling water leftover from the broccoli for a few minutes), garlic, ginger, soy and sesame oil.
My rested dough was just a touch on the sticky side, so I kept bench flour on hand and dusted my rolling pin pretty regularly as I rolled out the wrapper rounds. This part was hard, mostly because Nolan kept trying to storm the kitchen to get into everything and then protested at high volume when his daddy came for the interception. Jen’s photos finally helped me get the hang of the pleats, and I turned out some decent looking potstickers in very little time at all.
I used the pan frying method to cook my potstickers, partly because I don’t have a bamboo steamer basket, and partly because I really like the way the bottoms of the ’stickers crisp up in the skillet. I would have liked to make a creative dipping sauce to go with them, but I was pressed for time and just reached for our Ginger People sauce instead.
These were good, but I like my old potsticker filling recipe better; of course, I didn’t really give this one a fair shake because I had to improvise so many of the ingredients. Still, it was a tasty meal, and helped me get over my slight paranoia about using raw pork in the filling. I also really liked the dough recipe, and finally feel like I am getting the hang of folding them, at least a little. I think I could do it more justice if I cut my fingernails and wasn’t in such a rush to get back to the wailing baby. It made quite a few potstickers, enough for the two of us for dinner with half a dozen leftover in the fridge and a plateful in the freezer—and I could have made lots more with my excess pork filling if I had felt like making up another batch of dough. Thanks so much, Jen, for sharing! And check out all the elegant dumplings at the Daring Cooks Blogroll.
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06.08.09
Posted in Cuisines, Dinner, Lamb, Leftovers, Meats, Nuts, Grains & Legumes, Pastas, Sides at 12:59 am by julie
It’s been almost two months since I last posted a lamb recipe, so you know I’ve got some waiting in the wings. Sometimes I think Jeremy can’t walk past the boneless legs of lamb at Costco without picking one up, but I get really tired of braising or roasting them after a while. This time I split my leg in half and grilled it over two nights—part butterflied, and part chunked up for kebabs.
For the butterflied portion, I went with a hoisin marinade. The ingredients all scream Asian, but as one reviewer pointed out, the end result is a flavor that could be nudged in a variety of directions. I went slightly Mediterranean with the addition of a little dried rosemary, and served it with a baked potato and Mark Bittman’s sauteed mushrooms. Yes, you heard that right—I sliced up some mushrooms and sauteed them with a little garlic and white wine, no attempts to cut them into tiny bits or mask their flavor with cream. I don’t think I will ever agree that the smell of cooking mushrooms is second only to bacon; on the contrary, the smell alone is almost enough to make me change my mind about making them. However, I am proud to say that I ate some of the finished product without making horrible faces, even though room temperature mushrooms are really not appealing to me.
But the real point is that the lamb was delicious, and I will definitely keep this marinade in my arsenal; I suspect it would also be delicious on beef or pork. We did have some leftover, so I sliced it thin and served it over Asian garlic noodles (read: Jaden’s garlic-scallion noodles made with carrots, mushrooms, onions, peas, and a sprinkle of sesame seeds).
Grilled Hoisin-Marinated Butterflied Leg of Lamb
1/3 C hoisin sauce
3 T rice vinegar (not seasoned)
2 T soy sauce
2 T minced garlic
1/4 C minced scallions
1 T honey
1/2 tsp salt
a 2 to 2 1/2 pound piece of boneless leg of lamb, trimmed and butterflied
In a bowl whisk together hoisin sauce, vinegar, soy sauce, garlic, minces scallion, honey, and salt. Trim as much remaining fat as possible from lamb and in a shallow dish large enough to hold lamb flat spread marinade over both sides of it. Marinate lamb, covered and chilled, at least 4 hours or overnight.
Prepare grill. Bring lamb to room temperature and grill on an oiled rack set 5 to 6 inches over glowing coals 12 to 15 minutes on each side, or until meat thermometer registers 140°F. for medium-rare meat. (Alternatively, lamb may be broiled under preheated broiler about 4 inches from heat for approximately the same time on each side as for grilling.) Transfer lamb to a cutting board and let stand 20 minutes before carving. Holding a sharp knife at a 45° angle, cut lamb across grain into thin slices.
Source: Epicurious.
I still had half a leg of lamb in the fridge waiting to be used, so I decided to make that into kebabs. Ever since I first tasted the lamb brochettes at Marrakesh in Portland (which may, incidentally, have been my very first taste of lamb), I’ve been trying to duplicate that flavor at home, and I think I am getting closer. The meat was marinated in a simple spice blend, and threaded onto skewers with chunks of zucchini that I tossed with olive oil, lemon pepper and garlic. These went on the grill while I made pistachio-date couscous to serve under it.
Moroccan Lamb Kebabs with Zucchini and Pistachio-Date Couscous
2 lb piece of boneless leg of lamb, well-trimmed and cut into 1″ cubes
2 T ground cinnamon
2 tsp ground ginger
2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground sweet paprika
1 T dried lemon zest
Kosher salt and pepper
Olive oil
1 large zucchini, cut into 1″ cubes
Lemon pepper
Garlic powder
1 C couscous
1 1/2 C chicken broth
1/2 C pistachios, shelled, roasted and coarsely chopped
1/2 C dates, chopped
For the lamb: Mix together the cinnamon, ginger, cumin, coriander, paprika and lemon zest with about 1/4 C olive oil in a large ziploc bag, add the lamb and toss to coat. Press out all the excess air and marinate in the refrigerator for 4 hours or up to overnight. Remove from the fridge before cooking to allow meat to come up to room temperature.
For the zucchini: When you remove the lamb from the fridge to come up to temperature, cut the zucchini into chunks; toss with olive oil to coat, and season to taste with lemon pepper, garlic powder and salt.
Thread alternating chunks of lamb and zucchini onto your skewers while your grill heats up (I use an electric tabletop grill). Grill the skewers, turning as necessary, until they are nicely charred on all sides; the zucchini should be tender, and the lamb should be about medium rare.
Meanwhile, bring the chicken stock to boiling in a medium saucepan; remove from the heat and stir in the couscous (if your dates are particularly dry, you can add them now as well). Allow to sit covered off the heat for about 5 minutes, until the liquid is absorbed. Fluff with a fork and stir in the pistachios and a drizzle of olive oil.
Source: Adapted from The Barbeque Hut and Everyday with Rachel Ray.
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06.06.09
Posted in Cuisines, Dinner, Fish, Leftovers, Seafood, Spanish at 12:33 am by julie
We’ve been finding some pretty good deals on wild halibut fillets at Costco recently, and the best part is that the portion size is almost reasonable. I decided to make a romesco sauce to brighten up what could otherwise be a pretty palid meal. I adapted this recipe with what I had available, using a combination of roasted red pepper and rehydrated ancho in place of the piquillos, almonds in place of the hazelnuts, and canned diced tomato. It came out very flavorful, but spicier than I had anticipated, right on the limits of what I can comfortably eat. Granted, what I can comfortably eat is pretty darn mild by many people’s standards, and Jeremy had no problem with it.
We ate about half of the fish for dinner, and the leftovers went into a batch of fishcakes the next night. I broke up the fish, and filled it out with some shredded russet potato, a handful of bread crumbs, and some finely diced red bell pepper for flavor. Then I added an egg and a dollop of mayonnaise as a binder, and seasoned it all with a few tablespoons of leftover romesco and some smoked paprika. While the fish cakes were pan-frying, I quickly whisked together the last little bit of romesco with some mayonnaise for a dipping sauce, and made a basic salad with sherry vinaigrette to continue the Spanish flavors. This was a perfect way to spin a relatively small amount of leftover halibut into a second hearty meal.
Halibut Romesco
9 oz diced canned tomato (or 1 large tomato, roasted and diced)
1/2 C toasted almonds (about 2 1/2 ounces)
1/2 C coarsely chopped drained roasted red pepper
1 dried ancho chile, stemmed and seeded, and rehydrated in hot water, chopped
4 T extra-virgin olive oil, divided
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp sherry wine vinegar
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1 T unsalted butter
4 6-ounce halibut fillets
1/2 C low-salt chicken broth
Chop nuts in processor; add tomato, peppers, 2 tablespoons olive oil, garlic, paprika, vinegar, salt, and cayenne, then puree. Transfer romesco sauce to bowl. DO AHEAD: Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and refrigerate.
Melt butter with remaining 2 tablespoons oil in heavy large skillet over medium-high heat. Add halibut and cook until golden brown, about 2 minutes per side (fish will not be cooked through). Transfer halibut to plate.
Add broth to same skillet and bring to boil; stir in romesco sauce. Add halibut; reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer until halibut is opaque in center, about 2 minutes. Transfer halibut to plates. Spoon romesco sauce over, and serve.
Source: Adapted from Epicurious.
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06.02.09
Posted in Baby Food, Cookies & Candies, Dessert, Snacks at 11:48 am by julie
Nolan is teething something fierce right now. His first set of molars should be emerging at any moment—or at least I hope they will, because his gums are incredibly swollen and he has a scary-looking purple hemotoma on one side. Fortunately, he is a little trooper and tolerates the discomfort with very little fussing, but it really helps to have something to chew on. What does all this have to with my food blog? I’ve started making homemade teething biscuits of a sort for Nolan.
It all started back in April when we bought a box of graham crackers for my Daring Bakers cheesecake. I gave Nolan some to snack on while I was working, and he loved them. But after using some for the crust (and giving half the box to Jeremy for snacking at work), there weren’t many crackers leftover for Nolan. And anyway, store-bought graham crackers, for some reason, are full of hydrogenated fat and high fructose corn syrup, ironic since their inventor, Sylvester Graham, was firmly against the use of additives and highly refined ingredients. I’ve made homemade graham crackers once before, but they were more a grown-up cookie, for making into s’mores, ice cream sandwiches, or other desserts, and I wanted more of an everyday snack cracker, so I turned to The Petit Appetit Cookbook: Easy, Organic Recipes to Nurture Your Baby and Toddler
, one of my few “baby food” cookbooks, which contains a very simple graham cracker recipe. It turns out crackers that are pretty darn bland by grown-up standards, but Nolan seems to love them, and they are great for those swollen gums. Baby biscotti is next on the list to try out!
Greatest Graham Crackers
I adapted this recipe for the food processor, and added some cinnamon for flavor. I use all sorts of small cookie cutter shapes to make these a little more fun, and have seriously considered adding a sprinkle of sucanat or turbinado sugar to the tops for a little more interest (but I know it would just drop off and get everywhere as Nolan eats them).
1 C AP flour
1 C whole wheat flour
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 C unsalted butter
1/2 C honey
1/4 C whole milk
Preheat oven to 400F. In a food processor, combine the flours, cinnamon and baking powder, and pulse once to blend. Add butter, cut into chunks, and pulse until it disappears. Add the honey and pulse until incorporated; dough will be damp. Finally, add the milk and pulse just until dough forms a ball. (Alternatively, you could cut the butter in by hand and just stir the dough together with a spoon.)
Flour your work surface and roll out the dough as thin as you like, 1/8″ to 1/4″ thick. Cut into squares or use cookie cutters to shape dough, and place on an ungreased baking sheet. Prick with a fork if desired and brush with a little extra milk. Bake at 400F for 10 minutes if 1/8″ thick, or 12-15 minutes if 1/4″ thick, until cookies are set and golden brown around the edges. Cool completely on a wire rack before serving.
Source: Adapted from The Petit Appetit Cookbook: Easy, Organic Recipes to Nurture Your Baby and Toddler, by Lisa Barnes.
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06.01.09
Posted in Chocolate, Cookies & Candies, Dessert at 4:39 pm by julie
This edition of Leftover Night is dedicated to desserts, all of which incorporate chocolate because we are irredeemable chocoholics. First up, we have The Chewy, from Alton Brown’s chocolate chip cookie episode. Yes, I tried another one. We found this recipe pretty disappointing, unfortunately. While it was “soft-baked” after the fashion of a store-bought Chips-Ahoy cookie, that really isn’t what I think of as chewy—I prefer the denser chewiness of a cookie that is full of brown sugar and slightly underbaked. But the real problem we had with these cookies was the amount of salt called for. We didn’t notice it too much when they were fresh from the oven, but by the next day, they tasted so salty as to be nearly inedible. I won’t be using this recipe again, but if you try it, I would highly recommend easing back on the salt levels.
Next up we have the chipster-topped brownies in Baking: From My Home to Yours
. These baked up nice and thick, but were sort of unremarkable warm from the oven, which surprised me a little. I really couldn’t even taste the chocolate-chip cookie topping until they had cooled. Don’t get me wrong, these were very tasty, moist, decadent brownies; I’m just not sure they were worth the extra effort and dirty dishes involved in the cookie layer.
Finally, we have millionaire’s shortbread, which tastes just like a caramel Twix bar. These are a little messy to slice and eat, but absolutely delicious. I made mine with half AP and half rice flour for that extra crispness, and my caramel was homemade dulce de leche. Shortbread isn’t Jeremy’s favorite, but he liked these a lot too, so they go in the permanent recipe file.
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