Bagel French Toast

Let me begin with two important facts. One, my freezer doesn't work. Two, this weekend my parents came for a visit from New Jersey which, among many other wonderful things, means that there are about a dozen bagels too many in my house. New Jersey bagels. In New England. I mean, it doesn't really matter how not hungry you are -- when that treasure finds its way to within eating distance, you eat. And let's face it, the freshest bagel ever made outside of the NJ/NY area doesn't hold a candle even to a two-week-old Jersey bagel from the freezer. But subtract the freezer from the equation, add two days, and all you have are tough, stale bagels that could have come from anywhere. And there's only one way to feel about that:

OK, so what do we do? French toastify! Soak the bagels in eggy milk for a few minutes and it's like they never gave you reason to wear that adorable long face.

Ingredients

[Makes about 3-4 servings depending on how hungry your servees are.]

2 old bagels, cut into rounds or wedges or slices

1/2 cup milk

2 medium eggs

cinnamon (optional)

cooking oil

chocolate chips (optional)

powdered sugar (optional)

maple syrup (optional)

Procedure

Whisk together eggs and milk (and cinnamon, if you're using it) in a wide-bottom bowl. Place bagels in a single layer in the mixture, and let them sit for a few minutes. Meanwhile, heat a pan over low/medium heat. Back to the bagels: flip them over and let them sit for a few minutes on this side as well. Shove chocolate chips, if using, into the now mushy bagel -- the deeper you shove them in the better, so they don't burn on the pan. Place the bagels chocolate chip side down (I tried it both ways and found that this way actually burned the chips much less). Cook on each side about two minutes, or until golden brown. If they're burning, lower the heat.

When ready to serve, sift some powdered sugar over everything and/or pour on maple syrup. Personally, I love the combination of sharp cheddar with sweet stuff and am not big on maple syrup, so my perfect bite includes some extra chocolate chips, a slice of cheese, and a sugared little bagel round.

Bagel crisis averted! (Well, more accurately, I've turned my bagel crisis into a french toast crisis, but it wouldn't be so bad if I weren't home alone and trying to consume way too much french toast for brunch.)

Medieval Jammie Dodgers (Fruit Tarts)

This was another dry run for our Game of Thrones feast, with a recipe loosely based on the one in A Feast of Ice and Fire. It was too sweet for my taste, though met with approval from another tester. Personally, I would remove all of the honey in the recipe in future.

Ingredients
Makes about 15 small tarts
For the "medieval sweet dough":
3/4 cup flour
1/3 cup sugar
pinch salt
1 tsp whole cloves
1 cup water

For the topping:

~150 ml sweet red wine (e.g. Shiraz)
1/3 cup honey (optional; see advisory statement above)
3 Tbsp red wine vinegar (or substitute 1.5 Tbsp of red wine and 1.5 Tbsp of white vinegar)
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground ginger
2 Tbsp chopped prunes
2 Tbsp currants
2 Tbsp raisins
4 Tbsp dates

Procedure

For the dough:

Boil the water and cloves together over high heat, then strain & pour the water into a cup. Stick it in the freezer for a few minutes until it gets cold. Meanwhile, combine the other ingredients. When the clove water is chilled, start pouring it into the flour mixture slowly, mixing it in with your hand until it's wet enough to have the consistency of a dough, but not so wet that it's too hard to work with.

Roll out the dough until it's about 1/8" thick and use the top of a jar or a cookie cutter to cut it into approximately 2" diameter circles. Set aside for now.

For the topping:

Bring the the wine, honey, and vinegar to a boil. Reduce the heat to a low simmer, and skim off any foam that comes to the top. Add in all of the other ingredients and simmer until the liquid forms a thick syrup (should reduce to about half its original volume).

TAAAAARTS:
Heat oil in a skillet over high heat (about 1/8" deep in the pan). Prepare a plate with a paper towel on it. Reduce heat to low and gently place the tarts, one at a time, in the oil, frying until the dough forms a crispy, lightly golden cracker. Place each tart on the paper towel to drain off the excess oil. Top with the fruits and syrup and serve hot.

Peanut Butter Cups

I have had a bad craving for peanut butter covered in chocolate. Seriously guys, it has been unbearable. I went so far as to buy a peanut butter Twix at a gas station late at night but it didn't satisfy the craving. Because it was gross. 

Yesterday, we decided to go to the store to try to get some good chocolate (in particular, I had tried a piece of Lake Champlain's peanut butter filled milk chocolate a few days ago, and I figured no imitation would do to fill the hole in my soul left by not eating more of that bar). And of course, the store was closed by the time we got there. So I finally took matters into my own hands and put this together.

My soul is whole once again. 

Ingredients

• 1 cup chocolate chips
• 5 Tbsp butter
• 3 Tbsp unsweetened peanut butter
• 1 Tbsp powdered sugar
• 1 Tbsp butter
• pinch of kosher or coarse sea salt

Procedure

In a double boiler, melt the chocolate chips and (5 tablespoons) of butter together. (See link for more fun with dipping chocolate.) 

Meanwhile, combine the other ingredients (peanut butter, powdered sugar, and 1 tablespoon of butter) in a cup and microwave until soft but not liquidy (took about 50 seconds for me; check the cup after every 20 seconds). 

Prepare something to make the peanut butter cups in. I lined a mini muffin tin with foil, which is convenient because you can pop the foil cups out after you form them. 

Pour in a bit of chocolate to each cup and let it set (about 2-3 minutes in the freezer). Add in about a teaspoon of peanut butter filling, and top with another layer of chocolate. 

Sprinkle just a pinch of salt on top, and put the cups into the fridge to set. They'll be ready in about 15 minutes. If you're in a big hurry, toss them in the freezer for about 5 minutes. 

Note:

How much peanut butter or chocolate goes into each layer is up to you -- if you want a thin layer of chocolate, add only a bit and spread it around evenly. If you want lots of chocolate surrounding the peanut butter, thicken the chocolate layers accordingly. 

  

More fall stuff: Pumpkin Bread

Continuing on about fall... we got a couple of pie pumpkins at this weekend's farmers market. Using insights from perfecting the banana bread recipe for the last few years, we decided to make pumpkin bread.

Warning you right now though. It's ridiculously hard to stop eating this stuff. I was feeling pretty awesome about myself until three of us sat down and polished off almost an entire loaf in a single sitting. It was delicious but even beyond that, there's just something pretty much addictive about it that makes you shovel it into your mouth.

Whatever, I warned you. But if you want pumpkin bread, which you should, then read on!

Ingredients
(makes 1 loaf)

• 1 medium pie pumpkin
• 1 and 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour (regular flour is fine too)
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 1 tsp vanilla extract (optional)
• 1/4 tsp allspice (optional)
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon (optional)

Procedure
Preheat oven to 385F. Cut pumpkin in half and scoop out the seeds  and save them for roasting -- roasted pumpkin seeds make a tasty snack. (Note: If you're only making a single loaf, you only need one of the halves. I'm not sure how well a cut pumpkin will last, but it'll probably be fine in the fridge with some plastic wrap on it. We just doubled the recipe to accommodate all the pumpkin puree we ended up with.)

Rub the cut sides with butter and sprinkle on a bit of salt. Place pumpkin halves cut side up onto a baking sheet and bake for 45-60 minutes, or until the flesh is pretty mushy.

When the pumpkin is done, scoop out the flesh and put it in a mixing bowl (alternatively, just peel off the... peel; this should be really easy by now). If it's mushy enough, just mush it with a fork. If not, use an immersion blender (we baked our pumpkin for about 50 minutes and it wasn't quite fork-ready, but an immersion blender worked great; we left it a bit chunky but you can make it as creamy as you like). Set aside.

In another bowl, combine the sugar, eggs, butter, and vanilla (and allspice and cinnamon if using) and whisk together thoroughly. Add in dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, baking powder) and mix together slightly -- just enough to get it mixed together. Don't over-mix, or you'll have a kind of dense/tough bread with big air holes in it. Add in the pureed pumpkin. You don't want the batter to get too wet or else it'll taste kind of under-cooked (but if you're okay with that taste, it's not hurting anyone!), so add in a bit at a time until it reaches a nice consistency. It shouldn't be somewhat viscous if you try to pour it.

Grease a loaf pan, and pour the batter in until it's about 3/4 full. Bake for about 45 minutes or until the top is golden brown. Do the toothpick test (or fork test if you're too lazy to find a toothpick), but keep in mind that if you put in a ton of pumpkin, the toothpick may not come out totally clean even though the bread is cooked through.

Enjoy with tea! Keeps for a few days covered in foil and kept out of dogs' reach. 

Personal Peach Cobbler (and other fall stuff)

It's definitely fall. Where in central Vermont that once meant amazing foliage and crunchy fallen leaves to step on, it's now more about cloudy and rainy days with cold nights that justify the five days we spent hauling and stacking our three cords of firewood. (Whatever. I'll take it!) It also means pretty fall veggies, fruits, and... whatever this thing is.

(It's actually cauliflower. It's quite a hit with some stoners I know, though I haven't yet tasted it or heard any reviews from someone who has. It does have some cool mathematical properties, but I'm not sure how that impacts its taste.)

It's been a pretty good season of getting stuff from our CSA and picking our own whatever. A side note on that, by the way. We had "pick your own pumpkins" on the last day of our summer CSA. I was pretty excited about picking a nice fat pumpkin and hacking its stem off with a machete. So I was kind of confused when they didn't give us a machete when they pointed out the pumpkin patch. We went out there and all the pumpkins were already cut and just laying around on the ground.

Isn't that "pick-your-own" in the same sense that any produce aisle at a grocery store is pick-your-own? 

In any case, the point is that we have a bunch of pretty stuff that's all local and organic. (Except that melon with the sticker on it. That's from New Jersey.)

What I'm really trying to say is it's time to bake a bunch of fall stuff. Let's get this ADD party under control and get a recipe out there. There are really two: peach cobbler and pumpkin bread. To make it easier to find navigate later, I'll post pumpkin bread in a separate entry, though.

Ingredients 
(enough topping for about 3-4 one-person ramekins)

• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/2 cup rolled oats
• 1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
• 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, melted
• pinch baking soda
• pinch baking powder
• peaches, sliced

Procedure

Preheat oven to 350F. Fill little baking cups/ramekins almost to the top with sliced peaches. Add a tablespoon of water into each ramekin. [Note: I use peaches that I froze, so there is probably marginally more water content there than if you're using fresh ones, especially if the fresh ones you're using aren't that ripe. So you may want to edit that amount accordingly.] If you really have a sweet tooth, you can add a tablespoon or less for brown sugar here, but I just like the filling to be as is. 

Mix all the other ingredients in a bowl. It's easiest to just mush it up with your hands. There shouldn't be any really dry parts when you're done.

Crumble over the top of each ramekin. To get the peaches really bubbling, try to create a seal over the top of the fruit.  Bake in the oven for about 30 minutes. The topping should be a nice golden brown by then.

Wait a few minutes for it to cool slightly (and so you don't look like a total glutton because you grab food out of the oven and shove it down your throat -- again, maybe that's just me), and then EAT, man. With a cup of black tea. It'll survive waiting overnight and being reheated, but you're not doing anyone any favors by waiting more than a few minutes.

Variations

• You can use a glass baking dish if you want to just make one normal-sized cobbler; bake for about 45-60 minutes in that case, and add a few tablespoons of water. 

• Most other fruits are bound to work well -- combinations of them, too. I've successfully used apples, raspberries, blueberries, and strawberries. 
• If you're using apples, increase the amount of water to about 1/4 cup if filling an 8x8 baking dish, and probably add some sugar -- I put in 1/3 cup for a full 8x8 dish. For the berries, no extra sugar is necessary in the filling, and very little water, if any.
• If using strawberries, 3 teaspoons of brown sugar and 2 teaspoons of flour is all you need to add to the filling. No water.
• If using blueberries, definitely don't add water. About 3 teaspoons each of white sugar and flour works pretty well.

Baked Apples

We went to Moore's Orchard in Pomfret, VT for their last day of apple-picking. The lady there told me that they're closing their orchards to the public even though there are plenty of apples left on the trees for two primary reasons: (1) they'll use the rest of the apples for cider, and (2) the bears can't find wild apples this year and they want to leave enough for them; she said, "they've been hanging out in the orchards every night this season and throwing parties." Living in VT is awesome.

This recipe is really simple. It's roughly what my dad used to make for us when I was a kid as an after-dinner treat. Not gonna lie, though. Today I ate it for breakfast.

Ingredients
(makes 4 baked apples)
4 apples
3-4 Tbsp raisins
2-3 tsp honey
4 tsp scotch/brandy/whiskey/cognac

Procedure
Preheat the oven to 350F. Core the apples, but don't poke through all the way to the bottom, so that you're left with a kind of cup.

Save the tops that you cut off, too, because you're going to put them back on when you bake the apples. Place the apples in a baking dish (a lot of juice might come out, especially if you've accidentally poked a hole in the bottom, so you definitely don't want to do this without one).

Fill apples with whatever sounds good! I love the taste of raisins stewed in apple juice so I put in about a tablespoon of raisins into each apple (maybe less depending on the size of the apple and how large of a hole you cut), and then poured on another 1/2 teaspoon of honey and a bit more than a tablespoon of scotch. Replace the tops and put it on the top rack for about 30 minutes (more if you want them really mushy and falling apart -- after 30 minutes they're well-baked but still maintain some firmness).

They'll come out [not pictured] looking a bit like an old lady who's been in a tub too long [also not pictured], but far more appetizing. Serve with whipped cream or ice cream or just on its own. Probably best when still hot, but I still love it even when it's gotten pretty cool.

Variants
Make it more autumny/wintry by adding spices: heat some cinnamon sticks and cloves (rolled into a cheesecloth or in a spice bag or something so you don't have bits in your teeth later) in a bit of cider. Add honey/liquor/raisins/etc as before, and pour it all in.

Moist Banana (or pumpkin!) Bread

I have been meaning to post this recipe for a long time. It has never served me wrong! One day maybe I will remember to take a picture before eating the banana bread, but it's unlikely. :) Though now (October 2014) I've actually managed to take a photo of the pumpkin variation before eating it, so here it is:

As a warning, start checking the bread after 45 minutes. Sometimes I need a full hour, but usually it's more like 50 minutes. On the other hand, be careful not to lose too much heat from the oven by checking too often, or it'll be dry by the time it's finally baked through. Once you've gotten to know your oven, just use your judgement!

Ingredients

3/4 to 1 cup brown sugar 

1/2 cup butter, melted

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 - 1.5 cups flour (depending on your preference)

3-4 very ripe bananas, mashed - if using frozen, defrost fully beforehand 

Preheat oven to 375F and grease a loaf pan. Blend together first four ingredients (mixing vigorously with a fork is fine). In a separate bowl, sift together the dry ingredients. Pour the dry ingredients into the wet ones and mix lightly (do not overmix). Fold in the bananas. Pour mixture into loaf pan and bake for 45-60 minutes.

Variations

1. Try adding 1/2 cup of chopped nuts and/or dried fruits.
2. Make it gluten free: replace the 1.5 cups of flour with 1.5 cups of gluten free flour (as always, I recommend Gluten Free Mama's Almond Blend) and add about 1/2 teaspoon of xanthan gum. If you don't have xanthan gum, that's fine -- the bread will come out a little flatter and more dense, but no less delicious.
3. Pumpkin bread! Replace the bananas with a can of (unsweetened, unflavored) pureed pumpkin.

Gluten Free Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

This recipe is adapted to gluten free from this one. Which means I didn't do anything very inventive besides lower the amount sweet stuff and put in the right amount of xanthan gum.

Ingredients

• 1 3/4 cups your favorite gluten free flour
• 7/8 tsp. xanthan gum
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
  
  
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup plain yogurt --> important for acidity (some people report good results when using milk, but I still think yogurt is important in this recipe)
• 3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1+ cup mashed ripe bananas
• 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

Preheat oven to 350F. Combine first six ingredients in a bowl. In a separate large bowl, combine the egg, oil, yogurt, and vanilla. Pour dry ingredients into wet ingredients and fold over until just combined -- there can still be dry bits of flour in it, and that's fine.

Anyway, fold in the mashed bananas and chocolate chips. Grease muffin tins and fill each cup no more than 3/4 full (depending on how much of a muffin top you want to see in the finished product). Bake for 20-25 minutes. Cool for a little bit before removing from tins, and then transfer to a cooling rack.

Fun fact: In general, you don't want to overmix muffins or you'll have a tunneling problem: dense muffins with a bunch of holes in them from the air bubbles. (i.e. Use the muffin method, and Alton Brown fans, you know what that means.) But tunneling is created by gluten, a protein composite you don't want to over-excite if you don't want your muffins tasting like bubble gum. Our flour had no gluten to begin with, though, so maybe the muffin method is not as important in gluten-free baking. Does anyone actually know if this is true?

Nutty Energy Bars

This recipe came from River Cottage Every Day, unsurprisingly. I made a few adjustments on the basis of lacking ingredients or not liking certain things (e.g. using almond butter instead of peanut butter). In the end, I thought it was a little too sweet, so next time I would use maybe 1/3 cup of brown sugar and 2-3 tablespoons of honey. A suggested variation in the book is to use a mashed ripe banana in place of the nut butter, but I haven't tried that yet.

As you can see, my attempt at these bars gave me an odd pattern -- I tossed the seeds over the top and the mixture started bubbling when it came to a boil in the oven, and evidently it came up over the sides. I think it's pretty neat -- plus the edge pieces have no seeds, for added variety. :)

Ingredients
1/2 cup butter
1/3 cup raw, unsalted, unsweetened nut butter (I used almond butter)
1/4 cup honey
2/3 cup (packed) brown sugar
little bit of lemon zest (grated)

1 1/4 cups rolled oats
1 cup mixed seeds
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup (or less) chocolate chips

Directions
Preheat oven to 325F. Melt first five ingredients in a saucepan over very low heat, stirring occasionally. Add in the oats, raisins, and about 3/4 of the seeds. Mix together.

Grease an 8" baking dish and line with parchment paper (so that it's easy to remove the concoction after baking). Pour in "batter," smoothing it out on top. Scatter chocolate chips and remaining seeds on top.

Variation: I added half of the chocolate chips directly into the saucepan to have a more chocolatey base.

Bake for about 30 minutes. For me, the stuff came out pretty much liquid, which figures as there aren't a lot of solid (when heated) ingredients. Put it in the fridge until it cools completely -- it'll be pretty much rock hard by then. :) Store in the fridge, and eat at a little lower than room temperature so everything doesn't goo up in your hands.

Coconut Fudge Truffles

The brigadeiros were a big hit -- but I feel like I'm going into a diabetic coma just eating one (or maybe two... or three). So we were thinking about how to make a slightly less sweet variety. The main idea was using evaporated milk instead of condensed milk and adding in sugar ourselves (condensed milk is about 4 parts evaporated milk to 5 parts sugar, which is crazy -- we wanted to try 2 parts evaporated milk to 1 part sugar and see how it went). Well, we got a little carried away... but the truffles turned out so delicious!

So here it is -- a pretty crazy spin on Brazilian truffles.

[Makes 30-35 candies.]
Ingredients
1 cup evaporated milk
1/2 cup coconut milk
1/2 cup sugar
2 Tbsp. butter
1/4 tsp. salt
4 tsp. cocoa powder
1 tsp. instant coffee
2-3 Tbsp. tasty flour

Directions
Bring the first seven ingredients to a rapid boil over medium heat. Lower heat and simmer mixture, stirring occasionally to keep it from sticking. If it still seems too liquid after about 10 minutes, add in a bit of the flour. It took us about 20-25 minutes of simmering to decide to add in flour, after which point the mixture still didn't seem thick enough, but we took a chance and put it in the fridge. It came out fine. Keep it in the fridge until it's completely cold (we just left it overnight because we got tired, but an hour or two should do the trick).

Meanwhile, chop up nuts, toast some coconut flakes, and prepare whatever other toppings you want to use. This time, I used pistachios, hazelnuts, almonds, and toasted coconut. Take 1 teaspoon at a time of the fudge and roll into a ball over the topping(s) of your choice -- if the topping is some kind of nut, try putting a whole one in the middle. Place the candies on parchment or wax paper. If storing or giving as gifts, try wrapping them in wax paper (as shown here).



Tip: Get your hands wet with warm water -- this will keep the fudge from sticking to your hands while you're trying to roll it. Wash your hands after every four or five truffles you roll, or whenever they start to get dirty -- if the chocolate mixture starts to accumulate on your hands, the truffles will stick more, creating a frustrating mess.

Variation: Try dipping them in chocolate.

How to make dipping chocolate

This might seem silly, because chocolate is an easy thing to melt. And in the technical sense, I agree -- it's easy to turn solid chocolate into liquid chocolate. But depending on your intended use, you can use the melting process to bring out all the delicious hidden flavors lurking behind that rich chocolatey goodness...

Whether you're dipping strawberries, truffles, biscotti, or just your fingers, the basics for making good dipping chocolate are:

1. Chocolate, and
2. Butter
   

Some recipes call for using shortening instead of butter, but I haven't seen any advantage to doing so. I prefer butter because it's something I always have on hand, whereas shortening might require a trek so deep into the back of the pantry that I may never find my way out again. So here's what you do:

Use about a tablespoon of butter for every half cup of chocolate. Melt everything in a double boiler, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon. [By the way, a double boiler is a bona fide uni-tasker. You don't need to go out and buy a double boiler -- just take a metal mixing bowl or any small saucepan, put it on top of a bigger saucepan which has some water in it, and bring the water to a boil. Then put all whatever you're melting into the mixing bowl or small saucepan on top.]

1. Chocolate-dipped fruit
   If you're making chocolate-dipped strawberries or whatever other fruit has caught your fancy (have you tried chocolate-dipped prunes? no, seriously -- apparently that's a thing that some people love), you probably want to keep the dipping chocolate as simple as possible. For this, just butter and chocolate will do.
   
   
2. Dipping something nutty
   Maybe you're trying to add a chocolate layer to some biscotti, or maybe you're dipping truffles. Maybe you're just dipping nuts themselves for a quick & easy but still somewhat decadent dessert. Either way, the chocolate can be much richer this way. Exciting! So here are the ingredients for melting in the double boiler.

1/2 cup dark chocolate*
1/2 tsp. instant coffee
1-2 Tbsp. butter
pinch of salt

* Sometimes I use unsweetened baking chocolate and sometimes a dark chocolate bar, whichever is on hand. Taste the chocolate mixture when it melts and add sweetener and whatever else until it suits you.

Cleaning tip
When everything in sight is chocolate-dipped and you have produced delicious dessert to your heart's content, you might notice the gross sticky mess you've created in your double boiler. Scrape off any remaining bits of chocolate from the bottom of the bowl (though why would there be any chocolate left?!) and fill dirty bowl with water. Heat up the water (may as well use the saucepan/mixing bowl as a double boiler again), which will liquefy the left-over chocolate gunk and make it much easier to clean up.

Biscotti

This biscotti is relatively soft, compared to the more traditional rock-hard biscotti. The recipe came about when I was helping Sanya come up with potential products to sell at Tazi's Cafe. This is a compilation of my favorite parts of several different recipes I considered. It's easy to customize this recipe (see variations below for some ideas). I've tried it with almonds & cranberries, hazelnuts & chocolate chips, and pecans (the last one being my least favorite). I've tried melting chocolate into the dough to make chocolate and almond biscotti. That turned out well, but I prefer using chocolate chips instead of melting the chocolate and ending up with a dark brown biscotti. I've also tried making this recipe with whole wheat flour, which I liked less than using all-purpose flour -- the taste/texture of the flour didn't seem to fit with the cookie. Point being, there are plenty of ways you can customize this recipe. Try playing around with the ingredients, and let us know if you come up with anything delicious!

[Makes about 18 biscotti.]
Ingredients
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 tsp. vanilla
2 1/4 cups flour
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/8 tsp. cardamom
1/8 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup almonds
2/3 cup cranberries

Directions
Preheat oven to 350F.

Melt the butter so that it is soft but not too warm. Using an electric mixer, beat together butter, sugar, and eggs. Beat in flour. If using a hand mixer, the mixture may get too dry for the mixer to handle, in which case mix the rest with a fork. Add in spices, baking powder, salt and mix in.
Fold in nuts and cranberries. The dough should be pretty firm at this point, and should not stick to your hands.

Dump out dough onto a silicone- or parchment-lined baking sheet. Shape dough into a long log, flattening out the top so that the log is about 2" wide and 1/2" thick, and even throughout.

Bake for 30 minutes at 350F. Turn down oven to 325F. Remove from oven and slice into individual biscotti and turn cut-side up on the baking sheet. Bake for 10 minutes at 325F. Then flip biscotti so that the other cut-side faces up and bake for another 10 minutes.

Remove from oven, allow to cool, and enjoy.

Variations:

1. Hazelnut & Chocolate Chips
   Don't add any vanilla, and substitute 1 cup roasted hazelnuts for the almonds and 1/2 cup of chocolate chips for the cranberries.
2. Almond extract
   If making the almond variety, try using 1-2 teaspoons of almond extract in addition to, or perhaps instead of the vanilla for a stronger almond taste.
3. Chocolate biscotti
   Melt a few semisweet chocolate squares with the butter.
4. Chocolate-dipped biscotti
   Melt together 1/2 cup dark chocolate, 1/2 tsp. instant coffee, 2 Tbsp. butter, and a pinch of salt in a double boiler. Dip bottoms of baked biscotti directly into chocolate. Place chocolate side down on parchment paper and let the chocolate harden to room temperature (or chill in fridge).
   

Chocolate Truffles - Brazilian style

I read about brigadeiros somewhere on Smitten Kitchen a little while ago and have been wanting to try them. Her recipe is more "advanced" than I felt up for tonight. Not really, but it involves coconut milk and a longer cooking time than I was willing to commit to. So I decided to stick with the basics: cocoa powder, condensed milk, and butter. That's it. At least until I decided to roll them in stuff after being inspired by their Wikipedia page. ;)

[Makes about 20 brigadeiros.]
Ingredients
3-4 Tbsp (unsweetened) cocoa powder
1 (14 oz) can sweetened condensed milk
1 Tbsp butter

Directions
Heat ingredients together in a saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens. Chill in the fridge or freezer until the mixture is pretty firm -- malleable, but not too sticky.

Meanwhile, chop up some things to roll the candies in. I chopped up some hazelnuts, white chocolate chips, semisweet chocolate chips, and peanut butter chips. If I'd had some coconut flakes, I'd have tried that too!

Spread each topping in an even layer on a cutting board. When the mixture is sufficiently chilled, roll into balls with your hands (about 1-2 teaspoons' worth for each candy) and roll the balls in the desired toppings.

I think they taste delicious at room temperature, but keep them in the fridge until you're ready to eat them.

Storage idea
Wrap truffles individually in wax paper. I cut the wax paper into strips, rolled each strip over a truffle so that it formed a cylinder, and twisted the ends.



Variations:
1) Put a whole nut (e.g. hazelnut) into a truffle with the same topping.

2) If you like Lindor truffles, try dipping the brigadeiros in melted chocolate after doing the procedure described above and let the truffles cool. You'll end up with a hard(er) chocolate shell and soft truffle inside.

Shortbread

This has to be one of the quickest, easiest, and simplest home-made desserts possible. With a grand total of four ingredients and clocking in at just 30-35 minutes including prep and bake time, this recipe is a ridiculously easy way to get fat. But hey, if you're looking for comfort food, you just have to bite the bullet and jog the next day to make up for it. (Given that there are apparently 1628 calories in 1 cup of butter... that's a lot of jogging.)

So that's the bad news. The good news is that calorie-counting is a load of nonsense anyway, and these cookies are delicious. :) Here's the recipe that I use, adapted from Joy of Cooking.


Ingredients
1 cup (two sticks) butter
2 cups flour
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/4 tsp salt

Directions
Preheat oven to 325F. In a medium bowl, soften butter in microwave -- it should be decisively warmer than room temperature, and starting to melt & liquefy a bit. Either using a whisk or a hand mixer, cream the butter (i.e. mix it up really fast until it looks like really thick cream). Sift together flour, sugar, and salt, pour onto creamed butter. Mix until everything blends together, at which point you'll have what appears to be a rather crumbly dough. Pat the dough into a square baking dish. If all went well, then once you pat it down it should have the texture of a slightly wet shortbread cookie. It'll look something like this.


Push down the edges of the shortbread with a fork. (This is purely for decorative reasons.) Now poke the dough evenly with the fork, so you have holes spaced an inch or so apart. Bake for about 30 minutes on the top rack, or until the crimped edges are starting to brown a little. The middle of the shortbread will still be pretty white, but that doesn't mean it's not ready. Remove from oven, let cool for about 10 minutes, and then cut it up into cookies of the desired shape and size.

Especially tasty with some black tea. :)

Custard Fruit Tart w/ Graham Cracker Crust

I was trying to come up with a nice culinary surprise last night for Asa while he was at his soccer game, and realized that custard is a double whammy -- he loves it, and I've never tried making it before! So I looked up a bunch of different recipes, took the elements of each that seemed nicest, and hacked something together that actually turned out quite delicious, and extremely easy.

Graham cracker crust: I roughly used this recipe, but had to change around the proportions a bit and add a little extra flavor. I made enough to fill one round 8" cake pan and a small heart-shaped pie tin (see photo), so a little more than if you're just making one pie.

Ingredients
2.5 cups crushed graham crackers (I used "honey graham crackers" to good effect)
~3/8 cup sugar
10 Tbsp. melted butter
3/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/8 tsp. nutmeg (optional)
1/8 tsp. allspice (optional)

Directions (Graham cracker crust)
Preheat oven to 375F. Crumble up graham crackers in a bowl. I mostly did this by crushing them between my fingers, and then used the back of a large wooden spoon to mush them up more finely. It's OK if it isn't all a fine powder by the end, so long as there are no large pieces.

Add in sugar, butter, and spices. Blend together until the mixture has an even consistency throughout. Spread evenly in the cake pan (no need to grease it beforehand). I did this slowly, patting the mixture down firmly with my fingers, in order to get it to be spread evenly. Make sure you have enough to go up the sides of the cake pan, as well.

Bake on top rack of oven for 5-6 minutes. Remove and let it cook for a while. After it was no longer scalding hot, I relocated the tins to the fridge so that they'd be chillin' while I made the custard.

Custard: This turned out to be pretty easy! I forget which recipe I used most heavily of the ones I found online, but I make no claims to having completely invented this one:

Ingredients (Custard)
2 egg yolks
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 cup milk

Directions (Custard)
To separate yolks from whites: crack egg over a cup, and pour yolks from one half of the shell to the other, letting the whites (clear goop at this point) pour down into the cup. When most of it is off the yolk, throw the yolk into a bowl. Repeat with the other egg.

Whisk together yolks, sugar, flour until the mixture has an even consistency. (1/4 cup sugar makes a pretty sweet custard. If you want it to be less sweet, vary sugar amount accordingly.) It's going to look kind of dry at this point, but that's alright.

Now heat up milk in a saucepan until it's too hot for you to comfortably hold your finger in it for more than a second or two. Slowly pour it in to the mixture while whisking together. At this point it's like thick milk with clumps in it.

Pour mixture into saucepan and add vanilla. Stir it slowly while heating over low heat. After 2-3 minutes, it should start getting pretty solid. When it's the consistency you like, take it off the heat.

Spoon the custard onto your pie crust(s), and smooth out the top with a spatula. Place a sheet of plastic wrap directly onto the surface of the custard, and pat it down a little bit so that it's firmly on there. (The point of this is to keep a gross film from forming.) Return the filled pie crust(s) to the fridge at this point to give the custard a chance to cool down.

To top it off nicely, chop up whatever fruits you want for a topping (kiwis and strawberries make for a beautiful tart -- sadly I had no strawberries this time). Heat up some light-colored jam (I used apricot) over low heat, stirring it to keep it from sticking to the bottom of the saucepan and burning, until it's pretty liquid. Remove the tarts from your fridge, take off the plastic wrap, and place your fruits on top of the tart (it looks nicest, I think, if they're all in one layer, but that's up to you). Brush the liquified jam over the tart evenly, and chill the tart. If you want to eat it right away, just stick it in the freezer for a couple of minutes and the jam will cool down right away.

EAT!

It was late, so we didn't attack the big one, which stayed in the fridge with plastic wrap on the custard. I like having a lot of custard in my fruit tarts, so the next day I added another layer of custard to the big fruit tart, this time with no vanilla to cut down on the vanilla taste.

Flourless Chocolate Cake

Ingredients

8 oz chocolate
1/2 c. butter
1/4 c. hot brewed coffee
1/2 tsp. vanilla
3/4 c. sugar
3 eggs
1/2 c. cocoa

Preheat oven to 375. In a double boiler, melt chocolate, butter, coffee, and vanilla. Remove from heat. Whisk in sugar. Whisk in eggs until well blended. Fold in cocoa (until just mixed). Butter round 8" cake pan and pour in batter. Bake ~25 minutes (until very thin crust forms on top of cake). Let cool for a couple of minutes before eating. (Especially good with vanilla gelato!)

Variation: Sliced almonds on top.