Almond Torte

We celebrated Christmas with my family early this year. Thanksgiving was with my parents in Wisconsin and Christmas is in Michigan with Lorrie's parents. So that meant an early exchange of gifts which actually really made this year quite easy as far as the whole Christmas rush goes. We were done by the time others were just starting.

I brought the dessert for the Thanksgiving meal and one of the things I made was this almond torte. It is based on a family recipe; one that is hugely popular. I've made tortes before but not like this. My favorite dessert was chocolate torte but that was pudding based and had cream cheese in it. This had neither. It was custard based and so delicious. The almond flavor was present but not overpowering and this was very creamy. It actually tasted a lot like a blitz torte only without sponge cake in it.

I am submitting this as my best recipe of 2007 mainly because this is my new favorite dessert! The best of 2007 is being put on by Zorra of 1x umrühren bitte and Sandra from Un tocco di zenzero. By the way, since this is 'roughly' a Christmas post, check Zorra's advent calenders.

Almond Torte

Crust:
1 c graham cracker crumbs
1 c flour
1/2 c melted butter
1/2 c chopped almonds.

Mix & pat in l0 x l4 pan. Bake at 325 °F for l0 to l5 min until light brown.

Filling:
1-1/2 cup milk
1 cup sugar
5 eggs separated
1/4 cup sliced almonds + enough to sprinkle across top just before serving
1/4 tsp salt
2 T corn starch
1-1/2 T Knox gelatin
1/4 c cold water
1/2 tsp almond extract
1/2 tsp Cream of tartar
1/2 cup sugar

Combine milk, l c. sugar, & egg yolks in double boiler & beat until sugar is dissolved. Add salt and cornstarch & cook until thick. Dissolve gelatin in 1/4 c. cold water & add to cooked mixture. Cool. Add almond extract. Beat egg whites, cream of tartar, & sugar. Fold into cooled filling and sliced almonds. Pour onto cooled crust & refrigerate 6 hours. Best if served within 24 hours.

Top with whip cream and sliced almonds (I beat 1 pint of heavy cream and this was enough to cover the whole thing sufficiently).

Turnovers

OK, I made this a while ago and I have to confess, I forgot how. Well, OK, I didn't forget per se, I just didn't write down the high points of what I did. We were leaving for vacation and I was trying to pack, bake these, and load the car. I'll try to recall as much as I can.



First, I didn't make the dough. It is store-bought, frozen puff pastry dough. I just rolled it out per the instructions on the box.

The filling is peach. I had some peaches (like 4 or 5) I needed to use up before going on vacation. I simply chopped them up, threw the chunks into a sauce pan, added about 1/4 cup of sugar, and cooked until the fruit released its liquid and then reduced a little.

I cut the dough in half and then cut each half into three squares. A pizza cutter works best. Each square got a dollop of fruit and syrup in the center and then was folded over. I moved the filled triangles to a baking sheet and then covered with cinnamon and sugar. I probably should have used an egg wash to both seal the turnovers and cover the turnovers and hold the cinnamon and sugar better. Still it worked pretty well and none unfolded or came out sugarless.

So far so good. Here's where this write-up falters. I don't remember the oven temperature or how long I baked them.

Lorrie and I used these as breakfast on our trip to her parent's place.

Strawberry Syrup

As a child growing up, I enjoyed reading The Little House On The Prairie books. I was amazed at what they did to survive. A child of the Seventies, all I knew were supermarkets. Sure, my parents and grandparents told me stories about how it was when they were growing up but stories about the someone getting the first car or TV in the neighborhood didn’t compare to the seemingly outlandish concept of having to hunt and grow everything you were going to eat for the next year. My young mind fell in love with the concept of being able to make my own maple syrup. We had maple trees in the front yard, we could do it too, right? Luckily my parents put a quick end to that concept before the maple trees in our yard and the red maple trees in the other yards were harmed. But I still had the dream.
When I grew up, I’m going to have lots of land with lots of maple trees and I’m going to make my syrup! Alas, that dream has yet to come to fruition. I live in an exurb of Chicago, surrounded by strip malls and townhomes. Yeah, there is a maple tree in one of the common areas but I think if I stuck a tap in it and hung a bucket, it would probably end up bent over like Charlie Brown’s Christmas tree. Come to think of it, there’s probably something in the bylaws of homeowners association against it too.
However, despite the lack of maple trees and an angry homeowners association, I can still make my own syrup. The farmer’s market season started here about two weeks ago and there is a great selection of fruit. Containers of cherries and blueberries were at most of the stands and this week strawberries started making an appearance. Besides being just plain good to eat, they work well in jellies and jams, but they also make very good syrups.

Strawberry Syrup
Yields about 3 cups

1 1/2 cups chopped strawberries
1 Tbls. lemon juice
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups light corn syrup
1/4 cup cornstarch
2 Tbls. cold water

In a 2-quart saucepan combine the strawberries, lemon juice, sugar, and corn syrup and bring to a simmer over medium heat. As this mixture heats up, mix the water and the cornstarch and stir until the cornstarch dissolves. Once the syrup simmers, add the cornstarch slurry. Continuously stir until the syrup starts simmering again and goes from cloudy to clear. If the berries are not broken down enough, use an immersion blender or run through a fine-mesh strainer before serving. Serve warm.

- Other berries like blackberries and raspberries work as well. Strain for seeds before serving.
- Rhubarb adds a nice touch as well. Use 3/4 cup rhubarb and 3/4 cup strawberries. Start the syrup using the rhubarb first and then add the strawberries once the rhubarb is tender.


All pictures are from the morgueFile archive.

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Also appearing at Sugar Savvy and featured on the Well Fed Network.

Pistachio and Strawberry Stuffed French Toast

My favorite meal of the day has to be breakfast. More times than not I'm having something for lunch or dinner that most people would consider breakfast. 'Breakfast served all day' is my 'cellar door'. Eggs, bacon, pancakes, waffles, omelets, what-have-you are the meals I cook most during the week. A real treat though, is French toast.

For Father's Day I was able to make this breakfast for my parents. I had made it a couple of weeks earlier and my girlfriend and I loved it. I believe the key is thick bread and a good, long soak in a custard-like mixture of eggs and cream. I see these recipes calling for 4 or 5 eggs and equal amounts of milk, just enough to cover several slices of sandwich bread. Make those recipes and you're missing out on how truly wonderful French toast is meant to be!

Pistachio and Strawberry Stuffed French Toast

Makes about 5-6 servings

1 loaf bread, sliced in 1" slices - I have used challah (slightly staled) and 'Italian peasant', both worked well
12 eggs
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1 Tbls. vanilla
1 1/2 cups strawberries
sprinkles of cinnamon
sprinkles of nutmeg
1 1/4 cups pistachios

Beat the eggs and then add the heavy cream and vanilla and mix well. Slice the bread into 1 inch slices. If the egg mixture isn't in a dish big enough to soak several slices of bread, move it to a dish that can. Soak the bread in the egg mixture for 5 to 10 minutes, flipping the bread halfway through. Dice the strawberries while the bread is soaking. Place a layer of bread slices in a 9" by 13" greased pan. Use a spoon to press down on the bread and form a little indentation and then spoon the strawberries onto the bread. Place another layer of soaked bread on top, forming 'sandwiches'. Press down slightly on the tops slices to compress the 'sandwiches', just enough so there is no gap between the slices. Sprinkle lightly with nutmeg and then cinnamon. Crush the pistachios and place on the prepared french toast 'sandwiches' liberally. Bake in a preheated oven at 350° F for 40 to 45 minutes.

Serve with real maple syrup and butter.

Variations -

Use your favorite jams or other fruit for the filling.

This can be made into a savory dish by leaving out the cinnamon and nutmeg and using something like caramelized onions or spinach.

Try using cinnamon rolls instead of bread.

All pictures are from the morgueFile archive.

Cherry Spelt Muffins

The final item in our Easter baskets were these cherry spelt muffins. My whole "trying to make something healthy" mania was in full swing here. I had purchased the spelt flour a little while ago to try it so somehow I thought giving an experimental muffin as a gift was a good idea. The cherry idea came from Sam Adams Cherry Wheat beer. Yep, I made a muffin based on a beer. In fact, it was a beer that sorely disappointed me so I made a muffin based on a beer I didn't like. Yep, that should have told me how this would go.

The first batch I made went like this: Only used half of a cup of cherries and soaked them in the Kirschwasser alone. Didn't like that flavor overall so I added the tart cherry juice. I wanted to use honey for this recipe but instead of measuring out 1/2 cup I measured 1 cup and didn't notice until I had mixed it with the eggs so I had to start over at that point and oops, out of honey so I'm using brown sugar instead. Mix it up and bake it. Cool them off and have a bite...of the half of the muffin not permanently attached to the muffin paper. And you really only tasted the spelt. *sigh* I couldn't use these as a gift.

So while I was waiting for the cupcakes to cool, I tried again. This time I doubled the amount of cherries and added a little vanilla and also used some of the cherry juice in the batter. The batter itself was really light. It was good to not use the paper lining the second time because having the crust around the muffin gave it more structure and gave it a little tooth versus the airy center.

But again taste was an issue. If you had a muffin with a number of cherries in it then it was just as I imagined, cherry complimenting the spelt flavors. If you didn't get enough cherries, it was a decent dinner roll.

I liked them but I think there are better ways to implent this. First, it was a light, wet batter which I think would work well for pancakes, especially the stuffed varieties. Baking these without the papers reminded me of the stuffed pancakes using a pan like this.Instead of adding the cherries, use jam in the center. But if I was to stick to muffins, I would probably go more to the savory ingredients. When I worked at the Deli, we had a bacon and cheese muffin that I think would work well using spelt.

Cherry Spelt Muffins

Makes about 12 muffins

2 1/4 cups spelt flour
1 Tbls. baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup wheat bran
1/4 cup (packed) light brown sugar
3 large eggs
1 1/4 cup buttermilk
2 tsp. vanilla
1 cup dried cherries
2 Tbls. Kirschwasser
2 Tbls. tart cherry juice

Preheat the oven to 425° F.

Soak the cherries in the Kirschwasser and tart cherry juice for up to an hour before using. Do not get rid of the liquid when you are done soaking the cherries.

Combine the eggs, vanilla, and buttermilk in a bowl, mix well, and set aside.

In a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients (all the remaining ingredients except the cherries) and whisk to combine. Now add in the cherries and give a quick stir to cover with the flour mixture. Finally, add the wet ingredients to the flour mixture and stir until everything is just mixed. Don't over mix.

Spoon the mixture into greased muffin cups. Fill each to the top and mound slightly in the center if possible.

Bake for 16-20 minutes. About halfway through, rotate the pan 180°. The muffins are done when a cake tester comes out clean and they spring back when pressed lightly. Remove from the oven, let cool in the pan for about 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Healthier Blackberry Oat Muffins

The second baked good in the Easter basket was a version of my blackberry oat muffins. My mother had commented on how they sounded good the first time I made them so I included them this time, but with a little twist. This recipe I tried reducing the oil and sugar a little bit. I like the original batch I did but I wanted to see if I couldn't reduce some of the ingredients I thought might have used a little too much of. Well, that and I wanted to switch this to use buttermilk instead of whole milk.

I thought these muffins were pretty good. Seemed very similar to the first batch. My parents loved them and we got compliments from Lorrie's cousin.

I did try this batch again later and they didn't turn out. Basically they were overmixed and then overbaked so be careful of both (besides being bad for muffins in general overmixing made this recipe purple from the blackberries, which then meant it really didn't brown until it was way past done). I knew better but went ahead and did it anyway.



Blackberry Oat Muffins
differences from the original recipe are highlighted

Makes about 12 muffins

3 1/2 cups (11 3/8 oz) oat flour
1 cup (3 1/2 oz) instant oats
1 Tbls. baking powder
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
2/3 cup (4 3/4 oz) sugar
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 cup buttermilk
2 large eggs
1 cup roughly chopped blackberries

Preheat the oven to 425° F.

Combine the eggs, oil, and milk in a bowl, mix well, and set aside.

In a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients (all the remaining ingredients except the blackberries) and whisk to combine. Now add in the blackberries and give a quick stir to cover with the flour mixture. Finally, add the wet ingredients to the flour mixture and stir until everything is just mixed. Don't over mix.

Spoon the mixture into greased or paper-lined muffin cups. Fill each to the top and mound slightly in the center if possible.

Bake for 16-20 minutes. About halfway through, rotate the pan 180°. The muffins are done when a cake tester comes out clean and they spring back when pressed lightly. Remove from the oven, let cool in the pan for about 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Blackberry Oat Muffins

A couple of weeks ago, the question was posed to Lorrie on what she would do if she couldn't have wheat and would have to lead a gluten-free lifestyle. She loves bread and pasta and she thought it definitely would be very tough. I don't think she was aware of all the resources available online with recommendations and recipes for gluten-free food. So my next trip to the store, I picked up some gluten-free flours. Oat flour was among them. Now I was thinking that since oats aren't wheat, that means gluten-free. I went ahead and made these muffins, thinking I was making something without gluten. Later, after talking to Lorrie about bringing some in for a coworker with Celiac Disease, I double-checked the recipe and the ingredients to be sure. I was using Bob's Red Mill oat flour and when I examined the package, I couldn't find the gluten-free blurb. I thought this was odd and went to the website and found they did not consider it to be gluten-free. Apparently Bob's has a whole facility devoted to gluten-free products and oats are not processed there so their oats are processed in the same facility as wheat, thus contaminating them. I learned something new.

These muffins came out great. Slightly dense and moist, the flavor was wonderful. The blackberry and oat flavors complimented each other well. I had mentioned to Lorrie that she can take them to work and she told me no, we would be keeping these to ourselves. We did and I don't feel bad about that at all.


Blackberry Oat Muffins

Makes about 12-14 muffins

3 1/2 cups oat flour
1 cup instant oats
1 Tbls. baking powder
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup whole milk
2 large eggs
1 cup roughly chopped blackberries

Preheat the oven to 425° F.

Combine the eggs, oil, and milk in a bowl, mix well, and set aside.

In a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients (all the remaining ingredients except the blackberries) and whisk to combine. Now add in the blackberries and give a quick stir to cover with the flour mixture. Finally, add the wet ingredients to the flour mixture and stir until everything is just mixed. Don't over mix.

Spoon the mixture into greased or paper-lined muffin cups. Fill each to the top and mound slightly in the center if possible.

Bake for 16-20 minutes. About halfway through, rotate the pan 180°. The muffins are done when a cake tester comes out clean and they spring back when pressed lightly. Remove from the oven, let cool in the pan for about 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool.

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These muffins were submitted to Sweetnick's for her ARF/5-A-Day Tuesday feature. This is also now a post at Just Baking as well.

Biscuits in a box

A while back an activist blogger made some disparaging remarks about a fellow blogger's site. Specifically about the site's subject, Rachel Ray. You don't have to love Rachel (or Sandra or Paula or Emeril etc.), but making comments like that blogger did in a public forum was uncalled for. She had her own blog; she should do it there. Well, the same thing bothered Mimi at French Kitchen in America, who declared March 15th "Biscuit Baking Mix Day" and this is my entry.

I thought I would do some variations of biscuits, nothing too complex. I always liked the sweet biscuits - cinnamon, raisins, lots of frosting so that was my direction. Now, one had to be apple, my favorite fruit. The other one, peach, was inspired by a post I read the other day.

The apple was a Granny Smith, the Bisquick mix was the regular one, and I tried a new Amish, non-homogenized, organic milk. The apple cinnamon is the one with the darker glaze, the "Peaches and Cream" biscuit has the lighter glaze, and the biscuit in the background is the regular biscuit just prior to it being smothered in sausage gravy.

Both biscuits turned out well. The biscuits themselves were a little flour-y and needed the glaze to get each fruit's full flavor.

Apple Cinnamon Biscuits

For Biscuits
3 cups Bisquick Mix
1 cup diced apples
2/3 cup milk
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 Tbls. sugar

For glaze
1 cup powdered sugar
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
apple cider

Preheat the oven to 450° F and prepare 2 baking sheets if you are doing small biscuits. Combine all biscuit ingredients in a medium bowl and turn out onto board "floured" with Biquick mix. Knead 10 times. Roll out the dough to about a half inch thickness and cut with a biscuit cutter. I used the smallest from my set (1 1/2 inch I believe) for a more bite-size biscuits.

Bake for 10 minutes. About halfway through, rotate the pans 180° and switch the pans on the racks. The biscuits are done when they are a golden brown. Remove from the oven, let cool in the pan for a minute or two, then transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Mix the powdered sugar and cinnamon and then add the apple cider until the glaze reaches the consistency you would like. Dribble the glaze over the biscuits.


"Peaches and Cream" Biscuits

For Biscuits
3 cups Bisquick Mix
1 cup diced fresh peaches
2/3 cup plain yogurt
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
2 Tbls. sugar

For glaze
1 cup powdered sugar
peach juice

Preheat the oven to 450° F and prepare 2 baking sheets if you are doing small biscuits. Combine all biscuit ingredients in a medium bowl and turn out onto board "floured" with Biquick mix. Knead 10 times. Roll out the dough to about a half inch thickness and cut with a biscuit cutter. I used the smallest from my set (1 1/2 inch I believe) for a more bite-size biscuits.

Bake for 10 minutes. About halfway through, rotate the pans 180° and switch the pans on the racks. The biscuits are done when they are a golden brown. Remove from the oven, let cool in the pan for a minute or two, then transfer to a wire rack to cool.

In a small bowl put the powdered sugar and then add the peach juice until the glaze reaches the consistency you would like. Dribble the glaze over the biscuits.

Apple Pizza

A couple of weeks ago I posted about the whole wheat pizza crusts I made. Well, one crust was used for the regular pizza, the other I used to make a dessert pizza. If you get a dessert pizza from one of the big pizza chains, you're probably going to get a can of pie filling on a crust with some kind of crumble and icing. I tried avoiding that. Instead I used thinly sliced apples and cranberries and topped that with a granola and brown sugar crumble. It really is a version of a tarte fine, a French tart of puff pastry with thinly sliced apples.

This pizza came out really well. I poached the apples in a simple syrup to prevent browning (I was cutting the apples well before I was baking) and to add sweetness. I was a little worried about the crumble because I winged it but it turned out good. The whole wheat pizza crust worked well because its savory flavor and hint of spice cut the sweetness of the other ingredients very well.

Apple Pizza

Makes 1 pizza

1 crust
2 large apples (I used Granny Smith)
1/2 cup dried cranberries

For the simple syrup
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup water

For the crumble
1/2 stick butter (room temperature)
1 cup granola
1/2 cup light brown sugar

Preheat the oven to 425° F. Combine the water and sugar in a medium saucepan and put on medium-high heat. Once it starts boiling, reduce the heat and let the syrup simmer. Slice the apples as thin as you can (this was a good excuse for me to try my new mandolin). Put the apple slices in the syrup and turn up the heat and bring to a boil. Once the syrup starts boiling again, remove the apples and let them drain and cool.

Once the slices are cool enough to handle (careful,boiling sugar is just as dangerous as boiling oil), layer them on the pizza crust. Sprinkle the cranberries on top of the apple slices.

In a medium bowl combine the butter, granola, and light brown sugar. Use a fork or a knife to "cut" the crumble up into little pieces and sprinkle over the pizza.

Place in oven and bake for about 10-12 minutes. Cool slightly, slice, and eat!

Pistachio & Apricot Muffins, Again

You can see the other two posts in this "series" here.

When I started the second batch of these muffins, I thought I would do a series. Each month, I would try changing a single ingredient, hopefully different results each time. Maybe good, but more importantly, show how changing one ingredient affects things. My own little kitchen laboratory! These muffins were perfect as a test subject. The first batch was not so good but it had potential. The flavors were there but they were trapped in a cast of flour. I couldn't help thinking, you had these flavors to work with and yet this is the recipe you published?

Last time, I sweetened the muffins with honey instead of sugar. This month the plan was to just reduce the flour. But I stopped to think about all the other things I want to do and I asked myself, do I want to make a batch of these muffins every month?

No, I do not.

So my plan changed. I did more than just reduce the flour. I added baking powder to provide more lift. I don't think the self-rising flour was doing a good job on its own. A couple people who tried the previous batch of muffins said they couldn't really taste the pistachios. Well, the honey was partly to blame for that but still I ground some pistachios and added that to the flour so there is a slight hint of pistachio throughout without turning these into mini-nutbreads. I kept the brandy in and it was much easier making the apricot puree this way. The glaze adds some shine and a touch of sweetness.

OK, this time I think I've got it. I like how these turned out. Still not light as air but definitely not the hard flour biscuits they were before. You can taste the pistachio throughout and it was the apricot supplying the sweetness this time. The chopped pistachios gave it a little tooth also. This is a good recipe to end this "series" on.


Pistachio & Apricot Muffins
even more remotely based on the Pistachio & Apricot recipe on page 274 of the 500 Cupcakes: The Only Cupcake Compendium You'll Ever Need by Fergal Connolly.

Makes 12 regular sized muffins

1 1/3 cups (8 oz) + enough for decorating dried apricots
4 tbsp. brandy
3 cups (12 3/4 oz) self-rising flour
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
3/4 cup buttermilk
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 cup (3 1/2 oz) + 1 oz. + enough for decorating shelled pistachios
3 Tbsp. honey
1 Tbsp. water

Give the apricots a rough chop and soak them in the brandy for about a hour. Preheat the oven to 350° F. Using a food processor, grind the 1 oz. of pistachios into a meal, as fine as you can get it. In a medium sized bowl, whisk the ground pistachios, flour, and baking powder together. Place the apricots and the brandy in a food processor and puree them until smooth. In another bowl, beat the eggs slightly to break up the yolks. Add the sugar, buttermilk, and the apricots and mix them together. Cut the butter into the flour mixture until it resembles breadcrumbs. Combine all the ingredients into the bowl with the flour and butter and stir until everything is just combined. Spoon the mixture evenly into baking cups. I use a 1/4 cup ice cream scoop to measure and place the batter in the cups. Decorate with a bit of apricot and some pistachios. Bake for 25 minutes, checking after about 20 minutes. These are done when a cake tester or toothpick comes out cleanly. Let sit in the pan for 5 minutes and then cool on a wire rack. While they are cooling, mix the honey and water and warm a bit to make it easier to combine. Brush a light coating of the glaze onto the muffins.


OK, all said and done, if I do make these again I would probably swap out the buttermilk for a full cup of whole milk. Oh, and I also started thinking the dryness comes not only from the amount of flour but dried apricots soaking up liquids which hindsight being 20/20, I should have thought of sooner. All right, I'll stop.

Chocolate Covered Espresso Cookies

I'm always scanning the other food blogs looking for something I think Lorrie will like. I saw these espresso cookies from alpineberry and I knew I had to make them for her. After finding them a month ago, I finally had the opportunity to make these last night and tonight. They were great. The original recipe was strong in the coffee flavor but not sweet. In my opinion they were more like a digestive biscuit from the UK than what Americans traditionally think a cookie is. That sounds worse than it is, it just means they are not sweet. I actually dislike super sweet and sugary and I found these very tasty right out of the oven. But a slight modification and use of the double boiler will up the sweetness level against the coffee flavor. I think I like these better than chocolate covered Oreos or Nutter Butters. These should be very popular when she brings them to work tomorrow!

I changed the recipe slightly. Dark brown sugar instead of light brown sugar gives them a little more sweetness and a darker color. I used white chocolate and added the ground espresso beans to the chocolate to give it a little grit, a little coffee flavor, and a speckled effect.

Chocolate Covered Espresso Cookies

(modified version of the ones Mary at alpineberry made which she adapted from Fine Cooking)

Makes about 28 cookies

4 ounces (1 stick) unsalted butter at room temperature

1/3 cup lightly packed dark brown sugar

1 tsp instant espresso powder

2 tsp water

2 tsp finely ground espresso beans

1 1/4 cups all purpose flour

1/8 tsp salt

enough white chocolate to cover 28 cookies

Dissolve the instant espresso powder in the water. Cream the butter and dark brown sugar together. Once it's well blended, add in the water and dissolved instant espresso powder and mix well. Finally add in the rest of the ingredients minus 1 tsp of the espresso beans until they are just mixed. Roll the dough into a log and then wrap in plastic wrap. Use the plastic wrap to form the dough into the log, it will be more consistent. The dough log should be about seven inches. Put in the refrigerator overnight and no more than a couple of days. Preheat the oven to 350° F. Cut the cookies from the dough, about 1/4 inch thick. Place on cookie sheet and bake for about 12-15 minutes. The cookies are done when the sides are brown and the cookies appear dry. Cool on a rack for about an hour. Melt the chocolate and add in the 1 tsp of the espresso beans. Dip the cookies, covering them with a thin layer of the chocolate. Place on wax paper and allow 10 minutes to set and then place in the refrigerator for another 10 minutes. Store in an airtight container in a cool place.

I'd like to say I made these in conjunction with the National Cookie Day but I didn't know yesterday was that until I saw a post about it on Cooking Is Medicine. Probably should have been more on top of that. By the way, it is also National Cookie Cutter Week so celebrate by helping me determine what these are!

And the winner is...

A few weeks back I asked for your help to Name this thing I made. Well the votes are tallied and the winner is: Nutter Scotch Haystacks!

Thanks to all those who voted and commented!

Also, I've noticed that there are a good number of people looking for recipes using chow mein noodles. Using this as a base, I have a couple of variations you can try.

• Replace the butterscotch chips with peanut butter chips and then drizzle with melted chocolate or top with marshmallows.
• Replace the butterscotch chips and peanut butter with 1-1/2 cups of chocolate chips and 2/3 cup of coconut.

My First Post at Sugar Savvy

My first post is up over at Sugar Savvy.



Peppermint Bark

Pistachio & Apricot Muffins, Take Two

Last month I tried a recipe for pistachio & apricot muffins that I didn't like. It was heavy on the flour and the muffins were dry. I liked the combo of pistachios and apricots so I vowed to try again. This past weekend I did.

Rather than go all nuts swapping out ingredients and changing quantities right away, I decided to change the recipe slightly. Instead of superfine sugar, I used honey. I did this to add sweetness but more importantly, moisture. The first batch was very dry and hard to mix together. This batch was still a little sticky but was much easier to fold the ingredients. So here is the changed recipe.

Pistachio & Apricot Muffins
based on the Pistachio & Apricot recipe on page 274 of the 500 Cupcakes: The Only Cupcake Compendium You'll Ever Need by Fergal Connolly.

Makes 16 regular sized muffins

1 1/3 cups (8 oz) dried apricots
4 tbsp. brandy
4 cups (17 oz) self-rising flour
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
3/4 cup honey
2 eggs
3/4 cup buttermilk
1/4 teas. + a pinch baking soda
1/2 cup (3 1/2 oz) shelled pistachios

Give the apricots a rough chop and soak them in the brandy for about a hour. Preheat the oven to 325° F. Remove the apricots from the brandy and puree them in a food processor until smooth. Some small chunks of apricot is fine. In a medium sized bowl, cut the butter into the flour until it resembles breadcrumbs and then dust with the additional baking soda. In another bowl, beat the eggs slightly to break up the yolks. Add the honey, buttermilk, and the apricots and mix them together. Combine all the ingredients into the bowl with the flour and butter and stir until everything is just combined. Spoon the mixture evenly into baking cups. I use a 1/4 cup ice cream scoop to measure and place the batter in the cups. Bake for 20-25 minutes, checking after about eighteen minutes. These are done when a cake tester or toothpick comes out cleanly.

These turned out better. The muffins rose more while baking and weren't so dense. Still, they are not light and fluffy. You could taste the apricots and honey but it still had a slight flour taste. These were also sweeter than the previous batch. The taste does improve with age. Lorrie mentioned the picture looks like a jalapeno corn muffin and while that definitely doesn't describe the flavor, that observation is spot-on to the feel and texture of this muffin.

But I think I can do better, maybe next time I'll try reducing the flour. Check back after the holiday season for the next episode of what is now becoming a regular series, Pistachio & Apricot Muffins.

Also, I know the name is Cookies, Et Cetera so you'd think there would be more cookies on this site. Well, all I can say is they're coming. I may have been focusing on the 'et cetera' part for a little bit but in December I will definitely be baking more cookie recipes and sharing them here.

Peppermint Bark

Every year around this time the number of catalogs in my mailbox explodes. Catalogs for fruit, nuts, paper, teddy bears, flowers, you name it, they have a catalog and they will send it to you for free. I even received a catalog this year for English muffins. English muffins! After checking out all of the things they have to offer, I am always amazed at the prices of everything knowing that people order out of these catalogs all the time. If they didn’t, there wouldn’t be a catalog dedicated to English muffins. I understand that. But still many of the things they offer for $25-$30 plus shipping and handling are easy to make and giving something homemade instead of out of a catalog just makes the gift that much more special.

Peppermint bark is one of those things. There are tons of different variations of peppermint bark. Most center on crushed peppermint candies in white chocolate or white candy coating. A few more will include peppermint extract. These recipes are good but it doesn't take that much more work to turn this into a treat people will rave about. The peppermint bark I make has two layers of chocolate plus peppermint extract and is topped with crushed candy canes. I like this recipe because of the combination of chocolate and peppermint. Most barks made with white candy coating or white almond bark have vanilla flavoring that you may or may not be able to taste. This recipe balances the peppermint flavor with the chocolate, you will taste both. Also, the dark and white layers plus the crushed candies looks cool and professional. People will think you ordered it from a catalog.

I also like this recipe because it is very easy to change. The bottom layer of chocolate can be anything you want: dark, semisweet, milk, etc. You can add more or less peppermint extract. The crushed peppermint candies can be put in between the layers or swirled in the white chocolate. Flip the dark and white layers or make it in a pan half the size and cut the thicker bark into smaller, bite-size pieces. You can do anything you want to make this recipe your own.

Peppermint Bark

Makes just under 2 lbs of candy

1 lb (16 oz.) chocolate (I use dark)
12 oz. white chocolate
3/4 tsp. peppermint extract
Ten 6-inch candy canes

Bring water to a boil in the bottom of a double boiler. There should be some space between the water and the upper portion of the double boiler. In the meantime, line the bottom of an 11′ by 17′ or similarly sized cookie sheet with sides with aluminum foil or wax paper. Once the water is boiling remove it from the heat and replace the top of the double boiler. Put about 3/4’s of the chocolate in the double boiler first and melt until it is smooth. Add in the rest of the chocolate and 1/2 tsp. of the peppermint extract. Stir until all the chunks have melted. Pour the melted chocolate into the lined cookie sheet and spread so the thickness is just under a quarter of an inch. Let the chocolate sit for a moment so it cools slightly and then place the cookie sheet in the refrigerator for 20 minutes. While the first layer chills, crush the candy canes. I usually start with ten 6-inch candy canes. If this is not enough for coverage, you can always do more. The size of the broken candy canes should be about the size of a pea. Take the bottom layer of chocolate out of the refrigerator so it warms slightly before the second layer is applied. Again boil water in the bottom of the double boiler. Clean out the upper portion of the double boiler with hot water only, no soap, and dry thoroughly. Once the water is boiling, remove it from the heat and put the top of the double boiler back on it. Place 3/4’s of the white chocolate into the double boiler and stir until it is melted. Add the remaining white chocolate and 1/4 tsp. of peppermint extract and stir until smooth. Pour this evenly over the first layer of chocolate. This layer will be thinner than the first. Sprinkle the top with the pieces of crushed candy canes. Again let it sit for ten minutes before placing it in the refrigerator to set. After an hour the bark should be ready to be broken into pieces. Store in an airtight container in a cool place or freeze. Allow it to come to room temperature before serving.

Just a note on crushing the peppermint candies. I place the candy canes in a freezer bag and use a hammer to break them to the size I want. It’s fun to take out your frustrations and beat the bag of candies against the counter top as some sources recommend but I don’t. First, I've found this method doesn’t break the candies evenly and you use more (and waste more) candies. The other issue I have is the broken candies tear even the stronger freezer bags and by the third hit, clouds of powdered peppermint candies are covering the counter top. Using a hammer or meat tenderizer will allow you to control how the candies break and avoid serious clean-up.

As posted at Sugar Savvy.

Name this thing I made

The holidays are coming up and I am starting to plan what I'm making for gifts. I won't repeat exactly the same stuff as last year, I want to do a few new things. One item I plan on doing is chocolate covered nut clusters. First, I wanted a test batch to play around with. Work out things like how am I going to drop them, onto what, does that fit into the fridge, etc. Things I don't want to figure out the day of while trying to bake a batch of cookies too. Plus I wanted to try out different flavors and textures. I know chocolate and nuts go together but what else could work. Growing up I remember seeing these sea urchin-like things on cookie and candy platters. You know what I'm talking about, the dried chow mein noodles covered in chocolate and dropped in a spiny cluster. After randomly perusing one of my cookbooks, I ran across a recipe for something similar using butterscotch chips and peanut butter. They called them Butterscotch Haystacks. I know peanut butter is popular with the people regularly test my creations (Lorrie's coworkers) so I modified the recipe so the focus was the peanut butter.

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based on the Butterscotch Haystack Recipe on page 444 of the The King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion: The Essential Cookie Cookbook

Makes about 36 pieces

3/4 cup (4 1/2 oz) butterscotch chips
3/4 cup (7 1/8 oz) smooth peanut butter
4 1/2 cups (7 7/8 oz) dried chow mein noodles (make sure you have ones that are in decent condition)

First place sheets of wax paper on two 9x13 inch cookie sheets or similar low sided pans. Then combine the butterscotch chips and peanut butter in a large saucepan. Place over low heat. You don't need to drag the double boiler out for this if you stir regularly. Once the mixture is smooth and the color is consistent throughout, carefully add the chow mein noodles. Stir until the noodles are fully covered. A gentle hand is needed because the harder you stir, the more snaps and cracks you will hear. Breaking the chow mein noodles is bad. Nobody wants to eat a chunky, bumpy, peanut butter noodle ball. Nobody. Use two spoons to form the noodle pile, for lack of a better term, and place on the wax paper. Pop these into the refrigerator until they're set and then store in an airtight container.

Biting into one of these gave a definite crunch, which I liked. I hate biting into chocolate-coated pretzels rods and oops, no crunch. Stale. A thorough coating prevents this. The peanut butter taste was dominate, but good. The butterscotch made its presence known in the aftertaste and seemed to add a richness to the peanut butter.

Once they were done and packed, it was time to name them. I was still stuck in the Northwoods theme from the muffins so my initial attempt was 'Peanut Butterscotch Beaver Dams'. See how the 'Peanut Butter' and 'Butterscotch' were combined in a little word flow, nice right? But this seemed very long and I wanted a name that didn't take longer to say than it did to actually eat one. Lorrie and I batted around ideas but nothing stuck.

Lorrie took them to work the next day and held a contest: Name This Treat. She gave them some choices and let them vote. So that's what I am going to do here as well.

Here are your choices:

• Beaver Dams


• Nutter Dams


• Candy Dams


• Nutter Scotchies


• Nutter Scotch Pixies


• Nutter Scotch Haystacks


• Nutterscotch Stacks


• Nutter Nests


• P&L Pullaparts

So vote early and often in the comments. If you have a different suggestion, that's fine too.

Northwoods Bran Muffins

On a typical day my breakfast is a muffin from the cafeteria at work. Nothing too fancy, a bran muffin, maybe a cranberry one. This past Sunday I was paging through my King Arthur Flour Baker's Companioncookbook, looking to see if was anything a little healthier to make when I stumbled on a recipe for raisin bran muffins. This sounded pretty good to me so I made a shopping list and went about my business. Later when I was getting ready to make the muffins I mentioned to Lorrie what I was making and she suggested cranberries instead of raisins (she hates them). I had already planned to modify the recipe so this wasn't a big deal. We called these Northwoods bran muffins because maple syrup and cranberries are two things that the northwoods of Wisconsin are known for.

This post is part of Cate's ARF/5-A-Day Tuesday round-up of recipes that use antioxident rich foods at Sweetnicks.

Northwoods Bran Muffins
based on the Raisin Bran Muffins recipe on page 72 of the The King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion: The All-Purpose Baking Cookbook

Makes 12 regular sized muffins

1 cup milk (I used whole)
1/3 cup (2 3/8 oz) vegetable oil
2 large eggs
3/4 cup maple syrup (from Wisconsin actually)
3/4 cup (1 1/2 oz) wheat bran
1/2 cup (1 3/4 oz) old-fashioned rolled oats
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt (I used earth salts)
1 1/4 cups (6 1/2 oz) + 1 tablespoon whole wheat flour (I used 100% organic)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup (3 oz) dried cranberries

Preheat the oven at 425 degrees Fahrenheit. Combine the milk, oil, eggs, and maple syrup. Add the wheat bran and oats and set aside for about 15 minutes. In another bowl combine the flour, salt, cinnamon, and baking powder; whisk thoroughly. If needed, give the cranberries a rough chop so they are about the same size as raisins. Fold the dry ingredients and the cranberries into the soaking bran and oat mixture. Dish out into muffin cups and bake for about 15 minutes. These are done when a cake tester comes out cleanly.

I like these muffins but I wasn't prepared for the taste when I first tried them. I had the sugary, cakey muffins they sell at work in my mind and these are definitely not that type of muffin. It was the whole wheat taste that threw me. Also these are not sugary. If you want sweeter it would probably be safe to put another 1/4 cup of maple syrup and/or another 1/4 cup or so of cranberries without having to adjust the flour in the recipe. Lorrie brought these to work and a coworker (who was unable to have some of the other sugar-laden creations I sent in for dietary reasons) enjoyed these immensely.

I am also very happy to be sharing my first recipe.

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These muffins also appeared at Just Baking.