Vanilla Shortbread Cookies

Here in the Chicagoland area we have had the first few days of fall.  Cool days cold nights and it has been downright blustery!  To me the beginning of Fall is really the beginning of baking season.  I don't know if any of you remember but in April I made a big deal of running around and finding fresh vanilla beans to make my own Vanilla extract.  So if you want to break it down I spent $21.00 and 7 months to make a six ounce bottle of Vanilla extract.

Was it worth it? you ask.  I think that I can safely say YES! Thank you Fork one!  What I did was go to Whole Foods and pick up some Vanilla beans then put them it a cute little bottle of vodka and let them sit in my cupboard since April 29.  You can see how much it has cured over the months...

Today I pulled it out of the cupboard and made shortbread cookies.  I wanted to have the simplest recipe possible so that I could taste my hand made Vanilla.

Shortbread cookies:

1 cup all purpose Flour
2 TBS corn starch
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup + 2 TBS Brown Sugar
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter (room temperature)
2 TBS granulated sugar
1 tsp Vanilla extract

Sift together the first 3 ingredients.  In another bowl mix Brown Sugar, Butter, Sugar and Vanilla.  Beat until well blended.  Then add the dry ingredients a little at a time beating until smooth.  Once it is well blended roll into a log about 6 inches long, wrap in plastic and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.  Before you take it out preheat an oven to 325 then cut the cookies about 1/4 inch thick and put on the baking sheet.  Bake for about 18-10 minutes, rotate the pan at least a couple of times.

How did it work out?  In a word great!  The cookies were a great showcase for the ingredients although I may have tasted the butter a little more than the Vanilla I can't say that is all bad.

Apple Dumplings

The seasons are changing here in the Midwest, I always have trouble with the in between seasons, one day I want to make something light and summery like chilled asparagus with a citrus vinaigrette the next I want to roast root vegetables in a balsamic glaze.  Last week it was cool all week we went from running the air conditioner early in the week to turning the heat on in the middle of the night on Wednesday.  I got my mind set on a slow brazed dinner cooked for several hours followed by Apple Dumplings.  Of course the weather was absolutely beautiful this weekend; Sunday was sunny and 80 degrees.  Being stubborn I stuck with it... the house was a little warm when I finished, but smelled WONDERFUL, the meal started with slow cooked brisket and ended with my first attempt at apple dumplings.  I made three... that is one for me, one for Kris and one for the kiddos to look at.*

Apple dumplings are today's post, the ingredients:

for the dough:

1 Cup all purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 TBS of granulated sugar

pinch of salt

3 TBS butter cut into small bits

1/4 cup milk

for the filling:

2 small Granny Smith apples peeled, cored and diced

1 lunch box pack of raisins (you know the little 1.5 oz boxes that your mom made you eat)

1/4 cup toasted bread crumbs

1/4 cup packed brown sugar

1 TBS butter melted

1/4 tsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 425

For the dough, sift the first 4 ingredients together.  Then add the butter I like to use my fingers to work it together until you get the texture of course meal (or the look of wet sand).  then add the milk and mix with a fork until moistened.  Turn out dough onto a floured surface and kneed a few times until just mixed (this is a biscuit dough if you over work it you will have a tough crust).  Then roll it out, I rolled mine into a long flat thing so I could cut it into 5 or 6 inch squares.

To make the dumplings, mix the filling together then divide among the squares.  Pull the four corners of each square up and pinch then seal the edges.  Transfer to your baking pan then brush the tops with milk and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.

Bake these guys for about 25 minutes.

*The kiddos look at any new recipe with distrust... this is actually adapted from a recipe for 6 but I knew that there was no way I was going to use 6 of them.  In fact the one that the kids looked at then ignored I had for breakfast the next day.

I'm Back

Ok a bit of an unscheduled break there, sorry loyal readers I was incapacitated for a while.  It all started on Wednesday morning after I had called into work sick (I never take time off sick) Kris asked me how I felt.  My answer was, "Let's add sharp shooting pains in my side to the list of symptoms."  Yes folks it was appendicitis and since I don't do things half way it had already burst so I was really out of it for a while.  After five days in the hospital and several more at home I am feeling, not well, but better and bored to death.  

So what is a bored foodie to do while off work for another several days?  Well bake... for two reasons 1. baking yeast bread is something that I am able to do, you know mix stuff together, let it sit for an hour press it down let it sit for an hour, works well for me this week.  2. Baking bread has always been relaxing for me kind of like yoga only I don't wake up sore the next day.

My first baking venture was actually something that I started almost a month ago Sourdough,  from a starter.  I won't go into the rules of making a starter, I did find a website that was very simple and helpful.  The author makes a comment along the line of "does this all sound brain-dead simple, that's because it is people who thought the earth was flat did this for a thousand years."  

I found it to be as easy as he said, the morning that I made my first loaf of sourdough I put all of my starter (growing since June 5th) into a glass bowl covered it and let it sit on the counter for about 5 hours until it was all foamy and started to smell like old beer.  I know it sounds like a great way to start food but work with me here once that was all ready I made the bread dough:

2 Cups of sponge (fancy-pants word for proofed starter)

1 1/2 cup bread flour

1 1/2 cup wheat flour

2 TBS belted butter

4 tsp sugar

2 tsp salt

Mixed those ingredients together and put them into a clean glass bowl for about 3 more hours until it proofed after it had about doubled in size I kneaded that down, formed it into a ball and put it on a baking pan to rise again for about 3 more hours.  Altogether is was a bit of a commitment I am happy that I did my first one on a day that I was home alone.

After this rise I put it into a cold oven then turned it on to 350 for about 45 minutes, until it made a hollow sound when I knocked on the crust.  Over all this was a good experiment the bread was good, next time I think I will trust my instincts and add a little more flour to stiffen it up.  The bread is light but like sourdough has a nice weight to it.  I am happy with this one

 

here it is with a little olive tapenade ready for lunch

Key-lime Pie

Every year I see them sitting at the produce stand, usually inexpensive always beautiful, I look at them and think, I really should figure out how to make Key-lime Pie... how hard can it be? Then I tell myself that I will look up a recipe and come back and pick some up. Then I go home, some years I start to look for a recipe, some I don't, always a few days later when I go back to the store to pick up the limes and they are gone.

Apparently the Key-lime season is about 4 days long, it seems that one day there are hundreds of pounds of the tart little buggers in every store then there are none to be found. Anyway this year I turned the tables on fate a little bit, I went to my regular produce store and saw them 2 pounds for $ .99 I jumped over a small crowd of people and grabbed a couple of bags and ran. This year I was going to make it happen, so I took my Key-Limes and went home to study....

I found a couple of recipes and thought, "no... this can't be right?!?" then continued to look, wow this is simple! for all of the mystery that people put behind this dessert it really is the epitome of the Florida Keys *relaxed, laid back, easy going, tart and sassy. There are very few ingredients and it is easier to make than Rice Krispy Treats. I almost feel guilty passing this one along.

Pre-heat oven to 350

The Crust

1 cup graham cracker crumbs from 8 graham crackers

2 tablespoons sugar

5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted 

Begin by chopping the graham crackers in a food processor until fine, then add the butter and sugar and mix. Press into a pie pan until you have it evenly coated. Pop that into the oven for about 10 minutes to toast while you make the filling

 Miss Lu was cool here she juiced about 20 of these little 

buggers.  They don't make a Key lime press so we stuffed

parts into a lemon juicer 3-4 at a time.

The Filling

1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk

4 egg yolks

1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons juice from about 20 Key-Limes

Mix the filling all together in a bowl then scrape into the crust and bake for 15 minutes.  When the time is up take it out to cool on the counter for a few minutes then cover and refrigerate overnight (or at least 8 hours).  There you have it.  

When the time comes top with a little whipped cream and you are ready to go.  Now I have mentioned before that pastry isn't really my thing here is an example I don't have a pastry bag or tips (don't bake much) so I piped the whipped cream out of a zip lock bag with one corner cut out.  That isn't that strangest thing though, my beaters had mashed potatoes on them from earlier so I tried beating the cream buy hand (with a wire whip) but quickly ran out of steam.  This is the contraption I came up with for whipping cream... yeah it worked.  Plus it got a laugh out of the visiting parents.

*Oh and I don't know that people from the Keys are actually "easy going, tart or sassy," but it sounded good to me.

Madeleines

I have a dealer... there is a guy that comes by my work every few days, he is a quiet guy, he will see me and kind of lean in, pause for a moment while he looks both ways.  "Bryan, I got some new stuff in," he always speaks kind of quietly,  "this batch looks pretty good too."   "When you have a minute meet me over at my regular table."  My conversations with him started very surface and non-committal he told me about some of the jobs that he used to have, some of the things that he has done in his life, The kinds of things that he does now to keep his inventory up.  Then one day he asked if I wanted to try some...

Being adventurous I said "Sure, what da ya got?"  He said that he would drop buy the next day and show me, he had some unusual choices the first time, unusual enough to get me hooked...  the "Ginnie and Geneva Cook Book" based on a series of children's stories and "A food Lovers Companion" a strange collection of food related quotes, poetry, short stories and recipes written in the70s. 

Yes folks, I have a Cook Book Dealer.  He stops by often and brings me some of the stuff that he picks up at estate sales, yard sales and dumpsters, I don't know where he gets them all but know better than to ask.  It seems that his passion is keeping books of all kinds alive so he finds them and donates them to hospitals or leaves them in Doctor's waiting rooms, now I am on his list.  Sometimes the choices are downright bizarre once I picked up a copy of a cook book simply called "Vegetarian Cooking"  a book written half in Mandarin and Half in broken English.  This one has recipes that help you recreate Eel dishes using Mung Beans and Black Mushrooms just in case the idea of giving up Eel was the only thing keeping you from switching to a strict vegetarian diet.  Other times he has come across great finds, one of those was "Savoring Provence," really a coffee table book filled with pictures of rural France along with rustic menus and recipes but once the $36.00 cover price is out of the way (along with the fear of splattering eggs all over the pages) it is a good reference book.

I have had a pan for Madeleines in the back of my cupboard for years, at least the guy at the antique store that I bought it from said it would work.  Miss Lu and I decided to try those for the first time this weekend the recipe (well actually the picture on page 230) got our attention.

Madeleines:

Pre-heat oven to 375

5 TSP Unsalted Butter at room temperature

1/3 cup Powdered Sugar

2 tsp Brown Sugar

Pinch of Kosher Salt

1 TBL Honey

1/2 Cup plus 2 TBS Flour

1 tsp Baking Powder

2 Eggs

Zest from one Orange

In a large bowl beat the butter and both sugars until smooth then add the salt and honey, beat until smooth.  In another bowl mix the Flour and Baking Powder.  Add the eggs one at a time to the butter sugar mixture then the Orange Zest.  Once those are fully incorperated start adding the flour and baking soda slowly and mix well.  Once the batter is mixed grease and flour a Madeleine pan then spoon the batter into the individual molds.   Bake for about 8-9 minutes until they start to brown a little at the edges then take out of the pan to cool and add a sprinkle of powdered sugar.

How were they? 

The reviews are mixed I liked them, they were sweet without being too much and very light.  Miss Lu said they were "funny," Kris thought the Orange rind was a bit much and Mr. Man ate four of the "little cakes" while he told us they weren't very good.   You can decide yourself.  Oh and the shape of this pan didn't work very well, so I guess I will look for a real Madeleine pan before I give this another try.

Lace Cookies

Ok there is something special when there is a shell to crack with your dessert creme brule is wonderful not only because of the smooth creamy custard, but the burnt sugar shell makes it a little like opening a present. Today, one of those many days off that I have between now an 2010, I made lace cookies. Kris described them best when I gave her one, "it's like peanut brittle only it tastes good." Like my lovely bride, I have never been a fan of the church craft fair peanut brittle that for some reason people thought was an actual treat when I was a kid. It was always thick heavy, tooth breaking hard and filled with the awful Spanish peanuts that my grandmother's friends favored.

When these cookies came out of the oven they looked like little bits of stained glass and tasted as light and delicate as the sunshine that passed through them. They are airy and crisp with the sweet crunch of caramelized sugar with the light touch of shaved almonds. However these cookies weren't going to be served alone (though they are really good, I stashed about 10 away for me later) these were to be made into crispy sugary bowls for Ice Cream... chocolate of course. .

Start by heating the oven to 350 then mix the ingredients:
1/2 cup Brown Sugar
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup corn syrup
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup flour
1/2 cup sliced almonds
pinch of kosher salt

Put the first four ingredients into a small sauce pan over a low flame and stir until smooth, remove from heat and add the flour, almonds and just a pinch of salt then stir until blended. Here is where this recipe turns cool! let the batter cool for a few minutes then take it out a scant tablespoon at a time and put them two at a time on greased parchment on a cookie sheet. Put the cookie sheet into the oven for about 7-8 minutes, I found it worked better if I left them in a little longer than I thought I should. The cookies will be about 5 inch amorphous shapes; thin, lacy and delicate when done.

To make them into cookies take them out of the oven and set aside to cool. When they are cool enough to handle set them aside on another sheet of parchment to harden. To make them into the delicate dessert vessel that they were meant to be pull them off the greased parchment when they are still too hot to handle and form them over the bottom of a small bowl (these are 4 ounce tempered glass dishes for custard) then let them harden there. If you get a little burn just suck it up it is worth it in the end.

These are painted with chocolate... I know you were just thinking that these couldn't possibly get any better, but they do... I melted a Hershey's Chocolate Bar and 1/2 of a 12 oz bag of chocolate chips in a double boiler until very soft then used a fork to drizzle one of God's perfect foods on top of the lacy bowls and the cookies that I set aside for myself. Here they are.

Blueberry Muffins

When my in-laws were here last time my mother in-law brought us some wild blueberries I used some that day in the Brandy and Blueberry Demi Glace. It was really good, but only went with the Duck that Kris wasn't going to eat (she and her mom had chicken). Then she suggested that I make something that everybody would eat with the rest of the blueberries that she picked. So I put them into the freezer and left them for weeks because after duck sauce what do you use blueberries for?

I mention often that pastry isn't my thing, it is too precise. I treat a recipe as a list of suggestions that worked well for someone else; when you get to using leaveners of any sort you really have to measure. Against my better judgment I decided to make Blueberry muffins during my few days off. first off I pulled out the old McCall's Cookbook, I assume that I got it from my mom, it was printed in 1963 the cover is mostly intact but the pages are brittle and yellow with age, the binding is altogether gone but it has the treasured flapjack recipe and one for banana bread that I use along with about 5 others inside it's 1000 pages so I can't let it go. Yesterday morning I got up early and followed, to the letter, the Blueberry Muffin recipe. It took about 45 minutes from beginning until I pulled them out of the oven. They resembled hockey pucks in every way but color and couldn't have tasted worse if I had made them using sawdust and other sweepings from the garage floor instead of flour and sugar.

Look at them... hard dry blech!



OK stubborn as I can be when everybody went to bed last night I started searching the Internet for another recipe, you know the kind that you can actually eat. Then I actually had to read reviews because I only have today off before I am expected back at work. Anyway I did find one with 35 reviews and a 4.5 star rating! So again this morning while my coffee was brewing I made another batch of Blueberry Muffins (from allrecipes.com):

1 1/2 cup sifted Flour
3/4 cup Sugar
1/2 tsp Kosher Salt
2 tsp Baking Powder
1/3 cup Vegetable Oil
1 Egg
1/3 cup (about) Milk
1 cup frozen Blueberries

Topping:
1/2 cup Sugar
1/3 cup Flour
1/4 cup Butter
1 1/2 tsp Cinnamon

Preheat oven to 400 and grease muffin tin

Mix all ingredient for the topping together your fingers until pea sized crumbly bits form and set aside.

Combine dry ingredients then in a 1 cup measuring cup put 1/3 cup Vegetable Oil, 1 Egg then fill with milk to make 1 cup. Add that to the dry ingredients then mix until almost blended then add the Blueberries and fold.

Fill the Muffin cups to the top (I wanted mine to look like the Muffins at Starbucks only without the $5.95 price tag) then top with the topping blend.

Turns out that is about 4 times the amount of topping that you actually need if you want to cut it back that is fine you do the math, I have done enough with measuring today.

When these came out of the oven they were wonderful, they tasted lovely, the were light and fluffy and the house smelled like it should after baking not like yesterday when the kitchen smelled almost like the day I set the spatula on fire.

Apple Shortbread Bars

With the several trips to the farmer's market that I have taken with the kiddos for Jack O Lanterns and other pumpkin products we have picked up several Apples. Once after we all picked out our pumpkins I was looking at the other produce when I looked back at Mr. Man and he was taking apples one at a time out of baskets, licking them and setting them on the gingham covered table (Mr. Man is 3 by the way). Two thoughts quickly went through my head since he wasn't biting them but only licking; the first, maybe I can put them all back before anyone notices... the second why are you licking an apple?!?

I then thought of picking up an apple that some other kid had done the same to and decided to purchase the ones that he had defiled so we came home from that visit with Jonathan, Gala, Macintosh and Granny Smith apples. So now you are thinking. "Is Bryan one of those parents that lets his kids run wild or is his son a really fast licker?" Neither... both, I don't know, in my defence I bought some non-licked apples so once I got home I could pretend the apple that I was eating was of the non-slobbered variety.

As happens with produce after a while on the counter I had already lost a couple and would be losing more soon so I decided that I had to use them up. I poked around and found a recipe on Epicurious to work from:

3 slices of bread ground into crumbs

for Shortbread Base

11/2 sticks Unsalted Butter

2 cups All Purpose Flour

1/2 cup Brown Sugar

1/2 tsp Salt

for Apple Topping

1 1/4 Sticks Butter Melted

2 Pounds Tart Apples

2/3 cup Granulated Sugar

2 TBS Flour

Toast the breadcrumbs at 350 for about 5 minutes, they should just cover the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking pan, then set them aside for later, leave the oven on.

To make the shortbread crust put the Flour, Salt and Brown Sugar into a mixing bowl then slice the cold butter into the mix about a tsp at a time blend until it forms small lumps. I used a mixer, a food processor would work too. Evenly coat the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking pan and press it down lightly. Bake for about 20 minutes until golden brown.

To make the topping set the 1 1/4 sticks butter on the stove to melt then peel and core apples then cut into quarters and slice them thin. I used 5 apples 2 Granny Smith, 2 Gala 1 Jonathan (all medium sized) that may or may not be the ideal varieties, but it is what I had on the counter. When you take the crust out of the oven sprinkle 1/2 the sugar flour mix on top put the sliced apples on that, sprinkle the rest of the sugar flour mix on them. Here I added a sprinkle of cinnamon you can if you want. Top all of this with bread crumbs then drizzle the melted butter on top of the whole thing.

Put it back in the oven and bake for 50 minutes maybe a little longer. About 1/2 way through you will want to pull it out and press the filling down with a spatula to even it out. Cool for about 20 minutes.

I don't say this often, ok maybe I do, but I really mean it this time. This is sooo good, if you only make one recipe that I have blabbered on about this is the one! My house smelled like angels came in and kissed the oven and it tasted wonderful. Kris was going to give some to the neighbor so we don't just end up fat in my house, she was going to start working on the whole block. Then decided that she would share something else.