cinnamon toast french toast + book preview Guys, I wrote a cookbook. When I was 32 weeks pregnant in the summer of 2009 (in fact, this was overflowing on my kitchen counter during my first meeting across town) and should have been doing normal third trimester things like eating jars of Peanutella by the spoonful and repainting the baseboard trim (which still looks awful, not that this will surprise you), I instead decided that I really wanted to write a cookbook. Because new mothers are swimming in free time (“new babies are always sleeping!”), I thought I would finish the book in six months; nine, tops. Stop laughing. Two and three-quarter years later, the “baby” is 2 1/2, I am the proud owner of 2 1/2 gray hairs and, oh, right: The book is done. First, this above? The book has a back cover too. There’s so much more. And as of today, the book is officially available for preorder from just about every online seller: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Books-A-Million | Indiebound | Powell’sOther U.S. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.
cold rice noodles with peanut-lime chicken If you told me a week ago that I would willingly adding cold chicken to cold noodles and call it a meal, a meal I’d eat enthusiastically, I’d think you had lost your mind. The various intersections of cold chicken and cold pasta are littered with foods I’d rather forget, such as those macaroni salads with shredded, overcooked chicken, suspiciously squicked together with mayo in a clear plastic take-out container of dubious expiration at the nearest corner deli. Hey, who’s hungry? Probably not you anymore! But in David Tanis able kitchen (and I hope you’re following his City Kitchen column each week as eagerly as I do) chicken is marinated with a potent mix of ginger, garlic, lime juice and fish sauce before being flash-grilled or broiled and then cooled and roughly chopped. The thing is, the dish as written is fantastic. But there was too much good in the bowl not to share it you, so I trimmed and trimmed. About page: I recently realized that the photos on my About page were from 2008.
Chocolate Gooey Butter Cookies Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a large bowl with an electric mixer, cream the cream cheese and butter until smooth. Beat in the egg. Tartelette I don't know if you are like me but I seem to have two kinds of shopping trips. There is the "quickie", as in quickly in and quickly out (depending who's in front at the cash register) to get a couple of items I may have forgotten for dinner or something. The second kind, my favorite, is the one in which I have my baking plans carefully thought with a list of ingredients necessary and where I have and take the time to perouse the aisles checking out new products, picking up, touching, smelling fruits and vegetables, talking with the fish guy or my salad guy. I had a difficult time settling on one and I promised myself to try the others fairly soon,as they look and sound so tempting: Pierre Herme's Lemon Cream tart, Fresh Orange Cream Tart, Creamiest Lime Cream Meringue Pie, Florida Pie,....and the one chosen today: Tartest Lemon Tart. I decided to make individual tarts and changed the ingredients only very slightly. Here is the recipe, adapted from Dorie Greenspan.
cranberry-orange breakfast buns – smitten kitchen When my husband had a bit of, uh, bonus awesome free time on his hands this summer, he got into the curious habit of running while not being chased*, which led to him taking part in his first 5K a few weeks ago. To celebrate, we had people over for a little New York brunch (that is, bagels and lox, no, not homemade, not when they’re this good) back at our apartment, and, still trying to dig out from under our overzealous apple-picking, I made apple cinnamon buns. I didn’t think they were a big deal; I mean, they were good, just your standard cinnamon bun with two apples, diced small, scattered over the filling but it turns out, you cannot causally mention homemade apple cinnamon buns on the internet without causing a RECIPE PLEASE ruckus. I should know this. Please, just stop what you were doing and make these now. Put them in the fridge, bake them off for breakfast tomorrow, I can assure you: only good things will come of this. Yield: 12 buns. [Don’t have a stand mixer? Many notes:
Grandma Billie's Cinnamon Rolls DOUGH: 1/2 cup shortening 1 cup milk 1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast 1/2 cup warm water (105 to 110 degrees F) 3 large eggs 1/2 cup granulated sugar 1 teaspoon salt 5 to 6 cups all-purpose flour FILLING: 3/4 cup butter (1 1/2 sticks), softened granulated white sugar light brown sugar Ground cinnamon GLAZE: 1 cup powdered sugar, sifted 1 to 2 Tablespoons milk 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract 1. In a small saucepan, heat shortening and milk until shortening is melted. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. *The temperature of the water to mix with the yeast is important. flag cake Last year, I brought a flag cake to a 4th of July rooftop barbecue. Earlier in the week, I’d harbored fantasies about making an elaborate ice cream cake or layered berry yogurt popsicles or salads teetering on the edge of food safety standards but New York City, as it always seems to be in the first week of July, was at the crest of a week-plus of ever-increasing temperatures and stickiness, a summit where it tends to linger for a few even more airless days before finally releasing the thunder and lightening, sinking the mercury back to a brief day or two of something resembling temperate before it starts the climb again. What, me? No fan of NYC summers? Where would you get such an idea? (This is also the time of year, every year, where I break my please-don’t-be-so-dull-as-to-complain-about-the-weather-Deb rule. Of course, I didn’t listen. Flag Cake If you have access to white raspberries, you can use them for the “white” stripes instead of powdering the raspberries.
Gravity of Motion: Mocha Chip (Nut Free) Biscotti I love coffee (big surprise, right?) and I really enjoy biscotti. Have you ever tried to find a nut-free biscotti? It is hard to find. Mocha Chip (Nut Free) Biscotti 2 cups all-purpose flour1 teaspoon baking powder6 tablespoons butter (or margarine), softened3/4 cup sugar2 eggs1 teaspoon vanilla1 tablespoon instant coffee granules1/2 cup miniature semi-sweet chocolate chips Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Form each half into a 7 by 2 inch log. Bake 30 minutes. Carefully remove logs to cutting board. Arrange slices upright in pan, about 1 inch apart. To drizzle with chocolate, microwave 1/3 cup miniature semi-sweet chocolate chipes and 2 tablespoons butter or margarine on high 1 minute; stir. My recipe notes: I did not have miniature chocolate chips so I just chopped up some regular chocolate chips. Check out other wonderful recipes at Balancing Beauty and Bedlam.
Lemon Meringue Cookies If the dream fairies are taking requests, tonight I’d like my dreams to include: the bright green grass of a perfectly manicured baseball field. first kisses. lemonade so cold and tart it almost hurts my teeth. … maybe a waterfall… that might be nice. … the sound of my aunt dede humming to herself? and perhaps these lemon cookies, cold… from the freezer. I rarely put in dream requests, but I’m feeling rather particular tonight. These cookies: little dreams… I swear to it. Light meringues are infused with lemon zest and vanilla and baked until crisp and dry. I used this tip and a piping bag to make little meringue star cookies. I piped 50 stars between two sheets. These cookies bake in a low low oven for 2 hours. Citrus curd… Hello! So easy to make. … or whatever. The hardest part about making curd is straining it through a fine mesh strainer… and we both know that’s no effort at all. Oh, wait. Lemon bottom. Sandwiched together, they’re the perfect bite. Humidity will effect the meringues. Oh!
better chocolate babka – smitten kitchen Inadvertently, this has become Festivus week on Smitten Kitchen, wherein I air my grievances at past recipes and exhibit what I hope can be passed off as “feats of strength” in reformulating them for modern times. Still, nobody could more surprised than I am that of all the recipes in the archives, it’s Martha Stewart’s decadent chocolate babkas from seven years ago that have ended up in this queue, because at the time we found them beyond reproach: rich, buttery, crumbly and intensely chocolaty. They were precisely what we’d remembered getting from the store growing up, but better, I mean, I’d hope they’d be. Clocking in at 3/4 pound of semisweet chocolate and almost a cup of butter per loaf, the recipe in fact uses triple this (2.25 pounds of chocolate! This high holiday season, however, I decided to audition a different chocolate babka — the stunning, twisty, glossy chocolate krantz cakes that I imagine have tempted anyone that’s opened Ottolenghi’s Jerusalem cookbook.
No Yeast Cinnamon Rolls No Yeast Cinnamon Rolls If cinnamon rolls were kinder to my thighs and my love handles, I’d surely bake them often and nibble little cinnamon roll nibbles until my heart was content. Cinnamon rolls are a rather huge favorite of mine. I baked mine in a muffin tin… for no particular reason except that I just wanted to keep them intact and not spreading out all over Kansas and Oklahoma. These lovelies are made just the way a regular cinnamon roll is made. The dough is very soft to work with. A peek at the roll. I dropped mine into greased muffin tins. They bake up kind of muffin-like (but not muffiny in texture- they’re a bread texture instead). Cream cheese frosting (or a glaze of some sort) is a must. Get wild and crazy with your frosting designs, or just spread it on top of the cinnamon rolls like a normal human being would. Here’s a peek at the inside too- you can see that the cinnamon layers are present throughout.