procrastinator cookies

a quick cookie which makes for excellent paper-writing breaks. it's glutenfree, too.

chocolate peanut butter cookies
(courtesy of Epicurious)

1 cup crunchy peanut butter
1 cup light brown sugar (or normal, or mixture of normal and brown...no need for fanciness: these are peanut butter cookies after all)
1 large egg
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup chocolate chips

mix the first five ingredients together in a bowl. add chocolate chips. form cookies using a tablespoon and your hands and drop them on a baking sheet.

bake at 350 F until puffed up and golden. about 10 minutes. don't overbake, an overbaked cookie is a sad cookie. enjoy!

Orange wacky cake,

or what to do when you have a bunch of citrus fruit and no more eggs.


1 1/2 cups flour
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup cocoa powder
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
100g butter
2 Clementine oranges

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Put the dry ingredients in a loaf pan, add a teaspoon of Clementine zest, and mix thoroughly. Melt the butter and juice the Clementines into a liquid measuring cup. Add water to the clementines until you have 1 cup of liquid. (If you have more Clementines instead of a bunch of grapefruit, you can just make 1 cup of juice.) Dump the butter and the orange juice mixture into the dry ingredients and stir just enough to mix. Pop the whole thing into the oven and bake for 30 minutes, or until a fork comes out of the center with just a few crumbs on it.

If you have more Clementines, I bet you could top this with a delicious glaze made of Clementine juice plus confectioner's sugar, mixed in the right proportions to generate a thin paste. Unfortunately, I just have grapefruit. Anybody have grapefruit recipes?

Lemon sponge cake with lemon curd

My neighbor brought me a basket of citrus fruit from her garden, and this was what I did to use up some of the lemons, along with most of the eggs in my fridge.


lemon curd
5 eggs
juice of 3-5 lemons, plus a big helping of their zest
3/4 cup sugar
100 g butter, cut into cubes

You'll need to set up a steam double boiler for this recipe. Luckily, making a steam double boiler is nowhere near as complicated as it sounds. The end result you're shooting for is basically a saucepan with a mixing bowl inside it. The diameter of the mixing bowl should be greater than the diameter of the saucepan, so that the bowl sits on the saucepan's rim. Between the saucepan and the mixing bowl will be a layer of boiling water, not quite deep enough to touch the mixing bowl's bottom. Inside the mixing bowl will be lemon curd.

So, now that you've got this picture fixed in your mind, take the saucepan, and put some water in it (not quite enough water to touch the mixing bowl's bottom). Put the water on the stove to boil. While it boils, combine all the ingredients in the mixing bowl. When the water boils, put the bowl on top of the saucepan. Stir the lemon curd constantly until it thickens. (I find that after 15-20 minutes, it changes suddenly from a liquid to a sort of pudding thing). Take the lemon curd off the heat and let cool.


lemon sponge cake

1 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
4 eggs
1 cup sugar
juice of 1 lemon

Sift together the flour and the baking soda. Combine the eggs, sugar, and lemon juice in a separate bowl, and beat until huge and fluffy (you're looking for this mixture to triple in size). Fold in flour, and bake at 425 degrees Farenheit for 15 minutes.


Serve with tea and cucumber sandwiches.

Ricotta Stuffed Mushrooms and Peaches

Hello from Oz! One of the things I really like about Oz, aside from the weather and the flying monkeys, is the Greek deli down the street from my house that sells fresh ricotta for $5.99 a kilo. Here are two ricotta recipes I put together back in February, back when peaches were in season. They're not so great side by side, but you can serve the first one for dinner and the second one for dessert.

If you don't feel like baking these things, I've also had good results cooking them on the stovetop in a wok with a cover.

Disclaimer: I tend to measure with my eyeballs, so I'm not entirely sure I've got all the measures and cooking times right. If your common cooking sense conflicts with either recipe, I would suggest listening to your common sense.


ricotta stuffed mushrooms

25-30 crimini mushrooms
1 ear corn
1 tablespoon butter
1/2 large red bell pepper, (capsicum) diced
1 bunch fresh coriander, chopped (oregano and basil also work well)
250 g ricotta
2 tablespoons olive oil

Wash mushrooms, set caps aside, and dice stems. Un-silk corn and chop kernels off cob. Saute mushroom stems and corn in butter for 15 minutes, adding diced capsicum after 10 minutes. Place mushroom stem mixture in mixing bowl; add coriander and ricotta; mix well. Stuff mushroom caps with ricotta mixture and arrange on a cookie sheet. Drizzle with olive oil and bake at 375 degrees for 30-45 minutes, or until mushrooms are cooked through.


ricotta stuffed peaches

4-5 peaches
150 g ricotta
a handful of crushed walnuts (pecans or pistachios would also be good)
2 tbsp finely chopped mint (better yet, blend it in a blender)
1-4 tbsp honey

Halve peaches and remove pits. In mixing bowl, mix ricotta, walnuts, mint, and honey to taste. (This is one of those things that will taste good raw if it's going to taste good cooked.) Stuff peaches with ricotta mixture and arrange on a cookie sheet. Bake at 375 degrees for 30-45 minutes. Be sure to put some water in the bottom of the cookie sheet to prevent the peaches from dessicating.

lazy tarte (and a million variations)

This was an improvised Easter brunch dish, inspired by finding frozen puff pastry that is made with butter at Trader Joe's. If you make it, make sure that your puff pastry is all-butter too--there really is no point in eating butterless puff pastry. This is particularly nice with a salad on the side. As for toppings, the possibilities are endless, though I would keep it simple: carmelized onions, roasted butternut squash, sauted courgette, whatever is in season/fridge. You can also add a handful of fresh, chopped herbs to the ricotta mixture.

lazy tarte

1 sheet of puffpastry (I highly recommend the TJ frozen one)
1 cup of ricotta
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 egg
10 stalks of green asparagus, woody ends chopped off
a handful of cherry tomatoes, cut in halves
1/2 cup of crumbled fresh goat cheese, or feta

If the puffpastry is frozen, let it become unfrozen. Roll it out so it fits more or less your baking sheet (9 x 13 in seems a reasonable size). For those of you who like mathematical precision: 1/8 inch is the thickness you are aiming for. Prick it with a fork all over.

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Combine the ricotta, the egg and the garlic. Salt to taste and add lots of freshly ground pepper. Spread the cheese mixture over the puff pastry base, leaving some room at the edge. Arrange the asparagus and the cherry tomatoes (cut side up) on the filling. Sprinkle with goat cheese.

Bake for about 30 min until the pastry edge is golden and the filling is set.

Eat, still warm and with a salad on the side. Serves 4-x with leftovers for x lunches.

Almost no-Knead Bread

Last night, D and I hosted a most enjoyable dinner party. The company was terrific, and the menu was as follows:

Appetizer: homemade flaky pastry rounds topped with membrillo (Spanish quince paste) and melted Camembert.

Main: sundried tomato and harissa paella (a slight modification of Elisa’s recipe – it was so good; thanks, Elisa!); arugula, blood orange, chevré and pine nut salad; homemade bread (see above).

Dessert: raspberry sachertorte (a dense and rich Viennese chocolate cake soaked in raspberry – rather than the traditional apricot – syrup, and coated with a shiny dark chocolate glaze).

I was quite pleased with how most of it turned out. But the highlight for me, by far, was the bread. I’ve never attempted to make bread at home before. I think I was worried that it would be a lot of effort for a mediocre result, since it is hard to make good bread in an ordinary oven. But, honestly, this was some of the best bread I’ve ever tasted. The crust was crackly but light, the crumb pleasantly chewy yet delicate, and the flavour was complex and tangy. Topped merely with some good unsalted butter, a slice of this bread was an absolute treat.

But this was no ordinary bread recipe. Ever since Mark Bittman published Jim Lahey’s recipe for no-knead bread in the NYT in November 2006, home cooks have been raving about Lahey’s invention of a “a truly minimalist breadmaking technique that allows people to make excellent bread at home with very little effort.” (Full article here: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/08/dining/08mini.html?_r=1&oref=slogin)

The idea is to take some ordinary flour, a tiny amount of instant (also known as rapid rise yeast) and some water. The dough is left to hang about for 18 hours, to get the gluten going (thus taking the place of a traditional kneading). Then the dough is shaped, and left to rise for another 2 hours. After that, you bake it in a dutch oven, so that steam will help a good crust develop (also, my understanding is that the dough would be too wet to shape, so the dutch oven prevents the dough from spreading out all over the place).

Apparently, though, this recipe produced a bread with a fantastic crust and crumb, but not quite enough flavour. A recent issue of Cook’s Illustrated promised to improve matters by introducing vinegar and light ale into the batter. Also, so as to improve the bread’s shape, this recipe calls for a decrease in the amount of liquid in the dough, and compensates for this by introducing a tiny bit of kneading (you knead the dough 10 – 15 times before the second rising). Whatever the case, it’s still incredibly easy to do, and the results are better than this clumsy, novice baker ever would have thought possible.

Since I made zero modifications, I will simply give you the link to the recipe http://www.cooksillustrated.com/recipe.asp?recipeids=4748&bdc=56976#topOfPage, together with an entreaty to try this if you love good bread but didn’t think you could make a good loaf at home.

Challah

Some cooks approach even simple bread
with fear and trembling, despair and dread.
Indeed, such fear's surprisingly widespread --

yet utterly unjustified;
for of all baking, bread provides
the most reward for least demand -- so I'd

argue, anyway. This recipe
is near-effortless, dear addressee:
it comes with the guarantee

of years of Friday morning kneads,
and nine times out of ten succeeds
no matter how the baker proceeds.

I learnt it ultimately from George Greenstein,
but my mother made it part of my routine.


Challah (for novices and experts, but addressed to the novices).

1 cup warm water
2 packages active dry yeast
1 egg, lightly beaten
2 egg yolks, lightly beaten
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup sugar
4 cups flour, plus a little more for dusting the kneading surface and your hands
2 teaspoons salt
plus
1 egg and 1 teaspoon water, for egg wash
cornmeal for dusting the baking sheet
and
(optional) sesame seeds, poppy seeds, or anything else you like for topping the bread

Unusual materials:
8-inch springform pan (only if you plan to make a Rabbi's challah)
pastry brush (for applying the egg wash)

In a large bowl, sprinkle the yeast over the warm water and stir to dissolve. (The water should be about 110 degreed Fahrenheit -- warm enough to help your rise, but not hot enough to kill the yeast.) Add egg, egg yolks, oil, sugar, flour, and salt; stir until the dough comes away from the sides of the bowl.

Lightly flour a large, clean, smooth working surface (if you don't have marble or a silicone mat, use a large cutting board, very smooth table mat, or unusually clean kitchen counter) and turn the dough out onto it. If the dough is too soft and sticky to work with, add more flour 1/4 cup at a time, but this should be a last resort -- 4 cups is plenty, and more will start to make the bread too tough. Knead until the dough is smooth and elastic and the gluten is well-developed -- perhaps ten minutes if it's your first time kneading and you haven't got the hang of it, but usually no more than three or four. You can tell you're done if the dough springs back when you poke it and the indent disappears.

Transfer the dough to an oiled bowl, turn to coat, and cover until the dough is tripled in volume, about 2 1/2 hours. (But you don't have to take my word for it. Time of rising will vary -- by a LOT -- from kitchen to kitchen and from occasion to occasion, so don't rely on the clock. And of course it'll be much shorter if you're using Rapid-Rise yeast, which there's no special reason not to do as it doesn't make any discernible difference in the final product that I can tell.) This is a fully aged, or ready, dough.

Punch down the dough, cut it in half, cover it (tight covering is great but it'll do fine even loosely covered), and let it rise for 15 more minutes. Punch it down again. Now it's time for braiding!

Some people (e.g., my mom) can do these elaborate beautiful braids with six-parts that look really impressive. If you can do that, great. But I can't, and if this is your first time making challah you probably won't want to try. You might as well just go with one of the classic shapes for challah: a traditional three-strand braid, a circle (for Rosh HaShanah especially), or a Rabbi's challah.

To shape a three-strand braided challah:
Take one of the two lumps of dough out of the bowl and roll it into a long rope. Tear the rope in three as evenly as possible, then join the three little ropes at one end. Move one of the extreme ropes into the center; then the other; then the other, etc., until there's just enough left of each rope to join them together at the other end. Then do that. Place the braided challah on a cornmeal-dusted baking sheet.

Another option is to place the braided challah into a cornmeal-dusted loaf tin -- it should fit in one of various standard sizes -- and place the tin on the baking sheet. The ultimate size and shape of your challah is much more under your control if you take this path, but your challah will look squarish, and it may be difficult to remove it from the pan.

To shape a circle challah:
Take one of the two lumps of dough out of the bowl and roll it into a long rope. Wind the rope around from the center outwards in a spiral. Place the challah on a cornmeal-dusted baking sheet.

To shape a Rabbi's challah:
Dust a springform pan eight inches in diameter with cornmeal. Take one of the two lumps of dough out of the bowl. Tear off a hunk about a third of the size of the whole and place it in the middle of the springform pan. Tear off smaller hunks and surround the central hunk of dough with them. Place the pan on a baking sheet.

Of course, there are two lumps, and the recipe makes two challahs, but both should fit on one baking sheet. I tend to braid one and make another as a Rabbi's challah. If you don't want two challahs, you can refrigerate or freeze the dough, but not for very long, so it makes more sense to make both and just freeze a part of the finished product.

Whew. Now beat the last egg with the teaspoon of water to make the egg wash. Brush the breads with the egg wash, taking care to cover them completely and not to let excess egg wash drip into their crevices.

Place the challahs in a warm, draft-free area (a pre-warmed oven or turned-off top oven with a bottom oven on is ideal, and the dough will rise much faster in such circumstances), cover them with a clean dishtowel or anything that will cover them completely without getting stuck, and allow them to rise until doubled in size -- maybe 45 minutes to an hour. At some point during this second rising, pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. When they're through rising, brush the challahs with egg wash a second time, then apply sesame or poppy seeds if using.

Bake on the middle shelf of the oven for about 35 minutes. The bread is done when it has a rich mahogany color (it won't have this if you didn't use egg wash) and sounds hollow when you tap it lightly. If there's a white line visible between the cracks, put the bread back in for a few more minutes. Let the bread cool on a wire rack before cutting.

Enjoy!

Molten Milk Chocolate and Sticky Apricot Tart

I have a bit of an aversion to pastry. I don't much like regular shortcrust, so I rarely bother to make it at home. But I got some adorable tartelette tins for Christmas, so I decided to have another try.

I'm glad I did. Such a lip-smacking combination. Crisp, biscuity, chocolatey pastry; sticky, brandied apricots; and molten milk chocolate. I took the pastry recipe from the well-known food blog, chocolateandzucchini.com, and was very happy with the results. The rest is my own invention.


Ingredients
for the pastry:
1 1/4 cup plain flour
3 tbsp cocoa powder
6 tbsp butter
3/8th cup sugar
splash milk

for the apricots:
6 oz dried apricots (not too dry, mind. Some squishiness is good here.)
1 cup sugar
1 vanilla bean
1 orange, zested and squeezed
3 fluid oz brandy

for the molten chocolate:
6oz high quality milk chocolate (I used valrhona)
2 tbsp vegetable shortening

Other equipment: 6 tartelette tins with removable bottoms

Method
Preheat oven to 430F.

For the pastry:
In a food processor, combine the flour, cocoa powder and sugar.
Add the butter, cut up in small pieces.
Pulse until the mixture resembles coarse sand.
Add a small splash of milk and mix again; it should still look quite sandy.
Divide the dough among the tartelette tins, and press firmly into the base and sides. It may help to dust your hands with cocoa powder in order to handle the dough without it sticking.
Prick the base of the tart shells with a fork (this prevents them from puffing up too much in the oven).
Place the tins on a cookie sheet (for ease of handling), and put them into the oven. They should take about 15 minutes to cook, but keep an eye on them.

Meanwhile...

For the apricots:
First, make some flavoured sugar. Split the vanilla pod and scrape out the seeds.
Combine the vanilla seeds, orange zest and sugar. Mix well.
(You'll only need half of it, but making a smaller batch doesn't work well given the ingredients. And it lasts forever in the pantry.)
Now, place the apricots, half the sugar, the orange juice and the brandy in a medium saucepan over highish heat.
Boil for about 10 minutes (keeping a close eye on it, and adding more liquid if necessary), until the cooking liquid is sticky and reduced.
It's probably a good idea to taste one of the apricots to make sure the flavours are to your liking (the sweetness of dried apricots varies considerably). You can adjust it by adding more sugar or more orange juice (for greater acidity), if necessary.

For the molten chocolate:
microwave the chocolate and shortening together until melted. Mix well.

To assemble:
Remove the tart shells from the tins, by placing the tartelette tin over a can, and slipping the ring down it. The bottom of the tartelette tin should be fairly easy to remove after this.
Take a slightly cooled tart shell. Fill with several brandied apricots, and then drizzle the molten chocolate over the top and around the sides, until the tart shell is full. Let it firm up slightly, and then serve it with a flourish.

Tips:
- One of my tart shells leaked, and the molten chocolate ran out the bottom. I salvaged it by filling it with chocolate-covered cocoa nibs, which I had on hand. I liked this variation, although it didn't look quite as nice.
- To reheat the tarts (if you want to make them ahead of time), pop them in the microwave for about 30 seconds. This will leave the center firm, but the edges molten. Yummy!
- Try other (fresh or dry) fruits in place of the apricots. Pears (fresh or dried), prunes and cherries (fresh, dried or bottled) all have a wonderful affinity with chocolate, and would respond well to the same treatment given to the apricots here.

Banana Split Cupcakes: or, the Art of Praxis

I have felt recently that I’m beginning to slip. I have shown unwarranted interest in the contents of a peer’s lunchbox; made one too many comments about the different varieties of sea salt after a colloquium; and hell, I even indulged in a culinary metaphor in my last term paper. I’ve raised too many eyebrows, and it is time to confess. My name is Kate, and I am a food-blog-aholic.

I feel better just saying it: I love reading food blogs. I love the stories, the information, the recipes, and most of all the sense of struggle. I cheer on one blogger as he finally perfects his pavlova, and mourn for another when her soufflé doesn’t rise. And I sometimes toy with the idea of attempting some of the more unusual or challenging recipes, perhaps even adding my own distinctive twists along the way.

But who am I kidding? I really don’t have the time. At home, my fiancé D and I mostly cook very simple recipes that we replicate time and time again. There’s something profoundly soothing about being able to switch on to culinary autopilot after a long day, not to mention the comfort of knowing in advance how dinner is going to taste.

Still, I could afford to branch out a little. To besmirch (nay, apply!) some of my theoretical knowledge about food. And it is with that small and modest promise to myself (just don’t call it a resolution, please) that I proudly join the ranks of this blog.

My first recipe is neither healthy nor lunch-friendly, but it sure is tasty. I took my future mother in law’s wonderful recipe for banana bread, and made it into cupcakes to share with her on a recent visit. She also suggested the name, since it’s a combination of bananas, chocolate, nuts and cherries. No cream, but you’ll hardly miss it. As for the frosting? Pure me.

Banana Split Cupcakes

Ingredients
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter at room temperature
4 eggs (at room temperature)
1 ½ cups sugar
1 cup mashed ripe bananas (they should be nearly black to achieve optimum flavour; I used 3)
½ vanilla bean, split and seeds removed (1 teaspoon good vanilla extract would also be fine)
2 ½ cups sifted all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp grated fresh nutmeg

For the frosting:
13 oz jar nutella
¼ cup (½ stick) unsalted butter at room temperature

maraschino cherries, to decorate

Makes 12 cupcakes

Method
Preheat oven to 350 F.
In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar with electric hand mixer.
Beat in eggs, one at a time.
Blend in bananas and vanilla.
Sift flour, baking powder and nutmeg, and blend them into the banana mixture.
Fill one 12-cup muffin tin with the batter; each cup should be nearly full since the mixture doesn’t rise much.
Bake for about 20 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean.
Turn out immediately and cool on a wire rack.
For the frosting: beat ingredients together with an electric mixer, and frost each cooled cupcake generously. Top with a maraschino cherry, to create the banana split effect.

Aftermath: While I baked these cupcakes, I told D that I was planning to make them my first entry for this blog. While enthusiastic about my contribution, he also wondered if there are blogs for people who are in charge of cleaning up after the food bloggers have completed their experiments. He envisaged posts entitled ‘7 Dishwashing Detergents Reviewed!’, ‘Tips to get out baked-on stains’ and ‘How not to clean a bundt pan’. Can anyone point him in the right direction?