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january 2, 2013

Ozzy is a silly pupper.

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january 3, 2013

Montana was cold this morning!

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january 4, 2013

Morning love.

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january 5, 2013

Latte art for my sweet love.

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january 6, 2013

Today I browned butter for the first time. Oh my goodness. I have never had the urge to eat a stick of butter before, but it took all my might to not drink this straight from the bowl!

And so starts YEAR FIVE!
2009
2010
2011
2012

I was so excited to get a pasta machine for Christmas. I could hardly wait to try it out! The first thing I made was butternut squash ravioli.  One thing to note is that fresh pasta is completely different from dried pasta.  It has a chewier, more elastic texture with a prominent pasta flavor.  Therefore it is better to pair fresh pastas with simpler sauces to showcase the pasta.  Complex sauces compete with the flavor of fresh pasta, so it is better to save them for dried pasta.

Here is my recipe to make homemade ravioli.  I based the pasta dough recipe on the recommended recipe that came with my manual.  If you do not have a pasta machine or enough time to make fresh pasta I also included a recipe for semi-homemade raviolis using won ton wrappers. 

Butternut Nutmeg Ravioli

Ingredients for Ravioli:

Yields: 6 – 8 servings

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

3 eggs

1 tsp lemon zest

1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg

Salt and pepper

*May need to add water if your dough becomes too dry

Ingredients for Filling:

1/2 of small butternut squash (peeled, chopped, boiled, mashed)

1 cup of ricotta cheese

1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg

Handful of chopped parsley

Salt and pepper

Ingredients for Sauce:

3 Tablespoons of melted butter

3 Tablespoons of olive oil

2 Tablespoons of maple syrup

1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon of pepper

3 sprigs of thyme

*Parsley and Parmesan cheese for garnish.

Directions:

Boil the butternut squash until it’s tender then mash in a saucepan.  Add the ricotta cheese, nutmeg, parsley, salt and pepper.  Set aside and let it cool.

Combine all ingredients for ravioli dough in a large bowl.  Then take small pieces of the dough and run through the pasta machine until thin (almost translucent). Create long strips of pasta. Scoop teaspoonfuls of the filling onto the dough and top with another sheet of pasta.  Press the top layer of dough down around the filling removing any air.  Then cut out with a circular cookie cutter.  Place raviolis on a lined cookie sheet and place in the refrigerator until ready to use.

In another small saucepan combine butter and olive oil.  Cook over low heat until butter becomes slightly browned but not burnt (it should give off a nutty aroma). Then add maple syrup, nutmeg, thyme, and pepper.  Let it cook together over the lowest heat setting on your stove until you are ready to serve.

When you are ready to eat place raviolis (in small batches) in a pot of boiling salted water.  Let boil for 5-7 minutes (may need longer depending on the thickness of your dough).  Then top with a spoonful of your browned butter sauce and a handful of chopped parsley and Parmesan cheese.

*If you want to make homemade ravioli’s quicker or if you do not have a pasta machine you can use wonton wrappers as your ravioli dough.  They sell them in most grocery stores in the produce section.  Take one wrapper and scoop a teaspoon of the filing in the center.  Then fold over into a triangle and brush the edges with an egg white to seal it.  Drop in boiling salted water and cook for 2-4 minutes.

Enjoy!

]]> http://in.gredients.com/2013/01/05/daily-recipe-beet-gnocchi-with-brown-rosemary-butter/ Sat, 05 Jan 2013 14:00:09 +0000 cscdavis http://in.gredients.com/2013/01/05/daily-recipe-beet-gnocchi-with-brown-rosemary-butter/ http://omfgsogood.com/2012/12/24/brown-butter-roasted-banana-muffins/ Mon, 24 Dec 2012 02:27:19 +0000 omfgsogood http://omfgsogood.com/2012/12/24/brown-butter-roasted-banana-muffins/ What’s that? You’re looking for something relatively quick and extremely delicious for Christmas morning breakfast?

Well, here’s your answer:

Brown Butter Roasted Banana Muffins

There’s just something about brown butter that makes me feel weak in the knees. Seriously. I can’t think of anything it wouldn’t taste good on or with.

Wilted Spinach Salad with Pears and Roasted Pecans? Okay.

Any type of pasta? Uh. Huh.

Bacon Cheeseburger? Hells. Yes.

Now, take that nutty flavor and depth and combine it with the intense sweetness of roasted bananas, then top it with a cinnamon pecan streusel and you’ve got one fan-tabulous mid-morning treat.

Brown Butter Roasted Banana Muffins
(makes 12 muffins)
3 ripe roasted bananas (see below for directions)
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 egg  (room temp, lightly beaten)
1/3 cup melted browned butter (see below for directions)

Pecan Streusel Topping
3 tbsp flour
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tbsp cold butter (cut into small cubes)
1/4 cup chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper, arrange the bananas in a single layer (peels on) and roast for 15 – 20 minutes, or until peels become a dark brown. Remove from oven and set aside.

Leave oven at 375 degrees, line 12 muffin tins with paper liners.

In a small saucepan over medium heat, cook butter for around 5 minutes, swirling occasionally to ensure even cooking. The butter will progress from light yellow to a golden-tan, and eventually a toasty brown. You’ll begin to smell a slight nutty aroma, and you’ll know it’s reached utter perfection. No exaggeration. Remove the pan from the heat and transfer the butter to a heat proof bowl to cool slightly.

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. In another bowl, stir together mashed bananas, brown sugar, egg and melted brown butter with a wooden spoon. Add the dry ingredients and stir until just moistened. Spoon the batter into the muffin tins (around 2/3 full)

To make the streusel topping, combine the ingredients in a small bowl and mix with a fork to a crumble texture. Top the muffins with the streusel crumb and bake in the preheated oven for 16-18 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out cl

One word is all I need to describe the smell of our kitchen while these were baking.

Amazing.

That is all.

OMFG. SO GOOD.

I have such fond memories making these treats as a child with my family. My arms would ache from stirring the huge mass of melty marshmallow. The only known remedy was a spoonful of the warm crispy and chewy dessert. I often had trouble waiting for the treats to cool and the majority of the mixture was eaten straight out of the pot with our biggest wooden spoon. To this day, I still get giddy at the sight of homemade rice krispie treats. I’m not sure what makes them so perfect. It must be some law of nature. Or something.

I recently found a recipe for a twist on the old classic. Rice krispie treats with – brace yourself – browned butter and VANILLA BEANS. As you may know (or have guessed from the shouty capitals), I love vanilla beans. The tiny specks of black seeds add so much to a recipe I can’t even belive it. I would say vanilla beans are one of my favorite ingredients.

Adding to the list of favorite ingredients – browned butter. I’ve heard the hype and was always too lazy to try it. Honestly, how much flavor could be added by cooking the butter a few extra minutes, I thought. I was wrong. So very wrong. The browned butter added an entirely new dimension to the treats. I can only describe this flavor as deep and nutty. And absolutely amazing.

My mom loves these treats just as much as I do. As she tasted the first bite of this new creation, I was nervous about her take on this divergence from the classic. She said, and I quote, “these are the best rice krispie treats I have ever tasted.” Get out of town! I needed no other affirmation about these treats from anyone. I had all I ever needed.

As my mom and I sat at the counter cleaning all the remaining warm gooey marshmallow and cereal mixture out of our biggest pot, I was transported back to my childhood. I had to stop myself when I was literally sucking the spoon. Can’t say I remember doing that as a child…

Browned Butter and Vanilla Bean Rice Krispie Treats

Source: Tracey’s Culinary Adventures

Ingredients:

3/4 cup unsalted butter (1.5 sticks)

seeds scraped from 1 vanilla bean

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

15 oz regular-sized marshmallows (I used 1.5 10 oz bags)

pinch of salt

1/2 cup mini marshmallows (or a few regular sized marshmallows cut into bite-sized pieces)

6-7 cups rice krispie cereal

Method:

1. Spray a 13×9 dish with nonstick spray. Set aside.

2. In the biggest pot you have, add the butter and vanilla beans. Over low heat, cook until the butter is brown and foamy and you can smell a nutty fragrance. This took about 10 minutes for me. Keep a very close eye on the pot because it is easy for this to burn. Instead of stirring the butter, simply swirl the pot occassionally.

3. Add the vanilla extract, the 15 oz of regular marshmallows, and the salt. Stir constantly over the low heat until the marshmallows are completely melted.

4. Take off of heat and add the cereal. You can adjust the amount of cereal depending on your deisred consistency. Finally, add the mini marshmallows or marshmallow pieces and incorporate fully. The mixture will be very sticky.

5. Pour mixture into prepared pan. Using wax paper, press the mixture firmly into the pan. Allow to cool for at least an hour. Cut into cubes and store in an airtight container. Enjoy!

Happy Reminiscing!

browned butter cardamom cookies

This year my friend Caitlin and I decided to sign up for The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap, hosted by Love & Olive Oil and The Little Kitchen. We each donated a few dollars to participate (the money went to the charity Cookies for Kids Cancer and donations were matched by OXO®).

For the swap, I decided to make my signature coconut cookies that I sort of just made up the recipe for by consulting multiple other random cookie recipes awhile ago. This time, I also added butterscotch chips since they were already in my freezer and sounded like they’d pair well. Since I had to make three dozen cookies, I had to use some sugar (normally I would only use honey as a sweetener) and some butter (which would normally be replaced with coconut oil).

The three-dozen version of the recipe calls for:

• 1 stick butter, softened
• half a cup coconut oil (liquid, not solid – melt if necessary)
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup honey
• 2 large eggs
• 4 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3.5 cups flour (I prefer whole wheat, but since I was making these for others I used about 1 cup whole wheat and 2.5 cups all-purpose)
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 package butterscotch chips
• 2 cups unsweetened (or sweetened, if you prefer) coconut flakes

Mix all the wet ingredients, then the dry, and then combine. Due to the coconut oil and honey, the batter becomes very wet.

Next, dump in the coconut flakes and butterscotch chips.

My favorite part: cookie dough! Of course I had to taste-test. Since the dough wasn’t firm, I baked my cookies in a muffin pan. They looked a little muffin-ish upon completion but they were definitely cookies. The butterscotch with the coconut flakes and more subtle coconut oil was a great success!

Once I realized the cookies weren’t melting too much in the oven, I made some on a regular cookie sheet as well. Lucky for Kiyo and me, there were a few extra! I sent the cookies to:

1. Chew Nibble Nosh
2. Pie With Sparkles
3. Something Swanky

In exchange, I received some AMAZING cookies that I will share later, since I think they each deserve their own post. Honestly, I was afraid I might get some cookies that were ok, but not anything special, and then I’d have to gush about them; let me tell you, that is not the case at all! It’s almost as if the three bloggers who sent me cookies knew my personal preference and designed cookies just for me! Here’s a preview:

1. Caramel Apple Cider Cookies from Erin Cooks!
2. Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies from Studio Cuisine
3. Assorted Shortbread Cookies from Kablee’s Kitchen

There is very little you can do to chicken that I do not like.  I find the combination of chicken and wine is fabulous and while I adore coq au vin, I’m always a tad turned off by the purplish hue.  Also, I’m a big fan of the bubbly.  Never met a glass I didn’t like (as long as it is not sweet, and not bastardized by the addition of orange juice).  So get rid of the red wine and substitute Champagne in this dish and you have all the tasty goodness without the freakish color.

This yummy dish comes from Cooking Light Magazine and the absolute best part is that it only requires a cup of champagne — what you do with the rest is totally up to you!  I did make one big, important change to this recipe.  The original recipe tells you to cook the bacon, reserve the drippings to brown the chicken in — but save the bacon for another use.  Seriously??  How can adding the crisp bacon to the final dish be a bad thing?  Who actually reserves cooked bacon for another use?  The only other use I can think of is for snacking during cooking but no, I just added it to the final dish and highly recommend that you do the same.

One note on the picture.  Not sure whether to blame the blurriness of my photo on my rush to dig into the dish or the disposal of the rest of the Champagne, but decided it best to use the photo in the magazine.  Mine was close, trust me!

Champagne Browned Butter Chicken

Serves 6

Ingredients

2 slices center-cut bacon

2/3 cup all-purpose flour

6 bone-in chicken thighs, skinned (about 1 3/4 pounds)

6 bone-in chicken drumsticks, skinned (about 1 1/2 pounds)

1 1/4 teaspoons kosher salt, divided

3/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, divided

2 tablespoons canola oil, divided

1 pound red-skinned potatoes, quartered

1 pound button mushrooms, halved

1/4 cup brandy

4 shallots, halved

3/4 cup no-salt-added chicken stock

1 tablespoon black peppercorns

3 thyme sprigs

1 bay leaf

1/2 bunch fresh flat-leaf parsley

12 baby carrots with tops

1 cup Champagne

3 tablespoons butter

1 teaspoon all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 300°.

2. Cook bacon in a large Dutch oven over medium heat until crisp; remove bacon from pan, reserving drippings in pan. Place 2/3 cup flour in a shallow dish. Sprinkle chicken evenly with 3/4 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Dredge chicken lightly in flour; shake off excess flour. Increase heat to medium-high. Add 1 tablespoon oil to drippings in pan; swirl to coat. Add half of chicken to pan; cook 5 minutes or until browned. Turn chicken over; cook 2 minutes. Remove from pan. Repeat procedure with remaining 1 tablespoon oil and chicken.

3. Add potatoes to pan; cook 3 minutes or until browned, stirring occasionally. Add mushrooms; sprinkle with 1/4 teaspoon salt. Cook 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in brandy. Cook until liquid almost evaporates (about 30 seconds), stirring occasionally. Return chicken to pan. Add shallots and stock; bring to a boil. Place peppercorns and next 3 ingredients (through parsley) on a double layer of cheesecloth. Gather edges; tie with butcher’s twine. Add bundle to pan. Bake, uncovered, at 300° for 15 minutes.

4. Trim carrot tops to 1-inch; scrub carrots. Add the carrots to pan. Bake an additional 45 minutes or until vegetables are tender and chicken is done. Remove chicken and vegetables from pan; keep warm. Discard herb bundle. Place pan over medium-high heat. Add wine to pan; bring to a boil, scraping pan to loosen browned bits. Cook until mixture reduces to 2/3 cup (about 11 minutes).

5. Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Cook butter 3 minutes or until lightly browned, shaking pan occasionally. Stir in 1 teaspoon flour; cook 1 minute, stirring constantly with a whisk. Gradually add butter mixture to reduced wine mixture, stirring constantly with a whisk. Cook 1 minute or until slightly thick. Stir in remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Serve with chicken and vegetables. Garnish with reserved chopped bacon, fresh parsley and thyme.

This is a beautiful, simple cake with a tender crumb, a hint of nutmeg, vanilla and bright bursts of tart cranberries.

I am always leary of breaking out the bundt pan because there is no parchment paper to back me up and I have had a cakewreck on more than one occasion but think I’ve found the solution!  A few years ago I was in one of our local bakeries early in the AM and after scooping up my coffee and treat they would often let me sneak through the bakery and head out the back door.  One day they were prepping muffin tins and using a pastry brush with solid shortening to schmere around the wells of the muffin tins.  I never seem to have cooking spray in my kitchen but I always have a pastry brush and some shortening hiding out in the cupboard

I’ve not had a cake stick since!

I think part of what makes this cake so wonderful is the addition of Greek Yogurt to the batter.  Greek yogurt is thick and creamy with a little bit of a tang and lends this cake a lovely rich flavour.

Remember how I recently posted about how much I loved the Browned butter Eggnog Glaze from the Eggnog Chocolate Chip Bread?  I thought this cake was the perfect excuse to make it again!

Cranberry Coffee Cake with Browned Butter Eggnog Glaze makes 1 bundt cake recipe slightly adapted from Bake your Day

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 cup butter, room temperature
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup plain greek yogurt
• 1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen cranberries

my favorite holiday has come and gone. how can thanksgiving not be your favorite holiday? a turkey trot in the morning, all you can eat seafood buffet in the afternoon, and round it out with a movie!

what? that’s not what your thanksgiving is like?

so i don’t have the typical thanksgiving. i don’t have the typical family either! we do our big family thanksgiving on saturday instead, and don’t you even judge with the seafood buffet, who wouldn’t want crab legs and crab stuffed mushrooms with turkey!

but i do love my family thanksgiving! turkey, ham, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, mac n’cheese, homemade rolls, and stuffing. uh i am drooling just thinking about it! and this year your girl actually pitched in and helped with all that! i really am becoming domesticated!

the big hit though… brown sugar browned butter cookies. how come it’s taken me so long to find out about this whole browned butter thing?! so. stinking. delicious. i know what you’re thinking, how is browned butter any different from regular ole butter? i don’t know the chemistry behind it, but it’s just different and tasty! will you please please please make these for christmas?!?! you’ll be the talk of the town, or the table!

brown sugar browned butter cookies (adapted from susie’s qt pies)

2/3 cup butter, softened

1 1/2 cups brown sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup sour cream

browned butter frosting

1/4 cup butter

1 1/2 cup powdered sugar

2 tbsp milk

preheat oven to 350 degrees. mix together butter and brown sugar in mixer on medium speed. add eggs one at a time and vanilla and mix well. mix in flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. add in sour cream and mix well.

drop rounded tablespoons of dough on cookie sheet, bake for 8-10 minutes or until edges are browned.

over medium heat place butter in sauce pan and continually stir until butter is brown, about 3 minutes. continue stirring to not burn the butter. as soon as butter is brown, in a separate bowl pour over powdered sugar and mix in milk. stir until a glaze is formed.

spread glaze over cooled cookies. if you’re feeling a little bold, top with chopped up bacon!! but only if you’re feeling bold!

and just what was i thankful for? all of you loves who read my blog! you’re my faves!

browned butter cookie with salted caramel frosting

The best part is that it’s relatively easy to make – bake the potatoes until they are tender, scoop out the flesh and mash it all up, add some browned butter and sugar, put it in a casserole dish and top with a cornflake-brown sugar – pecan mixture and some mini mashmallows and bake it up again.

Click HERE for the recipe from Cooking Classy (lots of other great recipes there, too).

And thanks to this casserole, my eyes have been opened to the marvelousness that is browned-butter. Plus, I don’t even like sweet potatoes all that much, so that’s saying something. If you have leftover sweet potatoes from Thanksgiving, or just want to make this super delicious dish, try it, you won’t be disappointed!

Enjoy!

*Homer Drool*

Oh my.

I have a lot of cookie recipes.  Chocolate chip, double chocolate, oatmeal raisin, snicker doodle, macaroon, unbaked… Whatever.  None of those matter anymore.  Not since I found this recipe.  Quite frankly, this is the cookie legends are made of.  This is the cookie every cookie wants to be when they grow up.  When I first read the recipe and the reviews, I thought it was different and probably good but I thought people were exaggerating.  I mean really, how good could this cookie be?

Let me tell you.  They were not exaggerating.  The original recipe can be found here, at ambitiouskitchen.com, but I’m posting here so I don’t ever lose it and because I will make it again and again (although I probably shouldn’t).

The browned butter gives these an amazing, nutty, caramelly flavour… the dough almost smells like butter tarts.  The original post links to a great tutorial at simplyrecipes.com on how to properly brown butter (the last thing you want is to accidentally burn a cup of butter!).

These are more labour intensive than a regular cookie.  But they are worth it.  Just be prepared to take some time to let the dough chill for a couple hours, and putting them together takes some effort too – the dough is crumblier than I thought but the cookies are soft and delicious!  Make sure you don’t over bake and don’t skimp on the sea salt!

One of our first weekends in Rome took us to Eataly, the shrine to consumerism in terms of Italian regional food, which first opened its doors in the US but now has several locations across Italy, including one in Rome. Eataly Roma stretches across 4 floors in the Air Terminal Ostiense with 3 floors dedicated to all things food and drink as well as a fourth floor which is used for cooking demonstrations. Each floor not only gives you the option of stocking up on some of the best regional products Italy has to offer but also offers various little bars, restaurants and cafes.

Although at first glance a food lovers’ paradise, there seems to be quite a bit of controversy surrounding Eataly – in a country where eating regional dishes, prepared using local and seasonal produce with few if any food miles still reigns supreme (this is after all the country that gave birth to the Slow Food movement more than 25 years ago), the concept of buying regional products for example, ‘fresh’ Mozzarella in Bologna, hundreds of kilometres from where these products are produced, is still an alien concept.

Yet, when I entered Eataly for the first time, I was, admittedly, in heaven. There were rows after rows of all different types of pasta from all the major artisan brands, there was an impressive choice of wholemeal pasta and even wholemeal rice (and I certainly picked up a bag of wholemeal risotto rice) and the walls of different types of flour (including spelt and kamut, almost all stone-ground and organic) made me week in my knees. And let’s not even talk about their wine selection or their cheese and salumi counters. But, there are at least two major downsides to shopping at Eataly and reasons why I now understand the controversy surrounding this place.

One, almost everything is overpriced (Alessandro spotted a bottle of wine from Piemonte that normally retails for around EUR 3, here they wanted almost EUR 10 for the bottle) – this might explain the hordes of well-heeled customers with overflowing carts. The other downside is that some products simply do not travel well. Yes, you can easily transport, and even export, Gran Padano cheese and fennel-flavoured Tuscan sausages, but milk products like Ricotta and Buffalo Mozzarella are best when eaten fresh, in the case of Mozzarella, ideally the same day it was made, with the Mozzarella never having seen the insides of a fridge.

While we left behind the overpriced wine and the Mozzarella (which we can easily purchase fresh close to Alessandro’s parents’ place), I could not help but stock up on some stone-milled organic wholemeal spelt flour which I used to make some chocolate chip cookies.

Although I had vowed in my last post not to start baking chocolate chip cookies yet given my recent pasta and pizza extravaganza, that is exactly what I baked a few days later. We still had lots of leftover banana bread and due to spending the remainder of my week in London to handover my old flat and catch up with friends and colleagues I wanted to bake something that would keep better than the more breakfast-type things I have been baking lately. And, to be perfectly honest, the urge to try baking chocolate chip cookies using browned butter just became too much to bear …

Browned Butter Chocolate Chip and Walnut Cookies
Adapted from Heston Blumenthal
Makes ca. 25 cookies

Ingredients
115g browned butter, solidified
135g caster sugar
135g brown sugar
1 medium-sized egg
200g wholemeal spelt flour
2g salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
100g chocolate, roughly chopped
40g walnuts, roughly chopped
1/4 teaspoon sea salt flakes

1. Pre-heat the oven to 170 degrees and line two baking trays with parchment paper.

2. Cream the butter with the two types of sugar until the mixture is pale and the butter is fluffy.

3. Add the egg and beat until well combined.

4. Mix the flour with the salt, baking powder, chocolate and walnuts. Combine with the creamed butter and sugar.

5. Using a spoon or ice cream scoop drop tablespoon sized lumps of dough onto the two baking trays, making sure to keep ca. 5cm of space between the cookies. I tend to use a tablespoon-sized measuring spoon for this.

6. Sprinkle the cookies with sea salt flakes and bake for ca. 8-10 minutes. The cookies will be very soft when you take them out of the oven but will firm up as they cool down.

I say I ‘adapted’ Heston’s recipe because although I stayed generally true to the proportions in Heston’s recipe, I changed the original recipe quite a bit: I made some additions in the form of sea salt and chopped walnuts, increased the amount of sugar (throwing in some brown sugar for extra toffee flavours), substituted the plain flour with wholemeal spelt flour and reduced the amount of flour by 10% to accommodate wholemeal flour’s bigger thirst and left out the coffee powder altogether.

The end result were two dozen medium-sized cookies (similar in circumference to a mandarine) with a decent amount of chocolate and walnut chunks, crisp on the outside and just a wee bit underdone, with a deep brown and toffee like colour and a strong butterscotch flavour from the browned butter that was nicely contrasted by the flecks of sea salt on top of the cookies.

If there is one thing I would do differently next time, I would let the dough rest at least overnight, if not for 24 hours. Many recipes for chocolate chip cookies suggest letting the dough rest between 12-36 hours in the fridge for improved flavour profiles and to achieve better spread. I am always too impatient for that but maybe one day I will find the strength to be patient and wait (it’s funny though that I have no problems waiting for bread dough to slowly prove in my fridge for 12 or 24 hours) …

Did you think I was finished with fall baking and pumpkin yet? No way! Pumpkin is one of my favorite flavors and although I continue to cook with it all year long, there is just something about smelling pumpkin along with the spices that go with it and seeing the leaves fall out my window. It’s perfection!

This recipe derived from an original classic that I frankly loved on it own except it was missing “Fall” to me. When I bite into something that contains pumpkin in it, I want to taste that pumpkin. I want to have a hint of cinnamon and nutmeg as I bring the cookie up to my mouth. These cookies do that! The nuttiness of the browned butter just puts these over the edge. So, go grab that last can of pumpkin on the shelf and make yourself up a batch of these.

I’m so in love with these cookies, I’m entering them into the MIX-ing it up for a GOOD CAUSE contest we are having at Mixed I’m attending later this month. OXO is sponsoring it on behalf of their great program Cookies For Kids Cancer. If you haven’t heard of this program, check out the site. ‘Tis the season for cookies anyways, why not help out?

Yields 3 dozen cookies.

Pumpkin Spiced Cookies with Browned Butter Frosting

Ingredients

For the cookies

• 2/3 cup granulated sugar
• 2/3 cup browned sugar, packed
• 3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/3 cup pumpkin puree (about 3/4 of a 15 oz. can)
• 2 eggs, room temperature
• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 3/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/8 tsp ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp salt

For the frosting

• 3 cups powdered sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup 1 1/2% milk, plus 2 Tbsp.
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter

Pre-heat oven to 375 F. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper or a silpat.

Cream the granulated sugar, brown sugar, butter, and vanilla in the bowl of a mixer on medium speed. Add the pumpkin and eggs and mix thoroughly. On low speed, add the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and salt.

Using a cookie scoop, drop the cookie dough onto the prepared cookie sheets.
Bake for 10 to 12 minutes. The cookies should only give slightly if touched in the center. Remove the cookies from the cookie sheet immediately and allow to cool on a wire rack for one hour.

In the bowl of your mixer, combine the powdered sugar, vanilla, and 1/4 cup of milk. Set aside.

In a small saucepan, heat the butter over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the butter turns a light brown and has a nice nutty fragrance. As soon as it turns brown remove from heat. Pour the browned butter over the powdered sugar mixture and beat on low speed until smooth. If the mixture is not smooth enough, add in a tablespoon of milk. If, while you are frosting the cookies, the frosting becomes thick again you can add one additional tablespoon of milk to thin it out. Frost the cookies and allow to dry.

Store in an airtight container for up to one week.

Source: The Way to His Heart, inspired from Betty Crocker

custard, cream and honey

(Makes about 1 quart)

Ingredients:

1 cup whole milk

2 cups heavy cream

pinch of sea salt

6 large egg yolks

1/2 cup honey

1 cup pecans

4 tablespoons sweet cream butter melted

1/4 teaspoon sea salt

Method:

1. Combine milk, cream and pinch of salt in a sauce pan over meduim-low heat. Stir occasionally, and do not let boil.

2. In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and the honey. Very slowly, starting with just 1 or 2 tablespoons, whisk warm milk into the egg yolk mixture to temper. Once yolks are slowly brought to the temperature of the milk, add to sauce pan. Over medium heat, stir mixture constantly with a wooden spoon until it thickens and coats the back of the spoon (175-180 degrees F). Do not let boil.

3. Strain the custard into a bowl set over ice, and continue to stir until cooled. Let custard set in fridge for at least 4 hours or overnight.

4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place pecans tossed with  butter and salt on a cookie sheet and into the oven. Let roast for 20-30 or until the butter has browned. Check frequently and stir after 15 min or so as they burn quickly. Let cool to just above room temperature (as you want the butter to remain a liquid).

5. Freeze custard per your ice cream maker’s instructions. In the last minute or so of churning add the pecans and browned butter drippings. Either eat a soft serve style ice cream immediately or return churned custard to the freezer to set as a hard-pack style ice cream. eat.

(makes   )

Ingredients:

3 bulbs of Celery root, peeled and chopped onto 1 inch pieces

1 apple, peeled and diced into 1/2 inch pieces

1 fennel bulb, cored and diced into 1/2 inch pieces

1 onion roughly chopped

1 cup cream

2 cups milk

4 Tablespoons unsalted butter

Salt and pepper to taste

Method:

1.   In a medium saucepan, place celery root and enough milk to cover (you may not need to use all the milk). Bring to a simmer over medium heat; continue simmering until celery root is tender, ~ 20 to 30 minutes. Strain mixture  over a medium bowl, reserving 1/2 cup of milk.

2.  In a small saucepan, melt butter over medium-high heat until bubbly and approaching a nut-brown color, about 8 minutes. Add apple and fennel and reduce heat to low. Cook until fennel is translucent,  ~ 10 minutes or s0. Remove pan from heat and pour contents into a bowl to cool.

Transfer one-third of the celery root, reserved milk, browned butter, fennel and apple to a blender; blend until smooth. Slightly mash remaining celery root with a wooden spoon or a potato masher. Combine. eat with haste.

So easy ingredients and lots of love worked into these two recipes.

I know I’ve already done a banana bread recipe: Banana Bread-The Finished Plate

My inspiration came from two different blogs:

Banana Bread with Vanilla Browned Butter Glaze- Averie Cooks

Lemon Poppyseed Muffins with Blueberry Glaze-Kitchen Meets Girl

Ingredients for Banana Bread:

loaf pan

1/4 cup melted butter (1/2 a stick)

3/4 cup white sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

1 tablespoon vanilla

6 ounces or 3/4 cup greek yogurt or sour cream

2 or 3 very ripe bananas, mashed

one small box (3.3 oz box) vanilla instant pudding mix (or any other flavor)

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease your loaf pan. To the melted butter add the sugar, eggs, vanilla, yogurt or sour cream, and stir or whisk to combine. Add bananas and stir. Add dry pudding mix and stir to combine. Add the flour, baking soda and salt and stir until just combined. Do not over mix it. Pour batter into pan and bake for 50-58 minutes. If bread is browning too fast (like mine always does when I bake banana bread), lower the oven temperature to 325 degrees halfway through cooking. At about the halfway you can also put foil to tent the pan. Allow the bread to cool in loaf pan for at least twenty minutes before removing from the pan.

Here is what your batter should look like:

Blueberry-Vanilla Browned Butter Glaze:

1/4 cup butter (half a stick)

1 cup confectioners sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla

a few tablespoons of cream or milk

a few handfuls of blueberries

You can microwave or use a pan to brown the butter. On a stovetop: heat over medium heat. Swirl in pan or stir frequently for about five to seven minutes until the sputtering, crackling, and foaming is finished, the butter has browned, and has a nutty aroma. It can go to burnt in no time so watch it closely. In a microwave: heat butter on high for five to seven minutes (mine only took three minutes because the bowl it was in) and watch it brown the same way as it would on a stove top. Check it every half minute or less just to make sure it isn’t burning.

Transfer the hot butter to a mixing bowl and allow it to cool for ten minutes.

Meanwhile, place your blueberries in a pan on the stove and cook on medium heat for a few minutes until all the juices are bursting out. You can add a little bit of water and lemon juice if you wish. Allow it to cool and pour just the liquid and not the skins into the melted butter that was cooling in the bowl. Add the confectioners sugar, vanilla, and whisk to combine. Add cream/milk as needed or more confectioners sugar. Drizzle glaze over bread before slicing. Or slice and then glaze.

You can store this at room temperature for five days as long as it is in a sealed container. If refrigerated (which is what I have done), you can store it for five days as well.

If you choose to freeze your bread without glazing it, you can store it up to three months.

Here is what the icing looks like:

And the finished product: that has been instagramed!

and some more pictures with my camera:

Enjoy!

You must be thinking, what, another weekend, another banana bread recipe? And yes, shame on me for my lack of inventiveness. But, there is a point to this blog post and it has very little to do with how much I like banana bread or how we had 3 sad looking bananas lying around or how it did not occur to me that the reason why my Mapo drizzle cake did not rise the other week was that I used bicarbonate of soda (without any acid in the recipe to activate it) rather than baking powder so I wanted to stick to something familiar (although with a small twist) …

The thing is though, I get excited when I try a recipe and it works, like, it really works, like it works so well that while the cake is still in the oven, Alessandro gets off the sofa and suggests we go to the gym because the toffee-like smell coming out of the oven is too much for him to bear while not being able to eat any of it (which must be said came at the end of a long Sunday that started with a 9.30am coffee date, involved a trip to IKEA, more boxes being unpacked and a load of laundry). So yes, while technically this is another banana bread recipe, there is really very little that the loaf I presented you with last week and this one have in common. And all it seems to boil down to is the use of browned butter (or beurre noisette).

I have seen browned butter used in a number of recipes recently with everyone raving about the toffee-like flavour and depth it adds to baked goods. I was immediately convinced that it would work spectacularly well in chocolate chip cookies. But alas, given my new-discovered love for all things pasta and pizza (read: refined carbohydrates), I feel like I should not make my morning gym session completely useless by also munching on cookies everyday (although I am itching to try baking chocolate chip cookies using browned butter – I guess I could always take the excess cookies to work …). And then it occurred to me to try the banana bread recipe from my new Peyton and Byrne book (because you can never have too many banana bread recipes on rotation), use browned butter and see what happens.

Recipe, makes one large loaf
Adapted from Peyton and Burne

Ingredients
125g butter
200g wholemeal spelt flour
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
40g walnuts
100g brown sugar
50g caster sugar
2 eggs
3-4 bananas
60ml buttermilk*
2-3 tablespoons oats

*If you don’t have any buttermilk to hand, you can substitute this by using 30ml full-fat milk and 30ml plain yoghurt. Otherwise, you could make your own buttermilk by adding a squeeze of lemon juice to 60ml full-fat milk. Don’t be tempted to substitute with just plain milk – bicarbonate of soda is an acid-activated rising agent so will need the acidity from the buttermilk (or some other form of acid) to start working!

Directions

1. Start by browning your butter: place the butter in a small sauce pan and let the butter melt on a low to medium flame. Wait for the butter to brown (being careful not to burn it) – the butter is ready when it is chestnut brown in colour and smells nutty. Set aside to cool then place in the fridge to solidify (it should still be soft enough to cream).

2. Pre-heat your oven to 170 degrees Celsius.

3. Place the butter and sugars in a bowl and beat until light and fluffy.

4. Beat in the eggs, one by one, until fully incorporated.

5. Mash the bananas and combine with the buttermilk. Fold into the egg-butter-sugar mix.

6. Combine the flour with the salt and bicarbonate of soda and the walnuts (combining the walnuts with the flour will prevent them sinking to the bottom of the loaf pan).

7. Quickly combine the flour mix with the egg-butter-sugar and banana-buttermilk mix.

8. Grease a large loaf pan and pour in the batter.

9. Scatter the oats on top of the batter.

10. Place in the oven and bake for ca. 60 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean.

… and what happens is a revelation – toffee and banana are an obvious combination (Banoffee Pie anyone?) which is why I like using brown or demerara sugar when baking banana bread. But the browned butter really rounded out the flavour – the bread actually tastes as though you used some dulce de leche or butterscotch sauce in the recipe. It is much richer than my typical banana bread I posted about the other day, yet this is also a wholemeal recipe and does not include any additional sugar or butter – in fact I reduced the amount of sugar from the original recipe by 25%.

Pumpkin Pull Apart Bread is the Fall version of monkey bread, but with homemade pumpkin dough instead of canned biscuits. It is delicious and delightful. When all of my frozen pumpkin purée thawed in the storm and had to be used, it was the one and only thing Hubby wanted me to bake. I made a double batch last night using this recipe from Willow Bird Baking. I left off the glaze…I like it just as it is.

Served next to a hot cup o’joe, it is a perfect November breakfast treat!

So from my Farmers Market trip on saturday with my mom i picked up some Enokitake and Maitake mushroom, some fresh spinach and garlic pasta. I decided to try a thrown together recipe.

I took 1/2 half stick of unsalted butter placed it in a skillet and cooked it until the butter just started to brown, watching to make sure that the butter did not burn. Once the brown bits started to form on the bottom of the pan, I pressed 2 cloves of garlic and added the fresh mushrooms tossing and stirring to cook the mushroom. I then added the cooked fresh pasta that I had just boiled for 2 minutes (per the instruction from the vendor at the farmers market). I added enough pasta in to the skillet and tossed with the butter mushroom mix to incorporate. I then add fresh ground pepper and freshly ground sea salt to taste.

This became a wonderful light tasting side dish to accompany the grass fed Ribeye steaks that were coated with my favorite seasoning and grilled to a red medium rare.

With my diminished taste I had to rely on the hubs for suggestions. He was not too keen on the texture of the fresh pasta but loved the flavor. A suggestion to make it pop would be to great a little bit of lemon zest on top of the pasta along with the salt and pepper. The other suggestion I might try adding a little shallots and fresh sage into the butter along with the garlic.