Archives for January 2008
End of the month round-up, part one…pastries, bread, and cookies
The canolli came from Fraboni’s and it was a mid-afternoon snack that follwed a Fraboni’s crazy-tasty sandwich called The Otto…I swear that sandwich is so good it defies logic…of course it’s filled with porky products. The canolli, consumed with a double espresso was heavenly…sweet, creamy, crunchy…mmmm!
Snickerdoodles have to be my all-time favorite cookie in the category of cookie that contains no chocolate. They somehow manage to have a tangy flavor that accents their sweet, cinnamon goodness, and their texture is so toothsome…I get addicted to the texture when I eat them and I can barely stop myself.
Madison Sourdough Company makes a reliable and flavorful baquette…if they would just make one with seeds like a Semifreddi’s seed baquette (fennel, sesame, and poppyseeds) I’d be blissed out.
I’m a sucker for lemon curd and poppyseeds. Scott’s Pastry Shoppe here in Middleton had the audacity to combine the two and cradle it in a buttery, almost brioche like pastry…I confess this pastry left me speechless. The frosting on top was more than gilding the lily…it was slitting the wrists. Woohoo good.
A cherry scone is good…not as good as a strawberry scone but it’ll do. I made these using jarred morello cherries from TJ’s and they were pretty good. Just take any one of the many strawberry scone recipes I’ve posted and substitute cherries.
We’ll move on to savory food next.
Ebony and ivory…a cheesy delight
It’s all about juxtaposition…without it life would be such a drag, and we can’t have that, can we? I was browsing Dorie Greenspan’s book…thinking about cheesecake and how I love cheesecake filling but I find the crust to be nothing short of inspid. I also detest the springform pan…a special, hellish pan manufactured to ensure certain doom on anything baked in it…and…useful for only a a few things…obviously a silly pan. I also found myself thinking that while I adore simple vanilla cheesecake, I also swoon over chocolate cheesecake. But I didn’t feel like committing to one or the other, I wanted both. That’s when it came to me…cheescake parfaits with layers of vanilla and chocolate cheesecake…easy-peasy, drool-inducing deliciousness.
So I chose Dorie’s recipe for chocolate cheesecake and right before I added the chocolate I spooned out half of the vanilla mixture. I layered the cheesecake into small glasses, settled them in a small, tall pot with hot water in it, and baked them for about 20 - 30 minutes… I pulled them out when they smelled done.
They are really dense, cheesy, chocolately treats that are satisfying and rich…together in perfect harmony (I couldn’t resist). We loved them.
Cheesecake Parfaits
(click here for a printer-friendly recipe)
3 8 oz packages of cream cheese
1/2 cup sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
pinch of salt
4 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate
Cut the cream cheese into quarters and put it in the work bowl of your food processor along with the sugar. Pulse it a few times until it starts to move freely then leave it running for about 2 minutes. Add the eggs, vanilla, and salt and pulse four or five long pulses. Scrap down the sides and remove 1/2 of the batter.
Melt the chocolate in the microwave on a power level of 5 for about 2 or 3 minutes. Add it to the food processor and pulse again until it’s well mixed.
Layer the vanilla batter and chocolate batter in alternating layers in tall, oven-proof glasses. Use a tall pot to make a bain marie…fill it about half full with hot water and then place the parfaits into the pan…make sure the water doesn’t come up over the sides of the parfaits.
Bake at 350F for 20 to 30 minutes or until the tops bloom outward, they lose their jiggle, and they smell done.
Cool in the refrigerator for an hour or two at least.
And your bird can sing…white wine braised chicken
Not to belabor the point but, this morning when I left the house it was frigging 15 below zero…yes, that’s right -15. Our high today was 5, practically balmy out there. It’s not all bad, there’s ample opportunity to get my braise on and it seems like when I’m not braising, I’m making soup…either way we certainly are eating well, despite the cold.
Yesterday I was distracted all day by thoughts of a chicken braised in white wine with pearl onions, cremini mushrooms, russet potatoes, and carrots. Once I got home I looked through a few of my books to find a recipe and I came up with nothing. I search the interwebs and again, nada. In my mind I imagined a bastardized white wine version of coq au vin…so I decided to forge ahead and make it up as I go…oh, you know how I detest winging it (wink, wink).
I cut up a whole chicken, pulled the skin off the legs, thighs, and breasts and browned them in butter in my large dutch oven. I seasoned well with salt and pepper and once they were caramelly brown I added 2 cups of white wine (chardonnay) and one cup of water. I threw in a bay leaf, a pinch of rosemary, a pinch of thyme, and 4 garlic cloves. I let this simmer, with the lid on, for about 90 minutes. I added a container of pearl onions that I peeled quite easily by blanching them for a minute or so in boiling water, 1 carrot peeled and sliced, one russet potato, peeled and diced, and 8 cremini mushrooms, halved. I brought the heat up when I added these and left the lid off.
After about 20 minutes it was finished and we ate a lovely bowl of chicken, veg, and stock…all of it very tangy, actually singing from the wine, yet full of chickeny flavor…it was really quite comforting and yet not at all boring. Oddly enough my favorite was a bite of chicken combined with a pearl onion swished through the broth…it was a divine taste sensation! Pearl onions are so oniony, yet a totally different onion flavor from a big yellow onion, it’s a fresh, almost crisp flavor that is tempered with just a smidge of mellow. Give them a try, they’re definitely worth the itty-bitty extra effort of blanching and peeling.
The best part is the leftovers, I’ll turn the leftover chicken and veg into chicken pot pies. The carcass, back, and wings go into the chicken stock box in the deep freeze…I’ve got quite a collection of bits and pieces in there, now all I need is a new chicken soup recipe (not noodle). Any ideas?
Recent comments...