lime wreaths, aka ciambelle

Whilst normally I refrain from any sort of Christmas baking, carol-listening, decoration setting things until immediately after Thanksgiving, that didn't keep me from perusing the Christmas Martha Stewart magazine.

I saw a recipe for "lemon wreaths", basically a traditional Italian cookie called ciambelle. Shaped into a circle, dipped in icing, then sprinkled, these don't have to be a Christmas cookie depending on the type of sprinkles you use. I also didn't have any lemons, so I subbed lime zest and juice. The sugar gets pulverized a bit with the rind before mixing it with the butter. It smelled awesome.

The process of shaping is pretty simple, just scoop the appropriate portion of dough, roll it into a rope, attach the two ends together. My brother and I realized too late that we were rolling the ropes out too much and the cookies ended up being larger as a result, but good and pretty nonetheless.

After being banked and cooled, the cookies are dipped in a lime glaze and sprinkled with nonpareils. Rather simple, yet very elegant in its simplicity.

I admit to being wary about making this recipe in the first place. Last time I tried a recipe like this (from a different source, and shaped into knots instead of wreaths), the end result was rather doughy and very meh. Either the recipe was quite unlike this, or my baking skills just weren't as developed then. Whichever it was, they just weren't worth the time. This, however, made me feel bad about cutting the recipe in half.

Not here. Because here, the cookies were soft and somewhat crispy like a shortbread, thought the texture wasn't as "fine". The lime glaze added a tangy-sweet element that complimented the cookie, and I loved the crunch from the sprinkles.

Also great about these, you can change the flavor up to whatever you please. Lemon, orange, even grapefruit. Don't want a citrus flavor? No problem, leave it out, add some coconut or strawberry extract. I bet that rum flavored extract would actually lend an intriguing flavor. Add a spice if you want.

One thing I noticed is that the dough was quite sticky, and I realized this after mixing in all the flour and didn't want to add more afterwards to keep from handling the dough too much. Chilling the dough for a while worked, though it was still on the sticky side and the board needed to be kept lightly floured, but not too much so that the dough didn't stick to itself when attached. Despite that, these came together quickly.

---

Christine's Lemon Wreaths
From Martha Stewart Living, December 2009

Make 6 dozen

ingredient ~

For the cookies
3 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for surface
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 1/4 teaspoons coarse salt
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
8 ounces (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

For the glaze
3 cups confectioners' sugar
7 to 8 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (from 4 lemons)
1/4 cups plus 2 tablespoons white nonpareils, for sprinkling

directions ~

1. Preheat oven to 350°. Make the cookies: Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. Pulse the sugar and zest in a food processor until combined, about 2 minutes.


2. Beat sugar-zest mixture and butter in a large bowl with a mixer on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Add vanilla and lemon juice. Reduce speed to low. Gradually add flour mixture, and beat until combined. (After this I chilled the dough for about an hour or so.)


3. Scoop 1 tablespoon dough (or use a 1 1/8-inch ice cream scoop), and transfer to a lightly floured surface. Roll dough into a 4-inch rope. Bring ends together, overlapping slightly, and press together to form a ring. Repeat with remaining dough. Transfer rings to parchment-lined baking sheets, about 1 1/2 inches apart, as you work. Bake until pale golden on the bottoms and around the edges, about 18 minutes. Transfer to wire racks, and let cool.


4. Make the glaze: Whisk together confectioners' sugar and lemon juice in a small bowl until smooth. Dip the top side of each cookie into glaze, letting the excess drip off. Return cookies to wire racks, glaze sides up, and sprinkle with nonpareils. Let dry completely. (Decorated cookies can be stored at room temperature for up to 3 days.)

Read more...

garlic fries

A note: I see that many people are being directed here from Twitter, so thank you to whoever twitted this post!

Garlic fries are one of the tastiest fries I've ever eaten that I've never had at a restaurant. I'm not sure where I could go around here to find some, but why bother when I can make them just as easily myself!

Most complaints with oven roasted fries is that they don't get as crispy as regular french fries. After looking around and remembering a process I tried earlier, I settled on my version that produces really crispy fries with a garlicky topping made by infusing oil with minced garlic.

This method requires that the potatoes, sliced into 1/4-inch sticks (peeling isn't necessary), are briefly boiled in water and patted dry. Boiling them sort of jump starts the cooking process so that the outsides cook along with the insides, and it seems to make them crispier, though that could just be how they are roasted.

Minimal oil is added to the potatoes, just enough to coat them lightly, but enough so that they crisp without sitting in a pool of grease. The oven temperature is quite high, and the cooking racks are placed at the highest and lowest position inside the oven. The baking sheets are rotated between the top and the bottom for 15 minutes at a time until the potatoes take on a uniformly roasted and crispy appearance.

With a little extra preparation and attention to timing, you can serve these alongside hamburgers, or just as a snack to munch on whilst movie watching.

---

garlic fries
Recipe by Christina Provo

ingredients ~

5 cloves minced garlic
4 tablespoons vegetable oil
6-8 large russet potatoes, sliced into 1/4 inch sticks
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
3 tablespoons finely chopped fresh parsley

directions ~

Preheat oven to 475°, making sure the oven racks are at the lowest and highest position. Heat a pot of water to a boil with 1 teaspoon salt. Have ready two large baking sheet lined with paper towels.

1. In a small saucepan, heat garlic and oil together for 2 minutes. Strain the garlic from the oil and set both aside.


2. In batches, boil potato matchsticks in water for 1 minute; remove with a slotted spoon and drain on baking sheet. Repeat with remaining potatoes until all have been boiled, making sure the potatoes have been patted dry.


3. Divide potatoes among two baking sheets and toss each batch with 2 tablespoons oil, 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt, and 1/4 teaspoon black pepper.


4. Place both sheets in the oven and set the timer for 15 minutes. When the time's up, remove both sheets and carefully toss the potatoes. Switch sheets so that the sheet on top is now on the bottom and the bottom sheet is on top. Set the timer for 15 minutes. Repeat process until the potatoes look fairly uniformly roasted and crispy.


5. After removing sheets from oven, place the fries in a large bowl and toss with the parsley, reserved garlic, and more salt if required.

Read more...

Vietnamese Caramel Chicken & baby bok choy

Baby bok choy is so cute, the miniature stalks that seems like a fun idea to make. They are, but there's a bit of cleaning involved. First you slice each bok choy in half and rinse it under water to rid the crevasses of dirt. Then, I chose to stir-fry each one instead of tossing all of them in the wok for a few minutes before letting them steam briefly. It was really good, though, and I would make it again. The soy glaze was very tasty and complimented the meat dish.

On FoodieMayhem I saw what looked like would be a very tasty dish, and also a perfect football-watching meal. They make a Vietnamese caramel sauce in which baby back ribs are cooked away until the meat is tender and the outsides are coating in a wonderfully colored crust, almost, of the caramel sauce. We made this dish with a few drumsticks we had left and despite the initial overwhelming smell of fish sauce first inhaled, everyone thought it was one of the most incredible chicken dishes ever.

---

recipes ~

Baby Back Ribs in Vietnamese Caramel Sauce

Soy-Glazed Baby Bok Choy

Read more...

candy corn sugar cookies

candy corn cookies, originally uploaded by Caudagali.

Any leftover candy corn? You could save it for next year or, especially if the bag is already opened, make these incredibly cute little cookies!

From Everyday Food, the recipe is for a simple sugar cookie dough that can also be turned into a chocolate version, which I felt contrasted better with the candy corn.

The recipe uses 1 egg yolk, though I used a whole egg and added 2 more tablespoons flour and 1 tablespoon of extra cocoa powder. This may have affected the resulting cookies, as mine didn't have the pretty crinkled tops seen in the picture on the site, but that's alright because the taste was decent.

Many of the comments for the recipe was that they had trouble getting 36 cookies. Well, when the instructions state to scoop out level teaspoons of dough, that means you take a teaspoon measuring spoon, a regular spoon, and scoop out level teaspoons of dough. Really doesn't take much time at all. These cookies are meant to be tiny little coins and that's part of the charm.
For ease of handling, I didn't roll the dough into balls; rather, I scooped them out into roughly-shaped balls and plopped them on the baking sheet (the recipe doesn't state whether to grease or line the sheets, so to be on the safe side go ahead and line them with parchment, though I left the sheet ungreased and unlined and they came off fine).

---

candy corn sugar cookies
From Martha Stewart

Makes about 36

ingredients ~

* 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, very soft
* 1/2 cup sugar
* 1 large egg yolk
* 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 3/4 cup all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
* About 36 candy corns

directions ~

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place butter and sugar in a medium bowl; beat with a wooden spoon until combined. Beat in egg yolk, vanilla, baking powder, and salt. Add flour, and mix until a dough forms.


2. Scoop out level teaspoons of dough, and roll into balls (chill dough briefly if it becomes too soft to handle). Place balls on baking sheets, 2 inches apart.


3. Bake, rotating sheets halfway through, until edges are firm and cookies are dry to the touch (do not let cookies color), 10 to 12 minutes.


4. Remove from oven; gently press a candy corn into center of each cookie (surface of cookies may crack slightly). Cool on sheets 1 minute; transfer to a rack to cool completely.

Chocolate Variation: Reduce the amount of flour given in the recipe to 1/2 cup. Add 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder along with the flour in step 1, and proceed.

Read more...

black bean and pumpkin soup

black bean and pumpkin soup, originally uploaded by Caudagali.

Another post from Once Upon A Tart, this time something savory and perfect for the season.

Black bean soup gets paired with pumpkin, cumin, cinnamon and ginger for a soup that's not only delicious, but warming, and who wouldn't want a bowl of soup like that right now? If you're used to the Panera black bean soup, this won't be quite so salsa-ish, tasting a bit more like mild chili than salsa.

While I initially thought the 1 tablespoon of cumin might be a bit overpowering, it really wasn't. These recipes have it all together, and while the taste of cumin was present, it melded with the cinnamon and ginger to unite as a whole.

---

Black Bean and Pumpkin Soup with Cinnamon and Ginger
From Once Upon A Tart

Makes 6 servings

ingredients ~

1 1/2 cups dried black beans, picked through, rinsed, and soaked overnight
6 cups cold unsalted water (for simmering the beans)
1/2 big yellow onion, diced
1 garlic clove, peeled and minced
2 tablespoons olive oil
3/4 pound plum tomatoes, peeled and diced
1 tablespoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
4 cups (1 quart) vegetable or chicken stock
1 cup canned or fresh pumpkin puree
1 tablespoon red-wine vinegar

directions ~

1. Drain and rinse the soaked beans in a colander. Bring the water and the beans to a boil in a large soup pot over high heat. Lower the heat and simmer, uncovered, for about an hour, until the beans are soft to the bite but not falling apart or splitting. Drain the beans in a colander.


2. Saute the onion and garlic in the olive oil in a large soup pot over high heat, stirring frequently so that they don't stick to the bottom of the pan., until the onion begins to soften, 5-10 minutes. Lower the heat to medium and continue to saute, stirring occasionally, for about 10 more minutes, until the onion is tender and translucent. (I added the spices at the end of the onion's cooking time and sauteed for about a minute before proceeding with the recipe)


3. Add the tomatoes, cumin, cinnamon, ginger, salt, and pepper to soup pot, and saute until the tomatoes begin to break down and give off juices, 5-10 minutes. Pour in the stock, pumpkin puree, vinegar, and beans.


4. Bring the soup to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer for about 15 minutes, allowing the flavors to meld.


5. Remove the soup from the heat to puree. Pureeing makes it a thick, smooth, more cohesive soup, but you still want the texture of the black beans, so don't puree it all. If you're using an immersion blender, puree one-third of the soup right in the pot. Serve warm.


6. If you don't have an immersion blender, wait until the soup cools (I did not, I just was extra careful), then scoop up some with a ladle, or a heatproof measuring cup with a handle, and pour it into the bowl of a food processor (or a blender) fitted with a metal blade. Process in batches until you have pureed about one-third of the soup. Serve warm.

Read more...