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Ok, have you ever had homemade pasta? It's not the same thing as the dried stuff--which I love. And it's really not like the fresh stuff you can buy in the refrigerated section of your grocery store, either, though that's a little closer. And it's actually really simple to make ... I wonder why I don't do it more often. I think I've talked about it before on this blog, but I have to talk about it again just because my dinner was divine tonight. We made papardelle and Bolognese sauce, and I wanted to cry. I am already feeling impatient and want to eat my leftovers that I'm saving for lunch tomorrow. So I recommend trying it sometime. The simplest way to make fresh pasta dough is with a food processor. If you don't have one, you can totally make it by hand the traditional way, but I'm lazy so I leave it to my machines to do the dirty work for me. Good luck!
p.s. We don't own one of those fancy pasta hanger things, so I just super cleaned off a plastic clothes hanger and hung the pasta on that, and it worked out really well
Fresh Pasta Dough
makes about 1 lb
2 C all-purpose flour
3 large eggs, beaten
water
- Pulse the flour in the food processor bowl a few times to aerate.
- Add the eggs, and process until combined. The dough should form a rough ball.
- If it looks like teeny pebbles, add 1 teaspoon at a time of water until it forms a rough ball shape. If it's sticking to the side, add flour, 1 T at a time until it looks right.
- Pull it out of the food processor bowl and knead together until the dough is smooth, about 2 minutes. Cover tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 15 minutes, up to 2 hours.
When you're ready to use it, pull out your handy dandy pasta machine and roll it out as you wish:) If you don't have a pasta machine, just make sure you flour it really well and roll it out as thin as possible. It'll be a lot more work, though, so someday think about getting a pasta machine.
Just thought that title would get some people's attention. But really, I'm not all into 100% organic and natural foods, simply because it's not financially practical, but after watching the Martha show this week, I've been a little weary of over processed food. Well, I mean, I make most of my food from scratch anyway, but I'm talking about cereal and things like that. And my sister made me this amazing granola when I visited her last Summer, and I've basically been dreaming about it since. And granola especially is usually packed with high fructose corn syrup. Not a huge fan of that idea. Not super opposed to it, either, but still not a huge fan.
After my last depressing weight gain at the OB/GYN last week, I decided it was time to not let myself succumb to my serious pregnancy cravings (that seem to have suddenly appeared in the last trimester) too much. See, usually I'm a huge savory food person. Sure, I love my chocolates and sweet things, but in general I'd rather eat up the calories in pasta or rice or bread instead of cakes or pies or pastries. Not the case when I'm pregnant. I need my sweet food. NEED IT. So, for breakfast this morning I made us a nice low fat (sort of ... I'll explain), healthy granola. The thing about granola is, though, that no matter how "healthy" it is, you have to seriously watch portions. This one doesn't have any added fats, but is packed with nuts and other good things instead. Which is why it's "sort of" low in fat. But nuts are still fatty--no matter how much you try to justify it by saying it's "good fat". Good fat is still fat. So a portion size is about 1/2 C. Which I'm totally ok with. Plop on some fat free plain Greek yogurt and some fresh or frozen fruit, and you've got yourself a delicious and healthy way to start your day. And I'll admit, I was really satisfied. Which is hard to accomplish these days.
Healthy Nutty Granola
makes about 10 half cup portions
1.5~2 C various raw and unsalted nuts, chopped coarse (I used about 1/2 C each of pecans, almonds, and hazelnuts)
1/2 C puffed brown rice cereal ($1 for a HUGE bag at Walmart)
1/4~1/2 C ground or chopped flax seeds (optional. Another option would be wheat germ)
3 C old fashioned oats
1/3 C honey
1/3 C pure maple syrup
1/4 t coarse salt
1/4 t cinnamon
*optional: 1/2 C dried fruit. I don't add this because I think the chewy texture is distracting and I prefer fresh fruit, but by all means add it if you like it!
- In a small sauce pan, heat the maple syrup and honey on low heat.
- Meanwhile, combine all of the other ingredients in a large bowl and preheat the oven to 300°F. Prepare a baking pan by giving it a quick pray with vegetable spray and set aside.
- Once the syrup and honey are warm and quite a bit thinner, pour it over the dry ingredients and stir quickly to get everything covered. Spread it out on the prepare baking sheet and bake in the oven for 30~35 minutes, tossing occasionally, until nuts are toasted and everything is evenly browned.
- Place on a cooling rack and let cool completely. Place in an airtight container and enjoy all week!
Here's a picture of my cutie enjoying her granola breakfast. And peanut butter toast, since I can't hide the smears on her cheek.
First of all, if you want the recipes for the chocolate ganache tarts and lemon créme tarts, I have them here. But this time I used a traditional tart crust. Way better. But a little more time-consuming. Thankfully, I had some help that day. Thanks, Stacy!
Well, since my favorite person, my sister, asked for pictures of the mini quiches, I thought I'd at least show the pictures I got. Like I said, not the best photos, but oh well. But seriously, everyone needs to try this spinach and caramelized onion quiche. About killed me it was so good! I may have taken a few of the leftovers home and eaten them all in 2 days.
Spinach & Caramelized Onion Quiche
Broccoli, Cheddar, & Ham Quiche
My usual: Italian take on Quiche Lorraine
And another request I got was from my friend, Melissa Esplin, who wanted the recipe to the chocolate ganache frosting. Super simple, Melissa! You're going to LOVE it! (I over-whipped it a little, but in the end I liked the mountain-like texture. But when you make it, don't make that same mistake because it turns out a little dry and really hard to pipe. Not that YOU would do something like that.)
Chocolate ganache frosting
8 oz chocolate (semi-sweet or bittersweet. I used a combination of both. Don't go sweeter than that, though), chopped
1 C heavy cream
1 T pure vanilla extract, optional
- Place chocolate in a large bowl. In a small saucepan, bring heavy cream (and vanilla, if using) to a boil. Immediately take off the heat and pour over the chocolate. Let sit for about a minute, then gently stir until combined and no chocolate chunks remain.
- Let cool, uncovered, in the fridge until set and thickened. Once completely cooled, using a stand mixer or hand mixer, whip the ganache until light and fluffy. Don't over whip or it'll get stiff and dry. You want it moist and soft. Now pile it on some cupcakes (or just eat it by the spoonful ...) and enjoy!
One of my best friends here is having a baby just a few days before me (so they might be born right around the same time!), and another couple of friends and I threw her a shower. I insisted on being in charge of the food because Lori (momma-to-be) is a classy girl and deserves classy shower food, and because I like a challenge. Why do I take on these huge tasks--especially when I'm super huge pregnant myself? Really because I love the girl I'm doing it for and because I LOVE food. But seriously, what was I thinking? I was so proud of myself because I had a REALLY strict schedule for the week, which I actually stuck to. And if it wasn't for that and the other 2 girls in charge of the shower who both came at different times to help me roll out tart crust dough or fill mini quiches or bake mini cupcakes with me, I don't think I would have survived.And even if it was a LOT of baking (we turned our furnace down because our oven was keeping our little apartment plenty warm, even with our awfully non-insulated windows and below freezing temperatures outside), the end result made it all worth it for me. And the best part was that Lori seemed really happy. And that was my main goal.
mini lemon créme tarts
mini chocolate cupcakes with chocolate ganache frosting (my favorite, I think)
mini vanilla cupcakes with raspberry filling and lemon buttercream frosting (thanks for the idea, Lisa! They were Lori's #1 pick of the day)
mini chocolate ganache tarts
pb&j thumbprint cookies
chocolate caramel thumbprint cookies
and just a shot of some more mini vanilla cupcakes waiting to be served.
I also made my aunt Carolyn's amazing rolls, but mini sized (I love mini things for parties. perfect portion size and so cute!), with a roasted garlic&sage butter and cinnamon vanilla honey butter. Those were a hit, as usual, because Carolyn is a genius. And I also made my favorite baby/bridal shower food: mini quiche. I didn't get any good pictures of those, unfortunately, but I invented a couple of new flavors and it reminded me of how much I love quiche. They're so delicate and fancy and SO versatile. I served my usual Italian take on a quiche lorraine, and then a broccoli ham & cheddar, and my absolute favorite and now a staple quiche in my repertoire: spinach and caramelized onion. Seriously, you have to try it. Put some tangy hard Italian cheese like Pecorino Romano or Asiago or Parmiggiano Reggiano on top of the caramelized onion and finely chopped fresh spinach, and it's killer good. And really not that complicated.
Congratulations, Lori! Can't wait to meet your baby girl!
sage?
I actually bought this out of pure desperation this week while I was preparing for my friend's shower and the store was out of fresh rosemary. I've eaten it before, but I've never cooked with it so I wasn't sure how it'd turn out, but it may be my new favorite Winter food herb now. Mmm. I cooked it in browned butter with garlic and sea salt on my linguine one night, and I can't wait to use the rest on a roasted chicken. Doesn't that sound delicious? Now go out and buy some sage!
While I'm at it, I might as well tell you about my #1 must-haves in your cooking library. These people are geniuses. And they do all of the work for you. You just have to follow their instructions. I've had this book for about 3 years now, and I seriously turn to it at least a few times a week for recipes, inspiration, information, or just plain good reading:) I am a completely different cook because of them.
If you don't know much about the good people at America's Test Kitchen, let me tell you a little about how they work. They slave away for hours, days, weeks, sometimes months at one recipe to get it perfect and fool-proof. They test different methods, ingredients, products, utensils, appliances, anything you can think of in the kitchen, to tell you what's best and why. It's amazing. And recently they came out with this book:
Another new Christmas addition to my library. And I seriously think I sat and just read it for a couple of hours straight yesterday. They have all sorts of classic recipes, explained and simplified. I love these people. This book is a little more complex, I think, than the cookbook counterpart, but mostly just because by nature baking is more complex than cooking. I love that this book has a little note next to recipes that are "great for beginners", and almost every other page has little "don't make this mistake" explanations as to why this certain bread recipe won't rise if you make this mistake, or why your frosting won't go on in a clean layer if you make this mistake. I love it. This is definitely another must-have in your home. Honestly, I think that if you were to only buy 2 cook/baking books for your kitchen library, I would say these are the 2 to get.
My very generous in-laws bought me this fascinating book for Christmas:
And this is what resulted:
Isn't it gorgeous? I'd give you the recipe, but since it's more of a concept book, I'm going to have to tell you to just go out and either borrow it from your library or buy it. It's SO ridiculously easy, and gives you amazing results. So this is my first cook book review. And it is definitely a positive one. They're not kidding when they say 5 minutes a day. Of course including baking and resting time it's a lot longer, but you really only put in probably less than 5 minutes of hands-on work a day. And it's a no-knead method, so you can't even really call it work. And with this basic method, you can make a boule, baguette, ciabatta, bâtard, couronne, pain d'epi!, and basically whatever you can dream of. Those are just the ones I'm the most excited to create. We had leftover Christmas roast beef sandwiches on this bread for lunch today, and I just melted. It was too good to really have come out of MY oven!
Reading through this book can seem a little dry, though, so be warned. It's a lot of language (fascinating language, but a lot of it), and very few pictures. But this concept really needs a lot of explanation, so it's justified. And I'm the kind of person that loves to just sit and read cookbooks from cover to cover, so I have to admit I had a lot of fun studying it.
If you love good, crusty, chewy, delicious artisan bread (and who doesn't?), I highly recommend this book to you!
My cute sister and her family started a family tradition a few years back where they watch one of our family favorites, "Scrooged" (vintage Bill Murray--can't get much better than that!) and get Chinese take-out for Christmas eve-eve dinner. If you've seen the movie, you'd understand. Back during my single days they always invited me, and even after I was married and lived only and hour away. But the last couple of years, since we live in a totally different part of the country, my husband and I have decided to continue that tradition for ourselves. But we don't know too many good Chinese take-out places around here, so we make our own. And this year we decided on some dim sum. Spring rolls and gyoza (pan-fried/steamed and deep fried). And I think I ate my weight in dim sum. It was delicious.
The food before it was cooked:
ohhhhhhh .... and after. mmmm.
All spread out on the table, ready to be eaten.
It was glorious! If you want my gyoza recipe, look here. And here's a basic spring roll recipe:
makes 9~12 spring rolls
spring roll skins (9~12, depending on how much or how little filling you put inside)
about 1/4 lb ground pork
1/2 t sake
1/2 t soy sauce
pinch of corn starch
1 scallion, minced
1/2 can bamboo shoots, cut into thin strips or chopped coarse
2 cabbage leaves, cut into thin strips
3 dried shiitake mushrooms, reconstituted in warm water, and sliced into thin strips
1/4~1/3 C super thin rice noodles, soaked in warm water until softened
vegetable or canola oil for deep frying, and for sauteing
"glue":
1.5 T flour
1 T water
cooking sauce:
1 T sake
1 T soy sauce
1/2 t sugar
salt & pepper to taste
1 t sesame oil
- In a small bowl, combine the ground pork with the 1/2 t sake, 1/2 t soy sauce, and pinch of corn starch.
- In a wok or deep skillet, stir fry the pork in a little oil until cooked through. Add the bamboo shoots, cabbage, mushrooms, and cook until cabbage softens. Add the noodles and sauce and cook until evenly coated. Place in a bowl and set aside.
- Clean out the wok and fill with about 1/3 with oil. Heat oil to about 320°~330°F (160°~165°C). Meanwhile, wrap the spring rolls.
- Prepare the "glue" in a small bowl. To wrap the spring rolls, place the wrapper in front of you, with a corner facing you. Place a small amount of filling close to the corner closest to you, in a line-shape. (parallel to your shoulders, if that makes sense) Fold the corner closest to you over the food, roll over once, then fold in the 2 side corners and keep rolling. Using your finger, place a little of the flour glue into the corner furthest from you (the only corner showing at this point) and finish rolling and make sure the glue sticks and seals. Repeat with all of the rolls.
- Deep fry the spring rolls, about 3~4 at a time, in the oil until golden brown. Let drain on a wire rack over a cookie sheet lined with paper towels. Serve warm with hot rice.
Ok, so these aren't the most fantastic pictures because it's late at night ... but I couldn't resist taking some and sharing the pure joy I just experienced. For a romantic after-the-kid-goes-to-sleep treat for my husband, I made a simple yellow bundt cake with caramel sauce and super lightly sweetened whipped cream. I've been meaning to use the beautiful bundt pan my sister bought for me a while back, and I seriously wondered why in the world I hadn't done it sooner. It was decadent, rich, not too sweet, divine! Just perfect. And seriously, very simple to make. Just takes a little patience (at least for the caramel sauce). Give it a try. You won't regret it.
Yellow Bundt Cake (from America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook--which you must own someday) & Glorious Caramel Sauce
makes 1 bundt and about 2 C of sauce
Pan coating:
1 T unsalted butter, melted
1 T all-purpose flour
cake:
3 C all-purpose flour
1 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
1 t salt
1 T fresh lemon juice
1 T vanilla extract
3/4 C buttermilk*
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1 large egg yolk, at room temperature
18 T (2 and 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 C sugar
- Adjust oven rack to lower-middle positon and heat oven to 350°F. To coat the pan: mash the butter and flour together into a paste then brush evenly over the inside of a 12-cup bundt pan (be sure to get all of the crevices).
- For the cake: whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in a large bowl. In a seperate bowl, whisk lemon juice, vanilla, and buttermilk together. In a thrid bowl, gently whisk eggs and yolk together.
- Beat the sugar and butter togethe rina alrge bowl with an electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy, 3 to 6 minutes. Beat in the eggs in 2 batches until incorporated, about 1 minute, scraping down the bowl and beaters as needed.
- Reduce the mixer speed to low and slowly mix in 1/3 of the flour mixture until just combined, followed by half of the buttermilk mixture. Repeat this process again using half of the remaining flour mixture and all of the remaining buttermilk mixture. Mix in the remaining flour mixture until thoroughly combined.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Wipe any drops of batter off the sides of the pan. Bake until a wooden skewer inserted into the center comes out with a few moist crumbs attached, 50 to 60 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through baking (do not overbake).
- Let the cake cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then flip out onto a wire rack to cool completely, about 2 hours.
For the caramel sauce, go here. This girl is a genius. And she makes a genius caramel sauce that even makes me want to drink it. And I'm not a huge caramel person. So that's saying a lot!
For the whipped cream, really only add like 1 or 2 teaspoons of sugar. The caramel is so sweet and the cake is so dense and rich that you won't want all that sweetness in the cream, trust me. And beat to soft peaks. Please.
*if you don't have or don't want to buy buttermilk, use 3/4 C milk and scant 1T white distilled vinegar or fresh lemon juice, stir, and let it thicken. And you can use that in place of buttermilk in any baking recipe. 1 C milk to 1T vinegar/lemon juice.
So the bread I've been making a few times a week now, has become a dinner table staple. I make it substituting 2~3 C whole wheat flour, and it still turns out chewy and soft and fluffy. And I feel a little better about feeding it to my family. I also make it into 4 smaller loaves instead, and it bakes for about 15 minutes. Really good. Try it.
Anyway, this morning we had a couple loaves in the freezer, and my cutie is home from work this week, so I had to make his favorite, French Toast. I served it with lingonberry jam and honey-vanilla whipped cream.
And I'm going to get on a bit of a soap box here. Let's not over-whip our cream, my friends. Over-whipped cream is greasy and lumpy. That's when you go beyond stiff peaks. And what's happenening is you're starting to make butter and whey. Not what you want when serving it over pies, tarts, crepes, or anything! So keep an eye on your cream, the difference between stiff peaks (which isn't necessary for this dish anyway, you want soft peaks) and over-whipped cream is a matter of 30 seconds sometimes. Or less. If you're making whipped cream in your kitchenaid, don't walk away. Please.
French Toast with jam and honey-vanilla whipped cream
And the festive little girl decided to dress up like Santa for breakfast:) I think it may have been her first taste of whipped cream. Definitely like her mommy.
1 loaf crusty French bread, cut into 1 inch slices
an array of tart jams
custard:
2 eggs
1 C whole milk
1 t cinnamon
1 T pure vanilla extract
2 T honey or sugar
butter or oil for the pan
- Preheat the oven to 200°F and place an oven safe platter in the oven.
- In a deep plate or a small baking dish, whisk the custard mixture until well blended.
- Dip the bread slices into the custard, making sure it's coated on both sides, and place on a griddle or large frying pan over medium heat. Cook on the first side until lightly browned, flip over and repeat with the other side. Once cooked through, place on the platter in the oven. Repeat with all bread slices. Once finished, you can serve the whole warm platter so the cook can eat, too!
honey-vanilla whipped cream:
3/4 C heavy cream
1 T honey
1 t pure vanilla extract
- Pour the cream into a medium bowl. Using a hand-held mixer, whip the cream to soft peaks. Add the vanilla and honey and continue to whip until they cream reaches soft peaks again. Serve.
Serve French toast with a tart jam and the whipped cream:)
I've always said I'm decent at cooking, but I don't do bread. And living here can be a little sad sometimes (when it comes to bread) because there aren't too many places to buy good artisan bread. Actually I can't think of anywhere. Maybe I haven't looked hard enough ... I got pretty good at making bread machine bread;), and Irish soda bread, but that isn't a yeast bread so I feel like it doesn't count. And then my sister came to visit when my daughter was born and taught me how to make my aunt Carolyn's perfect rolls. I can't seem to get them quite like either of them do, but they're still amazing, so I'm not complaining. But that experience made me realize that (some) bread isn't as intimidating as I always thought. So I started researching breads, and for Christmas I'm getting myself a new bread book.
Anyway, in the midst of all of this, I discovered a French bread recipe I wanted to try. It was so easy and amazingly puffy and chewy and delicious! And it took me maybe a total of 2 hours, start to finish. Now, if you're a purist and you like the traditional "real" French bread with a super crispy crust and an airy interior, call it something other than French bread and make it for your family. But if you don't experience the joy of real French bread too often, and your definition of it is an oblong loaf with slits cut on top, this will be your new favorite recipe and you'll never want to buy a loaf at Walmart again!
But someday I will learn to make "real" French bread. And ciabatta. And brioche. And croissants. And foccacia. (Not the wannabe that I made, but the real thing) And all sorts of beautiful, more famously temperamental breads.
But for now, this Americanized French bread works perfectly for me. I'm going to try it with 25% whole wheat flour today. Hopefully that turns out:)
fluffy, chewy, easy French loaf
makes 2 large or 4 small loaves
2 T active dry yeast
2 T granulated sugar
1 T salt
3 C warm water
2 T butter (softened) or oil
8 C flour
egg wash:
1 egg white
2 T water
- Place the first 5 ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer and stir until combined. Switch to the dough hook attachment and add flour. Knead until elastic.
- Let dough rise for 10 minutes, punch down and let mix for a few seconds. Repeat this 5 times (50 minutes).
- Shape the dough into 2 rectangles (or 4, if you're making 4 smaller loaves) and roll up into a log shape. Place on a parchment lined baking sheet and let rise to double in size. Brush with the egg wash and with a very sharp knife, cut 3~4 diagonal slits on the top.
- Bake at 400°F for about 15 minutes (less if you're making the smaller loaves, of course). The bread is done when golden brown.
Keep in mind that the bread will flatten a bit if you eat it right out of the oven. So if you want it to maintain it's shape, let it cool a little bit. If you don't care (and why should you? Fresh bread is so worth it!), eat it right out of the oven with butter. Or even better, honey butter!
We eat a lot of bread here. And that's why I am so glad I bought my bread machine a couple of years ago for Christmas. Last night I made some creamy chicken noodle soup, and I wanted a good, flavorful bread to go with it, so all I did was make my simple pizza dough recipe, added a head of roasted garlic into the dough, and when it was done, I kneaded in another head of whole cloves of garlic and a little herbes de provence (less then a 1/4 t--don't ever overdo it with dried herbs!). Then, I stretched it out carefully onto a parchment lined baking sheet, dimpled it all over, and doused it in extra virgin olive oil, baked it in a 375° F oven for about 15 minutes, and we devoured it! It was such a dense, moist bread. And so easy if you have a bread machine to do half of the work for you. You gotta try it out! I LOVE BREAD!
Tonight we're having a little celebration for the Young Women at church. My friend Lori, a total artist (for real, that's what she studied in college), was in charge, and the presentation is going to be all black and white. b&w photos and such. I was asked to bring a treat of some sort, and since I knew the decorations were going to be black and white, I thought I'd work with that theme. Being pregnant makes me crave random things, but 2 things that never fail me are chocolate and lemon. Not together. No, no. Light, lemon-ey, creamy treats (like cute Sarah Winn's amazing lemon tart!) and rich, dense chocolate. And how perfect that dark chocolate is almost black, and creamy lemon is almost white? And since it's a standing and walking around kind of event, I decided to make mini tarts. I'm a little embarrassed to reveal to all of you how easy it all was, but I might as well share the joy. Try making something like this at your next party. It'll be a hit! (At least I hope so)
Mini Chocolate Truffle Tarts
makes about 2.5 dozen
crust:
1 C all-purpose flour
1/4 C dutch-processed cocoa powder
2 T sugar
1/4 t salt
2 oz cream (or nuefchatel) cheese, softened
8 T (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
filling:
1 C heavy cream
12 oz bittersweet chocolate (not semi-sweet)
1 T pure vanilla extract
1/4 t kosher salt
6 T unsalted butter, softened
toasted sliced almonds, for serving (optional)
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, sugar, and salt for the crust. In the bowl of a food processor, pulse together the cream cheese and butter, until combined. Add the dry ingredients, and pulse (scraping down the sides occasionally) until the dough resembles coarse crumbs. Replace into a bowl and press together until it forms a ball.
- In a lightly greased mini muffin pan, place about 1/2 T of dough into each cavity and press into the sides until it reaches the top and looks even. Repeat for all spaces, until you run out of dough. Place in the freezer for 15 minutes until chilled.
- Bake in a 375° F oven for 7 minutes, or until slighty crisp and fragrant. Let cool for at least an hour.
- Once the crusts have cooled, make the filling. Place the chocolate in a bowl. Bring the cream to a simmer in the microwave, and pour over the chocolate. Let stand for 1 minute then slowly whisk together. Add the butter and vanilla, and continue stirring until combined.
- Carefully pour about 1 T into each crust. Sprinkle with a few sliced almonds, if using, and place in the refrigerator to set for at least 3 hours. And serve!
Mini Lemon Cream Tarts
makes about 2.5 dozen
crust:
1-1/4 C all-purpose flour
2 T sugar
1/4 t salt
2 oz cream (or nuefchatel) cheese, softened
8 T (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
filling:
1 (8 oz) package cream (or nuefchatel) cheese, softenend
juice of 2 lemons
zest of 1 lemon
2/3 ~ 1 C sugar (to taste)
super thin slices of lemon, cut into 6 wedges, for serving (optional)
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, sugar, and salt for the crust. In the bowl of a food processor, pulse together the cream cheese and butter, until combined. Add the dry ingredients, and pulse (scraping down the sides occasionally) until the dough resembles coarse crumbs. Replace into a bowl and press together until it forms a ball.
- In a lightly greased mini muffin pan, place about 1/2 T of dough into each cavity and press into the sides until it reaches the top and looks even. Repeat for all spaces, until you run out of dough. Place in the freezer for 15 minutes until chilled.
- Bake in a 375° F oven for 7 minutes, or until slighty crisp and fragrant. Let cool for at least an hour.
- Once crusts have cooled, make the filling. In a medium bowl, using a handheld mixer, combine the cheese, lemon juice, zest, and sugar until thorooughly combined. Place in a piping bag or a zip-top bag with a corner cut off and pipe into the crusts till slightly overflowing. Place a tiny lemon slice wedge, if desired. Place in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes, or until set. Serve and enjoy!
I know I talk about this bread a lot, but I make it all the time! It's so chewy and crispy and dense and delicious! I make it often without the herbs, and that turns out fantastic. Well, this time I did something different, and LOVED it! I grated a good 1/2 C of Pana Granado cheese (Parmiggiano Reggiano, Asiago, Pecorino Romano, or any hard Italian cheese will work great!), put about 1/4 C of it in the dough, and dumped the rest of it on top of the bread, after cutting the "x". It was so cheesy and rich and tasty. Next time you make bread, try it out:)
2 C all-purpose flour
