Ireland #5

Happy St. Patrick's Day! I saw this dessert in The Irish Spirit cookbook, and I thought it would be a great use of the rest of my Brown Soda Bread, as well as a nice, healthy dessert.

Brown Bread Apple Cobbler

1/3 cup water

5 tbsp. Irish Whiskey

1/3 cup golden raisins

1 tsp. vanilla extract

4 large granny smith apples, peeled and diced

1/3 cup granulated sugar

2 cups Brown Soda Bread crumbs

6 tbsp. Kerrygold Irish Butter, melted

1/2 cup packed light brown sugar

1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

In a small saucepan, bring water and whiskey to a boil. Stir in raisins and vanilla. Remove from heat, cover and let stand for 1 hour until raisins have absorbed liquid.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Butter a baking dish.

Toss apples and sugar in a large bowl. Stir in raisins.

In another bowl, combine breadcrumbs, butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Transfer half the apple mixture to dish, top with half of breadcrumbs, then the remaining apples, then the rest of the breadcrumbs. Bake for 50 minutes, until golden and bubbly.

Recipe taken from

The Irish Spirit, Margaret M Johnson. Chronicle Books: San Francisco, 2006.

This is the McCann's Oatmeal used in the Brown Soda Bread, it was right with the regular oatmeal in my market. Doesn't seem much different than regular quick cooking oatmeal to me, but much more expensive!

Ireland #3

I always bake cookies for whatever holiday it is to give to friends and family. I've become pretty awesome at the spritz cookie gun, and I noticed it had a shamrock plate. I took Wilton's basic spritz cookie recipe and changed it a bit to make these. I used Bailey's instead of milk, and I used only the egg yolk rather than the whole egg (like my mom's recipe).
After trying the baked cookies, I felt like the Bailey's flavor wasn't strong enough, so I decided to make an icing/filling for them. I used a basic buttercream recipe, again subbing Bailey's for the milk or water.

Bailey’s Shamrock Spritz Cookies

Adapted from Wilton’s Basic Spritz Cookies
1 1/2 cups butter
1 cup granulated sugar
1 egg yolk
3 Tablespoons Baileys Irish Cream
3-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ tsp. salt
Food coloring, optional
Preheat oven to 375°F.
Thoroughly cream butter and sugar. Add egg yolk and Bailey’s; beat well. Stir together flour, salt and baking powder; gradually add to creamed mixture, mixing to make a smooth dough. Chill for an hour. Place dough into cookie press and press cookies onto cold, ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 10-12 minutes; remove cookies from sheet; cool on rack.


Bailey's Buttercream
1 stick of unsalted butter at room temperature
1/4 cup Baileys
4 cups powdered sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
Cream together butter and Baileys, add salt, slowly add powdered sugar until it reaches desired consistency (I made this stiff to hold the cookies together).

YUM!

Ireland #2

Lately on the weekends, JJ and I are out running errands, and stop at Panera or McAllister's for soup and a sandwich. After I found this recipe, I decided I'd make it today rather than going out to lunch. At first I didn't think about French Onion Soup in an Irish Cookbook, but then JJ said isn't this French, not Irish? No worries, the author took a French soup and used all Irish ingredients and flavors to really make this a delicous Irish Onion Soup!

I've never really looked for Irish ingredients before, so I don't know that Kroger always carries them, but since it's St. Patrick's week, I had no problem finding Kerrygold Irish Butter, Kerrygold Swiss Cheese, and Murphy's Irish Stout. However, you could easily substitute regular butter and swiss, and another dark beer. (I don't know that the butter tasted any differently, but it was $3.99/half a pound! Land 'O Lakes butter was only $2/1 lb.)

The recipe doesn't call for any bread or croutons on top, but any French Onion Soup I've had always does. I used the Brown Soda Bread to top this!

Murphy's Onion Soup

2 tbsp. Kerrygold Irish Butter

3 yellow onions, sliced

2 red onions, sliced

4 shallots, minced

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 bay leaves

1 tsp. dried thyme

1 tsp. dried basil

1 tbsp. dark brown sugar

3 cups beef stock

1 cup Murphy's Irish Stout

Salt and Pepper

1 cup Kerrygold Swiss Cheese

In a large saucepot over medium heat, melt butter, add onions and garlic. Saute' for 12-15 minutes until softened, but not brown. Add in the seasonings and beer. Bring to a boil, reduce to low, add stock and simmer for 30 minutes.

Heat the broiler to high. Ladle soup into ramekins, top with bread then cheese. Broil for 2-3 minutes, until cheese is melted and brown. Serve immediately.

Recipe from:

The Irish Spirit, Margaret M Johnson. Chronicle Books: San Francisco, 2006.

I was in tears, but I made it through all the onoins and garlic!

Ireland #1

This is a recipe I found in The Irish Spirit that could be used in two additonal recipes, so I made up a loaf this morning while I was baking cookies. I was able to find McCann's Irish Oatmeal at Kroger, but I'm sure any quick-cooking oatmeal would work just as well!

Brown Soda Bread

2 1/4 cups all purpose flour

2 cups whole wheat flour

2 tsp. baking soda

1 cup plus 1 tbsp. McCann's Quick Cooking Irish Oatmeal

1 tsp. baking powdeer

2 1/4 cups buttermilk

1/2 tsp. salt

1 large egg, lightly beaten

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

In a large bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder, stir in the whole wheat flourt and oatmeal. Make a well in the center and pour in the buttermilk and egg. With a spoon, stir until it forms a dough. With floured hands, form into 2 rounds. Transfer to a baking sheet and sprinkle with the remaining oatmeal. Bake for 35-40 minutes.

I halved this recipe, and made 1 loaf in a loaf pan.

Recipe from:

The Irish Spirit, Margaret M Johnson. Chronicle Books: San Francisco, 2006.

Country Challenge Winner #4 - Ireland!

IRELAND

Since St. Patrick’s Day is Monday, I had to make this week’s Country Challenge winner Ireland! I was so excited about cooking traditional Irish food, until I read what it consisted of. The middle class and poor in the country had a diet that consisted of milk, butter, cheese, oats, barley, potatoes, cabbage, bacon, and ham. Ireland has since been influenced by many cultures and their food is very worldly. In recent years, a new Irish cuisine has emerged, using traditional Irish ingredients, but adding new flavors and ingredients to update them. This was the approach I took for this week.

I found a cookbook called The Spirit of Ireland in Barnes and Noble. The author has separated the book into chapters, each dedicated to recipes containing a specific Irish alcoholic beverage. I found this to be a funny, yet effective way to organize a cookbook. This entire cookbook is written and photographed beautifully. It is very informative about the history of the country and the evolution of the spirits. It uses many traditional ingredients, mixed with ingredients that are made in Ireland. I will be solely cooking from this cookbook this week!

I did my best to hunt down imported Irish ingredients. Since it’s the week of St. Patrick’s day, it did make it easier. Of course all of these recipes can be made with American ingredients, I just wanted to cook as authentically as possible. I will divulge more information about the history and character of each ingredient and recipe as each dish is presented throughout the week.

Tuesdays With Dorie - #3

Happy 100th Post to Me!!!

Now, on with the post...

This week for Tuesday With Dorie, Russian Grandmother's Apple Pie-Cake was chosen. I'm not exactly sure why it's not just apple pie... because it tasted, and basically was, apple pie. The recipe called for a mixture of apples, which I've never cooked with a mixture before, so I really liked the end flavor of the different apples. Also, I loved how the raisins got really plump as it cooked. The crust was more like a rolled sugar cookie dough than a traditional pie crust, which made it all the more delicious.

I enjoyed this, however next time I might make it in a pie plate because making it in a rectangular pyrex made rolling the dough a little harder, and it's a pie to me!

Russian Grandmothers' Apple Pie-Cake

For The Dough

2 sticks (8 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 cup sugar

2 large eggs

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

Juice of 1 lemon

3 1/4 - 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

For The Apples

10 medium apples, all one kind or a mix (I like to use Fuji, Golden Delicious and Ida Reds; my grandmother probably used dry baking apples like Cordland and Rome)

Squirt of fresh lemon juice

1 cup moist, plump raisins (dark or golden)

1/4 cup sugar

1 1/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Sugar, preferably decorating (coarse) sugar, for dusting

To Make The Dough:

Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar together on medium speed until smooth, about 2 minutes. Add the eggs and continue to beat until the mixture is light and fluffy, about 3 minutes more. Reduce the mixer speed to low, add the baking powder and salt and mix just to combine. Add the lemon juice - the dough will probably curdle, but don't worry about it. Still working on low speed, slowly but steadily add 3 1/4 cups of the flour, mixing to incorporate it and scraping down the bowl as needed. The dough is meant to be soft, but if you think it looks more like a batter than a dough at this point, add the extra 1/4 cup flour. (The dough usually needs the extra flour.) When properly combined, the dough should almost clean the sides of the bowl. Turn the dough out onto a work surface, gather it into a ball and divide it in half. Shape each half into a rectangle. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or for up to 3 days. (The dough can be wrapped airtight and frozen for up to 2 months; defrost overnight in the refrigerator.)

To Make The Apples:

Peel and core the apples and cut into slices about 1/4 inch thick; cut the slices in half crosswise if you want. Toss the slices in a bowl with a little lemon juice - even with the juice, the apples may turn brown, but that's fine - and add the raisins. Mix the sugar and cinnamon together, sprinkle over the apples and stir to coat evenly. Taste an apple and add more sugar, cinnamon, and/or lemon juice if you like.

Getting Ready to Bake:

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Generously butter a 9x12-inch baking pan (Pyrex is good) and place it on a baking shee tlined with parchment or a silicone mat. Remove the dough from the fridge. If it is too hard to roll and it cracks, either let it sit at room temperature for about 15 minutes or give it a few bashes with your rolling pin to get it moving. Once it's a little more malleable, you've got a few choices. You can roll it on a well-floured work surface or roll it between sheets of plastic wrap or wax paper. You can even press or roll out pieces of the dough and patch them together in the pan - because of the baking powder in the dough, it will puff and self-heal under the oven's heat. Roll the dough out until it is just a little larger all around than your pan and about 1/4 inch thick - you don't want the dough to be too thin, because you really want to taste it. Transfer the dough to the pan. If the dough comes up the sides of the pan, that's fine; if it doesn't that's fine too. Give the apples another toss in the bowl, then turn them into the pan and, using your hands, spread them evenely across the bottom. Roll out the second piece of dough and position it over the apples. Cut the dough so you've got a 1/4 to 1/2 inch overhang and tuck the excess into the sides of the pan, as though you were making a bed. (If you don't have that much overhang, just press what you've got against the sides of the pan.) Brush the top of the dough lightly with water and sprinkle sugar over the dough. Using a small sharp knife, cut 6 to 8 evenly spaced slits in the dough.

Bake for 65 to 80 minutes, or until the dough is a nice golden brown and the juices from the apples are bubbling up through the slits. Transfer the baking pan to a cooling rack and cool to just warm or to room temperature. You'll be tempted to taste it sooner, but I think the dough needs a little time to rest.

A cookie a day...

JJ's favorite cookies are oatmeal raisin. I had some raisins on hand so I decided to make him some. I wanted to make something low-fat, low-cal, and I found this recipe on the sun-maid website. Overall, they were good, but a bit dry.

Low-Fat Raisin Oatmeal Cookies

From Sun-Maid.com

1 cup white whole wheat flour or whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup fat-free vanilla or plain yogurt
2 tablespoons canola oil or corn oil
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1-1/3 cups uncooked old-fashioned oats or quick-cooking rolled oats
1 cup Sun-Maid Natural Raisins


Directions:
HEAT oven to 350 F. Cover 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper.
COMBINE flour, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda and salt together in a small bowl.
COMBINE brown sugar, yogurt, oil, egg and vanilla in a large bowl. Add flour mixture to make a blended dough.
STIR in oats and raisins.
DROP mixture by rounded teaspoonfuls 2 inches apart on prepared cookie sheets.
BAKE for 10-12 minutes until very lightly browned. Do not over bake.
SLIDE cookies from parchment paper onto countertop to cool.


Makes 40 cookies. (I made 32, they're pretty small too)


Nutrients per serving (1 cookie): Calories 63; Protein 1g; Fat 1g (Sat. Fat 0.1g); Carbohydrate 13g; Dietary Fiber 1g; Cholesterol 5mg; Sodium 63mg

Until there's a cure...

I am a Zeta Tau Alpha, and our philanthropy is Breast Cancer Awareness. I loved working at race for the cure, baking for Think Pink games, and buying the cute pink ribbon products, but I never really had a personal experience with breast cancer.

My mom was diagnosed with breast cancer a few weeks before Thanksgiving. It was awful news to hear, but she was lucky that she found it early. She had radiation for 3 weeks leading up to my wedding, and began chemotherapy right after Christmas. She has been so amazing through it all! She has her last chemo treatment on Thursday, and asked me to make some pink ribbon cookies for her to bring to the center because there are often baked goods there for the patients. I was more than happy to because I love baking, but because I’m so proud of my mom! I found the ribbon cookie cutters here, http://www.thecookiecuttershop.com/cancercookiecutters.shtml and used them for many events in college. They can be used for any ribbon though!

This recipe is a traditional rolled sugar cookie recipe I found online, and added a bit to from learning a few secrets and tips. Using powdered sugar to roll and dust tastes so much better than using flour. These cookies are sweet, buttery, and delicious. The dough also holds up well in the freezer.

Pink Ribbon Sugar Cookies
(updated 12/2012)

1 1/2 cups butter

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

1/2 cup powdered sugar

4 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

1/2 tsp. almond extract

1 tbsp. lemon zest

5 1/2 cups flour

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

Powdered sugar, for rolling

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Cream butter and sugars in a mixer for 5 minutes. Add in eggs one at a time, mixing thoroughly. Add in vanilla, almond, and lemon zest. Sift in flour, baking powder, and salt a little at a time. Do not over mix, this process should take about one minute.

Chill dough for up to a week in the fridge, or roll out and cut right away.

Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and bake cookies for 7-8 minutes.

Wait until cookies are cooled before icing.

For the outer icing:

1 stick of butter, softened

¼ cup Crisco

6 cups powdered sugar

Water or Milk to reach desired consistency

Food coloring

For the inner icing:

4 cups powdered sugar

¼ - ½ cup skim milk

Food coloring

This is a large recipe, and it will make 80 ribbons

Tuesdays With Dorie #2

This week's TWD recipe was Snickery Squares. They are supposed to bean adult/gourmet version of a Snickers bar. It was complete fate that brought this recipe and Argentina in the same week because I needed 1/2 cup of dulce de leche for my Alfajores, and 1 1/2 cups of dulce de leche for this recipe. The recipe I had made 2 cups, and I didn't know what I'd do with the other 1.5 cups after making the cookies (besides eat it with a spoon). I knew making this TWD recipe was meant to be!

These bars were good, but I have mixed feelings about them. My husbandand I both thought the chocolate seemed to overpower the rest of the layers. I think also the caramel/peanut layer could have been doubled. If I make these again, I'll definitely use 3 cups of dulce de leche.

I absolutely loved the peanuts. They tasted exactly like cracker jacks peanuts. I never knew it was as simple as making caramelized sugar. They cooled and hardened much faster than I expected, and I couldn't stop snacking on them while waiting on the crust. Overall, I'd say it's a good recipe, I would just tweak it next time and use more dulce de leche and maybe a little less chocolate.

Snickery Squares

For the Crust:
1 cup all-purpose flour

¼ cup sugar

2 TBSP powdered sugar

¼ tsp salt

1 stick unsalted butter, cut into small pieces and chilled

1 large egg yolk, lightly beaten

For the Filling:
½ cup sugar

3 TBSP water

1 ½ cups salted peanuts

About 1 ½ cups dulce de leche (I used homemade)

For the Topping:
7 ounces bittersweet, coarsely chopped (I used 6)

½ stick unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces, at room temperature

Getting Ready:
Preheat oven to 350F. Butter a 8 inch square pan and put it on a baking sheet.
(I used a 5x10)

To Make the Crust:
Toss the flour, sugar, powdered sugar and salt into a food processor and pulse a few times to combine. Toss in the pieces of cold butter and pulse about 12 times, until the mixture looks like coarse meal. Pour the yolk over the ingredients and pulse until the dough forms clumps and curds-stop before the dough comes together in a ball. Turn the dough into the buttered pan and gently press it evenly across the bottom of the pan. Prick the dough with a fork and slide the sheet into the oven. Bake the crust for 15-20 minutes, or until it takes on just a little color around the edges. Transfer the pan to a rack and cool to room temperature before filling.

To Make the Filling:
Have a parchment or silicone mat-lined baking sheet at the ready, as well as a long-handled wooden spoon and a medium heavy bottomed saucepan. Put the sugar and water in the saucepan and cook over medium-high heat, stirring, until the sugar dissolves. Keeping the heat fairly high, continue to cook the sugar, without stirring, until it just starts to color. Toss the peanuts and immediately start stirring. Keep stirring, to coat the peanuts with sugar. Within a few minutes, they will be covered with sugar and turn white—keep stirring until the sugar turns back into caramel. When the peanuts are coated with a nice deep amber caramel, remove the pan from the heat and turn the nuts out onto the baking sheet., using the wooden spoon to spread them out as best you can. Cool the nuts to room temperature. When they are cool enough to handle, separate the nuts or break them into small pieces. Divide the nuts in half. Keep half of the nuts whole or in biggish pieces for the filling, and finely chop the other half for the topping. Spread the dulce de leche over the shortbread base and sprinkle over the whole candied nuts.

To Make the Topping:
Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of barely simmering water. Remove chocolate from the heat and gently stir in the butter, stirring until it is fully blended into the chocolate. Pour the chocolate over the dulce de leche, smoothing it with a long metal icing spatula, then sprinkle over the rest of the peanuts. Slide the pan into the fridge to set the topping, about 20 minutes; if you'd like to serve the squares cold, keep them refrigerated for at least 3 hours before cutting.
Cut into 16 bars.

I was a little worried my bars wouldn't come out nicely, so I took this photo of the whole thing before cutting into it. Luckily they didn't stick and came out really nicely.

Argentina - #1

Dulce de Leche is one of Argentina's most popular ingredients. It is slow carmelized milk. The process takes a while, but it is truly worth the effort. This is the most amazing caramel you will ever try. You will never want to buy it in the stores again! The cookies are wonderful with the dulce de leche because they're not strong in flavor, but they're buttery and delicious. Enjoy one of Argentina's favorites!

Alfajores

(Cookies with Dulce de Leche Filling)

Alfajores pg. 372
Makes 24 cookies

1 stick unsalted butter, softened
¼ cup confectioners sugar
2 egg yolks
1 tbsp. grated lemon zest
2 tbsp. brandy
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 cup dulce de leche

1. In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter and confectioners’ sugar until smooth. Beat in egg yolks. Add the zest and brandy and mix well. Sift together flour and baking powder then mix into the butter mixture to make a dough that is soft but not runny. Form into a ball, cover in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees, grease a large cookie sheet.
3. On a lightly floured work surface, roll the dough out to 1/8 inch thickness and cut into 1 ½ inch rounds. Place on cookie sheet and bake until set, about 10 minutes, the cookies should have no color.
4. Remove cookies and let cool on a wire rack. Spread one cookie with dulce de leche and press a second cookie on top.



Dulce de Leche pg. 390

Makes 3 cups
4 cups milk
1 ¼ cups sugar
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
¼ tsp. baking soda

In a heavy 4 quart saucepan, mix together the milk, sugar, vanilla, and baking soda. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Reduce the heat and simmer, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon to prevent sticking. Cook for about an hour until it is thick and caramel-colored. Transfer to a jar and store in the refrigerator for a few weeks.

Both recipes are taken directly from:

The South American Table, Maria Baez Kijac. Harvard Common Press: Boston, Massachusettes, 2003.