Biccie anyone? Random Linzer Cookies

 

I don't really make biscuits - I don't really eat them either unless I am desperately hungry and there is nothing else or else there is a cup of tea involved and it is the end of the school day and I am sat in a meeting or something. Then biscuits seem right somehow. I maybe should mention at this point 'Jaffa Cakes' which I can consume at speed without them touching the sides and I mention them because they happen to be on the biscuit aisle, but they're CAKES and maybe that is why I like them so much.

 

Anyway, this month's Random Recipe Challenge hosted by Dom at Belleau Kitchen was 'your go to' cookbook. In desperate (and indeed, non desperate) times I am a Barefoot Contessa disciple, for I know that her recipes turn out completely as they should for I believe they have been tested to within an inch of their lives in that amazing barn kitchen of hers (not in the least bit envious...) and within the cookbook there will be something that you can just hurl together emergency style, for sometimes slaving over the stove is not my bag and frankly, I just want to eat.

 

Ten seconds was just enough time to find my well battered 'The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook' which is in a pretty poor state due to massive usage over the years. This is her first cookbook and contains some spectacularly amazing recipes, and has been well cooked from, so finding a recipe that had not been used was a bit of a challenge, until I came across these:

 

Linzer cookies.

 

My only tweak of the original recipe was I decided to sandwich some of these cookies with Nutella. Because I can. And should. And it allows me to do this:

Straight from the jar... a spoonful just for me.

 

Linzer Cookies taken from 'The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook' or from here

 

Makes loads!

 

Ingredients:

 

3/4 pound unsalted butter at room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3 1/2 cups all-purpose (plain)flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup good raspberry preserves (or Nutella!)
Confectioners’ (icing) sugar, for dusting

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.


Method:

 



In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix together the butter and sugar until they are just combined. Add the vanilla. In a medium bowl, sift together the flour and salt, then add them to the butter-and-sugar mixture. Mix on low speed until the dough starts to come together. Dump onto a surface dusted with flour and shape into a flat disk. Wrap in plastic and chill for 30 minutes.

Roll the dough 1/4-inch thick and cut 23/4-inch rounds with a plain or fluted cutter. With half of the rounds, cut a circle out of the middle with a 1-inch cutter. Place all the cookies on an ungreased baking sheet and chill for 15 minutes.

Bake the cookies for 20 to 25 minutes, until the edges begin to brown. Allow to cool to room temperature. Spread raspberry preserves on the flat side of each solid cookie. Dust the top of the cut-out cookies with confectioners’ sugar and press the flat sides together, with the raspberry preserves in the middle and the confectioners’ sugar on the top. Or you could get creative with Nutella!

Random and Moreish - Salami (and Chorizo!!) Tarts

 

 

This was the worst and best possible recipe that could have revealed itself for this month's Random Recipe Challenge, hosted by Dom over at Belleau Kitchen.  The best, because I have been rather short of time lately, which I fear is a prelude to my returning to work full time from September when I will have hardly any time at all, and this recipe is, literally, 20 minutes from start to finish. The drawback is that they are so moreish and lasted a matter of minutes as they were slyly snaffled from the worktop by passing Lolas, Finns and Phills... and me. Y'see, this is the thing with appetisers, which is what I suppose these things are - I can't stop at one or two and even if I as at some swanky 'do' somewhere where I had a glass of something white and chilled in one hand, I would still have one hand free to pick and to keep picking at these tasty little morsels...

 

 

 

Anyway, the 30th random recipe challenge was to pick your thirtieth cookbook off the shelf and turn to page 30. The thirtieth book was 'Totally Simple Food' by Jill Dupleix and page 30 had a picture of the aforementioned tarts. The recipe was on page 31 so you'll have to allow me a little wriggle room on that one.

 

 

 

The book...

 

 

 

The recipe...

 

I am a great fan of Jill Dupleix's food. There isn't a recipe that I haven't tried without success. This, though simple, is really no exception to that rule. And as I like a little variety in life, I tried these with slices of chorizo and they equally good if not better, with all that paprika oiliness seeping into crisp puff pastry. Yum, frankly.

 

Salami Tarts, adapted from 'Totally Simple Food by Jill Dupleix

Makes 10 (of the salami tarts - 15 ish of the chorizo tarts)

 

Ingredients:

 

500g of puff pastry, either ready rolled or rolled out yourself.

12 slices salami, about 6cm in diameter, or about 15 slices of chorizo, or a bit of both.

1 egg, beaten

200g Swiss chard leaves (I omitted this)

1 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil (...and this)

sea salt (...and this)

freshly ground black pepper (...and this!)

A handful of pitted mixed olives (my addition)

Method:

 

Preheat the oven to 200c/Gas 6

 

 

 

Roll out the pastry quite thinly.

 

Prepare the salami slices, by taking the skin off if you need to (or just taking them out of the packet!)

 

 

 

Place one salami slice on the pastry and cut around it, leaving about a centimetre border around the salami slice. You can then use this as your template for cutting out the other circles.

 

 

 

Brush each pastry round with beaten egg and top with a slice of salami (or chorizo).

 

Bake for 10 minutes until the pastry borders and puffed and golden. Transfer to a wire rack. They will crispen up as they cool.

 

If you are using the Swiss chard, wash it well and place it in a saucepan with just the water clinging to the leaves. Cover and cook over a high heat, tossing occasionally until it begins to wilt and the juices evaporate. Set aside to cool and squeeze out the excess water. Toss in olive oil with sea salt and lots of black pepper.

 

Chorizo!

Chorizo!

 

Serve the tarts slightly warm, or at room temperature, with the chard topping each tart or else do what I did - add a few olives and open a bottle of Spanish wine!

 

Happy and healthy in a random way! One Pot Chinese Chicken

 

 

There are several ways in which this recipe makes me happy. Firstly, it's quick and to be honest the way things are going with what I seem to have to achieve from the point of falling in through the door of an evening and flopping into bed, something that can be cooked and dished up in double fast time makes me very happy. Secondly, 'one pot' - a phrase I am also happy to hear, although it's a little disingenuous here as if you want anything else with this lovely chicken then you are likely to need at least another pot, but the phrase 'one pot' suggests something with a low level of faff which is bound to make this occasionally lazy chef very happy indeed. Thirdly, and most importantly considering the premise of this month's Random Recipe Challenge, hosted by Belleau Kitchen, this meal is fresh, light and healthy but certainly not lacking in taste. Happy. Happy. Happy.

 

 

 

Recipes that make you healthy and happy was this month's random recipe challenge. My randomness happened by way of collecting together the cookery books that suggested healthiness, vitality, the horrible 'd' word and books that are meant to feed kids healthily and happily. I'll be honest, that amounted to about eight books altogether and the resulting random choice could have turned into some kind of salad nightmare but luckily a blind shuffle and a bit of 'dip dip do' resulted in the winner being 'Fat Girl Slim', a book by Ruth Watson, a book full of interesting recipes and the 'Sod It' chapter at the back where you can eradicate all your good work by making and then eating an amazing chocolate mousse recipe. Sometimes a 'sod it' moment is a good thing.

 

 

 

But the winner of the random recipe in this book was 'One Pot Chinese Chicken' which luckily I had the ingredients for, save the additional steamed vegetables which are an addition of mine. My only adaptation was that I only had 400g of chicken thighs and I kept the sauce quantity the same as for the 600g as stipulated in the original recipe, for around here we like our meals just a bit saucy. I also marinated the chicken for a little longer than suggested as I got busy making packed lunches and so on and therefore I got distracted. But it was okay.

 

Oh. one more thing to be happy about. Lola and Finn loved this, and that makes this recipe a keeper!

 

One Pot Chinese Chicken, adapted from 'Fat Girl Slim' by Ruth Watson

 

Serves Lola, Finn, Mum and Dad.

 

Ingredients:

 

600g boneless, skinless chicken thighs (I used 400g - see above)

1 level tbsp cornflour

1 tbsp toasted sesame oil

2 tbsp soy sauce, divided

1 tbsp groundnut or vegetable oil

3 garlic cloves, crushed and finely chopped

1 tbsp sweet chilli sauce

1 tbsp hoisin sauce

1 tbsp oyster sauce

1 tsp caster sugar

a handful of fresh basil (I decided on coriander instead)

 

Method:

 

 

 

Cut the chicken into bitesize chunks and place in a non reactive bowl. Toss with the cornflour, the sesame oil and one tablespoon of the soy sauce. Leave to marinate for 30 minutes.

 

 

 

Heat up a wok or large frying pan over a medium high flame and add the groundnut or vegetable oil. When the oil is hot, put in the chicken and stir fry for about 3 - 4 minutes, or until just cooked. Scoop out the chicken and discard most of the oil left before placing the pan back on the heat and returning the chicken to the pan.

 

At this point, add the rest of the ingredients, including the one remaining tablespoon of soy sauce, but don't add the basil (coriander) until the last minute.

 

Cook for a further five minutes or so, stirring the chicken around in the thickening sauce. Once ready, sprinkle with coriander.

 

The original recipe gives a 'more' and 'less' option, for those who are strictly dieting and those who are not. You can serve this with steamed rice to bulk the meal out, as I did, or you can just serve with steamed vegetables, which I nearly did, but I kept the rice too, for life would be dull without carbs!

 

 

 

Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

 

A random reason to eat your crusts: Coconut Milk Bread

 

 

Oh, how have I neglected my little blog of late. April has been almost devoid of food musings due to the double distraction of 'spring cleaning and decluttering' (kinda good) and marking A level coursework (not so good) and whilst I still have an attic full of (Phill's) stuff that needs to be acquainted with the tip, the coursework is done and dusted and I can indulge in something more gratifying and therapeutic.

So, therapeutic. I have already talked about the therapeutic and frankly nurturing qualities of making bread. From the 10 minutes of kneading in which you can take out all your irritations, to the prove, to the knock back, to the smell of baking bread and the tap of a hollow bottom, making and baking bread is good not only for bingo wings but it is good for you. Totally.

 

 

 

And it was great to bake bread for this month's random recipe challenge hosted by Dom at Belleau Kitchen. The randomness proved a bit difficult as I have two (mostly) bread books and then I have lots of books with the odd loaf knocking around in them, so to save myself from going mad I picked the one I have never cooked anything out of and opened the book:

 

 

 

The book: Warm Bread and Honey Cake by Gaitri Pagrach-Chandra

 

 

 

And here we are: Coconut Milk Bread.

What can I tell you about this loaf. Well, it didn't seem to rise a tremendous amount on the first proving but after being knocked back and put into tins it did seem to get its act together. The bread tastes amazing. There will be some kind of scientific reasoning that means that the ingredients combine to create the best crusts ever, or else I maybe left it in too long, but if you are a crusts girl (or boy) like me, you will not be disappointed. And the texture and taste is 'filling' but with a creamy and slight saltiness that is just so, so good. I took advantage of the cook's perk of slicing a piece whilst still warm and slathering it in some butter. It was at that time I realised that a life without bread would be, frankly, crap.

So, here you go. the recipe.

 

Coconut Milk Bread taken from Warm Bread and Honey Cake by Gaitri Pagrach-Chandra

 

Makes (450g/1lb) two loaves

 

My adaptations in red

 

Ingredients:

 

750g strong white flour

2 1/2 tsp easy blend (active dry) yeast

3 tbsp sugar

1 1/2 tsp salt

100g butter, melted and cooled slightly

350ml lukewarm coconut milk (Note: I added my coconut milk straight from the tin into the melted butter to cool the butter and make the coconut milk lukewarm, if that makes any sense!)

 

Method:

 

 

 

Put all the ingredients into a large bowl and mix to combine the ingredients and then knead weither by hand or with a dough hook in a mixer until the dough becomes smooth and supple.

 

 

 

Bring together into a ball and put in an oiled bowl, cover with cling film and leave to rise until it is doubled in size. (Took about an hour and a half for me)

 

 

 

Knock back the dough and and knead lightly until smooth again. Divide into two portions, roll with your hands into a ball type shape and place into prepared loaf tins, seam side down. Cover both loaves and leave to rise once again until doubled in size.

 

Preheat the oven to 200c/400f

 

Crusts!

 

 

Bake in the oven for about 30 minutes. To test, remove the loaves from the tins, tap on the bottom and top and they should sound hollow. Cool on a wire rack.

 

 

Randomness results in amazing brownies! Cream Cheese Swirl Brownies with Pecans and Curly Wurlies

 

I think that sometimes being random is good, rather than bad. Random is a word bandied around with some negativity, depending on context. “Oh, you are so random!” Well, good, for being random this month has resulted in my baking these frankly amazing (if I do say so myself) brownies. I mean, brownies are amazing, of course but these are uber amazing, if that is at all possible.

If you are one of these people who think that gilding the lily is pointless, well, not in this case. The addition of cream cheese topping and roasted pecans along with chocolate covered caramel (Heath Bars in the original recipe, an American confection I believe, I subbed it for the very English Curly Wurly, for let’s face facts, whilst not as good as a finger of Fudge, it is really quite close to being perfection) and the result was a brownie at once creamy, nutty and then moist and chewy with molten chocolate caramel. Yes, they are that good.

 

Already identified as a possible. I am a post it note queen...

Hope mine look like these!
 

I was very strict and used the natty random thingumabob on the Belleau Kitchen website. It came up with book 116, which was 'Magnolia at Home' by Allysa Tovey, of Magnolia Bakery fame and page 107, which was Cream Cheese Swirl Brownies with Pecans and Heath Bars. As well as forcing me to be random it also forced me to count my cookbooks. I have 261, which has chastened me a little. No more impulse buying from the clearance section at TKMaxx, second hand bookshops, or taking other people’s cast offs. Birthdays and Christmas only. Birthdays and Christmas only. Birthdays and Christmas only (repeat to fade…)

 

Here is the recipe.

 

Cream Cheese Swirl Brownies with Pecans and Curly Wurlies, adapted from the recipe in Magnolia at Home by Allysa Tovey

 

Makes 24 2 inch brownies

 

Ingredients in cup measurements (US recipe)

My adaptations in red:

 

Ingredients:

For the cream cheese filling:
One 8-oz. pkg cream cheese, not softened
1/3 cup sugar
1 large egg, at room temp.
2 tbs. plain flour

For the brownies:
1 1/4 cups plain flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened (2 sticks is a pack of butter in the UK) 4 ounces unsweetened chocolate (I used Menier dark chocolate) 2 cups sugar
3 large eggs, at room temperature
2 tbs. whole milk
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
3/4 cup coarsely chopped toasted pecans
2/3 cup chopped Heath bars, or any chocolate-covered toffee bars (I used Curly Wurlies, put them in the freezer to harden before chopping them. Three bars made 2/3 cupful)
Method:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.  Grease and flour a 13x9-inch baking pan.

Firstly, make the cream cheese topping:  In a medium-size bowl, beat the cream cheese with the sugar until smooth. Add the egg and flour and beat well.  Set aside.

Now for the rest of the brownie mixture.  In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt.  Set aside.  

In a medium-size saucepan over low heat, melt the butter with the chocolate, stirring occasionally, until smooth.  Remove from the heat, transfer to a large bowl, and allow to cool for about 5 minutes until lukewarm.  

Stir in the sugar.  Add the eggs, milk, and vanilla and beat well.  Add the dry ingredients and mix thoroughly.

Stir in half of the pecans and half of the Curly Wurlies.  Reserve 1/2 cup of the brownie batter.

Spread the rest of the batter evenly in the prepared pan.  

Drop the cream cheese mixture by tablespoonfuls over the batter.  Next, drop the reserved brownie batter by teaspoonfuls in between the cream cheese filling.  

Using a small knife, swirl the two batters together, forming a decorative pattern.  

Sprinkle the remaining pecans and Curly Wurlies over the top, and using a spatula, gently press into the batter.  

Bake for 40-55 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted in the centre of the pan comes out with moist crumbs attached. Do not over bake.  Allow to cool overnight before cutting and serving.

Note:  To toast the pecans, place on a baking sheet in a 350 degree F oven for 5-10 minutes, or until lightly browned and fragrant.  Be careful to not let them burn!

 

 

I am submitting this recipe to April’s Random Recipes, hosted by Dom at Belleau Kitchen. Can’t wait to see what everyone else has come up with!