Monday, July 28, 2008

Brownie Cut Out Cookies

Quite a while back, I was checking out my beloved TasteSpotting and came across this blog that had a recipe for brownie cookies. I was immediately intrigued. Now what I usually do when I find a recipe that I would like to try, I copy and paste it to a word document that I have which is just full of recipes. But for some reason, I failed to do so with this particular recipe. So the other day when I went through my abundance of recipes and could not find it, the search was on.

As I have stated before, I love cut out cookies, but at times find sugar cookies to be a little dull for me. So this recipe is wonderful because I get to use my fun cookie cutters AND have an exciting cookie to go along with them!

Brownie Cut Out Cookies
Courtesy of Smitten Kitchen

3 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2/3 cup cocoa powder

Combine the flour, salt and baking powder in a bowl and set aside
In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter with the sugar. Add the eggs and vanilla and mix well. Carefully mix in the cocoa powder (it will puff everywhere if you're not careful!) until well combined.
Gradually add the flour mixture until the dough comes together.
Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and chill for at least 1 hour.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface and cut into desired shapes.
Bake for 8 to 11 minutes depending on the thickness of the dough.
Cool on wire racks and enjoy!


These turned out great, and the smell of them baking was absolutely exquisite. I was a little curious as to whether these would just taste like chocolate sugar cookies or would they live up to their name. The name says it all, these tasted so much like little brownies that if you closed your eyes and ate one, you would never guess that they were cut outs. The dough was nice and easy to work with, and the flavor is so rich and wonderful that there is no need for icing. Enjoy!

Thursday, July 24, 2008

Ice Cream of the Week: Fresh Peach Sorbet

In my attempts to keep up with my ice cream of the week pledge, and along with the growing guilt of eating so much deliciously fattening ice cream, it's time for something a little lighter. 'Tis the season for peaches, so there is no better way to put these delicious little fuzz balls to work than by transforming them into a luscious sorbet. I have to say that I hold peach sorbet very close to my heart...I do believe that I pretty much lived off the stuff when I had my wisdom teeth removed two summers ago. I honestly went through about a quart every two days, delicious. In my quest for the right recipe, I was very selective in the one I chose. One thing that I had a hard time with was that a great amount of the recipes I found consisted corn starch...and I think corn starch is kinda yucky. But with further research I realized that I could easily substitute honey for the corn starch.

Peach Sorbet

4 cups peeled and sliced peaches (about 4 medium peaches)
2/3 cup sugar (I used about 1/3 cup)
1/4 cup honey
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

Place all ingredients in a food processor or blender and blend together. I suggest that you start by adding just a little bit of the sugar and add as much as desired.
Chill the mixture for about an hour.
Pour the mixture into your ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer's instructions, usually around 15-30 minutes. Once churned, transfer sorbet into a freezer safe container and freeze for about 3 hours to allow the sorbet to set.

The flavor of this was so wonderful, and while I know that sorbets are supposed to taste like their main ingredient, this sorbet really and truly tasted just like a frozen peach. It was not too sweet, so the true flavor of the peach really shone through. As mentioned above in the recipe, I was glad that I added the sugar in gradually while tasting along the way, some peaches may need more sugar than others. Since I found this recipe, I've already made this sorbet twice this week...I highly recommend you give this one a try. Enjoy!

Friday, July 18, 2008

A light Summer Dinner

As stated in a previous post, when lacking something do, I usually turn to the kitchen. So tonight, on my ever so exciting friday evening, I decided to take advantage of the fact that while staying with my parents, they are more then happy to provide any desired ingredients with which to cook. Since I usually end up making some sort of dessert, I was ready for a little change. I got the idea for this pasta while watching Everyday Italian (I love that show!). I didn't follow any recipe, but I knew I wanted a light, mild sauce for the pasta since it's been so incredibly hot here lately. The main base for the sauce was olive oil, so I have a feeling that this pasta could be served either hot or at room temperature, great for entertaining! 

Broccoli and Sun Dried Tomatoes with Bowtie Pasta

2-3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
3-4 tablespoons finely chopped sun dried tomatoes
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
2 large florets broccoli, trimmed into bite size pieces
2 cups bowtie pasta
1/4-1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
salt and pepper to taste
Shredded parmesan cheese

Cook the pasta according to the instructions on the box and with about 2 minutes left, add the broccoli to the boiling pasta water and cook until pasta's done.
Meanwhile, heat olive oil and butter in a skillet.
Add the sun dried tomatoes and garlic and saute for about 5 minutes, add the red pepper flakes.
When the broccoli and pasta are finished, transfer to the skillet and saute just until everything is combined. Add some of the pasta water to loosen the sauce if need be.
Add salt and pepper to taste along with any amount of cheese (I like lots!)

This was a great experiment, and I'm lucky that my parents volunteered so readily to be my testers. I was afraid that the sauce would be too oily but it turned out just right. It was a nice, light sauce with just a little kick from those red pepper flakes. It was a very nice refreshing switch from my usual sweet tooth in the kitchen. This dish would go along well with some grilled chicken brushed with a little olive oil and lemon juice for those who desire a bit of protein with dinner. 

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Ice Cream of the Week: Cookies 'n' Cream My Way

After much hinting from both my boyfriend Kyle and my dad, I've "given in" and made them cookies 'n' cream ice cream. The hints started when my dad very strategically placed the newly bought package of Oreos where I could not miss them. Either way, this ice cream is a favorite of mine, and I'm trying to stick to my ice cream of the week pledge. The abundance of ice cream may also have to do with the fact that I have very little else to do besides sleep in ridiculously late and lifeguard old people at Denison University.

What separates this cookies 'n' cream ice cream from the others is the fact that I add the chopped oreo cookies in at the beginning of the churning process, therefore breaking up the cookies and creating almost a chocolate ice cream. What I find so "exciting" about this process is that it makes the ice cream base the cookie part of the cookies 'n' cream. This all started by accident when I made this ice cream in the past, but it was one of those lucky mistakes that ended up great.

Cookies 'n' Cream Ice Cream: Amy's Way

1/2 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup whole milk
3 egg yolks, beaten
2 cups heavy whipping cream
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups oreo cookies, chopped

Combine sugar, salt, milk and egg yolks in a saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, just until bubbles begin to appear around the edge of the mixture, around 12-15 minutes.
Strain the mixture through a fine mesh sieve and cool to room temperature. (I found that the fastest way to do this is by placing the bowl holding the mixture into an ice bath.)
When everything is cool, stir in the vanilla and heavy cream and chill for at least an hour.
Meanwhile, chop enough oreos to make 2 cups and have ready.
Just before beginning to churn your ice cream, add the chopped oreos. 
Pour into your ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer's instructions, usually around 15-30 minutes. Once churned, transfer ice cream to a freezer safe container and place in freezer for around 3 hours to allow the ice cream to set.

I love this ice cream because you never have to really search for the cookies, they're already part of the ice cream, and by some wonderful chance, not all the cookies mix into the ice cream, so you still have the look of the cookies 'n' cream part. It pretty much tastes the same, but I really like to look of it, the soft brown of the ice cream and then the strong contrast of the cookies pieces and the cream. Enjoy!!!

Friday, July 11, 2008

Fresh Strawberry Ice Cream

Staying true to the pure wonderfulness of home made ice cream, I've decided that to satisfy my absolute love for the stuff, I will be making one ice cream per week. Or at least thats my hope...we'll see how long my family goes along with it before they get tired of being "forced" to eat so much decadence. 'Tis the season for fresh strawberries, and upon request from my boyfriend and having the knowledge that it is my mother's favorite ice cream, I chose to make strawberry ice cream this week.

For a long time I was under the assumption that I did not like strawberry ice cream, but that may have had to do with the fact that I had never had really good strawberry ice cream. And let me just tell you...I like strawberry ice cream. I love the subtle pink color the ice cream acquires once the strawberries have been added, and the aroma that the fresh berries have. There is something about the smell of fresh produce, especially beautifully ripe strawberries. 

Fresh Strawberry Ice Cream

1/2 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup whole milk
3 egg yolks, beaten
2 cups heavy whipping cream
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 pint strawberries
1/2 cup sugar (I used more like 1/4 cup, but thats just me)

Combine sugar, salt, milk and egg yolks in a saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, just until bubbles begin to appear around the edge of the mixture, around 12-15 minutes.
Strain the mixture through a fine mesh sieve and cool to room temperature. (I found that the fastest way to do this is by placing the bowl holding the mixture into an ice bath.)
While the mixture is cooling, mash the strawberries and sugar (I used a pastry blender).
When everything is cool, stir in the vanilla, cream and sweetened strawberries and chill for at least an hour.
Pour into your ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer's instructions, usually around 15-30 minutes. Once churned, place in the freezer for around 3 hours to allow the ice cream to set.

While the recipe called for 1/2 cup of sugar to be added to the strawberries, I really wanted a strong strawberry flavor, so I added a little bit less sugar. And it turned very nicely. I did however, get the "criticism" from my boyfriend that there were too many strawberries. Now I think thats just silly, because you can never have too many strawberries. But I suppose if you are serving this ice cream to those who enjoy finding things to complain about, I'm sure you could cut back on the amount of strawberries and sugar accordingly. Either way, I encourage anyone to try this recipe.

Monday, July 7, 2008

Buttermilk Potato Bread

When I was little, I had this wonderful baby sitter. She is a family friend and baby sat myself and my brother along with several other pairs of children. Her name is Marge and she lives on a cow farm with an amazing garden. I have countless memories of that place and the cooking that she would do for all of us. One of my favorite things that she used to make was potato bread. Just the smell alone takes me back to standing in her kitchen watching her knead the bread and form it into loaves. Sometimes I wonder if watching her in the kitchen so often had anything to do with my current love for being in the kitchen. While this recipe is not Marge's, it is pretty darn good. I got it from the Joy of Cooking (the best cookbook in the world). I had some buttermilk that I've been trying to use up, and this was just the recipe for such a situation. I did however, cut the recipe in half, I figured that one loaf of bread would be enough. I will give you the full the recipe to avoid confusion.

Buttermilk Potato Bread
courtesy of the Joy of Cooking

3/4 cup cooked potatoes riced or mashed with a fork
8 tablespoons (1 stick) very soft butter
4 teaspoons active dry yeast
2 cups buttermilk, at room temp.
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2 tablespoons  sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons salt
6 1/4-6 1/2 cups bread flour (I used all-purpose and it turned out fine)

1 egg beaten with a little bit of milk and salt for an eggwash

In a large mixing bowl, stir the butter into the still hot potatoes. 
Add the yeast, buttermilk, eggs, sugar and salt and mix well.
Gradually stir in the flour until the dough is moist but not sticky.
When the dough comes together, knead for 10-12 minutes by hand or with the dough hook until the dough is smooth, soft, and elastic.
Place the dough in an oiled bowl. Coat the dough with the oil, cover with plastic wrap and let rise at room temperature until doubled in volume, about 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

Grease two 9 x 5-inch (8 cup) loaf pans. Punch down the dough, divide it in half and form it into 2 loaves.
Place seam side down in the pans. Cove with oiled plastic wrap and let rise until nearly doubled in volume, 1 to 1 1/2 hours.
Preheat the over to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
Brush the tops loaves with an eggwash.
Bake until the crust is golden brown and the bottom sounds hollow when tapped, about 40-45 minutes. Remove the loaves from the pans to a rack and let cool for at least 30 minutes before serving.

This was a very wonderful bread to make, while it took the entire afternoon to rise and such, it was so rewarding to smell the whole process. I love the smell of yeast bread rising and baking, it is such a comforting smell. The dough was easy to work with and came together very quickly with no fuss. And the taste...subtly sweet with a slight hint of potato. The interior is so fluffy and seemingly delicate, but it is surprisingly hearty and I would imagine it would be a wonderful sandwich bread. 

Sunday, July 6, 2008

An Artistic Twist

So let me explain. I did not try any cooking for this post, but I promise, this has a great deal to do with food. I'll start from the beginning. For the past three semesters at college, I've been taking photography, and while it is not my major...I absolutely freaking love photography. My dad does a great deal of it, my brother manages a camera store, and needless to say, it's quite the subject of discussion in my family. So anyways, for this past semester, I chose my focus to be macro food photography. What I did was take very thin slices of food, all kinds, and placed them on a film viewing table so the food was illuminated from below. The results that I got were absolutely amazing, it was so incredibly cool. The foods that I thought would look a certain way turned out completely different, it was like an adventure every time I chose a different food.  

Each week I focused on a different food or color of foods, such as red peppers and red raspberries, etc. The above photograph is of the rind of a lime. My plan is to share some of these photos along with a possible recipe using the featured food. So for today's recipe, I decided to stick with the summer theme and go with an ice cream recipe that I found here. Let me know what you think!!

Saturday, July 5, 2008

Feeling a little Patriotic

Let me start by explaining my love for cut-out cookies. For a while there I tried to start a collection of cookie cutters, and in my own defense, I do have some pretty cool ones. However, like most hobbies I try to maintain, this collection has not grown in a long time. I think what I love so much about cut-outs is their perfection, the clean lines...you see, I'm quite the perfectionist. I have also spent the past year or so in a quest for the best sugar cookie recipe, and while I may not have found the absolute best of the best, this one is pretty darn close. This dough is one of the easiest to work with that I have ever found, it may be my new favorite. I did find that the recipe could have called for a dash of salt, the cookies were a little too mild for my taste. The icing I used is also a new one, and I must say, I liked it very very much.

Patriotic Star Cookies
courtesy of The Cookie Bible

1 cup (2 sticks) softened butter
3/4 cup sugar
1 package (3 ounces) cream cheese, softened
1 egg
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
3 cups all-purpose flour

Cream the butter, sugar and cream cheese until light and fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla and mix well.
Gradually add the flour until fully incorporated.
Divide the dough in half, wrap in plastic wrap and chill until firm, around 1 hour.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
Roll out the dough to 1/4 inch thickness on a lightly floured surface. Cut into desired shapes and bake for 8-9 minutes. Cool completely before icing.

Icing

2 cups sifted powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon almond extract (I'd recommend using more like 1/4 of a tsp. The flavor was quite strong)
1/4 cup milk

Combine all the ingredients together. The consistency should be thin, like glue. 
Pour the icing into a bowl that is wide enough to allow you to dip the cookies in. 
Dip the top of the cookies down into the icing and allow excess icing to drip off.
Once the icing is set, it will be safe to package to cookies without the fear of your icing being messed up.

I really liked this technique of icing the cookies, it was fast and very nice and even. Since I didn't have any red food coloring, I used red decorating sugar and it turned out very well. I almost wish I had had colored sugar for all of the decorating, I liked the added texture. I will definitely be making these again. 

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Nutella Ice Cream

As my sorbet post explained, now that it's summer, my frozen treat making is becoming more and more frequent. Last summer was when I did lots of the experimentation, so now I'm just making the favorites. Using a basic ice cream recipe, I have a blank canvas. On today's "blank canvas" I decided to use Nutella as my "paint." And all I can say about Nutella is that it is absolutely THE BEST THING EVER!!! I have an extremely ridiculous obsession with the stuff, and take great joy in finding different ways to cook with it. This recipe is great because it's not too overwhelmingly rich. The Nutella flavor is subtle and sort of sneaks up on you. It is also quite dangerous because, if there is no one else to help me eat it...I will eat it all, so thank goodness for boyfriends.  


Nutella Ice Cream

1/2 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup whole milk
3 egg yolks, beaten
1/2 cup Nutella
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups chilled whipping cream

Combine sugar, salt, milk and egg yolks in a saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, just until bubbles begin to appear around the edge of the mixture, around 12-15 minutes.
Strain the mixture through a fine mesh sieve and whisk in the Nutella.
Cool to room temperature. (I found that the fastest way to do this is by placing the bowl holding the mixture into an ice bath.)
Stir in the vanilla and cream and chill for at least an hour.
Pour into your ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer's instructions, usually around 15-30 minutes. Freeze for at around 3 hours to allow the ice cream to set.

As I said before, be sure to have others around with which to share. This is addicting stuff!

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Meatball Subs for the Boys

A few weeks ago, I was home for a couple of days and to occupy myself while my boyfriend Kyle and his brother Brian were working on their "big manly trucks" down at the shop, I decided to make them dinner. I don't know what it is, but I absolutely love cooking for him, especially him, and I'm always very particular about what I choose to make for him. Which is a little silly because he'll eat just about anything. Anyways, I found this recipe for Italian Sausage Meatball Heroes on epicurious.com a while back that I had made for Kyle once before, and I knew he liked them, so it was meatball subs I chose. They're pretty quick and easy, and absolutely delicious.


Italian Meatball Subs
adapted from epicurious.com

1 pound spicy or sweet italian sausage
1 24 oz. jar of marinara sauce, divided
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese (about 1 1/2 ounces)
1/3 cup chopped fresh parsley, divided
1/3 cup chopped fresh basil, divided

1 package Italian sub buns (you can find them with the hot dog buns)
Shredded mozzarella cheese

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. 
Mix sausage, 1/2 cup marinara, Parmesan and two tablespoons each of the parsley and basil together in a large bowl.
Using wet hands, form the mixture into 16 meatballs.
Bring the marinara, remaining parsley and basil and meatballs to a boil in a large skillet. Cover, reduce heat and simmer over medium-high, turning often, until the meatballs are cooked through, around 15-20 minutes.

Toast the buns in the oven for around 7 minutes.
Each bun will hold about 3 or 4 meatballs, so pile on the meatballs with a few spoonfuls of sauce and top with the mozzarella cheese. Kyle likes A LOT of cheese, so I had to be extra prepared.

I apologize for not having a photograph of the finished product, but because I'm such a good girlfriend, I just brought the fixings down to the shop and let them do the building.  All in all, it was quite a success and I highly recommend giving these a try.