Archive for April, 2010
Shortbread is marked by its fine, crumbly and sometimes delicate texture, as well as its buttery flavor. They’re primarily made with butter and flour, and although they’re often served as dessert with coffee or tea, most shortbreads don’t have a lot of sugar in them. This means that they’re easily adapted into more savory applications, like this parmesan cheese-infused variation.
This shortbread comes together very quickly and makes a really nice homemade appetizer to put out with some wine. You can make it by hand, but it is easiest to put it together in the food processor. Simply add your flour, parmesan, spices and butter, then pulse everything together before pressing the mixture into a pan and baking it until golden. The spices I added in are the same ones that I might add to a batch of homemade macaroni and cheese – garlic, chipotle pepper (cayenne will work well, too) and mustard – since they go so well with cheese. They’re subtle and just give these shortbreads a little bit of dimension.
When baked, these are tender and slightly crumbly, and they’re much less crisp than a cracker because they are quick a bit thicker than your average cracker would be. They have a great flavor and are quite addictive, so it’s a good thing that this recipe makes quite a big batch. These are best when they’re fresh and eaten the day they’re made, but you can store them in an airtight container. If you need to crisp them up after a day or two, simply put them on a baking sheet and pop them into a 350F oven for 5-8 minutes and you’ll be all set.
+Continue Reading
- I recently had some ginger scones while I was out at a brunch, and while they were good, I bet that they weren’t as good as Everybody Likes Sandwiches‘ Ginger Whole Wheat Scones. Scones just taste their best when they are fresh and homemade. These scones use whole wheat flour and yogurt, so they are a bit healthier than your standard white flour and cream scone, but are still light and buttery because they use real butter, cut in to create that flaky scone texture. They also use a good amount of candied ginger for sweetness and spice.
- Most cheesecakes that call for tofu use it in place of other things, like eggs and cheese. This means that tofu often appears in vegan and “alternative” cheesecakes, not giving it the best reputation with fans of a more “classic” cheesecake. The Passionfruit Tofu Cheesecake at Zen Can Cook is a bit different because it still uses a lot of real cream cheese. It’s a softly set, no bake cheesecake that gets a lot of lightness from the addition of tofu.
- A batch of light, crisp profiteroles turn rich and decadent at Technicolor Kitchen when they are filled with dulce de leche. Often, profiteroles are simply filled with whipped cream, but these Dulce de Leche Profiteroles are more decadent and more substantial. The eggy flavor of the profiteroles themselves make a great match for the milky caramel flavor of the dulce de leche, too.
- If a cheesecake tastes like a danish, that means you can serve it at breakfast, right? Modern Comfort Food made a Blueberry Danish Cheesecake that was inspired by fruity, cheesy danish breakfast pastries. This cake has a buttermilk base and a topping made with cream cheese and lots of blueberries. It’s finished off with a generous sprinkling of sliced almonds, which really do contribute to the danish look of the finished dish.
- Another good scone recipe can be found at The Food Librarian, Chocolate Chip Drop Scones. Drop scones are simply dolloped onto baking sheets much like cookie dough, giving them a round and rustic look, and making them even easier to make than regular cut scones. These scones include buttermilk, for a rich buttery taste, and use miniature chocolate chips so ensure that all that chocolate is well-distributed in the finished scone.
Before I get too far removed from the rest of my recent Kauai trip, I can’t resist mentioning a quick visit I made to Lappert’s Hawaii Ice Cream. Not to be confused with an ice cream shop with the same name on the mainland, Lappert’s Hawaii was founded on Kauai in 1983 and is based in Hanapepe. Their super premium ice creams come in both classic and island flavors, and all are produced in small batches right there on the island.
As much as I like shave ice, you can’t miss out on a scoop while you’re there, not with flavors like Kona Coffee, Coconut Pineapple, Lilikoi (passionfruit) Sorbet and – one of my favorites – Kauai Pie, which is Kona coffee ice cream swirled with chocolate fudge, coconut flakes, macadamia nuts and a vanilla cake crunch. The scoop pictured at the top of this post is Caramel Coconut Macadamia Nut, which tastes every bit as good as it looks.
Lappert’s has several locations to visit on Kauai, including stores in Kapa’a, Koloa, Princeville and their original store in Hanapepe, and also has a shop in Honolulu, Oahu and one in Wailea, Maui. Again, fans of Lappert’s should note that there is a company making Lappert’s Ice Cream on the mainland that is NOT affiliated with Lappert’s Hawaii. The Hawaiian Lappert’s does ship all their products out if you’re looking for a fix once you get home, however.
When you bake enough chocolate cakes, or simply look at enough chocolate cake recipes, you’ll notice a trend: many of them include coffee or instant coffee as an ingredient. This isn’t because most people are looking for a mocha-flavored cake. Rather, coffee is commonly included because it is a great way to enhance the flavor of cocoa powder, resulting in a more chocolaty cake – not a coffee-flavored one.
Cocoa powder is a bit bitter on its own, with hints of fruit and spice that are detectable when you get a good-quality cocoa. Coffee has these same flavor elements, and a small amount of coffee in a cake batter – whether you’re using 1 cup of coffee or 1 tbsp instant coffee – will help these cocoa flavors stand out even more than they would on their own. The milk, sugar, eggs and so forth that you add into a cake just helps all that cocoa taste good, not necessarily more chocolaty! You would have to add quite a bit of coffee (or not have much cocoa at all) to get more of a coffee flavor than a cocoa one; chocolate is generally more dominant in a baked good than coffee is.
What all comes down to is that even if you’re not a fan of coffee, having some instant coffee in the cupboard can give a little extra boost of flavor to a chocolate cake and take it from good to great. You can keep a small container of freeze-dried coffee almost indefinitely. Still, if you’re really opposed to adding coffee in any form, you will be glad to know that you can always leave it out. If a recipe calls for coffee, just add water (as coffee is just flavored water) and if it calls for powdered coffee, simply omit the small amount called for altogether, just as you might use less cinnamon if you’re not a fan of it in a cake or cookie.
Some quickbreads are very moist and dense, while others are a little bit dry and very bread-like. This moist Apple Spice Bread falls into the former category. The bread is ultra-moist and is packed with two cups of shredded apple, from two whole apples! All that fruit makes it a little bit dense, but the bread is tender and flavorful, so that is not a bad thing in this case.
When you go to shred the apples for this bread, use a large grater that allows for wide shreds. If you use a very fine grater, you’re likely to end up with applesauce instead of shredded apple. I shred my apples whole, leaving all the peel on. As you shred, don’t worry if the apple discolors into a light brown color as it is exposed to air. While you can try and counteract this by adding lemon juice to the apple, the color actually contributes to the lovely color of the finished quickbread (plus it’s difficult to manage the color of so much shredded apple without using a whole lot of lemon juice and we don’t want to add any extra moisture to this bread!).
I included several spices in this loaf, as well as pecans for a nice crunch and a textural break from that moist, apply goodness. The spices I used are cinnamon, cardamom, allspice and cloves. I didn’t go overboard on the spicing so that you can really taste the apple in every bite, but feel free to spice it up and add more of your favorites for a spicier take on this bread, or if you’re looking to give it a more warming feel on a cold day. +Continue Reading
