Chew On This

Normally I'm a crunchy cookie gal. But these are just way too good to pass up. Try them and smile!


Chewy White Chocolate Macadamia Cookies

2 sticks melted unsalted butter
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/4 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 egg yolk
2 Tbsp 1% milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 Tbsp almond extract

2 1/4 cup bread flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 cups macadamia nuts, lightly toasted
1 bag white chocolate chips - the best quality you can find - don't use Nestle!

Preheat oven to 375 F.

Cream the melted butter and sugars together. Add the eggs and extracts and beat to mix until well combined.

Sift in dry ingredients, slowly incorporating them into the wet ingredients in small additions. Mix until well combined. Stir in nuts and chips.

Use an ice cream scoop to scoop big mounds of cookie dough onto parchment or silpat lined baking sheets. Press down on each mound to flatten them a bit. Chill 20 minutes. Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until golden. Cool completely on a wire rack.

Up on the rooftop...

To say things have been crazy lately would be an understatement. I'm taking a new class that requires a 10 page paper every week, assigned on Monday and due on Thursday. Oh, and then a group paper on the same subject on Sunday. It's been overwhelming, grading has been piling up and on top of it all, I've been trying to prepare three holiday dinners. It hasn't all been bad, in fact I have some big news to share with you at a later date, but I'm looking forward to a much needed vacation up North. I'm leaving you with a cookie recipe Santa will love...crispy chewy sugar cookies studded with tiny bits of candy cane.


Candy Cane Sugar Cookies


6 oz. original peppermint candy canes

2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
2/3 cup sugar

1 egg
1 egg yolk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp peppermint extract
1/4 cup half and half

3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder

finishing sugars
cookie cutters



Pulverize candy canes in a sturdy ziploc bag by pounding them with a meat mallet. When you've done a smashing good job, you should be left with a mixture of powder and very small pieces.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat butter briefly to fluff it up. Add crushed candy cane and sugar and cream together until light and fluffy. Beat in egg & yolk, extracts and half and half.

Sift in flour, baking soda and salt. Mix until it comes together into a soft dough. Turn out each half onto a square of plastic wrap, form into a disk, wrap tightly and refrigerate at least one hour or up to 2 days.

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Roll out the disk of dough until it is 1/4 inch thick (use a silpat or a floured counter for this). Use cookie cutters to cut out whatever shapes you desire. If you like, roll the edges in finishing sugars. Arrange on baking sheets lined with parchment or silpat, about 2 inches apart. Bake for 7 minutes, then rotate the pans and bake for another 6-8 minutes, or until lightly golden. Transfer to wire racks. Decorate with melted chocolate if desired.

Macaron Madness

I generally don't like trends. I try to avoid trendy clothes, trendy furniture, trendy decor. The problem with trends is that most of the time we move on, we change our tastes and our perspective. And then those items that were so in, all of a sudden so aren't. So I am of a mindset that everything in my life should be timeless. And so far, through that, I've been able to avoid a variety of embarrassing moments, from not having a bad high school yearbook photo to not regretting the color on my walls.

However, there are some cooking trends that I have fallen victim to. It all started with no knead bread. Like most trends, I was so reluctant to jump on the bandwagon that I made my version long after it was the talk of the blogosphere. But when I did....ohhhh...heavenly! So this was what everyone was talking about! So once again, although I'm behind the times, I decided to give trendy food a shot. I bit the bullet and made macarons with all my extra egg whites from last week's pumpkin pie and tiramisu. And you know what, they really are pretty cool. I was amazed at how easy it was to replicate flavors in the egg white medium. And with a little practice and adjusting, they really aren't that difficult.


Sometimes trends are destined to be classics. The macaron has a timeless appeal because of the dizzying array of flavors that are possible. I'm proud to say I'm no longer a macaron virgin! And I'm confident that this will not be my last batch!

For my initiation into the world of macarons, I relied on THE macaron reference, an article published in Desserts magazine by Helen of Tartlette. Although it was immensely helpful, I did have some minor problems to work through. The biggest one was that my cookies were not cooking all the way through at the time and temperature she provided. But with some minor adjustments, they really came together.

Since I was already being so trendy, I wanted to go with some very classic holiday flavors. Eggnog and nutella macarons were the perfect dessert to top off our friends' annual wine and cheese bash.


Eggnog & Nutella Macarons Modified from Tartlette- invest in a scale - it's important to do this by weight!

100 g egg whites (about 3)
55 g hazelnuts
55 g almonds
200 g powdered sugar
2 Tbsp vanilla powder
50 g sugar

The day before you want to make the macarons, set the egg whites out to age in a covered dish in a cool corner of the kitchen.

The next day, pulse nuts, powdered sugar and vanilla powder together in a food processor until thoroughly ground to a powder (about 2 minutes of pulsing). Sift into a medium sized bowl and set aside.

Whip the egg whites on medium high speed in a stand mixer. When meringue reaches soft peak stage, add sugar gradually while mixing. Whip until firm peaks or reached, or until you can hold the bowl upside down without anything coming out.

Use a rubber spatula to fold in the dry ingredients, scraping up from the bottom and turning it over the top. Stop after the first three folds. Split into 2 different bowls.


For Eggnog Macarons: add 1 tsp freshly ground nutmeg
For Nutella Macarons: add 1 1/2 Tbsp high quality cocoa powder

After adding the flavorings, continue to fold until mixture gets shiny, dry ingredients are all incorporated, and batter drops in thick ribbons and flattens itself out without any poking or prodding.

Empty into a pastry bag or ziploc bag with a hole cut in the end. You can use a pastry tip that's 1/2 to 3/4 inches wide. I just use the pastry bag as is, since the opening on mine is just about that size.

Line 2 baking sheets with Silpat or parchment paper. Pipe the batter in 1 1/2 inch diameter circles on the prepared pan. Let sit for 30-60 minutes so that they can develop a skin. In the meantime, preheat oven to 335 degrees F. (I know - it's a weird temp, but it was the only one that worked for me)

Bake for 15-18 minutes, or until you can touch the "feet" of a macaron and it is firm, not mushy. Let cool 10 minutes on pans, then remove to a cooling rack. (If they're cooked all the way, they shouldn't stick.) Let cool completely before filling.


For Nutella macarons: fill with nutella! Couldn't be simpler!

For Eggnog Macaroons : Eggnog Ganache

1/3 cup eggnog
1 1/4 cup Green & Black's white chocolate, broken into little pieces
1/4 tsp freshly ground nutmeg

Heat the eggnog until it is just below a simmer. Pour over the chocolate and stir to melt. Add nutmeg and stir until ganache is smooth. Let sit until cool and just barely spreadable. Fill eggnog macarons with a thin layer and sandwich them together.

For The Love of Lime...

Back to school tomorrow, although I won't be seeing any of those pesky teenagers ;) until next week. Another year with its own challenges, its own rewards and a whole new hundred and fifty smiling (or not so much) faces to keep track of. I love teaching, but I'm not really a fan of the beginning of the year. I never was good at introductions. Things go slowly at the beginning, before my students know what I want and how they need to do it, when they're testing me with their every move to see what they can and can't get away with. It's an uncertain time because they don't know what to expect from me and I'm not sure what I'll get from them. You develop such a relationship with kids over the course of the year, so you really know them, well enough to predict their next move. By the end of the year, I feel like my classes can almost teach themselves. Everything works together like one big machine (or at least most of the time).

Working with ingredients is much the same. New ingredients are intimidating, unpredictable. You brave it, trying a bit of the new stuff with tried and true flavors, feeling it out until you know its flavor, how it behaves, if it plays well with others. And over time, you develop your favorites, ones that you turn to time after time (OK - so I try not to do this with kids, but I'm definitely biased with flavors). My teacher's pet is lime (Ok - and vanilla and basil - why else would I have named my blog this way?). Lime lends a fresh finish to sweet and savory concoctions. It gets along best with mexican and thai flavors, tropical tastes like coconut, mango and macademia, pumps up berries' sweetness, and lends bright character to baked goods, such as these cardamom lime sweet rolls.


So on the eve of uncertainty, of course I turned to my favorite team player. Since I firmly believe in dessert first, and this is in fact the order in which I cooked, photographed and ate my lovely limey creations, I will start you off with a delicate lime cookie. If you stick around for dinner you'll get a yummy grilled garlic lime chicken, with coconut lime rice and corn on the cob. This food deserves the limelight!


This type of cookie has many aliases, russian tea cakes or mexican wedding cakes, meltaways or liar's cookies (because your shirt will give you away!). When I was growing up my mom made a gluten free version that always came out looking rather grey, so we called them moldy mice, a name that I've now realized is not all that appetizing to people outside our family. I think I like Dorie Greenspan's name the best, so these will be called powder puffs. These are traditionally made with pecans and can be made with or without citrus zest. L happens to love lime as much as I do, and it paired perfectly with buttery rich macademias, and earned the title of his favorite cookie!

Key Lime & Macademia Powder Puffs


1 cup macademia nuts, toasted until golden
1/4 cup sugar, divided
1 1/2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
pinch of ground green cardamom
1 stick (8 Tbsp) unsalted butter at room temperature
zest of 5 key limes (or one regular lime)
2 Tbsp key lime juice
1 tsp vanilla extract

2/3 cup confectioners sugar

Grind nuts with 1 Tbsp of sugar with short pulses of a food processor, until they form a chunky paste. Add flour, salt and cardamom and pulse until well combined. Transfer to a small mixing bowl.

In the bowl of the food processor, combine butter and sugar. Pulse until creamy and pale. Add lime zest and juice. Pulse to combine. Add dry ingredients back in and use short pulses to mix until just combined (scraping the bowl as needed). Refrigerate at least 2 hours or overnight.

Preheat oven to 350. Line a large cookie sheet with Silpat or parchment paper. Ball up dough into small, bite sized spheres and place on cookie sheet (don't worry about spacing them too much, they don't spread a lot).

Bake 13-16 minutes or until slightly golden. Let cool on sheet 5 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack. When just slightly warm, roll in confectioners sugar.




Garlic Lime Chicken with Grilled Red Onions


4 Tbsp olive oil
2 Tbsp orange muscat vinegar (or other fruity vinegar)
3 Tbsp lime juice
1 Tbsp crushed garlic
1 packet Baja Citrus marinade seasoning (McCormick makes this)
2 lbs. bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs (you can use boneless but cook them for less time)

Combine marinade ingredients. Marinate at least 3 hours in the fridge.

Preheat grill on high. Start chicken on hottest part of the grill (if it flares up you may have to move it or turn down the heat). Cook over direct heat 5 minutes / side. Move to indirect heat, and continue to cook with grill lid down until the internal temperature reads 165 F on an instant-read thermometer (carryover will take it up almost another 10 degrees), about 30 minutes. Baste chicken periodically with marinade during cooking. Grill a halved lime alongside chicken (only about 1 minute on either side).


Grill onions in an oiled grill pan until charred, but still crunchy in parts. Transfer to a plate, top with chicken pieces and a squeeze of grilled lime.

Grilled Corn on the Cob


1 ear corn / person

Peel back husks and remove silks from corn. Replace husks back around the corn, removing the tougher ones on the outside.
Preheat grill to high and brush with oil. Place corn in husks on grill and cook, turning regularly, until husks begin to burn. take off grill and let cool.


Remove husks and knobby end part. Brush with some of the chicken marinade and return to grill over direct heat until lightly charred.



Coconut Lime Rice


1 13.5 oz can coconut milk (not light)
2 cups chicken broth
zest of one lime
2 kieffer lime leaves
2 tsp salt
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp chile powder
1 3/4 cups basmati or jasmine rice

Mix together all ingredients except rice in a medium saucepan. Bring to a simmer over medium high heat. Add rice and return to a simmer. Turn heat down to low and pop a lid on it. Cook, stirring occasionally, until cooked through, about 20 minutes. Add chopped scallions or cilantro if desired (I didn't have any).



To serve:


Make a bed of rice on the bottom of a plate. Pile on grilled onions and chicken, place grilled corn alongside. Squeeze a grilled lime half down over the whole dish. Finish with a dash of salt.

Two Smart Cookies

Ok- so maybe they won't make you smarter, but they are darn tasty. I'm feeling a little stupid lately (Hmm...maybe it's comments like "teaching teenagers would be so much easier than getting a PhD"...umm, ok, whatever you say...). Cooking always makes me more confident. Especially when my culinary experiments come out this good. If you don't care for grapefruit, skip the madelines, because it does shine through. I am in love with its tart, slighly bitter flavor that cuts the sweetness of the cookies.



Ruby Red Current Madelines



1/3 cup red current jelly
1/2 large ruby red grapefruit, segmented

6 Tbsp butter

1/2 cup sugar
zest of 1/2 a ruby red grapefruit (make sure the rind is washed thoroughly)
2 eggs, at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt

In a small food processor or blender, combine jelly and grapefruit and pulse until combined. Set aside

In a small saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Let cook, swirling occasionally, until it browns slightly. Remove from heat and cool.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, rub together zest and sugar. Add eggs and beat until pale and fluffy. Beat in vanilla. Use a rubber spatula to first fold in dry ingredients, then butter, then jelly mixture.

Chill batter at least 3 hours, or up to 48 hours. Preheat the oven to 350 and chill madeline pans in the freezer. (If they are nonstick - the most you will need to do is maybe a little cooking spray - if not, they need to be fully buttered and floured)

Fill each mold about 3/4 full with batter (don't overfill!). Any pans that will not be going straight into the oven should go back to the fridge. If you are using a dark pan like I do, bake for 8-10 minutes for large madelines.







These are chewy and rich, with white chocolate chips, dried cherry halves, whole toasted almonds and toffee. The combination is divine, like chewy amaretti cookies with bursts of intense flavor. Serve with amaretto on the rocks.



Super Chunk Cherry Almond Cookies



1 stick butter, softened to room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 large egg
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 tsp almond extract
1 cup plus 2 Tbsp all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup dried unsweetened cherry halves
2/3 cup white chocolate chips
2/3 cup toffee bits
2/3 cup whole almonds, toasted until golden and fragrant





Cream the butter and sugars together until fluffy. Beat in egg, salt and extracts. Add dry ingredients and mix to combine. Stir in cherries, chocolate, toffee and almonds. Chill dough for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, preheat oven to 375. Line a cookie sheet with a silpat or parchment paper. Spoon dough in 2 Tbsp balls onto cookie sheet, about 3 inches apart. Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until edges just start to brown. Cool on pan 2 minutes, then use a spatula to transfer to cooling racks. These will keep about a week at room temperature, but I've never known them to last that long!

Milk & Cookies and A Meme

Ok - so maybe the "milk" is something a bit stronger. And the cookies are flourless. This is the kind of milk and cookies teachers have when they get home from a hard day at school. Mini M&Ms makes this whimsical, where as small chunks of dark chocolate could make it more adult.



Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies
these crispy edged, chewy in the middle delights are modified from this Epicurious recipe

2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 1/4 cups packed dark brown sugar
1 1/2 cup chunky peanut butter
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup mini M&Ms

Preheat oven to 350. Whisk together eggs and sugar until well combined. Add remainder of ingredients and stir until blended.

Dollop batter (it really resembles thick batter rather than cookie dough) by a scant 2 Tbsp. on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Space the cookies 3 inches apart. Bake for 13-15 minutes, or until they've darkened in color and are no longer liquid inside. Let cool on the sheet for 5 minutes. Remove and cool completely on a baking rack.




Better-Than-Milk (Adults Only!)

1 part coffee liquor
1 part vanilla vodka
1 part Frangelico
2 parts Irish Creme liquor
2 parts Godiva chocolate liquor
4 parts milk

Mix together desired amount in ratio shown above. Serve over ice and enjoy with cookies.





Meme time

I've been tagged by Strawberries in Paris! So here goes:

The rules:
Each player answers the questions about themselves. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog. Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve posted your answer.

What was I doing ten years ago?
I was 14 years old, I had just finished my freshman year of high school and I was a counselor in training at a summer camp, where I met the first guy that would really break my heart.



What are five (non-work) things on my to-do list for today?
1. take the dog for a walk and a swim in the gunpowder river
2. do my homework for the graduate course on immunology I'm taking this summer
3. check out Boordy Vineyard's farmers market and sneak in a wine tasting
4. get in an hour of relaxing reading for book club in my new hammock
5. cook something fabulous for dinner





Five snacks I enjoy:
1. prosciutto and melon
2. tomato, basil and imported buffalo mozzarella
3. good quality salami, sliced thin on crackers with extra sharp cheddar cheese and kalamata olives
4. crusty bread with butter
5. fruit sorbets



Things I would do if I were a billionaire:
1. buy a 200 acre horse farm and employ people to take care of it so I can act as a trainer when I choose to
2. have amazing homes in Italy, Nova Scotia, Ireland and Vermont and a ranch in Montana
3. go to culinary school - preferably in Italy
4. fund animal rescue programs
5. Travel extensively with my loved ones




Places I’ve lived:
1. on the 4th floor of my Great Grandma's in Providence, RI
2. my childhood home in Seekonk, MA, backing to miles of great trails through the woods
3. for the summer in Cambridge, England in a thousand year old dorm 4. a more modern freshman haunt in Durham, NH
5. a Swansea, MA horse farm where I lived rent free but was up at the first ray of light to feed the tenants
6. a Cockeysville, MD luxury apartment that spoiled me with the pool, tennis courts and trash pickup
7. My first house with a pond and acres of trees, surrounded by farmland in Parkton. MD

Jobs I’ve had:
1. babysitter
2. donut shoppe girl
3. waitress
4. barista (and barista supervisor)
5. science teacher
Above all I will always be a traveler who hungers for more.

Tag…you’re it!! Let’s hear from another local: The Angry Asian!

Provencal Citrus Bars

I love a good lemon bar, but sometimes it leaves something to be desired. I came across a coupon for lemon bars in a local flyer and haven't been able to get them out of my head. To explain the seemingly odd yet unexplainably delicious flavors in my shortbread, a little time travel is warranted. When I was young, my mother used to take me to Seven Arrows herb farm. After petting sheep and playing with the ducks and other critters who populated the gardens, sometimes I was lucky enough to get a vegan treat. Now, I know the word vegan conjures up awful thoughts of carob brownies and other substitutes for good food. But there was one treat that I loved then and still think is brilliant: an orange scented lavender & thyme shortbread. So those flavors play sidekick here to a lovely lemon lime curd.

Shortbread Crust

1 Tbsp. thyme
2 tsp. food grade lavender

1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup confectioner's sugar
1 tsp salt

1 stick cold butter, cut into half inch pieces
1 tsp. pure lemon or orange extract (not artificial flavoring)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a 8' square baking dish.

Crush the thyme and lavender with a mortar and pestle. Combine with flour, sugar and salt in a food processor and pulse to combine. Add butter and extract and pulse until mixture resembles a coarse meal.

Pat into the pan and press down evenly. Prick all over with a fork. Bake 18 minutes or until slightly browned at edges. Leave oven on.



Lemon Lime Filling

5 large eggs
1 2/3 cups sugar
the zest of 2 lemons and a lime
juice of 2 lemons and a lime (should be about 2/3 cup)
2/3 cup flour
1 tsp. lemon extract

Whisk together all filling ingredients. Pour over the crust (it doesn't matter if it's still warm). Bake for 40 minutes or until about 5 minutes after it sets. Let cool to room temperature and dust with powdered sugar if desired.

March Madness

Wow - has it really been almost a month? March is always one of the worst months of the year for me, since everything always seems to happen at once. This month was no exception. We had major contracting business pitfalls that started the month off with lots of arguments and tight budgets, a house guest for a week, I had one god awful observation, several late nights of long work and my students were worse than usual. On top of it all, I started my masters degree on March 3rd. It's been a lot harder than I really expected it to be, and extremely time consuming.

Throughout it all, I have in fact found time to cook. Unfortunately, I haven't been smart enough to take pictures of many of those meals, and even if I did, I'm now struggling to remember the recipes I used.

But here's a sprinkling of my March, in view of my food...

Brown Butter Sage & Roasted Cauliflower Pasta Bake


One of my favorite veggie dishes, though admittedly not extremely healthful, is my Roasted Brown Butter Sage Cauliflower, which you can find here. I wanted some baked pasta one night and thought of it. This was the tasty result -as I remember it anyway!


4 Tbsp. unsalted butter
1/4 medium onion, chopped
2 Tbsp. fresh chopped sage leaves
2 Tbsp. fresh chopped garlic
4 Tbsp. all purpose flour
4 cups 1% milk
1 Tbsp. Italian Seasoning
2 tsp. garlic powder
2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
2 cups shredded Italian cheeses - I used a mix of asiago, provolone, fontina, mozzarella and parmesan
1 pound rigatoni - cooked 1-2 minutes short of al dente
roasted cauliflower - follow directions on above link but do not toss with brown butter and sage
1 cup halved grape tomatoes
2/3 cup seasoned breadcrumbs
1/4 cup parmaggiano reggiano

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Heat the butter in a skillet over medium high heat until it starts to brown. Do not let it burn. Add onions, sage and garlic and stir until garlic begins to turn golden. Add flour and mix into a paste. Let the roux cook for 1-2 minutes, than add milk and seasonings and whisk until combined. Whisk in 1/2 cheese at a time, let it melt before adding the next 1/2 cup. Continue until all cheese is incorporated. Toss with pasta, cauliflower and tomatoes and turn out into a greased 9 x 13 pyrex baking dish. Top with breadcrumbs and parmesan. Drizzle with olive oil. Bake until pasta is tender, top is brown and crispy, and sauce is bubbling, about 25-30 minutes.



I also enjoyed my favorite homemade spaghetti and meatballs, which are incredibly easy to have on hand to feed guests. The recipe makes double what we'd ever eat and they freeze so well!

Also for my future sister-in-law, we made a batch of her mom's great waffles. OK - so I may have made a triple batch and frozen lots for weekday breakfasts! But they're SO good! Here's the single batch recipe.

Everyday Waffles



2 eggs
1 3/4 cups milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 3/4 cups flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp almond extract

Whisk all ingredients to combine. Try not to overmix. Let batter sit while waffle iron heats up. Follow manufacture's directions to make waffles.


Since it was her birthday, and my boyfriend was nursing a chocolate cake craving, I made her a decadent cake. I based this one on Epicurious.com's most talked about recipe. The cake was wonderfully moist and tender and packed a huge punch of raspberry flavor.

Double Chocolate Raspberryliscious Cake with Chocolate Frosting



Cake
3 oz. semisweet chocolate- I used Baker's semi-sweet chocolate chunks
1 1/2 cups chocolate raspberry flavored coffee
3 cups sugar
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups Scharffen Berger cocoa powder <-- the best I've found outside of Italy
2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp baking powder
1 1/4 tsp salt
3 large eggs
3/4 cup toasted hazelnut oil
1 1/2 cups milk
2 tsp. lemon juice
1/2 tsp double-strength vanilla extract
1 tsp raspberry extract

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Grease at least three 9 inch cake pans. - For four layers use 4 pans. Melt chocolate into coffee in a double boiler until mixture is smooth. Sift sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt together into a large mixing bowl. In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat eggs for 3 minutes, until light and fluffy. Add oil, milk, lemon juice and extracts until well combined. Add dry ingredients slowly until just moistened. Divide between pans and bake for about an hour. Let cool on baking racks until completely room temperature.

Frosting
3 oz. bittersweet chocolate
3 Tbsp. unsalted butter
1/4 cup chocolate raspberry flavored coffee
1/2 tsp double-strength vanilla extract
1 tsp raspberry extract
2 1/4 cups powdered sugar

Melt chocolate and butter together in a double boiler. Add coffee and extracts and whisk until smooth. Mix in powdered sugar to make a frosting. Use immediately, as it will start to harden.

Assembly



3-4 cake layers
3/4 cup seedless red raspberry jam, I like Smuckers
frosting
1 cup fresh raspberries
powdered sugar

In between each cake layer spread at least 1/8 cup raspberry jam. If you will finish this cake within 24 hours, add a layer of fresh raspberries in the middle. Frost only the top of the cake, not the sides. Top with fresh raspberries and dust with powdered sugar right before serving.



In the most recent issue of fine-cooking, they had some yummy looking baklava recipes. I can't wait to try the chocolate hazelnut one, but I didn't have any hazelnuts in the house. Here's the one I made instead. I will never buy store bought baklava again. It was pretty easy and SO good!

Baklava




1 lb. unsalted pistachios, roasted
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp allspice
1 tsp freshly ground green cardamom

1 lb. phyllo dough, thawed in the refrigerator overnight if frozen
10 oz. melted unsalted butter

1 1/2 cups sugar
1/3 cup orange juice
1/3 cup frangelico or amaretto liquor
pinch freshly ground green cardamom

After roasting and cooling the pistachios, combine them in a food processor and add sugar and spices. Use short pulses to chop nuts and combine ingredients.

Unfold phyllo dough and stack layers flat on plastic wrap on the countertop. Cover with plastic wrap and a damp paper towel. When you must uncover, do it quickly and do not let the phyllo dry out. Brush a 9 x 13 pyrex baking dish with butter, add a sheet of phylo and brush lightly with butter. Continue layering sheets and brushing with butter until 1/3 of package has been used. Trim excess as you go. Sprinkle about half the filling lightly over the phyllo. Do not press it down. Repeat phyllo layering. Sprinkle other half of filling, repeat phyllo layering until the entire package is used. Brush the top of the pastry with butter and sprinkle with coarse turbinado sugar. Plastic wrap pastry and put in freezer for 1/2 an hour.



Preheat oven to 350. Cut chilled phyllo on the diagonal in both directions to create a diamond pattern. Let the pan come to room temperature before baking or the glass might shatter. Bake 40 minutes or until golden. Cool completely on a rack.

Combine sugar, orange juice, liquor and cardamom in a small saucepan and stir until all sugar has dissolved into a syrup. Retrace knife marks in pastry to make sure the pieces are still separated. Pour the hot syrup slowly and evenly over cool pastry. Allow it to sit for at least an hour before digging in.




Also from that issue of fine cooking, I was inspired by the pizza dough recipe with stromboli ideas. I had promised my boyfriend I'd make him pepperoni rolls that he loves, but with 3 separate rises, they're just too time consuming. I made a double batch of pizza dough instead and and used the same fillings. It came out even better. I also made a couple ham and cheese stromboli with leftover Easter ham, that I couldn't even take a picture of because they disappeared so fast.

Since the fine cooking recipe is copyrighted and I did not change it at all, I am not posting it here. However, any good pizza dough will work. The key is to make it the day before and let it sit overnight in the fridge. The fermentation allowed by this really develops the flavor. Make enough dough for four 10 inch pizzas.

Pepperoni Stromboli



pizza dough recipe, divided in half
2 cups jarred four cheese tomato sauce
1 1/2 cup sliced, then finely chopped pepperoni
2 cups Italian shredded cheeses - a mix of provolone, fontina, asiago, mozzarella, and parmesan
italian seasoning
olive oil
garlic powder
parmesan cheese

Roll out half of pizza dough into a long rectangle. Spread on half of tomato sauce, leaving one long edge dry for an inch along the end, top with half of pepperoni, cheese and italian seasoning. Fold over dough at the ends, then roll up like a jelly roll and seal by pinching dough together. Repeat to make 2nd stromboli. Let rise slightly for 30 minutes on a baking sheet lined with parchment. In the meantime, preheat oven to 400 degrees. Before baking, cut 4 slits through all layers to prevent stromboli from bursting, brush with olive oil and sprinkle with garlic powder and cheese. Bake for 25-30 minutes, rotating the pan after 10 minutes. Slice and enjoy.

For Ham and Cheese Stromboli, use a mixture of whole grain Dijon mustard and maple syrup in place of the sauce, a mixture of chopped ham, carmalized onions and mushrooms deglazed with a little sherry for the filling, and shredded jarlesburg cheese. Prepare the same way.


Phew - this has been one long post. Bear with me for last night's meal. I've been seeing a lot of recipes lately for fried catfish sandwiches. Unfortunately I had no sandwich rolls in the house and no desire to get them. But they did inspire this meal:

Oven Fried Tilapia with Braised Radishes and Garlic Parmesan Roasted Pee Wee Potatoes



I know what you're thinking - radishes? Cooked? But these beauties are no longer sharp, just delicate sweet sour jewels. The pee wee potatoes were Oh so cute and I couldn't resist them at the store.

Garlic Parmesan Roasted Pee Wee Potatoes

1 lb. golden pee wee potatoes
6 large peeled garlic cloves
olive oil
coarse kosher salt

1/2 cup parmesan
1 Tbsp. garlic powder

Preheat oven to 400. Toss potatoes and garlic with olive oil and salt in a 8 inch square baking dish. Bake until soft. Toss with parmesan and garlic powder while still screaming hot.

Braised Radishes
3 small bunches of radishes, trimmed of greens and roots and rinsed
1/4 medium red onion, diced
1 1/4 cups chicken stock
1/4 cup plus 1 Tbsp. red wine vinegar - preferably chianti or cabernet vinegar
2 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. salt

Combine all in a saucepan over medium high heat. Bring liquid to a boil and let it reduce down as it cooks the radishes until it is syrupy and there is very little liquid remaining. Radishes should be tender at this point. It will take about 20 minutes.


Oven Fried Tilapia
2/3 cup cornmeal
1 tsp. cayenne pepper
1 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp chile powder
1 tsp smoked paprika
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg, beaten
4 3-4 oz filets of tilapia
nonstick cooking spray

Preheat oven to 450. Mix cornmeal together with seasonings. Set up a dredging station. Coat tilapia in egg, then in cornmeal mixture. Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray. Place tilapia on sheet and spray lightly. Bake for 6 minutes, turn over and spray lightly again, then bake for anther minutes or until just done.