I bought a chocolate macaroon this afternoon, and it was so good, it prompted me into FINALLY making the macaroons from the ingredients that have been residing in my pantry since KZ told me "Make them, they're easy!"
Since her recipe is for normal macaroons, I hired consultants to figure out how to adjust for chocolate.
There were lots of versions, but I wanted one that called for the ingredients I had. Apparently, it's the "southern" way. Southern Illinois, maybe?
Cook Time: 12 minutes
Ingredients:
* 1 can (14 ounces) sweetened condensed milk
* 3 squares (3 ounces) unsweetened chocolate
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 8 ounces shredded coconut
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Preparation:
Generously grease cookie sheet.
Combine condensed milk, chocolate, and salt in the top of a double boiler. Cook over boiling water, stirring frequently, until chocolate is melted and mixture is thick; remove from heat. Add coconut and vanilla; stir to mix well. Drop by rounded tablespoons about 1 inch apart on prepared cookie sheet(s). Bake at 350° for 10 to 12 minutes, or until cookies are set. Remove chocolate macaroons from cookie sheets to wire rack to cool completely.
Makes 2 to 3 dozen chocolate coconut macaroons.
The double boiler is probably unnecessary, but since I have one, I like to use it when possible.
Final judgment: yum!
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Chocolate Macaroons
Saturday, January 19, 2008
Party Popcorn!
Sweet Corn Chowder with Toasted Tortillas
Ingredients:
6 cups frozen sweet corn, defrosted
3 scallions, each one trimmed and halved
1 clove garlic, peeled
1/4 cup semolina
6 cups hot vegetable stock made from concentrate or bouillon cubes
15 cups lightly salted tortilla chips
2 cups grated cheese
2 long red chiles, deseeded and finely chopped, optional
1. Preheat oven to 400 F.
2. Drain the corn and put into a food processor with the scallions, garlic, and semolina. Blitz to a speckled primrose mush; unless you have a big food processor you may have to do this in two batches.
3. Tip this mixture into a large saucepan; add the hot vegetable stock, and bring to a boil, then turn down the heat and let the chowder simmer, partially covered, for 10 minutes.
4. Meanwhile, spread the tortilla chips out on an aluminum foil-lined baking sheet and sprinkle over the cheese. Warm in the hot oven for 5-10 minutes or until cheese melts over the chips.
5. Ladle the soup into bowls and put a small mound of cheese-molten chips into the middle of each bowl. Sprinkle over some of the red chile, if you feel like it, and serve immediately to very grateful people.
Our modifications:
We couldn't find red chiles, so we bought serranos and also roasted some red bell peppers. We pureed the red peppers and added them to the processed corn. KZ wrangled the serranos, and we added them chopped to the mix. I think the serranos added a nice kick!
Using the tortilla chips was actually important with the addition of popcorn to the top of the soup, as we figured the tortilla chips would offer a nice buffer to keep the popcorn from turning to mush so quickly. Plus, it was the perfect opportunity to use the delicious red and green tortilla chips.
The popcorn topping the soup is "Party Popcorn" which will be my next blog entry.
Friday, January 4, 2008
Popcorn O'Rama
Sometime this fall, Columbia Law School held an iron chef competition. Since I have no friends at Columbia (at least none with demonstrated cooking ability), I decided this would not be a viable competition for me, though it did seem like a lot of fun. Then in a late night phone conversation, Hannah and I decided this would be a fun New Years "weekend" activity. So, on January 1, the throw down took place.
The logistics of the process were as follows: There were four of us competing. We decided to make a four course meal with an amuse-bouche for each team (so six courses in all). Each person put a secret ingredient into a hat and we chose. The chosen ingredient (as the title of this post suggests) was popcorn (my pick). I was scorned for this selection at every step of the way, but I maintain that it provided a good amount of challenge and some tasty results. After we had an ingredient we selected teams and courses and the game began.
I'll leave it to everyone to post their individual recipes, and I think Hannah took some pictures of the whole thing that are pretty amusing. In the process of preparing the recipes, two patterns emerged: (1) grind up the popcorn and use it as a substitute for bread crumbs/flour or (2) season the popcorn and add it to things you already like.
While we never engaged in any official scoring, Hannah unilaterally declared that she and Elizabeth won because, while Christine and I won for taste (no bias here - this was her declaration), we lost badly on plating (because she claims we copied her). While I readily concede that we did serve little shot glasses of Corona with our amuse-bouche (copying their shot glass of milk), there were no further instances of copying in the plating department. Since taste is worth 10 points and plating only 5, I submit it must be a wash at best (the other scoring category is originality, an area where I think we pretty much tied). Regardless of score, it was a pretty fun time, even though I think most of us are not too anxious to see any more popcorn for quite some time.
Here's the menu:
Lessons Learned (if we ever decide to do this again):
Friday, December 7, 2007
Rugelach
This is probably the most classic Jewish cookie around. One of my friends has described them a "an excuse to eat powdered sugar." Whatever you call them, they're really tasty. I like to make a combination of fillings since some people don't like currants and I'm not a big nut fan. Mini chocolate chips are the favorite of my nieces. The nice thing about them is you can put whatever you want inside. Just roll out your dough, put in your filling of choice, and cut the circle like a pizza rolling from the outside to the point. The other great thing is you can make this dough and put in the freezer for a month, and no one would be the wiser.
Ingredients:
Cream Cheese Pastry:
• 2 sticks unsalted butter
• 8 oz. cream cheese
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups sifted flour
Filling:
• ½ cup and 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon
• 3 tablespoons melted butter
• ¾ cup currants
• 1 cup chopped pecans
• ¾ cup mini chocolate chips
(NOTE: all of these are approximate. It's like topping on a pizza, use what you want.)
Topping:
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 2 egg yolks
Instructions:
Dough:
1. In a large bowl cream butter and cream cheese until smooth.
2. Add salt and flower on low speed.
3. Pull down dough from beater.
4. When smooth, flour hands and form into short fat roll.
5. Cut roll into four pieces. Form each piece into a round ball. Flatten slightly.
6. Wrap in plastic. Refrigerate for at least four hours. Dough can be frozen.
Filling:
1. Mix together cinnamon and sugar. (Not an exact science. Add enough of each so that you like the way it tastes.)
2. Place one ball of dough onto floured surface (Keep other dough in the refrigerator until you are ready to use it).
3. Roll into a circle, about 12” in diameter.
4. Brush with butter and quickly sprinkle with ¼ of the cinnamon-sugar mixture.
5. Cut dough into wedges.
6. Sprinkle with toppings: currants, nuts, chocolate. (You can vary by putting other filling like other dried fruits).
7. Roll wedges from the outside to the point. Place wedge point down on a covered cookie sheet.
8. Glaze with one egg yolk and a teaspoon of water. (I sometimes skip this, but it’s what makes them golden).
9. Bake at 375 degrees until brown, about 8-10 minutes.
10. Cover with powdered sugar while still hot.
Lemon Cookies With Lemon Glaze
I am happy that some of us are making holiday cookies, even if it's not in the cards for me this year. Per Elizabeth's requests, I'm posting two of my favorites. These lemon cookies are a nice alternative to lemon squares because they are much more easily transported and still have all the lemony goodness. I suggest doubling the recipe if you're going to give them away. The original single recipe says it makes 3 dozen, but I seem to remember it being closer to 2 dozen.
Ingredients:
Cookies:
• ¾ cup granulated sugar
• 2 tablespoons lemon zest
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 ¾ cup flour
• ¼ teaspoon of salt
• ¼ teaspoon baking powder
• 12 tablespoons cold butter, cut into cubes
• 1 egg yolk
• ½ teaspoon vanilla.
Glaze:
• 1 tablespoon cream cheese
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 ½ cup powdered sugar
Instructions:
1. In a food processor, combine sugar and lemon zest until sugar is damp and lemon peel is finely chopped.
2. Add flour, salt, and baking powder to sugar. Pulse 10 times.
3. Sprinkle in cubes of butter. Pulse again, 15 times. (It should look like corn meal)
4. In a separate bowl, beat together lemon juice, egg yolk, and vanilla with a fork.
5. Add lemon juice mixture to flour mixture. Process until dough makes a ball.
6. Remove dough and roll it into a log. Refrigerate for about 2 hours.
7. Slice and bake at 375 for about 14 minutes, until edges are golden brown.
8. To make glaze, combine ingredients in mixer. If glaze requires more liquid, add more lemon juice.
9. After cookies are completely cook, glaze and store in the refrigerator.
Makes about 3 dozen.
Saturday, November 10, 2007
macaroon redux
courtesy of Martha Stewart's recipe. I think this is the first time I've ever made real buttercream and am not sure that it was worth it. It was the Swiss Meringue Buttercream recipe from Martha's Baking Handbook and it turned out very, very buttery. I ended up adding about a cup of powdered sugar to cut the taste. I'm sure that goes against all that is buttercream, but I really couldn't serve it otherwise.