Dutch Baby Pancake

I'd never heard of a dutch baby pancake before...

But just as I was starting to think about New Year's Day breakfast, Martha, bless her heart, sent me this recipe and it sounded like the perfect way to start off the new year...

And it turns out it was.

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Dutch Baby Pancake

courtesy of Martha Stewart

click here to import recipe directly into Pepperplate

NOTE: I'm providing the recipe as we followed it, but next time I make this, I'll probably cut the lemon juice by 25%. It was good, don't get me wrong, but just a little too much lemon for our personal tastes.  Also, Martha claims this serves 4.  I say, 4 children, maybe, but for adults?  2 of us had no problem finishing this whatsoever...

3 tbsp butter, divided

3 eggs
3/4 c whole milk
1/2 c all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 c plus 1 tbsp sugar, divided

1 tbsp fresh lemon juice

***

Preheat oven to 425°.

In an oven-safe, medium-sized skillet, melt 2 tbsp butter over medium heat and then set aside.

In a blender, combine eggs, milk, flour, salt, vanilla, and 1/4 c sugar. Blend until foamy, 30 seconds to 1 minute, depending on the power of your blender.

Pour batter into skillet and place skillet in the oven.

Bake ~ 20 minutes or until pancake is puffed and lightly browned.

While baking, cut the remaining tbsp of butter into small bits.

Once the pancake is cooked, remove from oven and dot with the butter bits.

Sprinkle with remaining tbsp of sugar and lemon juice.

Slice into wedges and serve immediately.

Cold Crab Dip

This year it was just Jordan and I for the holidays...  with the impending move, we're hoarding money like crazy and travel and gifts just didnt really fit in.  However, holidays can be saved, what with the miracle of Facetime and the recreation of culinary traditions...

This is part 1 of a series i'll call "how we ate our way though the holidays"

I never knew that crab dip was a Christmas tradition for so many people...  That was, until I started googling, looking for the crab dip my mom has made for the past bazillion Christmases...  However, it seems most of you enjoy hot crab dip.  and while i'm never one to turn up anything warm and cheesy, these holidays had specific demands - recreate the traditions...

so when google failed, i called my mom and just asked for the recipe.

duh.

Oh?  Did I forget to mention that there was a block of cream cheese involved?  One of my favorite culinary phrases has got to be "serve over a block of cream cheese"...

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Cold Crab Dip
courtesy of my mom
Click here to import recipe directly into Pepperplate

1 c ketchup
2 tbsp horseradish
1 tbsp honey

8 oz crab meat, cleaned and picked over

8 oz block of cream cheese

***

In a small bowl, mix ketchup, horseradish and honey together.

Add in the crabmeat and stir until incorporated

Chill in the fridge for at least a half hour

Spoon the dip over the block of cream cheese and serve with your favorite butter crackers.

Reindeer Cookies

Wait, what?  I'm actually going to post a timely post - you know, before you need it?

And i'm going to do this in the middle of what is always my busiest time of the year, to which i've already added trying to buy a co-op and the other half of my department being on maternity leave?  While I've got an awful head cold and have guests coming into town in a week?

I'm such a rockstar.

or, i thought i was until my sister told me that my 3 year old nephew had made these exact same cookies in NURSERY SCHOOL.

oh whatever.  they're cute.

(sorry for the crappy cell phone camera picture.  and yes, i should have
faced the Ms down - but I was REALLY tired...)

I made them for my work cookie exchange and while they were a HUGE pain to transport to the office (due to not wanting to lose the antlers, though the antlers seem way more secure than i expected), i fully expect to win (no actual award but lots of bragging rights for) cutest cookies on that exchange table...

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Reindeer Cookies
courtesy of Bakergirl with slight modifications by me
Click here to import recipe directly into Pepperplate

3/4 c creamy peanut butter
1 1/4 c firmly packed light brown sugar
1/2 c unsalted butter (1 stick)
3 tbsp milk
1 tbsp vanilla
1 egg

1 3/4 c all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt

~ 72 chocolate-covered mini pretzels (1 box of the 100 calorie packages works)
~ 72 brown and green M&Ms
~ 36 red M&Ms in one of the larger varieties (i used pretzel but you could use peanut too...)

***

Preheat oven to 375°F.

Line baking sheets with parchment and set aside.

Combine peanut butter, brown sugar, butter, milk, and vanilla in large bowl. Beat at medium speed until well mixed and fluffy.  (it also tastes REALLY good - sample it now, cause the egg is about to go in...)

Add egg; beat again to combine.

In a small bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and salt.  Whisk to combine.

Slowly add flour mixture to peanut butter/sugar mixture with mixer on low. Mix til combined, but do not overmix - once everything is incorporated, shut it down.

Form dough into ~1-inch balls.  Place on baking sheet, an about 1.5 - 2 inches apart.  Pinch one end to form a nose and then slightly flatten the entire thing.  You will have a tray of alien-heads at this point.

Bake for 7 to 8 minutes, until set or just barely beginning to brown.

Remove from oven and immediately press red M&Ms into the point to make Rudolph's nose.  Then place either 2 brown or 2 green M&Ms into the middle to make the eyes.

Finally, push two mini pretzels at a ~90° angle (so, sticking straight up towards the sky) into the tops of the cookies for the reindeer's antlers.

Allow to cool 5 minutes on the baking sheet and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.  DO NOT TOUCH antlers while cookies are cooling as the chocolate will be melty and they are precarious at this point.

Makes about 3 dozen cookies.

Grandma P's MandelBread

We were not going to be able to celebrate Rosh Hashana with Jordan's family this year, but i knew it was important to him that we do something to mark the holiday.  Because Hallmark really doesnt have a 'high holidays' line in their stores, and no mythical characters show up with presents or chocolate,  the only marker i was left with was food.  (oh, darn.)  So I went on an elaborate recipe search all over the internets trying to figure out what to make.

The interesting thing i learned about Rosh Hashana is that the general gist of it is to eat sweet things, as a wish for a sweet new year.  This was a good thing to learn as holiday cooking is generally made more 'interesting' (and by interesting, i mean difficult) by my pescatarian lifestyle, but sweet is generally associated with desserts and such and desserts generally dont have meat in them.  This i could do.

After a bit of digging, i came up with a basic menu, which included honey cake.  When i ran it past Jordan, he was like, 'wtf is honey cake?' and i was like, 'its only what you are supposed to eat on rosh hashana, duh...' and he was all 'if you say so...'  So then we had one of those super-fun discussions that go 'ok if you dont want honey cake, what do you want?'  'i dont know...  no, its fine, i've just never had it before'  at which point i declared myself more jewish than him - which went over about as well as you can imagine...

so in the interest of saving the holiday (and maybe my marriage), i did more research.  and in that research, i saw that some people were making apple cake or mandelbread for dessert...  Now, i didnt know what mandelbread was, but when i mentioned it to Jordan, he was all 'i've been craving that!' and just like that, the world was now right in jordan's eyes.  so we called up his mom (ok, texted) and asked for his grandmother's recipe.*

Turns out mandelbread is basically biscotti. Except not always baked the second time the way biscotti is - and never baked the second time by Jordan's family.

Now, you may wonder why I'm posting this now, after Rosh Hashana.  You may be saying 'um, maybe i could have used this if you'd only TOLD ME SOONER...'  well, Yom Kippur is this weekend and i'm pretty sure that this mandelbread would be a welcome addition to ANY break fast table...

*turns out that Grandma P used Mom S's recipe - something Jordan only learned a couple of days ago...  but i like the title Grandma P's, so i'm going to take that liberty, ok?

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Grandma P's MandelBread
courtesy of Mom S.
click here to import recipe directly into Pepperplate

This is the full recipe.  We actually cut it down and only made 1/3 of the recipe (therefore one loaf) because there are only two of us and we're already fat enough...

1/3 c butter
1 c sugar
3 eggs

1 tsp vanilla
1 drop lemon juice
2 1/2 c flour

2 tsp bsking powder
1 bag chocoloate chips

sugar & cinnamon for top

***

Preheat oven to 350°

Prepare a cookie sheet with a piece of parchment.

Using an electric mixer, cream the butter and the sugar.

Add the eggs 1 at a time and mix well after each.

Add the vanilla, lemon and mix well.

Combine the flour and the baking powder in a separate bowl and add the flour mixture in batches, mixing well after each addition.  (I was able to keep using the electric mixer the whole time but it does get sticky at the end...)

Add the chocolate chips and mix to combine.

Flour your hands well and divide the very wet, very sticky dough into 3 pieces.  Shape each piece into a narrow loaf and place on the parchment.

Sprinkle each loaf with cinnamon and sugar. 

Bake for 30 minutes.

Allow to cool a bit and then slice as you would biscotti and serve.  

Note: Its a dry 'cake' - i'm told its best dipped in either milk or coffee, but i liked it just fine plain :)

Matzo Crack

Years of growing up in a predominantly jewish town left me with all sorts of envy - how come we didnt have a menorah?  how come we didnt have matzo in the house?  how come my parents didnt know a place in the city that they drove 1.5 hours to just for bagels?

yeah, yeah, santa claus, easter bunny, italian pastry, blah blah blah.

However, one of the best parts of growing up in said environment and not being jewish is it meant i was able to selectively partake...  so even though the girl who's name translates to 'follower of christ' probably didnt need to buy the matzo/butter for lunch during passover, the nice lunch ladies let me anyway...  and in 9th grade home ec, they taught me how to make matzo brei...  (more on that later this week, hopefully...)

it really was no wonder i ended up marrying a jew, is it?  we now have all of the benefits of 2 religions!  lasagne, bagels, pastry, matzo brei! (have i ever mentioned that my absolute favorite part of any holiday is food?)

anyway, enough about me and my envy - this is about what you are going to bring for seder dessert tonight...  (or next year if you dont manage to catch this on April 19... or just eat whenever you want if you arent jewish but have distinct envy like i did...)

This matzo crack is so incredibly easy to make - I started on it at the same time jordan took the dog for her afternoon walk, and i was finished (save for the chilling) by the time he got back in...

There are a million ways to adapt this - a quick google search will tell you others have used almonds, coconut and a whole host of other things to top this off...  we went for the standard presentation and while it would be fun to experiment a little, it really is quite amazing even in this, its simplest form...

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Matzo Crack
adapted from of Marcy Goldman - A Treasury of Jewish Holiday Baking

4-5 unsalted matzos
2 sticks unsalted butter
1 c firmly packed light brown sugar
scant 1 c bittersweet chocolate chips
fleur de sel/sea salt

***

Preheat oven to 350°

Cover a baking sheet entirely with aluminum foil and then place a piece of parchment on top of the foil (helps with sticking.  the internet says you could butter the foil instead but the parchment worked wonders...)

lay matzo out so that it covers the entire thing, breaking pieces up to ensure full coverage

place butter in a heavy-bottomed saucepan and turn heat up to medium.  When butter is mostly melted, add in the brown sugar.  stir, continuously, to incorporate.  When mixture starts to bubble, start your timer.  continue to stir mixture for about 3-4 minutes.  at some point during that time, you will notice that the butter/sugar is starting to come together and the mixture is getting less liquid and more almost marshmallow-fluff-ish.  this is a good thing.  If you think its getting too hot, briefly pull off of the heat and then return it a few seconds later.  (stir the whole time...)

remove from heat and pour over the matzo.  using a rubber spatula, spread the mixture evenly over your matzo.

place the cookie sheet in the oven and set your timer for 13 minutes.  After about 5, you will see that the mixture has started to bubble up.  this is a good thing.  check it every 3 minute or so to ensure that its not cooking too fast (getting darker brown would be a good indication)...  I opened my oven a few times to let some heat escape and turned the tray around once.  The minute you smell a hint of burning, remove the tray from the oven.

immediately sprinkle chocolate chips over the toffee and allow to sit for 5 minutes.

after 5 minutes, spread chocolate chips around with a rubber spatula until the entire tray is coated in a layer of chocolate.

sprinkle with fleur de sel/sea salt and place in the freezer.  After about 15 minutes, remove and score into whatever size pieces you wish to have and return to the fridge (if you have plenty of time) or freezer (if you are making this 45 minutes before you are supposed to head across town...)

once fully cooled, break into pieces and enjoy.

Irish Kiss Cookies

This morning, Jordan informed me that he doesnt 'theme dress'...  He nearly wore a green shirt to work today but then realized it was St Pats and changed into a purple one.

BAH HUMBUG.

I find it slightly ironic that a guy who loves Guinness and found his future wife (me) by searching the internet dating world for redheads would decline to openly participate in the holiday that celebrates both beer and those who gave us redheads, but i digress...

I'm making up for his non-participatory nature by wearing a green shirt, green eyeliner and giving you boozy green cookies.

Happy St Patrick's Day!!!

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Irish Kiss Cookies

courtesy of The Runaway Spoon with modifications by me

2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt

½ cup (1 stick) butter, softened
½ cup sugar
½ cup light brown sugar

1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

¼ c + 1 tbsp Bailey's Irish cream
green food coloring gel

32 Dark Hershey’s Kisses, unwrapped

Powdered Sugar

***

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper.

Combine flour, baking soda & salt and set aside.

Using a mixer, cream the butter and sugars until light and fluffy. 

Add the egg and vanilla, beating until combined. 

Add the Irish Cream, beating well.

Add half of the flour mixture & mix to combine.  Add the remaining flour mixture & mix to combine.

Continue to mix while you add green food coloring until you get your desired shade of green.

Push a kiss into ~ 1 tsp of dough and form a ball around the kiss.  Place on baking sheet, leaving 1.5 inches or more between each ball.

Bake ~9 minutes.  Cookies will flatten some and the color will change slightly.

Cool on the cookie sheets for a minute or two, then carefully slide parchment paper onto a wire rack to finish cooling.  

Dust with powdered sugar.