what do you want to eat?

Homemade Oreos

While doing some research for a cookie bakery that I have been working on a design project for, I ran across a website called Bake at 350.  Well, I shouldn't say ran across, my client pointed me in that direction.  While perusing, I discovered her post on Homemade Oreos.  And my pregnant self decided they needed to be made.  Like right then.  So, Dylan and I got to work making the chocolate wafer dough, rolling it out and cutting out the cookies.  By the time we got to the rolling it out part he wanted to eat the dough.  And he did.  The silly boy (he is his father's son after all).  We actually made these back in September and I didn't take too many photos (except for these two bad camera phone photos).  Here's a link to the recipe.  The only change I made was to use half white whole wheat flour in place of half of the all-purpose.

 

Denny created a triple decker oreo.


And then ate the whole thing.

Potato Soup with Kale

I threw this soup together this past weekend because we've definitely hit soup weather in Alaska.  Also, I've been trying to stretch our groceries out a bit longer if possible.  Potato soup is a great way to do that.  I had fresh kale and local carrots from our coop that we get produce boxes from (even in the winter, I love that). When I make soup I tend to do my own thing and throw in whatever I have on hand. This soup turned out quite delicious.  Feel free to improvise with whatever you have in your house.  And enjoy!

Potato Soup with Kale

4 slices bacon, cut into smaller pieces
1 Tb olive oil
3 Tb butter 
1/2 onion, diced
3 carrots, diced
4 cloves garlic (I had small cloves, so adjust to your own taste)
rosemary, chopped (I also threw in a sprig or two extra, I do love rosemary)
7 small potatoes, cut into thin sliced half moons
3 Tb flour
4 cups stock (I used chicken, but vegetable would work fine)
3 cups water
1 bunch of kale, chopped (I had a smaller bunch, so use what looks right for you)
1 can white beans 
1 cup whole milk (feel free to use whatever milk you keep in the fridge)
salt and pepper
grated parmesan 

Heat a heavy bottomed pot over medium-high heat.  Put the bacon slices into the pan and cook until crisp. Remove the bacon.  If bacon fat scares you, feel free to drain it out of the pot before continuing.  However, I love the extra flavor, so I leave it in.  Add 1 Tb olive oil and 3 Tb butter.  Then add the onions, carrots, garlic and chopped rosemary.  Season with a little salt and pepper (my husband likes it peppery and so do I, so I go a bit heavy on the pepper).  Sauté until softened.  Then add the potatoes and stir.  

Meanwhile, heat up the stock and water.  Put the flour in next and stir it in with the vegetables until it starts to get golden.  Stir in the stock slowly and continue to stir to avoid lumps.  Once all the stock is incorporated, bring the soup to a boil.  Add in the chopped kale (and extra rosemary sprigs if you are using them).  Let simmer for about 10-15 minutes or until the potatoes are fork tender.  Stir in the can of beans.  Then add in the milk and bring back to a simmer.  Taste the soup and adjust your seasonings. 

Top each bowl of soup with the crispy pieces of bacon and a sprinkling of parmesan.  Enjoy! 

homemade thin mints

I recently ran across this recipe for Homemade Thin Mints on one of my favorite food sites 101cookbooks.com.  I decided I needed to try it and an invitation to a cookie exchange gave me the perfect excuse.  One of the best things about 101cookbooks is her use of natural and whole grain ingredients.  It makes me feel less guilty about eating the yummy things I bake (and sharing them with my little one) if I can use healthier ingredients.  

The thin mints are definitely more of a time consuming process than I originally thought.  I made two batches and the dipping in chocolate portion of the recipe took a long time for the almost 8 dozen cookies I ended up with.  These are worth the effort, although don't expect them to taste just like their Girl Scout cookie counterparts.  The cookie part is a softer, richer tasting cookie...not as crisp.  However, these are just wonderful out of the freezer and that tends to give the cookie a bit more crunch.

Here's some of the process through photos and the recipe and the slight changes I made are below the photos.  Be sure to visit 101cookbooks.com and scroll through some of her other delicious recipes.  

 

Here's my little helper after helping measure out all the ingredients. I love the smudge of cocoa powder on his nose.


Cutting out little circles of cookie dough. You have to roll the dough really thin for the thin mints. I found that if I used smaller amounts of dough, it made it much easier to get them thinner.


The cookies don't spread much, so you can fit more on your cookie sheet.


Here are my stacks and stacks of cookies waiting to be dunked in melted chocolate/peppermint goodness.


I'm sure I didn't need to show you the chocolate chips melting...but they just look so lovely and scrumptious I couldn't help myself.

My dunking station is at the ready.

A freshly dunked thin mint.


Dylan came over to "help" me dunk the cookies. Translation: "want to eat a cookie". I finally had to shoo him away before he ate them all.


The cookies out of the freezer...all set and ready to eat.

Homemade and All-natural Thin Mint Recipe
from 101cookbooks.com, my notes are in italics

Chocolate Wafers:
8 ounces organic butter, room temperature
1 cup organic powdered sugar
1 teaspoon natural vanilla extract
1 cup cocoa powder (I used Hershey Special Dark cocoa powder)
3/4 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
I also threw in a handful of ground flaxseed 

Chocolate Peppermint Coating:
1 pound good quality semi-sweet chocolate, chopped
(I used a mixture of about 2/3 bittersweet to 1/3 milk chocolate chips...it also took more than 1 lb for a batch..more like 1 1/2 to 2 lbs for me)

1/4 tsp. peppermint extract (Here, I also used a lot more than called for...more like a whole teaspoon of extract to get a good pepperminty (but not toothpasty) flavor.)

Preheat your oven to 350. Racks in the middle zone.

Make the cookie dough: In a mixer cream the butter until it is light and fluffy. Add the powdered sugar and cream some more, scraping the sides of the bowl a couple times if necessary. Stir in the vanilla extract and then the salt and cocoa powder. Mix until the cocoa powder is integrated and the batter is smooth and creamy, sort of like a thick frosting. Add the whole wheat pastry flour and mix just until the batter is no longer dusty looking, it might still be a bit crumbly, and that's o.k. You don't want to over mix and end up with tough cookies.

Turn the dough out onto a counter, gather it into a ball, and kneed it just once or twice to bring it together into once nice, smooth mass. Place the ball of dough into a large plastic bag and flatten it into a disk roughly 3/4-inch thick. Place the dough in the freezer for 20 minutes to chill.

Rollout and bake: Remove the dough from the freezer and roll it out really thin, remember how thin Thin Mints are? That's how thin you need your dough, about 1/8-inch. You can either roll it out between two sheets of plastic, or dust your counter and rolling pin with a bit of flour and do it that way. (Here is where I used smaller pieces of dough to roll it out thin.  My dough out of the freezer was a bit crumbly anyway and breaking off small pieces to roll out seemed to solve that problem.) Stamp out cookies using a 1 1/2-inch cutter (this time I used one with a fluted edge, I've done hearts and other shapes in the past). Place cookies on a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes. Remove the cookies from the oven and allow them to cool completely on a baking rack if you've got one.

Make the peppermint coating:
While the cookies are in the oven you can get the coating ready. I use a makeshift double boiler to melt chocolate (a metal pan over a saucepan of gently simmering water), but I know many people who swear by melting chocolate in the microwave. Slowly melt the chocolate, stirring occasionally until it is glossy and smooth. Stir in the peppermint extract. If you think the chocolate needs a bit more peppermint kick, add more extract a drop or two at a time - but don't go overboard.

Finishing the cookies: You are going to coat the cookies one at a time and then gently set them on a parchment-lined baking sheet to set. Drop one cookie into the chocolate and (using a fork) carefully make sure it gets fully coated. Lift the cookie out of the chocolate with the fork and bang the fork on the side of the pan to drain any extra chocolate off the cookie. You are after a thin, even coating of chocolate. (Not sure how thin and even mine got...be careful shaking or banging off the excess cookies..I had a few of my thinner cookies break during this process...but remember..mistakes mean more for the tasters in your house.)  Place on the aforementioned prepared baking sheet, and repeat for the rest of the cookies. Place the cookies in the refrigerator or freezer to set. They will set at room temperature, it just takes much longer, and I prefer them straight out of the freezer anyways ;)

Make 3 or 4 dozen cookies.

 

Pumpkin Pie Brioche Monkey Bread

It has been far too long since I've updated this food blog.  I have some posts to catch up on, but until then, I have this one.  This lovely, lovely bit of yumminess I made tonight.  Yes, it's onto the main event:  Pumpkin Pie Brioche Monkey Bread.  

To start, you make a recipe of Pumpkin Pie Brioche Dough from "Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day".  This is a very versatile dough with a delicious flavor and actually has good things in it for you.  I modified the recipe by doubling the spices and using half olive oil/half butter when it called for oil or butter.  I also (as always) threw in a handful of flaxseed and substituted 1/2 cup quinoa flour for 1/2 cup of the all-purpose flour.  

There are numerous yummy things to do with this dough besides bake a loaf of bread.  I've seen recipes online for cinnamon rolls, mini bundt brioches and my favorite (until now anyway) Pumpkin Pie Brioche with a Twist.

Now, onto the main event:  The Pumpkin Pie Brioche Monkey Bread.  This comes via a blog called Something Shiny (thank you Something Shiny for this wonderful heavenly way to use the brioche dough).  The monkey bread from my childhood consisted of 4 cans of Pilsbury Refrigerator Biscuits that were cut into 4 pieces, rolled in cinnamon sugar and put into a bundt pan.  Then, you would top that with a boiled mixture of butter and sugar.  Out of the oven was a gooey, sticky, sweet monkey bread.  The Pumpkin Pie Brioche Monkey Bread is a more refined and lighter version of this.  You simply roll the balls of dough in melted butter, then in cinnamon sugar and put it in your bundt pan.  Sprinkle any excess sugar on top (I poured on my little bit of excess butter first), then bake.  It's not as gooey as the original, but I don't miss that at all.  Each little bite of brioche is tender and cinnamony and just divine.  We had to cover it back up with the bundt pan so that we would stop eating it.  

First make little balls of dough.  They don't all have to be equal, but they will get bigger when they rise and bake.

Roll each piece of dough in melted butter.

 
   
Then roll in a cinnamon-sugar mixture.  Be careful if a small child is helping you.  My little guy just wanted to stand there and eat the cinnamon-sugar.  Silly boy.

Then put the little balls of dough in a greased bundt pan.

Here's what the monkey bread looks like before it rises and bakes.

Go to Something Shiny now and get all the details.  This is totally worth it!