Monthly Archives: February 2011

Orange Shortbread Bites

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It doesn’t seem that long ago that I visited with Janice Cole at an International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP) conference when she told me she was working on a cookbook. She explained that this book would not be  just a collection of recipes. It would also tell the story about her experiences during her first year of raising her own hens. I was intrigued. I had no idea Janice Cole had chickens. She lived in the city, for heaven’s sake, in a suburb of St. Paul, Minnesota. Yet she was raising chickens in her back yard. I couldn’t wait to see the book.

Now, I have the just-published book, “Chicken and Egg: A Memoir of Suburban Homesteading with 125 Recipes,” by Janice Cole. It’s like a good novel that you just can’t put down once you start reading. Cole’s book holds nine chapters, following the seasons of the year, broken down by early spring, mid-spring, summer, late summer all the way through late winter. The veteran food writer and editor, cooking instructor and recipe developer begins each chapter with a story relating her experiences as an owner of hens. Cole’s charming stories make me smile, and sometimes chuckle out loud as I read about Roxanne, the big and bossy Buff Orpington, cuddly Cleo and rebellious Lulu, both Araucana/Ameraucanas. It’s just plain fun to read. And, if you have thoughts of having your own little chicken coop in your backyard, you’ll appreciate the helpful hints and tips Cole shares that can help you get started with your own chicks, or decide whether or not it’s something you really want to do.

Another nice thing about the way the book is divided is that it helped me decide which of the delicious-sounding recipes to try first. I went to the Late Winter chapter, narrowing down the many possibilities. I have several sticky tabs marking pages throughout the book with recipes I can’t wait to try.

I’ve made the Chipotle-Spiced Three-Bean Chili for friends. It took little time to prepare and it brought rave reviews from everyone around the dinner table. Cole gave me permission to use her recipe for Chicken with Charred Cauliflower and Red Peppers in my column this week. Click here to get right to that recipe. You might also be interested in listening to the short phone conversation I had with Janice Cole last week.

I couldn’t resist the recipe for Orange Shortbread Bites. For one thing, I love shortbread. And for another, the organic oranges I’ve been getting at my local food co-op have been so juicy and sweet, I knew their juice and grated zest along with yolks from local chickens would make these sandwich cookies outstanding. I was right.

Sweet and tart orange curd is not difficult to make. My mouth is watering right now as I think about the crunchy, melt-in-the-mouth little cookies sandwiching the bright-tasting curd made with freshly squeezed orange juice. The addition of ground cardamom to the cookies is something I’ve never thought to mix into shortbread dough. It adds just a hint of peppery spice that pairs nicely with the orange flavor.

“Chicken and Egg: A Memoir of Suburban Homesteading with 125 Recipes” is one of those cookbooks that will be my go-to when I don’t know what to make for supper or when I want to make something deliciously sweet but don’t want to take a lot of time doing it. As long as I have chicken in my freezer and eggs in my refrigerator, I’ve got a good chance of finding the perfect recipe inside the cover of Cole’s book to fill my needs.

Meet Janice Cole’s feisty little hens at her blog, three swingin’ chicks.

Orange Shortbread Bites

(from “Chicken and Egg: A Memoir of Suburban Homesteading with 125 Recipes,” by Janice Cole. Chronicle Books. 2011.)

Shortbread:

  • 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened and cut up
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons grated orange zest
  • 3/4 cup granulated sugar
  • 2 egg yolks
  • 1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
  • 2 tablespoons cornstarch
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt

Orange Curd Filling:

  • 1/4 cup fresh orange juice
  • 1/4 cup granulated sugar
  • 3 egg yolks
  • Pinch of salt
  • 2 teaspoons grated orange zest
  • 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • Powdered sugar for sprinkling

To make the shortbread: Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Beat the butter and orange zest in a large bowl with an electric mixer at low speed for 1 minute. Add the granulated sugar and beat for an additional minute. Add the egg yolks and beat until blended.

Whisk together the flour, cornstarch, cardamom and salt in a small bowl. With the mixer on low, slowly beat the flour mixture into the dough. Shape into a flat disk, cover, and refrigerate for 1 hour or until firm.

Roll 1 teaspoon of dough into a 3/4- to 1-inch ball and place on a baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining dough to make 40 cookies. Press each ball, flattening it slightly, until 1 1/4 inches in diameter.

Bake the cookies for 8 to 10 minutes or until golden brown on the bottom and along the edges. Transfer to a wire rack and cool.

To make the filling: Whisk the orange juice, granulated sugar, egg yolks and salt together in s small bowl until blended. Whisk in the orange zest. Melt the butter in a small saucepan and slowly pour into the orange juice mixture, whisking constantly. Pour the orange juice mixture back into the same saucepan and cook over medium heat, whisking constantly, until thickened and bubbles just begin to form on the outside edge. Do not let the orange curd come to a full boil, or the mixture may curdle. Pour into a clean small bowl. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour or until cooled.

To assemble the cookies, spoon a generous teaspoon of orange curd onto the flat side of a cookie. Repeat until you’ve covered half of the cookies. Top with the remaining cookies and gently press together. Store in the refrigerator until ready to serve. Sprinkle the tops with the powdered sugar before serving. Makes 20 sandwich cookies and 1/2 cup of curd.

Weekend Baking: Triple Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies

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You’ve seen recipes for triple chocolate cookies, right? Well, why not triple peanut butter cookies?

I come from a long line of peanut butter-lovers. My uncle was so consumed with the creamy, sticky stuff, he named his dog Skippy. My mom made sandwiches with peanut butter so thick, each bite would take several minutes to finally swallow, let alone try to get a word out.

I grew up on my mom’s peanut butter cookies. They were crunchy and sweet and the little criss-cross marks made with a fork on the top of each cookie glistened with crystals of sugar.

Of course, I married a peanut butter-lover. Nothing makes him happier than a bag of chocolate peanut butter cups.

When I discovered the bags of Reese’s mini peanut butter cups at the store, I knew at least one bag of the adorable, bite-sized p.b. cups would go home with me to get chopped up and stirred into cookies. And how easy it is to do, because the tiny chocolate peanut butter cups come unwrapped.

Triple Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies are thick and chewy. And chubby. They are loaded with chopped mini peanut butter cups, peanut butter morsels and of course, creamy peanut butter.

Make them to nibble all weekend long. You’ll make all the peanut butter-lovers in your house so happy.

Triple Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies

  • 1/2 cup butter, at room temperature
  • 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
  • 1 1/2 cups creamy peanut butter
  • 3 eggs, beaten
  • 4 1/2 cups quick-cooking rolled oats
  • 1 (8-ounce) bag Reese’s mini peanut butter cups, coarsely chopped
  • 1/3 cup peanut butter morsels

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cream butter and sugars together in a mxing bowl. Add baking soda, vanilla, peanut butter and eggs and mix well. Add oats and stir to blend. Stir in peanut butter cups and peanut butter morsels. Drop the dough by rounded tablespoons, 2 inches apart, onto an ungreased  or parchment paper-lined cookie sheet. Flatten slightly with the palm of your hand or the bottom of a drinking glass. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes. The cookies should be soft and lightly browned. Makes about 3 dozen cookies.

Orange and Avocado Salad with Pakistani Spice

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On Sunday afternoon, a couple of friends came over to our house with a young man from Pakistan who is currently staying with them while he is a student at Bemidji State University. They came in hauling bags of groceries — meat, fruit, vegetables and several bags of a variety of spices.

The young man from Pakistan came prepared to teach us how to prepare a few authentic Pakistani dishes.

He gave us our assignments and, in great detail, told us exactly how to carry out our specific tasks. After a couple hours of chopping, stirring, simmering and seasoning, we were ready to sit down together to eat three delicious dishes — a very spicy daal made with yellow lentils, chicken biryani, and another dish made with chicken thighs that I still need to get the name of.

For dessert, we had a bowl of mixed fresh fruit. Our young teacher made sure I write down the formula for the seasoning mixture he sprinkled over the fruit.

Yesterday for lunch I made my own fruit salad with sweet, juicy organic oranges that I’ve been buying at the food co-op and slices of creamy avocado. I sprinkled the fruit with the special Pakistani spice mixture — equal parts of red chili powder, sugar and garam masala. My jar of Garam Masala comes from Penzey’s Spices, a blend of coriander, black pepper, cardamom, cinnamon and a few other baking spices. The blend of spices and sugar provides a sweet and tart flavor that is refreshing, especially after a spicy meal.

I’m planning to share the recipe for daal (that was my assignment) as well as a few pictures from our afternoon of cooking Pakistani dishes soon.

In the meantime, this salad of rounds of peeled oranges and avocado slices sprinkled with the special Pakistani fruit will excite your taste buds.

Glazed Citrus-Rum Cake is sunshine on a gray winter day

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Think buttery-rich pound cake with an infusion of sunshine-bright, freshly squeezed citrus juice and just enough rum to let you know it’s there. Bits of broken pecans stud the top of the cake, forcing you to position your fork in a way that grabs a piece of nut with each bite of velvety goodness. It’s a Bundt cake that only gets better with age as the flavors of the citrus-and-rum-soaked cake develop and ripen when it is stored in a cool place.  It’s Glazed Citrus-Rum Cake.

Billowy batter, speckled with grated zest of clementine, orange and lime, is made with cake flour, producing a fine, yet dense, texture. My original plan was to make the cake with only orange zest and orange juice.  Somehow, before I realized it, most of the oranges were eaten before I got around to making the cake. Luckily, I had plenty of cute little clementines and a couple of limes heavy with juice in my refrigerator. That’s when the cake became a generic citrus cake rather than orange cake.

Rum extract adds subtle flavor to the cake itself. The sweet, tart glaze that soaks into the hot cake has light rum mixed with citrus juice, butter and sugar that simmers until the sugar dissolves. A small amount of rum extract is stirred into the glaze right before spooning over the cake. Poking holes in the cake with a bamboo skewer before spooning the glaze over it, helps the dispersion of the liquid throughout the inside of the cake.

Don’t be alarmed when you get to the part of the recipe that instructs you to cool the cake completely in the pan before turning it out. It will come out without one bit of sticking as long as you are careful to completely grease and flour the pan before spreading the batter inside.

Glazed Citrus-Rum Cake is easy to transport, making it a nice choice to share at potluck meals with friends. If you feel like splurging on fresh berries, this cake is delicious with blueberries or raspberries. But, it’s heavenly just as it is. On a winter brunch table, it’s a sweet surprise. Glazed Citrus-Rum Cake is sunshine on a cold,  gray winter day.

Glazed Citrus-Rum Cake

  • 1 cup chopped pecans
  • 1 cup butter, softened
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 5 large eggs
  • 3 cups sifted cake flour
  • 1 tablespoon baking powder
  • 1/8 teaspoon salt
  • 3/4 cup milk
  • 1/2 teaspoon rum extract
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 tablespoons grated citrus zest (orange, clementine, lime)

Glaze

  • 1/4 cup butter
  • 2/3 cup sugar
  • 1/3 cup freshly squeezed orange or clementine juice
  • 2 tablespoons light rum
  • 1/8 teaspoon rum extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 12-cup Bundt pan. Set aside.

Sprinkle chopped pecans over bottom of prepared pan. Beat butter at medium speed of electric mixer until creamy. Gradually add sugar, beating well. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Combine flour, baking powder and salt in another bowl. Add to butter mixture alternately with milk, beginning and ending with dry ingredients. Add rum extract, vanilla extract and grated citrus zest and mix. Spoon batter over nuts in prepared pan.

Bake in preheated 350-degree oven for 40 to 45 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center of cake comes out clean.

Make glaze by combining butter, sugar, orange juice and rum in a small saucepan. Cook over medium heat until sugar dissolves, about 3 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in rum extract.

Using a wooden skewer, poke holes all over the surface of the hot cake in the pan. Spoon glaze evenly over the hot cake in the pan, giving it time to be absorbed into the cake.

Allow cake to cool completely in pan. Turn out onto serving platter. You can get up to 16 slices from one cake. Store tightly sealed in cool place.

Weekend Baking: Cherry-Chocolate Swirl Coffee Cake

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When I was growing up, my dad was my best taste-tester. When I was 9- or 10-years-old and starting to do some baking on my own, he and his best friend, Jim, who lived in the house behind ours, would gobble up any sweet thing I would come up with.

After just a couple of bites, my dad would say something like, “My favorite daughter has come up with another winner.” I was his only daughter.

At that point, Jim would most likely be on his second piece. I’m sure one of the reasons I love to bake stems from the enthusiasm and unconditional support of my early experiments in the kitchen offered to me by my dad and his best friend. I basked in the feeling of success that I felt when I watched those two men eagerly gobble up the treats I whipped up all by myself. I know there had to have been some some flubs along the way, but they always smiled and ate.

When President’s Day rolled around each year, I’d try to find a recipe that included cherries. My dad always looked forward to dessert on President’s Day.

I continue to create sweet cherry treats when we honor George Washington with a holiday. Whether he really did cut down the cherry tree or not, I still think cherries when I think George Washington.

Cherry-Chocolate Swirl Coffee Cake is based on a cake my mom and her friends used to make with a swirl of cinnamon and sugar and nuts. I used an easy-to-make filling of canned sweet cherries, dried cherries and almonds with some mini-chocolate morsels stirred into the mix. It’s the same filling I used in the Chocolate and Cherry-Filled Mini-Heart Tarts in an earlier post.

I know my two favorite tasters would have loved this cake, despite the flub. Yes, I must be honest. After the cake was in the oven, I discovered close to a cup of the sifted dry ingredients still sitting in the bowl on the counter. Grrrrrr. The cake still baked up nicely and tasted wonderful with a cup of coffee. But, what I’ve managed to hide in the photo is a little tunnel running through the cake. Tunnel of love, maybe? Well, that little tunnel didn’t effect the wonderful flavor.

I took the cake to a cooking class I taught last night as a little pre-class treat. Everyone smiled and gobbled it up in no time flat. I still love that enthusiasm and support.

Bake Cherry-Chocolate Swirl Coffee Cake this weekend. You’ll enjoy the smiles it creates.

Happy President’s Day weekend!

Cherry-Chocolate Swirl Coffee Cake

  • 3/4 cup butter, softened
  • 1 1/2 cups sugar
  • 4 large eggs
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 3 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons baking powder
  • 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 (8-ounce) container sour cream
  • 1 batch cherry-chocolate filling
  • 1/4 cup powdered sugar, for serving

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 12-cup Bundt pan. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, beat butter at medium speed of an electric mixer until creamy. Gradually add 1 1/2 cups sugar, beating well.  Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in vanilla. Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt together. Add to butter mixture alternately with sour cream, beginning and ending with dry ingredients. Batter will be stiff.

Spoon 1/3 of batter into a greased and floured 12-cup Bundt pan. Spoon half of cherry-chocolate mixture over batter. Top with half of remaining batter. Spoon remaining cherry-chocolate mixture over batter. Top with remaining batter. Bake in preheated 350-degree oven for 45 to 50 minutes, or until a wooden skewer inserted into center of cake comes out clean. Cool in pan on a wire rack for 20 minutes. Remove from pan and let cake cool completely on wire rack. Sprinkle with powdered sugar before serving.

Cherry and Chocolate Filling

  • 1 (15-ounce) can pitted sweet cherries, drained
  • 1/4 cup dried cherries
  • 1/4 cup sliced almonds
  • 1/8 teaspoon almond extract
  • 1/4 cup mini semisweet chocolate morsels

Put drained cherries and dried cherries into a food processor or heavy-duty blender. Process until mixture is quite smooth. Add almonds and process until finely chopped. Transfer mixture to a small saucepan. Cook over low heat, stirring frequently, for about 10 minutes, or until mixture is thick. Remove from heat and stir in almond extract. Transfer to a glass bowl. Allow to cool completely, then stir in chocolate morsels.Cover and refrigerate. The filling can be made a day or two before baking.

Kolacky is an old family favorite

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I have hundreds of cookbooks, but none so valuable as the worn, thread-bound ledger that belonged to my grandma. The yellowed pages, dotted with brown spots of who knows what, are frayed around the edges. Each page holds a recipe handwritten by my dad’s mother.

One of those recipes is for her daughter, Elinor’s, Bohemian Kolacky. My Aunt Elinor made the best kolacky I’ve ever tasted. Soft pillows of sweet, rich yeast dough, each plump with filling made of fruit, poppy seeds or cottage cheese.

When I was a child growing up in St. Paul, Minnesota, I looked forward to family car trips to Chicago to visit all the relatives. One thing I would always anticipate was Aunt Elinor’s kolacky. Since I lived so far away, I never did see her make the sweet rolls. I simply enjoyed the finished product.

How fortunate I felt when I discovered her recipe in my grandma’s personal cookbook.

The dough is prepared just as any other yeast dough. The old family recipe calls for lard. I use butter instead.

Once the dough has had time to double in size, it gets rolled out and cut into rounds. A shot glass works perfectly for punching a shallow well in each round, just the right size to hold a generous amount of filling.

Apricot and poppy seed fillings are my favorite. I find the Solo brand of poppy seed filling to be very good. I make my own apricot and prune fillings. Aunt Elinor used to make a delicious cottage cheese filling. I don’t have her recipe for that one.

Streusel topping made of sugar, flour and butter adds a nice little crunch and a little more sweetness.

As I made the kolacky, my mind was filled with memories. Happy times, with family gathered around Aunt Elinor’s dining room table, all debating about which filled kolacky to take from the platter. Laughter, stories, that certain smell her house always held, the high-back dining room chairs that seemed so heavy to me when I was young — it felt as though I was right there again.

And, I wondered if my dad’s mother knew how much her handwritten recipes would mean to me, the little girl who was in kindergarten when her grandma died. Did she realize how much it would mean to me to have pages filled with her handwriting?

I begin to think about all my recipes stored in folders on my computer. Not exactly the same kind of recipe format to pass down through the generations as my grandma’s ledger with pages of handwritten recipes.

But, my grandchildren are growing up with technology. Maybe they’ll appreciate opening up a folder on their computer filled with an organized collection of my recipes and think how lucky they are to have such easy access to some of the recipes they remember me preparing. And they might even back them up for safe keeping.

I may need to go buy a ledger.

Bohemian Kolacky

  • 1 packet active dry yeast (2 1/4 teaspoons)
  • 1 cup lukewarm milk (105 degrees F. to 115 degrees F.)
  • 1 tablespoon sugar
  • 1/2 cup butter, softened
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 3 to 4 cups all-purpose flour
  • Fillings of choice, such as poppy seed, apricot, plum
  • 1 egg, beaten, for brushing on kolacky

Streusel Topping

  • 2 tablespoons sugar
  • 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
  • 1 tablespoon butter, softened

In a 4-cup glass measure or bowl, dissolve yeast and 1 tablespoon sugar in warm milk. Set aside. While yeast mixture is resting, cream butter and 1/4 cup sugar. Add 2 eggs and salt and beat well. Add yeast mixture, which should have bubbled and grown, and mix well. Add 2 cups flour and beat with a wooden spoon until incorporated. Gradually add flour until dough begins to leave sides of bowl and come together, following the spoon.

Transfer dough to work surface covered with some flour. Turn bowl upside down over the dough. Grease another large glass bowl with shortening, using your fingers to spread the shortening to cover the entire inside of the bowl. Grease two large baking sheets or line them with parchment paper.

Remove bowl from covering the dough. Knead dough for 5 to 8 minutes, adding a little flour to the work surface as necessary to prevent sticking.

Place dough in the greased bowl. Turn over so greased side is up. Cover bowl with clean kitchen towel and allow dough to rise for 1 to 2 hours, until doubled.

Divide dough in half. Roll out one half of dough on floured work surface to about 1/4-inch thick. Use a 3-inch round cookie cutter or glass to cut 12 rounds of dough. Place rounds on prepared baking sheet, about 1-inch apart. Repeat procedure with remaining half of dough. Cover baking sheets with dough rounds with kitchen towels and allow to rest in a warm place for about 30 minutes. With the bottom of a shot glass dipped in flour, make a depression in the center of each dough circle. Fill the depression with 1 tablespoon of any type of filling. Brush the tops of the kolacky with beaten egg, and let them rise in a warm place until they have puffed a bit, about 10 to 15 minutes.

While kolacky are rising, measure streusel topping ingredients in a small bowl and rub together with fingers until mixture turns to crumbs. Sprinkle streusel over the filling of each kolacky. Bake in preheated 400-degree oven for 10 to 15 minutes. Makes 24 kolacky.

Apricot or Prune Filling

Put 1 cup dried apricots or pitted prunes into a saucepan with enough cold water to cover them.
Bring to a boil and simmer until the fruit is very soft (at
least 15 minutes). Drain off all the liquid in the pan. Transfer plumped fruit to work bowl of food processor. Add
1/3 cup of sugar, 1 tablespoon of butter, a little grated
lemon zest. Process until quite smooth.  Stir in
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract. Transfer fruit filling to a bowl and
let the mixture cool before you use it to fill the kolacky.

Cherry and Chocolate-Filled Mini-Heart Tarts

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Take a bite. The small cup made of flaky pastry will melt in your mouth, leaving a hint of rich flavor only cream cheese and butter can deliver. The moist filling made of cherry and chocolate offers just enough sweetness to satisfy and just enough chocolate to make you want more.

I’ve used a a version of this dough made of cream cheese, butter and flour to make savory bite-size appetizers as well as rich, decadent desserts. In February, a month of chocolate and cherries, it only seemed fitting to make mini-heart tarts filled with a mixture of canned sweet cherries, dried cherries and almonds with a generous helping of semisweet chocolate.

The three-ingredient pastry needs a little chill time before it’s ready to form into little balls to pat into mini-muffin tins. As little as an hour should do the trick, but an overnight in the refrigerator doesn’t hurt.

Make the cherry filling well in advance. After it cooks for a few minutes to thicken, it needs plenty of time to cool completely before adding the chocolate.

A light sprinkling of streusel topping made of sugar, flour and butter adds a tiny bit of sweetness and crunch to each tempting little tart.

Cherry and Chocolate-Filled Mini Heart Tarts are just the right sweet treat for February. Just right anytime, really.

Disks of this dough can be stored in the freezer for a few months. Very convenient!

Cherry and Chocolate-Filled Mini-Heart Tarts

  • 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
  • 4 ounces cream cheese, softened
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 (15-ounce) cans pitted sweet cherries, drained
  • ½ cup dried cherries
  • ½ cup sliced almonds
  • ¼ teaspoon almond extract
  • 1/2 cup mini semisweet chocolate morsels
  • Powdered sugar, for serving

Topping:

  • 2 tablespoons
  • 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
  • 1 tablespoon butter, softened

In a mixing bowl, beat butter and cream cheese together until creamy. Add flour and beat on low speed until flour disappears and large crumbs form. Use your hands to gather up the dough. Form a ball. Cut the ball of dough into 4 equal pieces. Flatten each piece to form a disk, wrap in plastic and refrigerate at least 4 hours or overnight.

Put drained cherries and dried cherries into a food processor or heavy-duty blender. Process until mixture is quite smooth. Add almonds and process until finely chopped. Transfer mixture to a small saucepan. Cook over low heat, stirring frequently, for about 10 minutes, or until mixture is thick. Remove from heat and stir in almond extract. Transfer to a glass bowl. Allow to cool completely, then stir in chocolate morsels.Cover and refrigerate. The filling can be made a day or two before baking.

Make Topping by combining sugar, flour and butter. Rub together with fingers until crumbly. Set aside.

When it is time to make tarts, preheat oven to 375 degrees. Take one disk of dough from refrigerator and allow to sit for a few minutes to warm up a little. Divide disk of dough into 12 equal pieces. Roll each piece into a ball. Press into bottom and up sides of lightly greased mini-muffin pans.  Fill each pastry cup with cherry-and-chocolate filling. Sprinkle with Topping. Repeat with remaining disks of dough. Bake in preheated 375-degree oven for about 10 to 12 minutes, or until edges are just beginning to turn light brown.

Allow tarts to cool in pans for a few minutes. Use a knife to nudge tarts from pan and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Dust liberally with powdered sugar before serving. Makes 4 dozen mini-tarts.

*I used heart-shaped mini-muffin tins to make these tarts. Regular mini-muffin pans work just as well.

Mini Martini is a tiny taste of chocolate and raspberry

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I’ve discovered another use for the fancy bottle of Chambord I have in my cupboard. I made a trip to the liquor store several months ago to buy a bottle of the raspberry liqueur made in France. The bottle has a unique round shape with a top that looks like a crown and the purchase price is not inexpensive. But, I really needed this specific liqueur to make Chambord brownies, a recipe that came from my friend, Ann. They are shamefully rich and sinfully delicious — perfect for Valentine’s Day.

I pulled the bottle of ruby red Chambord from the cupboard again, recently, when I made Chocolate and Raspberry Cream Tarts — another Valentine treat that will delight your sweetheart.

Tonight, I’ll be pulling not only Chambord from my cupboard, but also a bottle of chocolate vodka. My Cookbook Club friends are coming over. Normally a wine-drinking group of women, tonight I will also be offering tiny tastes of Chocolate Raspberry Martini.

Last December I watched the Lunds and Byerly’s Wine and Spirits Manager, Jason Newell, make some holiday drinks on a KARE 11 Saturday morning segment. He made a martini using chocolate vodka and pomegranate liqueur.

Why not chocolate vodka and Chambord? These martinis provide a nice sipper at the end of a meal. I’ve served them with Chocolate and Raspberry Cream Tarts. I’ve served them with creamy chocolate truffles. I’ve served them all by themselves. Always good.

I’ll be offering tiny tastes in pretty little liqueur glasses tonight. A chewy raspberry candy will set on the rim of each glass. Sometimes I’ve dropped one fresh raspberry into each glass before serving. I like to give the martini glasses time in the freezer so they are frosty when I serve the drinks. I’ll do the same with the tiny glasses for tonight’s get-together.

Chocolate Raspberry Martinis are a fun, frivolous way to use up some Chambord.

Chocolate Raspberry Martini

  • 1/2 ounce Chambord Raspberry Liqueur
  • 1 1/2 ounces Chocolate Vodka
  • 1 cup ice cubes
  • 1 chewy heart-shaped candy (I found some at my local chocolate shop)

Pour raspberry liqueur into a chilled martini glass. Shake vodka vigorously in a cocktail shaker filled with ice.

Strain vodka over liqueur. Cut a slit in candy heart. Push onto rim of the martini glass.

Makes 1 martini.

Make your own Naan

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Typically, the lefse griddle gets packed away around Christmas time, just after my husband makes his last batch of the Norwegian-style flat-bread made of potato, cream, butter and flour. So, he was a bit puzzled when he came home the other day and saw the lefse griddle in the kitchen.

I had just finished making a batch of naan, an Indian flatbread similar to pita. After buying naan in the grocery store this winter to serve with breads and stews, I decided it was time to save some money and try making my own naan.

I contacted my friend, Sherbanoo Aziz. I have her cookbook, “Sherbanoo’s Indian Cuisine: Tantalizing Tastes of the Indian Subcontinent.” Sherbanoo kindly gave me permission to share her recipe for naan.

I was so surprised to discover how easy it was to mix up the dough. Sherbanoo suggests mixing the dough in a food processor or you can just use your fingers. I used my food processor.

I used White Wheat Whole Grain Flour from Dakota Family Mill. It offers the same health benefits as regular whole wheat flour, but it is lighter in color, produces a finished product that is not as heavy as that created with whole wheat flour and has a much milder taste. It worked beautifully in the naan.

I got busy with other things as the dough rested under a damp kitchen towel, so I may have ignored it for a little longer than the two hours as directed in the recipe. It didn’t seem to matter. The dough was soft and easy to work with. I didn’t need to put any flour on my board for rolling out the dough. It just didn’t stick at all.

As soon as the dough hit the hot griddle, bubbles of steam formed. Within seconds, the bottom of the naan started to turn golden brown. I transferred the naan to a baking sheet I had in the oven heating up under the broiler. Two seconds later, the naan looked like a blowfish in my oven.

I rolled out one piece of dough at a time, leaving the remaining balls under the towel so they wouldn’t dry out. As the first couple of naan came out from under the broiler, I was wishing I’d had a partner helping me so that I could take time to eat one of the warm naan.

First, I ate a soft, tender naan plain. Next, I smeared a warm naan with some whipped honey from Moonstone Farm in Montevideo, Minnesota. I don’t think they eat them with honey in India, but it was so delicious. Before heading out for an hour of snowshoeing, I spread a thick layer of organic peanut butter on a naan and rolled a banana up inside. Perfect snack!

Naan will freeze well. I’ll have them handy to enjoy with the next pot of stew I make. Or maybe I’ll make tandoori chicken or a nice curry dish. And, I’ll brush the naan with olive oil and sprinkle it with minced fresh garlic.

Sherbanoo’s cookbook is sold out, but I did notice a couple of used copies available on Amazon.

The lefse griddle went back to its spot on a shelf in the basement. I have a feeling it won’t be sitting there until lefse season next November. I’ll be making more naan. Don’t worry, though, if you don’t have a lefse griddle. Sherbanoo suggests using a frying pan on the stove.

Naan

(From “Sherbanoo’s Indian Cuisine: Tantalizing Tastes of the Indian Subcontinent,” by Sherbanoo Aziz)

  • 4 cups all-purpose flour (I used White Wheat Whole Grain Flour)
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon sugar
  • 1 packet yeast (2 1/4 teaspoons) dissolved in 1/4 cup warm water
  • 1/4 cup canola oil
  • 1 cup warm water

In the bowl of a food processor, mix flour, salt and sugar. Add oil and yeast that has been dissolved in 1/4 cup warm water. Process to mix. While processor is running, gradually add 1 cup warm water. Dough will begin to come together. Add more water, a tablespoon at a time, until dough is slightly softer than for a pie crust.

Put the ball of dough in a bowl and cover with a damp kitchen towel. Set aside for 2 hours. The dough will rise. Knead the dough by hand.

Divide the dough into 16 equal pieces. Form each piece into a ball. Cover with the damp towel. Take one piece at a time and use a rolling pin to roll the dough into a 5- to 6-inch round.

Place a dry frying pan on the stove over high heat. Cook one side of naan for 15 seconds. Transfer naan to a baking sheet placed under the broiler in the oven. Cook under the broiler, browned side down, for 30 to 40 seconds, until it rises.

Set in a serving basket. Serve warm. Makes 16 naan.

Super Bowl Pizza Roll

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I seldom watch football. But, I never pass up a Super Bowl party. It’s not the football game that lures me. It’s the food. Super Bowl Sunday is one of the best food days of the year. While the football fans hoot and holler, you’ll find me dipping chips, nibbling spicy chicken wings, loading up a bowl of chili with lots of toppings, slipping sliders onto my plate and maybe grabbing a slice of pizza.

My contributions to the Super Bowl feast this year will include a couple of these Super Bowl Pizza Rolls. It doesn’t take long to assemble a roll with refrigerated pizza crust dough, meat, Italian seasoning blend and plenty of cheese.

I made one Pizza Roll just before my husband came home for lunch, using hot Italian sausage as the meat. By the time he headed back to work, the long loaf was just about gone.

I made another Pizza Roll for this week’s food segment on Lakeland News at 10. I sliced the warm loaf, oozing with melted cheese and exuding an aroma of a pizzeria. I arranged the pepperoni-dotted rolls on a plate for Tom, the cameraman, to take back to share with his cohorts.

“Oh, wait.” I told Tom the cameraman I had to take a picture of the pizza taste-alikes before he carried them out the door. He waited.

Don’t count on anyone at your Super Bowl party waiting to eat these. Serve them with a bowl of warm marinara sauce for dipping.

Who needs football when there’s food like this to hoot and holler about?

These are more of my favorite snacks to take to a Super Bowl party:

Wasabi Cheese

Peanut Butter Popcorn

Chex Mix Cha Cha

Super Bowl Pizza Roll

  • 1 1/2 teaspoons olive oil
  • 1 (13.8-ounce) tube refrigerated pizza crust
  • 1 (5-ounce) package pepperoni minis or cooked Italian sausage
  • 1 (8-ounce) package shredded Pizzeria cheese or mozzarella cheese
  • 1 tablespoon Italian spice blend
  • 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
  • 1 egg beaten with 1 teaspoon water
  • Sesame seeds
  • Marinara sauce for serving

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Brush a jelly roll pan with olive oil.

Unroll pizza crust onto the prepared pan, patting with fingers until dough covers bottom of pan.

Scatter pepperoni over the dough. Sprinkle with mozzarella cheese. Pinch Italian seasoning as you sprinkle it over the cheese. Sprinkle Parmesan cheese over all.

Starting at a long side, roll up the dough jelly roll fashion and turn seam side down on jelly roll pan. Brush roll with egg and sprinkle with sesame seeds.

Bake in preheated 400-degree oven until golden, about 15 to 20 minutes.

Slice and serve warm with marinara sauce for dipping. 20 to 24 slices.

Tips from the cook

  • Pizzeria cheese is a blend of mozzarella and provolone cheeses. I found it at my local grocery store.
  • These Pizza Rolls make a wonderful snack anytime. Serve them for lunch or a light evening meal with a green salad and some fresh fruit.
  • Watch me prepare Super Bowl Pizza Rolls by clicking here.