FFwD: Cookie as Art

Now, that's a cookie.



Basically, a serve-yourself-the-size-you-want cookie.




It's a lot like making pie crust: mix flour, sugar, salt in a food processor; briefly and quickly mix in the butter; add water to form malleable ball.


Experimenting, I rolled out the dough before chilling it.



After an hour or so in the fridge, I placed it on the silpat, made the cross-hatch pattern, brushed it with egg, and baked it for about 40 minutes.



Easy.



Fun to eat.



Another hit from French Fridays with Dorie.

FFwD: Savory Cheese and Chive Bread

Even though I made this cheese quick bread a few weeks ago, I'm only now getting around to posting it.



My daughter swore there must be bacon in it, but no, there wasn't. I think it was the combination of the toasted nuts and the green onions/shallots. They did give it a sort of bacony taste.



It would make a very tasty appetizer. It's interesting, easy to make, and can be prepared the day before a party.


Stop by French Fridays with Dorie for other baking ideas.

TWD: Citrus (Almost Currant) Sunshine Muffins

Certainly, I would have added currants, if I'd had them. They are a much better addition than raisins, to my mind. There was a box in the pantry, to be sure, but upon opening it, I discovered about one tablespoon of currants. Not enough to consider using.


I debated the pros and cons of various items in the pantry, then noticed a large milk chocolate bar from TJ's that was begging to be used. So, I carved off a largish pile of milk chocolate shavings to add to the muffins.


We thought it was the perfect combination with the orange juice (from Cara Cara and Blood Oranges) and the lime juice (no ripe lemons yet, only limes).


I should report that we liked these best on the second day. The citrus and chocolate flavors had mellowed quite a bit, making a mighty fine-tasting muffin.




This week's hostess was Lauryn of Bella Baker.

More muffins can be found on the Tuesdays with Dorie website.

FFwD: Beggar's Rotini

Fruit, nuts, and pasta. And lots of butter. Sounds like an interesting combination, but perhaps not for this household. We're not fig lovers, and my daughter doesn't like cooked fruit, especially in savory dishes. So I hadn't really planned to make this.


But, today, there was nothing in the house for lunch.

After perusing the pantry, I thought, well, what the heck, it's only me, and I'm hungry, and I need lunch, and this should be quick.



I played around with the ingredients, substituting dried apricots for the figs, hazelnuts for the pistachios, and rotini for the linguine. I used parsley, fresh from the garden, and orange zest from a recently-picked blood orange.


Well, I have to say, this was a delicious lunch, and it met all my requirements. The saltiness of the browned butter contrasted with the sweetness of the fruit. Divine! This is a definite repeat.



Stop by French Fridays with Dorie to see what the other folks did.




(I'm a tad bit behind on posting: the Orange-Almond Tart went up yesterday; the Savory Cheese & Chive Bread is sitting in the draft box, waiting for commentary. It should be up this weekend.)

TWD: Corniest Corn Muffins

We're a family that loves cornbread in any form, so I'm always on the lookout for a new recipe to try.



I had planned to make these for dinner tonight (Monday), but my daughter wasn't in the mood for soup, having had some for lunch. All my ingredients were already assembled, however, so I decided to make the muffins anyway.




They turned out just fine. The addition of the corn kernels added a nice crunch.




My daughter tried one and like the flavor, so I take that as approval and will add them to my corn muffin/corn bread list. Each recipe has a slightly different taste; sometimes you want one taste rather than another, so the more choices, the merrier.



This week's hostess was Jill of My Next Life.

Stop by the Tuesdays with Dorie website to see more corn muffins.

FFwD: One of Those Days

Last week it was my turn to make dessert for my quilt group. A few people don't care for chocolate, so I decided to make the Orange-Almond Tart, one of the February selections for French Fridays with Dorie.


I had some Cara Cara oranges tucked away, so they were tapped for this dessert.

Monday evening I prepared all the ingredients:

the orange segments


the almond filling



and the baked tart shell.



The plan was to get up bright and early on Tuesday morning, assemble the tart, and bake it while getting ready for the meeting.



Everything seemed to be going according to plan.



That is, until the tart had been baking for about 10 minutes.


All of a sudden the power went completely out -- every baker's nightmare.


Did it come back on in a timely manner?

Nope. I left the tart in the oven, then headed off to the grocery store to find a substitute dessert for my meeting. It turned out only four people showed up, so I didn't feel too badly, just frustrated.


When I returned home several hours later, the power was still out. It finally came back on during the early afternoon, after being off for a total of 5 1/2 hours. The first thing I did was turn on the oven and finish baking the tart. It came out just fine, a bit too brown, but that was my error for not compensating for the extra time in the hot oven. It still tasted good.


I will definitely have to bake this again, hopefully under normal conditions. I may leave off the oranges and substitute some other kind of fruit or nut, just for fun. In any case, it's a dessert worth making and sharing.




(Savory Cheese and Chive bread will be the next post.)

TWD: Chocolate Pots de Creme

Okay.

The photos may be boring, but the dessert certainly wasn't.


All I can say is that it disappeared before I could make whipped cream for the decorative topping. That says it all, I think.


I did decide to halve the recipe since I was running low on heavy cream. As a result, I used two egg yolks and one egg in place of the 5 eggs. I also covered the pan with foil rather than plastic wrap, since I didn't want to take chances with either melting or out-gassing plastic.

Next time I'll add a smidgen of coffee or espresso to brighten the flavor of the chocolate.


This recipe compares favorably to my usual one for pots de creme. The only difference is that that one isn't baked, just chilled, so it's quick, easy, and delicious.




This week's hostess was Christine of BlackCatCooking.

Stop by Tuesdays with Dorie to see more delicious pots de creme.