Apple Butterscotch Oatmeal Cookies

Today I thought that I invented a recipe, which I called Apple Butterscotch Oatmeal Cookies. Apparently this is not a new concept. A Google search yields plenty of recipes. At any rate, they are tasty and chewy and a nice change of pace.

Here is how I did it:

Cream together:

2 sticks butter at room temperature

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

Beat in:

1 1/4 cup flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon

Stir in:

6 packets apple cinnamon flavor instant oatmeal (approx. 3 cups)

1 package (11 oz) butterscotch chips

Drop by the spoonful onto baking sheets, and bake at 375 degrees F for 8-10 minutes; yields 3-4 dozen.

ENJOY!

Fresh Berry Cobbler

Since Valentines Day is this Monday my school friends and I were trying to think of interesting desserts that could be made for the occasion. Not for our relationships in particular, but just in general. Audrey came up with the idea to make a Fresh Berry Cobbler, which comes out amazing. We decided to make it tonight. I apologize for the dorm room photos again, the lighting was very yellow.

I realize that berries aren't in season during the winter. I haven't tried the following fruits, but it's foreseeable that some of these may be good alternatives especially if you only want to use in-season fruits: Pears,  Red Bananas and Red Currents. The selection during the winter is limiting, but even with out of season berries the cobbler tastes quite good since all the juices from the fruit mixes into a light all natural sugar syrup and the fruits become flavored by the warmed mixture of that. There is no need to add extra sugar to the fruit since fruit is so naturally sweet to begin with.

Ingredients:
2 cups of flour
2/3 cup of sugar
1/2 a cup to 3/4 cup of butter
3 to 4 cups of mixed berries
1/8 cup of water

Before you start to cook take the butter out of the refrigerator so it becomes a bit soft.

When the butter is ready sift the flour into a mixing bowl and slowly add the sugar. Once the flour and the sugar is mixed together well place the first 1/2 cup of butter, sliced into the bowl. With your hands begin to break up the butter and get the ingredients to become one cohesive crumbly mixture. You may or may not need to add the remaining 1/4 cup of butter.

Take the mixed berries, cut any strawberries in halves and then using a medium sized glass dish pour the mixed berries on the bottom and the water, spread evenly. Next take the crumb mixture and sprinkle evenly on the top.

Cook the cobbler for 20-30 minutes or until the crumbs have begun to brown slightly. It can be eaten warm or cold and the end result is all about the texture of the fruit with the sweet crust.

Madeleines

Ever since my family and I went and ate at the restaurant, Daniel, in NYC we have all fallen in love with Madeleines. I’m in college and my French roommate and I decided that we had to make them to celebrate her twentieth birthday. We decided to use a recipe her and her sister used when they made them as kids.

Sorry for the approximations of a few of the ingredients they had to be converted from the original French recipe.

.5 Cup and Little Bit, Melted Butter

3 Eggs

2/3 Cup Sugar

1 Heaping Cup Flour

2 Tsp Baking Powder

1 Lemon

Optional:

1 Tbsp Honey

1 Lemon

2 Cups Nutella or Jelly

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. In a pot cook butter until fully melted. Meanwhile, in a mixing bowl whisk together the eggs, sugar, and honey (if using honey) until frothy and creamy. We did not add the honey because of the fact that we were cooking this in a dorm room. Zest the lemon and set aside (if using lemon).

Add half of the flour and baking powder to the egg sugar mixture until smooth. Then slowly add the butter, the remaining flour, and the lemon zest (if using lemon).

Be sure to put the Nutella or Jelly
inside of them and if you can't then cover
it up with some extra batter.

Take the Madeleine pan (Amazingly we have one in our dorm room, but if you don’t have one… try using a cup cake tin, just don’t fill the tin up all the way. I’ve never tried this, but it’s worth a shot) and grease it to make sure that the Madeleine’s don’t stick. We buttered the pan and then sprinkled it with flour. Once the pan is greased fill with some of the dough. They will rise a little bit so don’t overfill them. If you are going to use Nutella/Jelly use a pipette or fill a small plastic bag with some of the Nutella/Jelly and squeeze it into the center of each Madeleine.

Put them in the preheated oven for eight minutes until they are slightly browned on the edges but still golden in the center. Let them cool and eat them warm or cold… they are amazing either way.

Italian Nostalgia

When my beautiful sister, Mary, and I were in Italy, we fell in love with a Siena specialty: thick, glutinous noodles called Pici. We also discovered semifreddo; a wonderful "half-frozen" mousse-like custard.

I recreated Cacio E Pepe (Cheese & Pepper) using a variation of the recipe from the linked website, but used the pici noodles that I brought back with me instead of spaghetti noodles.


To accompany, we enjoyed a salad of organic baby arugula, radicchio, Roma tomatoes, crisp celery, walnut halves, quality olive oil, and aged balsamic vinegar.


A decadent lemon and amaretti semifreddo topped with raspberry coulis was just the ticket for dessert. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...


All of the above dishes were quite easy to put together, but tasted extraordinary.

Buonissimo!

Rice Pudding

Recently our family tried a great rice pudding at an Italian restaurant, which inspired me to look for a better rice pudding recipe than the one I had previously used. I found a recipe online which I adapted a little bit to suit my tastes, and it turned out to be pretty tasty! It was very creamy, not too sweet, and the arborio rice retained a nice texture.

Ingredients:

2 quarts whole milk

1 cup arborio rice

3/4 cup sugar

1 cinnamon stick

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 large eggs

cinnamon, for garnish

Combine milk, rice, sugar, cinnamon stick, butter, vanilla and salt in a large saucepan, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, for 50 minutes. Lightly beat the eggs, then temper them by whisking in some of the hot rice mixture. Add the tempered eggs into the rest of the rice, and simmer for another 10 minutes.

Pour the pudding into a large serving dish, sprinkle with cinnamon, and chill for at least 3 hours before serving.

Rustic Peach Tart

A couple of weeks ago I bought a basket of Georgia peaches at the store. I am not really familiar enough with the distinctions between peaches to know if Georgia peaches are typically sweeter or more tart than the average peach, and I also don't know the prime season for peaches coming from Georgia, but there they were, and they looked good, and so I bought them. Upon returning home and trying one, I was a bit disappointed. They were quite tart!!! Well, there was only one thing to do...

I found this recipe online, here. It calls for making one large tart that can serve 6 people, but instead I made 6 individual tarts using the same quantity of ingredients.

Crust:

2 3/4 cups all purpose flour

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

1 egg yolk

1/4 cup granulated sugar

4-5 tablespoons ice water

1. Make a mound of flour on a work surface, then make a well in the center of the mound and put the butter, egg yolk, sugar and 3 tablespoons of the cold water into it.

2. Mix the ingredients in the well with your fingertips, then begin incorporating the flour in until the mixture has the consistency of course meal. Add 1 tablespoon water and continue to blend, adding water 1/2 tablespoon at a time as needed to form a workable dough, gathering it into a ball.

3. Add a little flour to the work surface and knead the dough two or three times with the heels of your hands. Take care not to over knead. Cover dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes or up to 2 hours.

Filling:

4 ripe peaches, pitted, halved, and cut into thick slices

3 tablespoons apricot preserves

2 tablespoons brown sugar

To top the crust:

2 tablespoons cream

2 tablespoons coarse sugar

1. Preheat oven to 400F. Roll out the chilled dough to make a circle about 12 inches in diameter (or, if you are making individual tarts as I did, I rolled my dough out and then divided it into 6 equal pieces, cutting them roughly into circular/ovular shapes... I figured that was easier than dividing and then rolling 6 separate crusts!)

Place the dough on a baking sheet and coat evenly with preserves to about 1 inch from the edge. Mound peach slices on dough (I formed mine into a concentric circle), leaving that 1-inch border of dough around the peaches, then sprinkle peaches with brown sugar.

2. Fold up the dough and crimp the edges together to cup the peaches in a nest. There will still be a lot of peach showing in the center.

3. Brush the exposed crust with cream and sprinkle with coarse sugar. Bake 30 minutes in the preheated oven, then allow to cool at least 10 minutes before serving.

Serves 6.