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Monatsarchive: August 2011

Semi-Finalist Pulled Chicken Sliders with Hoisin Barbecue Sauce

I’ll end the suspense. I didn’t win. I had a great time and the competition was fierce. Well, they were actually really nice, lovely people, but people who had run themselves around this recipe circuit quite a bit. One woman, Roxanne, Has over 800 winning recipes to her name! Pascal owns a restaurant, Jennifer and Jamie have both made names for themselves winning dozens of recipe contests all over the country. Me? This was the 4th recipe contest I’ve ever entered. I was the rookie for sure. It was a fantastic experience for, I met some great people, had a wonderful trip to San Diego, I have such a better understating of what the judges are looking for and I am ready for the next contest, bring it on.

They even put me up in a fabulous hotel the night before the event. Here is Tater and I, enjoying the room:

 For those of you want to try out my Semi Finalist Chicken Sliders, I am now able to post the recipe:

Pulled Chicken Sliders with Hoisin BBQ Sauce & Pickled Slaw

 

Serves 4 – 6

 

4 Foster Farms chicken breast halves, boneless and skinless

1 ½ cups red onion, peeled and sliced into thin rings

2 cups cucumber, peeled and cut into matchstick sized pieces

¼ tsp salt

1/3 cup lemon juice

3/4 cup apple cider vinegar, plus ¼ cup, divided

2 tbsp sugar

8 whole dried allspice berries

1 tsp whole cloves

½ tsp black peppercorns

2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

1 tsp fresh garlic, minced

1 cup hoisin sauce

1 tsp chili powder

¼ cup low sodium soy sauce

1 tsp sesame oil

20 mini Hawaiian bread rolls

In medium bowl, combine onion, cucumbers, salt and lemon juice.  Let stand and room temperature 30 minutes.

In small saucepan over medium high heat, combine ¾ cup apple cider vinegar, sugar, allspice, cloves and peppercorns.  Bring mixture to a boil and cook for 30 seconds.  Remove from heat and cool to room temperature.  Strain the liquid to remove the cloves and allspice then pour over the onions and cucumbers and refrigerate mixture for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, place chicken in large pot or Dutch oven.  Fill with water to completely cover chicken.  Place on stove over medium-high heat and bring to a slow boil.  Cover and cook for 15 – 20 minutes or until chicken is completely cooked.

While chicken is cooking, prepare barbeque sauce by warming olive oil in large saucepan over medium-high heat.  Add garlic and sauté for 30 seconds; add remaining vinegar, hoisin sauce, chili powder and soy sauce.  Cook for 3 minutes or until thickened, remove from heat and add sesame oil and stir well to combine.

When chicken is cooked, remove from water and allow to cool.  Using two forks, shred chicken to as thin slices as possible, then add to hoisin barbeque sauce pan, tossing well to coat.

Split rolls in half across the middle to resemble small sandwich buns.  Fill each bun with about 2 tablespoons of the chicken and top with pickled slaw.

Cookin in the fancy kitchen:

*The slider pictures, as well as the above picture of me cooking were taken by a photographer for Foster Farms, Charlie. Here is his website for more information: http://www.charliegesellphotography.com/#

*The picture of Tater was taken by my husband.

*I didn’t get a chance to take picture =(

How To: Make The Perfect Pie Crust

I have a mild obsession with pie dough. Once I started to make (and modify) Cook’s Illustrated’s Foolproof Pie Dough in 2007, I realized that it is not only about a million times better than store bought crust, it takes about 8 minutes of active time. There is no downside. If you have never made pie dough, do it. Seriously, seriously, DO IT. If you are going to go through all of the trouble to make a pie, don’t even think about debasing it with a store bought crust.

I started writing for Honest Cooking this week. My first article is about the science behind pie dough. How the exact same ingredients can give you such different results and how I pledge my baking allegiance to Foolproof pie dough. For that article I wrote about the Cooks Illustrated version. For this post, I will give you my slight variation on that recipe.

  • 3 cups of all purpose flour
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 3 tbs sugar
  • 10 tbs butter (1 stick, plus 2 tbs), cut into cubes
  • 1/2 cup shortening
  • 1/4 cup vodka
  • 1/4 cup cold water

Step one:
Combine 2 cups of flour, salt, and sugar in a food processor, pulse a few times until its combined. Add the butter and the shortening and process until it forms a ball around the blade, about 2 minutes.

Step two:
Add the remaining flour and process until well incorporated, about 1 minute.

Step Three:
Move to a bowl and add the water and the vodka, combine with a spatula or wooden spoon.

Combining the liquid in the food process will destroy the effects of the vodka, and your hands may warm the fats too much. The dough will be very moist, but if it is too moist to stay together, add a little more flour.

Step Four:
Split into two equal sized portions and form into disks. Wrap the disks in plastic wrap and chill until very firm, about two hours. Because this dough is so soft, it is very important for the pie dough to be very cold and very firm.

Step five:
On a very well floured surface, place one of the disks, add flour to the top of the disk as well.

Roll out into an even thickness. Marble rolling pins are very cold and don’t disrupt the fat inside the dough, making them an excellent choice for rolling pie dough. When you place your dough in the fridge to chill, add your marble rolling pin as well, allowing it to chill.

Step six:
This recipe is very soft and will fall apart while being rolled. Although some people like to use the rolling pin to assist with moving the dough from rolling surface to pie pan, it tends to fall apart too easily with this method. The easiest way is to fold the dough circle in half, then in half again, forming a triangle.

Place the point of the triangle in the center of the pie plate and unfold the dough.

Trim the dough, leaving a half-inch overhang past the edge of the pie pan. Form a fluted edge around the top of the pie crust.

Baking:
If you want to bake this before it’s filled, prick several holes in the bottom with a fork. Line the inside with parchment paper and fill with pie weights or dried beans. Bake at 375.

This crust can also be filled and baked immediately, whichever your recipe calls for.

The Help: Caramel Cake, Cupcake Edition

I’m in a book club. I know, such a grown up, right? When I was on my way to my very first Book Club meeting my husband asked, "So what REALLY goes on there? There has to be some type of illicit element? You can’t really just be sittin' around talking about a book, can you?" Other than the calorie content in my version of Minny’s Caramel Cake: Cupcake Edition, noting illicit at all.  Just a bunch of girls sittin' around chatting.

When I finished the book, I made a full size version of Minny’s Caramel Cake. For the cupcakes, I made some alterations. I wanted a frosting that could be piped on, so I added some powdered sugar. AMAZING. I really liked this version of the caramel frosting. I also substituted buttermilk for heavy cream, just because I felt like it.

Minny’s Caramel Cake: Cupcake Edition

1 cup of butter

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup white granulated sugar

4 eggs

1 tbs molasses

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup buttermilk

1/2 cup oil

1/2 cup whole milk

3 cups of flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

Caramel Frosting:

2 cups brown sugar, packed

1 cup of cream

3 tbs butter

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 cups powdered sugar

Pre heat oven to 350.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, add the butter, brown sugar and white sugar, beat on high until well creamed. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well between each addition. Add the molasses and vanilla and mix until combined.  With the mixer on low speed, add the buttermilk, oil and milk and mix until well combined. In a seperate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt and mix until combined. Add the flour mixture to the batter and stir until just incorporated. Add to muffin tins (lined with cupcake papers) filling each about 2/3 of the way full (about 1/4 cup).

Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes or until the top springs back.

To make the frosting, combine the brown sugar and cream in a pot. Stir over medium high heat until it starts to boil. Allow to boil, without stirring (this is the hard part for me) until the temperature reaches about 210 (about 7-10 minutes). Remove from heat and stir in the butter and the vanilla. Allow to cool until thickened. Add to a stand mixer, along with the powdered sugar and beat on high until well combined. This frosting will continue to harden and thicken until cooled.

Chocolate Beer Cupcakes and An Auction for a Grieving Family

These cupcakes are now for sale to the highest bidder, 4 dozen of them. You pick the beer (or no beer is fine too) and I will deliver them anywhere within Los Angeles County, or you can pick them up. Why? Because, you see, there is this woman, a brave food writer, a mom, who is now a grieving widow.

Do I know her? No, just through her posts and writings. But I know her girls, in a way. I was one of her girls once. I was once a little girl, who’s dad died suddenly. I was a girl with a grieving mom who couldn’t get out of bed. I was a girl who’s big sister taught her to make cereal on the kitchen floor because we wanted mom to sleep, because she didn’t do that too often anymore. I was a girl who didn’t go to the father daughter dance. I was a girl who walked down the isle on her wedding day alone. But Jen, if you read this, I want you to know that I am also a girl who is OK, I grew up to be happy, married a good man, have a little girl of my own and so did that sister who taught me to make breakfast early in the morning on a linoleum floor. Your girls will be OK too. They will cry, they will laugh, they will grieve and they will be OK.

Me and Daddy:

The last thing you should have to worry about when the love of your life dies, when you are parenting grieving children, is money. Here is a bit about what Jen and her family are facing right now, financially:

Written by her friend Shauna:

“As you can imagine, Jennie is overwhelmed not only by her grief, and the sudden responsibility of raising two children by herself, but she is also struggling with this financially. She just learned that she cannot collect widow’s benefits from Social Security because she earns too much money each year. The health insurance for her and her kids runs out in December and she just learned that the total she will have to pay [for health insurance] will be even more than her mortgage. It’s possible she’ll have to pay off the entire mortgage in one lump sum because the apartment was in his name alone.

And more than anything, Mikey wanted Jennie to continue living her dream of being a food writer. And he wanted to make sure his kids were taken care of well. That’s why he worked as hard as he did."

Here is a link to Jen Perillo’s website and a bit about her story:

http://www.injennieskitchen.com/

How can you help?

  1. Bid on these cupcakes (leave your bid in the comment section, starts at $40)
  2. view the other auction items on the BWOB site:http://www.bloggerswoborders.org/2011/08/project-summary-a-fund-for-jennie/
  3. Click on the BWOB badge on my home page (right side) and just give a few bucks
Cupcake auction rules:
  • Claim your prize wtihin 6 months
  • Give 1 week advanced notice for order
  • Enjoy your warm fuzzy feeling that goes along with charitable giving
  • Auction ends September 5th at high noon
  • Perfect for an upcoming party!
On to my original post about these cupcakes:

I love beer. I love cupcakes. It’s only natural that I put these too together. If you don’t like beer, this recipe can be made without and I have to say that brown sugar buttercream is amazing. SO amazing that I even called my sister to tell her about how much I love it and how I want to make a huge vat of it and swim around in it. If you want to make this without the beer, just use 1/2 cup of really hot water, add the brown sugar and stir until dissolved, then follow the rest of the recipe.

Chocolate Cake with Beer Brown Sugar Buttercream

For the Cupcakes:

1 stick of butter

1 cup of sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1 1/3 cup flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2/3 cup cocoa powder

1/2 cup milk

1/2 coffee

1/2 cup oil

For the Frosting:

1 cup of ale or blonde style beer

1 cup of brown sugar

3 sticks of butter softened

1 tsp salt

2 cup powdered sugar

Preheat the oven to 350.

In the bowl of stand mixer, combine the butter and sugar, and cream until combine. Add the eggs one at a time, blending well after each egg. Add the vanilla and mix again. In a separate bowl, add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cocoa powder. in another bowl, combine the milk, coffee and the oil. With the mixer on low, add the dry and wet ingredients a bit at a time alternating between the two.  Line muffin tins with cupcake papers and fill each one with about 3/4 of the way full (about 1/4 a cup of batter).

Bake for 18-22 minutes or until the cupcakes spring back when touched. Allow to cool completely before frosting.

To make the frosting, put the beer in a sauce pan over high heat and allow to boil until reduced by half. I used a Firestone Pale Ale, microbrews are great for this recipe but IPA’s may be too hoppy and "light/lite" beers won’t have enough flavor. While the beer is still very hot, add the brown sugar and stir until completely dissolved. Allow to cool to room temperature. Again, for the non beer version, just add the brown sugar to 1/2 cup of super hot water and stir until dissolved. Microwave it if you need to.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream the butter, salt and powdered sugar until combined. Add the beer/sugar mixture and mix slowly until mostly combined, then turn the mixer on high and then whip until the frosting is fluffy and well combined.

Pipe the frosting onto the cooled cupcakes.

I prefer these at room temperature, but they are still pretty great chilled.

How To: Make Round Meatballs

I got a request last week (yay!)  for a How To post about round meatballs. Most pan fried meatballs have the same issue, flat on three sides, in a pyramid shape, as opposed to the pretty round ones.

There are three methods to making meatballs round, but all start the same way.

Mix up your favorite meatball recipe making sure to use a binding agent (such as bread crumbs, oatmeal or even rice). For this post, I used the following:

2 cups lean ground beef

3/4 cup sweet italian sausage, casing removed

1 tsp salt

1/2 cup panko bread crumbs

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp black pepper

1/2 tsp smoked paprika

1 egg

Mix it up really well (your hands work best for this) and use a small cookie scoop to grab a meatball sized portion.

This will allow you to have uniformly sized meatballs.

Roll them in your hands to make them as round as possible.

This is where the methods will deviate.

Method 1

The first method is to boil them. This will give you perfectly round meatballs without much fuss. Just drop your meatballs in a pot of boiling liquid. You can use the sauce you intent to serve them with, water or broth and cook until the internal temp reaches 165 or until, well, they are cooked when you break them open (about 6-10 minutes depending on size)

This method works great to give you really pretty and uniform meatballs, as well as infusing liquid to make them juicy. As for me, I like the caramelized char of a pan fried meatball, so I’d take a misshapen one over a boiled one any day, but if looks are what you are going for, boiling is a great options

Method 2

Baking. Some people swear by this method and love the way the meatballs taste after baking. Next to boiling, it is a really healthy method, saving the calories of the oil in pan frying. Heat your oven to 350, place your meatballs on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper and bake for about 15-18 minutes. I baked half of my meatballs, and pan fried the rest. The baked meatballs did still have a slight flat spot where they sat on the pan but the flavor was great. They did lack that browning on the outside that I love.

Method 3

Chill then pan fry. Place the meatballs on a plate and chill in the fridge for at least two hours. You want to be able to brown the outside before the inside knows whats going on and has a chance to sag. Heat 2 tbs of oil in a pan until it is very hot and almost smoking. Get your meatballs out of the fridge and place them in the hot pan. Grab the handle of the pan and pull it back and forth over the burner so that your meatballs never have a chance to settle.

Cook for about 5-8 minutes, make sure that the meatballs are cooked through before serving. I just broke one open but you can also break out the thermometer and make sure the temp is at least 165.

Here are the final product of Method 2 (baking) and Method 3 (chill then pan fry).

Method 2 is on the left and Method 3 is on the right.

Of all the methods, chilling and pan frying was my favorite. They aren’t as perfectly formed as boiled ones,but that browning taste that I love came through beautifully. Another factor to keep in mind is that lean meat cooks better, while fattier meat may leave empty pockets where the fat has melted, making your meatballs misshapen.

If you have a request for How To Mondays, you can email it to me at [email protected] or leave it on my Facebook wall at

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Domestic-Fits/230654216968376

Jalapeno Brioche Rolls

Happy National Spicy Food Day! Seriously, its a day. August 19th is dedicated to the celebration of spicy food. I love spicy food, and have a tendency to look at a dish and think, "And how would this taste with jalapenos?" Which is where these rolls came from. I took perfectly innocent, delightful brioche rolls and corrupted them with jalapenos. Just like I did with that Mac N Cheese, and those cornbread muffins. It might be a sickness.

Jalapeno Brioche Rolls

1/4 cup chopped jalapenos

2 tbs butter

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 cup water

1/4 cup  milk

2 tablespoons sugar

1 envelope of dry active yeast (2 1/4 tsp)

3 cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoons salt

3 large eggs

2 sticks unsalted butter, softened

Chop the jalapenos, removing the seeds.

Heat 2 tbs of butter in a pan over medium heat until melted. Add the jalapenos and sauté until softened, about 5 minutes. Allow to cool. Combine the milk and the water and heat in the microwave for 10 seconds, test the temperature (you want it between 105 and 110) and repeat until the desired temperature is reached. Put your warm milk/water  and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer.

Sprinkle the yeast on top and allow it to get foamy, about 5 minutes.

Add the flour and with the dough hook attachment, mix on low speed until its combined into a flaky ball (about 1 1/2 minutes).

Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing until combined.

Add the softened butter (softened is important) and the jalapenos,  beat until the dough gathers around the hook and is smooth and shiny.

Coat the inside of a bowl with olive oil and place the dough ball in it

Wrap with plastic wrap leave in a warm place until it’s double in size, about 1 1/2 hours.

Grab the dough at the sides until it has deflated.

Allow to rise a second time at room temperature, until it has doubled in size, about 45 minutes.

Remove from the bowl and shape into a long log, about 4 inches wide and 1 foot long.

Using a sharp knife, cut in 3 equal sized pieces.

Then cut each of those pieces in half (you will now have 6 pieces.)

Now cut each of those pieces in half and you will have 12 equal sized pieces.

Each of these pieces will be a roll, but you have to make some more cuts first.

Cut each slice into 3 equal sized pieces, rolling each into a ball and placing all three into the same well of a muffin tin. Repeat for each slice.

Cove with plastic wrap, place in the fridge and allow to double in size, about 1 1/2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 400. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown.

Serve with Roasted Garlic Butter.

Chocolate Pie Sticks (a use for leftover pie dough)

There is a distinct possibility that I am the only person I know that has a problem with left over pie dough. I make pies much more than the average girl, and I always make my crust from scratch. You should too. Really. The only problem is that I always have hunks of dough left over, but I’m never short.

This recipe is meant for those left over scraps that you always have after making pie. You sit there, looking at a heap of dough that you "slaved" over. You feel a brief twinge of guilt about throwing it in the trash, but with a lack of use for 1/2 cup of pie dough, that’s were it ends up.

Look how economical and thrifty we are.

A use for leftover pie dough and a cute portable snack.

Perfect for little hands. Or big ones.

Chocolate Pie Sticks

Use leftover pie dough

If you don’t have it and want to just make these for the fun of it, here is my pie dough recipe:

Pie Dough:

1 cups of all purpose flour

1/4 tsp salt

1 tbs sugar

3 1/2 tbs butter, cut into cubes

2 1/2 tbs shortening

2 tbs vodka

1 tbs cold water

Chocolate chips (not sure how many you’ll need because that depends on how much leftover dough you have)

1 egg

sugar (about 2 tbs?)

If you have your leftover pie dough ready, skip this next paragraph.

If you are making dough:

Break out that food processor and add the flour, salt and sugar and give it a quick pulse until it’s combined.

Add the cubes of butter and the shortening and pulse until combined, about 1 1/2 minutes.

Move the dough to a bowl and add the vodka and water with a spatula. Your dough will be very moist, but you can add a bit of flour if it is too moist to hold together. Then shape the dough into a disk, cover in plastic wrap, and chill for at least 2 hours. If you need to, this can be made up to three days in advance, just store the plastic wrapped disks in a large zip lock bag.

Once you have your dough ready:

Roll out the dough, just like for a pie, and cut into strips about 1 inch wide and six inches long.

Brush each strip with water, and fill with a row of chocolate chips


Cover each chipped strip with another strip and seal the edges.

Poke holes in the top to let the steam out.

Brush with a lightly beaten egg and sprinkle with sugar.

Put on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper (or sprayed with butter cooking spray)

Bake at 350 for 12-15 minutes or until goldeny brown.

Look how cute Tater is with her pie stick. Yes, I give my kid pie. And fruits and vegetables and chicken. And pie and cupcakes.

I served them with Chantilly Cream.

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How To: Roast a Chicken

I can’t stop thinking about chicken. Not any chicken,the Foster Farms Chicken Cooking Contest. I am Semi-Finalist for California. Of course I’m excited, giddy even. But I am also so dang nervous. In only 11 days (11DAYS!!) I go to San Diego to compete. Last weekend the Washington Semi-Finalists competed and the winners were:

Tina Hoban, Bellingham – Chicken with Cherry Tapenade over Creamy Pancetta Polenta

and

Rebecca Spence, Vancouver – Crispy Orange Chicken with Fennel, Avocado and Orange Salad

Seriously, how yum do those sound? But more immediate is that fact that in order to even GET to compete with those two in Napa in September, I have to beat out the following recipes:

Jennifer Daskevich, Los Angeles – Chicken and Quinoa with Figs, Spinach and Mint

Jamie Brown-Miller, Napa – Olive & Lemon Poached Tuscan Chicken on Grilled Pitas with Spinach Spread

Roxanne Chan, Albany – Asian Braised Chicken Thighs with Soybean Salad

Pascal Vignau, Encinitas – Pretzel Chicken Tenders

*Nervous*

But after reading those, I’m also hungry. I hope that I at least get offered a taste, because I’ll take it. Or maybe two.

Most people don’t do much bird roastin' outside of late November. Probably because an entire day of roasting a turkey, and an entire night of dishes is something most people don’t welcome more than once a year, although neither of these take place when roasting a little chicken for only a few people, I think the scars of Thanksgiving clean up run deep. Let me give you my arguments for why you should roast a chicken at least once a month:

1. It’s cheap. Really. The last time I bought a roasting chicken I got it in a Los Angeles grocery store for $5, and it feed 4 people.

2. It’s easy, the step by step will show you that.

3. Homemade broth is delicious. Just take whatever is left of that chicken, put it in a big stock pot, cover it with water and allow to simmer for 2-4 hours. Strain out all the solid parts (use a colander lined with cheese cloth) and freeze one cup at a time in Tupperware (I’ve even been known to use zip lock bags) and defrost as needed. That alone will get you $5 worth of chicken broth.

4. It’s yummy AND healthy. Yummy, healthy and cheap is the trifecta when it comes to cooking for your family.

How to Roast a Chicken

5lb Chicken

1 tbs, plus 1 tsp salt

1 head of garlic

1 large carrot

1/2 stick of butter, softened

1 tsp fresh rosemary, chopped

1 tsp fresh sage, chopped

1 tsp black pepper

2 cups of chicken broth

2 cups of apple juice

Preheat the oven to 425

Step one:

Defrost the chicken. It’s safest to do this by leaving it in the fridge for a few days. Although I don’t recommend it (unsafe food handling an all) some people run frozen meat under warm water.

Step two:

Take the gross insides out. You can save them to make broth, if you want, or just toss them to the dog (my dog, who eats raw garlic and sticks, politely declined).

Step three:

Rinse it off and pat it dry. Seems weird, since you want a juicy bird, but this is how to get crispy skin.

Step four:

Salt the inside of the bird with about 1 tbs of salt. Then cut the top of the garlic (exposing the cloves, just cut it’s head off), chop the carrot, and put both the garlic (sans top) and the carrot inside the bird.

Step five:

In a food processor, add the butter, sage, 1 tsp salt, and the pepper. Blend it up.

Step Six:

Loosen the skin on the breast of the chicken by sliding your hands between the skin and the meat.

Then cover it with the herb butter you just made. Smear it all over the chicken, with your hands, and get it under the skin as well.

Tie the chicken feet together so it keeps it’s shape

Step seven:

Place it in a roasting pan, in the roasting rack. Under the chicken, pour 1 cup of broth and 1 cup of apple juice, but make sure the liquid doesn’t touch the chicken. Replenish the liquid when the pan starts to dry out. As the liquid evaporates, it steams the chicken, adding moisture and flavor.

Step eight:

Cook in the 425 degree oven for about 1 1/2 hours, or until the internal temp is about 165 (it will continue to cook another 5-10 degrees once removed from the oven). Bast with pan juices as necessary. Allow to rest 5 minutes before carving.

Step nine:

Feed it to people you love. Pretend like roasting a chicken is lots of hard work. People will be very impressed that you do it so often.

S’mOREO Bars for National S’mores week!

I missed National S’mores day. I had no idea that August 10th was a day that the national is obligated to celebrate this childhood campfire treat until half way through the day when my Mini S’mores Cheesecakes were featured on Yummly. The saddest part of all of this: I HAD a s’mores post ready to go. SO, as my way of making up for my egregous sweet treats error, I am making this entire week National S’mores Week and posting my S’mOREO bars.

Yep, S’mOREO bars. That would be S’mores and Oreos together in one beautiful dessert. These little guys single handedly necessitated TWO spin classes this week. You think Oreo’s are hard to resist, see what happens when they procreate with S’mores.

S’mOREO Bars

1 stick unsalted butter

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 eggs

1/4 cup oil

1 tsp espresso powder

1/2 cup  flour

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

12 Oreo cookies, chopped

9 graham crackers

5 tbs butter (melted)

1 tbs brown sugar

2 cups mini marshmallows

Preheat the oven to 350

In a bowl (I like to use a Kitchen Aid stand mixer), combine the butter and sugar and mix until combined. Add the vanilla and the eggs and mix on high until well combined. Add the oil and mix. In a separate bowl, add the flour, espresso powder, salt and baking powder, whisk until well combined.

*Pause*

Two things that need to be said about that previous step.

1. Why the heck do I have to get out ANOTHER bowl, that I will just have to clean when I have so much else to do, why can’t I just throw it all in the mixer!? Geesh!

A: Flour gets tough really quick, think of it like cement. To make the best tasking baked goods you want to mix the flour with the wet ingredients as little as possible, but make sure they are well combined. Whats the best way to do this? Make sure the wet ingredients are well mixed, and the dry ingredients are well mixed with each other, before combining the two.

2. I HATE coffee! Why do you ALWAYS ask me to put it in my chocolate desserts? I wanna leave it out!

A: Coffee intensifies the flavor of chocolate, so you taste a much richer, more intense chocolate while the flavor of the coffee is hidden. I have a sister who HATES coffee, but always keeps a jar of espresso powder in the cupboard and adds a tsp or so of the crystals to any recipe involving chocolate (called for or not). Good baking rule. She’s wise, and you should follow her lead. If you don’t drink coffee, keep a jar of instant coffee powder in your cupboard for the next time you make a chocolate cake that calls for coffee and just mix it with the appropriate amount of hot water.

*Resume*

Add the dry ingredients to the bowl and mix until just combined.

Add the Oreo’s and stir until just combined.

In a food processor, add the graham crackers and pulse until only fine crumbs remain. Add the brown sugar (this gives a nice caramel flavor) and the melted butter and process until combined, it will look like wet sand.

In a greased 9×13 baking pan, add the graham crackers to the bottom and press into the pan. Packing it down will ensure that the crust will be firm and not fall apart once your bars are cut. Pour the chocolate batter on top of that, making an even layer, top with a layer of mini marshmallows.

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the marshmallow are golden brown. For an added carmpfirey-er taste, run a kitchen torch over the top.

Caprese Stuffed Chicken Burgers

I am a finalist in the Foster Farms cooking contest. I’m going to San Diego at the end of the month for the big Cook Off. Of course, I would love to share my Semi-Finalist recipe for Pulled Chicken Sliders with Hoisin BBQ Sauce and Pickled Slaw with you, but I can’t, contest rules don’t allow it. And as much as I love you all, I’m so frickin' excited about this, I’m not gonna chance it. BUT in honor of Foster Farms, and their wonderful locally grown chicken, I AM sharing my favorite chicken burger recipe, as well as the secrets to a juicy chicken burger. And as soon as I am able to share that Chicken Slider recipe with you, don’t think I won’t.

Caprese Stuffed Chicken Burgers

1/2 cup fresh whole milk mozzarella

4-6 basil leaves

1 tomato

1/2 tsp salt

1 lb ground Foster Farms chicken

1 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

1 tsp garlic powder

1/2 cup bread crumbs

4 hamburger buns

cooking spray

2-4 cups chicken broth

Slice the mozzarella ball into slices 1/4 inch thick. If you have shredded mozzarella, use about 1 tbs.

Chop the tomato and the basil and add to a bowl with 1/2 tsp salt, tossing to combine.

In a bowl, add the ground chicken, 1 tsp salt, pepper, garlic powder and bread crumbs, mix until combined. One at a time, make 8 patties about 4 inches across and about 1/2 inch high. Place on parchment paper or an oiled surface so it does not stick.

On 4 of the patties, add 1 slice of cheese (or one tbs) and 1 tbs of the tomato/basil mixture, making sure to keep it in the middle, avoiding the edges.

One at a time, add the remaining 4 patties to the top of the filled patties, sealing the edges. Make sure that none of the filling is visible through the meat.

Spray the inside of a skillet (with a lid) with cooking spray and heat the pan over medium heat until hot but not smoking. Add the patties (don’t crowd the pan, cook in two batches if needed) and cook on one side for 4 minutes or until the bottom has browned. Flip the patties and allow to cook for 2 minutes, add the chicken stock to the pan until the broth comes to about half way point on the patties, but does not submerge them completely. Make sure the top of the patty is above the broth. and cover with a lid.  Allow to simmer in the broth for  8 minutes. This method of cooking chicken burger is the secret to juicy chicken burgers. The brilliance is that even an over cooked patty is still moist and full of flavor.

Remove from pan and allow to drain on paper towels before serving on a bun.

How To: Make Roasted Garlic Butter

I’ve been smearing this stuff all over pretty much everything this weekend. The growing list of food that has been slathered with roasted garlic butter at my house include: steak, chicken, asparagus, potatoes and just plain 'ol bread. I have a wicked addiction to garlic, and now that it’s in spreadable form no food is safe in my house.

Roasted Garlic Butter

1 head garlic

2 tbs olive oil

1 stick of unsalted butter, softened

1/2 tsp salt

Preheat the oven to 400. Cut the top off of your head of garlic and expose the cloves. Place it on a sheet of aluminum foil. Drizzle with the olive oil.

Fold the foil up tight around the garlic, place on a baking sheet and bake for 30 minutes or until soft.

Place the stick of butter in a food processor. Squeeze the head of garlic into the food processors, pushing the softened cloves out of the head. Be careful not to get any papery skin into the butter mixture.

Add the salt.

Pulse until combined.

Garlic butter can be served softened, or chilled. To chill the butter, place on a sheet of plastic wrap and roll into a log.

Refrigerate until chilled and then cut slices and serve over warm meat, seafood and vegetables.

 

Caramel Apple Pie

S’mores are great, right? Evoking memories of summer, campfires and near misses with open flames. Those little treats have been popping up in Blog Land all summer. I even had my little fling with a s’mores makeover. Caramel apples are the new s’mores. Really. I swear. As fall gets closer, and apples pop up more and more in stores, farmers markets and bloggers imaginations, the memories of school carnivals and Halloween parties will throw this sugary fruit treat into the baker makeover spot light. Here is my jump start on caramel apple makeover, falls new, hot, must have.

Caramel Apple Pie

Pie Dough:

3 cups of all purpose flour

1/2 tsp salt

3 tbs sugar

10 tbs butter (1 stick, plus 2 tbs), cut into cubes

1/2 cup shortening

1/4 cup vodka

1/4 cup cold water

Apple Filling:

5 cups of granny smith apples, peeled, cored and cut into thin slices

1/4 cup lemon juice

1 tsp salt

3/4 cup sugar

2 tbs flour

1 tbs cinnamon

1 tsp fresh grated nutmeg

2 tbs apple sauce

Caramel Filling:

1 cups brown sugar, packed

1/4 cup of cream

1 tbs butter

1 tbs corn syrup

1 tsp vanilla extract

Crust assembly:

1/4 cup melted butter

2 tbs granulated sugar

I’ve done this before and I’m about to do it again. Pie dough lecture. After my years of pie dough research, I feel confident that this recipe is near perfect. I love it. If you are thinking about skipping this step and going with store bought, Stop. Right. There. The food processor method makes your active time about 8 minutes. That’s it. For an investment of only 8 minutes you can make the Worlds Most Amazing Pie Crust and when people ask, "Did you make the crust yourself??" You can sigh, wipe your brow and say, "It was a lot of work, but, yes. I just believe that it is worth all the hard work." They’ll never know.

First, food processors are great at getting the job done as quickly as possible, and as previously mentioned on this blog, the more you mess with dough the tougher it becomes. So break out that food processor and add 2 cups of the flour, salt and sugar and give it a quick pulse until it’s combined.

Add the cubes of butter and the shortening and pulse until combined, about 1 1/2 minutes. A mixture of butter and shortening gives great texture and great flavor.

Add the remaining flour and process until it’s all combined. Move dough to a large bowl, then add the water and the vodka and knead gently until its all combined. Vodka makes your crust flaky. It cooks off completely, unlike water, so you have a great flakiness that will hold up to whatever you put inside of it. Your dough will be very moist, but you can add a bit of flour if it is too moist to hold together. Then split into two evenly sized disks and wrap in plastic wrap, and chill for at least 2 hours. If you need to, this can be made up to three days in advance, just store the plastic wrapped disks in a large zip lock bag.

Preheat your oven to 375.

In a large bowl, combine the apples, lemon juice and salt, toss to coat.  Let stand at room temp for about 30 minutes, drain. Add the sugar, flour, cinnamon, apple sauce and nutmeg and toss to coat.

In a pot over medium heat, add the brown sugar, corn syrup and cream. Stir until the sugar is dissolved and allow to boil, untouched, until it reaches 225. Remove from heat and add the butter and vanilla, stir to combine and allow to cool.

Roll out one of  your pie dough disks in a circle large enough to fit into your greased pie pan with a bit of over hang. Add the circle to the pie pan and press into shape.  Pour the caramel on the bottom, then the apples on top of that. Roll out the remaining pie dough circle. I like to cut out cute shapes with a cookie cutter and layer them on top, adhering with melted butter. You can do this, or you can make a top crust a round circle with slits cut in the top.  brush the top with the remaining melted butter and sprinkle with sugar.

Bake at 375 for 35-40 minutes or until the crust is golden brown. Allow the pie to rest before serving, the caramel needs time to thicken or your will be serving apple pie soup.

Apple Sour Cream Scones

"I asked the maid in dulcet tone

To order me a buttered scone

The silly girl has been and gone

And ordered me a buttered scone."

I had no idea that there were two ways to pronounce the word"scones" until I was in the basement of a youth hostel in Ireland. It was the morning after I’d taken my very first flight across the Atlantic. I was tired and jet lagged, wandering around trying to find the "Free Breakfast" that had been advertised in the price of the room. My budget was too tight to pass up free food, fueling my persistence to locate the illusive no cost sustenance. A long corridor lead me to a bare kitchen, fitted with a small table of baked goods, cereal and coffee that may as well come straight from heaven. As I took the quickest, most direct route to my caffeine siren, I heard a very thick English accent, unlike any I’d heard before. It was hard for my American ears to make out his words, too embarrassed to ask him to repeat himself. The last bit of his introduction was all I was able to catch.

"…..wanna sc-Gone?"

I smiled, sc-Gone? What would that be…

"I’m Jackie." I smiled an apology for not understanding.

"Sc-Gone?"

"Ahh..Hi."

"SC GONE??? SC GONE??!!" He shook a biscuit at me with the fury or a trail weary traveler.

"OH, Scone!"

There were quite a few sentences that came out of his crumb laden mouth, but all I was able to catch was "It’s called ENGLISH, not AMERICAN!"

 Well, yes, I will have a ScGone. I’ll have it with a cup of coffee and I will enjoy my very first morning outside North America, no mater how I pronounce it.

I smiled and sat across from him, "This ScGone is delicious."

He gave me a very detailed stare before hidding his smiled behind his breakfast pastry.

I can’t exactly say that this traveling linguist became my first friend abroad, but he was my first breakfast companion and inadvertent dialect coach.

Apple Sour Cream Scones

1 stick of unsalted butter

2 cups of apples, peeled, cored and chopped

1/3 cup sugar

3 cups flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp fresh ground nutmeg

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp Kosher salt

1/2 cup sour cream

1/2 cup buttermilk

1 egg

1/4 cup brown sugar

In a pan over medium heat, add the butter and apples. Cook until the apples are soft. Remove from heat and allow to cool. In a large bowl, add the sugar, flour, baking powder, nutmeg, baking soda and salt, whisk to combine. Add the apples and butter and stir with a wooden spoon until combined. Add the sour cream and buttermilk and stir until combined. On a flowered surface, place the scone dough. Form into a log about 1 foot long, four inches wide and 2 inches high.

With a sharp knife, cut the log in half. Cut each half in half.

Then make a diagonal cut across each of the pieces making triangles.

Place the triangles on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Beat the egg in a small bowl and brush egg on to the tops of the scones. Sprinkle each scone with about 1/2 tsp of brown sugar. Place the baking sheet in the fridge and chill for at least an hour. Pre heat the oven to 400 degrees and then bake scones for 18-22 minutes or until the tops are golden brown.


Maple Bacon Blondies

Blondie’s used to baffle me. Why would you take a lovely chocolaty brownie and take OUT the chocolate? Isn’t that the good part? I just saw blondie’s as chocolate-less brownies, and really, that didn’t sound like much fun. Then I had a blondie awakening of sorts. If a brownie is a vessel for chocolate consumption than blondie’s can be a vessel for…caramel? Peanut butter? Maple? Blueberries? Bacon? Well, I guess just about anything. I am officially on board.

Maple Bacon Blondie’s

1 cup butter

1 ½ cups brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla

½ tsp salt

2 eggs

¼ cup oil

2 tbs honey

2 cups flour

Topping:

6 strips of bacon

2 cups brown sugar, packed

1 cup of cream

3 tbs butter

1 tsp vanilla

½ cup chopped pecans

¼ tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350.

Grease a 9×13 glass baking dish.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream the butter and brown sugar. Add the vanilla and salt, mix until combined. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing on high for at least two minutes until well combined and mixture is light and fluffy. Add the oil and honey and mix well. Add the flour, mixing on low until just combined. Pour into prepared pan and bake for 40-45 minutes or until top is a golden brown, edges are a dark brown and pulling away from the pan. Allow to cool. Place 6 strips of bacon on a wire rack over a baking sheet. Bake in the oven at 350 for 30 minutes or until bacon is cooked, darkened and crisp.

In a pot over high heat, add the brown sugar and the cream. Stir until the sugar has melted and the mixture starts to boil. Using a candy thermometer, allow to mixture to boil undisturbed until the temperature reaches 210, about 7-10 minutes. Add the 3 tbs of butter and the vanilla and stir until combined. Allow to cool (20 minutes). Pour the maple sauce over the Blondie’s. Chop the bacon and place in a small bowl, add the pecans and salt and mix. Sprinkle the bacon pecan mixture over the maple sauce. Refrigerate until maple has cooled and set.