Month: December 2013

Herbed Crackers

Oh, holy shit ya’ll. I just tried this fantastic cracker recipe from the Oh Dear Bakery blog.  Instead of the Italian seasoning, I used a littled dried minced garlic and TJ’s 21 Seasoning Salute, and added some coarse black pepper on top with the salt.  These are fast. And addictive. Make at your own risk.  I could not stop eating them as I was shooting. Bill said they’re yummy.  Well, I’m off to make a whipped cream cheese with lemon zest, dill and shallots to schmear on these fuckers. And to taunt Bill, obviously.
Make these. They’re awesome.

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They put the crack in cracker.
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Herbed Crackers
Serves 6
Crunchy herby bits of addictive goodness that are mix to eat in half an hour.
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Prep Time
5 min
Cook Time
20 min
Prep Time
5 min
Cook Time
20 min
241 calories
29 g
0 g
12 g
4 g
2 g
70 g
323 g
0 g
0 g
10 g
Nutrition Facts
Serving Size
70g
Servings
6
Amount Per Serving
Calories 241
Calories from Fat 109
% Daily Value *
Total Fat 12g
19%
Saturated Fat 2g
9%
Trans Fat 0g
Polyunsaturated Fat 1g
Monounsaturated Fat 9g
Cholesterol 0mg
0%
Sodium 323mg
13%
Total Carbohydrates 29g
10%
Dietary Fiber 1g
4%
Sugars 0g
Protein 4g
Vitamin A
0%
Vitamin C
0%
Calcium
4%
Iron
3%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your Daily Values may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs.
Does this look wrong?
Ingredients
  1. 1 3/4 cups AP flour
  2. 1 Tbsp TJ’s 21 Season Salute
  3. ½ tsp. Dried minced garlic
  4. 1 tsp baking powder
  5. 3/4 tsp salt
  6. 1/2 cup water
  7. 1/3 cup olive oil plus about a tablespoon for sprinkling on top
  8. Sea salt and coarse ground black pepper to sprinkle on top
Instructions
  1. Preheat your oven to 450*. Throw everything except the sprinkles in the kitchen aid with the paddle. Mix 30 seconds, or until dough forms. Divide in to two balls. Take a sheet of parchment the size your cookie sheet, and roll that dough to about 1/8" keeping it as rectangular as possible. Repeat with the second ball. Drizzle on the last Tbsp of olive oil, sprinkle with the sea salt and the course ground pepper. With a pizza wheel, gently slice each lengthwise to get 6-8 strips. Then take a fork and lightly score the strips about every 1/2" or so.
  2. Bake 10-ish minutes - they should be golden brown and smell done. When they're cool, break the strips in to cracker-sized chunks.
Adapted from Oh Dear Bakery Blog
beta
calories
241
fat
12g
protein
4g
carbs
29g
more
Adapted from Oh Dear Bakery Blog
Bucket of Yum http://bucketofyum.com/

Walnut Black Pepper Biscotti

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Anybody out there old enough to remember SOAR? The Berkeley Searchable Online Archive of Recipes, that has since become RecipeSource? It was (is) this wonderful place created to preserve family recipes, back before the explosion of the interwebs and when you still *really* needed cookbooks.  I used to read that for fun – they have it sorted by geographic region and ethnic groups. It was a fascinating place to browse.  So, back when dirt was new and I wanted a good biscotto, that was where I went to look and found this marvelous recipe and printed it out on my dot matrix printer. And saved that paper for years. These are fantastic biscotti – crunchy, but not so hard they break your teeth. Dippable without disintegrating – truly a work of art. 

I eventually lost that recipe, and despaired. But was saved by our Google Overlords. I found it again at Cooks.com (because for the life of me I cannot find it again at Recipe Source – weird, I know.) Biscotti are pretty damn easy to make, and have a big wow factor. Although I swear anything that isn’t a chocolate chip cookie seems to have a big wow factor because no one cooks any more. But, hey – that’s why I blog!! Shall we?

Cream the butter and sugar.

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Add the eggs and vanilla.

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Sift your flour with the salt and leavening, grind the pepper and zest the orange.  

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Chop the nuts. Please forgive me, I apparently saved the shot of the chopped hazelnuts for another recipe and not the walnuts – but we’ll include them here just for continuity.

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Mix in the dry and the nuts. 

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Flour your hands and make a log.

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Bake it, cool it and slice it in even pieces. Save the biscotti butts for taster-testing. 

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Bake ’em a second time (that’s the bis to the cotto), and away we go – snack time!!

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Here’s the recipe. Try them – they’re easy. Some like to dip one side in chocolate, but I think that overpowers the wonderful play of the heat and the orange with the toasty nuts and butter. But hey, that’s probably just me.

 

Baklava, and why not!

I usually go nuts with the cookies for Christmas. Make dozens and dozens. Ship them off to friends and family. But this year, I just wasn’t feeling the cookie love. We tried some candied orange peel (delicious!), and then when I was at Caravan the Force of the Baklava was too strong to resist.  Of course, the problem with that is that there is now half a tray of baklava in the house…..

 

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This is just AB’s recipe, basically. Except I skip the almonds and use 9oz ea pistachios and walnuts. Oh, and use orange blossom water instead of rose. This is one of those things like cheesecake – people ooh and aah, and it’s really a simple simple thing to make. It just has a lot of steps, but they’re not impossible complicated ones. 

Thaw the fillo:

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Whiz the nuts, spices and sugar in the robot:

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 Brush the layers with butter, and put in some of the nut mix every few layers:

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 Remembering to bless each layer with some orange blossom water
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Score the tops, bake:

baklava7Make the syrup

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Pour it over the cooked pastry, garnish with more chopped nuts and let it soak up the syrup for 8+ hours

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God, I love this stuff. Crunchy, nutty, buttery, sweet, exotic with orange blossom. Yum.

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 Alton Brown’s recipes are always awesome – give it a try. You will become very popular.