mulberryshoots

I came across some thin pork chops on sale at the Stop and Shop today. Will cook them with a crisp outside and simmered in a mustard/brown sugar/apple cider glaze for supper tonight. Along with it will be baked potatoes and perhaps some sauteed kale with soy, Japanese seasoned vinegar and honey.

Casting around for something to become dessert, I found two and a half Honey Crisp apples in the righthand bin of the fridge; some golden raisins and a Pillsbury prepared pie crust. Peeled and cut up, I tossed the apples with a little flour, brown sugar, cinnamon and the raisins. Laid out the crust and filled it in a square baking pan, pulling  the crust around it to make a crostada of sorts. A few dabs of butter and a squeeze of lemon juice plus sprinklings of sugar and cinnamon on the crust dressed it up.

Into the oven it went for about 45 minutes at 375 degrees (because the pan was a dark metal non-stick pan.) Hope someone shows up with some nice vanilla bean ice cream to go with it for dessert!

For Christmas, I made a batch of rosemary shortbread. The squares disappeared quickly and my granddaughter, who’s graduating from college said, “These are delicious – and I don’t even like rosemary!”

It’s so simple to make if you have a food processor. If you don’t it’s difficult to combine the cold butter with the flour by hand. The dough is crumbly and is basically pressed gently into a square baking dish with your fingers. Here are the steps:

1. Preheat your oven to 325 degrees. If you use dark metal non-stick pans, turn the heat only to 315.
2. In a Cuisinart or other food processor, cut 2 sticks of cold butter into pieces and put in the bowl. Measure 2/3 cup of granulated sugar and add. Using a spoon, lightly fill 2 cups of flour into measuring cup, making sure the flour isn’t packed. The secret to making tender shortbread is the ratio of flour to fat – and if there’s too much flour, the shortbread comes out hard rather than tender.
3. Add 1 tablespoon of fresh rosemary, torn from the stalks and chopped up with a knife.
4. Add 1 teaspoon of salt.
5. Sprinkle in a couple of rounds of high quality honey.
6. Pulse the mixture until the butter is in small bits in a coarse flour mixture. It won’t really congeal into a ball so don’t overmix it trying to do that.
7. Take an 8 inch square pan and sprinkle the mixture into the pan, pressing it down gently with your fingers. Take a fork and prick it in rows before putting in the oven.
8. Bake until the shortbread turns golden brown all over. I rotate the pan every once in awhile to ensure that it browns evenly. 35-45 minutes.
9. IMPORTANT: when you take it out of the oven, prick it in rows again with a fork. Before it cools completely, cut into squares. If you wait until it’s cold, it will be too hard to cut well.
10. When the shortbread is completely cool, I like to warm servings slightly in the microwave – which makes them very tender to the bite. Up to you, but it’s tasty when they’re slightly warmed.

P.S.  The batch in this photo was made in a 9-inch square pan with 3 sticks of butter, 3 cups of flour, 1 cup sugar and 1.5 tablespoons of rosemary, 2 teaspoons salt and a little more honey. The important thing is to maintain the ratio of 1:1 for butter to flour, adjusting the other ingredients accordingly.