Food | mulberryshoots

July 6, 2015

lemon ricotta pancakes for breakfast! . . .

LEMON RICOTTA PANCAKES for breakfast!

I don’t know about you, but I seem to be seeing recipes for lemon ricotta pancakes in cooking publications online and off. A few of them were very fussy, separating eggs and beating the egg whites with a mixer, then folding them in.

This morning, I just winged it and made batter using Aunt Jemima Pancake mix, one egg rather than three, lightly mixed in with a fork, some buttermilk, melted butter, a dollop of whole-milk ricotta, lemon zest and juice from a wedge of lemon. The batter was medium thin and I cooked the pancakes one at a time in a small pan. A pat of sweet butter on top and warmed maple syrup.

Subtle, fragrant and delicious. Almost no fuss!

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July 6, 2015

best key lime pie! . . .

BEST Key Lime Pie tonight: Original recipe from Joe’s Crab Shack and tweaked by me. This is a relatively easy-to-make recipe that hits the spot in the summertime: cool, creamy, tart and just sweet enough. A favorite!

1. Buy a prepared honey graham crumb crust (remove plastic lid & bake for 10 minutes by itself in 350 degree oven – critical step so that crust is crisp and does not absorb filling and become soggy.)

2. Zest skin of one fresh lime on a microplane (about 3 teaspoons)

3. Separate and beat 4 egg yolks with lime zest using electric mixer/whipping attachment for 5 minutes

4. Slowly add 1 can of Eagle brand sweet condensed milk until incorporated – do not overbeat

5. Turn down mixer and add juice of 4 fresh limes (about a scant 2/3rds cup; do not use artificial lime juice – it leaves a metallic aftertaste)

6. Turn filling mixture into pre-baked graham cracker crust and bake for 10 minutes in 350 degree oven until set. Remove and cool thoroughly.

7. While filling cools, place glass pyrex mixing cup and clean whipping attachment in freezer to chill

8. Whip small carton of heavy cream in chilled glass container with mixer until stiff. Do not add sweetener. Pile onto cooled filling

9. With flat of cake knife, smooth whipped cream to edges of pie filling and pile higher in the middle. Chill in FREEZER for 30 minutes

10. Remove from freezer and cover with aluminum foil; store in refrigerator for a few hours until ready to serve

It may not be very pretty with the prepared crust in aluminum foil pan . . . but it sure tastes fabulous!

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June 18, 2015

maple-oatmeal scones! . . .

Today, I watched someone on a cooking show make scones and it inspired me to make a half batch of my own for dinner tonight. I used Ina Garten’s recipe for maple-oatmeal scones but I cut it in half. The other thing that I did was to process the entire dough in my Cuisinart and patted the dough into shape with my hands rather than handling it further by rolling it out.

In order to make it easier to follow, I hand-copied out the ingredients halved in order to make about half a dozen scones. I had two sticks of unsalted butter, fresh buttermilk, and two large eggs in the fridge. The dry ingredients were readily available also, which I added together in my Cuisinart, whisking it together to blend before I added the cold butter. Then, I gently pulsed the mixture until the butter became small fingertip sized bits in the flour/oatmeal mixture. The wet ingredients went in next – just a quarter cup each of buttermilk and sugarless maple syrup plus the eggs. Pulsed it some more and the batter was a little sticky but mixed together. Rather than add more flour, I floured a silit pad and added the sticky batter, rolling it in a little flour to offset the stickiness. Instead of rolling the dough with a rolling pin, I gently patted it with my fingers to about 3/4 of an inch thick.

I used my crimp edged 3-inch biscuit cutter (dipped in flour) and placed six tender scones on a baking sheet lined with pre-oiled aluminum foil. Brushed egg wash on the top and slid them into a 400 degree oven for 20 minutes. When they came out of the oven, I brushed the egg wash on again while they were hot and sprinkled oats on the top.

Tonight, we’re having wild-caught haddock, fresh spinach with garlic and these scones. If we’re going to have a few carbs once in awhile, this is a great way to have ’em!

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June 2, 2015

tastes, part 2! . . .

It’s been about a month now since I embarked on an immersion course to explore ways of eating to lose some weight and lower my blood glucose level. I’ve tested a panoply of new recipes including baking with gluten-free flours, alternative sugars and reading cookbooks by health gurus (Mark Hyman and Joel Fuhrman) plus “Superfood” cooking gurus such as Julie Morris and other cooking mavens.

After a three week precipitous drop in my glucose level which I was excited about, I was disheartened to find that it went up ten points after only one week of eating gluten-free muffins and gluten-free pasta, I learned the hard way that there are potentially MORE CARBS in gluten-free ingredients than in those with gluten. Moreover, honestly, the various muffins I tried tasted just awful even though the GF spaghetti was appetizing. So much for the large cardboard box of newly acquired gluten-free flours, coconut sugar, sucanet that I’ll remove from my pantry, hoping to find someone who’s gung-ho on using them.

I’ve decided that my modus operandi will be to AVOID baking anything for awhile. Period. But when the time comes, maybe in the Fall or around the holidays, I’ll make wonderful high puffed popovers and maybe a cake or pie or two. In other words, LESS (flour & sugar) might be MORE, health-wise, but it won’t just disappear from my life. And when these ingredients are called for, I’ll use unbleached regular flour and turbinado sugar – just as in the past and everything will turn out tasting delicious. And so, we’ll also know that we can continue to live a little. – just in moderation.

My brother has reminded me a couple of times that he lost ten pounds last year just by cutting out carbs and fast food. By eschewing gluten-free products, we’ll actually be cutting out carbs we didn’t realize we were using!

Another thing I discovered is that SMOOTHIES are just not my thing. It takes too many various ingredients for a single smoothie recipe; and a whole slew of other ones for a different smoothie. It also usually requires freezing a banana – and eating a whole banana (which has a lot of sugar); plus various bags of frozen fruit full of sugar which never get finished and cramp up the freezer. I also confess that I usually can’t finish the smoothie even though I make smaller portions AND it’s a nuisance to clean the blender (which can go in the dishwasher) or the Vitamix (which runs soapy water to clean it out. So, there go the packets of hemp and chia seeds and other exotic ingredients that I can’t even remember the name of them – substitutes for cocoa and so on– that will go into the same box as the gluten-free ingredients. I’m sorry that smoothies gotta go even though they look so delectable in Julie Morris’s “Superfood Smoothies” cookbook.

Although I realize I am sounding like a health food heretic, I am nevertheless now going to name the one food that has become the Holy Grail of healthy eating (even Bill Clinton!) and that is . . . KALE. I’ve tried massaging kale leaves with olive oil and/or dressing to help it absorb the flavor. I actually really like the LOOK of lacinato kale with its bumpy ridges and dark green color. I just don’t like the taste and I’ve tried it numerous ways: sauteed, in salads, in smoothies. It’s just not a vegetable that I feel compatible with. It almost feels sacriligious to type out these words: “I d-o-n-‘t l-i-k-e K-A-L-E!”

I don’t feel bad about these experiments though, because this journey is about gradually shifting our eating lifestyle to something we’ll want to keep eating.. We haven’t had any red meat in all this time and neither G. nor I have a desire to have any either. Our weekly menus have included wild caught grey sole which we enjoy simply cooked meuniere style with a little lemon butter and parsley.

Homemade vegetable soup once a week has supplied us with warm broth on chilly, rainy days as well as providing a “stone soup” concept for using up vegetables before they spoil. Making salads that are composed and attractive in a wooden bowl along with some new salad dressings have been a boon too. A fresh buttermilk peppercorn ranch dressing tops them all. To the online recipe, I increased the amount of Hellmann’s mayonnaise and sour cream, added lemon zest and a squeeze of lemon juice, a dab of honey and six grindings of multi-colored peppercorns into the mix. We thought it tasted divine, unlike the sometimes gloppy ranch dressings we’ve had in the past.

I found that drinking a large pottery tea bowl of green tea in the middle of the afternoon is a good substitute for when I’m thinking about having a snack.

So, there it is: I’ve bought tons of baking and smoothie ingredients, read books and experimented with numerous recipes that have drawn me to these very personal conclusions: I’ll bake less often but when I do, I’ll use regular ingredients; I won’t be making smoothies in the near future but will use my blenders to process delicious cream of cucumber soup and other dishes. And finally, I’ll pass up buying lacinato kale and maybe even collard greens. But I’ll still fill up my basket with broccoli, cauliflower, English peas, romaine, arugula and butter lettuces, mushrooms, brussels sprouts, eggplant, artichokes and garden fresh spinach. We’ll wait until the cool Fall and Winter months to bake Japanese sweet potatoes, acorn squash and other starchy root vegetables.

I’m still feeling optimistic after these lessons learned. Unless we enjoy what we eat, a new lifestyle of eating won’t last for very long. I can’t just follow recipes of food that don’t appeal to our palate. And some of the recipes have long lists of ingredients that require more effort than the simple way that I like to cook. The tweaking I’ve described above feels good to me although they might not be for everyone. And I feel a little lighter now that I don’t feel forced to conform to foods (and fads) that don’t taste or feel right for the way we live and the way I like to cook.

Bon Appetit! To each our own!

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May 27, 2015

tastes . . .

I feel like I’ve been on a quest for Jason’s golden fleece these past few weeks. You know, go out and rescue yourself by seeking a noble impossibility. Well, it hasn’t been that bad but there have been a lot of dead ends. Expensive too when considering a new pantry of ingredients, some of which I’m not sure I’ll use again. But, that’s what trial and error means, I guess.

As described in the past few posts, I’ve gone from one extreme (foodie Paleo) to another (strict Vegan) and come out somewhere in the middle: “Pegan.” However, the one guiding principle that I intuitively adhere to during this wayward journey is that if the food doesn’t taste good to my palate and it isn’t something that I truly like to eat, then, it’s a wayward journey and not one that will be sustainable. It’s like travelling on vacation somewhere and you just don’t like the cuisine. Even if it’s good for you, you won’t keep wanting to eat it.

So.

Today, a volume in my bookshelf caught my eye called “Crisp” published by Marie Claire, the magazine. It’s a beauty to look at with imaginative, many Asian-inspired recipes for simple bites of delicious looking, light fare. Given what I’ve learned in the past few weeks, sugar and flour can be substituted with agave nectar or stevia and I now have gluten-free flour in the pantry. Most of the recipes are fresh vegetables and small amounts of protein. The difference between this approach and “Eat to Live” (Joel Fuhrman’s cookbook) for example, is that it doesn’t feel medicinal or health-food-like at ALL. It also doesn’t require a five inch list of ingredients either.

“Crisp” is beautifully photographed, contains few-ingredient recipes, and approaches healthy foodie in a good way. Finally. A “Pegan-Foodie” blend that doesn’t break the bank when going to Trader Joe’s. I am going to wait a few days to go to ANY grocery store until there’s more room in the fridge now containing kale, collard greens, zucchini, broccoli.

Tonight, I’m going to try a recipe from Julie Morris’s book, “Superfood Kitchen” for supper: zucchini “linguine” with onions, dulse (seaweed) and walnuts. A salad of butter lettuce, english cucumber and red onions with a ginger vinaigrette.

That sounds good, doesn’t it?

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May 20, 2015

soup! . . .

Yesterday, I made a simple vegetable soup (onions, celery, carrots, broccoli and diced tomatoes simmered in homemade chicken stock from the freezer) that we shared with G.’s mother and brother across the street at lunchtime. It was a warming treat during a grey, drizzly, cool day. Today, I was thinking about how meager our lunch choices were and thought about making the soup again. Instead, I looked around and discovered some fresh spinach that was looking a little sad but still good, so I looked online for a spinach soup recipe and found one that incorporated a sweet potato too!

We love Japanese sweet potatoes but I’ve been avoiding them for awhile to adhere to the “no starchy vegetable” guidelines of the eating regimen that I’ve been following. However, I thought bending the rules to add one would be all right, especially since the recipe looked and sounded so scrumptious. I was also looking for a recipe that avoided adding cream or milk to a creamy spinach soup, wanting to use almond milk instead. This recipe fit the bill perfectly,

Since I’m meeting my daughter, C., for dinner tonight, (we’re celebrating by ordering Peking Duck in the same restaurant that we went to when she got her first job in high school! – imagine that!) There will be enough soup for G.’s dinner to enjoy here at home by himself tonight too.

Some things stay the same (like the Chinese restaurant still open after thirty years in the same location!) while recipes made with sweet potato and almond milk offer new approaches to cooking healthy!

The more things change, the more we can still find ways to savor our time together, right?

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May 15, 2015

“healthy” meets “foodie” . . .

Wow! Once you actually look around the grocery store, outside of the usual places we always go to, there are lots of new non-gluten, non-sugar foodstuffs to try out. One of my favorites is “Better Chip” spinach-kale corn chips. They were so full of flavor, crunchy and tasty with the homemade guacamole that I made for lunch today.

I followed the usual guacamole recipes and used two just-ripe avocados, three tiny ripe tomatoes, cut up, about 2 tablespoons of chopped red onion, a bunch of fresh cilantro leaves (makes all the difference); fresh lime juice and a scoop of asian hot chili sauce. I mixed it up into a rough chop mash and tasted it with one of the spinach/kale chips. Honestly, I could eat like this forever!

You know those volcanic rock mortars on legs that you can get to make guacamole? It’s called a “mocajete,” I think. I looked at one on the Williams-Sonoma website but in the back of my mind was thinking that I already had a bowl that would lend itself perfectly to serving guacamole. Sure enough, the bowl in the photo above that I’ve had for ages, was made from a thick slab of clay by Sandy Brown (an English potter) and has a deep well for a bowl that was perfect. It’s boosted my confidence that efforts to reduce glucose needn’t be dreary and/or boring.

On another note, even though I’m not really eating much fruit during the intensive part of this regimen (7 more weeks to go,) there were fresh strawberries and rhubarb on sale yesterday that I brought home to stew together into a compote. It took a little time because there were so many strawberries to rinse off, cut up and remove a lot of the white parts inside, cooked in a pot with the sliced rhubarb. No water was added, just heated up the berries and rhubarb over low and then medium heat. It cooked down incredibly quickly, and after it cooled, I added a tablespoon of agave nectar to sweeten it slightly. (Next time, I’ll use stevia instead.) I ate a small serving of it just like that and G. had the fruit spooned over Haagan Daz vanilla swiss almond ice cream.

Since nuts are both good for you and tasty, I happened upon a brand of cashew nut butter that is dry roasted and combined with safflower oil. I don’t know if it’s the dry roasting process or what, but “Crazy Charlie’s” cashew butter is satisfying for a one-spoonful snack because it’s so full of flavor. When I first opened it, there was some separation of oil and I stirred it up until it was thoroughly mixed. I read a tip online to store it in the refrigerator so that it doesn’t separate again. Perfect!

Rather than dipping it straight out of the jar, I found these “super seed” crackers, manufactured by “Mary’s Gone Crackers” that are made from: “organic whole grain brown rice, oranic whole grain quinoa, organic pumpkin seeds, organic sunflower seeds, organic brown flax seeds, organic brown sesame seeds, organic poppy seeds, filtered water, sea salt, organic seaweed, organic black pepper, organic herbs. Zero grams of sugar. I guess they’re really organic – as you can see from the way they listed the ingredients on the box.

So, eating differently is starting to feel a little lighter — which is also the way I walked this morning, not clomping my feet along but just stepping lightly without trying too hard. I’m unusually undisciplined so to do anything four days in a row is pushing it for me. Mentally, I didn’t feel like going for my walk this morning but I made myself do it and am glad I did. It does make a difference that I’m answering up at my physical which is scheduled for mid-July.

And so, I’m finding that alternative eating, and living, doesn’t have to be punishment. It doesn’t have to be laborious or a dirge of “should-haves” rather than being free to enjoy what we want. Our dinners are now two dishes, max. It used to be three or four dishes a night (protein, vegetable, carb (potato, sweet potato, rice, couscous) and a salad. Now, we have protein and either a cooked vegetable OR a large salad. The protein is a third of the size of the vegetables which easily takes care of portion control.

For sure, these fancy spinach/kale chips, super seed crackers and roasted cashew nut butters are pricey. Okay, expensive. They probably cost a third more than I might pay for ordinary goods. However, there are only a few of them in my pantry and they are exponentially more tasty, interesting and healthy to eat.

The non-gluten, low sugar eating movement has triggered the development of new products that also appeal to “foodies” like me. Michio Kushi and his wife, Aveline, started natural food stores with Erewhon decades ago. But until recently, health food stores seemed medicinally oriented (no pun intended) and it sometimes felt like one was shopping for food in a pharmacy rather than browsing in a gourmet delicatessen.

Now, It feels like we have entered the dawn of an alternative era: healthy meets foodie! And it’s a good one!

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May 3, 2015

“these are our days” . . .

Sometimes it’s hard to remember what we were like twenty years ago. Since then, we may have grown our hair out, gained weight, lost some but still weigh a little more than we did back then. Even more weighty is what our experience has been since then: how did we make out in our professional careers; what do we do and how do we spend our time now? Most importantly, what’s left that we would like to have out of our days while we are in what’s been called our “third chapter?”

G and I when we first met, >twenty years ago. . .

I’d been thinking about these questions when I came across an article about Carey Mulligan, the actor who appears to be more independent than most. On her dressing room mirror, written in eyebrow pencil are the words:

“These are our days.

Walk them.

Fear Nothing.”

How pure, I thought. No extra words or flourishes. No project management flavored goals, timelines or milestones. How refreshingly free of “shoulda, coulda, woulda” thoughts. No plans nor agendas. Walking is something we do everyday. Pace yourself.

“Fear nothing” is the best advice of all. Upload into the Universe what you can’t manage anymore. Sew them up with tiny stitches and put them away, Push them through the opening and zip the cover tight. Breathe naturally. Since doing that, I’ve found that nervous tics go away. So does a lot more.

Today is Sunday and the day is filled with sunlight and a light breeze that makes the trees sway. G. is tuning a piano downstairs before it is delivered to a new home this afternoon. (How lucky we are that he does what he does with pianos and that we live in this beautiful home!) I’m drinking the last of the coffee and reading my Sunday New York Times newspaper which I relish as one of the luxuries of my week.

our weeping cherry tree flowers every year around May 1st. . .

Tomorrow, our new tenants for the front apartment will be coming by for supper. I thought I’d make a vegetarian dish called “Buddha’s Delight” and we’ll make scallion pancakes together. They’ve said that they love dumplings so we’ll make them later on in the Fall after they’ve moved in and things settle down. Earlier in the afternoon, I’ll make some homemade dashi broth with kombu seaweed and bonito flakes; strain it and add some white miso, tofu and green onions for our soup. A good new start to living here in the “piano house.” I hope things work out and that we’ll have a good time.

The spring ceramic planters I bought at Lowe’s are filled with dramatically colorful heuchera plants whose leaves contrast with each other against the green of the pots. Coral bells have always been some of my favorite kinds of plants because of the unusual colors the leaves are (chartreuse, light orange and deep maroon) their stems of tiny coral flowers swaying in the breeze.

My idea is to let them grow for awhile in the planters, then place them in the ground. That will allow the pots to change their look and contents with other plantings that catch my eye as the growing season progresses: knee high cosmos plants during the summer, or statuesque foxgloves for example; bright, deep-colored chrysanthemums in the Fall. It will be fun to rotate what’s in the planters outside and mostly, it will be fun to anticipate, fearing nothing.

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March 30, 2015

bunnies! . . .

Well, I think I’ve finally seen it all – as far as baking goes. Months ago, I was browsing through Williams Sonoma’s Easter catalog and came across a 6-bunny “cakelet” bundt pan. I laughed out loud when I saw it and was still chuckling to myself when I clicked the “buy” button. When it arrived, sure enough, there were six little bunny molds in various poses formed in one solid bundt cake pan by Nordic Ware.

The other day, I thought I’d do a trial run and make a box of yellow cake mix and experiment with food coloring to make different colored bunny cakes. They turned out all right but the biggest lesson learned was that I had filled up the batter too high which resulted in towering humps of cake that I trimmed off and around before harvesting the bunny cakes. They went out to neighboring family, all of whom enjoyed these little cakes.

Fortified with experience, I looked online for a chocolate cake recipe that had body and richness. After all, if these were meant to be enjoyed for Easter, why use a box cake mix? I came upon a chocolate sour cream bundt cake recipe that promised to be very rich and full of flavor. It also didn’t require using a mixer either which is a godsend because the portable mixer I have is extraordinarily awkward to use, even though it’s manufactured by Kitchenaid, the emperor of mixer manufacturers.

This recipe just calls for melting butter (kerrygold unsalted); unsweetened cocoa (Ghirardelli), water and salt. Let cool. Mix together dry ingredients: flour, organic sugar and baking soda. Add wet to dry ingredients and whisk together. Whisk in two extra-large eggs, one at a time. Whisk in a container of sour cream. Then add a teaspoon of vanilla.

That’s it. I filled up each opening three-fourths of the way to the top. Baked for 25 minutes until toothpick came out clean. They had still puffed up above the top of the pan but I thought they would settle down by the time they cooled. Fifteen minutes later, I put them upside down on a rack, whacked each one sharply with a stainless strainer spoon and holding my breath, I lifted the pan. They came out perfectly – shiny brown and as cute as could be!

My plan was to let them cool completely at room temperature and then to place them in heavy-duty freezer bags, two coved together in a bag. Then freeze them until they’re hard. Wrap them in bubble wrap and priority mail them to family in MPLS along with Easter basket for granddaughter, Josie. Ditto for my son-in-law to take down to his family on Easter. When they are defrosted, whip up some fresh cream and serve with a bowl of raspberries. Yum!

Ain’t that the berries? Er, ah, bunnies, I mean?

Footnote:

Before mailing the cakelets this morning, I made the bitter chocolate glaze that’s included in the recipe above. Heated up heavy cream, sugar until almost boiling; chopped up a bar of Lindt’s bittersweet chocolate, added light corn syrup and stirred the hot cream mixture into the chocolate to mix altogether. I confess I’m not that much of a chocolate aficionado but this glaze was out of this world! – very chocolatey but not too sweet. I packed a portion of it with each of the cakelet shipments to be warmed and drizzled over the cakes before serving. Hope it all travels well!

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March 1, 2015

way better cookies . . .

light, crisp, bitter chocolate and toasted hazelnut cookie!

The last three times I made chocolate chip cookies, I failed. That is, I was going for thin, crispy delicious cookies. And the recipe I followed on the Nestle’s toll house chocolate chips bag turned out lumpy and stout, stiff cake-like cookies. At first, I thought it was the turbinado sugar I was using so I got some white granulated sugar from a neighbor across the street. I read more recipes to try to understand what ingredients might result in a thin, crisp cookie. Martha Stewart’s thin cookie recipe called for adding a bit of water to the dough once it was mixed. Another specified aluminum-free baking powder. I didn’t even know there was such a thing. Then, there were recipes that called for only baking soda and no baking powder at all.

Add to this motley group of instructions my disappointment in discovering that one of the beaters to my portable mixer would not seat properly into the mixer and rattled loudly against the bottom of the glass mixing bowl. So, I mixed up the last batches of cookies by hand rather than beating them until they were fluffy. Maybe that’s why they turned out so hard you could barely bite down on them.

Last week’s stout little mounds of cookies didn’t seem to bother my husband, G. though, who scarfed them down a couple at a time when he came in frosty and dripping from snow blowing stints a few hours each session during record snowstorms here in New England recently. I started out making these batches of cookies as a treat to reward him when he came in from the cold. Seemed the least I could do to offset all that cold, hard labor outdoors.

So, today, I decided to refine my goals and try again. It’s Sunday and one of my favorite shows, “Madam Secretary” will be aired tonight for a new season and the purported finale of “Downton Abbey” is supposed to run for over an hour afterwards. A Sunday night feast of entertainment for which tasty, thin and crispy cookies would be nice to have on hand if I could only manage to find a recipe that succeeded beyond the pitiful previous attempts.

My research process today included reading recipes that had no egg, used light corn syrup and recommended keeping the dough cold while rolling out knobs of batter, then flattening them and baking in a 325 degree oven instead of 375 degrees. Indeed, this recipe by Amanda Hesser suggested cutting up a block of bittersweet chocolate into small bits (Ghirardelli) and adding walnuts. I opted for hazelnuts and possibly macadamia nuts, buying both at the grocery store along with the corn syrup and bittersweet chocolate bar.

The aforementioned portable mixer acted up again as I dutifully held it against the mixing bowl for a full three minutes to ensure that the butter and sugars plus the light corn syrup, vanilla and milk were fluffy enough to be blended properly. I decided the mixer had seen its last day in this kitchen and placed it in the Goodwill box after I washed and dried off the beaters.

I measured out the flour, baking soda and Maldon sea salt, gently hand blending it into the beaten fluffy sugar mixture. Cutting up the Ghirardelli bittersweet chocolate bar into bits and browning chopped hazelnuts in a little butter to toast them completed the mixing part of the recipe. Two tablespoons of chilled batter rolled and flattened out turned out gigantic cookies the first time around. Halving the raw dough to one tablespoon, then pressing them flat on the cookie sheet produced the cookies that you see here: about three inches in diameter baked to a finely thin and crispy cookie.

I’m happy to say that it was way worth the effort to try this recipe with its royal ingredients of real chocolate and toasted hazelnuts. The baking process and the finished product resulted in a whole new level of invention and taste. Can’t wait to try this recipe next time with chopped macadamia nuts and maybe white chocolate!

Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah!

Note: If you follow Amanda Hesser’s recipe linked above, here are a couple of things that I changed: If you want cookies about 3 inches across (this photo); roll 1 tablespoon of cookie dough; flatten with fingers to about 1/4 inches thick and place 2 inches apart on buttered cookie sheet. I used half tablespoon of vanilla and half tablespoon of salt, reducing amounts listed in the recipe. Toasted chopped hazelnuts in a small skillet with melted unsalted butter; let cool to room temperature before adding to cookie dough. Chilled cookie dough as noted.

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Category: Food