Tag Archives: homemade

Quick Whole Wheat Spice Bread with Brown Sugar, Orange Zest and Walnuts

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This afternoon, as my five year old drifted off to napland, she  opened her eyes to dreamily ask, “Mommy, after my nap, can I have TWO MORE PIECES of that bread you made, with butter?”  I smiled and nodded, and she was fast asleep.  Inspiring that kind of delight is the best reward a cook can hope for, in my book.

It’s lucky that this recipe makes two loaves of bread, because my family started  hovering around the cooling rack the moment the bread came out of the oven.  The source of this recipe, Cheryl Sternman Rule (writer of this lovely blog), calls it “Toasting Bread.”  She advises you to cool the bread completely before slicing,  toasting, and spreading it with honey butter.  I am here to tell you that the “letting it cool” part will be very difficult.  We could not withstand the siren scent and ate most of the first loaf warm, slathered in salted butter.  It was heavenly.  Lest it appear that I am contradicting Ms. Rule, however, I should add that the loaf we could bear to let cool was indeed delicious toasted.Quick Whole Wheat Spice Bread with Brown Sugar, Orange Zest and Walnuts: Grease two loaf pans well with softened butter.  Whisk an a egg in large bowl, then whisk in 3 Tbs. honey, 1 c. dark brown sugar and 1 1/2 c. milk.  Zest two oranges directly into the bowl.  Trade your whisk for a wooden spoon or spatula and stir in the dry ingredients: 2 c. whole wheat flour, 2 c. all-purpose flour, 3/4 tsp. ground cloves, 1/2 tsp. salt, and 4 tsp. baking powder.  Mix well, then add 1 c. chopped walnuts and mix again.  Divide batter between your two prepared pans.  Bake at 350 for 45-50 minutes, until a toothpick tester comes out clean.  Remove from pans and cool on a rack.  Hover over the bread, inhaling deeply, resisting as long as you like, then serve toasted (or still warm) with butter.

 

Roasted Potato Salad with Arugula and Blue Cheese, with or without Smoked Trout

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While I have nothing but admiration for those of you who grill outdoors in the snow all winter long, that’s just not me.  First of all, it rarely snows in Seattle.  Second, grilling in a drizzle just isn’t as dramatic or satisfying as braving the snow to cook outdoors.  (I mean, I imagine that it’s not.  I’ve never actually grilled in the snow.  See above.)  Anyway, it’s not summer now, which is grilling season in my book, which is how I ended up making a winter version of one of my favorite summer salads using roasted instead of grilled potatoes.

I planned to serve this salad alongside a couple of pan-fried trout, but in the end the trout stayed safely on ice and we opened a can of smoked trout to flake into the salad to make it meal by itself.  The contrasts here are quite nice: the peppery greens, creamy blue cheese, crisp hot potatoes, and the added salt and smoke from the trout if you go that route.  Roasted Potato Salad with Arugula and Blue Cheese, with or without Smoked Trout: Slice potatoes 1/2″ thick (I used halved fingerlings), toss with olive oil and salt, and roast at 450 until crisp, turning occasionally.  Meanwhile, make a vinaigrette by mixing 1 Tbsp. sherry vinegar with 3 Tbsp. olive oil, a dab of dijon mustard, and salt and pepper.  Shake well.  When potatoes are done, lightly dress a bowl of arugula and toss well.  Add roasted potatoes and blue cheese and toss again.  Divide into bowls and top with flaked smoked trout, if using.  Dinner is served.

Savory Shortbread: Parmesan and Black Pepper Crackers

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My grandfather is visiting me in Seattle this week along with my parents.  He is 98 and just the way I hope to be if I am ever that age.  Fit, happy, and he always has something nice to say about everyone and everything.  And he is something of a gourmand.

We are four generations under one roof when everyone is home, and I try to be mindfully grateful for this time together.  But while one half of my brain is enjoying the sight of my grandfather laughing at my baby’s hysterical giggles, the other half is thinking ahead to happy hour.

Happy hour was a religious observance in my grandparents’ home.  Five o’clock?  Drinks magically appeared, ice cubes tinkled in glasses, salty snacks graced the coffee table, everyone stopped what they were doing and came together.  Time has not diminished my grandfather’s appreciation of this ritual, and why should it?  It’s never a bad idea to wind down your day with a tasty beverage and the people you love.

These crackers, really a savory shortbread, are perfect cocktail hour fare.  I’ve also made my grandpa those rye crackers, of course.  This recipe is Ina Garten’s.  You need to allow at least 30 minutes to chill the log of dough, or you can make the dough ahead of time, freeze it for a month or two and then just let it defrost slightly before slicing and baking.Parmesan and Black Pepper Crackers: Start by softening a stick of butter in your mixer.  Add 3/4 c. grated Parmesan, 1 1/4 c. flour, 1 tsp. fresh thyme leaves, 1/4 tsp. kosher salt, and 1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper.  Mix again.  If the dough is too dry (if it doesn’t form crumbs when pinched together), mix in a few spoonfuls of water or milk.  Turn the dough out onto a piece of plastic wrap, shape into a 13″ log, wrap well and freeze for 30 minutes.  Slice about 1/4″ thick and bake on an ungreased cookie sheet at 350 for 20-25 minutes, until the crackers begin to turn golden brown.  Cool completely on a wire rack.  Serve at happy hour.

White Bean and Spinach Soup

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I’d say that in the past few months, I’ve been quite successful in my quest to stop feeding my family scrambled eggs for dinner all the time.  But I’m still not much of a planner.  Which means that the dinner hour is often neigh by the time I roll into the kitchen, wondering how our evening meal is going to materialize.

At times like these, it helps to have a well-stocked pantry.  And freezer.  This is one of those recipes that you can spend all afternoon making–or it can take 30 minutes if you keep the right ingredients in stock.  In this case, the right ingredients are an onion, a leafy green vegetable, a good vegetable broth, and some well-seasoned home-cooked white beans.  (Of course you can substitute canned beans, but you must first brown an onion, then toss in a handful of chopped garlic and sage for a few minutes, then add the beans and cover with water or vegetable broth and simmer to let the flavors blend.)

Do you cook your own beans?  Make your own broth?  I do, because I find the homemade versions of these things so much better and SO much cheaper than anything I can buy.  This might seem inconsistent with my professed inability to plan ahead, but I just do it every once in a while when I will be home on a Sunday afternoon: put a huge pot of beans on the stove or make eight quarts of stock.  It helps that I have a large freezer to store these things in.  What do you people do in Manhattan?  Anyway, I will start sharing recipes for some of the pantry basics that make it easier for me to get a good meal on the table quickly.  Another day.Today, White Bean and Spinach Soup: Grab a quart of good vegetable broth and a few cups of well-seasoned white beans from your freezer.  Warm the beans in a soup pot with a cup or so of broth while you saute an onion over high heat in a separate pan.  Once the onion is nearly golden and nearly caramelized, use a slotted spoon to scoop about half your beans into a blender and puree them with the onion and another cup of broth.  Add the puree to your soup pot and stir in a big bunch of chopped spinach (chard, kale, or other greens would also be great).  Simmer until the greens are tender, then thin the soup to your desired consistency with additional broth and season to taste with salt and pepper.  Serve under a shower of Parmesan shavings or a drizzle of olive oil, with crusty rolls on the side.  (The one pictured is a mini whole wheat soda bread, recipe to come after a little more experimentation.)  And what’s that gorgeous salad, you ask?  Radicchio? Endive? Apples? Blue cheese?  Oh, yes.  Hop on over to the lovely blog Salt On the Table for the full recipe.

Whole Wheat Apple Muffins

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Today was baking day.  Bread, cookies, granola, muffins, maybe a cake.  I had the best of intentions.  Butter softening on the counter.  Oats and nuts down from the shelves.  Sugar, honey.  All the ingredients.  And then, as it sometimes does, the day got away from me.  So that was fun too.

But I did make these muffins.  They use 100% whole wheat flour but somehow aren’t heavy.  They’re moist and a little sweet, and you can make them sweeter with a pecan streusel topping.  We always go that route when we have them as a breakfast treat.  Or you can make the muffins plain, as I do when I make them for my kids’ lunchboxes, usually in a mini muffin tin.  Kids dig little things.  And it’s cute to watch the baby enthusiastically eat a whole–if tiny–muffin.

Whole Wheat Apple Muffins require three bowls if you’re making the streusel topping, which I highly recommend.  Make the topping first: mash together or pulse in a food processor 1/2 c brown sugar, 2 tsp. flour, 1/2 tsp. cinnamon, 3 Tb. butter, and 2/3 c. chopped pecans.  Pop the topping into the freezer while you’re preparing the batter (and if you have leftover topping, you can keep it in the freezer for next time).   Mix wet ingredients in one bowl: 2 beaten eggs, 1 1/3 c. buttermilk, 1/3 c. canola oil, 1 1/2 tsp. vanilla.  Mix dry ingredients in a separate bowl: 2 1/2 c. whole wheat pastry flour, 2 tsp. baking powder, 1 tsp. baking soda, 2 tsp. cinnamon, 1/2 tsp. salt, and 1/2 c. (or up to 3/4 c.) brown sugar.  Using a rubber spatula, fold wet and dry ingredients together with 1 c. peeled and finely diced apple.  Don’t stir too much, just until it’s all combined.  Scoop into buttered or lined muffin tins, filling nearly to the top, then pat streusel on top if you are using it.  Bake at 375 in the upper 1/3 of the oven for about 10 mins for mini muffins or 20-25 mins for the larger size.

This recipe is from my all-time favorite cookbook, Deborah Madison’s Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone.  My copy is falling apart, pages are abandoning the binding, it’s oil-stained and thickened by pages that have soaked up sauces, dressings, soup splatters, and my notes in the margins.  What do your favorite cookbooks look like?  And what are they?

Homemade Rye Crackers with Apricot-Chevre Spread

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Welcome to Emmy Cooks!  You can see some of my favorite recent recipes by clicking the “My Favorite Recipes” category on the sidebar (here are June, July, and August).  If you like what you see here, you can sign up on the sidebar to receive a daily recipe by email, or follow Emmy Cooks on Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest.

I buy a lot of foods in bulk from my local co-op.  I think they are cheaper and maybe fresher that way, with much less wasted packaging.  But I never considered a benefit that I was missing out on when I skip the packaging: the recipes on the back of the bag!

Circumstances (read: laziness, since I didn’t want to make an extra grocery stop) recently required me to pick up an already-packaged bag of Bob’s Red Mill Dark Rye Flour.  I like to have rye flour on hand because I use it in my pizza dough and in bread, and someone recently made me delicious Finnish rye cookies that I want to try out soon.  And that’s how I discovered these rye crackers.

This recipe is straight from the back of the Bob’s Red Mill bag.  The crackers are thin and crisp and make a lovely little snack by themselves.  I can imagine serving them alongside a big bowl of cabbage and white bean soup.  But today we ate them in the early evening, topped with a jammy smear of apricot-chevre spread, with a glass of sparkling wine and some good friends.  I thought the combination was rather nice, myself.

To make Rye Crackers: In a medium bowl, mix 1/2 c. all-purpose flour, 1/2 c. rye flour, 1/2 tsp. salt, 1 Tbsp. Turbinado sugar, 1 tsp. baking powder and 2 tsp. caraway seeds.  Add 4 Tbsp. butter and work into the dough until crumbly (I recommend using your hands to pinch and rub the butter into the dry ingredients).  Stir in 3 Tbsp. milk.  Form dough into two balls and roll each out to 1/8-1/16 inch thickness between two sheets of waxed paper.  Cut into desired shapes and prick with a fork.  Bake at 400 degrees on ungreased cookie sheets for 5-8 mins (depending on how thin you rolled them) until edges begin to brown.  Cool on rack and, in the unlikely event that you have leftovers,  store them in an airtight container.

We enjoyed these crackers with an apricot-chevre spread, which was simply a few good spoonfuls of homemade apricot jam stirred into a few oz. of soft goat cheese.  I’m sure they’d also be good with a sharp cheddar, soft havarti, or blue cheese.