Linzer Muffins

Linzer Muffins Recipe #2



Years ago, my husband and I, along with our then 4 month old daughter visited family in Switzerland. One of the desserts very lovingly made for our visit was a Linzer Torte. I remember being surprised by the almond and jam combination and pleased that it was not cloying sweet. These muffins are little copies of their namesake but in muffin form. Pretty nifty! I particularly enjoyed the fresh lemon zest flavor combined with my homemade jam tucked in the center.

• The recipe has you first toast the whole almonds then grind them along with the sugar and lemon zest in the food processor. I was pretty thrilled that I did not first burn the almonds, as that is my habit.


• Then the dry ingredients of flour, the ground almonds,baking powder, salt and cinnamon are whisked together in a large bowl.


• I then whisked together milk, butter, egg, and almond extract in a small bowl, then stirred this wet mixture into the dry ingredients.


• Next, I pulled out a muffin pan, ( actually I pulled out 3 or 4 looking for one that was not rusted, dented or pitted. I need new muffin tins.) and filled each about 3/4 full. For me this only made 10 muffins rather than 12. I suppose I over filled them, but in the end they were just right. They were nicely rounded and did not over flow.


• I then took a spoon full of jam and buried each spoonful in the center of the muffin. As they baked some of the jam oozed out the top but none hit the bottom of the muffin. Success! Well controlled jam filled muffins.


• I gave each a little dusting of powdered sugar and served them to guest for Sunday breakfast.

Result: Wonderful, warm and enough "ohhs and ahhs" to make this recipe worth doing again. I made one change and used my homemade mixed berry jam although the recipe called for raspberry. My jam is just better, sorry.

Lemon Cake

Lemon Pudding Cake page 726

recipe #1 Gourmet Today

First recipe in a new book. It was such a difficult task to pick just one. A get together and a need for a dessert was finally what made the decision. As soon as I spied this Lemon Pudding Cake recipe I was reminded of fond childhood memories of a dessert my mother called Mary's Fudge Pudding cake. It was the same concept of a moist cake with a surrounding pudding like sauce. This promised to be something more than just another pan of brownies on the pot luck dessert table.

The ingredients are all pantry staples. At least my house.

• 
  
  a couple fresh lemons
  
  
  
• 
  
  flour,salt and sugar
  
  
  
• 
  
  eggs and milk
  
  
  
• 
  
  You have all of that, right?
  
  
  

Now it is just a matter of mixing together the dry ingredients. Then adding egg yolk,milk, lemon zest and lemon juice. The egg whites are whipped separately and gently folded in. This simple batter is poured into a gratin or shallow casserole dish and baked in a shallow pan of boiling water, much like a baked custard.

I was really pleased with the results. The cake was very moist and the lemony sauce does a beautiful job of oozing out from the bottom and giving it a bit of a wow factor. The lemon pudding cake was a hit with everyone except those pesky gluten avoiders, of whom I suddenly know many of. They were pretending to be highly interested in their gluten free chocolate pudding and fruit. But I could see the wistful looks they were giving my lemon cake.

A thank you to Epicurious for the beautiful "Food Portrait" of the lovely Lemon Pudding Cake

RESULTS: Very good and a simple recipe. I will make this again and again....

* On a personal note: I have been absent from this site for a good 4 months while my husband was receiving cancer treatments. I keep a blog of our life and adventures at Annie From Asheville. Drop in and visit some time. http://anniefromasheville.wordpress.com/

A Look at a New Book

I have been off this site for several months. The summer was spent trying recipes that would appeal to my darling husband during cancer treatments.  When I made the decison to go on blogging vacation,it just seemed easier to not have the added pressure of my cook-through-the-book project. As I reflect back I see that I honestly could have stayed the course. Who knew that his treatments would make him so HUNGRY. 
So, here it is several months later and what has encouraged me to get back on the cookbook blogging adventure is the arrival of a new book, Gourmet Today. I am recharged and ready to tackle what appears to be a great addition to the Gourmet cookbooks. The recipes are a perfect fit for the way I cook.  There are plenty of vegetarian choices, frequent usage of foods that were once rare but that now are easily found in my neighborhood grocery and recipes from around the world. Oh and you need to check out the Drinks section. Dangerous!  Please forgive my change in mid stream and enjoy with me a new cooking adventure. I am interested in how I will tackle parsnips and chicken livers, but hey that's the journey right?

Grilled Chicken with Tri-colored Salsa Bon Appetit pg 389

* This will be my last entry for a month or so. I will be with my husband at the National Cancer Institute for his cancer treatments and will simply not be cooking. Although I might find some clever ideas for mixing and matching hospital food that could make for interesting reading.

Till then.... Let's talk grilled chicken.
I bet I grill chicken once a week in the summer. I love to load up the grill and have extras for the week. This is definitely going into the standard go-to recipe file , if for the salsa alone.

The chicken is allowed to marinate for several hours in a mixture of lemon juice, lemon zest, olive oil, cumin and red onion. Then it is grilled. Simple and a really nice flavor.
The star is the tri-colored salsa. If you look closely I actually cheated a little. The salsa calls for peppers, tomato,red onion,corn,and avocado. The dressing is olive oil, lemon juice, cilantro and salt and pepper. Here is my cheat, and you know what? I don't feel bad about it at all. The corn was so good that I decided to serve it on the cob the first night, thus leaving it out of the salsa. Instead I added chickpeas. This allows the recipe to be more of a salad and great for leftover lunches. Also I threw in some raw zucchini because my husband likes it. Right now he trumps recipe rules. The next day I cut the corn off the cob from the leftovers and put them in the salsa. It was even better the next day.

Here is the recipe as found on Epicurious:Grilled-Chicken-with-Tricolor-Salsa-2315

Yumm!

I will be keeping up my other site if you want to check in on how the fight against melanoma is going. http://anniefromasheville.wordpress.com/

Char Siu (Chinese Barbecued Pork) Gourmet page 478

(not my photo, but my pork tasted as good as this looks)
Recipe #32
I love Char Siu. This is a great easy recipe that makes terrific barbecued pork and it tastes like the good stuff at restaurants ( not the dry bad stuff you sometimes get). It was incredibly moist and flavorful. It is worth it to make the whole recipe and freeze what you have left over to use in Lo Mien, soup or Chow Fun. That is if you don't pick at it continually until there is nothing worth saving. Warning... this can happen to you (too)!
For Char Siu you need a pork butt, plastic freezer bag or container to marinate in and a few simple ingredients: hoisin, soy sauce, sugar or honey, sake or rice wine, fresh garlic and ginger. The pork is cut into strip about 2 inches thick and 4 or so inches long.
The ingredients are mixed together and the meat is left to marinate in the refrigerator for several hours or even overnight. When you are ready to cook the pork, remove it from the marinate and roast it in a hot oven turning pieces every 10 minutes or so till the meat is cooked through and has been allowed to develop a beautiful crispy outer skin. Leave meat to sit and cool before slicing in to bite sized pieces. You are now ready to add it to your Chow Fun or Lo Mien.
You may wonder why this pork does not have the typical red surface that restaurant pork has. That is due to the lack of red food coloring. I can't image you would want to add food coloring when it does nothing for the taste

This recipe is not found on Epicuirous but the one that is there is very similar. If you use the online one I would caution you to go easy on the 5 spice powder. That is powerful stuff and you can ruin a good recipe quickly if you aren't careful.
Chinese-Barbecued-Pork-101916
Lessons Learned: This is very similar to one that my mother and I have made for years. We often used a pork loin for our Char Sui. I admit the extra fat that is found on the pork butt really adds to the texture.

Broiled Eggplant with Cilantro Vinaigrette Gourmet Page 537

Recipe #31

This recipe just might make my husband an eggplant eater. It was flavorful,a little smokey and not at all bitter as eggplant can sometimes be. It was a nice accompaniment with the lamb chops we had for dinner.

The recipe was simple. I sliced my eggplant into rounds rather than long planks as I had one large eggplant and the recipe called for several small ones. I doubt that made a difference though I try to be pretty faithful to the recipe. The eggplant is brushed with olive oil and roasted till tender. Meanwhile a vinaigrette is made using cilantro,parsley,cumin and garlic. I choose to use only a drizzle of the dressing on each portion of the eggplant and it made the dish moist and tasty.

Would I make it again? Yes, it will make a good summer standard.

Recipe can be found on Epicurious:Broiled-Eggplant-with-Cilantro-Vinaigrette-102251

Eclairs Gourmet page 792

Recipe #30
Now these were fun. I use to make eclairs as a teenager. They were my "I am trying to impress you with my talent" recipe. Actually, they are pretty easy. I love the process of making the pate a choux. It is like magic. The pastry portion is a simple mixture of flour, butter and egg yolks that when combine over heat quickly turns in to a thick paste. I used a make shift pastry bag made from a zip lock freezer bag. I also could not find a pastry tip, so I simply piped the eclair paste onto a piece a parchment paper lined cookie sheet through a hole cut out of one corner of the bag. It worked great and there was nothing left to clean up. ( I do wish I knew where my pastry tips where though.)
The eclair shells bake into beautiful and crispy puffs. While these were baking I made a pastry cream and a mocha glaze for the eclairs. OK, I cheated and did not make the mocha cream for the middle of the eclairs. I feel a little bad but since I was making these special for my husband's birthday dessert and I knew he would bulk at the chocolate flavored cream, I made an exception to my rule. Sorry husband's wishes always win out over made up blog rules.

These were delightful. I forgot how much I enjoyed eclairs.
Lessons Learned: Eclairs stay fresh for several days when not filled. This makes them a perfect do ahead dessert.
Will I make them again? Yes, these promise to be a repeat performance.

The recipe was not found on Epicurious. These are a standard recipe. This Foodnetwork recipe is almost identical. chocolate-eclairs-recipe/index.html