Leftovers biscotti!

Sometimes I end up with lots of little bags of dried fruits and nuts in the cabinet, left over from various baking and cooking projects. When I can't stand the clutter anymore, I make biscotti to use up all the little bits.

They're time consuming, but very easy to make, and they make the apartment smell so good!

My vanilla ones had dark chocolate chips, hazelnuts and dried cranberries.

The chocolate ones had macadamia nuts (there were only 10 or so left, so finding one in a cookie is like finding a golden nugget), walnuts, cranberries, white chocolate and dark chocolate.

Oh, and I used whole wheat flour, so they're almost healthy! Ha!

3 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour (regular all-purpose flour works great)

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

4 eggs

2 egg yolks

1 cup sugar (I like the sweetness to come from the chocolate and fruit, so I use relatively little sugar)

2 teaspoons vanilla

Any additions that sound good to you. I add a little extra of everything, but 4 cups of nuts (any kind, preferably pre-toasted) and a 12 oz. bag of chocolate chips are a good place to start.

Pre-heat the oven to 325 F

Mix flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl.

In another bowl, beat the eggs with the yolks, vanilla and sugar with an electric mixer for about 2 minutes.

Mix in the dry ingredients, then the chocolate, nuts and fruit.

Grease a sheetpan and shape the dough into 2 logs with floured hands. You're going to be slicing the logs later to make your biscotti, so again, any with and height that appeals to you is good!

Bake for 20-25 minutes, until the logs start to turn golden.

Remove from the oven and let them cool, at least 30 minutes. Cut into slices with a serrated knife.

Lower oven temperature to 275 F. Bake the slices until golden and crunchy, another 30 minutes or so.

For the chocolate biscotti I replaced 1/2 cup of flour with cocoa powder.

Magical Roasted Red Pepper Dressing!!

This dressing is pure deliciousness! I hate roasted red peppers with their slimy, slippery texture, but when you throw them in the food processor with a little salt and pepper, some olive oil and balsamic vinegar they transform into something magical! Oh and don't forget fresh garlic!! I used 4 cloves with 5 red peppers, which made people run away every time I breathed out for the next 2 days. But it was tasty! Roasted garlic might have been a little milder andequally good.

It's good on salad, cooked vegetables, rice, potatoes....and probably almost anything you can come up with. Definitely going to be a condiment staple for us!

I used organic peppers from a jar and it was great, but if you have the time and patience to roast some in the oven, I bet you could get even more flavor out of the slick little guys!

Cupcake summer

I meant to make several fancy fruit and mousse cakes this summer, but whenever we're invited to parties I get requests for cupcakes. These are the last 2 kinds I made. The Mexican fiesta cupcakes were vegan chocolate and the ladybugs were lemon cake with lemon buttercream...my favorite summer flavor!

Everybody loves Martha!

It was Stephanie's birthday this past weekend so I went to Martha (via Erica and Kea) for some inspiration! When I was up in Ottawa I started to make the chocolate hazelnut meringue cake with Kea, but flew off before it was done, so I had to look it up when I got home! But clafoutis is Steph's favorite, so I had to make that too!

Clafoutis here: http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/cherry-clafouti-2

Chocolate cake here: http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/chocolate-and-hazelnut-meringue-cake

They were both a hit. Normally clafoutis is a pancake batter baked with cherries. This particular recipe tasted more like a flan with fruit in it...still good but not quite what we were expecting (those of us who knew what to expect...everyone else just happily ate it)! Apart from pitting the cherries (and really, as long as you're being slightly inauthentic, you could use any other fruit), this is a super fast tart, so great for a last minute project (you could almost make it when your guests are already over).

The other cake was a flourless chocolate cake, deliciously dense, with the lighter, crunchy meringue to top it off. Valerie said her friend just made it too, so the recipe is making the rounds (even though it was first published in 2003)!

Sunday morning was a perfect comedy of errors. I got up early to bake, but I tried to be quiet because Vernon was still asleep. As I opened the oven door all the bowls I store in there (yes, ovens are cabinets in NY) came crashing onto the floor. 5 minutes later I dropped my favorite mixing bowl and broke it (CRASH) and finally when I opened the oven to put the cake in, smoke billowed out. Mad dash for a chair so I could reach the smoke alarm, which was (of course) stuck to the wall, because we just painted. After it had gone off for about 30 seconds I finally yanked it off! Poor V. pretended he didn't hear a thing! :)

Just going to do this....

Hi!

So after lots of thinking and talking about it, I'm just going to get this blog started. For now it's going to be all about what's happening in my kitchen, though it may expand to explore other projects....art, craft etc....whatever inspires! And who knows what Erica will contribute...it's all very exciting!

I came home from my 4 day trip to Erica and family in Ottawa, inspired to cook more. I do already feel like I cook and bake more than most New Yorkers, but that really isn't saying much! So on Sunday morning I made Alton Brown's pancakes (so much butter and soooo perfect), which Vernon had with a Field Roast veggie sausage, and I slathered mine in plain yoghurt and fresh strawberries, with maple syrup. Totally decadent!

Then I finally made the vegan energy bars from the Rebar cookbook (which is a great book, by the way)! I adapted the recipe a little bit to what I had in the kitchen. They turned out great. The only thing I would have preferred is if they had been a little less soft, but the nuts gave them a good bite anyway.

I wanted to give a few of them away, so I wrapped them in parchment and baker's twine that my mom sent from Germany. They were cute, but it's a bit of a time-consuming way to wrap them!

Vegan Energy Bars (adapted from Rebar modernfoodcookbook)

dry mix:

2 cups muesli (I used Bob's Red Mill)

1/2 cup chopped dried apricots

1/2 cup dried cherries

1/2 cup slivered almonds

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

1/2 cup - 1 cup vegan chocolate chips (I like more!)

2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

wet mix:

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/3 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup "flax eggs" (recipe below)

1 cup applesauce

1 tsp vanilla

Flax Eggs

1/4 cup flax seeds

3/4 cup water

Grind flax seeds in a food processor until powdered. Add water and process for 5 mins.

Any extra can be stored in the fridge for up to 5 days!

Pre-heat oven to 350 degress and line a 9X13 inch pan with parchment. Combine wet and dry ingredients in separate bowls. Mix everything together. Spread the mixture on the pan and bake about 18 mins. Cool. Cut into pieces. Wrap, and store in the fridge. I think they taste best at room temperature, so take them out before you want to eat them!