Bluebird

Chili con Carne, Standarized Testing and Love

California public schools demand crazy nonstop testing, ie CST's, an annual week-long torture that negates the value of individual achievement. Trying uber hard to help our niblits achieve the required scores, however lemming-like, while  remaining true to our subversive arty selves is a most delicate and dedicated balance. Somehow they manage to achieve despite the schools and us. Hence my hearty reward of a meal ...chili, biscuits, and chocolate rice krispie treats, all homemade, cause these girls so rock the mainstream.

Delicious Cookie Dough - both raw and baked

This recipe is really very good, but it's hard to choose as our all-time favorite. Short of having a bake-off, it's almost impossible not to love any cookie warm from the oven, especially when Tcho chocolate discs are in the mix. It's adapted from a London Bakery called Gail's, sourced from LATimes online. http://www.latimes.com/features/food/la-fo-sos-chocolate-chip-cookies-20130427,0,5524672.story

Unruliness in the Kitchen

Most everyone has a messy kitchen drawer. I have at least three, but they are semi-categorized. This is my baking drawer. It may look haphazard, but I know exactly what's inside, even if I have lost sight of my half teaspoons lately. Not to worry. When baking cookies, I can always double up on the quarter teaspoon.

These Brown Butter Cookies are dedicated to those types that prefer pure butter and brown sugar, c'est moi. Kinda like a chocolate chipper sans chips, they called for something new to me--vanilla paste. Ever curious, I sourced some even if it was a bit spendy. The proof is in the cookie, though, cause my niblets loved them.

 

 

The key is to brown the butter to a light brown nuttiness. There's an awful lot, but it's the only liquid along with eggs.

The swirling vortex of brown sugar enlivened by the browned butter.

I adapted the recipe from a bakery in Pasadena. The dough is rather crumbly, but it baked all right. Here's the link: http://www.latimes.com/features/food/la-fo-sos-brown-butter-cookies-20130406,0,4763560.story

Come and take a lesson from the lovely lemon tree...

A plethora of lemons requires action, as they do not last forever. It's especially urgent when one's been gifted with Meyer lemons. What to do but make some lemon bars? Next, where to source the recipe? I found a good one from Lee Bailey long ago in a library book from the 80s... long since lost. Imagine my surprise finding one on Slate. It's pretty good, but not like the 80s one I can't forget. I think I need to try that contessa without shoes version to compare.

Having tried these, the consensus is the curd is brilliant--sweet and tangy with a great consistency, but the the crust is thick and crumbly. Of Course, I still have lots of lemons, so I guess I'll be making the recipe from the countess after all. Not that we mind. Here's the link to the Slate recipe:

http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2012/04/11/best_lemon_bar_recipe_zest_and_lots_of_fresh_lemon_juice_are_key.html

First Pie of the New Year

Nora Ephron didn't believe in making homemade pie crust, so when she died a few months back I bought some pre-made from Trader Joe's in an admittedly ineffectual homage to her. Sadly, the one I thawed today broke apart but I managed to roll out a decent enough crust and bake it blind. A bit vain about my pie crusts, they always receive high praise, even when they turn out homely looking. The proof will be in the pudding, or in this case, beneath it.

My first pie memory is of lemon meringue. It's strangely been forever associated with my grandmother, Edith Keyes. Strange because my mother's mum, Hattie, was the main pie baker in the family. Nonetheless, it's always been my favorite pie. Now my tween Oona loves it too, so I baked a long-promised one to use up some Meyer lemons from the holiday. The recipe is pretty good, from Gourmet, January 2008. 

http://www.gourmet.com/recipes/2000s/2008/01/lemonmeringuepie

'Cause Mama's Little Babies just love It...

Homemade brown sugar shortbread...this family just adores it.

Brown sugar shortbread

Total time: 50 minutes, plus chilling and cooling time

Servings: 4 dozen bars or 2 dozen wedge cookies

Note: This recipe makes enough dough for 2 pans of cookies, so you can try a pan of each variety if you'd like. Because they're baked in pans, the wedge cookies will retain more moisture, giving the cookies a chewy texture. Conversely, the bar cookies will be crisp because they are baked on an open, flat sheet.

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup light brown sugar

3/4 teaspoon salt

2 1/4 cups flour

1. Heat the oven to 325 degrees. In a stand mixer or medium bowl with electric beaters, beat the butter, sugar and salt until creamy, about 2 minutes, being careful not to overmix. Gradually beat in the flour, working in the last one-half cup with your hands if necessary (the dough will be stiff). Divide the dough in half.

2a.To make chewy wedge-shaped cookies, butter 2 (8-inch) metal cake pans and line with parchment. Butter the parchment and press each half of the dough into a pan. Smooth the top with the bottom of a buttered measuring cup. Prick the dough with a fork in a decorative concentric circle pattern. Refrigerate the pans, uncovered, for 30 minutes.

2b. To make crispy bar cookies, shape each dough half into a 10-by-4-inch rectangle on a lightly floured board. Run a blunt knife or your fingers along the edges to straighten them (it doesn't have to be perfect). Carefully lift each rectangle onto a buttered baking sheet, lifting both edges with your hands. With a blunt knife, score each one once lengthwise without cutting all the way through. Score crosswise 11 times to make 24 rectangles. Prick each one several times with a fork. Refrigerate the sheets, uncovered, for 30 minutes.

3. Bake both the wedge and bar shortbread until lightly brown along the edges, 25 to 30 minutes. Remove and cool for 5 minutes, then slice the shortbread while still warm (if the cookies are allowed to cool before slicing, they will crumble). Unmold the wedge shortbread by running a knife around the edge of the pan to loosen the cookies from the sides. Gently flip the pan over, then slice the shortbread into 12 wedges. Slice the bar cookies all the way through the scored marks before moving to a cooling rack.

Each of 48 bars: 72 calories; 1 gram protein; 9 grams carbohydrates; 0 fiber; 4 grams fat; 2 grams saturated fat; 10 mg. cholesterol; 39 mg. sodium.

...borrowed from the L.A. Times

Cocktail Cookies

The house smelled divine all night long after I baked two batches of Dorie Greenspan's cocktail cookies. From Food & Wine, they're supposed to be fab with champagne, which we'll be drinking tomorrow at a small affair concluding the hub's art department.
I chose chocolate cayenne and apricot tarragon, but I really want to try the others too. Cookies are so putzy, though, and by the time I'd finished it was dinner time. In no mood for cooking any, I sent the hub for take-out.

The chocolate ones were harder to stamp out but the dough stayed together better.

Sprinkled with Maldon salt pre-baking.

India's polishing the table for the party.

Tarragon and Turkish apricots chopped...then you rub the tarragon in white sugar, infusing it, and soak the apricots in hot water.

The dough rolled out and ready to freeze...it was so pretty but a little crumbly.

Freshly baked...

Together at last...awaiting champagne.

Here's a link to the recipes at Food & Wine...

http://www.foodandwine.com/articles/dorie-greenspans-sweet-and-savory-cookies

 

A Slab of Chocolate Chipper Dough

India and I made the chocolate chip cookie recipe from the latest Saveur. An unusual approach, it called for rolling the dough with the chocolate bits between the layers of dough. Since it wouldn't all fit inside, I sprinkled some on top. The end result? The chocolate was unevenly dispersed but no one minded here. If not exactly lookers, they were decidedly delish--according to my informal nuclear familia poll.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Sarah Copeland, author of The Newlywed Cookbook (Chronicle Books, 2011)

MAKES ABOUT 2 DOZEN

INGREDIENTS

2 ¼ cups flour
¾ tsp. baking soda
¾ tsp. kosher salt
16 tbsp. unsalted butter, softened
¾ cup packed dark brown sugar
¾ cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
4 egg yolks
9 oz. bittersweet chocolate, roughly chopped

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Heat oven to 375°. Whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt in a bowl; set aside. Combine butter, both sugars, and vanilla in a large bowl; beat on medium-high speed with a hand mixer until smooth and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add yolks two at a time, beating after each addition; add dry ingredients; beat on low speed until just combined. Transfer dough to a work surface; divide into 3 equal pieces. Flatten each into a 4″ x 6″ rectangle; wrap in plastic wrap. Chill for 30 minutes.

2. Place one dough rectangle on a floured work surface; sprinkle with half the chocolate. Top with another rectangle, sprinkle with remaining chocolate, and cover with last rectangle. Using a floured rolling pin, flatten rectangles into a 9″ x 6″ x 1 ½″ rectangle. Using a 2″ round cutter, cut out cookies; transfer to parchment paper—lined baking sheets, spaced 3″ apart. Gather scraps, reroll into a 1 ½″-thick disk; cut out more cookies. Bake, rotating baking sheets halfway through cooking, until lightly browned and set, about 15 minutes.

 

Chocolate Baby

Gobsmacking goodness here...

http://www.latimes.com/features/food/la-fo-proof-bakery-rec2-20120929,0,3196309.story

Please don't fail me now, buttercream

Oona made me make a cake today, so we stirred up our old fave from our Portland hood bakery, Baker and Spice.

Here be the results, our own Pink Cake. It actually turned out pretty well. Now I've got to get the leftovers out of the house...STAT!

 

http://www.oregonlive.com/foodday/index.ssf/2008/06/recipe_detail.html?id=8354