Breakfast… Momofuku-style

There’s only one word for these suckers… obsessed!  I am, my husband is, our friends are… The bagel bombs from Christina Tosi and the Momofuku Milk Bar are incredible.  The mother dough that is the “bagel” outside is super easy to whip up in the KitchenAid and then the filling can be whatever you want it to be, though I’ve yet to venture far from the original of cream cheese, bacon and scallions…  You can order the book on Amazon at the link above for this recipe and a ton of my other favorites (chocolate chocolate cookie, candy bar pie, the list goes on and on!)

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Strawberry Deliciousness

If you’ve never had strawberry pie, please run, don’t walk, to the grocery store and/or market to get the supplies for this most scrumptious dessert!  I promise, you’ll be wondering why you waited so long to make this!

Last week after returning from the National Stationery Show in NYC, we were driving by Mom’s Apple Pie in Leesburg and there was a giant strawberry cutout sitting by the side of the road and a sign for Strawberry Pie in the window.  We meant to stop, but then forgot, but once I remembered, I couldn’t get the thought of strawberries nestled inside a pie crust out of my head, so I had to find a recipe STAT.  Here’s the recipe I put together using a strawberry pie filling recipe from Cook’s Country and my Cornmeal Pie Crust.

Crust
I used my Cornmeal Pie Crust recipe.

Filling
2 pounds frozen strawberries
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon unflavored gelatin
1 cup sugar
pinch salt
1 pound fresh strawberries, hulled and sliced thin

Topping
4 ounces cream cheese, softened
3 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup heavy cream

Bake pie crust shell and let cool.

Cook frozen berries in large saucepan over medium low heat until berries begin to release juice, about 3 minutes. Increase heat to medium high and cook, stirring frequently, until thick and jamlike, about 25 minutes. (Mixture should measure 2 cups. If you have more than 2 cups the pie will not set or slice properly.)

Combine lemon juice, water, and gelatin in small bowl. Let stand until gelatin is softened and mixture has thickened, about 5 minutes. Stir gelatin mixture, sugar, and salt into cooked berry mixture and return to a simmer, about 2 minutes. Transfer to bowl and cool to room temperature, about 30 minutes.

Fold fresh berries into filling. Spread evenly in pie shell and refrigerate until set, about 4 hours. (Filled pie can be refrigerated for 24 hours.)

With electric mixer on medium speed, beat cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla until smooth, about 30 seconds. With mixer running, add cream and whip until stiff peaks form, about 2 minutes. Serve pie with whipped cream topping.  I like to add chiffonaded basil or mint to the cream to give it an additional flavor profile.

Enjoy!

Easy & Healthy Homemade Granola

This is the busiest time of year for me in my real job.  In all the craziness that is the weeks leading up to the National Stationery Show, I feel like I barely get out the door in the morning, let alone grabbing a Greek yogurt (my fave!) from the fridge.  This weekend, I took a step back and prepared some food for the week… Healthy lunches, bags of vegetables for snacks and homemade granola to top that yogurt for breakfast.  Give it a go – it just might give you that boost that I find myself needing in the morning!

Homemade Maple Granola

1/4 cup vegetable oil
2/3 cup maple syrup
2 tsp almond extract
4 cups oatmeal (not the quick stuff… you want the old fashioned oats!)
1/2 cup pumpkin seeds
1/2 cup slivered almonds
1/2 cup golden raisins
1/2 cup dried cherries

Milkbar Chocolate Chocolate Cookies!

Chocolate-Chocolate Cookies
by Christina Tosi
Makes 10 to 15 cookies

An ode to my favorite baked good of all time, the fudgy brownie, this cookie has a healthy salt content and, to me, is perfection.

INGREDIENTS
16 tablespoons (2 sticks) butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 cup glucose
1 egg
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 ounces 55% chocolate, melted
1 1/4 cups flour
3/4 cup cocoa powder, preferably Valrhona
3 g baking powder 3/4 teaspoon
1.5 g baking soda 1/4 teaspoon
7 g kosher salt 1 3/4 teaspoons
1/2 recipe Chocolate Crumb (below)

PREPARATION
Combine the butter, sugar, and glucose in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and cream together on medium-high for 2 to 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, add the egg, vanilla, and melted chocolate, and beat for 7 to 8 minutes.

Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Mix just until the dough comes together, no longer than 1 minute. (Do not walk away from the machine during this step, or you will risk overmixing the dough.) Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula.

Still on low speed, add the chocolate crumbs and mix just until incorporated, about 30 seconds.

Using a 2 3/4-ounce ice cream scoop (or a 1/3-cup measure), portion out the dough onto a parchment-lined sheet pan. Pat the tops of the cookie dough domes flat. Wrap the sheet pan tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour, or up to 1 week. Do not bake your cookies from room temperature–they will not bake properly.

Heat the oven to 375°F.

Arrange the chilled dough a minimum of 4 inches apart on parchment- or Silpat-lined sheet pans. Bake for 18 minutes. The cookies will puff, crackle, and spread. It’s tough (kind of impossible) to gauge if a cookie that is this dark with chocolate is done. If after 18 minutes, the cookies still seem doughy in the center, give them another 1 minute in the oven, but not more.

Cool the cookies completely on the sheet pans before transferring to a plate or an airtight container for storage. At room temp, the cookies will keep fresh for 5 days; in the freezer, they will keep for 1 month.

Chocolate Crumb
Makes about 2 1/2 cups

INGREDIENTS
2/3 cup flour
1 teaspoon cornstarch
1/2 cup sugar
2/ 3 cup cocoa powder, preferably Valrhona
1 teaspoon kosher salt
6 tablespoons butter, melted

PREPARATION
Heat the oven to 300 degrees F.

Combine the flour, cornstarch, sugar, cocoa powder, and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and paddle on low speed until mixed.

Add the butter and paddle on low speed until the mixture starts to come together in small clusters.

Spread the clusters on a parchment- or Silpat-lined sheet pan. Bake for 20 minutes, breaking them up occasionally. The crumbs should still be slightly moist to the touch at that point; they will dry and harden as they cool.

Let the crumbs cool completely before using in a recipe or eating. Stored in an airtight container, they will keep fresh for 1 week at room temperature or 1 month in the fridge or freezer.

Recipe from bonappetit.com

Breakfast Delight!

We were in Buffalo for the weekend and were delighted when our friend, Doug, made these for breakfast one morning.  We thought he’d been up for hours fussing in my mom’s kitchen… kneading and waiting and rolling… little did we know!  He did spill the secret, which you’re just not going to believe!  I’ve made homemade doughnuts a few times and they’re always delish, the problem is just that if you’re serving them for breakfast, that means you’re up hours before everyone else… Not anymore… Keep reading for the secret 🙂

Homemade Croissants

We’re embarking on a journey back to my favorite adventure from my winter break from work.  I’ve always wanted to tackle homemade croissants from start to finish entirely by hand and I did just that.  I’m going to warn you – it’s quite a laborious task, but I think it was SO worth the efforts for the end prize (and my husband’s family did too – though they didn’t have to do the rolling!) Bon Appetit!

Recipe after the break…This recipe is from a 2000 issue of Gourmet Magazine…

Brown Butter Custard Pie with Cranberry Glaze

I wrote about this recipe years ago when it first came out in Food & Wine Magazine and have made it every Thanksgiving since!  It’s the perfect non-traditional end to one of the most celebrated meals of the year and beautiful to boot!  I love the look of the cranberry glaze on top of the speckled creamy filling and the little golden orange dollops of deliciousness by the way of sweet potato and white chocolate on top!

Brown Butter Custard Pie with Cranberry Glaze
2 teaspoons plain powdered gelatin
Reserved browned butter solids from Cinnamon Toast Crumb Crust (below)
1 cup whole milk
1/3 cup light brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
Kosher salt
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons heavy cream
1/4 cup sour cream
Cinnamon Toast Crumb Crust (recipe below)
3 1/2 ounces white chocolate, chopped
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 cup mashed sweet potatoes
1 cup cranberry sauce, pureed and strained

Cinnamon Toast Crumb Crust
2 sticks unsalted butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
4 cups diced crusts and end pieces from 1 loaf of packaged white bread (10 ounces crusts)

Happy Fourth!

Make-It Monday goes to the kitchen this week for a Fourth of July tart! It’s just perfect (go figure, it’s from Martha)!  Have a happy and safe holiday weekend!

For the crust:
5 cups all-purpose flour
6 tablespoons sugar
2 cup (4 sticks) unsalted butter, chilled and cut into small pieces
4 large egg yolks
1/2 cup ice water

For the creme fraiche filling:
2 packages cream cheese (8 ounces each), room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
8 ounces creme fraiche
1 cup confectioner’s sugar

For the tart:
4 ounces semisweet chocolate
1/2 cup apricot jam, for glazing blueberries
1/2 cup raspberry jam, for glazing raspberries
2 tablespoons water
2 pints red raspberries
Confectioners’ sugar, for dusting
1 pint blueberries, picked over

Strawberry Pie

Oh strawberry pie, how have I never heard of you or thought that you might be the most delicious concoction I’ve ever tasted?  I just don’t know, but I sincerely apologize for neglecting to make you until now!

If you’ve never had strawberry pie (obviously, I hadn’t – I know, I must be living in the hole), please run, don’t walk, to the grocery store and/or market to get the supplies for this most scrumptious dessert!  I promise, you’ll be wondering why you waited so long to make this!

Last week after returning from the National Stationery Show in NYC, we were driving by Mom’s Apple Pie in Leesburg and there was a giant strawberry cutout sitting by the side of the road and a sign for Strawberry Pie in the window.  We meant to stop, but then forgot, but once I remembered, I couldn’t get the thought of strawberries nestled inside a pie crust out of my head, so I had to find a recipe STAT.  Here’s the recipe I put together using a strawberry pie filling recipe from Cook’s Country and my Cornmeal Pie Crust.

Crust
I used my Cornmeal Pie Crust recipe.

Filling
2 pounds frozen strawberries
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon unflavored gelatin
1 cup sugar
pinch salt
1 pound fresh strawberries, hulled and sliced thin

Royal Wedding Watching Scones

I’ve shared this recipe before, but it’s one of my favorites and will be perfect for the Royal Wedding Watching Party I’m attending at 3am!  If ginger and pecans aren’t your thing, try my recipe for Chocolate Scones.  Read more about the Royal Wedding food on Epicurious.com.

Ginger Pecan Scones
3 3/4 cups flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup sugar
3 tbsp baking powder
1/2 cup butter, cut into small pieces
1/4 cup chopped crystallized ginger
1/4 cup chopped pecans
1 1/4 cups whole milk

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

In the food processor, combine the flour, salt, sugar and baking powder.  Add the butter and process until the butter has been cut into the flour mixture and you can still see little pea-sized pieces.  Add the ginger, pecans and milk.  Process only until the mixture comes together.

Turn the dough out onto a well-floured surface and flatten to 1 inch thick.  Use a cookie cutter or biscuit cutter to make into rounds.  Brush the tops with milk and sprinkle with sanding sugar, if you like.

Bake on an ungreased cookie sheet for 15-20 minutes or until the tops are lightly golden brown.

Serve with whipping cream and fresh fruit, or just dig in with a little butter right when they come out of the oven.

Enjoy!