The other day I was tempted at the checkout by the latest issue of “Everyday Food.” I used to have a subscription but then I forgot to renew and now I only get the magazine, well, when I’m tempted at the checkout.

This month, there’s a big tostada on the cover. Okay, you are coming home with me! But inside, there was an article on baking mix (recipe below) and all the wonderful things you can bake with it. One of these things is Oatmeal Blondies, which I made. They turned out really good. The whole pan was gone in a day and a half.

The only challenging part was that I got halfway through making the recipe and realized that I didn’t have enough oatmeal. I had about a 1/2 cup and I needed 3/4 cup (well, the recipe says 1 cup, with a 1/4 of that for the top. I was going to use walnuts, so really, I was only short about 1/4 cup).

After sighing, and looking around and not wanting to go out I…..I…..used a packet of Trader Joe’s Blueberry Instant Oatmeal for the missing 1/4 cup.

::ducks::

Yeah, that’s what I said! And it turned out fine. Now, I’m not recommending you do the same, but in an emergency, we do what we have to do. I’ll make these again the right way but I think I’ll add some dried blueberries because, uh, the blueberry flavor was really tasty!

Baking Mix
I halved this from the original
3 cups all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tbsp salt

Mix it all together. Done. Store what you don’t use in an airtight container.

Oatmeal Blondies
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for pan
1/2 cup packed light-brown sugar
1 large egg
1 1/2 cups baking mix
3/4 cup old-fashioned rolled oats (not quick-cooking)
1/4 cup walnuts, chopped roughly

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a little non-stick spray in an 8-inch square baking pan (you can also butter the dish as in the original recipe (OR). Line bottom and sides with a strip of parchment paper, leaving a 2-inch overhang. Now, you can butter the paper as the OR says or you can use non-stick spray or you can forget to do either like I did. For me, it was fine with just the paper, as I was all about not following the OR too much.

Using an electric mixer, beat butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg, and beat until combined. With mixer on low, gradually add Baking Mix; mix just until combined. Mix in 3/4 cup oats. Pour batter into prepared pan.

Press batter down into pan. The OR said to spread. My mix was all crumbly — perhaps it was the blueberry flavoring? It didn’t spread — it pressed. Sprinkle with walnuts, pressing gently to adhere. Bake until a toothpick inserted in center comes out with only a few moist crumbs attached, 30 to 35 minutes. Let cool in pan 30 minutes.

Using overhang, transfer blondies (still on paper) to a wire rack to cool completely. Place on a cutting board (peel off paper); using a serrated knife, cut into 9 (OR says 16 — ha!) squares. Store blondies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 days, or freeze for up to 2 months. You will eat them all within 2 days, don’t worry.

Monday night, the WCC round-up* will be up but for now…it’s cookies. I altered a recipe I found at the Whole Foods web site to include matcha (powdered green tea). Where can you get matcha? Try here!

I rolled them out and used my new, cool Halloween cookie cutters for some great shapes — a bat, a ghost, cat, jack o’lantern and a witch boot. But, you could also just roll the dough into two logs, chill and slice into rounds. That would work just fine too.

I really liked the fact that this recipe calls for brown sugar. I think that it held up to the green tea taste really well.

Green Tea Halloween Sugar Cookies
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 large egg
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp matcha
1/2 tsp non-aluminum baking powder
1/4 tsp sea salt
2-3 tbsp milk
3 tbsp granulated sugar

In large bowl with electric mixer at medium speed, beat butter, sugar and vanilla until light and fluffy. Beat in egg until well blended.

In a separate bowl combine flour, matcha, baking powder and salt; then, with mixer at low speed, beat into butter mixture to blend well. If mixture is a little dry, add 2-3 tablespoons milk until it comes together. Form dough into two balls. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate until firm, at least an hour or overnight.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Roll dough out on a lightly floured surface and cut into shapes using cookie cutters. Sprinkle unbaked cookies with a little granulated sugar.

Place about 1–1/2 inches apart on ungreased, parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Bake 10–12 minutes. Cool on wire rack and store in an airtight container. Or use shot glasses and stand the up on your dining room table for a photo…

* If there are any stragglers, you have until 4PM PST, to get me your entry.

I have been meaning to make a blueberry pie all Summer — in fact, I have always wanted to make a blueberry pie. Unfortunately, I hadn’t done so yet but then I came across some tasty looking berries at Limbo and was inspired. Sure I was hot and yes, I was kind of lazy. That’s when I decided a blueberry crumble would be just as good. It was. Was there really any doubt? Nope. So, grab yourself some blueberries, a lemon, some assorted crumble accoutrements and you’re all set.

And, as if that was not enough, as an experiment, I mixed up some plain, non-fat yogurt, seeds from a vanilla bean, a little sugar and some cinnamon and threw it in the ice cream maker. I didn’t strain it or anything, just mixed it all up and that’s it. I ended up
with some pretty tasty non-fat frozen yogurt for the top of the crumble.

Blueberry-Hazelnut Crumble
Slightly based on a crumble recipe from the Whole Foods web site
2.5 cups blueberries (about a pint)
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tbsp flour
1/2 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup oats
1/4 cup chopped hazelnuts
1/2 tsp cinnamon
4 tbsp butter

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Rinse the berries and drain thoroughly. Put the blueberries in a mixing bowl and add lemon juice, sugar and one half tablespoon of flour. Set aside until you are all ready with the crumble topping.

In a food processor, pulse together the remaining ingredients until they resemble coarse breadcrumbs. Okay, fine, course breadcrumbs made of butter, oats, sugar and nuts.

Combine, and pour the blueberries into four 1 1/2-cup ramekins. You could, of course, just make one big crumble in a 9-inch pie pan. Next, cover the berries with the topping and bake for thirty minutes until the top has browned and the fruit is bubbling.

You may have a little topping leftover — just store it in the fridge and make yourself another small, single-sized crumble one night after work. Shhh!

Can be served hot or at room temperature. Goes very well with ice cream or frozen yogurt — store bought or experimental.

Coming up also this week: a fish dish with olives, capers and…bacon (!) and September’s Weekend Cookbook Challenge from one of my most favorite cookbooks of all time.

This month’s Sugar High Friday challenge is hosted by The Passionate Cook and the theme is going local. So, being in the Pacific Northwest and all, I thought coffee. And the one coffee dessert I have always wanted to make but never have is Tiramisu!

So, Sunday afternoon, jwa and I walked to one of the coffeehouse closest to our house — Haven — and got 8 shots of espresso (that’s about a cup total). Woo! On the short walk home, it was very hard not to take some slurps of the espresso but I made it — all the coffee made it back for use in the dessert.

I’m not sure tiramisu counts as a local specialty — does Portland have a local dessert specialty? But, Stumptown coffee is definitely a local specialty, so hopefully that’s close enough. Besides, a dessert that requires about 8 shots of espresso? Yeah, that seems very Portlandesque to me.

The recipe that I based this on is one by Sara Moulton (minus the the hazelnuts). This rendition of tiramisu which uses both marscapone and low-fat ricotta, turned out quite well. I used two bigger than single serving glass bowls and made out 3/4’s of the recipe posted below — which made about 4 servings total.

Stumptown Tiramisu
1 cup low-fat ricotta cheese
3/4 cup marscapone cheese
1 tbsp dark rum
1/4 cup superfine sugar
1 1/2 cups very strong espresso or good quality coffee, cooled
1 tbsp kahula
16 ladyfingers
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa, for dusting
Optional: 1/4 cup hazelnuts, toasted and chopped for the top — this makes it extra Oregon-y!

Beat the cheeses, rum and sugar with until light and creamy and set aside.

Pour the espresso into a large shallow dish. Quickly dip one side of half the ladyfingers into the coffee and lay closely together with the dipped side down over the base of a large flat-based serving dish or smaller, single serving cups.

Spread half of the cheese mixture evenly over the ladyfingers. Dust with half the cocoa then repeat layers with coffee-dipped biscuits and cheese.

Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 6 hours or overnight. Dust with remaining cocoa and sprinkle with the toasted hazlenuts just before serving. I accidentally dusted with the cocoa before storing it in the fridge. You should wait and dust yours before you eat it — but mine turned out just fine dusting with the cocoa earlier.

Unfortunately, per the announcement, I don’t know any spooky stories about tiramisu or Stumptown coffee. I wish I did, that’d be really cool if I had a spooky espresso story.

Thanks again so much to The Passionate Cook for hosting this round of SHF and thanks to Portland for having such great coffee!

So, for this week I’m going to try really, really hard to post more frequently. I’m going to shoot for three posts this week. Let’s all cross our fingers.

As the title suggests, this is a recipe by Ina Garten. I saw her make them last week and immediately went to see if we had all of the components on hand. We did, except for some peanuts. No problem though, as we had some trail mix in the fridge. Trail mix with peanuts! Just sorted some out of there and I was good to go.

When I made these, I did a half recipe of what’s listed below. I found that the half size fit well in a square, brownie-shaped pan. Use really good jam — we used this homemade stuff we get at the open produce market on Hawthorne. I forget the name right now, as we just always call it Produce Pete’s — but I know that’s not it. But there’s a “P” in there somewehere.

Barefoot Contessa’s Peanut Butter & Jelly Bars
1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
2 cups (18 ounces) creamy peanut butter
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 1/2 cups (18 ounces) raspberry jam or other jam
2/3 cups salted peanuts, coarsely chopped

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9 by 13 by 2-inch cake pan. Line it with parchment paper, then grease and flour the pan.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar on medium speed until light yellow, about 2 minutes. With the mixer on low speed, add the vanilla, eggs, and peanut butter and mix until all ingredients are combined.

In a small bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the flour mixture to the peanut butter mixture. Mix just until combined.

Spread 2/3 of the dough into the prepared cake pan and spread over the bottom with a knife or offset spatula. Spread the jam evenly over the dough. Drop small globs of the remaining dough evenly over the jam. Don’t worry if all the jam isn’t covered; it will spread in the oven.

Sprinkle with chopped peanuts and bake for 45 minutes, until golden brown.

Cool and cut into squares.

For the fourth we grilled burgers and I made potato salad and peach/tomato gazpacho. I’ll post the gazpacho tomorrow. But today? It’s the ice cream.

I picked some basil from the garden and whipped a batch up. The basil flavor is very subtle so I also added a bit of vanilla. The steeping and the blending gives it a pretty, pale green color. The end result is an ice cream that was really pretty good!

I forgot to make it the night before, my typical practice, so I stored the pre-frozen custard in the freezer for about 45 minutes to chill it enough to load in my ice cream maker.

Basil Ice Cream
Recipe from Gourmet magazine
2 cups whole milk
3 tbsp chopped fresh basil
1/2 cup sugar
4 large egg yolks
1/2 cup well-chilled heavy cream
1/2 tsp vanilla

Bring milk, basil, 1/4 cup sugar, and a pinch of salt to a boil in a heavy saucepan, stirring, then remove from heat and let steep 30 minutes.

Transfer to a blender (reserve saucepan) and blend until basil is finely ground, about 1 minute.

Beat together yolks and remaining 1/4 cup sugar in a medium bowl with an electric mixer until thick and pale, about 1 minute. Add milk mixture in a stream, beating until combined well.

Pour mixture into reserved saucepan and cook over moderate heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until mixture coats back of spoon and registers 175°F on thermometer (do
not let boil).

Immediately remove from heat and pour through a fine-mesh sieve into a metal bowl. Set bowl in a larger bowl of ice water and stir until cold, 10 to 15 minutes. Alternately, make the night before and store in the refrigerator overnight. It’ll be well-chilled when you are ready to make the ice cream.

Stir in cream and vanilla and freeze in ice cream maker. Transfer ice cream to an airtight container and put in freezer to harden, at least 2 hours.

This recipe is from Bon Appétit magazine and makes a great Summer dessert. I thought the filling maybe needed a bit more ooomph — next time, I may add a teaspoon or two of orange or lemon liqueur. Of course, this might also be because I used “light” cream cheese. Perhaps that was a mistake. Next time? Bring on the fat.

To get the crust nicely padded into the tart pan, I usually use a shot glass to help flatten the bottom and press the sides up. This works very well. I forget where I learned that tip but I did not make it up myself.

Use ripe, tasty nectarines for this — you will not be sorry.

Crust
25 gingersnap cookies, coarsely broken (about 6 ounces; about 2 1/4 cups pieces)
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted

Filling
1 8-ounce container mascarpone cheese
6 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
1/4 cup sour cream
1/4 cup sugar
1 tbsp grated lemon peel
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp finely chopped crystallized ginger
Optional: 1-2 tsp of your favorite citrusy liqueur (Grand Marnier? Limoncello?)

Topping
4 to 5 small nectarines, halved, pitted, cut into thin slices
1/4 cup peach jam, warmed
2 tbsp finely chopped crystallized ginger

For crust:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Finely grind gingersnaps in processor. Add butter and blend until crumbs are evenly moistened. Press mixture over bottom and up sides of 9-inch-diameter tart pan with removable bottom. Use a shot glass for a nice, even surface!

Bake crust until color darkens, pressing sides with back of spoon if beginning to slide, about 8 minutes. Cool completely.

For filling:
Beat first 6 ingredients in medium bowl until smooth. Beat in crystallized ginger. Liqueur? Spread filling in prepared crust. Cover loosely and refrigerate at least 2 hours and up to 1 day.

For topping:
Overlap nectarine slices atop filling in concentric circles. Don’t feel bad if you get lazy by the time you get to the center. I did.

Brush with jam. Sprinkle with chopped crystallized ginger. Remove sides of tart pan by putting the tart on a can or jar and pulling the rim down. Serve, or refrigerate up to 6 hours.

***

I have read a bunch of great books lately. I thought I would share:

Spin

The Last Chinese Chef

One Thousand White Women

I originally envisioned this post for Weekend Cookbook Challenge 17, but I didn’t get it up in time. Most of this week (in the evening) has been devoted to working on the wedding website with jwa. Happily, save the date cards went out last Thursday. Well, at least the main bulk of them — there’s a few still lingering on the dining room table while we locate addresses.. Hopefully, those will make it out this week.

But, let’s move on. This recipe is from Everyday Italian and it turned out pretty well. The texture is a little different due to the cornmeal but once you get used to that, it’s really quite good. In addition to the almond paste, I also added about a teaspoon of almond extract, based on the recommendations from reviewers on the site.

Almond Cake
1/2 cup fine yellow cornmeal
1/2 cup cake flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 stick (4 ounces) unsalted butter, softened
1/4 cup almond paste, cut into half-inch pieces
1 1/4 cups confectioners’ sugar, plus more for dusting
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 tsp almond extract
2 eggs
4 egg yolks
1/4 cup sour cream

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease an 8-inch round cake pan with vegetable spray or you could also butter and flour the cake pan. Your choice. After you decide that, in a medium bowl, whisk together the cornmeal, cake flour and baking powder and set aside.

Then, using a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, beat the butter and almond paste on high speed until smooth, about 5 minutes. Reduce speed to low and slowly add confectioners’ sugar. Mix until thoroughly combined and light and fluffy.

Raise speed to high and add the vanilla and almond extracts, whole eggs and egg yolks, 1 at a time. Mix until well combined. Reduce speed to medium and add the sour cream and dry ingredients and mix until just incorporated.

Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan and smooth the surface with a spatula.

Bake in the lower third of the oven for 35 minutes, or until the cake is golden and pulls away from the sides of the pan.

Transfer pan to a wire rack and let cool. Remove from pan and dust with confectioners’ sugar.

Let cool a few minutes and dive in!

This month’s Sugar High Friday 31 is hosted by Seven Spoons and the theme is — “Shades of White.” Fun! Of course, it would have been nice if I had realized that my post was supposed to be up at the beginning of the week but I read the announcement wrong…Hopefully, I can sneak my entry in!

This is a neutral shade and S-I-M-P-L-E to make. Chocolate. Nuts. Assorted flavor whatnots (lavender + orange zest). That is all.

White Chocolate Clusters with Lavender & Orange Zest
1 cup white chocolate chips
1 cup cashews (edited to add: I used roasted, lightly salted)
1/2 tsp dried lavender
1/2 tsp orange zest

To begin, put the chips, orange zest and lavender in a microwave-safe bowl. Heat in 30 second increments, stirring between each time, until the chocolate is melted. You could also, of course, use a double-boiler for this.

Add the cashews to the melted chocolate and mix until all the nuts are coated.

Scoop 3-4 cashews out in a cluster. I found using two spoons worked well for this. Drop the clusters on a parchment-lined baking sheet.

Let cool for about 15 minutes, then pop into the refrigerator to completely firm up — about 30 more minutes.

Because of the orange zest and Spring weather, I would store these in the fridge. I doubt they will last longer than a few days (because you will eat them all, not because they will go bad).

Thanks again to Seven Spoons for hosting SHF31!

Look, strawberry season is upon us, so says the new issue of Bon Appétit (June 2007), which is where this delicious recipe comes from. I made these little chocolatey shortcakes for dessert when jwa’s parents were over for dinner Saturday night. Making the biscuits one day ahead worked well and it was also easy to make the strawberries a couple of hours before serving. All the make ahead possibilities are very helpful when having guests over.

You may notice that recipe calls for whipping cream to make the biscuits. Oh, my. Now, I normally would have subbed the cream with 2% milk (and not whipped it) but since this was for company, I went ahead and used the cream. That’s what makes it decadent! I also drizzled a little extra Grand Marnier onto the biscuits before covering with the strawberries.

Biscuits
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
1 cup chilled whipping cream (and perhaps 2-3 tbsp more)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Strawberries
2 pounds small strawberries, hulled, quartered (about 3 1/2 cups)
4 tbsp powdered sugar, divided
1/4 cup fresh orange juice
2 tbsp Grand Marnier or other orange liqueur (optional: 6 extra tsp of the liqueur)
1/2 tsp finely grated orange peel
Pinch of salt

1 cup chilled whipping cream
Orange zest for garnish

For the biscuits
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line baking sheet with parchment. Whisk first 5 ingredients in large bowl. Using electric mixer, beat cream and vanilla in medium bowl until firm peaks form.

Stir cream into flour mixture until moist clumps form. Transfer mixture to lightly floured surface and knead gently until dough forms ball, about 10 turns.

Too crumbly…

I found that I needed more moisture here, so I added a couple of tablespoons more cream until I managed to knead a ball.

Just right…

Pat the dough out to 3/4-inch thickness. Using 3-inch cutter, cut out biscuits. Gather dough, pat out again, and cut out total of 6 biscuits. Place biscuits on prepared baking sheet.

Bake biscuits until toothpick inserted into centers comes out clean, about 15 minutes. Transfer to rack; and cool. Let stand at room temperature until serving or cool completely and store in an airtight container until using.

For strawberries:
Stir strawberries, two tablespoons (I decreased this from the recipe’s original six tablespoons) powdered sugar, and next four ingredients in medium bowl. Cover and chill at least two hours and up to five hours.

Next, using electric mixer, beat chilled whipping cream and remaining two tablespoons powdered sugar until soft peaks form. You could also add a little more (one teaspoon or so) of the Grand Marnier. You know, just for fun. Now, place one biscuit on each of your plates. I popped the biscuits in the microwave for about 30 seconds to warm them up just a bit. Then, after plating four of them, I drizzled about 1 teaspoon of Grand Marnier on each biscuit.

To finish it, place a few large spoonful of berries with juices atop the biscuits. Top with whipped cream. Now, whatever will we do with the leftover two chocolate biscuits?

Here’s a picture of the huge lamb platter I made for dinner — red wine, rosemary & garlic grilled lamb tenderloin over lentils and carrots with sauteed zucchini and asparagus on the side. Oh and the awesome toasted Parmesan flatbread from Eating Well magazine.