Baby, it’s cold outside
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Category Archives: Sweets of sin
Winter warm-ups
Weather forecasters are often wrong.On the days when they are not, we often wish they were.So it is today, where the expected high in Eugene is to be around 30°F.At the moment, the thermometer perched precariously outside our home office window reads about 28°F.The snow that fell Sunday night and Monday morning is still coating our backyard, though the front street is now glistening wet with melted ice thanks to the brilliant sunlight today.
To combat this expected but still unusual chill, I’m using our dinner party tonight as an excuse to have the oven on for as long today as possible.With three space heaters running at full strength, the house is still cold thanks to protective, sun-blocking eaves, and house-wide hardwood floors.Last night I mixed the batter and patted out the logs for Almond and Orange Biscotti.I’ve amended the recipe for Lemon Walnut Biscotti from Bon Appetit magazine, seen here: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Lemon-Walnut-Biscotti-231901.I’m substituting almonds for the walnuts, orange peel for the lemon peel, and a mixture of freshly squeezed orange juice and orange liqueur for the lemon juice in the original recipe.Then I drizzled some of them with melted semi-sweet chocolate to really make them a dessert item.These cookies require not one, but two sessions in the oven; an excellent plot for subversive house heating.
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Later, I’ll make baked acorn squash, coating the flesh with a mixture of honey, brown mustard and melted butter before shutting them up for their hour and a half required cooking time.The spinach risotto with lemon and goat cheese (courtesy of Jaime Oliver) does not call for the use of my oven, but I should be able to accomplish a healthy amount of steam from the stovetop.
Here’s to my kitchen and keeping warm!
Diving into the deep-fry!
Behold, my friends:
These are pumpkin donuts. Yes, you heard me right. Pure pumpkin puree, pumpkin pie spice, brown sugar, buttermilk, (plus a few…) lovingly bubbled in oil.
Take a closer look:
Now, I’m not a big fan of cake donuts; I never have been. But these, well, I may never buy a donut ever again. Great plain, though with a little dusting of cinnamon sugar, these are the most delicious dessert I’ve had in months. Oh Halloween, the donut-holey plans I have for you…
Breadbasket
It has been a yeastless week.
I must confess a culinary secret: I am afraid of yeast.This is silly, and it is something I want to amend.One of my many New Year’s resolutions this past winter was to conquer one food fear.2008 has seen me conquer the pie crust.I think yeast will be next.
However, fear of yeast does not prevent me from making a number of really delicious baked goods.With an exam approaching, my oven is calling to me on a more and more frequent basis, and in preparation for a small dinner party we went to last night, I made Brownie Chunk Cookies.
This is a recipe from Bon Appetit magazine, a wedding gift that has kept on giving, and boy are we grateful!The really delightful thing about this recipe is that it involves two baking projects.First I made Old Fashioned Brownies (also from Bon Appetit), which turned out really fudgy and dense.They had excellent flavor, but eating them by themselves required large glasses of milk.However, the cookies call for ½ a recipe of the brownies, so after eating some and pawning off the rest at a study session, I cut up the remaining brownies into small chunks and mixed them and a cup of chopped walnuts into the cookie batter.The result is delectable.Topped with vanilla ice cream is even better.
Tonight I made our favorite biscuits: cheese and black pepper biscuits with herbs.This is really a method recipe rather than a strict set of ingredients.I use Bisquick’s heart healthy biscuit recipe, but add a good amount of ground black pepper, half a cup of grated cheese, and a few tablespoons of some herb.Tonight’s additions were an aged sharp cheddar we had left from some cheesy project, and finely chopped green onions.I sprinkle the tops with sea salt and bake them on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.They are best eaten soon after removal from the oven.If they still steam when broken in half, you’re doing something right.
"blackberry-eating in late September" 