Book Reviews Archives - Page 4 of 6

Lemon Cookie Very Pretty & The Cookie Is So Sweet (Blueberry-Lemon Shortbread)

By threejamigos | November 10, 2017 | Comments 2 comments

Blueberry-Lemon Shortbread from Miranda Couse’s Easy Homemade Cookie Cookbook is a winner. These cookies remind me of my favorite scones which have dried blueberries and lemon zest in them. As soon as I spied the recipe I knew I had to try it. The cookies are made with powdered sugar which helps to create a tender cookie. A combination of lemon juice and lemon zest give the cookies their tart, lemony flavor. Want less pucker? Substitute Meyer lemon or a combination of lemon and orange juice in the cookie. The use of dried blueberries in these delicious morsels intensifies the berry flavor and provides a foil to the lemon. Trader Joe’s carries wild dried blueberries that work perfectly.

The dough is rolled out to approximately 3/8-1/2 inch thickness. I’m sure the dough if chilled, would be firm enough to shape into a log for slice and bake cookies. As I sat munching on one the thought occurred to me that dried cranberries and orange would also be delicious. Can’t wait to make my next batch. If you try a different flavor combination, let me know!

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Lemon Blueberry Shortbread from Easy Homemade Cookie Cookbook

Delicious citrus-berry, buttery cookie!

Course cookies

Cuisine American

Keyword blueberry, cookies, lemon, Lemon blueberry shortbread, Shortbread

Ingredients

MAKES ABOUT 12 COOKIES
Prep: 15 minutes Chill: 30 minutes
Bake: 14 to 15 minutes
Shelf Life: 4 to 5 days
½ cup 1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature
7 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
1½ tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 cup all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon table salt
¼ cup chopped dried blueberries Feel free to substitute other dried fruit, great combo would be orange and dried cranberries, use your imagination, like lime and strawberry

Instructions

In a large mixing bowl, using an electric mixer on medium speed or a wooden spoon, beat together the butter and both sugars until light and creamy. This will take about 3 minutes if using an electric mixer or 5 to 6 minutes if creaming by hand. Add the lemon zest and lemon juice and beat to combine. Add the flour and salt, and beat on low speed or by hand until the dough comes together about 1 minute. Using a rubber spatula, fold in the blueberries until incorporated.
Place the dough between two sheets of wax paper or parchment paper. Using a rolling pin, roll out the dough to an even ½-inch thickness. Wrap the dough in the paper and refrigerate until firm, about 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
Using a 2-inch round cookie cutter, cut out the cookies and place them 2 inches apart on the prepared cookie sheet. Rechill if they seem soft.
Bake 14-15 minutes until edges are golden brown. Start checking at 12 minutes!
Let the cookies rest on the sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling.
Like many shortbread, flavors will develop and the cookie will be even better the next day!

A Tale of Two Cookbooks (Coffee Cheesecake Swirled Brownies)

By threejamigos | November 10, 2017 | Comments 0 Comment

For those familiar with Food52 Piglet Tournament of Cookbooks, I received two cookbooks this past week that made me feel like one of the judges for the tourney. In a nutshell, The Piglet is like March Madness, sixteen cookbooks go head to head, winner goes on, loser goes home. Judges are selected by Food52 staff and they are not just from the culinary world, but artists, writers, journalists (no pharmacists yet hint, hint) who read and cook from each book and pick their favorite. Pairings are eclectic and at times exasperating (Robicelli’s Cupcakes vs.The Persian Table, go figure). But that’s what makes it interesting and so much fun.

Which brings me back to the two cookbooks I received, Easy Homemade Cookie Cookbook and Kristen Kish Cooking. One homey, approachable, familiar and the other dazzling, appealing, intimidating-polar opposites.

I’ll start with the familiar. Miranda Couse’s Easy Homemade Cookie Cookbook (not the catchiest title), is a compendium of standard and favorite cookie recipes. I know, do I need another cookie book? Nope. But this one does deserve a spot on my bookshelf and yours. The recipes are well organized, straightforward, and easy to follow. Helpful tips and recipe tweaks are interspersed throughout the book and each recipe starts with a blurb on how many cookies it makes, baking temperature and time and their shelf life. There are photos but not for every recipe which would have been nice. The book is divided into types of cookies including drop cookies, bars and brownies, and sandwich cookies to name a few. I have tried two recipes so far and both have passed the taste test. The first cookie that caught my eye was a Blueberry-Lemon Shortbread which is so good, it deserves its own post. The second recipe I tried, though brownies are not my thing, was the Coffee Cheesecake Swirled Brownies. Chocolatey and decadent, the cocoa brownie layer provided a dense, gooey base for the luscious coffee spiked cream cheese top. I made new friends when I showed up to work with these bad boys.

Pour dollop and swirl, the name of the game.

As I flipped through the book a thought kept running through my mind, Jamie would love this book and I plan to get her a copy of her own.

A nod to Kristen Kish’s cookbook which I will save for a weekend to read, drool over and tackle. Stay tuned.

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Coffee Cheesecake Swirled Brownies

Ingredients

MAKES 9 BROWNIES
Prep: 25 minutes
Bake: About 35 minutes
Shelf Life: 4 to 5 days

For the Brownies:

½ cup all-purpose flour
½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
½ teaspoon table salt
½ cup 1 stick unsalted butter, melted
1¼ cups granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
¼ teaspoon instant coffee granules

For the Cheesecake

8 ounces cream cheese at room temperature
⅓ cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
½ teaspoon instant coffee granules.

Instructions

To make brownie:

1.Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Line an 8-inch square baking pan with aluminum foil and spray it with cooking spray. (or use parchment paper)
2.In a medium mixing bowl, sift or whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, and salt.
3.In a large mixing bowl, using an electric mixer on medium speed or a wooden spoon, beat together the melted butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla, and coffee granules until thick and creamy. This will take about 2 minutes if using an electric mixer or 4 to 5 minutes if creaming by hand. Add the dry ingredients and beat on low speed or by hand until incorporated, about 30 seconds.
4.Reserve about ¼ cup of the brownie batter for the top. Transfer the remaining brownie batter to the prepared pan and smooth it out into an even layer.

To make the cheesecake

1.In a large mixing bowl, using an electric mixer on medium speed or a wooden spoon, beat together the cream cheese and sugar until light and creamy. This will take about 1 minute if using an electric mixer or 2 to 3 minutes if creaming by hand. Add the egg and instant coffee, and beat to incorporate.
2.Using a spoon, dollop the cheesecake batter on top of the brownie mix. Add a dollop of the reserved ¼ cup of the brownie batter in the center of each cheesecake dollop. Using a skewer or butter knife, swirl the batters together.
3.Bake for about 35 minutes, until the top is set.
4.Let the brownies cool to room temperature and then refrigerate for 1 to 2 hours to set.
To serve, cut into 9 bars. Serve the bars chilled or let them come to room temperature before serving.
Add more chocolate to create a rich, dense brownie. Do so by melting 4 ounces of semisweet baking chocolate with the butter or add 1/2 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips to batter.

Holiday Cookies, Already? (Book Review-Holiday Cookies)

By threejamigos | October 16, 2017 | Comments 0 Comment

I love cookies and every year I look forward to baking holiday cookies to share with family and friends. The process for which cookies end up in my annual holiday platter starts..well, the day after Christmas. Throughout the year I keep an eye out for new cookie recipes to go along with my tried and true traditional shortbread and Jan Hagels that I make every year.
So of course I jumped at the chance to review a new book from Blogging for Books aptly titled Holiday Cookies by Elisabet Der Nederlanden. The collection is filled with classic, traditional cookies like Spritz cookies, green and red pinwheels and gingerbread. She does add a twist to many by varying the spices and flavors-eggnog madeleines, saffron biscotti or fig and cardamon rugelach which definitely add interest. I chose the Malted Milk Chocolate Cookies to try. It called to the kid in me and conjured up images of Malt-o-meal, Ovaltine and Whoppers. This is the only recipe I have tried so far and unfortunately the cookie was pretty nondescript. Neither the malt flavor or chocolate were stood out. The cookies did not spread or crack as much as the cookies pictured, perhaps too much flour on my part (weights people). I will try other cookies in the book hope I find one for my annual holiday assortment. l’ll update my review when I do. The recipes depend solely on volume measurements and not weights, bummers. I love cookbooks that contain both weight and volume measurements. I am a big fan of having a scale it is much more accurate and reliable.
The book starts with a section on how to pack cookies and decorate your cookies with a festive flair. Chapters are organized by classics, exchange cookies, spice and around the world. She also includes a chapter on candy and decorating. The recipes are organized with ingredients in the column on the left and directions on the right, very easy to follow. THE PHOTOS ARE GORGEOUS and the book is worth its weight in presentation ideas. Can’t wait to try a couple more recipes.

Music City, Not Just About the Eats

By threejamigos | September 13, 2017 | Comments 0 Comment

Our trip to Vanderbilt for Family Weekend 2016 was more about hanging out with the kid and his classmates. We made it to campus only once (family weekend is really for the freshman parents, lol) and that was for Vanderbilt’s program Strong Inside: Storytelling, Music and Performance. Last year we did not attend the student show which included the Meladores (Vandy’s acapella group). So this year we assumed they would be performing at the show..wrong. I need to read the fine print more carefully next time. This year’s show featured Vandy alum and author Andrew Maraniss and his book, Strong Inside . The story of Perry Wallace, the first African American basketball player in the SEC and Vanderbilt student. His courage, resiliency and character are tested as he faced racism both individual and institutional. Like Jackie Robinson, Perry was a reluctant pioneer of the civil rights movement. Far too often non-fiction books turn into a boring litany of facts and dates, Maraniss’s writing style and Wallace’s life story runs counter to this notion. Strong Inside is a very compelling read. (Addendum: Coming Fall 2017 Documentary on Perry Wallace)

Though the Meladores did not perform, I really enjoyed the show. Student performances of dance, poetry were bookended by Mr. Maraniss reading an excerpt from Strong Inside and Vandy alum country rocker, Marshall Chapman. Ms. Chapman read from her book, Goodbye, Little Rock and Roller and sang. I am a convert to her soulful music and her life story. Growing up in the South, she tells of the first time she saw Elvis. Seven years old and sitting in the town theatre smitten by the King. Touring with icons such as Jimmy Buffet, playing in honkey tonks, Marshall’s story is brought to life in her music and words. A wonderful storyteller and an amazing musician.

Being a Californian, I never thought my kids would end up in the South for school but life is full of surprises and it has given them and me the opportunity to experience a part of America that I would never have dreamed of.

Blaze of Glory Marshall Chapman

52 Ways to Have Your Salad

By threejamigos | July 28, 2017 | Comments 0 Comment

Slip out the bowl Joe, toss some new greens, Jean…just get yourself free..to make some satisfying salads. After quite the wait I received a copy of Food 52 Mighty Salads from Blogging for Books. I flipped through the book and with my trusty pad of post it notes tagged quite a few recipes I wanted to try. This is a book of main dish salads, hearty and substantial enough to serve alone. The book is organized by ingredient, leafy greens, not so leafy greens, grains, pasta and bread, meat and fish and seafood. The photos are gorgeous and the recipes themselves are laid out well. Tips and how to’s are interspersed throughout the book. I am guessing different people submitted various recipes. Some recipes have explicit directions while others, coincidentally the ones I tried, were a bit looser ie. “blend ingredients together”. I had to think for a second with what? A food processor, blender, or would a bowl and a whisk suffice?

A closer look at the recipes narrowed down which ones I wanted to try, many were pretty involved or contained ingredients I didn’t have on hand. I ended up with 4 recipes, Fresh Corn Cakes with Crab-Tomato Salad, Lamb Kebabs Grilled with Tomato Cucumber Salad, Half Blistered Tomato Pasta Salad and the Brioche Croutons (ok, not a salad but a bonus recipe).

Right off hand I would say none of the recipes I tried WOWED me. With every dish a tweak would pop into my head or I would think this is not bad but it’s missing something. The Corn Cakes were tasty, a bit heavy but had a nice crunch from the cornmeal and corn. The tomato-crab salad fell flat and needed a bigger hit of acid. I added a squeeze of lemon trying to give it some pop. I also would have thrown some fresh corn in with tomatoes and crab for some crunch and sweetness. Full disclosure, I ended up hitting it with a dollop of Siracha mayo, but that’s me.

The pasta salad was a hit with the hubby but I once again thought it could use a flavor pop. I julienned my basil and mint to distribute the herbs through the salad more evenly. It reminded me of a de-constructed pesto.

The grilled lamb kebabs were tender and juicy from the marinade. I only had greek yogurt on hand so the marinade was thick and left the kebabs a bit pale in color. The sauce of tahini and yogurt was flat so I added a sprinkle of Aleppo pepper, be generous with the salt. The tomatoes and cucumbers are a classic, I would add slivered red onion for pop and a sprinkling of feta to finish next time.

Brioche toasted with honey and walnuts and sprinkled with sea salt. Adds a nice touch to yogurt or fresh seasonal fruits-peaches or berries. My new favorite breakfast bowl, Greek yogurt, fresh berries drizzled with honey and topped with the croutons and toasted walnuts. Stupid easy and a winner.

I don’t think I can give this book a resounding thumbs up but it is a solid book. If I try more recipes I’ll keep you posted.

Blueberry Cobbler with a Cornmeal-Sugar Cookie Crust

By threejamigos | April 5, 2017 | Comments 1 comment

Have you been watching A Chef’s Life on PBS? You should. It follows Chef Vivian Howard who after hobnobbing in NYC for a couple of years moved back home to North Carolina and opened a farm to table restaurant. We are not talking Asheville or Charlotte, urban areas where the culinary scenes are blossoming but in her hometown of Kinston (where? get out your AAA map). From Kinston, she is creating beautiful down-home Southern food using local ingredients.
I may never find myself in Kinston but fortunately, she has written a cookbook, Deep Run Roots, that is filled with tantalizing recipes, gorgeous photos and wonderful stories about her hometown, family and friends. It’s a hefty book organized by ingredients and as I flipped through it I found myself marking quite a few of the recipes.

One of the many recipes I bookmarked with a post-it note was the Blueberry Cobbler with Cornmeal Sugar Cookie Crust. Actually ,I might have put 2 sticky notes on it as I am a sucker for homey desserts like cobblers. Start early if you want to make this as both the crust and the blueberries need “sitting” time. While the dough for the topping chills, the blueberries macerate in sugar and lemon juice. Let me just tell y’all now, this cobbler is AMAZING. The crust is tender and buttery with an ever so slight crunch from the cornmeal, it literally melts in your mouth. Bubbling underneath is a sweet blueberry compote brightened by lemon zest and juice. Of course, I took it up another notch by adding a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Sometimes you just gotta go for it.

The nitty gritty. I haven’t quite figured out the different types of cornmeal, stone ground vs. regular milled I am definitely open to advice or info on the different kinds. I used Bob’s Red Mill Stone Ground Corn Flour which is pretty fine with just a slight crunch. I tried fine stone ground cornmeal in scones before and was not crazy about the grittiness. I guess I would choose whichever cornmeal you use and like for cornbread for this cobbler.

The crust is not a dough you would roll. It is similar to a drop cookie dough. I scooped out 1/3-1/2 cup portions and used saran wrap (it’s sticky) to shape the dough into 1/2 inch thick discs for my ramekins. You could do the same for a 9×12 pan or any comparable sized baking dish and lay the discs side by side covering as much fruit as possible.

If using ramekins reduce the baking time to about 30 minutes. Make sure to use a tray or sheet as they will bubble over (a picture is worth a thousand words). I made half the recipe filling which filled four one cup ramekins. I stashed the extra dough in the fridge for another day.

I plan on trying different berries and seasonal fruits with this recipe. I’m already dreaming about mixed berries (strawberries, blackberries and blueberries) and summer stone fruit (peaches, nectarines, plums) versions.

Blueberry Cobbler with Cornmeal Sugar Cookie Crust from Deep Run Roots

Course comfort food, Dessert

Cuisine American

Keyword blueberry, butter, cobbler, cornmeal, vivian howard

Ingredients

For the Filling:

2 pound fresh blueberries or fruit of choice berries, stone fruit
3/4 to 1 cup sugar
4 tablespoons lemon juice
Zest of 2 lemons removed with microplane
1 teaspoon salt

Cornmeal Sugar Cookie Crust:

1 1/2 cups or 3 sticks unsalted butter softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon light brown sugar
1 large egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup A.P. flour
1 cup cornmeal
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

Instructions

Make the Filling:

Put all the ingredients in a bowl and press down with the back of a spoon to burst some of the berries. Stir it all together and cover.
Let the berries and sugar hang out for about two hours or overnight, stirring when it’s convenient.
After about two hours, lots of juice would have leeched out of your fruit. Strain the juice and and add it to a small saucepan. Reduce the juice by half, or until it’s nice and syrupy. Add the syrupy stuff back to your fruit and stir to combine. It should coat and cling to the fruit like that scary cherry pie filling from the can.

Make the Crust:

Combine the flour, baking powder and salt in a small bowl. Cream together the butter and sugars in a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment until light and fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla and paddle to incorporate. Slowly add the flour until just combined.
Remove the dough from the bowl, cover it well with plastic wrap, and let it rest. The cookie dough can be made several days in advance. You could even make a larger batch, freeze it.

Assemble the Cobblers:

Butter your 9x12 oven-safe dish and spoon the fruit into it. Or if you have ramekins/souffle dishes you can make individual servings.
What’s important is the filling to topping ratio. For every 1 1/2 inch of filling, you want 1/2 inch cookie crust. If your dishes go deeper, just increase both by the ratio.
If your topping is chilled, allow it to come to room temperature. Generally for something like this, you would be instructed to flour your work surface and roll out the dough, but for this recipe, that doesn’t really work. So just take your hands, grab a nice ball of the soft, kind of sticky dough and flatten it out between your palms until it’s approximately 1/2 inch thick. Lay that flattened, irregular disk on top of the fruit and move on to your next handful. The goal is to pretty much cover the fruit filling, without overlap but with very little exposed fruit in between. (I used plastic wrap to shape the dough)
Ideally you want to place the baking dish on top of a larger cookie sheet because, chances are, it’s going to bubble over, and I think that’s a good thing (unless I’m washing the dishes).
Bake it at 350 for about an hour. The top should be really nice and brown, not pale, but dark golden and slightly crispy looking.
Individual dishes will bake in less time, approximately 30 minutes.

Tips/Techniques

We’ve used the obvious like blueberries, blackberries, cherries, strawberries, plums, apricots and peaches for sure. But we’ve also used figs, apples, oranges, and a combination of tangerines and cranberries for a festive looking holiday cobbler. Feel free to combine fruits and add spices to suit the occasion. Clove, allspice and cinnamon work well with fruits like fig and apple.

Let’s Get Ready to Crumble! (Cranberry Apricot Oatmeal Cookies)

By threejamigos | April 3, 2017 | Comments 1 comment

There is this wonderful bookstore in the City (San Francisco for all you out of towners) called Omnivore. It is a tiny tiny storefront in the middle of a residential neighborhood (parking sucks) close to Delores Park that has become the mecca for cookbook lovers and foodies. Their schedule of speakers is literally the A list of cookbook authors and chefs. I drove up to Omnivore right after the election to see Dorie Greenspan the baking guru. I needed a pick me up and her new book Dorie’s Cookies was just the answer.

Last weekend Omnivore threw a cookie contest or as they called it a Cookie Crumble. You could either bake a batch of cookies or pay 5 dollars to taste and judge ever tasty morsel. I signed up to bring cookies of course.

Tactically I knew if I was serious I needed to make a cookie that stood out, had some sort of chocolate in it, maybe a different spice, a catchy name and garnered attention at first glance (sprinkles, icing, I have no shame cookie bling). After mulling it over and perusing through different baking books and blogs I came up with…….drum roll please…..

Oatmeal Cookie!

Whaaat? I know, that hardly fits my criteria for a winning cookie. In fact quite the opposite.

Let me explain, one of my favorite blogs Ipso Fatto had posted an oatmeal cookie that she had just made. That one wasn’t particularly memorable but it brought to mind another recipe she had tried that she felt was much better, a delicious Cranberry Apricot Oatmeal Cookie from the Dahlia Bakery Cookbook (of course I have it, the beauty of an addiction). Oooh, it looked so yummy and sounded soooo good. Bits of apricot and cranberry in an oatmeal cookie flavored with cloves, ginger, cinnamon…buttery, spicey, chewy with crispy edges. Despite my initial strategic thinking this became THE one.

We headed to the city cookies in hand. Checking Omnivore’s FB page, eight people signed up. Looking good…

Uh-oh, did ALL these people forget to sign up? Sheesh!

Whoa! At least fifty entries and that’s the good news. The bad news, a gazillion (slight exaggeration) of them looked like oatmeal cookies. Oh well.

and the winner is…not me (damn) but……a chocolate cookie with white chocolate drizzles (the one on the right side of the plate, I admit it was pretty darn good). I should have stuck to my tactical plan.

Five dollars for this plate of cookies. Guy in golden pants-SCORE. He was determined to get one of each cookie and I think he came darn close. I snapped a quick pic, I think I have plate envy.

So my cookies didn’t win, but they are yummy and if you like oatmeal raisin cookies add this one to your baking bucket list. A little bit more spice than a classic oatmeal cookie and the addition of apricots, cranberries, not just raisins makes for a delicious cookie.

I do have a couple tricks up my sleeve when making them. For uniformly sized cookies, use an ice cream scoop to portion out the dough. I often chill my dough to minimize spreading. I scoop all the dough, put it on a sheet and place it in the fridge. To get the nice craggy tops, about 3-4 minutes before the cookies are done, (they’ll look puffy) quickly open your oven door, lift and rap the cookie sheet once or twice on the wire shelf. The cookies will “deflate” and develop the crevices and ridges. If you want the uniform top then ignore the rapping. My baking time was shorter, closer to 12-14 minutes. Not all your cookies come out round? As soon as I remove the cookies from the oven I survey them for odd shapes. The cookies are still soft and pliable so with a knife or spatula go ahead and gently push the edges of the cookie to shape them. Voila perfectly round cookies. Is this cheating?…I won’t tell if you don’t.

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Cranberry Apricot Oatmeal Cookies

Ingredients

2 cups plus 2 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
2 1/2 cups old fashioned oatmeal
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup dried apricots diced
1/3 cups golden raisins
1/3 cup dried cranberries
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons unsalted butter softened
1 1/4 cup brown sugar packed
3/4 cup + 2 tablespoons white sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs

Instructions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Sift together the flour, baking soda, and spices. Stir in the oats and salt. Set aside.
In another bowl combine dried fruits.
In the mixer using a paddle attachment on med-high cream butter, both sugars and vanilla until pale and fluffy, approximately 4-5 minutes.
Add eggs, one at a time.
On low speed, add the dry ingredients in 3 additions and mix until just combined. Do not overmix. Add the dried fruits and mix until combined.
Put on cookie sheets and flatten to 1/2 inch thickness.
Bake until golden brown around the edges and still slightly pale in the middle, 14-18 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through baking.
Remove and allow to cool at least 10 minutes before removing from the pan.

32 Yolks: Eric Ripert, Biography of a Silver Fox

By threejamigos | March 11, 2017 | Comments 0 Comment

Did I get you with the title? Ok, I made the Silver Fox part up although he is nice looking with an endearing accent. The tag line of his book is actually From My Mother’s Table to Working the Line. I wanted to get your attention as I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I hope others will want to read it too.

I own way too many cookbooks. I spend an inordinate amount of time thinking about food, reading about food and talking about food. But, I AM NOT A FOODIE. Ok, that could undoubtedly be called Fake News or alternative facts. I checked in on Blogging for Books to see if there were any books that peaked my interest. No cookbooks, darn. But there was 32 Yolks, Eric Ripert’s biography. The celebrity French chef of the fabled Le Bernardin in New York. I have to admit I like watching him pal around with Anthony Bourdain on Parts Unknown and I do love his accent. And-it’s an audiobook, perfect for my long commute and my self imposed vacation from the news.

I wasn’t expecting a whole lot. Boy meets saute’ pan in France, moves to US and becomes stud chef and lives happily ever after. But I was pleasantly surprised at how invested I became in his life story as I listened. His was not the fairy tale up bringing and definitely not the classic American chef story of “I was studying at (insert impressive university) and one night ended up in the kitchen of (oh for kicks lets say Chez Panisse) because they were shorthanded. Thus the dinner was saved and my culinary career was born” (much to the chagrin of the parents that paid their college tuition).

On the contrary, life was not a bowl of cherries for Mr. Ripert. His life story is a testament to the phrase adversity builds character. An idyllic early childhood ends abruptly with the divorce of his parents. His story is told from the heart. You feel his pain and disappointment, his anger but ultimately his resolve. Food was his escape and cooking became his passion. His resiliency made him who he is today. I don’t want to give too much away but I will tell you the book ends when he embarks on a new life leaving France behind. My reaction was “nooooo, it can’t end here.

I reviewed the audio version of 32 Yolks for Blogging for Books. I thought the reader had a pleasant enough voice and kept me engaged in the story. I eagerly await Chef Ripert’s next book.

Got Dough? (Tasties)

By threejamigos | March 1, 2017 | Comments 2 comments

In life there are two sides to everything. The yin and yang of the universe. There are those that twist their Oreos apart, lick the frosting off the cookie and then eat each cookie (seems kind of silly to me) versus those that absolutely never take Oreos apart but eat the cookie and frosting together. Or how about vanilla or chocolate? Coke or Pepsi?

Crust or filling? ……….CRUST OF COURSE, DUH.

So, what does one do with the scraps of dough left from the pie that’s baking in the oven? It would be a shame to let it go to waste. Not quite enough for another pie but enough to make you feel guilty if you toss all that buttery, flaky goodness out.

Tasties to the rescue. One of the many delightful recipes from The Art of the Pie by Kate McDermott. This is my new bible on pie. Detailed instructions on everything you ever wanted to know about pie crusts and fillings written in a warm easy style. The majority of recipes are fruit based and pretty classic, apple, blueberry, strawberry rhubarb. A small section on hand pies, mini pies and savory pies. Photos are gorgeous. As a bonus, stories by the author add a very personal feel to the book. Plus…she has a blog The Art of the Pie, definitely worth checking out.

Back to the Tasties. The dough is formed into a rectangle and sprinkled with generous amounts of cinnamon & sugar. It is then rolled into a log and sliced into 1 inch thick segments. Sprinkled with more sugar and baked. So simple, why didn’t I think of that? I’m already dreaming of the next time I have leftover dough, maybe I’ll add nuts or use jam instead.

Sprinkle generously with cinnamon sugar, add nuts if you like.

Parchment underneath pastry makes rolling into a log much easier.

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Tasties from The Art of the Pie

Ingredients

Leftover Pie dough
Cinnamon
Sugar
egg white + 1T water
jam
finely chopped nuts

Instructions

Preheat oven to 425 degrees
Gather up extra dough trimmings and smoosh together gently
Roll dough on parchment paper into a rectangle approximately 1/8" thick
Generously sprinkle dough with sugar leaving a 1/2 inch border along one long side
Liberally top sugar with cinnamon (see photo) use a lot of cinnamon don't be shy!
Sprinkle finely chopped nuts on this if desired
Brush border without cinnamon sugar with a bit of water.
Using the parchment paper as a support to roll dough into a log starting with edge opposite of the brushed water border. Like a jelly-roll.
Turn log over so that seam side is down to help seal it.
Brush roll with egg wash or milk or cream
If roll seems soft, chill for 15-30 minutes before cutting.
Slice roll into 1 inch pieces and place on parchment lined baking sheet.
Bake for approximately 15 minutes until golden brown.
Remove from oven and sprinkle with additional granulated sugar.
Options: I would like to try using jam instead. Make sure you use parchment for ease of clean up.