Tag: #hazelnuts
Thumbprints: Thumbs Up for Day 9 of 12 Days of Cookies

Thumbprints: Thumbs Up for Day 9 of 12 Days of Cookies

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Only 3 more cookies to bake for my 12 days of cookies 2018.  Cookie no. 9 is a riff on my go-to thumbprint cookie.  I decided to use toasted hazelnuts in place of walnuts.  Ok, not earth-shattering but enough of a twist that the hubster noticed (he is a thumbprint afficionado) and loved the nuanced change. The hazelnut MO?  More assertive than other nuts such as almonds or pecans, buttery and sweet.  It’s flavor shines in these thumbprint cookies. I filled the center with a berry-lime jam I had made at the end of summer and added a tease of vanilla to the dough to complement the jam.  Yummy!

Measure the amount of  nuts needed before grinding them.  You want the nuts to be finely ground but not to the point  where it starts to get pasty.

Take out your trusty ice cream/cookie scoop. I use a tablespoon scoop and line up the cookie dough balls, assembly line mentality, on a sheet.  Place dough balls on a cookie sheet approximately 1.5-2 inches apart. Press each one to flatten to 1/4-3/8 inch thick (thicker if larger).  Use the end of a wooden spoon or utensil of similar size, to create a depression in the center of each cookie.  I use a hand blender to puree my jam (no fruit lumps!) and a squeeze bottle to squirt the jam into the center of each cookie. How easy is that?

This turned out to be a delish version of thumbprint cookies.  Perfect during the holidays and especially nice with a bit of the bubbly to bring in the new year!

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Riff on Thumbprint Cookies

Course cookies
Cuisine American
Keyword thumbprints
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Total Time 30 minutes

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 cup coarsely chopped toasted hazelnuts
  • 1 cup butter at room temperature
  • 3/4 cup granulated sugar
  • 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/4 cup seedless berry-lime preserves or your choice
  • Dash of salt
  • Powdered sugar

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  • Chop nuts in food processor until very fine. Beat butter, nuts, salt and granulated sugar in mixer bowl until light. Beat in flour into blended.
  • Shape dough into 1 inch balls.
  • Place 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets and flatten to 1 1/2 inch circle.
  • Press into centers with a fingertip.
  • Fill each indentation with 1/4 teaspoon preserves.
  • Bake 10-12 minutes, until golden.
  • Cool.
  • Sift confectioner's sugar over cookies.

Notes

Substitute your favorite jam, I plan to use a pineapple-orange jam for the next batch.
Blueberry Avocado Spinach Salad (It’s Gettin Hot In Here, So Take Out All Your Salad Greens)

Blueberry Avocado Spinach Salad (It’s Gettin Hot In Here, So Take Out All Your Salad Greens)

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Woohoo, it is going to get really hot this weekend! When the temperature hits 3 digits it’s time to get out of the kitchen as fast as you can. Time for al fresco dining-cool, refreshing salads, sweet and juicy summer fruits accompanied by an array of cheeses. A pitcher of Sangria…just maybe we can get through this heatwave.  Found a tasty and eye-catching salad from Over Easy by Joy the Baker (latest book and amazing blog) that I love, call it my salad of the week, or month or maybe year, Blueberry Avocado Spinach Salad. The list of star studded ingredients  in this green menagerie include toasted hazelnuts, blueberries, avocados and cucumbers. Dressed with a sweet, slightly tart dressing that reminds me of a poppyseed dressing popular on spinach salads back in the day, it’s dee-licious.

Get to the farmer’s market now and pick up sweet, juicy peaches and nectarines along with your salad fixins!

I have gone crazy with this salad with additional yummies-pancetta “cracklins” or crispy bacon bits, thinly sliced red onions for some bite, or sliced hard-boiled eggs for protein, YUM.  The toasted hazelnuts have no substitute, their crunch and flavor are hard to beat in this salad and they go so well with blueberries, like Fred and Ginger.

The dressing is easy and quick.  Start with a squeeze of lemon juice, a dollop of dijon mustard, glop of honey and whisk in some EVOO.  Alternative easy method: throw it all in a bottle and shake, shake shake. Season with salt and pepper to taste and that’s it.  You don’t need no stinkin’ supermarket bottle stuff, nope.

Add sliced hard-bolied eggs, thinly sliced red onions or green onions, diced, all optional but yummy

This is a lovely salad, hope you will try it and share it with friends and family.

Blueberry Avocado Spinach Salad

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Blueberry Avocado Spinach Salad

Perfect during blueberry season, a spinach salad with avocado, slices of hard-boiled egg and hazelnuts all of which compliments blueberries dressed with honey mustard dressing.
Course dinner, first course, lunch, Salad
Cuisine American
Keyword avocado, blueberry, Caesar Salad, hazelnuts, honey mustard dressing, spinach
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Total Time 30 minutes

Ingredients

The Dressing

  • 2 tbsp Honey
  • 1 tbsp. Dijon mustard
  • ¼ tsp. sea salt
  • ¼ tsp. black pepper
  • 4 tbsp. fresh lemon juice
  • ¼ cup olive oil

The Fixings

  • 6 cups Baby spinach (generous cups) washed, rinsed and dried
  • 1 cup fresh blueberries
  • 1 cup English or Persian cucumber thinly sliced
  • 1/3 cup toasted hazelnuts coarsely chopped
  • 1 ripe avocado thinly sliced
  • 1-2 hard-boiled eggs sliced

Instructions

  • Whisk together honey, mustard, salt and pepper in a small bowl. Whisk in lemon juice. Add olive oil in a slow, steady stream, whisking constantly, until mixture is emulsified and thick. Taste, and season with additional salt and pepper as desired.
  • Toss together spinach, blueberries, cucumber and 1/2 of the hazelnuts in a large bowl. Drizzle dressing over the salad, and toss to combine. Sprinkle with remaining hazelnuts. Top with avocado.

Notes

Optional adds:
2 hard boiled eggs, sliced, Bacon or pancetta bits fried crisp, as little or as much as you like,
1/4 small red onion, thinly sliced, or
2 green onions, sliced