Hazelnut Shortbread

1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp cardamom
2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup ground or finely chopped hazelnuts

Preheat oven to 350˚F.
Beat butter, sugar, salt, and cardamom until light. Add flour and stir until completely combined. Stir in hazelnuts. Press into 2 9-inch round cake or pie pans. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until edges begin to turn golden (be sure to check shortbread a few times toward the end of baking to avoid brown edges-they will taste burnt). Cool slightly in pan, slice into wedges, and serve, or remove to cooling rack.

Cocoa Coconut Citrus Cake

1st layer: Lemon cake with lemon glaze

2nd layer: Coconut cake with shredded coconut and hardened coconut milk caramel

3rd layer: Chocolate cake with chocolate-coconut topping.

Outside: Lemon cream cheese frosting with shredded coconut, chocolate chips, and lemon slices.

The end.

Homemade Blender Mayonnaise (Joy of Cooking)

Mayonnaise is not worth consuming unless it is homemade, in my opinion.
This fabulous recipe is from the Joy of Cooking.

1 egg
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1 teaspoon salt
1 dash cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon sugar
1/4 cup olive oil
1 cup vegetable oil
3 tablespoons lemon juice

Put in the blender container: egg, mustard, salt, cayenne, sugar and olive oil.
Cover and blend on high until thoroughly combined.
With blender still running, take off the cover and slowly add 1/2 cup vegetable oil,
and then the lemon juice until thoroughly blended.
Add slowly the remaining vegetable oil and blend until thick.
You may have to stop and start the blender to stir down the mayonnaise.
Yields 13/4 cup.

Garlic Tops and Morels with Fresh Mayo

Garlic tops are the young above-ground parts of garlic plants. They can be cooked similarly to asparagus: sauteed, steamed, boiled, etc. However, I believe that the very best way to eat them is like french fries; fried with mushrooms and then dipped in homemade mayonnaise.

1 lb. garlic tops
1/2 lb. morel mushrooms (or any other mushroom, if morels are not available)
2 tbsp butter
1 recipe homemade mayonnaise

Loosely chop garlic tops and remove any inedible dried parts. Heat butter over medium high heat in large frying pan with cover. When butter bubbles, add garlic tops. Cover and cook for about 5 minutes, or until softened. Add mushrooms. Continue to cook, covered, for another 5 minutes. Uncover, and finish cooking by sauteing until garlic tops begin to brown and get crispy. Serve hot, as finger food, dipping in mayonnaise as necessary.

Spring Greens Salad with Pesto and Poached Eggs

Miners Lettuce, cucumber, green pepper chopped and sprinkled over a base of lettuce leaves.
A nest of chopped tomatoes combined with fresh pesto.
A poached egg with parmesan, salt, and pepper sprinkled on top.

Strawberry Tart with Cashew Crust

Strawberry overload!

While making strawberry jam, I ran out of jars for my jam. I mean, I could have gone out to the garage to get more, but I figured, why not make a strawberry tart?

So I combined the freezer jam with a few tablespoons of flour and a few of butter. For the crust I made a pretty typical pie dough recipe, but added cinnamon, a bit of sugar, and ground cashews to half the dough. I pressed the cashew dough into the bottom of a springform pan, poured in the filling, and latticed the remaining dough on top. I had some extra strawberries and extra dough, so I wrapped the strawberries in the dough and floated them between the lattice. The tart baked for a long time, maybe an hour, until the center was pretty firm, and the edges were darkening.





And of course, it would hardly be worth eating without vanilla ice cream.

MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

Candy Onion Gratin

3 cups chopped candy onions
5 tablespoons butter
4 tbsp milk
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp (or a pinch) nutmeg
1/2 cup grated Emmentaler cheese
1/2 cup plain panko bread crumbs


Melt butter in a large saucepan. Add onions, and cook covered over medium high heat for about 20 minutes, or until soft, stirring frequently. If onions begin to stick to the bottom of the pan, add milk 1 tbsp at a time.
Preheat broiler.
Add salt, nutmeg, and remaining milk to onions, and continue to cook until onions are very soft and creamy, but there is no liquid left in the bottom of the pan. Transfer mixture to casserole dish. Top with grated Emmentaler and panko. Place under the broiler until golden brown, probably not more than 5 minutes (but this varies with each oven).
Serve hot.

Yukon Gold Cinnamon Rolls

Yukon Gold Cinnamon Rolls taken -almost- directly from Bon Appetit Magazine.



These are the best cinnamon rolls you will ever make, and they have a secret ingredient!

Makes 12

Recipe by Greg Atkinson

Photograph by Levi Brown

Ingredients:

Dough
1 pound Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled, cut into 2-inch pieces
1 tablespoon coarse kosher salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
3 large eggs
4 1/2 cups (or more) unbleached all purpose flour
1/2 cup warm water (105°F to 115°F)
3 1/4-ounce envelopes active dry yeast (scant 2 tablespoons)
2 tablespoons sugar

Filling
2 cups (packed) golden brown sugar
3 tablespoons ground cinnamon
4 tablespoons unbleached all purpose flour
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter, room temperature
1 cup chopped pecans

Glaze
2 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted
8 oz. (1 package) cream cheese
1/4 teaspoon vanilla bean seeds
1/8 teaspoon coarse kosher salt

Preparation:

Dough
Combine potatoes, 2 cups water, and 1 tablespoon coarse salt in large saucepan. Boil until potatoes are very tender, 15 to 18 minutes. Mash potatoes with water in pan (do not drain water). Add butter and mash until butter is melted. Whisk in eggs, then 1 cup flour; mash until very smooth. Let potatoes stand until barely lukewarm, about 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, pour 1/2 cup warm water into large bowl of stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment; stir in yeast and sugar. Let stand until foamy, about 10 minutes. Add potato mixture to yeast mixture; mix on low speed until well blended, 2 minutes. Mix in 3 cups flour, 1 cup at a time, beating well. Beat until sticky dough forms.

Spread 1/2 cup flour on work surface. Scrape dough out onto floured work surface. Knead until dough is smooth and elastic, adding more flour by tablespoonfuls if dough is very sticky, about 8 minutes.

Coat large bowl with butter. Transfer dough to bowl and turn to coat. Cover bowl with plastic wrap, then kitchen towel. Let dough rise in warm draft-free area until doubled in volume, about 1 hour.

Meanwhile, make filling.
Mix brown sugar, cinnamon, and flour in medium bowl. Using fork, mix in butter.

Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 425°F. Line large rimmed baking sheet with parchment. Sprinkle the pecans and about 1/4 of the filling mixture over the bottom of the pan.

Turn dough out onto well-floured work surface. Roll out dough to 24x16-inch rectangle. Sprinkle filling evenly over dough. Starting at 1 long side, roll up dough jelly-roll style, enclosing filling. Using thick sewing thread, cut roll crosswise into 12 pieces, by sliding the thread under the bottom, then pulling both ends together to cinch the thread through the dough. Transfer rolls to baking sheet, spacing rolls about 3/4 inch apart. Cover baking sheet loosely with damp towel or plastic wrap. Let rise in warm draft-free area until almost doubled in volume, about 20 minutes (rolls will be very puffy).
Bake cinnamon rolls until golden, about 20 minutes. Check on them part way through baking to be sure the tops are not getting too brown. If they are, cover the rolls with aluminum foil.
Cool rolls 10 minutes on baking sheet.

Meanwhile, make glaze.
Beat butter and cream cheese with electric mixer until smooth. Add powdered sugar, vanilla bean, and salt, and beat until smooth. If glaze is too thick to spread, add milk by 1/2 teaspoonfuls as needed. Spread glaze over warm rolls.