Lemon Almond Pancakes for Passover

Light, fluffy pancakes perfect for replacing your regular Saturday or Sunday brunch. Just a hint of almond flavor with lemon zest-y goodness, they go great with raspberry syrup.

Ingredients:

• 1 c matzoh meal
• 1 c almond meal
• 4 eggs, seperated
• ½ c sugar (divided into two ¼ cups)
• ½ stick butter
• zest of half a lemon (I used meyer 'cause that's what grows 'round here)
• 1 ¼ c milk
• ¼ t salt
• 1 capful vanilla

Directions:

1. Combine dry ingredients (minus ¼ c sugar)
2. Melt butter
3. Beat together melted butter, egg yolks, milk and vanilla
4. Mix milk mixture into dry ingredients
5. In a separate bowl, beat egg whites until just frothy
6. With mixer on medium slowly add in remaining sugar
7. Whip egg whites until glossy and forms medium peaks (slightly on the stiffer side)
8. Mix one third of the egg whites into the batter (this is called "sacrificing" the egg whites)
9. Fold remaining two thirds of the egg whites into the batter until well incorporated
10. Heat a nonstick pan over medium heat, coat with butter
11. Pour (scoop) batter into pan and cook like regular pancakes!

Matzo Brei with Home Made Raspberry Preserves

For me, matzo brei, like most things my father cooked for me, is one of those ultimate comfort foods. It's hearty and delicious and everyone makes it differently. I remember the first time I ordered it in a restaurant and how confused I was by the omelette with cooked onions and bits of matzo. There are those who grew up with savory matzo brei and those who, like me, grew up with sweet matzo brei, essentially matzo french toast and, as far as I can tell, nobody switches to the other side. Mix up this sweet treat with some tart homemade raspberry preserves for pure deliciousness. It certainly doesn't have to be Pesach to eat it, but since it is, I recommend giving it a try. Mmm...

Ingredients for Matzo Brei:

• half a box of matzo (I used thin salted for this batch, but any type will do)
• 3 eggs
• ¾ c. milk
• 1 T sugar
• 2 t cinnamon
• 1 T vanilla extract
• pat of butter

Ingredients for Raspberry Jam:

• 10 oz. frozen raspberries
• ½ c. sugar
• ½ c. water

Directions for Matzo Brei:

1. Beat together eggs, milk, sugar, cinnamon and vanilla, like french toast custard
2. Crumble matzo into small pieces and place into a medium bowl
3. Pour custard over matzo and let sit 5 minutes, or until matzo is thoroughly soaked and slightly softened
4. Heat a frying pan over low medium heat, coat with butter
5. Put all of the custard soaked matzo into the pan
6. Cook, flipping and stirring occasionally until it is slightly browned
7. Serve immediately with jam, butter, syrup or cinnamon sugar

Directions for Raspberry Preserves (method adapted from "The Cake Bible", Rose Levy Beranbaum):

1. Bring sugar and water to a boil (because this is such a small amount of jam, make sure to use a fairly small heavy bottomed pot so it won't scorch)
2. Add half the berries to the syrup, boil one minute, remove with a slotted spoon and drain in a mesh sieve over a bowl
3. Bring syrup back to a boil, add the other half of the berries, boil one minute, place in sieve
4. Bring syrup in the pot and any syrup collected in the bowl to 210˚F
5. Push the cooked berries through the sieve to remove most of the seeds
6. Return the berries to the syrup mixture and simmer about 5 minutes
7. Pour into storage container, let cool to room temperature and then refrigerate
8. Will keep for 2 weeks refrigerated

January Daring Bakers Challenge: Tuiles!

This month's challenge is brought to us by Karen of Bake My Day and Zorra of 1x umruehren bitte aka Kochtopf. They have chosen Tuiles from The Chocolate Book by Angélique Schmeink and Nougatine and Chocolate Tuiles from Michel Roux. I was pretty excited when I found out this month's daring baker challenge was tuiles (thin, light, easily[ish] shapable cookies) because of the amount of creativity in plating they allow. I paired mine with a rich chocolate chai mousse (recipe coming soon, I'm a little too tired tonight) and made a couple of different shapes.

Tuile Ingredients:

• ¼ c softened butter )
• ½ c sifted confectioner’s sugar
• 1 T vanilla sugar
• 2 large egg whites (slightly whisked with a fork)
• 1/2 c all purpose flour
• 1 T cocoa powder/or food coloring of choice

Mousse Ingredients:

• 12 oz bittersweet chocolate
• 4 egg yolks
• 1 c whole milk
• 3 T sugar
• 1 T loose leaf chai tea
• ⅔ c heavy cream
• optional: additional heavy cream for serving with whipped cream

Tuile Directions:

1. Decide what shapes of tuile you'd like to make and cut stencils out of thin cardboard
2. Cream together butter, powdered sugar and vanilla sugar
3. Beat in egg whites
4. Gradually add the flour and beat to a smooth paste
5. Cover and chill for at least 30 min
6. Preheat oven to 350°F
7. Place stencil on a well greased or silpat line sheetpan (this is one of those things that for me silpats are absolutely essential for) and spread a thin layer of tuile paste over the stencil
8. Remove the stencil
9. To make chocolate details, mix a small amount of cocoa powder with some of the plain tuile paste and pipe using a coronet or a very small piping tip
10. Bake the cookies for 5 to 10 minutes until they start to brown
11. Remove from the oven and immediately bend to desired shape (this is a good opportunity to work on developing your "baker's hands")

Basic Latkes

This is another one of those "things I meant to post before the holidays post". However, it turns out latkes are pretty much delicious to eat all the time! Latkes, for those of you who don't know, are potato pancakes traditionally eaten during Channukah. Latkes, like most food eaten during Channukah are fried in oil to symbolize the miracle of the oil that lasted for eight nights instead of one. What you really need to know though for eating latkes is that they're fried potatoes eaten with sour cream and applesauce. Does it get any better?

Ingredients:

• 6 potatoes
• 1 onion
• 2 eggs
• salt and pepper
• sour cream
• applesauce
• oil suitable for deep frying (I used peanut)

Directions:

1. Peel and grate potatoes and onion (I just send them all through the grater on the food processor)
2. Mix potatoes and onion with eggs and 4ish shakes of salt and 2 of pepper
3. Fill pan with 1" of oil and heat to deep fry on a candy/deep fry thermometer (around 375˚F)
4. Press a handful of potatoes into a patty and use a slotted spoon to place into the oil (repeat until you have as many as comfortably fit in your pan)
5. Fry until golden brown on bottom and then flip and fry until golden brown all around
6. Remove from oil with slotted spoon, drain and serve hot with plenty of applesauce and sour cream

Maple Ginger Glazed Pork Chops with Cayenne Whipped Sweet Potatoes and Blanched Broccoli

So today was just one of those days where crazy recipe ideas of all sorts swam in and out of my completely unfocused mind. Of all the things I thought of cooking today, this was the thing that kept just coming back and boy, am I glad it did. I'm sure there's a recipe for something similar to this out there, but I was feeling adventurous so I just went where my intuition told me. The sweet, salty and spicy flavors fuse together into pure deliciousness and we'll be eating this again and again.

Ingredients:

• 2 pork chops
• 2 T minced ginger
• 2 cloves garlic
• ½ c soy sauce
• ¼ c maple syrup
• 3 small sweet potatoes (yams? the orange ones)
• ¼ stick butter
• splash of milk
• ¼ t cayenne pepper
• salt to taste
• broccoli for two

Directions:

1. Peel and mince ginger and garlic
2. Place into a liquid measuring cup
3. Fill measuring cup to ½ c with soy sauce
4. Add ¼ c maple syrup and stir, set aside
5. Peel and quarter sweet potatoes, boil for 12-15 minutes or until soft
6. While potatoes are boiling begin cooking pork chops
7. Heat a skillet over medium heat, place pork chops in the pan
8. Cook for about 3 minutes or until browned, then flip and cook for another 3 minutes
9. Add sauce to the pan, cook pork chops an additional 2 minutes on each side as the sauce caramelizes and reduces slightly
10. Remove from heat and serve with plenty of the sauce, ginger and garlic
11. To finish potatoes, use a whisk or the whisk attachment on a stand mixer and whip together potatoes, milk, butter, cayenne pepper and salt until fluffy and delicious
12. Somewhere in there blanch some broccoli too...

Pancetta Cups with Chevre and Pear

This is a fantastically easy, delicious, impressive looking/sounding, winter finger food. It's easiest if you buy circular pieces of pancetta because as they cook they naturally form a little cup. I made this batch with spiral pieces that sort of shrank into a circle and curled up at the edges but it was not quite as neat as the other way.

Ingredients:

• 1 package circular pancetta
• 4 oz chevre
• 1 pear (a firmer variety is better)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375˚F
2. Spread out pancetta on a sheetpan
3. Bake pancetta for 10-30 minutes (it varies greatly depending on the thickness of your pancetta)
4. Drain and cool like bacon
5. Place a teaspoon of chevre onto each pancetta round
6. Slice pear into small triangles
7. Stick triangles upright into chevre
8. Serve immediately

Vanilla Bean Hazelnut Toffee and a Crazy Bonus Recipe

Welcome to part 1 of my new series "Things I Meant to Post Before Christmas so People Could Put Them in Gift Baskets". I know, the names a little long, I'll work on it. Toffee is a simple a delicious way to break into the world of caramelization. With caramel candies you have to worry about them being too soft or too hard but with toffee, as long as it looks toffee colored, it's probably cooked the right amount. You can just leave this recipe at the vanilla bean toffee or you can spread it with chocolate and sprinkle with ground toasted hazelnuts, finely ground coffee or espresso, or anything else you can think of.

Ingredients:

• 1 c sugar
• 2 sticks butter
• ¼ c water
• 1 vanilla bean

Directions:

1. Put sugar and water into a small heavy bottom saucepan and mix to a sandy paste
2. Split and scrape vanilla bean into the pot, adding in the pod as well
3. Add butter to the pot
4. Bring to a boil over medium low heat and cook "until it's toffee colored" as one of my culinary school chef's told me or until it reaches hard crack on your candy thermometer
5. Pour out onto a silpat or greased sheetpan
6. Optional: When completely cooled, spread with a thing layer of slowly melted chocolate
7. Optional: Sprinkle with toasted ground hazelnuts or coffee
8. Break into pieces after chocolate sets up

Crazy Variation!!!! Bacon Toffee

That's right, I finally broke down and joined the bacon in sweet things craze. I have to say, this was a winner. I made the toffee a little too dark which overpowered the bacon a bit but I think I would actually make it again, making sure not to overcook the toffee.

1. Cook 3 pieces of bacon to slightly crunchier than chewy
2. Drain, cool and crumble
3. Before pouring toffee onto silpat, mix in bacon crumbles

Vegan Raspberry Hazelnut Rugelach

"Seriously, why vegan rugelach, again?" you may be asking. So here's why- it's really easy to do direct substitutions for (no eggs to replace helps a lot) and non-vegans like it almost as much as vegans (which can't be said about a lot of pastries). You can use the exact same recipe with butter and cream cheese if vegan pastries are not your thing and it will turn out even more fantastic! These rugelach have no sugar added so they're only as sweet as the raspberry jam you use which makes them a nice breakfast pastry. You could, of course, make them without hazelnuts and they would still be delicious, but it's Channukah (or Christmas) so splurge a little!

Ingredients:

• 2 c flour
• 8 oz tofutti cream cheese
• 8 oz earth balance margarine
• ¼ c (ish) vegan raspberry jam (I made mine using the recipe in "The Cake Bible" by Rose Levy Berenbaum)
• ¼ c (ish) ground, roasted hazelnuts

Directions:

1. Beat together flour and margarine until mostly incorporated
2. Add cream cheese and mix until a marbled dough is formed
3. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for at least 2 hours
4. When done chilling, unwrap and place on a floured surface to roll out
5. Divide the dough into two even pieces and roll out each into a rectangle
6. Spread with a thin layer of jam leaving a 1" strip on the bottom
7. Sprinkle with hazelnuts
8. Roll into log and tuck in the ends
9. Chill for at least on hour
10. Preheat oven to 350˚F
11. Cut the logs into 1" slices and place onto greased sheetpan
12. Optional: sprinkle ground hazelnuts on the top of each cookie
13. Bake for 45 minutes or until golden brown

Pumpkin Cheesecake

Now, I have to admit, I don't actually really like cheesecake. It's one of those things that I only make because I know other people (like Lara and Jacob) like it so much. That being said, I make DAMN GOOD cheesecake. Seriously, even I'll eat it in small quantities and I really don't like cheesecake. These mini pumpkin cheesecakes were the perfect balance of pumpkin pie spiciness and cheesecake tangy sweetness.

Ingredients:

• half of a pack of graham crackers
• 3+ T butter
• 8 oz cream cheese
• ½ c. sugar
• ½ c. sour cream
• 1 c. pumpkin
• 2 eggs
• 1 t. cinnamon
• 1 t. ginger
• ¼ t. cloves
• ¼ t. allspice
• ¼ t. nutmeg

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350˚F
2. Crush up graham crackers and mix with enough melted butter to bring together
3. Press graham crackers into the bottom of 4 mini springform pans (I think they're 4")
4. Bake 10 minutes
5. Put aside to cool while mixing the filling
6. Using the whisk attachment (if you have a stand mixer) cream together cream cheese, sugar and spices until well incorporated
7. Add in sour cream and pumpkin and mix
8. Scrape down the bowl to make sure the cream cheese gets fully mixed in
9. Beat in eggs
10. Divide evenly between four springforms
11. Place into a half sheet pan and fill pan about one third to one half with water (it's easiest to put the pan in the oven then use a liquid measuring cup to pour the water into the pan)
12. Bake 25-35 minutes or until it "jiggles like jell-o in the middle" to quote one of my culinary school instructors
13. Remove from water bath and let cool to room temperature
14. Chill in refrigerator for at least 3 hours
15. Carefully run a paring knife around the outside of the cheesecake before removing outside ring of springform
16. Serve with whipped cream

Shortbread Extravaganza!

Shortbread is one of the easiest and most delicious cookies you can make. The dough can be frozen, the cookies can be stored in an airtight container forever once baked and the variations are endless. In this picture are my espresso shortbread and chocolate and hazelnut shortbread. I also made vanilla bean and meyer lemon using the same basic recipe. They're a great addition to a gift basket or put them in a glassine bag and stick it on the outside of a present as a little bonus. Keep some dough in the freezer and the next time someone calls you last minute to ask if you can bring dessert to a party you'll be ready to go.

Basic Dough:

• 2 sticks of butter (chilled and cut into ¼" pieces)
• ½ c. sugar
• ¼ t. salt
• 2 ¼ c. flour
• Optional: zest of one meyer lemon, scrapings of one vanilla bean, ¼ c. ground roasted hazelnuts or 1 tsp finely ground coffee or espresso powder

Basic Chocolate Dough:

• 2 sticks of butter (chilled and cut into ¼" pieces)
• ½ c. sugar
• ¼ t. salt
• 2 c. flour
• ¼ c. cocoa powder
• Optional: ¼ c. ground roasted hazelnuts, 1 tsp peppermint extract or 1 tsp finely ground coffee or espresso powder

Directions:

1. Combine flour and salt (with cocoa powder and/or hazelnuts) and set aside
2. Paddle together butter and sugar (as well as extracts, vanilla bean, espresso powder or zest) until well incorporated (because the butter is cold it won't get light and fluffy the way it would for most cookies using the creaming method)
3. Beat in the dry ingredients until well incorporated
4. Remove from the bowl and roll into a log about 1½" in diameter
5. Roll the log in colored sanding sugar or ground nuts (or maybe candy canes?)
6. If the dough has gotten to soft, chill for at least 30 minutes
7. Preheat oven to 300˚
8. Cut into discs ¼-½" thick
9. Arrange the cookies spread at least 1" apart on an ungreased sheetpan or silpat
10. Bake 40-50 minutes or until light golden brown
11. Let cool on the pan before moving
12. Store in an airtight container in a cool dry place