Something Better than English Shortbread, and Yummy Almonds

I made shortbread last week, kind of by the seat of my pants, so to speak, and Charlie, who tried them during a visit, commented that they were "better than English shortbread," whatever that means.  Yes, I added grapefruit zest to the shortbread batter and made a glaze with grapefruit juice and powdered sugar, but it didn't seem so extraordinary, to me, as a biscuit, in general.  Cut about a half pound of butter (of course!) into three to four cups of flour, a cup of granulated sugar, a couple tablespoons of fresh grapefruit zest, and a dash of salt.  Baked in a 350F oven for about twelve to fifteen minutes, until they get golden edges.  Not hard.  Jut let them cool for a minute on the cookie sheet before removing them to a cooling rack to cool completely before glazing.  The glaze was a couple tablespoons of juice with about a cup and a half to two cups of powdered (confectioners') sugar, whisked until smooth.  On the approximately 2-1/2 inch stars (five-pointed), I used about a half teaspoon of glaze on each. The glaze helps them look nice, finished.  Inviting.  I guess that's why he ate so many while I was roasting almonds:

Tamari-Maple Almonds

 (I just got this recipe, I think, from the NYTimes website)


1 lb. raw almonds
1/4 c. tamari
4 T. maple syrup (use the real stuff, not pancake syrup)
Nonstick spray, like Pam or Crisco

You can do this with or without pre-roasting the almonds.  I did it both ways, once pre-roasting the almonds, and once using raw almonds.

Preheat the oven to 350F.

Stir together the tamari and the maple syrup.  Pour almonds into mixture, and stir to coat.  Allow to sit for a few minutes while you spray the baking sheet with the Pam, Crisco, or whatever brand of nonstick cooking spray you choose.  Spread the  nuts on the cooking sheet in a single layer.  

Roast for about 20-25 minutes, or until the nuts turn a rich mahogany brown.  Cool for about ten minutes on the baking sheet, then remove to another baking sheet (or something else with a large surface area) to cool completely.  Store in an airtight container.  These come out a little sticky, but taste so good, you won't mind licking your fingers!  These are good when served with cheese (we had brie), Calamata olives, warm baguette, and red wine.  
Yum!

Okay, it's getting near lunchtime.  Time to put together a salad with some of the remaining veggies from our CSA share before tomorrow, when we'll be picking up another box!

A Low-Fat, High-Fibre Breakfast Option

I recently made a batch that came out exceptionally moist, surprisingly cohesive, and pretty darn tasty:

(Another) Savoury Muffin

Ingredients

1	large egg
1 c. + 1 T.	buttermilk
1 T	sugar
1 t	salt
2 t	baking soda
1 c.	a-p flour
1 c.	whole wheat flour
2 T	coconut powder (from Indian/Asian grocer)
2 T	flaxseed meal
1 medium-to-large	zucchini, about 2/3-3/4 c. grated
1 T	finely grated asiago cheese
¼ c.	parsley, dried or fresh, minced
1 t.	minced fresh rosemary
1 t.	minced fresh Greek oregano
	nonstick spray, like Crisco

Preheat oven to 400 F.

In a small bowl, beat the egg and add buttermilk, blending thoroughly.

In a separate bowl, sift together sugar, salt, baking soda, flours, coconut powder, and flaxseed meal. 

Add zucchini and parsley to the dry ingredients, and mix so that the individual strands of zucchini are separated by dry bits.

Add asiago, and stir to combine.

Pour egg/buttermilk mixture all at once into the dry ingredients and mix thoroughly.

Allow mixture to stand briefly as you thoroughly spray a 12-cup muffin pan.

Divide batter evenly into muffin cups. They will not fill the cups more than two-thirds to three-quarters.

Bake about 23-25 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean but not dry. Allow muffins to cool for a minute in the baking pan (on a cooling rack) as you place a clean linen towel into a serving bowl, overhanging the sides generously. 

Loosen muffins from pan using a silicone spatula, and arrange them in the towel, covering them to keep them warm.

Serve with salted butter and coffee or tea.  

These are a nice alternative to a sweet muffin.

Thoughts on a Tuesday evening

I've been busy lately.  Been busy baking, baking, and making use of my pressure cooker!  I'm going to take a break from the book (at least for now), because, essentially, I've been going back and editing stuff more than actually continuing the plot.
At any rate, I've been preparing jackfruit and coconut macaroons with cashew meal (they're really, really good!), making ice cream with oranges from our CSA share, and made up a nice smoothie recipe:

Fruit Smoothie (it's actually a really soft sorbet)

2 bananas, sliced and frozen
several (eight to ten) frozen strawberries, whole
1-1 1/2 cup(s) coconut milk

Put it all into the blender and blend it, a lot (on my blender, I select the preprogrammed "frozen drinks" program three times) to make it very smooth.  Enjoy!

If you use really frozen strawberries and bananas, the coconut milk will get cold enough to start forming ice, while it, in turn, softens the bananas and strawberries just enough...

We've been up to our asses (proverbially, not literally) in strawberries and nectarines, and while I'm enjoying the bounty, I've been popping a lot of them into the freezer to make smoothies and pies later on (I've never used frozen fruit for pies before, but I suppose there's only one way to find out how it'll work!).

Here's what we had for dinner last night and tonight:

Carrot Soup with Coriander

about 3 lbs. carrots, sliced

1 large white onion

1 T ground coriander

1 quart vegetable stock (I use an organic brand that I get from Sprouts)

dash salt

2 T butter (unsalted)

Cut onion into quarters.  Slice quarters of onion thinly.  Heat up your pressure cooker (I love mine!) and set to saute.  Melt butter.  Saute onion in butter until fragrant, just a couple minutes or so.  Add carrots, and stir to coat carrots with butter (this is not scientific, so just mix them around a bit to distribute the onion throughout the carrot chunks).  throw in salt and sprinkle coriander on top.  Pour vegetable stock over all, then secure lid.  Cook at high pressure for 15 minutes.  Use wand blender to get the soup to desired consistency.  Ladle into wide, shallow bowls.  Serve with fresh focaccia (we had tomato and olive).

Of course, I baked some things the other night.  They're something between a really big cookie and a scone.  I'll give you the recipe next time.

Ciao!