In the kitchen: salted butter chocolate chip cookies.

The other night, my husband called me a bad wife.

This came about when we both decided we wanted chocolate chip cookies for dessert, but didn't have any in the house. He reminded me that I used to make so many cookies and that now I don't make any, and that fact alone qualified me as a "bad wife."

Never mind that I had been at the office all day, or that we didn't actually have any chocolate on hand at the time of his request, or that he, too, could have gone out earlier to get the ingredients to make them. Apparently, I have been slacking. Right.

Despite that lovely comment, I braved the elements and trudged to the store (ignore the fact that we actually have two grocery stores within a two minute walk from our apartment...I'm going for drama here), and came back ready to bake.

I've linked to this recipe before, but below is the version I made last night; there's a bit less flour, so they're slightly less chewy and definitely more buttery. I think the best thing about these is the salt. Using flaky sea salt is the key to making these cookies so delicious. And if you sneak a spoon-full of batter to taste before baking, I won't tell...oh, and I did redeem my bad wifely qualities with these. Especially because I have extra dough in the freezer. 

Salted Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies, via David Lebovitz. 
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1/2 C sugar
1/2 C brown sugar
1 stick cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces. 
1 egg
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 1/4 C. flour
1/2 tsp. sea salt
1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 300. Adjust the oven rack to the top third of the oven. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. 

Beat the sugars and eggs together until smooth, about 2 minutes in a stand mixer. Add in egg, vanilla, and baking soda. 

Stir together the flour and salt, then add them to the batter. Add chocolate chips and mix until incorporated. 

Scoop the dough into 10** balls (I use a rounded tablespoon of dough for each cookie). Space them at least 2 inches apart on the baking sheet, they do spread out a bit. 

Bake for 17 minutes, until pale brown. Remove from the oven and let cool on a wire rack. 

**The recipe makes enough for about 20 cookies, but since there are only two of us, I'll usually just make half and freeze the rest of the dough. And when the rest of the day has looked like this, having that batch of dough ready to be sliced and baked makes the night that much cozier. 

In the kitchen: strawberry hand pies.

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It's almost July 4th, which means it's time for grilling, picnics, and fireworks! I've always loved going to see fireworks; we went every year when we were little (over time, the fireworks for the 4th have been overtaken by the those for the Minneapolis Aquatenniel, but that's a post for another day). This year, we'll be taking in Shorewood's festivities: there's a parade that goes down our street, a jazz band concert, and of course, fireworks over the lake. 

A few weeks ago, we were flipping through Bon Appetit's latest issue and found these perfect little pies. We used strawberry jam (homemade - thanks, Andrew!) instead of the blueberries, but I think any summer fruit would work just as well. And they were lovely! The recipe makes 6 hand pies, which is perfect for the two of us - enough for dessert, then breakfast and a snack the next day. 

Since we'll be spending most of the day outside tomorrow, we figured these pies would be an easy dessert to accompany our Fourth of July picnic that Andrew's already started preparing. Side note: I do have quite an amazing and talented fiance who, last night, made BBQ sauce, pickles, pickled red onions, strawberry jam for the pies...AND dinner, and then prepped the pork for grilling. Eat your hearts out, girls! My major contribution was making the dough the other day...I know. Huge help. 

Strawberry Hand Pies, adapted from Bon Appetit. 
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1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 tsp. sugar

1/4 tsp. salt

1/2 cup chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces

Strawberry jam (for a quick berry filling, quarter hulled strawberries and toss with 1 tsp. lemon zest, 1 Tbsp. lemon juice, and 1/4 cup sugar; leave to sit until the juices run) 

1 egg, whisked with 1 tsp. water

Sugar, for sprinkling 

To make the pie crust: 

Pulse dry ingredients in a food processor. Add butter, and pulse until all ingredients are combined, with a texture of course meal. Add 1/4 cup ice water and continue to pulse until dough comes together, adding more water if dry. Form into a square, cover with plastic, and chill in the fridge for at least two hours. Let the dough sit at room temperature for 15 minutes before rolling. 

(Note you don't have to use a food processor - I usually don't, and just incorporate the butter with a pastry cutter). 

To make the pies: 

Preheat oven to 375. Roll out dough on a floured surface to a 15x12-inch rectangle. Cut into 6 rectangles. Brush edges of rectangles with water. Spoon some berry filling in bottom half of each rectangle. Fold over the dough and press edges to seal. Place pies on a parchment-lined baking sheet, brush with egg wash, and sprinkle with sugar. Cut slits in tops.

Bake hand pies, rotating halfway through, until the dough turns golden, about 35 minutes. Transfer pies to a wire rack to cool slightly. Serve warm or at room temperature...at room temp, they taste like a much (MUCH) better version of strawberry pop-tarts! 

These will be the perfect sweet treat for our picnic. Oh, and I think maybe we need this to start. 

Happy (almost) Fourth! 

Car crash cookies.

No worries, everyone's ok. Everyone except our Avtochko...but he will be fine eventually.

Yesterday, as I was leaving work, I found pieces of my car on the road next to where it was parked. It took a second for me to realize that someone had hit it, but then I saw the note on my windshield (thankfully, there was a note on the windshield!). Apparently an employee of a construction company wasn't paying enough attention to his turns or had some spacial awareness issues. Anyway, long story short, the front of the car is currently strapped on with little plastic ties, the light is broken but will be taped up until it can get properly repaired, and there's quite the scratch that will need a serious paint job. Avtochko will just not look as pretty for a while.

It was a bit of a process to deal with last night (and this morning), but when I came home from work yesterday, I was so glad to have some cookie dough ready in the freezer...and a gin and tonic poured and waiting for me, thanks to my wonderful fiance. I had made the dough for a batch of these peanut butter cookies earlier in the week and thought ahead to not bake the entire amount just then, which made last night's dessert a quick and easy process. I have to admit they didn't turn out as well as they did earlier this week - my mind was elsewhere (and Hannibal was on - anyone else love to be scared by that show?!). But still, this just goes to show how great - and necessary - it is to have cookie dough on hand in the freezer.

Peanut Butter Cookies, adapted from Smitten Kitchen. 
-------------------------

1 1/4 cups flour

3/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened

1 cup peanut butter (we both like the chunky kind!) 

1/2 cup sugar, plus more for sprinkling 

3/4 cup brown sugar

1 egg

1 Tbsp. milk

1 tsp vanilla extract 

 Chocolate chips, as many as you want! 

Preheat oven to 350. In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt; set aside. 

In the large bowl of a mixer, beat the butter and peanut butter for several minutes until combined and fluffy. Add sugars and beat until smooth. Add the egg, milk, and extract, scraping down the sides of the bowl. Slowly add the flour mixture and beat until dough comes together. Stir in the chocolate chips. 

Drop the dough by a tablespoon onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper; sprinkle with extra sugar. Make sure to leave plenty of space between each cookie, as the dough expands quite a bit. Use a fork to make a criss-cross pattern on the cookies. 

Bake for 8-10 minutes. The cookies will look underdone, but they're not, they're just perfectly soft and chewy. Leave them on the baking sheet for about a minute, then transfer to a rack to cool completely. 

I've found that 8 cookies per sheet works well. This ensures you won't eat the entire batch (trust me, you may want to) and leaves plenty of dough to freeze for tomorrow's dessert, unexpected visitors, or emergency situations, as above.  

Grey, with a side of apricot.

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So it's almost June, and you'd think the weather would be lovely and bright and sunny and warm, like the photo above. Nope. It's grey and wet, with a chill in the air. That's not helping my back-from-mn-induced hangover. I feel like there's so much I could be doing but I'm just not motivated. Does anyone else feel that way when you're back from a fantastic break? 

The other day, though, we decided we needed some summery sweetness in our lives, and found it in the form of these tiny apricot cakes. We didn't have the called-for vanilla extract, so I substituted almond, and it definitely worked. The recipe originally called for using a 12-cup muffin pan, but I filled our 6-cup muffin pan a bit more so we ended up having six little cakes instead of a dozen teeny, tiny ones. They're light, fluffy, and perfect for an easy dessert at the end of a late spring meal..and just might make you forget that it's only 50 degrees outside. 

Apricot Cakes, adapted from Bon Appetit. 
-------------------------

1 cup flour

1 1/2  tsp. baking powder

1/4  salt

6 Tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature, plus more for buttering the muffin pan

1/3 cup sugar, plus more for sprinkling

1 egg

1 tsp. grated lemon zest

1 tsp. almond extract

1/3 cup milk

2 apricots, halved, pitted, cut into thin slices

 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 6-cup muffin pan. Whisk first three dry ingredients together in a medium bowl and set aside.

Using an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes, occasionally scraping down the sides of the bowl. Add egg, zest, and almond extract and beat until combined, about 1 more minute. 

With the mixer on its lowest speed, add dry ingredients in 3 additions, alternating with the milk (begin and end with the flour mixture). Pour batter into muffin cups and smooth the tops. Top with sliced apricots and sprinkle on sugar. 

Bake until golden and a tester comes out clean, about 25 minutes. Transfer muffin pan to wire rack to cool for 5 minutes, then remove cakes and let cook completely. It's like having summer in one bite. 

In the kitchen: salted brown butter rice crispy treats.

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A few weeks ago, for whatever reason, we were eating like second graders. Mind you, we were fancy little ones, for what eight-year-old wouldn't make their own roasted tomato soup or pizza with homemade dough and sauce, but still, it was comforting. I don't know what it was that made us crave the foods that reminded us of being little. I'm not saying we'd enjoy eating that way all the time or even that eight-year-olds should only eat "child-friendly food" (there's a whole separate post in here somewhere about children eating what their parents eat...but I'll save that for another day). Yet in the middle of readings, work, and all the other no-fun-adult things we were up to, it perfectly hit the spot. 

Keeping in the spirit of the kids' menu, I figured these would be just right to make: salted brown butter rice crispy treats. Not the most sophisticated of desserts, but they fit right in with our journey back to childhood foods and I loved them. Keep in mind this is coming from someone who's not a big fan of marshmallows (I'll give in to a few if there's chocolate and a bonfire), but the salt and the brown butter take these bars to a whole new level. They're super easy to make, as easy as the regular ones, and in my opinion, taste oh, so much better. That might have something to do with the full stick of butter that's browned until it's deeply golden and fills the kitchen with a rich nutty smell, but what do I know? Try these for yourself and find out...don't be surprised if you're just as excited to dig in to them now, as an adult, as you were when you were eight. 

Salted Brown Butter Rice Crispy Treats, via Smitten Kitchen. 
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1 stick unsalted butter, plus more for the pan

1 10-oz. bag marshmallows

Heaping 1/4 tsp. sea salt

6 cups Rice Krispies cereal

Butter an 8-inch square cake pan, set aside. 

In a large pot, melt the butter over medium-low heat until in browns (several minutes, but watch this carefully, because you don't want it to burn). Stir frequently to scrape up the brown bits off the bottom of the pan. 

As soon as the butter takes on a dark, nutty color, take it off the heat and stir in the marshmallows until they're melted and smooth. 

Stir in the salt and cereal, then quickly spread into the prepared pan. 

Let cool before cutting into bars...the tempting brown butter smell and snap-crackle-pop of the cereal prove this is harder to do than one might originally think. 

In the kitchen: strawberry shortcakes.

Our kitchen has been turning out some lovely desserts lately - all light, fresh, and (to accommodate two busy schedules) not too difficult to make. Last Sunday, I made these deliciously easy strawberry shortcakes for our Easter dinner dessert. Smitten Kitchen never fails. Even though the recipe was originally posted with summer in mind, we found they worked just as well for an early spring treat. 

Wouldn't these be perfect for a Sunday brunch? Add a mimosa and you're set! 

In the kitchen: cheddar and green onion biscuits.

One of our favorite sides, these cheddar and onion biscuits are cheesy, flaky, and have just the right amount of salt: an all around winner when it comes to perfect biscuits! They're really easy to make, too. Sure, you won't get the satisfaction of popping open the cardboard container of the ready-made refrigerated dough (confession: that was one of my favorite things to "help" with in the kitchen when we were little and making crescents, cinnamon rolls, or biscuits!), but the flavor is 100 times better!

Cheddar and Green Onion Bicsuits, adapted from Saveur. 
(makes 10, biscuits, using a 3" biscuit cutter**)

**a drinking glass works just as well - just flour the top of it and you're set**
--------------------------
2 cups flour; have more on hand for dusting
2 Tbsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 Tbsp. sugar
1 stick unsalted butter, cut into small cubes; keep cold until ready to use
3/4 cup and 2 Tbsp. buttermilk
1/2 cup shredded cheese (we like a sharp cheddar)
1/2 cup thinly sliced green onions
1 Tbsp. heavy cream

Preheat the oven to 450. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside. 

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, and salt in a bowl. Work in the cold butter using a pastry cutter until the butter is the size of small peas. Add the buttermilk, cheese and green onions. Mix with a fork until a loose dough forms.

Turn the dough onto a floured work surface and pat out to form into a rectangle that's roughly 6 x 9 inches. Gently fold it into thirds (like you'd fold a letter), and pat out to form another 6 x 9 rectangle. 

Using a floured biscuit cutter (or glass!), punch out 10 biscuits. You may have to reform the dough to get out the last few. Place on the prepared baking sheet. Lightly brush the tops with cream. 

Bake until biscuits are lightly browned, about 14 minutes. Serve warm. These are great as dinner sides, but work surprisingly well for breakfast, too! 

Andrew's birthday.

Andrew's birthday happened to fall the day before I was leaving for Madison to take the bar, but I was definitely not going to let that get in the way of our celebrating his day. You only turn 26 once, right!? 

For his birthday present, I bought this chalkboard that's now hanging in our kitchen (we've wanted one for a long time...and surprisingly, it's really hard to find one that's not "school-room green" in the middle!). He doesn't get to have his real birthday present until April, though, when we'll go to Chicago for dinner at Girl and the Goat (see it on the chalkboard?? Girl + Goat? I was really proud of this, by the way...)! I had been trying to get reservations since November, and finally, before Christmas, I was able to get us in...at the end of April. That was the first Saturday night opening they had! Needless to say, we're really excited, and are so looking forward to a sunny and warm night out in Chicago in about a month. 

And what kind of birthday would it be without a cake? Andrew had requested something special from the Milk cookbook - filled with desserts and baked loveliness from the Momofuku Milk Bar bakeries in New York. These recipes are quite involved - most everything requires several components - but OH MY WORD, these are absolutely the best cakes I've ever had. We made one at Christmastime for my birthday, so we knew that the recipe wouldn't disappoint. Andrew's birthday cake was (are you ready?!?) a pistachio layer cake, made with homemade lemon curd, pistachio frosting, and milk crumbs. Unreal. 

Perfectly nutty (but not overpowering at all) and with just the right hint of  citrus from the lemon curd, this cake was amazing. Apparently it's one of the favorites at Milk Bar, and I'm not surprised. My favorite components of it are the pistachio cake and milk crumbs (powdered milk, sugar, flour, cornstarch, butter and salt baked, then broken up and sprinkled with melted white chocolate). Seriously. Not healthy AT ALL, but who cares. It was worth every calorie. And it looked so pretty, too! 

It complemented our dinner of smoked roast chicken, macaroni and cheese, and green beans perfectly! We FaceTimed with our families and wished they were able to join us, but getting to "see" everyone we love was the next best thing. I hated leaving the next day...but at least there was cake for Andrew to eat while I was gone! 

I love you, Driy!! Hope you had a wonderful birthday!

Popovers!

Remember a while ago when I said I'd post the recipe for popovers? Well, here you are, and it couldn't be an easier one: 

Mix together 2 eggs, 1 cup of milk, 1 cup of flour, and 1 teaspoon of salt in a large bowl; let the mixture sit for one hour at room temperature (or you can refrigerate overnight and remove to room temp at least 30 minutes before baking). 

Pour mixture into a popover pan that has about 1/2 a tablespoon of melted butter in the bottom, filling it about 3/4 full. 

Bake at 450 degrees for about ten minutes, then lower it to 400 degrees and continue baking until golden brown, about 15-20 minutes more. This should make 6-8 popovers, depending on your pan. 

There are no excuses for not making these (I'm really wanting some for tomorrow's dinner): if you don't have a popover pan, use a muffin tin! Seriously, delicious. 

P.S.: I'm liking these recipes with no more than 4 basic ingredients...

P.P.S.: Apparently today is World Nutella Day. I think I need to make those doughnuts. 

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Photo via Michael Ruhlman; photo by Donna T. Ruhlman. 

Almond meringue cookies.

Happy February! When did that happen? 

Last night I made these pillowy almond treats for dessert. They were so easy and quick to make - like really fast - I came back from the store and they were in the oven 15 minutes later. They only require 3 ingredients, and it's very likely that you'll already have 2 of those 3 on hand in your kitchen right now! 

The recipe is from Ferran Adria's The Family Meal. One of my favorite things about this book is that it lists the exact amount of ingredients needed for the recipe depending on the number of people you're serving, eliminating any math (and who likes math?) necessary to change the quantities you might need if you're preparing a dish for 2 people or for 50. This makes it perfect for us, when we are just two! 

Almond Meringue Cookies (adapted from The Family Meal). 

Yield: about 18 cookies (for 2 to enjoy over a few meals, including dessert, late night snack, and breakfast...) 

Ingredients: 

1 cup + 1 Tbsp. ground almonds (I bought slivered almonds and pulsed them in the food processor until they were finely ground). 

2/3 cup sugar

1 egg white

Heat oven to 350 degrees. 

Beat the egg white with an electric mixer until stiff peaks form, for a few minutes. Add the sugar and continue to beat until thickened and glossy. Fold in the almonds with a rubber spatula. Scoop spoonfuls of the cookie dough onto a baking sheet covered with parchment paper. Bake, rotating once, for 14-15 minutes, until cookies have risen. Cool on a wire rack (and try not to eat all of them immediately). 

HOW EASY IS THAT?!? 

Have a wonderful weekend, and keep your fingers and toes crossed for me - I'm needing some good news and am hopeful this next week will be a good one. 

Strawberries + 30 Rock.

Because of this lovely shift of weather from the 60 degrees we had the day before...

yesterday, I made this! 

Finding a pint of strawberries for 99 cents is super exciting even in summertime, so to find such a deal in the middle of snow and blustery wind was even better. They weren't the sweetest berries, but that didn't really matter for the jam because I just adjusted the amount of sugar as they cooked. 

The other day, Andrew stumbled across this recipe and since we struck gold on the strawberries, we figured it'd be the perfect afternoon to make the tarts. I halved the amounts, which allowed us each to have one for dessert last night and one for breakfast this morning. I have to say they were much better for breakfast. The crust I made was a bit different from Michael Symon's, so it was less flaky than the photo (and the Toaster Strudels of our childhood), but it still tasted great with coffee! 

The strawberry jam was definitely the best part...it just about made me forget that it's the last of January and we're in the dead of winter. Not really, but it did help!

Tonight, we're going to be toasting to the series finale of 30 Rock - hard to believe this show is ending and we won't have Liz or Tracy or Jenna to make us laugh. One of my favorites, and a 30 Rock classic, is "The Rural Juror" from season 1. The absolute best is when Tracy and Jack are exploring the possibility of selling Tracy Jordan's Meat Machine in Ukraine (and mention two places where our family is actually from!!!). Even though the show is ending, meat will ALWAYS be the new bread. 

М'ясо: новий хліб! 

Tracy's photo via 30 Rock's FB Page. 

January blues.

Every January this happens to me - when we take our Christmas tree down, I feel like everything looks empty! Our tree was oh, so lovely this year (okay, I say that every year, but this Christmas, it fit just perfectly in our apartment, see?), and right now the corner looks like it's really missing the yalynka! We also had such a wonderful Christmas at home with our families, and now that the tree is gone, it really cements the fact that the holidays are over and we're in the middle of a winter freeze, both literally, as it's really, really cold outside, and figuratively, with school and WI Bar studies (yup...) starting to take up our time. 

We absolutely can't wait for warmer weather and all the fun it will bring - I'm so ready for taking the 10 minute walk to the lake and not freezing my ears off! To make up for the cold outside, we've stayed busy baking and cooking warm and comforting foods, including these ah-mah-zing (how I love Happy Endings...) chocolate chip cookies! I'm linking to the recipe because my sister said she was going to make these today - I'm pretty sure these have become my favorite chocolate chip cookies of all time. 

Right now it's actually warmed up to a balmy 11 degrees...time to celebrate! We'll be baking bread and cooking up some spicy noodles for dinner tonight. Stay warm, friends! 

Saturday Post No. 3

We LOVE our new KitchenAid! Since we've been back in MKE, this big blue dude has already helped us make bread, peanut butter cookies, coconut cupcakes, and, as of this morning, these New England style hot dog buns! They're still cooling, but seriously, it smells just like a good old fashioned bakery in our apartment right now! I can't wait to try them tonight. 

Otherwise, we're just hanging out (having ourselves a party...that's for you, D), bracing ourselves for the super cold blast that's supposed to hit us tomorrow and Monday. At this point I'm done with winter and am anxiously waiting for spring; I would really appreciate the temperature to cooperate and NOT sink to -10! 

Hope everyone is having a lovely, relaxing weekend - stay warm, friends! 

Back in the kitchen.

Actually, it's not like we really left the kitchen, because we spent so much time cooking at home in Minneapolis...but now, it's back to reality and we're in MKE after a long, wonderful, and amazing time in MN. It's been a while since my last post, but it was better to do things at home than to write about them. 

There's no way to describe what an incredible time we had with our families. We loved every second; it really was the best Christmas/birthday gift I could ask for (and, a bonus, we were home for my sister's birthday, too!!). If a picture is worth a thousand words...here are some ten thousand, all in photo form: 

Plenty of cooking, just a bit of dress up and dancing, and lots of love. Home is the best.