I need to keep this short, but knew if I didn’t report on tonight’s dinner it would get lost in the bowels of my computer, amid uploaded photos that quickly became outdated. We were in Banff all weekend (almost straight from Vancouver, with enough of a layover to do some laundry and repack) and got home at around 5, just in time to make it to our dinner club. The theme this time? Stadium anthem rock. I’m still not sure what that is – although it seemed to make sense once we heard the songs each person chose. Our instructions were to choose a song, then an appetizer that tied into that song somehow. Dinner music was thus taken care of. It was in the basement, in the rec room. (Not ours.)
The backyard looked, satisfyingly, like this:
I hate to do this in point form, but that’s what I’ve got tonight. A weak battery in my laptop meant I didn’t get as much done on the train last week as I should have, and Monday morning is technically here in ten minutes. Here’s what everyone came up with:
Rump roast sliders for Fat Bottomed Girls (Queen)
Blood orange and ginger scallops for Sunday Bloody Sunday (U2)
Chicken wings for Free Bird (Lynyrd Skynyrd)
Super natural salad for Carry On My Wayward Son (Kansas)
Fresh focaccia with crab and shrimp dip for I Want You to Want Me (Cheap Trick)
Fusilli salad for Frampton (the hair – see the similarity above?)
Boston cream pie for More Than a Feeling (Boston)
Chocolate dipped brie for Sweet Emotion (Aerosmith)
Yes, I said chocolate dipped brie. Which came from here – don’t they look just like their pictures? Completely adorable. Great idea. I should confess that we found them slightly underwhelming – not bad, but not as stupendous as they sound like they should be. Perhaps it was the brie? Just thought I should warn before you rush out and drop a bundle on ingredients to make it. Not that you shouldn’t. We all liked it, but I’m not sure anyone fell head over heels in love with it. There was a lot of hm-ing – more so than mmmm-ing. Worth another try, I think.
I made blueberry lemon bars – great to make ahead and freeze (they cut more cleanly when they’re frozen, anyway). My song? Lemon, by U2. Why? Because we saw it in a big stadium howevermany years ago, when they wheeled in the ginormous lemon, which opened up to allow the band to make their entrance from. Now that’s stadium rock.
Blueberry, Lemon & Coconut Squares
These are perfect to make ahead and stash in the freezer; slicing them frozen will ensure a clean cut.
Base:
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup sugar
1 scant cup all-purpose or whole wheat flour
pinch salt
Topping:
1 cup sugar
2 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
pinch salt
2 large eggs
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries
1/2 cup shredded coconut, sweetened or unsweetened
icing sugar for sprinkling (optional)
Preheat oven to 350°F.
In a medium bowl, stir together the butter and sugar until creamy. Add flour and salt and stir until well combined and crumbly.
Press into the bottom of an 8” x 8” pan that has been sprayed with nonstick spray. Bake for 8-10 minutes, until just barely golden around the edges.
In the same bowl (no need to wash it), stir together the sugar, flour, baking powder and salt. Add the eggs and lemon juice and stir until well blended and smooth.
Sprinkle the berries and coconut evenly over the base, and pour the lemon filling over top. Bake for 35-40 minutes, until golden and set. Cool completely in the pan on a wire rack before cutting or freezing. If you like, sprinkle with icing sugar before serving. Makes 16 squares.
Per square: 130 calories, 3.3 g fat (1.9 g saturated fat, 1 g monounsaturated fat, 0.2 g polyunsaturated fat), 24 g carbohydrates, 21 mg cholesterol, 1.6 g protein, 0.7 g fiber. 23% calories from fat
May 15 2011 | cookies & squares | 16 Comments »
Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone. We made these cookies for W’s kindergarten class, but I don’t think heart cookies should be reserved for Valentine’s Day. They don’t even need to be on a stick.
Just think of the possibilities! All you need is a window in your dough, and some smashed hard candies. Any shape window – any colour of candy. Perfect for parties, birthday or otherwise! If you had little letter or number cutters in honour of the birthday boy/girl – how cute would that be? Or yellow stars! Blue moons! More than one window, which opens up the potential for happy faces!
I must say I’m feeling very Martha today. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
You can use any rolled cookie dough – I used a sugar dough made with some butter, some canola oil. If you want the recipe, or complete stained glass cookie on a stick formula, I posted it over at the Family Kitchen.
February 13 2011 | cookies & squares and Family Kitchen | 16 Comments »
E.B. has been reading this blog for a very long time. About a week ago, she tweeted me asking advice about cookie pops for an upcoming birthday party. I had never made them, but had always wanted to – for no particular reason except that they’re cookies. On a stick.
And so we made some! For research purposes, obviously. I poked around the internet to see what other people were doing, and not being quite up for a full-on icing art project, I decided to just make chocolate chip cookies, stick wooden Popsicle sticks into the dough before they baked, and see what happened. Guess what? Cookies on a stick! Easy. It appears you can bake any cookie on a stick. Drop or other soft-doughed cookies, anyway – I’m not sure how you’d jam a stick into a rolled and cut-out cookie, unless you made the dough thicker than you normally would. To make perfectly round cookies for decorating, I’d roll sugar dough into balls, poke in the stick, then flatten them with the bottom of a glass. But to be honest, I’m not sure I’d bother with anything but crispy-edged, chewy-middled chocolate chip cookies on my sticks.
Tonight, Ben called from across the street to ask if I might have twenty-seven leftover cookie pops for him to bring to his class for his birthday tomorrow. Er, no. Guess what we did tonight?
Rather than go with my lower fat version, I went with the recipe on the back of the Chipits bag, tweaking it just a bit. I may have eaten some of the dough.
Good luck with the birthday party, E.B.!
Chocolate Chip Cookies on a Stick
3/4 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup canola or mild olive oil
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
2 large eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
2 1/4 cups flour (half all-purpose, half whole wheat)
1 tsp. baking soda
pinch salt
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
3 dozen wooden Popsicle or stir sticks
Preheat oven to 350F.
In a large bowl, beat the butter, oil and sugars until well blended and starting to get fluffy. Add the eggs and vanilla and beat again. Add the flour, baking soda and salt and beat until almost combined; add the chocolate chips and stir just until blended.
Shape the dough into walnut-sized balls and place them on an ungreased baking sheet, allowing 2 inches between them. Stick a Popsicle stick into each, ensuring that the stick won’t interfere with the spreading of any of the other cookies.
Bake for 12-14 minutes, until golden around the edges but still soft in the middle. Let cool on the sheet for at least 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. Makes about 3 dozen cookies.
January 24 2011 | cookies & squares | 20 Comments »
Chocolate Hazelnut Espresso Shortbread
If your hazelnuts are whole, coarsely chop them in the food processor first, then transfer them to a bowl and blend the rest, adding them back in at the end.
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup cocoa
3 Tbsp. cornstarch
1 Tbsp. instant espresso or coffee (or finely ground espresso beans)
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup butter, cold and cut into chunks
1 tsp. vanilla
3/4 cup hazelnuts, toasted, skinned, and coarsely chopped
1/2 cup chocolate chips (optional, to drizzle)
Preheat oven to 350°F. In the bowl of a food processor, combine flour, brown sugar, cocoa, cornstarch, espresso and salt. Add butter and vanilla and pulse until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add nuts; blend until finely chopped. Transfer dough to floured work surface. Knead just until dough comes together.
Divide dough in half and press each into an 8″ or 9” round cake pan, or tart pan with removable bottom. If you like, press around the edge with the tines of a fork. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until set. Cool on a wire rack, then cut each shortbread round into 12 wedges.
If you want to drizzle your shortbread with chocolate, put the chocolate chips into a zip-lock baggie and seal. Place in a bowl of very warm water and let sit until melted. Knead the bag a bit to make sure there are no chunks left. When smooth, snip a tiny corner off and drizzle chocolate over cookies. Let stand until chocolate sets.
Makes about 2 dozen wedges.
December 23 2010 | cookies & squares | 7 Comments »
How can one single cookie be referred to both as a Russian tea cake and a Mexican wedding cake? Can you think of two more opposite social occasions than a Russian tea and a Mexican wedding?
Interesting, though, that they’re referred to as cakes in both, when they’re so clearly cookies. Shortbread, even.
And one of few cookies that must be had at Christmastime around here. (Also: Hello Dollies.) And so when I was invited to a cookie exchange on Friday night and needed to make 11 dozen of something, these not only had nostalgia on their side, but ease of preparation.
Like any cookie recipe, you’ll see them vary slightly in ratio of butter:sugar:flour:nuts – I have one recipe that calls for them to be baked at 325, and another at 400. I played around a bit, and I think this is the best ratio and baking temperature. But that’s just me.
Mom’s Nut Balls
1 cup butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup icing sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
2 cups flour
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup finely chopped hazelnuts, walnuts, almonds and/or pecans, toasted
extra icing sugar, for rolling
Preheat oven to 375°F. Beat the butter, icing sugar and vanilla in a large bowl until light. Add the flour, salt and nuts and stir until blended – you may need to use your hands.
Roll dough into balls and place on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake until pale golden around the edges and on the bottom. While still warm, roll in a shallow dish of icing sugar to coat. Cool on a wire rack. Makes 2 dozen.
December 21 2010 | cookies & squares | 12 Comments »
