Apple "Brownies"

Based on a Martha Stewart recipe, but larger and with some additional and different ingredients.

• 1 stick salted butter, melted and cooled
• 1/4 cup applesauce
• 2 medium eggs (2.1 ounces each
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla

• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
• 2 large sweet apples (about 1 pound total), peeled, cored, and cut into cubes (2 3/4 cups)

• 1.25 cup white whole wheat flour 
• 1/2 cup walnut flour (meal)
• 2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

1. Preheat oven to 350.  Grease 9x13 pan with melted butter.
2. Combine flour and spices, etc, and set aside.
3. Beat butter, applesauce, eggs, sugar and vanilla.
4. Stir in walnuts and apples.
5. Stir in flour mixture briefly - 30 seconds
6. Smooth into pan. Bake about 35 minutes until golden brown and slightly firm.  Cool 30 minutes on a rack before cutting.

Original recipe: 

http://www.marthastewart.com/925923/apple-brownies#Apple%20Recipes|/275039/apple-recipes/@center/276955/seasonal-produce-recipe-guide|925923

Best Coconut Chocolate Cookie Ever

It's been years since I made cookies, but today I had a hankering to make coconut chocolate cookies.  The original recipe came from foodnetwork.com and I made five ingredient changes:  I replaced the all-purpose flour with white whole wheat flour, replaced 1/4 cup of the flour with almond flour, replaced 1/4 cup of butter with coconut oil, used unsweetened coconut flakes instead of sweetened, and added an additional 1/4 cup of the flaked coconut.  My version made 24 cookies instead of 16.  Phil said it was the best cookie he ever had in his life.

1/2 cup white whole wheat flour
1/4 cup almond flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 stick butter (1/4 cup) at room temperature
1/4 cup coconut oil
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 large egg

3/4 cup unsweetened coconut flakes
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped pecans

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Cover 2 sheet trays with parchment paper or silicone mat.

Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl.

Add the butter and sugars to a large bowl and beat with an electric hand mixer until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes. Add the vanilla and egg and beat until incorporated. Add the flour mixture in increments, beating until well combined. Briefly beat in the coconut flakes, chocolate chips and pecans until mixed together.

Using a roundish tablespoon measurer, roll the dough into walnut-size balls and drop 12 on each cookie sheet, leaving space between them. Bake 13 minutes (switch upper and lower trays midway). Let cool on the sheet tray 5 minutes.

Original recipe at http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/patrick-and-gina-neely/chocolate-coconut-cookies-recipe.print.html?oc=linkback

Rhubarb Candied Ginger Sorbet

Strongly tart, palate cleansing, and refreshing!  Small tastes.  I served single scoops in paper cupcake wrappers with spoons at work and got many rave reviews.

• 6 cups fresh rhubarb, large dice
• 1.5 cups sugar
• 1.5 cups water
• (2 strawberries and/or 1 TBSP organic raspberry jam) Optional
• 1/4 cup plus 2 TBSP (= 6 TBSP) small diced candied ginger.
• 3 TBSP vodka

Simmer first 3 ingredients until most rhubarb dissolved.  If color is not pinkish enough,  add 2 large cut strawberries and/or a tablespoon of organic raspberry jam and simmer until soft or dissolved.
Blend with immersion blender until smooth.

Stir in vodka and candied ginger.  Most will melt, but some small pieced will still be there.  A little bit of rhubarb may there too, which is also fine.

Pour into a bowl with a pour spout. Chill at least 4 hours until cold.

In thoroughly chilled bowl (15 hours in freezer) of ice cream maker, stir on speed 1 for about 10-12 minutes or until it starts slipping.  Pour into two 3-cup containers with lids (or smaller sizes), and chill for at least an hour.

Chocolate Coconut Bars

This should make about 9 candies.

Blend in food processor until it comes together:

• 1/2 cup unsweetened dried coconut 
• 2 T coconut oil (room temp)
• 1 T honey

On parchment paper, press into a rectangle. Place in freezer while making chocolate.

In bowl, mix until smooth:

• 2 T coconut oil, melted
• 2 T maple syrup
• 4 T cocoa powder
• 1/4 t vanilla
• dash of salt
• dash of cayenne pepper

Add a little chocolate to the bottom of mini cupcake/candy paper cups.
Cut coconut bars to fit wrapper.  Press coconut piece into chocolate cups so chocolate comes up sides a little.  Add chocolate to top to cover.
Place in freezer for 10 minutes.

All Cornmeal Cornbread - gluten free

We accidentally have A LOT of organic cornmeal at the moment.  I made up this recipe tonight and it was so good, Phil said I should write it down so I can make it again.  See Update below, which was even better! 

Almost 2 cups of organic cornmeal

• 3 T almond flour
• 2 t baking powder
• 1 t baking soda
• 1 t salt

• 1 egg
• 2 T melted coconut oil (I melted this in the pan, bad idea-it leaked)
• 2 T melted butter
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1/2 cup low fat greek yogurt plain
• 1/2 cup almond milk
• 2 T honey

Mix wet ingredients into dry mix.
Pour into greased dark grey cake pan with removable sides.
Bake in 400 degree oven for 25 minutes.

Update:  I made cornbread again last night without looking at this recipe.  I think it came out even better, with a real corn taste with coconut and butter flavors.  No need to add butter for serving!

MY BEST 100% CORNMEAL CORNBREAD (so far)

Preheat Oven to 450 degrees.  Use coconut oil to grease 9 inch round dark cake pan with removable sides.

Mix in small bowl:

• 2 cups organic cornmeal from Co-op (coarse)
• 2 t baking powder
• 1 tsp salt

Mix in large bowl:

• 2 T melted coconut oil (melt in microwave 30 seconds)
• 1 T melted butter
• 2 T honey
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup plain greek yogurt (the last of a container of low-fat greek yogurt is what I had on hand)
• 1.5 cups almond milk (plain)

Pour Dry mix into Wet mix.  It will seem way too liquify, but it is OK.  Let it sit for a few minutes before pouring into pan and baking.

Bake for 25 minutes.  I turned the oven temp down to 400 degrees when I put it in so the heat would not come back on.

Butternut Squash Lasagne

A month ago, I made a butternut squash lasagne and have been asked for the recipe by several people who ate it.  Unfortunately, I didn't follow a recipe and did not take any notes when I made it.  To the best of my recollection, this is what I did.

I used 9 oven-ready lasagne noodles in 3 layers of 3 noodles each, but you increase the squash, cheese and sauce a bit, you can add another layer, or if your pan is wider than mine, put 4 noodles in each layer.

1. Mix together and roast on baking tray(s) at 425 degrees for about 30 minutes until squash is tender.  

• Large butternut squash, sliced thin (about 1/4 to 1/2 inch by 2-3 inches?)
• garlic cloves, sliced, (how many?  maybe 4?)
• Large onion, sliced thin 
• olive oil, a little, just to coat lightly
• salt
• fresh sage (If I added sage, I would have used the sage I froze last summer, but probably fine without)

2. Mix these ingredients together in a bowl.

• 2 cups ricotta cheese
• 1 cup cottage cheese
• 2 eggs
• fresh mozzarella cheese (1/2 cup?)

3. In a saucepan, bring these ingredients to a boil, remove from heat, let sit 10 minutes.

•  3 cups almond milk
• 1 bay leaf

4. Add tomato sauce to milk, bring to boil again, simmer until thickened. Remove bay leaf at end.

•  2 cups homemade fairly thick tomato sauce made with garlic and herbs, frozen last summer (or any type of tomato sauce)

This is where I got distracted and eventually noticed it was boiling madly, not simmering.  Note: béchamel sauce usually adds flour and milk after first boil, but I did not add flour and used tomato sauce instead, and it thickened. Could be the mad boiling. 

5. Wash, drain, and wilt spinach.  I used microwave for a minute or two.

• Bag of spinach (10 oz?)

6. After vegetables are roasted, turn oven down to 375 degrees.

7. Coat lasagne pan with oil.

8. Layer in pan:

• 1/2 cup milk/tomato mixture
• lasagne noodles
• half the squash/onion mixture
• half the spinach
• half the cheese mixture
• 3/4 cup milk/tomato mixture

9. Repeat layers ending with noodles and pouring rest of milk/tomato mixture over it.  I probably sprinkled a little shredded parmesan and/or mozzarella on top.

10. Cover with foil. Bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes. Remove foil. Bake until bubbling, about 20-30 minutes more.

11. Cool, cover, refrigerate. Send on a five hour journey with husband to in-laws.  At some point somebody thinks to put it in the freezer.  After about a week, take it out of freezer and put it on top of freezer in garage for about 5 days (fortunately it was about 10 degrees in the garage). Defrost on kitchen counter for a few hours. Cut some pieces, microwave, and serve to mother-in-law.  Put leftovers in fridge for another week and serve it to more unsuspecting in-laws.  Hope everybody lives.

12.  #11 is what happened to this lasagne.  In addition to be concerned about having scalded the almond milk, it is why I was afraid it might accidentally sicken somebody.  It would be much safer to eat it right away, or cover in plastic wrap, then foil to freeze for up to 2 months.  Defrost in fridge for 24 hours, and heat in oven at 375 degrees until hot and bubbly.

Pizza

Growing up on part of LI that had fantastic, huge, foldable pizza sold from independent pizza parlors in every strip mall, when I went to college in Albany, I was shocked and dismayed to discover Pizza Hut pizza.  I didn't actually recognize the pan pizza as pizza. Knowing I would never be able to reproduce the pizza parlor crust, I never even tried making pizza dough until two days ago.

To make sure there was no comparison to real pizza, and to add to the challenge, I make gluten-free pizza dough.  I am not an experienced gluten-free baker either - it was only a week ago that I made my first gluten-free baked good and I can't say I was thrilled with the result.

No way was I going to try to compete with the traditional tomato sauce and mozzarella pizza either.  I had enough dough for two pizzas.  Sunday's pizza was topped with basil pesto, roasted red pepper, goat cheese, chicken sausage with spinach.  (pesto and pepper homegrown and prepared last summer and frozen, goat cheese from Cohoe's R&G Cheese).

The only part of tonight's pizza that was cooked was the sliced red onions cooked on the pizza dough. After crust was baked, a sour cream/dill/lemon/red onion mixture was spread on it, followed by capers, and smoked sockeye salmon. Knowing this was going to be a crispy crust and nothing like the soft foldable pizza of my youth, I cut this pizza in appetizer size squares.  

Does anybody still can you neighborhood  pizza place a pizza parlor?