Back in Business (kind of) with Butterscotch Pudding.
With the holiday season in full swing, I got so wrapped up in working, shopping, visiting and meals out at restaurants that I was only in the kitchen to make coffee in order to keep myself awake for it all. I had a great time during the holidays though and hope you did too. I got a few new cookbooks, a silicone baking mat, subscriptions to both Gourmet and Bon Appetit, and Nike Fitness for my marathon training goals (by the way, you can track my progress on my sidebar with how many miles I’ve completed so far. It’s not very many yet, but it’s better than zero!).
Anyway, Butterscotch Pudding was chosen by Donna of Spatulas, Corkscrews & Suitcases. This turned out to be one of my favorite TWD selections so far. I wasn’t that crazy about making it for some reason, and that alone should have told me I would love it. It always seems to work that way. I’ve never been a huge butterscotch fan but I now believe brown sugar and butter are a good couple. Throw in a little Scotch Whiskey and it’s truly a match made in heaven.
Dorie knows what she’s doing with these types of desserts. I followed her recipe exactly (which can be found over at Donna’s) and it was perfect topped with fresh homemade whipped cream and crushed peanuts.
Next up is Tall and Creamy Cheesecake. Stay tuned….
Back to business in a few…
I’ve fallen quite behind with my posting. I’ll catch up soon. Hope everyone had a great holiday!
Buttery Jam Cookies
Yeah, I’ll admit they don’t look like much. They’re probably a cookie you’d skip over if you had multiple ones presented to you to choose from. As for the taste, it’s subtle. It’s just a good butter cookie with jam mixed in and a little ginger to give the flavor a boost.
These cookies would be the perfect thing to make when you want something sweet but don’t feel like doing something complicated. Chances are, everything you need to make them is already in your house. And if you’re an avid jam and jelly buyer like me (can’t resist impulse buying because of all the different flavor combos, nice jars and cute labels? I feel ya.) you need a reason to use up all those jars in the fridge that you only taste tested once, maybe twice. This recipe could be the perfect outlet.
We did like these a lot. I liked them a little too much and had to hide them from myself. But since I knew where I hid them I was able to find them easily and eat the rest of them. Good thing I made a very small batch or I may have cried myself to sleep that night over doing that.
Thanks go to Heather for choosing Buttery Jam cookies for Tuesdays with Dorie for the week of December 16th, 2008. Please stop by Heather’s blog Randomosity and the Girl to check out the recipe and to see what she thought about her choice. Heather has the cutest dog named Charlie who makes regular appearances in her posts, it always makes me smile. 
Next week it’s Butterscotch Pudding as chosen by Donna of Spatulas, Corkscrews & Suitcases. See you next Tuesday!
Grandma’s All Occasion Sugar Cookies
Sugar cookies are near the top of my favorite cookies list. Cut-out sugar cookies with fancy icing decorating… even better. I was looking forward to Tuesdays with Dorie this week. I could use my “new” Christmas cookie cutter set that I’ve had for 10 years but never opened. I could have fun decorating all the different shapes I made. Well… yeah, my plans didn’t work out. This dough did not behave when I went to roll it out. It was way too soft. I did chill it enough, even chilled in between tries. I’m not sure what happened. I looked around at other people’s experiences with this recipe and most didn’t seem to have any problems. I’m starting to think me and Dorie’s doughs just don’t have the right chemistry. It’s only doughs that have to be manipulated like the pie crust, Rugelach and these cookies. It’s got to be all my fault, I just don’t know what I’m doing wrong. Since I don’t like to be stressed when I’m baking I just gave in and did the scoop and bake method. The cookies turned out great. They were very soft and the taste was up to my high sugar cookie standards.
I put some icing on in different Christmas colors and let them all run together. Not exactly my original decorating plans, but hey, it’s alright. Another time, perhaps.
Thanks to Ulrike for choosing Grandma’s All Occasion Sugar Cookies for the week of December 9th, 2008. Please check out Ulrike’s blog Küchenlatein for the recipe and to see what she thought of her choice. Next week, more cookies! Heather of Randomosity and the Girl has selected Buttery Jam Cookies for the group to test out.
Coq au vin
According to Wikipedia: Coq au vin, a classic French stew, translates to “rooster in wine”.
This dish presented many new firsts for me. I had heard of it (sounded pretty fancy for my cooking skill), but never tasted it. Actually, I don’t think I’ve ever cooked a French dinner dish before. I know I’ve never cooked with such a large amount of wine! And I had never cut a whole chicken into pieces (It wasn’t easy for me, I felt absolutely terrible about it. I really renewed my appreciation for Perdue Short Cuts chicken today). I’d say this was a definite learning experience.
I saw a post over at Workout then Cook! about adapting this recipe for the crockpot. This was a perfect alternative for me as I realized I didn’t actually have the Dutch Oven that is needed. I put everything in the crockpot at one time (except the wine) and cooked on low for about 6 hours. I then added the wine and finished up on the stove for a little less than an hour. Side note: I’m kind of coming in late to this blog but I just recently found A Year of Crockpotting. The author’s 2008 New Year’s resolution was to cook a new recipe everyday in her crockpot and then blog about it. She’s kept up with it all year and has done pretty much anything you can think of (and stuff you’d never think would work). Wonder if she’ll continue through 2009??
Anyway, Coq au vin is not the most photogenic dish out there, but we liked the taste. I liked it more than my boyfriend, he had some issues with what he thought was a strong red wine flavor. I’m not much for red wine, but the taste didn’t bother me. The chicken fell right off the bone and actually got a little stringy when I stirred. This is one of the things Ina mentions in her new book Back to Basics that is avoided when using her reworked cooking method using the Dutch Oven. I guess I have to also put a Dutch Oven on my Christmas list… my list is getting LONG!
Ina Garten’s version of Coq au vin was selected by Bethany of this little piggy went to market for the December 11th recipe for the Barefoot Bloggers group. The recipe can be found here on the Foodnetwork site. Next up for the BB’s is Pappa al Pomodoro, an Italian tomato/bread soup. I’ve had my eye on it since I got Back to Basics.
Use it or lose it… (and my 40th TWD)
“Use it or lose it” may just be one of my favorite phrases right now. It’s the reason I’m currently on vacation instead of at work. It’s great to find out you still have a week’s worth of time off in the last month of the year. It makes things seem more do-able. Like I actually have time to Christmas shop, time to veg out during Netflix instant viewing, and time to make some cookies.
Here we have Linzer Sables. They are a tiny spiced cookie sandwich with a layer of jam in the middle and a powdered sugar dusting on top.
There are tons of flavor combinations you could decide on for these. Since the dough is made with ground nuts you could choose one or more different nuts to use. The jam in the middle leaves you open to almost any flavor of jam you could find. I chose to use almonds as my base with a raspberry jam for the filling.
These dough was pretty easy to roll out between two sheets of plastic wrap. I let the dough chill overnight for the first batch and two days for the second batch.
There are specific cookie cutters made just for these types of cookies. See here and here for examples. I just used a cutter that I already owned and a Wilton tip to cut out the hole in the middle.
I liked the taste of these. The spices in the cookie really come through and I liked the raspberry jam a lot with them. They were crispy, not really soft. I’m actually not sure I’d make these again, although I’m glad I gave them a try.
Linzer Sables were chosen for Tuesdays with Dorie for the week of December 2nd by Dennis of Living the Life. The recipe can be found on Living the Life here. This was my 40th TWD recipe. I’m proud of myself for sticking with something this long.
More cookies coming your way as soon as I can tear myself away from CSI Season 9 on Netflix.
Grandma’s All Occasion Sugar Cookies
Buttery Jam Cookies
