Gingersnap Bars

 

Our family likes things spicy! I found this bar cookie recipe and we are all in LOVE. A batch of these doesn't usually last the day, especially if Papa Riddle is visiting. We like these because they have a crunchy outside and a soft, sweet spicy inside. Also...being a bar recipe it is easy to execute.

Gingersnap Bars

INGREDIENTS

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon cloves
• 3/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 3/4 cup unflavored oil (I use avocado but vegetable, canola or grapeseed also work)
• 1 cup + 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1/4 cup molasses
• 1 egg
• 1 tablespoon coarse decorating sugar, for sprinkling on top

NSTRUCTIONS

1. Preheat the oven to 350F degrees. Line a 9×13 glass baking dish with parchment paper.
2. In medium bowl, sift together flour, cloves, ginger, cinnamon, salt, and baking soda; set aside.
3. In a large bowl add the oil and sugar; whisk to combine. Whisk in egg and molasses, taking are not to over mix. Stir in the flour mixture just until flour is combined.
4. Spread the cookie dough evenly into the prepared baking pan. Use your hands to push the dough into the corners and evenly press the dough into the pan. Sprinkle evenly with coarse sugar.
5. Bake 22-25 minutes just until the cookie bars are cooked through. The edges will be golden and crispy and the center will be just sent. Take care not to over bake. Remove the bars from oven and let cool completely on a cooling rack. The bars will continue to cook in the pan while they cool. Cut into 24 slices.

Karidopita, Greek Walnut Cake

 

There was so much baking this Easter. We really got excited! One new recipe we tried this year was Karidopita, or Greek walnut cake. We had purchased a bulk bag of walnuts a while back and they really needed to be used. This recipe is a great way to feature walnuts without being overwhelming. My walnut-averse son loved this cake. The key is to really pulverize your wallnuts into a fine crumb. It keeps the cake moist and lends the beautiful nutty flavor. 

That is my finished soaking karidopita in the back :)

Karidopita, Greek Walnut Cake

Ingredients   

1 cup sugar
2 cups self raising flour
1 cup walnuts crushed coarsely (option to add another 1/4 of chunky walnuts pieces if you like more crunch)
6 eggs
1 tsp vanilla 
1 tsp cinnamon & 1 tsp clove ground
30 ml brandy
1 cup olive oil

Syrup
1.5 cup sugar
1.5 cup water
1 cinnamon stick
3 cloves
1/2 lemon juiced and the other half sliced

Directions:

1. To prepare the syrup, combine all the ingredients, bring to the boil and remove from the heat after 5 minutes. Allow to cool completely. Please note the sugar syrup must be completely cold to be used on the hot cake.
   
   
   
2. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
3. Grease a  10 inch round cake tin with a little olive oil.
4. Combine eggs, oil, sugar, spices, brandy, walnuts and vanilla sugar, then gradually add flour. Mix for a few minutes until well combined.
5. Bake for approximately 25-30 minutes or until a golden colour.
6. Once the cake is ready, make some small holes on its surface with a skewer and pour the cooled syrup over the hot cake bit by bit, allowing each spoonful to be absorbed before proceeding with the next. It is essential that it absorbs well. The longer it stands, the better the result as it will soften even more.
7. Serve with ice-cream or a Greek coffee.

Guinness Chocolate Cake

 

We have a few things we do for St. Patrick's day as a family. Ironically, while we live in Boston, we have never been to the St. Paddy's Day parade in Southie. We are much happier to bake yummy things and stay at home. 😆

We always make Irish Soda Bread, and have for a long time. And a Guinnes stew is standard. Recently, we started baking this Chocolage Guinness Cake. It is a delicous, moist and flavorful cake. You can eat it straight, or dressed with some whiskey butter cream.

Chocolate Guinness Cake:

• 2 eggs
• 2/3 cup sour cream
• 3 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup Guinness stout beer (drink the rest while you cook)
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 2 cups brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons instant coffee
• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and prepare a 9-inch springform pan by greasing and laying a parchment circle in the bottom. 

2. In a saucepan heat the butter and Guinness over low heat until the butter is just melted. 

3. In a medium bowl combine eggs, sour cream, and vanilla. Set aside.

4. Combine the brown sugar, instant coffee and cocoa powder to the beer and sugar. Whisk to combine. 

5. Slowly add the butter/beer/cocoa mixture to the eggs/sour cream/vanilla mixture. Add the flour, baking soda and salt. Stir until just combined.

6. Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 50 - 55 minutes or until a tester comes out clean. Let the cake rest for 10 minutes, then eat or ice to your liking. Enjoy!

Throat Punch: Roasted Scotch Bonnet Hot Sauce

 This season I got a lot of scotch bonnet peppers in my farm share. Scotch bonnet peppers are super hot, and I have not learned quite how to use them in cooking yet. I am kind of afraid to just "Throw one in the soup." the way my West-Indian friends advise, but I figured that if I made a hot sauce and it was too hot, it would only ruin the sauce and not dinner. 

Such a pretty color!

I decided to roast the peppers with some other seasonal veggies and see what happened. It ended up being magical! The sauce is creamy, savory smooth, and then it punches you in the back of the throat on the way down...hence the name. It is really tasty, I will totally do it again. We used it on fish, chicken and sandwiches, and then we ran out. I am excited to try it again next year. This sauce needs to be stored in the refrigerator.

Throat Punch

Ingredients:

12-15 Scotch Bonnet Peppers

1 large onion

3 carrots

2 medium zucchini

4 cloves garlic (keep in the skin)

Olive Oil

Salt & Pepper

2-3 tablespoons Apple Cider Vinegar

Dorections:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. While the oven heats, half the peppers and chop all vegetables. Add all veggies to a large baking pan and toss with olive oil, salt and pepper.

2. Roast the veggies for 30-45 minutes until they are soft and slightly browned.

3.Transfer all the veggies and all pan juices into a blender or food processor. *Be sure to remove the garlic cloves and squeeze the roasted garlic out of the skins into the blender or food processor*

4. Blend until smooth. Add more olive oil or water to get the consistency you desire. Add 2-3 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar at the end to taste. Adjust the salt and pepper to taste. Store in a jar in the refrigerator.

Homemade French Onion Dip

 I came across an Alton Brown recipe for homemade french onion dip. It was just before Super Bowl weekend so I figured I would try it out. My family are fans of store bought french onion dip, and I grew up with my mom stirring the freeze-dried and powdered french onion soup mix into sour cream, but I had never tried making it from scratch with actual onions. Alton made it look pretty simple, so we made it for our game night snack. 

The first try came out pretty great. We loved the fresh onion taste, and the method of deglazing with the vinegar added the perfect tang, but my boys felt it was just a little bit too rich. So I made some tweaks and came up with this version that we now enjoy very much. We substituted non-fat Greek yogurt in place of sour cream and mayonaise. It is still rich and creamy but not overwhelmingly rich. For us, a great change. 

French Onion Dip

Ingredients:

4 Large Onions

1/5 teaspoon plus one pinch Baking Soda

1 tablespoon Salt

1 tablespoon Dark Brown Sugar

1/4 cup Olive Oil

Apple Cider Vinegar for deglazing

1 tablespoon Blasamic Vinegar

2 cups non-fat Greek Yogurt

1/4 teaspoon Garlic Powder

1/4 teaspoon Pepper

Directions:

1. Thinly slice the onions and put them in a large, heavy-bottomed pot. 

Remember that cutting onions with glasses on is a bad idea

Sprinkle the onions with baking soda, salt & brown sugar. Stir the onions to break them up and evenly distribute the salt, soda and sugar. Cover the pot and let the onions rest for 10 minutes.

2. After the onions have rested, uncover the pot, and place over high heat. Drizzle with olive oil and cook, stirring often until the onions are reduced by 75% and are a light golden color. 

3. Reduce the heat to medium and continue cooking approximately 15 minutes, stirring often.

4.When the onions begin to brown, deglaze the ban with a splash of apple cider vinegar. I did this three times before the onions were the desired dark brown. 

When the onions have reduced to about 1 1/2 cups in volume, deglaze one last time with the balsamic vinegar, stir a few times then remove from heat and let cool.

5. When the onions are cool, stir them into the 2 cups of yogurt. Add the garlic powder and pepper. Cover the dip and let it sit in the refrigerator for at least an hour. It is best when it sits overnight. 

I had just the right amount of yogurt left in my container so I just mixed the onions and seasoning right in. :)

Christmas Roasted Duck

 Keith and I were doing our last visit to Costco before Christmas and saw that they had whole duck for $3.99 per lb. We didn't have a plan yet for Christmas dinner, so we decided...duck...why not?

It seemed like a good idea at the time, and then we got home and I started looking into how to cook this sucker. I started with Julia Child's "Duck L'Orange," followed quickly by someone trying to do her recipe and failing miserably. Not encouraging. I then checked out Alton Brown, he disassembled his duck before cooking, very practical, but I wanted the whole impressive bird for presentation. I moved on to Jamie Oliver, who always makes everything look incredibly easy, and true to form, he whipped up a Christmas duck without breaking a sweat. There was quite a variance in techniques and attitudes toward the process. I decided to take the things I found helpful from all of them and combine them into my own attempt. I was pleased with the end result. I have decided that duck is not an ingredient I need to be afraid of trying and Aaron has declared it the most tasty bird he has ever eaten. Which from my #3 who this week has decided that he doesn't eat lentils anymore, is very high praise. Duck goes really well with potatoes and some greens. Joe brought his best potato game, which is his official job at Via Cannuccia. They were amazing. Maybe he will let me post the recipe later. This recipe also creates a lovely pan sauce that I am really fond of. Don't forget to put your duck carcas into a pot with some water after you carve it. The carcas makes some lovely broth that we have already used for soup this week.

Christmas Roasted Duck:

Ingredients:

4-5lb whole duck (with gibletts)

1 cup orange juice

1 cup pineapple juice

15 peppercorns

1/2 cup salt

4 medium purple onions

1 tablespoon ground cloves

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp smoked paprika

salt and pepper to taste

sprig of rosemary 

1 cup water

2 cups grapes

1 cup dried figs

1 cup red wine

Directions:

1. Brine the duck: in a large ziploc bag combine orange juice, pineapple juice, peppercorns and salt. Close the bag and swish the ingredients around to dissolve the salt. Remove the duck from its packaging, give it a rinse and remove the neck and giblets (set aside for later). Trim any excess fat from the end of the duck and pull any excess fat from the cavity. (Julia's duck video is excellent for more on this) Put the duck in the ziploc bag with the brine. Press to remove as much air as possible from the bag and put it in the refrigerator. Allow the duck to sit in the brine for at least 6 hours and up to three days. 

2. Prepare the roast: Preheat your oven to 500 degrees. (I know this sounds bonkers, hang in there with me) Get out a roasting pan that will fit your duck but will also provide some room around the duck to add the grapes and figs later on. Quarter your onions and lay them flat side down in the bottom of the roasting pan. Retrieve your giblets and put them in the middle of the roasting pan in the midst of the onions. Get your duck and remove it from the brine, place it on top of the onions and giblets. The onions act as a kind of "rack" for the duck, and they cook down into a soft jammy consistency with all the roasting fat that makes an amazing sauce at the end. 

With your duck in place, use a sharp knife to score the skin on the breasts. Duck is a very lean meat, but there is a lot of excess fat under the skin. Scoring the skin, especially down near the wings and legs, will help release the fat. Combining this with starting the bird at 500 degrees crisps up the skin. 

Purple onions are preferable but of course, I only had white

After scoring your duck, rub the skin all over with the cloves, garlic, paprika, salt and pepper. Don't forget to season the inside cavity. *note: I know this seems like a copious amount of ground cloves, again, trust me. At first it smells very strong, but in the end it is perfection* Place the rosemary sprig inside the cavity. Pour 1 cup of water into the roasting pan.

3. Roast the duck: Place your duck on the middle rack of a 500 degree oven and roast for 20 minutes. Then reduce the heat to 350 degrees and continue to cook for 1 hour 15 minutes. Ater 1 hr, 15 minutes, remove the duck from the oven. Baste the duck with the fat in the pan, then drain any excess duck fat into a jar to save for later. *note: duck fat is amazing to cook with later. Put the jar in your refrigerator and use the fat to brown vegetables for soup, start a stir fry etc..* Add the grapes and figs to the pan around the duck. Return to the oven and continue to cook about 30 minutes or until the duck has reached the internal temperature of 165 degrees. You can also know that your duck is done if you tip it and the juices that run out of the carcas are clear and not red. 

4. Rest the duck and make the sauce: Remove your duck from the pan and let it rest on your serving platter or cutting board. Also remove some of the more whole-looking grapes, figs and onions and set aside with the resting duck.  If your roasting pan can go on the stove burner, add 1 cup of wine and 1 cup of water to the pan and scrape the pan to release all the browned bits from the bottom, (that is the flavor). If your pan is ceramic or glass, do the same and then add all the contents of your roasting pan: liquid, soft onions, neck and giblets, soft grapes and figs to a saucepan to finish the sauce. Bring your roasting pan contents to a simmer, continue to scrape the sides of the roasting pan to release the caramelized bits form the bottom. Use a potato masher to crush up the duck neck, giblets, onions, grapes and figs to create a jammy sauce. Simmer 10 minutes. After the sauce has simmered for 10 minutes, run it through a fine-meshed metal sieve. Use a spoon to push the fruit pulp through and scrape the underside of the sieve to make sure you get all that jammy goodness. Discard the bones and remaining un-sieved fruit. Carve your duck and serve with the sauce. 

Just a note: These are the new family ducks that live in my brother's garden. They in no way influenced my inspiration to cook duck for Christmas, but I am sure they would be 1. horrified if they knew and 2. delicious if I cooked them like this. 😂

Riddlehaus Christmas Stollen

 

Merry Christmas 2023!

One of the first Christmas traditions I remember from growing up, other then laying under the lights of a sparkling Christmas tree, is Stollen. Both my mother and grandmother made Stollen. Both their end results were very different. My mother's recipe, which came from the original "Joy of Cooking" was lighter than my Grandmother's which was much more dense. In my experience, there are a myriad of definitions of Stollen. (just google it and look at the photos) Some recipes only use raisins, some add a core of almond paste, some are more buscuit like in their consistency and some, like this one, are more like a brioche. This recipe is how I like Stollen. It is a light, flaky enriched dough with lots of candied and rum soaked fruits. I would add nuts but I have one son in the house that doesn't like nuts. This was my first time making an enriched dough which was fun. I was pleasantly surprised with how lovely the dough turned out. The recipe does require several steps, but don't be affraid, they are all worth it. This recipe makes one loaf, but it doubles well if you need more than one. 

Riddlehaus Christmas Stollen

Ingredients:

1 cup candied fruit peel

1 cup assorted dried fruits: I used raisins, cherries, cranberries and apricots

3 tbsp rum

1 package rapid rise dry yeast

3/4 cup whole milk warmed to between 105 to 115 degrees

3 cups flour

1/4 cup sugar

2 large eggs

1 tbsp vanilla extract

Grated zest of 1/2 lemon

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp salt

14 tbsp very soft butter

1/3 cup chopped nuts (optional)

These are the ingredients for a double recipe

Directions:

1. Prepare your fruit:  in a bowl, combine your chosen dried fruits with the rum, then add boiling water to just cover. Set aside to soak for at least 30 minutes or up to three days. 

2. Start your dough: In the bowl of your mixer, combine the flour, sugar, salt and yeast. With the mixer on low, slowly add the warm milk. When the milk is incorporated, add eggs, zest and vanilla. When the dough comes together, knead by hand or mix on low with the dough hook for 10 minutes, or until the dough is smooth and elastic. If you don't have a mixer with a dough hook, make a pile of the dry ingredients on your counter, and make a well in the middle so it looks like a volcano. Slowly add the milk to the middle of the dry indredient well, and knead to incorporate. Do the same when adding the eggs and flavorings. 

That's a lot of butter!!

3. Adding the butter (enrich the dough): With the mixer on low, add the butter one tablespoon at a time until the butter is completely incorporated and the dough is once again smooth. *This looks super strange at first, but have patience, it will be amazing* Doing this bit by hand is much more messy than using the mixer but it does eventually work. 

4. Add the fruit and nuts: Drain the liquid from your soaked fruits. When the butter is incorporated and the dough is elastic again, add the soaked fruits, candied citrus peel, and nuts if you are using them. Knead with the dough hook until just incorporated. 

Time to rest!

5. Rest #1: Put the dough in a bowl and cover with a moistened kitchen towel. Let the dough rest in a warm place until nearly doubled in volume 1 1/2 - 2 hours. 

That was a very successful nap.

6. Form the loaf: After the dough has risen, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead 4-5 times to lightly shape the dough. Some traditions roll out the dough and fold it over to signify the swaddling clothes of the baby Jesus. I just lightly shape the dough into an oval and put it on my parchment lined baking sheet. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

7. Rest #2: While the oven preheats, let the loaf rest, about 45 minutes. 

8. Bake: Bake in the 350 degree oven for 50-60 minutes or until a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean. 

9. Brush the loaf with melted butter, and sprinkle with powdered sugar. Return to the oven for 3 minutes, and then dust with powdered sugar again and move to a wire rack to cool. (we never got to this step, everyone wanted to dig in 😆)

*We especially like Stollen toasted for breakfast on Christmas morning. Enjoy!