Posts tagged ‘hazelnuts’
Recipe of the Week – Biscotti
From the Dessert Category at emealsforyou.com.
Biscotti
Colds and the flu have wrecked our attempts at weight loss; well these and the football playoffs, Super Bowl and maybe Valentine’s Day. Tough as it is to lose weight once you start down the path of small indulgences it is doubly tough to get back on the weight loss bandwagon. A good way to ease into watching your weight again is to allow yourself an occasional treat. This may sound counter intuitive but really when you are “jonesing” for a hot fudge sundae a single miniature snickers bar may take the edge off. With this in mind I offer up the biscotti; crunchy, a little sweet, a little nutty, the perfect snack for those of us who are dreading the fashion challenge that is called Spring.
Try these, as Julia would say, “in moderation”. Bet you can eat only one.
Biscotti
| Complexity: | Easy |
| Serves: | 8 |
| Category: | Dessert |
| Meal: | Party Dessert Tray (Theme Meal Plans) |
| 0.75 | cup | almonds, whole |
| 0.66 | cup | sugar, white |
| 2 | large | egg |
| 1 | tsp | vanilla |
| 0.75 | tsp | baking powder |
| 1.75 | cup | flour |
| 0.125 | tsp | salt, kosher |
| 4 | oz | chocolate, semi-sweet bits |
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly toast almonds on cookie sheet in oven for 8 minutes. Beat eggs and sugar together until pale and thick (5 minutes). Add in vanilla and mix quickly. Mix flour, baking powder and salt in a separate bowl; add to egg mixture and blend. Fold in nuts and chocolate bits. Place dough on a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper; wet hands and shape dough into a log 3” X 12”. Bake in oven until lightly brown about 25-30 minutes. Remove from oven; let cool. Cut biscotti on a diagonal into ½” wide strips, place cut side down back on parchment papered sheet and bake 10 minutes, turn over and bake 10 more minutes.
Look for more ideas for fitting into that bathing suit at emealsforyou.com.
Recipe of the Week – Pumpkin Tortellini
From the Vegetarian Entrée Collection at emealsforyou.com)
Pumpkin Tortellini
If you didn’t get enough pumpkin last week, I have the answer, Pumpkin Tortellini. Admittedly this recipe requires a little extra work but I promise you it is so good that you will make it over and over again. A good “escape route” here is to make raviolis in place of the tortellini; once you learn the technique you are only one additional fold away from making the tortellini. The brown butter sauce is crazy good and can be used on everything from scallops to pork chops.
Pumpkin Tortellini
| Complexity: | Easy |
| Serves: | 4 |
| Category: | Vegetarian Entrée |
| Meal: | Veggie – Fireside Dinner (Theme Meal Plans) |
| 3 | Tb | oil, olive |
| 0.5 | small | onions, chopped |
| 3 | cloves | garlic, minced |
| 0.5 | tsp | salt, kosher |
| 0.25 | tsp | pepper, fresh ground |
| 1 | 15 oz can | pumpkin, canned |
| 0.25 | tsp | thyme, dried |
| 0.5 | Tb | sage, fresh |
| 0.25 | tsp | nutmeg, ground |
| 8 | oz | cheese, goat |
| 1 | packet | wonton wrappers |
Heat olive oil in a small non-stick sauté pan. Chop onion into a fine chop. Add onion and garlic to pan, sauté until onions are soft. Add pumpkin, salt, pepper, nutmeg, chopped sage and thyme, stir, reduce heat to medium/low and simmer for 10 minutes; stirring every couple of minutes. Remove to a bowl and cool. Allow goat cheese to reach room temperature. Add cheese to pumpkin and blend until combined. Cut wonton wrappers into 3” X 3” squares. Place 1 heaping teaspoon of the pumpkin just off the middle of the wrapper. Wet edges with water, fold into a triangle and pinch edges to secure. Wrap the triangle around your finger, wet one edge and pinch the two ends together to form the tortellini. Cook in boiling salted water for 4-5 minutes until the tortellini float. Remove, plate and serve with Brown Butter Sauce with Figs and Toasted Hazelnuts.
Shown here with Brown Butter Sauce with Figs and Toasted Hazelnuts found at emealsforyou.com: ( Recipes/Misc/Brown Butter…)
Recipe of the Week – Fig and Hazelnut Tart
(From the Dessert Collection at emealsforyou.com)
Fig and Hazelnut Tart
The weather is getting cooler during the day and that means it is time to break out the tart recipes. This one is special as it puts two of my favorite ingredients together to make a great dessert. It comes together fairly easily. Make it for company or for family and watch the reaction when you bring it to the table. This will become one of your favorites as well.
The tart dough recipe can be found on both the blog and at emealsforyou.com
Fig and Hazelnut Tart
| Complexity: | Easy |
| Serves: | 6 |
| Category: | Dessert |
| Meal: | 1st Chilly Night Diiner (Distinctive Dinners) |
| 1 | recipe | Tart Dough |
| 1 | cup | cream, heavy |
| 2 | Tb | honey |
| 1.5 | cup | figs, dried |
| 0.5 | cup | hazelnuts, toasted |
Make tart shell. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Combine cream and honey in a small sauce pan, heat until honey melts (2 minutes). Remove from heat and set aside. Cut dried figs into halves. Cut hazelnuts into large chop. Combine figs and hazelnuts in a bowl; add half the cream mixture. Fill baked tart shell with fig mixture. Top off with remaining cream mixture. Bake 25 minutes until golden brown.
Is your temperature really what you think it is? – A Helpful Rant
As frequent readers will know we moved just before the New Year. Setting up the new kitchen, getting things where I want them, getting a “good flow” of movement has been a building process. Sometimes it’s the little things we miss.
This weekend I was responsible for the desserts at a neighborhood picnic. I settled on Croissant Bread Pudding and Hazelnut Toffee Cheesecake, as both are great and serve a ton of people. Baking the desserts seemed to take longer than it should have. I should have looked into the reason why but rushed through and they came out great, although taking longer and requiring me to constantly check on them.
I should have remembered installing a new oven for my mother-in-law a few years ago. Visiting months after the install she said her recipes were taking a longer time to bake. I cooked some David Lee Shrimp ((From the Appetizer Collection at emealsforyou.com) and they seemed to take forever to bake. Pulling an oven temperature gauge from her closet I found her oven to be off by about 25 degrees. The fix was an easy one, the manual instructed me to push these buttons in sequence then that button to raise the temp and it is fixed.
Back to my problem. When the light bulb in my brain went off I simply checked the real oven temp, hence the picture of the gauge above, and found my oven was off by 10 percent. That means that my desserts, requiring 350 degrees, were baking away at only 315 degrees. The bottom line is for a few bucks you can check your oven and perhaps save time when baking or at least have piece of mind that what you set your temp to is actually the temperature in the oven.
Here’s the Hazelnut Toffee Cheesecake recipe.
Hazelnut Toffee Cheesecake
| Complexity: | Easy |
| Serves: | 12 |
| Category: | Dessert |
| Meal: | N/A |
| 0.5 | cup | sugar, brown |
| 1.5 | cup | hazelnuts, ground |
| 2 | oz | bourbon, Jack Daniels |
| 8 | Tb | butter, salted |
| 8 | large | egg |
| 4 | large | egg, whites |
| 2 | cup | sugar, white |
| 2 | tsp | vanilla |
| 48 | oz | cream cheese |
| 2 | cup | heathbar bits |
Have everything at room temperature. Combine brown sugar, bourbon, nuts and butter, spread evenly on bottom of spring- form pan. In a food processor mix everything except the toffee together until very smooth. Stir in toffee. Pour into spring form pan, place on cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour. Turn off oven and let cheesecake sit ( in oven) for 1 hour.
This is best if made the day before and refrigerated over night.
This recipe serves at least 12.
Recipe of the Week – Holiday Desserts
(From the Dessert Collection at emealsforyou.com)
Cherries Jubilee
Mini Dessert Tray
My holiday desserts run the gambit from the very easy, Cherries Jubilee to the time intensive, but well worth it, Mini Dessert Tray. Depending on your schedule pick a dessert that fits the meal you are serving. Always consider desserts that may be made in advance, either something you make the day before or desserts that freeze nicely and can be made weeks in advance.
We will be celebrating Christmas in Ohio early to accomodate some of our family who will be traveling and then Christmas on Christmas Day in New Jersey with some more of the family. This means many desserts. The desserts for the early Christmas can be made a day or so in advance. I am thinking I will forgo the Christmas Log and do a cheesecake, Laurie’s Cake (cornmeal cake) and some cannoli for the early one. A Fig and Hazelnut Tart, Bourbon Gelato and the Cherries Jubilee will round out the Christmas on Christmas meal. Maybe some Hazelnut Toffee for both, that’s because I am a nutcase about holiday desserts.
Cherries Jubilee
| Complexity: | Easy |
| Serves: | 12 |
| Category: | Dessert |
| Meal: | Other (General) |
| 2 | 15 oz can | canned cherries, dark, sweet |
| 0.5 | tsp | cinnamon. ground |
| 1.5 | Tb | sugar, white |
| 1 | tsp | arrowroot |
| 0.5 | gal | ice cream, vanilla |
| 1 | oz | brandy |
Place cherries, cinnamon and sugar in a medium size pot. Remove about half of the liquid and mix in a small bowl with the arrowroot. Return to pot and mix well, heat until thickened. Add brandy or rum and heat. Careful as this will flame, light cherries with a candle lighter. Allow flame to subside and serve over good vanilla ice cream.
Recipes for all of these and many more can be found at emealsforyou.com.
You Don’t Have To Be Martha Stewart, Series 5 – A Helpful Rant
(From the Misc Collection at emealsforyou.com)
Hazelnut Toffee
I thought it was right to end this series on homemade holiday treats and gifts with, what I consider, the best of the best. This homemade candy treat is easy to make, and has magical properties, it disappears as soon as it is put out.
I started this post and then realized I had written one on the toffee last year. So with apologies to those who remember the post I will repeat it here, I think I got it right that time. One last thing I would be remiss if I didn’t take the time to remind everyone to donate what you can to a food bank or local food drive. We support Manna Outreach, Inc in Cincinnati. Click here to go to the Manna Outreach website to donate.
Here is the post:
I used to make Hazelnut Toffee every year at Christmas. I would make several batches and then buy some nice Christmasy tins and pass the toffee around to the neighbors. We moved and I guess I kind of let the tradition get away from me. The kids grow up; you move away from the comfort zone you have established and some of the little things fall by the wayside.
I could find some tins and begin again with the new neighbors but for some reason it just doesn’t feel the same. Old friends ares still old friends but bonding with new friends takes time… histories have to be exchanged. Mutual interests need to be defined and common causes voiced. New lifestyle patterns are in place and time just seems to move faster.
The good news is that my kids now make the toffee and make the rounds with the Christmasy tins. And look, I made the toffee again… now if I can only find my tins.
A word of caution; this recipe involves very hot sugar and should not be made around children, as spills happen.
Hazelnut Toffee
| Complexity: | Medium |
| Serves: | 12 |
| Category: | Misc |
| Meal: | other (General) |
| 30 | Tb | butter, salted |
| 1.5 | cup | sugar, white |
| 0.5 | cup | sugar, brown |
| 3 | Tb | honey |
| 0.5 | cup | water |
| 1.5 | cup | hazelnuts, toasted |
| 20 | oz | chocolate, semi-sweet bits |
| 0.5 | cup | hazelnuts, ground |
Toast nuts in a 400 degree oven for 5 minutes, remove immediately, cool and roll in a towel to remove husk. Place in plastic bag and hit with a flat pan to crush.
Prepping the chocolate- Place chocolate bits in a small food processor and chop into small pieces.
In a medium size, heavy pot place the butter, sugar, water and honey, heat over high heat about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the mixture reaches 290-300 degrees on a candy thermometer. Immediately add the crushed nuts, remove from heat, and stir. Pour on a greased cookie sheet (11 X 17), spread out evenly and sprinkle the chocolate on top, when the chocolate melts sprinkle the ground nuts on top. Cool and store in airtight containers.
CAUTION: This is not a project you make with your kids. The sugar reaches 300 degrees and is very dangerous if handled improperly.
Recipe of the Week – De-constructed Hazelnut Cheesecake
I made this for the dinner party last week; I wanted something special but that wasn’t hard or long-winded in its preparation. It takes a couple of easy recipes and combines… them adding some berries along the way. Apparently it was a hit as 7 out of the 9 people chose this over the baked pear with blue cheese fondant. Okay, reading that last line sounds a little uppity but really both desserts are easily made and served. The point being that something can look great, taste great and still require only as much work as making chocolate chip cookies and your guests will appreciate it more.
To prepare this dessert start by making half of the cheesecake recipe found on emealsforyou.com; just change the serving number to 6 on the sidebar. Take the cheesecake out of the oven just when the cheesecake is set but has not started to brown. Next make the hazelnut tuilles. All can be refrigerated or even frozen prior to the day you will serve them. Mix some berries in a bowl with a little sugar and set aside.
To assemble: place a dab of the cheesecake on a plate, place one hazelnut tuilles on top of the dab. Now with a melon baller or just a small spoon scoop out 3 small round balls of the cheesecake and place on the tuille, spoon a small amount of the berries over the cheesecake balls. Repeat for the next level and finish with a tuille. Spoon any berries leftover onto the plate.
Cheesecake
| Complexity: | Easy |
| Serves: | 6 |
| Category: | Dessert |
| Meal: | other (General) |
| 24 | oz | cream cheese |
| 4 | large | egg |
| 2 | large | egg, whites |
| 1 | cup | sugar, white |
| 1 | tsp | vanilla |
Have everything at room temperature. Mix together until very smooth. Pour into a springform pan, place on cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour. Turn off oven and let cheesecake sit ( in oven) for 1 hour. This is best if made the day before and refrigerated over night.
Recipe of the Week – Hazelnut Toffee
Hazelnut Toffee
I used to make Hazelnut Toffee every year at Christmas. I would make several batches and then buy some nice Christmasy tins and pass the toffee around to the neighbors. We moved and I guess I kind of let the tradition get away from me. The kids grow up; you move away from the comfort zone you have established and some of the little things fall by the wayside.
I could find some tins and begin again with the new neighbors but for some reason it just doesn’t feel the same. Old friends ares still old friends but bonding with new friends takes time… histories have to be exchanged. Mutual interests need to be defined and common causes voiced. New lifestyle patterns are in place and time just seems to move faster.
The good news is that my kids now make the toffee and make the rounds with the Christmasy tins. And look, I made the toffee again… now if I can only find my tins.
A word of caution; this recipe involves very hot sugar and should not be made around children, as spills happen.
Hazelnut Toffee
| Complexity: | Medium |
| Serves: | 12 |
| Category: | Misc |
| Meal: | other (General) |
| 30 | Tb | butter, salted |
| 1.5 | cup | sugar, white |
| 0.5 | cup | sugar, brown |
| 3 | Tb | honey |
| 0.5 | cup | water |
| 1.5 | cup | hazelnuts, toasted |
| 20 | oz | chocolate, semi-sweet bits |
| 0.5 | cup | hazelnuts, ground |
Toast nuts in a 400 degree oven for 5 minutes, remove immediately, cool and roll in a towel to remove husk. Place in plastic bag and hit with a flat pan to crush.
Prepping the chocolate- Place chocolate bits in a small food processor and chop into small pieces.
In a medium size, heavy pot place the butter, sugar, water and honey, heat over high heat about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the mixture reaches 290-300 degrees on a candy thermometer. Immediately add the crushed nuts, remove from heat, and stir. Pour on a greased cookie sheet (11 X 17), spread out evenly and sprinkle the chocolate on top, when the chocolate melts sprinkle the ground nuts on top. Cool and store in airtight containers.
CAUTION: This is not a project you make with your kids. The sugar reaches 300 degrees and is very dangerous if handled improperly.
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