Recipes: August 2003 Archives

Chocolate Chip Cookies

This is a favorite family recipe. In college, a friend used to call these “destroyers” (as in, they destroy your will to resist.)

It makes a light, flavorful cookie with a hint of crisp. To Christmas-ify it, you could substitute red and green M&Ms for the chocolate chips.

My sisters and I used to experiment with adding different flavor extracts. I liked almond; we also got good results with a hint of peppermint extract.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup shortening, butter, or margarine (I get the best results with half shortening, half butter. Shortening gives a nice texture and butter gives a nice taste)
1 cup sugar
½ cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
12 oz chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375 degrees and grease cookie sheets.

Cream shortening and sugar until fluffy. Stir in eggs and vanilla until smooth.

Sift flour, soda, and salt together and stir in.

Stir in chocolate chips.

Drop by spoonfuls onto cookie sheets. Bake 10-12 minutes. Cool on a cooling rack.

Thanks to gnat from Mothering With Grace, who gave us this recipe.

The first time I made these, last fall, I turned my back for a moment (the fatal last words) and turned back around to find Hambet standing on the table with a muffin in each hand and a third stuffed in his mouth. He looked up at me and explained, "yummy!" Later, I sent the recipe to my mom, who made some for my grandma, who also pronounced them "yummy." So there you go, endorsements from age 2 to 92.

1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cloves
1/4 tsp allspice
1/4 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 cup pumpkin
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 cup chocolate chips

Mix dry ingredients and set aside.

In large bowl, beat eggs. Stir in pumpkin, melted butter and chips. Slowly add dry ingredients, mix well. Spoon into muffin pan. Bake 2-25 minutes at 350.

For mini-muffins, use mini chips and decrease baking time to 15-18 minutes.

(gnat says milk chocolate chips are especially good in this recipe)

Dave Barry ate bars during his visit to North Dakota

Let's continue the ethnic food theme with a North Dakota delicacy: bars! Bars are a kind of very substantial cookie. They are great for picnics because they don't fall apart easily. They sit at the very tippy-top of the food pyramid -- purely recreational food.

Scotcharoos

In a saucepan, bring to a boil:
1 cup white sugar
1 cup corn syrup

Remove from heat and stir in until smooth:
1 1/2 cups peanut butter
1 tsp vanilla

Stir in 5-6 cups rice-krispie type cereal (cheerio-type, special-K type cereals also work too)
Mix until the cereal is coated and put in a 13x9 inch pan

Frosting:
12 oz bag semi-sweet chocolate chips
6 oz bag butterscotch chips

Melt these together in a microwave or on the stovetop until they're just soft (try 1-2 minutes in the microwave at first); mix until chips are blended. Spread over the bars in the pan.

Put it in the fridge to set for a couple of hours. After they set, they can be left at room temperature.

Ooh, I just thought to ask you whether or not you have a recipe for pasteles boricua. Do you? Yumm! :op

Since you asked so nicely...Be patient with me, this is another recipe I have written down from watching...

Pastele Filling
3 pounds diced pork
2 large garlic cloves
3 cilantro leaves
3 recaio leaves (mortar together garlic, cilantro and recaio with 3 tablespoons annato oil)
1 medium onion diced
1 green pepper
2 tomatoes
1.5 jars drained olives and pimento
.75 of ham steak diced
salt
Cook all together-pork first, then add the rest of the ingredients and simmer for one hour. In the meantime start the dough.

Pasteles Dough
4 green bananas
2 plantains
2 medium-large potatoes
Peel and puree vegetables in a food processor until well blended-peel plantains separately. Use a small amount of milk to moisten. Add some annato oil to give it some colour (.5 a cup olive oil and .25 a cup of annato achiote in a small pan and simmer 10-15 minutes until colour is released and cool completely).

Have one can of chick peas drained and separate.

Take a piece of pastele paper or banana leaves, rub a small amount of annato oil on it. Put a tablespoon (serving size) of dough mixture and spread as thin as possible. The add two tablespoons of the meat mixture. Add like 3 or 4 chick peas. Fold paper or leaf over so the dough covers the meat. Fold paper up like a burrito and wrap with another leaf or tie with a string. To cook, boil for an hour (or freeze at this point and boil later). I am not lying, my recipe says here "serve with rice and gandules".

Puerto Rican Arroz con Gandules (Rice with Pigeon Peas)

This is one of the staple dishes in the Upstate NY Moss household. It is not a dish I grew up with, but rather my husband did. When I was a newlywed I had my mother in law make it while I watched and wrote down everything she did so I would be able to make it for my husband. Normally I nor my mother in law make this dish with measurements, but I wrote it inmeasurement form in order to have it in print. I personally add ingredients to taste. The only problem is my sense of flavour and the authentic Puerto Rican dish do not mesh-in other words I like to either add hot peppers or simply smother it with hot sauce on my plate. I also do things like make it without the chorizo or tosino (fat back) and make a vegetarian dish, or even add some vegetable instead. I also use brown rice, but short grain and a bit more water.

Anyway, I could still use prayers, things are still not so hot, so I am drowning my sorrows in talking about food. That is always great for a pick me up!

4 cups white rice (preferably long grain)
5 cups water
1 can gandules verdes (pigeon peas)
4 tbsp olive oil
1 small chopped onion
1 small green pepper
5 small sweet peppers (small peppers that look like scotch bonnets, but are not hot)
1.5 packets of Sazon seasoning
8 recaio leaves, chopped with stems removed (flavour similar to cilantro)
2 or 3 chorizo sausage
2 tbsp stuffed green olives
.5 tsp chopped garlic
.25 cups sofrito or recaito (you can find it jarred in the Goya section-I prefer recaito)
.50 cup tomato sauce
.50 tsp oregano
.25 tsp black pepper
2 tsp adobo

In a large saucepan or rice pot, heat oil. When oil is hot, saute onions, then add peppers, recaio leaves and chorizo. Saute until chorizo is brown. Add olives, garlic, sofrito, sazon and tomato sauce. add rinsed rice and water. add black pepper, oregano and adobo.

When rice absorbs some of the water and starts to simmer, lower flame to simmer and cover. When rice is dry, it';s finished. Serves 8-10 and recipe can be cut.

I make pizza dough in the bread machine. I make some in advance to keep in the freezer too. I have had a problem making pizza dough in muggy weather, so I am glad to have some in advance.

As for the sauce, I make it like I make my regular gravy, I just season it with oregano instead of basil, for example.

I am actually making pizza (with soy cheese) for lunch today, but I am cheating with store bought pizza dough. We have an Italian bakery down the street that sells only Italian bread and balls of pizza dough for .80 cents.

Da mihi nunc sis crustum Etruscum cum omnibus in eo.

Now it is my turn to comment on pizza dough. First, the disclaimers. I have mentioned occasionally that my upbringing was mostly suburban, and my early culinary experiences were heavily influenced by my mother's growing up on a farmhouse on the prairie. (For real! They had electricity and all that, though.) What this means is that I have no Italian heritage to call upon, no fond memories of Noo Yauk pizza parlors (I wouldn't mind, by the way, if someone were to give me the 411 on what exactly makes a pizza "New York" style.) I don't own a pizza stone -- I had one but I accidentally broke it, and I haven't replaced it because I found it to be bulky and difficult to store, and because I hated the pizza peel.

My mom makes pizza that we always liked just fine when we were growing up. She made the dough herself and baked the pizzas in jelly-roll pans. For a long time, homemade pizza was our family's traditional Christmas Eve dinner. I also made pizza in college that my friends seemed to like (I never had leftovers.) Cooking in college was one step up from camping -- my pizza pan was the metal lid to a 13x9 inch baking pan. I also am not an experienced bread-baker; pizza dough is pretty much the only thing I make with yeast.

The point of all this is that purists and pizza virtuosos are probably going to laugh and sneer at these reflections. They are going to scoff at my crust and denounce it as too puffy, not authentic, whatever.

Well, they can go jump in the lake. This is not even pizza 101, but it's a reasonably successful recipe and my friends always ate the pizza all up. It is a combination of the recipe as given to me and my own annotations. I tried to stay away from anything too fancy or scary sounding.

Equipment: A baking sheet is essential. I strongly recommend an oven thermometer for this and any kind of baking (this lesson learned after many tears shed in nursing school over ruined cookies baked in an oven later discovered to be running 100 degrees too hot.) I also like using an instant-read meat thermometer (the kind that looks like a dial on a stick, or like a tire gauge). An oven safe mixing bowl (two bowls are helpful), a hand towel, measuring cups.

Pizza dough for two a la Chandler Hall (makes one 11-inch pizza):

1 pkg active dry yeast (I never got the rapid-rise, the regular kind worked just fine for me. If you double the recipe, you still only use one package of yeast)
1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 cup warm water, about 110 degrees. You can use the thermometer to check the temp of the water if you're nervous. It should be about the temperature of a newborn's bathwater, not the temperature of your bracing hot (or cold! shower.) You want to give your little yeast organisms a nice spa experience.
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 Tbsp olive oil
1 cups bread flour, with more flour for sprinkling (I got satisfactory results with all-purpose flour. If you are just getting started, I would hold off on whole wheat flour until you get the touch; it will make the dough stiffer. Then use half white, half wheat, experimenting until you get the ratio you like best.)

1. Turn your oven to warm or whatever its absolute lowest possible setting is. Get a pastry cloth or a board ready (a cutting board or any clean surface will do) by sprinkling about 1/3 flour over it.

2. In a large bowl, sprinkle yeast and sugar over water; let stand for 5 minutes to soften. Don't worry if you see beige foam on the water -- that's the yeast cranking up.

3. Add salt, the 1 1/2 Tbsp oil, and 1 cup of the flour; mix until dough is elastic and pulls away from the sides of the bowl. Take the dough and turn it out on your board. Knead 5-10 minutes until the dough is smooth and springy (I've heard some people say, "like a baby's bottom") with small bubbles just beneath the surface (don't get too anxious about the bubbles, this is a subtle sign and you will be able to feel them better than you can see them.)

4. Lightly grease the oven safe bowl with olive oil and plop the dough in it. Turn the dough over so the top is greased too. Cover it with a towel, pop it in your oven, and turn the oven off. Let rise until roughly doubled in volume (45 to 60 minutes.)

Pizza sauce

If you want, you can make a nice pizza sauce while the dough is rising. You need a 28 ounce can of crushed tomatoes in tomato puree.

Take a saucepan (a 4 qt should be big enough) and pour in some olive oil. Heat it on medium until the oil is warm, shimmery, and sizzles a little (but not spattery.) Meanwhile, if you want garlic in your sauce, peel two cloves and mash them flat with the flat side of your knife. (You can use garlic powder in a pinch) Add the smooshed garlic to the oil. Mmmm, doesn't that smell good? Don't let it burn or get brown. When the garlic is kind of soft, add the tomatoes and stir in 1 tsp oregano, 1/2 tsp of basil, 1/4 tsp garlic powder if you didn't have any fresh, and around 1/4 tsp of salt.

Let the sauce simmer on the back burner on low heat for at least 30 minutes. Get your pizza toppings ready: grate your cheese (or cheeses), fry your sausage, slice your mushrooms, whatever.

Lightly grease your baking sheet (I use shortening.) You can dust the sheet with cornmeal if you have it.

When your dough is ready, take it out of the oven and punch it down. Move your oven rack to the lowest position and heat your oven to 450 degrees.

Take your dough and start shaping it. It sounds like is the tricky part for everybody. This article on pizza has some hints on stretching the dough out. (It also has a pizza recipe that I have used with some success, but it calls for a food processor.) I still can't do it exactly the way they talk about in the article -- it might be because I make smaller pizzas -- and it definitely won't work exactly as written for this recipe, because this recipe makes a small pizza. Basically you want to start shaping the dough in the air, using your hands to gently stretch it into a disc, a little at a time in each direction. If the dough tears, don't panic, just scrunch it together and try it again. In his comment over at Kathy's, Erik suggest popping the dough in the fridge to cool it down if it is too springy. I will be trying this hint at the first opportunity.

When the dough is as streched out as you can get it in the air, move it to your baking sheet and finish up there. Use your fingertips to gently stretch the dough. I have better results if I keep moving, doing a small section at a time, not letting any part of the dough get too thin. Sometimes I'll even pick a section up and pull it a little bit. I wish I could be more exact, but I'm not good at describing what I mean. With each pizza I get a bit better. And phooey to the Authenticity Police, I do use a rolling pin if nothing else works.

Turn up the edge if you like, and let's put the toppings on! First take some of that delicious sauce and spread it out over the pizza. Then add your cheese (I personally do not care for gobs of cheese, and prefer smaller amounts of mozzarella combined with sharper cheeses.) and your other toppings.

Slide your baking sheet into the oven on that lowest rack and bake for 15 to 20 minutes. Pull it out when it's done and let it stand for a couple of minutes. Slide it onto a cutting board (use a spatula to loosen it from the pan, if needed, and guide it onto the cutting board) and enjoy.

If you have any leftovers, they freeze well. You can also use this dough to make calzones: On a board, shape the dough into smaller circles (6-9 inches in diameter.) Put some toppings on half of each circle and fold the other half over. Press the edges together. Prick the tops with a fork and lightly brush the tops with olive oil. Transfer to the greased, cornmealed baking sheet. Bake as above. I made a couple of these on Friday and froze them for my husband's lunches.

Great, another overly-long Peony post. I hope this was helpful to someone.