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Recipes that include vegetable shortening

Bullseye Cookies

Friday, December 9, 2011

I couldn’t decide what to make for #NYCookieSwap 2011. It’s a big deal with cookie greats like Dorie Greenspan attending! Lon saved the day and came up with an idea I loved: a way to combine three classic cookies that everyone loves. What’s better than your favorite cookie? Three of your favorite cookies in one! It’s a Chocolate Chip Cookie in the center with a ring of Chocolate Cookie around it, with another ring of Peanut Butter Cookie around that.

Bullseye Cookie and Tower 4

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Perfect Biscuits

Saturday, February 13, 2010

I have played around with this biscuit recipe many times now, which started out as the Cheddar and Chive Biscuit recipe from BLT Fish. I have suspicions that it’s not the same recipe they use in the restaurant, but that’s a different story. I started with the recipe they shared, made it, liked it, then decided to play with it at times when I didn’t have the exact ingredients. Over the year since I tried the recipe, different cheeses have replaced the cheddar, and different herbs have replaced the chives. Almost every way is good.

Biscuit on napkin in front of cooling wrack 3

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Peaches ‘N Cream Pie

Monday, September 21, 2009

Peaches N' Cream Pie 4*Some new photos were added on 9/20/13

There’s a couple of things that lead to the making of this pie. One, I’ve been wanting one of those ceramic deep dish pie plates for a long time, the ones with the ruffled edges. They look so modern country, new yet classic. Unfortunately, it was $44 at Williams Sonoma so I tried to forget that adorable pie plate. Months later, I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw one for $3 at TJ Max. No choice in color, but red will do for $3. I couldn’t wait to use it. (TJ Max does not have a consistent product line so you may not find this pie plate but they have great prices on kitchen stuff. You’ll find something.)

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The Breakfast Burger

Thursday, August 6, 2009

I know several people who love breakfast foods so much, they often eat it for dinner. I also know several others who look for ways to make a heartier breakfast. Either way, this breakfast burger satisfies at any time of day. Here, I cut or mold everything into a 3″ round because I’m a silly perfectionist but you can make the burger less fussy without such tight size restrictions.

MMM….runny egg yolk.

bitten breakfast burger

The Breakfast Burger
~6 servings

Biscuits

  • 2 cups self-rising cake flour
  • 2 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, but into little pieces
  • 1 tablespoon vegetable shortening
  • 1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons heavy cream

filling

  • 6 (1/4″ thick) slices of ham
  • a few drops of vegetable oil, divided
  • 6 beef burger patties (3 1/4″ diameter, 3/4″ thick)
  • 6 eggs (small would be perfect but any size can be used)
  • kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Instructions –

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

2. Cut butter and shortening into flour. Stir in 1/2 cup of heavy cream with a fork. Add up to 2 tablespoons more heavy cream in order to get the dough to stick together. Once the dough can be pushed together, flatten to a little more than 1/2″ thick on a well floured surface.

3. Cut with a 3″ circle cutter and place on un-greased cookie sheet. Push left-over dough together and cut into 3″ circles again. Bake for 14-16 minutes, or until lightly golden.

4. While biscuits are baking, cut ham with 3″ circle cutter. Set aside.

burger patties and ham

5. Heat a flat cast iron pan with just a wipe of oil, over medium high heat. Season burger patties and cook until just under desired doneness. Set the patties on a plate and allow to rest. This will also allow some liquid to drain so you don’t make the burger soggy later. (You can heat up the ham on the pan if you want – optional.)

6. Heat a large flat non-stick pan with a bit of oil (or non-stick spray) over low heat. Crack the eggs, keeping them whole, into the pan, spaced out and not touching if possible (or use more than 1 pan). Do not flip. Just cook until desired doneness. Remove from to cutting board. If the eggs are too big, cut with 3″ circle cutter.

cutting sunny side up egg

7. When biscuits are done, split them in half very cautiously. Place ham on the bottom piece, then burger patty, then egg, then biscuit top. Serve immediately.

breakfast burger with Hash Browns

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Left-over Pockets

Saturday, March 14, 2009

I have a shopping day planned with the girls (and cousin Phil) at Woodbury Commons and I wanted to pack a little treat for my friends. We have a long car ride ahead of us and then we’ll need lots of energy to power shop! I thought something like an empanada would be nice. It had to be a no-utensils-required kinda thing.

Pockets Cooling 2

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Shepherd’s PIE

Friday, February 13, 2009

It has always bothered me that Shepherd’s pie isn’t really a pie. The standard recipe is just a meat and veggie mixture thrown in a baking dish with mashed potatoes on top. What happened to the best part of the pie?!? The flaky buttery crust?!? Fear not! I have a remedy.

Pie is not just for dessert!

slice of Shepherd's Pie 2

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Cheddar Crust Apple Pie

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

I’ve seen a couple of recipes for apple pie with cheddar cheese in the crust, intending to try it out at some point. I finally got around to it and found this recipe that used a 9X13 oval baking dish. I happen to have one and have never seen a recipe using it. Boy, was I ecstatic!

After reading the recipe more carefully, I realized a couple of problems. I didn’t want the raisins in this recipe (no general prejudice against them) and I wanted a double crust pie, not just a top crust. Luckily, it seemed this recipe made more then enough dough for a double crust, and you’ll still have left-over. (I’ll try to do something with this another day.) Lastly, I like tall pies. (Have you heard of Mile High Apple Pie?) So, I increased the apple filling.

slice of Cheddar Crusted Apple Pie

*this photo added 12/05/10

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Home-made Tortillas

Sunday, October 5, 2008

Lon made that orgasmic Pequin Pepper Sauce and soft tacos seemed like an ideal way to use it. I must have been feeling daring because we made tortillas from scratch. Doughs are one of the hardest segments of cooking/baking and we haven’t made tortillas ourselves before and we don’t have a tortilla press. This first try turned out better than expected, actually quite impressive. This is a combination of recipes I put together from reading about tortillas on-line and it yields a dough that is very easy to roll out super thin. There is great elasticity and the taste of fresh tortillas will make you question ever using store-bought tortillas again.

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Stuffed Cheesecake

Thursday, April 26, 2007

Being a fan of all things cheesecake, I was excited by the cheesecake “throwdown” a few weeks ago and made an Apple Caramel Cheesecake inspired by Flay’s entry. However, having a bit of cream cheese left over from the massive amount we purchased at Costco, I’m making a new cheesecake inspired by the competition, Junior’s, and their entry the Devil’s Food Cheesecake.

Some may ask why on earth I didn’t just travel over to Junior’s, with two of their locations being within 20 minutes of my home, so let me answer: because I do not like Junior’s cheesecake! I have tried their cakes on at least four occasions and am less than impressed. They taste bland, overly sweet, too dry, and generally a day old. So rather than go overpay for one of their crappy cakes, I made my own, and besides, I prefer vanilla over chocolate.

This recipe basically requires three nine-inch cake pans on hand, I have two and a spring form, which works fine.

I used a Basic Cheesecake Recipe:

  • 1 pound cream cheese (two 8oz blocks), softened
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 pint sour cream
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 tsp. vanilla extract
  • zest of one lemon, finely minced

Cream cream cheese and sugar, then add sour cream, then one egg at a time, followed by lemon and vanilla. Scrape down sides, mix again and bake in a 9-inch cake pan (with NO CRUST) in a waterbath at 325 degrees F for 50-60 minutes– until center is jello-like and the outside is firm. Then let stand in over for another hour before chilling over night.

And then prepared a basic Yellow Layer Cake recipe (from About.com):

  • 2 cups all-purpose flour, stirred before measuring
  • 1 tbsp. baking powder
  • 1 tsp. salt
  • 1/2 cup butter, softened
  • 1 1/4 cups sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 3/4 cup milk
  • 1 tsp. vanilla extract

Sift flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl set aside. Cream sugar and butter in a large bowl, until light and fluffy, then beat in one egg at a time. Mix in half the flour mixture followed by half of the milk. Add vanilla. Mix until blended; add remaining flour and milk and beat until smooth. Fill two greased and floured 9-inch cake pans. Bake at 375° for 25 to 35 minutes, until toothpick in center comes out clean.

The next day, I whipped up some Butter Cream Icing (from Wilton):

  • 1/2 cup solid vegetable shortening
  • 1/2 cup butter
  • 1 tsp. Vanilla Extract (clear is preferable)
  • 4 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar (approx. 1 lb.)
  • 2 tbsp. whole milk
  • 2 tbsp. light corn syrup

Cream butter and shortening with electric mixer. Add vanilla. Gradually add sugar, one cup at a time, beating well on medium speed. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl often throughout whole process! When all sugar has been mixed in, icing will appear dry. Add milk and beat at medium speed for several minutes until light and fluffy. This is enough icing to do a thin layer– perfect for us. If you want a heavier layer (i.e. crumb coat and top coat) you’ll need to increase the icing recipe by 50% or 100%.

Then it was time to Assemble the Cake:

  1. Put one of the layer cakes onto a turntable over some wax paper, frost top with about 1/2 cup of icing, keeping center thinner than towards edge.
  2. Dip chilled cheesecake in warm water, then run a knife around the outside edge. Finally set over stove top burner for about 30 seconds on high– handle with a towel afterward. Carefully invert over frosted layer cake and tap bottom to release. If you’re incredibly lucky it will release properly.
  3. Frost top of cheesecake with about 1/2 cup of icing, then invert last layer cake on top, with bottom facing up. Do not frost top at this point.
  4. Refrigerate for about 20-30 minutes until cheesecake and icing-filling is stiff.
  5. Finish frosting the entire cake– start with the sides working upwards in swirls creating peaks at top of sides. Then move to the top and frost outwards.
  6. Chill again before serving in large, luscious slices!

Enjoy. We did. See the rest of the pictures in the Flickr set.

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