Savory herb, black pepper and parmesan shortbread

I think you all may have already noticed that I really like baking. I do. I used to be a Daring Baker, for crying out loud. But I had never baked savory cookies before.

I tagged this recipe after seeing it on L.’s blog, Bake or Shake. Her cookies looked delicious and one just can’t go wrong with cheese and herbs. Oh, and butter. That’s just impossible. :)

I made these to give as a gift and to be honest I almost gave up on sending them – they were so good! They’re a great snack and go perfectly with ice cold beer. Or caipirinha…

Savory herb, black pepper and parmesan shortbread

½ cup (113g/1 stick) salted butter, softened – I used unsalted
¼ (heaping) cup (35g) ground parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon freshly cracked/ground black pepper
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon dried basil (or use the dried herb you like the most)
1 ¼ cups (175g) all purpose flour

Line a light-colored baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.

In a mixing bowl, mix together the butter, salt, parmesan, black pepper and basil until creamy and speckled. Slowly add the flour, and mix until dough holds together when pinched. If dough is still too crumbly, add up to 1 tablespoon of ice water – I didn’t need to. Turn out onto a floured counter top, roll into a ball and then into an elongated log, around 30 to 35cm (12 to 14 in) long, depending on how large you want your crackers. Try to make sure the log is an even length, and wrap in tinfoil or plastic and freeze for at least half an hour, or longer if you don't want to serve them today. If you do, preheat your oven to 175ºC/350ºF.

Remove from the freezer, and slice into rounds: the original recipe (by Ina Garten) yields nearly 36, L. got 24 or so and I got 35. Arrange in rows on the baking sheet, with at least a little space between them - they won't spread like normal cookies or biscuits. Bake for 15-25 minutes, checking after 15, until golden brown around the edges and smelling delicious (so true!! The smell is intoxicating).
Remove and cool completely, or serve slightly warm.

Makes 35-36

Chocolate Sandwich Cookies with Vanilla-Cream Filling (Homemade Oreos)

There are certain things that we know are great way before we even see/hear them.

Take Kanye West, for instance; I knew who he was (after Katrina and his TV statement) even though I did not know any of his songs. The minute I read that he had recorded a song featuring Daft Punk I knew it would be amazing – and I wasn’t wrong. To make things even better, the guys are on the video, too! How cool is that?

The same thing happened with this recipe. When I read that these cookies were a homemade version of Oreos I knew I had to try them. They had to be good. I mean, Oreos are delicious – I absolutely love them – and Adrienne says on her post that the cookies were BETTER than the store-bought ones… I have to tell you that she was right. Oh, so right. These are FANTASTIC.

The cream I made was a tad too sweet because I ended up using more confectioners’ sugar than it was necessary; but please, don’t mind me and my stupid conversion mistakes - go ahead and bake these cookies (I’m posting the correct amount).

One last thing: has anyone watched this? It’s on my wish list and I’d love to hear your opinion about it.

Chocolate Sandwich Cookies with Vanilla-Cream Filling (Homemade Oreos)

Chocolate Wafers:
1 ¼ cups (175g) all-purpose flour
½ cup (45g) unsweetened Dutch process cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
1 ½ cups (300g) sugar
½ cup + 2 tablespoons (141g/1 ¼ sticks) room-temperature, unsalted butter
1 large egg

Vanilla-Cream Filling:
¼ cup (57g/½ stick) room-temperature, unsalted butter
¼ cup (57g) vegetable shortening
2 cups (280g) sifted confectioners' sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Set two racks in the middle of the oven. Preheat to 190ºC/375ºF.

In a food processor, or bowl of an electric mixer, thoroughly mix the flour, cocoa, baking soda and powder, salt, and sugar. While pulsing, or on low speed, add the butter, and then the egg. Continue processing or mixing until dough comes together in a mass.

Take rounded teaspoons of batter and place on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet approximately 5cm (2in) apart. With moistened hands, slightly flatten the dough. Bake for 9 minutes (I baked mine for 10), rotating once for even baking. Set baking sheets on a rack to cool.

To make the cream, place butter and shortening in a mixing bowl, and at low speed, gradually beat in the sugar and vanilla. Turn the mixer on high and beat for 2-3 minutes until filling is light and fluffy.

To assemble the cookies, in a pastry bag with a 1.25cm (½ in) round tip, pipe teaspoon-size blobs of cream into the center of one cookie. Place another cookie, equal in size to the first, on top of the cream. Lightly press, to work the filling evenly to the outsides of the cookie. Continue process until all the cookies have been sandwiched with cream.

Makes 30 sandwich cookies – I got 37

Spaghetti with basil, smoked ricotta and roast bell pepper

I’m always interested in new ways of cooking pasta.
Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love fresh tomato sauce (I only use homemade) but pasta gives you so many possibilities that it’s almost a sin not to try other sauces and ingredient combinations.

If you are in a hurry and have to put dinner together quickly, this is a really good recipe: you can take a shower while the peppers are roasting and boil the water/cook the pasta while they’re cooling down.

The original recipe calls for feta, but I decided to use some delicious smoked ricotta I had in the fridge. The sweet flavor of the peppers played wonderfully with the saltiness of the cheese.



This is my entry for the Weekend Herb Blogging, this time hosted by Astrid, from Paulchen's Food Blog.

Spaghetti with basil, smoked ricotta and roast bell peppers
adapted from Kitchen: The Best of the Best

4 red bell peppers
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
125g (4½ oz/1 bunch) basil
400g (14oz) spaghetti
150g (5½ oz) smoked ricotta (ricotta affumicata)

Preheat the oven to 200ºC/400ºF. Rub the peppers with a little oil, slice them in half lengthways and put them, skin-side up, on a baking dish. Bake for 20 minutes, or until the skin blackens and blisters. Put the peppers in a plastic bag or bowl covered with plastic wrap, allow them to cool, then remove the skin and seeds. Put the pepper flesh into a blender with the vinegar ad 10 basil leaves, season and blend. Add the strained liquid from the baking dish (if there’s any) and a little olive oil to make a sauce consistency. Put the sauce in a large saucepan over low heat to keep it warm.

Cook the spaghetti until it is al dente, then drain the pasta and add it to the warm pepper sauce. Crumble half the ricotta over the pasta and gently toss the ingredients together. Serve garnished with the remaining basil leaves and the rest of the ricotta crumbled on top.

Serves 4

Double Chocolate Cookies

Holiday baking is quite new to me – it’s not something we do here in Brazil, but from the moment I started reading foodblogs – and then blogging – I thought that it would be a lovely tradition for me to adopt.
Last year I made a couple of cookies and some truffles to give as gifts and it was such a great experience that I intend to do that again this year. And the next. And the next.

I saved these cookies on my del.icio.us on Nov, 24 and immediately printed the recipe – I thought it was really worth trying. I made up my mind a couple of days later, when I saw that Jenjen had baked them too – and her cookies looked even more beautiful and delicious than the ones I’d seen on Martha’s website!!

The recipe is not difficult to follow; the only problem was that I started shaping the dough using the ice cream scoop I have – and that is definitely NOT a good ice cream scoop to shape cookie dough with. The cookies were too big and I did not like them. I shaped the remaining dough using a 1 ½ tablespoon and they were still big, but good-for-holding-without-breaking-in-half big.

I baked my cookies for 2 minutes longer than the time stated in the recipe – they were sort of fudgy in the middle and slightly crispy on the edges. Really, really good. :)

Double Chocolate Cookies

1 cup (140g) all-purpose flour
½ cup (45g) unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon coarse salt – I used Maldon
224g (½ pound) good-quality milk chocolate, 112g (4 ounces) coarsely chopped and 112g (4 ounces) cut into 0.60cm (¼-in) chunks
½ cup (113g/1 stick) unsalted butter
1 ½ cups (300g) sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 165ºC/325ºF. Whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside. Melt 112g (4 ounces) coarsely chopped chocolate with the butter in a small heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water; let cool slightly.

Put chocolate mixture, sugar, eggs, and vanilla in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium speed until combined. Reduce speed to low; gradually mix in flour mixture. Fold in chocolate chunks.

Using a 1 ½-inch ice cream scoop, drop dough onto parchment-lined baking sheets, spacing 5cm (2 inches) apart. Bake until cookies are flat and surfaces crack, about 15 minutes (cookies should be soft). Let cool on parchment on wire racks. Cookies can be stored between layers of parchment in airtight containers at room temperature up to 3 days.

Makes about 3 dozen – I got 6 giant cookies and 24 large ones.

Lime honey madeleines

These delicate madeleines are a simple homage to a friend of mine who lives on the other side of the planet. She’s a tremendously talented cook/baker and I have used many of her recipes here.
A generous and sensitive friend, who sent, all the way from Japan, a box addressed to Brazil – a box full of beautiful and adorable things. And these were among the gifts:

It took me forever to first use the pans – every time I decided to make the madeleines, I remembered that the batter had to be refrigerated for at least a while. And as Murphy is also a friend of mine (sometimes) the idea of baking these beauties would only occur to me when there would be no time for batter-resting.

Of course I used a recipe from the person who sent me the pans – the madeleines were fantastic! I had never tried these famous miniature cakes – can I call them this way? – and it was a new and delicious thing to learn. The smell of the lime is contagious and the flavor… Well, I don’t need to tell these are highly addictive – can’t wait to try different recipes.

Akemi, my dear, you are a very, very special person. I’m so lucky to have you as a friend!! Thank you for sharing such amazing things with me! xoxo

Lime honey madeleines

100g unsalted butter
100g all purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
2 eggs
60g sugar
30g honey – I used orange blossom honey
2 tablespoons lime juice
pinch of grated lime zest – this is optional; I’m a citrus sucker so I used the grated zest of 1 large lime

Brush molds with melted butter and sprinkle with flour to coat; tap the pans to remove excess flour.
Sift together flour and baking powder into a bowl.

In another bowl, whisk eggs and sugar until well combined. Add the juice, zest and the flour mixture. Mix only until flour is incorporated.
Melt butter and honey in the microwave oven or in a small bowl over lightly simmering water – I did this step before starting the recipe itself and set the liquid aside to cool a bit.
Add melted butter + honey to batter and mix well.

Cover the bowl with plastic or cling film and place in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour – I left it overnight.

Preheat the oven to 180ºC/355ºF. Pour batter onto prepared pans – it’s not necessary to level it up, since the batter will spread in the oven.

Bake for 20 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the cakes comes out clean.

Makes 12 madeleines – I got 15 small + 5 large ones

The bumps were pretty small... I think I have to keep making madeleines until I get bigger bumps. :)