Hooray for the Internet!

Busy, busy week!  School is winding down, we've been traveling, and friends are visiting.  But there's still plenty to see around the internet. Enjoy!
-Colleen

Tutorial on See Kate Sew

Hems are 99% of the reason I don't sew very big projects.  This changes that.

This is not altogether that useful, but would provide endless hours of entesummertainment, I'm sure!

Exposed Brick on Apartment Therapy

Blueberry Cabernet Cheesecake Popsicles on Endless Simmer
via Pinterest

Fancy popsicles?  Don't mind if I do!

My dear friend, Makenna, has an article in the summer issue of Rhythm of the Home so of course I need to share it!

Cherries on Lou et Tom

Just getting excited for summer fruit!

Origami Elephant on How About Orange

And lastly, for simple chuckle factor:

"The Overwhelming Weirdness of Ghost Mother Photography" on  Io9

Hooray for the Internet!

I am unusually excited about all of my finds this week!  So much so, that I am posting a day early.  

-Colleen

Tent on Kaunis Pieni Elämä

Everyone loves play tents!  This blogger re-covered an old play tent.

Peacock from Horrible Adorables on Red Prairie Press

I saw this and instantly thought of Amy.  We have been talking about where to keep our future felt peacock in our flat.

Tall Ships Weekend in Greenport on Suffolk Times

My home village just hosted Tall Ships Weekend.  Looking at the pictures makes me so homesick.  I can't wait to go there this summer!

Floral Crowns on Oh Joy

"Small Things" on Nana Company

Wooden Knives  on Wither Will I Wander

Little knives for little hands.

Chocolate Amaretto Crêpe Cake on Sprinkle Bakes

Chocolate Rugelach

Chocolate Rugelach Recipe

Chocolate in a Flaky Pastry Crust

The other day, I got a "chocolate roll" from a bakery in Prague.  It was a cheap snack that did not exactly hit the spot, being a very dry, slightly-burnt miniature croissant with some chocolate in the middle.  It reminded me, however, of chocolate rugelach.  Since a New York bakery is a long way a way, I figured I would make some for myself.

This recipe uses a dough adapted from Martha Stewart.


Ingredients
For the dough:
4 oz cream cheese (in the U.S.) or 125 grams (half a package) of soft tvaroh* (in the C.R.), room temp.
1/2 cup of butter, room temp.
2 tablespoons of sugar
1 cup of flour

Filling:
1/2 cup of semi-sweet chocolate, finely chopped
1-2 tablespoons of butter, melted


*Tvaroh, which I have used before, is a soft cheese found easily in the Czech Republic.  I enjoy using it in my recipes instead of cream cheese because it is cheaper and, simply, something different.  To find something similar outside of the Czech Republic, look for quark cheese at a German specialty shop.

Make the dough:
In a large mixing bowl, use an electric mixer to cream together cheese and butter until smooth.  Add sugar and beat until incorporated.  Add flour gradually while beating on medium speed.  A crumbly dough should form.  Using lightly-floured hands, gather dough into a ball.  Flatten the ball into a disc, wrap with plastic, and refrigerate at least 2 hours.

I am terrible at rolling dough out in a circle, so I use a plate for a template.  The extra dough can be re-rolled out.

Make the cookies:
Roll out the dough on a lightly-floured surface into a circle.  (If you are like me, you cannot make a shape even remotely circular, so roll it out as circular as possible and cut the edges into a circle.  The scraps from the edge can be rolled out again to make another circle.) The dough should be a quarter of an inch thick.  In order to make thin triangles, cut the circle with a sharp knife into sixteenths.  Spread each triangle with melted butter and sprinkle with chocolate.  Roll from the wide end to the small end, as you would a croissant.  Place on a cookie sheet and refrigerate 20 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350 F (170 C).  Remove cookies from refrigerator and bake 20-25 minutes, until golden brown.  Allow cookies to cool and store in an airtight container.

Enjoy!

-Colleen

Saturday Afternoon

Glimpses of Our Saturday Afternoon

This Saturday, there is laundry drying in every corner of the apartment.  Somehow it's been weeks since we last washed our clothes.  Jeans are in the windows, dresses hang from the rafters.

While Amy is busy writing another paper (unfortunately, being finished with her thesis does not mean being finished with her degree), I have been making cupcakes!

The sun is shining on our bean plants which keep taunting us with bulging but not-quite-ready-to-pick pods.

Today has simply been lovely!

Cookie Dough Brownies

Cookie Dough Brownies

A Mix of Recipes

This recipe for cookie dough-topped brownies had been on my mind since Amy posted about it a few weeks ago.  However, when I looked at the recipe, I thought there were a few things I would change about it.  I thought the best way to start would be to go to my favorite brownie and chocolate chip cookie recipes and go from there to combine them.  

Brownie Layer:

For the brownies, I modified this Martha Stewart recipe for Double-Chocolate Brownies.  It is my go-to recipe.  For the purposes of making Cookie Dough Brownies, I cut the recipe to two-thirds, figuring I wanted a thin brownie layer.

Ingredients:

5 tablespoons of butter, cubed

100 grams of semi-sweet chocolate (~ 3.5 oz), broken into pieces

1/3 cup of sugar*

2 eggs

3 tablespoons of cocoa powder

1/4  teaspoon of salt

5 tablespoons of flour

*I usually cut the amount of sugar in any recipe in half.  I really dislike things so sweet that you cannot taste anything else.  For sweeter brownies, use up to 2/3 cup of sugar.

Preheat oven to 350 F (180 C).  Line a 9x11 inch pan (or something of similar size) with parchment paper so that the paper goes all the way up the sides.  Trim off excess and put aside.  

In a double boiler, melt butter and chocolate, stir until smooth.  Remove from heat.

Pour sugar into a medium sized mixing bowl, pour chocolate mixture on top and whisk until well-combined.  Add eggs, one at a time.  Add salt.  Gradually whisk in cocoa.  Fold in flour until just combined.  Pour into pan, using a spatula or rubber scraper to evenly distribute.  The batter will be quite viscous and will form only a thin layer in the pan.  Bake 15-20 minutes.  Test the center with a toothpick; if it comes out with only a few crumbs, the brownies are fully cooked.  

Set aside and make cookie dough.

Cookie Dough Layer:

The obvious choice for a cookie dough recipe seemed to me the old standard: Toll House.

These cookies have an important ingredient missing from the original Cookie Dough Brownie Recipe...

SALT!  You cannot have all of that sugar without some salt to balance it out!  

Here is my recipe, cut in half to make a reasonably-sized layer, and altered to remove the eggs but not the moisture.

Baking is Messy

But Totally Worth It!

Ingredients:

1/2 cup of butter, softened

1/2 teaspoon of salt

1/2 cup of brown sugar (or turbinado here in Europe, which is the closest I can find)

1 package of vanilla sugar (here in Europe, or 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla and 1 tablespoon of sugar)

2 tablespoons of milk

1 cup of flour

100 grams of semi-sweet chocolate (~3.5 oz), finely chopped*

*You could obviously use chocolate chips, we just do not have them here.

Using an electric mixer, cream butter, salt, sugars.  If using, add vanilla extract.  Add milk and mix until combined.  Gradually add flour and mix.  Mix in chocolate.  

Combine:

Using a spatula or rubber scraper, spread cookie dough over brownies.  You may even want to warm the dough a bit to make it more pliable.  DO NOT MELT!  Once the dough is spread evenly, place in refrigerator for about an hour to set.  Remove and cut into reasonably-sized pieces--whatever that means for you!  Serve with a glass of milk, you will need it.

I hope this recipe inspires you to go out and make some delicious treats!  

Turbinado Sugar Lemon Squares

Recipe for Turbinado Sugar Lemon Squares

Preface: We have been watching a lot of Queer As Folk.  The Liberty Diner, where the gang is wont to while away the pre-clubbing, evening hours, is famous for its lemon squares which Deb offers up as a cure-all.  Every time these come across the screen, I find myself desperately craving them, washed down with the obligatory Jones Soda with its label strategically hidden.

This recipe is based on Lemon Bars on Smitten Kitchen.  I halved the recipe because there are only two of us to eat them.  They are very brown because we use mostly turbinado sugar in our household.

A quick note on cooking with a lemon: Lick it.  That's right.  Before you do anything with your lemon, cut it in half and lick it.  Some lemons are stronger than others, some are surprisingly bitter (which you would do well to just toss and grab another).  Adjust the measurements for juice based on how strong your lemon tastes.

A note on small batch pan size: Unless you have a very small baking sheet or pan (about 9x7.5 inches) you will have to make do by lining a larger pan with parchment paper and creating an extra wall.  You could also use heavy duty aluminum foil for this purpose, though I'm always afraid of it sticking to my food.

Turbinado Sugar Lemon Squares

For the Shortbread Crust:

1/2 cup butter (room temp.)

1/4 cup icing sugar

1 cup flour

Pinch of salt

For the Lemon Curd Layer:

3 eggs

zest of two lemon

3/4 cup turbinado sugar

1/3 cup juice (about the juice of one and a half lemons)

1/3 cup flour

Additional icing sugar for dusting

Make the shortbread crust as follows:

Using an electric mixer, cream butter and icing sugar on high until pale and fluffy.

In a separate bowl, mix flour and salt.  Gradually add to butter mixture while mixing on low, until just combined.  The dough may be very crumbly.  Using hands, gather together into a ball.  Do not overwork or dough will become too soft.  

Place ball in the middle of prepared pan and squash down.  Press dough into corners and flatten with hands.  Refrigerate for 30 minutes.  Meanwhile, preheat oven to 350 F (170 C).

Remove from refrigerator and bake 15-20 minutes, until just barely browned.  Remove but do not turn off oven.

While the crust bakes, prepare lemon curd layer.  In a large bowl, combine eggs, zest, and lemon juice.  Whisk with a fork.  Gradually add flour and whisk until no clumps remain.

Pour lemon curd over crust and bake 25-30 minutes.  Check to make sure that the curd layer has set and return to over for about 5 more minutes.  Let cool completely.  Cut into squares.

Before serving, dust with icing sugar.

Hamantaschen

Hamantaschen

A Treat for Purim

This post is a bit late for Purim but these cookies are worth reporting about.  The recipe comes from Smitten Kitchen and has been altered a bit to suit ingredients available in the Czech Republic in general and our pantry specifically.  

Ingredients: 

8 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
6 tablespoons tvaroh*
3 tablespoons icing sugar 
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/3 cups plus 4 teaspoons flour
1/4 teaspoon salt

Filling (I used poppy seed filling mix, though one could also use jam).  

*The recipe calls for cream cheese.  Though it is not impossible to find here, it is rather expensive and I figured I would try a more Czech alternative.  Tvaroh is similar to quark, a fresh cheese popular in Central and Eastern Europe.  It can be creamy or crumbly and is often referred to as "curd."  I chose to use a creamy, high-fat tvaroh because it is most similar to cream cheese.

Cream together butter and tvaroh until smooth.  Then add sugar and continue to mix for one minute.  Add egg, vanilla, and salt.  Mix until combined.  Gradually add flour until a smooth but slightly sticky dough comes together.  The dough has a distinct pastry feel to it--not as light as bread dough but not as heavy as cookie dough.  You may need to add up to one tablespoon of extra flour if the dough is too sticky.  

Make a disc, as you would for sugar cookies, and wrap in plastic wrap.  Refrigerate at least one hour while you prepare the fillings.

I love this poppy seed filling!   There's even a recipe on the back, just like grandma used to make.  This is a mixture of ground poppy seeds, sugar, and starch that makes it thicken up into paste when water is added. 

Poppy paste! Yeah, I bet all of you trying to make hamantashcen in America are jealous of how easily one can get poppy paste here.  And I'm jealous of how easily one can get Cheetos there.  So we're even.

After the dough has been refrigerated, roll it out on a floured surface to about a quarter of an inch thick. This is when most people use fancy circular cookie cutters.  The ring of a ball jar works just as well.  And don't lie, if you are reading this, you probably own more ball jars than cups and definitely more ball jars than circular cookie cutters.  They also come in convenient sizes.  Use a regular ring for smaller hamantaschen and a wide-mouth ring for larger, more traditional cookies.  

Meanwhile, preheat oven to 350 F (170 C).

Place a small spoonful of filling in the middle of the circle.

 Pinch closed three corners to make the shape of a tri-corner hat.  This first batch, I only pinched it a little bit and avoided covering the filling.  You will see that when they came out, they had mostly unfolded themselves.  The next batch, I pinched them so hard that I almost covered the filling and they stayed pretty triangular. 

Place cookies on a parchment-lined baking sheet with a fair amount of space between them because they do rise.  

Bake for about 20 minutes, until the dough is golden brown.  

As you can see, these turned out a bit too puffy and not very triangular.  Delicious, nonetheless.  Store in an airtight container.