The original recipe is from the Tasty Kitchen website. So far, the only change I’ve made is to not include the dried cranberries or chocolate. Honestly, I like it plain. It is plenty sweet from the brown sugar and agave syrup. One of these days, I’d like to try using honey or maple syrup instead of the agave syrup, and I’d like to experiment with different combinations of nuts and seeds. Recipe after the jump.

Coconut Granola
By whatsgabycooking from the Tasty Kitchen website

3 cups old fashion oats
3/4 cup raw cashews, roughly chopped
3/4 cup almond, roughly chopped
1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 stick unsalted butter
1/4 cup agave nectar (or honey)
2/3 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
1/2 cup dried cranberries

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

2. In a large bowl, combine the oats, cashews, almonds, coconut, salt and cinnamon and set aside.

3. In a medium saucepan, melt the butter, agave and brown sugar until the sugar has completely dissolved. Remove the mixture from the heat and stir in the vanilla extract. Pour the butter mixture over the oat mixture and stir to combine until everything is well coated.

4. Spread the granola mixture onto a parchment-lined baking sheet, leaving a few large clumps. Bake the granola for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and break up the pieces to ensure even baking. Place the baking sheet back into the oven for another 15 minutes. Remove the sheet pan from the oven and give it one more toss to break up some of the pieces and place back into the oven for the last 10 minutes.

5. Remove the baking sheet from the oven and let it cool completely. Once cooled, add the chocolate chips and the dried cranberries. Give it a quick toss with a spoon and then package into mason jars or brown paper bags to store.

Sourdough Multi-Grain Bread
Based on a recipe from www.kingarthurflour.com
Notes: I have been using my whole wheat sourdough starter for this bread. I plan on trying it with my white starter, but I just haven’t had time yet. The bread doesn’t have much oven spring, so it’s kind of squat. The few times I’ve allowed the dough to rise over the pan, as in the original recipe, I didn’t like the texture of the bread. So now, I only let it double. And finally, I’ve tried baking the bread on the same day I’ve made it, but I like the flavor better when I let it sit overnight in the fridge.
Makes 1 loaf

1 tsp active dry yeast
5 3/8 oz water
5 1/2 oz sourdough starter, fed or unfed
1/2 oz vegetable oil
1 1/2 oz honey
1/4 oz salt
7 oz bread flour (you can use all-purpose flour)
2 oz whole wheat flour
2 1/2 oz blend of seeds and flaked whole grains (I like sesame seeds, poppy seeds, sunflour seeds, flax seeds and oat bran)

Combine yeast and water and let sit until yeast is dissolved.

Add rest of ingredients to yeast and water. Knead to form a slightly sticky but smooth dough, five to seven minutes with a standmixer.

Cover the dough, and allow it to rise in the refrigerator overnight. It may not double, but that’s okay. In the morning, take the dough out of the refrigerator and let it warm up for a couple of hours. It should be puffy.

Lightly grease a 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 inch bread pan. Gently deflate the dough and shape it into a log. Place it in the pan, cover it lightly, and allow it to rise until it doubles, 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Near the end of the rising time, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Bake the bread for 25 to 30 minutes. When it’s done, the bread will be golden brown, and will register 190°F on an instant-read thermometer inserted into the center.

Remove the bread from the oven, and turn it out of the pan onto a rack, to cool completely.

Currently cooking out of Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams at Home by Jeni Britton Bauer

Remember this ice cream from Pure Scoop? Ever since I started make ice creams out of Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams at Home, I’ve wanted to try this flavor. Bauer doesn’t include a recipe for coconut ice cream, so I used David Lebovitz’s technique with Bauer’s ice cream base. The result was a huge success.

I started  out by seeping about a cup and a half of toasted coconut in the milk/cream part of Bauer’s recipes. After a couple of hours, I strained the liquid, pressing on the soaked coconut to get as much of the liquid out as possible. Then I followed Bauer’s formula of boiling the milk and cream with sugar, salt and corn syrup, then adding a cornstarch slurry and, finally, whisking in some cream cheese. Chill and churn.

This was so very good. When you first see it, you think its going to be vanilla. Surprise! Instead you get a light coconut flavor accented by just a touch of cream cheese. The texture was perfectly smooth. I loved the ivory color of this ice cream; it seemed very elegant.

Anyway, I decided that a revamping of The Perfect Scoop’s Gianduja-Stracciatella Gelato was worth using some of those precious nuts. As I said in my review of the original recipe, I loved the flavor but thought it was a bit rich and heavy. I took a basic gelato recipe from here and adapted it using some of Lebovitz’s techniques. The two recipes were very close, the main difference being the proportion of milk to cream. Lebovitz uses more cream; the other recipe uses more milk. I also cut down the amount of sugar as the milk chocolate adds its own sweetness. Finally, I took the liberty of adding some chopped hazelnuts for a little texture. This ice cream was light and flavorful. It was substantial, but didn’t leave that coating in your mouth like really rich (read cream-heavy) ice creams sometimes do. Recipe after the jump.

Gianduja-Stracciatella Gelato
A smash-up of recipes from Ciao Bello and The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz

Ingredients
2 cups whole milk
1 cup heavy cream
1 1/2 cups finely chopped hazelnuts, toasted and skins removed first
4 egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
4 oz milk chocolate, chopped
Melted bittersweet chocolate (optional)
Chopped hazelnuts (optional)

Directions
1. Combine milk and cream and heat until simmering. Remove from heat and stir in the chopped hazelnuts. Let mixture steep at room temperature for one hour.

2. Pour the hazelnut-infused milk through a fine-mesh strainer into a medium bowl, squeezing the hazelnuts to get as much liquid out as you can. Reheat the milk until simmering.

3. Meanwhile, in a medium heat-proof bowl, whisk the egg yolks until smooth. Gradually whisk in the sugar and salt until it is well incorporated and the mixture is thick and pale yellow. Temper the egg yolks by very slowly pouring in the hot milk mixture, whisking continuously. Return the custard to the saucepan and place over low heat. Cook, stirring frequently with a wooden spoon, until the custard is thick enough to coat the back of the spoon and it reaches a temperature of 185°F (85°C). Do not bring to a boil.

4. Pour the mixture through a fine-mesh strainer into a bowl and stir in the milk chocolate until it has melted and the custard is smooth. Let the custard cool to room temperature, stirring every 5 minutes or so. Once completely cooled, cover and refrigerate the custard for at least 4 hours or overnight.

5. If necessary, whisk the cold custard until smooth. Pour the mixture into the container of an ice cream maker and churn according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Just before gelato is done, carefully drizzle in the melted bittersweet chocolate. The finer the a stream of chocolate that you can manage, the better. Stir in the chopped hazelnuts and transfer the gelato to an airtight container to chill for at least 2 hours before serving.

Notes: I didn’t give amounts for the melted bittersweet chocolate or the chopped hazelnuts because it’s really up to you to use as much or as little as you want. I used about 2 ounces of bittersweet chocolate and a big handful of hazelnuts. Also, no picture because it looks exactly the same as the previous Gianduja-Stracciatella Gelato.

Did I mention that she grew up down south?

A few weeks ago, Missy gave me some soup to try. It was thick with vegetables and sweet, almost like there was sugar in it. And there was just enough meat in it to satisfy Bryan who thinks a meal without meat is not complete. Missy graciously agreed to send me the recipe, and it has quickly become one of my favorite soups.

I didn’t make too many changes to the original recipe; mostly I just increased the amount of vegetables in it. I also found that a handful of pearl barley or small pasta shapes isn’t a bad thing at all. Recipe after the jump.

Vegetable Beef Soup
Any inexpensive cut of beef will do here, just as long as it isn’t too fatty. I tend to use thin top round steaks. I also don’t usually measure the amount of vegetables I use. If I think it needs more carrots, I add one or two more. If I’m feeling particularly oniony, I might add more onion. Likewise, I like my soups less, uh, soupy. The amount of liquid below gives me a hearty soup with a little broth, especially if you add barley. If you want more liquid, add more beef broth or water. This soup is all about playing with your food.

1 lb beef cut into small cubes
1 medium onion, chopped
1 14-oz can of diced tomatoes, undrained
3 cups beef broth
3 beef bouillon cubes
4 medium potatoes, cut into small cubes. I use Yukon Gold potatoes and I don’t bother peeling them.
3 celery ribs, chopped
4 carrots, chopped
1 cup frozen peas
1 cup frozen corn
1/2 tsp basil
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp thyme
salt and pepper to taste

In a large stockpot, brown the beef in a couple of teaspoons of vegetable oil. Once the beef is browned, add the onions and cook until they are soft.

Add the rest of the ingredients, except the peas and corn, to the pot. If you are using barley, add it now. Bring the soup to a boil, then cover and simmer until potatoes (and barley) are tender. If you are adding pasta to the soup, stir it in when the potatoes are almost done.

Add the peas and corn and simmer until warmed through. Adjust seasonings and serve.

One of the less intimidating flours in this book is oat flour. Ground from oat kernels, oat flour is milky and slightly sweet. It doesn’t have any gluten in it, so it has to be used with other flours, usually all-purpose flour or whole wheat flour. Besides oat flour, Boyce includes recipes that use cooked oatmeal, rolled oats and oat bran. In many cases, several different kinds of oat products are mixed together. These pancakes, for example, use both oat flour and cooked oatmeal.

The recipe begins with a cup of cooked oatmeal, or, as I refer to it, snot. Melted butter, milk, eggs and molasses are stirred into the snot, uh, oatmeal. On the dry side, oat flour, all-purpose flour, sugar, baking powder and salt and mixed together and then mixed with the wet ingredients. Although I hated the cooked oatmeal on its own, it disappeared into the pancakes and gave them some chew. Without the cooked oatmeal, I think the oat flavor would really be missing.

I really liked these pancakes. They were hearty and filling, and I felt extremely virtuous eating them. Then I drowned the  pancakes  in homemade syrup that contained a full stick of butter.

See recipe after the jump.

In an earlier pancake/waffle post, a certain commentator that may or may not have been my sister bragged about her homemade syrup. Then she asked if I wanted the recipe. Uh, yeah, I wanted the recipe. I’ve never heard of a homemade syrup for pancakes/waffles that wasn’t fruit based, so I was pretty intrigued. It was easy to make and even easier to eat. I had to keep reminding myself about all of the butter that was in there. The syrup has a sweet, buttery caramel flavor. It is quite mild and goes as good with chocolate ice cream as it does with pancakes.

Maresa’s Homemade Syrup
Note: I only had unsalted butter when I made this, so I added 1/2 teaspoon of salt to the syrup. If you use salted butter, use just a pinch of salt.

1  stick (8 tbs) unsalted butter
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla extract

Melt butter in small saucepan on low heat. Once melted, stir in sugar and salt. Stir in buttermilk and baking soda and bring just to a boil. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla extract. Taste syrup and add more salt as needed. Serve warm.

After making eight or nine batches, here’s my spin on the recipe:

We like our salsa less liquidy, so I briefly drain the tomatoes, and then add in some of the tomato juice at the end.

I also dislike getting chunks of raw onion and jalapeno in my salsa, so I process them into very small pieces first

And finally, I like more lime juice than the original recipe calls for, so I use the juice of a whole lime.

My version of the recipe is after the jump.

Salsa
Adapted from The Pioneer Woman cooking website
Makes about 3 cups, give or take

1/4 cup chopped onion (I use about 1/4 of a medium onion)
1-2 cloves of garlic, chopped
1/2 jalapeno, seeded and chopped
1/4 cup cilantro
1 can (28 ounces) whole tomatoes with juice, drained and juice reserved
2 cans (10 ounces each) Rotel tomatoes, drained
1 Tbs sugar
3/4 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
1/2 tsp cumin
Juice of one lime

In a food processor finely chop onions, garlic, jalapeno and cilantro. Add in whole tomatoes, Rotel tomatoes, sugar, salt, pepper, cumin and lime juice. Pulse until the salsa is the consistency you want, adding some of the reserved tomato juice if you feel it is a little dry. Taste and adjust for seasoning, then refrigerate for a couple of hours before eating.

Sometimes I find lemon curds to be either too eggy or really rich. This lemon curd only uses 3 whole eggs and no butter (hence the “light” part of the recipe). The lemon flavor is bright and tart. The only drawback to this recipe is that the curd doesn’t set up enough to use as a filling in a cake. But it’s perfect over ice cream or strawberries and as a filling for lemon tarts. Heck, it’s perfect straight out of the bowl, on its own.

Recipe after the jump.

Light Lemon Curd
Adapted from Alice Medrich’s Chocolate and the Art of Low Fat Desserts
Makes about 1 1/2 cups

9 oz (1 cup) fresh lemon juice, strained
5 tsp lemon zest
7 oz (1 cup) sugar
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract

Combine sugar, lemon juice and lemon zest in a sauce pan over medium heat. Stir until sugar is dissolved, and mixture is starting to steam.

Meanwhile, in a separate bowl, lightly beat the eggs. When lemon syrup is ready, slowly stream the hot syrup into the eggs, whisking constantly. Continue to whisk for 2 minutes.

Pour mixture back into the sauce pan and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, just until it boils. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla extract. Strain mixture into another bowl to remove zest and any bits of cooked eggs. Press plastic wrap onto the surface of the curd and refrigerate.

I found the original recipe on www.browneyedbaker.com and made my first batch exactly as the recipe was written. Then I decided to experiment a little bit.

My first change was to use chunky peanut butter instead of creamy. It increased the peanutty flavor and gave the cookies a little more texture. I also increased the amount of oatmeal because I thought the original amount (1/2 cup) was skimpy. I increased the ratio of brown sugar to white sugar and added an extra egg yolk. My final change was to double the recipe and refrigerate the cookies for a couple of hours before baking them. This batch was a keeper.

The cookies stayed on the thick side, with crunchy edges and chewy centers. Be careful not to overbake these. You want them to just start browning around the edges. The middle may look a bit undercooked, but the cookies will continue to cook after you take them out of the oven. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet.

Recipe is after the jump.

Peanut Butter-Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
Adapted from browneyedbaker.com
Makes about 30 cookies

Make sure all your ingredients are at room temperature. I accidentally picked up a no-sugar added chunky peanut butter that wasn’t very sweet. If you use a peanut butter that has added sugar, I’d decrease the brown sugar by 1/4 cup.

Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1 1/4 cup light brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup chunky peanut butter
2 eggs plus 1 egg yolk, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups rolled oats (I used old-fashioned rolled oats)
2 cups bittersweet chocolate chips

Directions:
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt; set aside.

In a standmixer, cream together the butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract for about 3 minutes. Add the peanut butter and mix well. Add the eggs and egg yolk and beat to combine. On low speed, gradually add the flour mixture until just combined. Stir in the oats and then the chocolate chips.

Use a large cookie scoop (I used a 3-tablespoon scoop) and drop dough onto a parchment-lined baking sheet. Refrigerate for at least one hour.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and adjust rack to middle of the oven. Space cold dough mounds about two inches apart on parchment-lined baking sheets and flatten them slightly. Bake for 13-15 minutes, or until the cookies are lightly golden around the edges, rotating cookie sheet after 10 minutes of baking. Cool completely on the baking sheet and then store in an airtight container at room temperature.

I got the original recipe here. When I first saw it, I was smitten. I immediately ran out and bought a slow cooker (I know, I know. I’m the last person in the food blogging universe to get one). The first time I made the soup, it was a little thin and watery. Despite the onions, peppers and copious amounts of cumin, there didn’t seem to be much flavor in the soup. After the first bowl, Bryan politely declined any more.

(That was okay by me. I ate the rest of the soup for lunch for more than a week straight. And I don’t do that. Usually.)

The second time I made this soup, I made some small changes that made all the difference. I used yellow onions instead of red onions. I used yellow and red bell peppers and several stalks of celery. And, most importantly, I used two cans of chicken stock instead of water and cut down the liquid by two cups. This version was wonderful. It was full of flavor and not too thin. I have a feeling that I’m going to have to share this soup with Bryan for lunch.

Recipe after the jump.

Black Bean Soup
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen who adapted it from Bon Appetit

Watch your cooking time. The first time I made the soup, it took 4 hours in the slow cooker on high. The second time I made it, it took almost 6 hours on high.

1 tablespoon olive oil
2 medium-size yellow onions, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 yellow bell pepper, chopped
3 stalks of celery, chopped
4-5 garlic cloves, minced
4 teaspoons ground cumin
1 16-ounce package dried black beans
2 chopped chipotle chiles from a can, about 2 teaspoons. I seeded mine before chopping them.
2 cans chicken stock (about 4 cups)
1-2 cups hot water
Juice from half of a lemon
2 teaspoons kosher salt
Ground black pepper to taste

Heat olive oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add onions, bell peppers and celery and sauté until beginning to brown, about eight minutes. Add garlic and cumin; stir one minute. Transfer mixture to 6-quart slow cooker. Add beans and chipotles, then chicken stock and 1 cup of hot water. Cover and cook on high until beans are very tender, about 3-6 hours. If soup is starting to look a little dry, add more hot water as necessary.

Transfer two cups bean mixture to blender; puree until smooth. Return puree to remaining soup in slow cooker. Stir in lemon juice, salt, and pepper. Adjust seasonings to taste.