Chatter and Mash

How to Make Chocolate Chip Cookie Grilled Cheese Sandwiches
Ingredients

• Two similarly sized chocolate chip cookies per sandwich – Use your favorite recipe or one of mine, such as
• brown butter praline chocolate chip cookies that I just made for my chocolate chip cookie cupcakes,
• chocolate chip cookies that I made using hard boiled eggs,
• chocolate chip cookies I made with cacao nibs, or
• chocolate chip cookies I made with Sno-Caps.

Cheese that melts well – You can use classic American cheese or get fancy.  The cheese in the photo is herve mons pave du norde.  I hadn’t heard of it before I made the cookies. I asked the cheesemonger at Whole Foods what would work best in a chocolate chip cookie grilled cheese sandwich. I got quite the look for that question, but to her credit, she gave me a fantastic recommendation.  My cookies were not very salty and the cheese was incredibly salty, yielding a perfect pairing.

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.
2. Cut cheese into thin slices and place between two cookies.
3. Place cookie sandwiches onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.
4. Bake for five minutes or until cheese is melted.

Tip: This method works even better if the cookies are still hot from the oven.  The cheese will melt very quickly and you may not even have to put the cookies in the oven.

(via Chocolate Chip Cookie Grilled Cheese Sandwiches | Cupcake Project)

Gluten-free lemon cupcakes (makes 24 cupcakes)

Ingredients

• 3 large eggs (200g eggs)
• 200g gluten-free self raising flour
• 200g unsalted butter (2 cups), softened
• 200g caster sugar
• 2 tbsp milk
• Juice and zest of one large unwaxed lemon

Cooking instructions

1. Heat oven to 190C (fan 170C) or gas mark 5
2. Line baking tray with cases
3. In a food mixer, beat all the ingredients until you have a smooth, soft batter
4. Divide batter between the cases
5. Bake for about 25 mins until cakes bounce back when lightly pressed
6. Place on rack to cool

Raspberry cream icing (makes 24 cupcakes)
Ingredients

• Double cream (heavy cream)
• 15 fresh raspberries
• Pinch of caster sugar

Method

1. Lightly whip the double cream with the caster sugar
2. Using a food processor or fork, mash the raspberries
3. Add the crushed raspberries to the whipped cream and whip till you have an even pink colour
4. Pipe a swirl of raspberry cream on to cooled cakes

(via Torie Jayne: Gluten-free lemon & raspberry cream cupcakes)

(via Cookie Fellows by Kirsty - Screen Prints BLOG)

Quinoa and Asparagus Salad with Yogurt Dressing
Serves 6

Notes: I made this recipe to use what I had in the fridge, and there’s no reason you shouldn’t do the same. Feel free to swap out the quinoa for wheatberries, pearl barley, or bulgur. If you don’t have (or don’t like) asparagus (though I’m not sure we can be friends if it’s the latter…), you might finely chop some raw greens, scallions, green beans, radish, or a mixture of these. Consider this less of a prescriptive recipe and more of a starting point. That said, this combination does work really well. -R

For the salad:

• 1 cup quinoa
• 1 bunch asparagus (about 10 spears), rinsed, ends trimmed, and sliced on the bias
• 1/2 cup golden raisins
• 1/2 cup pepitas (pumpkin seeds)

For the dressing:

• 1/2 cup yogurt
• 4 tablespoons olive oil, divided
• juice of half a lemon
• half a preserved lemon, diced (I like using the whole thing, but some folks use only the rind and discard the flesh) – or, if you don’t have preserved lemon, check out this helpful post from the Food52 hotline
• 2 teaspoons honey
• salt and pepper to taste

Set a medium pot full of water over medium-high heat. When water reaches a boil, add quinoa, stir to combine, and cook for 15 minutes, until quinoa is cooked through but still keeps its shape. Strain and transfer to a large mixing bowl.

Meanwhile, heat a medium sauté pan over medium heat. Add pepitas, a pinch of salt, and the tiniest drop of oil; toss to combine, and cook until you hear one pepita pop. By then, pepitas should have started to turn golden. Remove from the heat and transfer pepitas to a bowl.

Place pan back on the heat, add 2 tablespoons of olive oil, and add the asparagus. Cook for about 3 minutes, just until asparagus glisten and start to turn golden in a couple spots. (If you like your asparagus fully soft, continue cooking for 4-5 minutes more.) Spoon asparagus into the bowl with the quinoa, and stir in raisins while asparagus and quinoa are still warm – it helps them plump up.

Make the dressing: Combine the yogurt, preserved lemon, honey, and remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil in a jar. Shake to combine. Taste, and add salt and pepper to taste (you must add the s&p after adding the preserved lemon, since it is quite salty).

Drizzle most of the yogurt dressing onto the quinoa, stir to combine, and taste. Add more of the dressing if desired. Top with the toasted pepitas just before serving.

(via Quinoa and Asparagus Salad with Yogurt Dressing)

Pimm’s Orange Soda Float
Makes two large floats. From The Family Kitchen

Pimm’s No. 1 liqueur
12 ounce bottle of orange soda
Vanilla ice cream
Orange slices
Ice

1. Place a small handful of crushed ice into your glass.

2. Add 1.5 ounces of Pimm’s into each glass and swirl briefly. For a less sweet taste, add more Pimm’s. (Of course, you can leave it out for a non-alcoholic float!)

3. Add a big scoop of ice cream.

4. Slowly pour the soda over the ice cream until it bubbles just a little over the top.

5. Garnish with an orange slice, add a straw, and dive in!

food, dessert, sweets, epicute, orange, soda, float, Pimm’s, liqueur, GIFS, recipe

(via Pencil Pushers « bakerella.com)

dietkiller:

Smiley Cakes

(via macarons)

Couple Photographs Worlds Made With Tiny Toys & Food (via Minimiam)

Brigadeiro

• 1 can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
• 3 Tb cocoa powder
• sprinkles for coating

Place all the ingredients into a medium saucepan. Over low heat, stir the mixture until thick consistency or it starts to show the bottom of the pan while you scrape it with a spoon (about 15 min).  Transfer to a greased bowl. Grease your hands with butter, take small portions of dough and shape it as little balls. Coat them with sprinkles and place them in small paper cups.

Beijinho

• 1 can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
• 7 oz fresh grated coconut or coconut flakes
• sugar for coating

Place all the ingredients into a medium saucepan. Over low heat, stir the mixture until  thick consistency. Transfer to a greased bowl. Grease your hands with butter, take small portions of dough and shape it as little balls. Coat them with sugar and place them in small paper cups.

Bananinha

(makes about 20 little balls)

• 7 ripe bananas
• 1 box red gelatin powder (flavor of your choice)
• 3 1/2 cups of sugar
• Butter for greasing
• Sugar for dusting

Peel the bananas and mash with a fork or blender.

In a saucepan, place the mashed bananas, 1 box gelatin powder and 3 1/2 cups of sugar.

Over medium heat, stirring constantly, until thick consistency or when you can see the bottom of the pan (about 30 min).

Place the dough in a greased plate with butter and let it cool.

Grease your hands with butter, take small portions of dough and shape it as little balls. Coat them with sugar and place them in small paper cups.

(via Lulu’s Sweet Secrets: Brazilian Sweets)