smoked gouda and walnut shortbread

Cheez It's. Just say those two words to me and I swoon. I know they are filled with crap and salt, but I love them. I remember reading an article about a local Boston area chef on how she opened her restaurant, how she did it, where did she get her culinary training from, you know all the usual questions, then at the end they asked her "what are your favorite-can't live without comfort foods?" She answered wine and Cheez It's! I said YES, a chef after my own heart. I love to hear what the top chefs like to snack on; most of them are just like us and need that comfort/salty stuff. I try my best to not eat a lot of Cheez It's. The creations I make with them are insane, but good. I got a ton of emails on the infamous cheez it bark and white chocolate cheez it bark. 



Lately I've been on a quest to make my own healthier version of cheeze like crackers. Or are they called shortbread?
Years ago I made a cheddar and cranberry one--super tasty.
These gouda and walnut crackers go so well with the red pepper jelly I recently discovered at Trader Joe's. If you need a good, crispy, tasty, decadent cracker for a new years eve party or for you last minute louies for Christmas appetizers, then give these a go.
They are tasty little critters and pair perfectly with a nice cold glass of white wine.

Make sure to grate the butter and cheese for nice crisp, light cracker.

For the love, use this stuff, makes a world of difference.

Do not over-work the dough. work with your hands till just combined.
It's ok if the loaf is still crumbly--it will firm up in the fridge I promise.

Slice them nice & thin for a crispy crackers, thicker for a chewy cracker.
If knife gets sticky when slicing the dough, just wet the knife in water over and over.

smoked gouda & walnut savory shortbread
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1 & 1/2 sticks butter, grated and kept cold
1 1/2 cups smoked gouda cheese, grated and kept cold
1 1/2 cups white flour
About 4-5 dashes of half & half
1 ts sea salt
1 ts baking powder
½ ts black pepper
7-8 dashes of worcestershire sauce
1 cup toasted walnuts, rough chop

Cook notes: 
You could use another kind of cheese. If you do you might want to reduce the amount of salt added in. If you like crisp cookies then slice these really thin before baking. If you like chewy cookies then slice them thicker; just don’t go too thick.

In a bowl mix the butter and cheese together. Sift the flour, salt, pepper and baking powder together. Combine flour mixture with the butter and cheese mixture. Then add in the nuts. Using your hands (I found this the easiest way to get it all combined) mix it up the dough until JUST combined. Halfway through mixing add in a few dashes of half and half. Turn dough out onto a large piece of waxed paper. Roll the dough into TWO logs.
Cover in wax paper, tightly and refrigerate for at least 2 hours. You can freeze the dough at this stage as well. If you do freeze make sure it’s wrapped really good so air does not get in there. When ready to bake; preheat oven to 375F.
Unwrap the dough log and, using a very sharp knife, slice the log into rounds 1/2 inch thick or as thin as you can. The thinner they are the more crisp; if you want chewy cookies then thicker slice. Place rounds on cookie sheets and sprinkle cookies with just a few pinches of sea salt.
Bake for 13-15 to 12 minutes; you will need to flip the cookies over halfway cooking to get the other side brown.
Bake until the bottoms and tops of the cookies are golden brown. Remove to a cooling rack to cool completely. Serve with red pepper jelly or other savory/sweet jelly. Store in an airtight container. They do not keep that long, maybe 3 days? Should make about 30-35 or more.

raspberry-chocolate blondies

Do I like blondies?

I do. They're ok. I mean I like the dough better than the cooked version really. Blondies (cooked) remind me of an over-floured chocolate chip cookie. And they are a bit boring. I try to jazz em up a bit from time to time. Truly I think the best way to dress up a butter-vanilla dough is with fruit and some sort of chocolate background. As it is raspberry and chocolate are an excellent combo to begin with; to then go and house them in a buttery, chewy house just makes it all the better--no brainer really.

So these are super easy to whip up. If you still have no clue what to give as a baked good to a friend or party, these might be the one? Plus it's different--different is good when you show up to a holiday party/dinner/function right?

raspberry chocolate blondies
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10 TB unsalted butter, room temp
1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 ts baking powder
3/4 ts salt
1 cup packed light-brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 ts pure vanilla extract
1 pint raspberries
Not even a ½ cup melted milk or semi-sweet chocolate (8 ounces or less of chips, for drizzling)
Confectioners' sugar, for dusting, optional

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
Grease up an 8-inch square baking pan with non-stick spray or butter or if you prefer using parchment paper then do so
In medium bowl whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt, set aside.

In a glass or cup, mix the eggs and vanilla extract until combined.
In a large bowl mix the butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment; cream on medium speed until smooth and fluffy. Then add in eggs and vanilla mixing well.

Pour batter into prepared pan; spread with a rubber spatula or wet hands.

Place the raspberries on top of batter.

Bake in oven for about 25-35 minutes or until a cake tester inserted into blondies comes out “almost” clean; okay to have a few bits of crumb on the cake tester. Cooking times vary depending on oven, so please check at 25 minute mark. Cool brownies at least an hour.
Melt the milk chocolate over a double boiler. Then drizzle over cooled brownies for decoration. Dust with confectioners' sugar before cutting into squares, optional.

hot pepper jelly candied walnuts

Lots of holiday parties this time of year. And while at these holiday parties do you ever find yourself sizing up the all the dishes and trying to figure out which one belongs to which person? Do you see the same old dishes year after year and think "jeez, did that person bring that crappy dish again?". Are you as bad as I am? And put a face to each and every dish and then wait to see which person comes over to the dish to 're-organize it', 'clean it up'? Well, yes I am guilty of that. But I'm also guilty of waiting to see who belongs to the fabulous dishes too. Dying to find out who it is and ask them why this, what made you think of that? Because that means there is another foodie at the party and a good "food" conversation will surely start.
So I made these candied walnuts with the hope in mind that a few people will bite into them and then a few seconds later a gentle expression of "oh, that's different", "what's in this?". I love that part. And of course I love to answer every single ingredient query. Do you?
What's the worst party themed dish you've seen?
What's the best?

These candied walnuts came about when that jar lone of peppered jelly was just sitting in the cupboard for a couple months. I did have plans to use it in a cheese/wine roll of some sort, but saw the walnuts and knew immediately what to do with it. I was hesitant at first because it doesn't make it completely candied/hardened but does lend a nice unique flavor. They are sticky but tasty.

hot pepper jelly candied walnuts
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¾ cup hot pepper jelly/jam
1 teaspoon sea salt
3 dashes of Tabasco sauce
2 cups walnuts (pecans would work well too)
1 egg white, room temperature

Cook notes: the nuts will be sticky after baking; they will not form a hard shell; sticky but very tasty. The pepper jelly is not that spicy at all--a gentle heat.

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.
In a bowl mix the hot pepper jelly with salt and Tabasco sauce. Set aside.

In separate bowl beat egg white frothy but not stiff. Add in the walnuts, and stir to coat evenly. Next add in the pepper jelly mix and toss until evenly coated.

Spread the nut mixture onto a parchment or silicone mat lined cookie sheet.
I gave them a light sprinkle of salt before baking, optional.
Bake for 30-40 minutes; halfway thru mixing up the nuts and/or rotate the pan. Check at the 30 minute mark for doneness.
You will know the nuts are done when they are slightly browned and the jelly coating is firmed up a bit.
Remove from oven. Nuts will be hot, so be careful touching them.
After they’ve cooled a bit, separate and break up any large clumps.

When completely cool, pour the nuts into a bowl, breaking up any that stick together.

PMS Christmas Bark: Part 1, 2, & 3

Jokingly on facebook I stated to my friends that years ago I created a Christmas bark that can easily be given as a gift and double as a PMS bark. The agreement was overwhelming by all my female friends; a bark made of salty, sweet, sticky, chewy and a hint of crispy--how could anyone, let alone a female disagree? I mean it covers all the four food groups that females tend to crave while going through PMS. Right?

Here is the PMS Christmas bark Part 1. Made of Cheez It's, chocolate Oreo's all nice and cozy warm in a base of thick white chocolate. Last year it's first appearance was resounding BUT this year people went crazy for it.



Part 2 was a whole other kind of creation made to satisfy those wanting milk chocolate instead of white chocolate.
So here is PMS Chrismtas Bark Part 2, or Cheez It Bark. Made with again Cheez It's with a hard caramel middle, covered in milk chocolate then a nice sprinkling of salty pecans.

And now we have a Part 3. The peanut butter and bacon chocolate bark. Bacon of course is a very important food group when creating a PMS bark? So why not.

Part 3 is very easy to make. Just roll out the dough onto a baking sheet. Originally this was done with cookies--my almost flourless peanut butter cookies with chocolate. This dough makes the perfect bark.



As soon as it comes out of the oven place cooked strips of bacon on the top. Gently pushing them in.



When the cookie layer has cooled then drizzle with bittersweet chocolate. You can use whatever chocolate you like; I found that bittersweet was just the right balance as the semi and milk chocolates were just too sweet and overpowered the bacon and peanut butter flavors. Can't have that can we?




peanut butter & bacon chocolate bark
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1 cup chunky or smooth peanut butter (natural peanut butter works best just not too oily)
¾ cup dark brown sugar
¼ cup granulated sugar
1 egg
½ ts baking powder
1 ts baking soda
2 TB flour
1 ts sea salt

5-7 strips of cooked bacon, in strips or in small chunks
6-8 ounces bittersweet chocolate chips

Cook notes: this dough cooks very fast. It may not look like its done at the 10 or 11 minute mark but it is. Since there is almost no flour in there it cooks very fast. The next time I make this I will drizzle way less chocolate. In my opinion I put too much chocolate on there and it drowned out the peanut butter flavor. I highly doubt this freezes well. Natural peanut butter is best for this, just not one that's too oily.

In a small bowl mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt; set aside.
In a mixer or by hand, combine peanut butter and sugars until well combined.
Crack egg open in a small bowl and beat. Add egg to the cookie mixture, mix well.
Next sprinkle the flour mixture over the cookie dough, not just depositing it in one large dump. Mix till combined. Cover bowl and let it sit in fridge for about an hour or more.

When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Place a parchment sheet on jelly roll pan. Place dough on sheet and spread it out. It will not spread out the whole size of the jelly roll pan only about halfway
If dough is sticky, just wet your finger tips.

Bake for 10-11 minutes, until very lightly browned. As soon as you remove it from the oven, place the strips of bacon on top and gently push down/in. Let cool at least 2 hours at room temperature.
When cooled drizzle with the melted bittersweet chocolate. Let chocolate harden and slice into squares.

Makes about 12-15 bars depending on how you cut them.



And finally the winner of the Nescafe Dolce Piccolo giveaway is Jen of Duluth, GA who was the lucky number 62. Please contact me Jen with your mailing address. Congrats Jen!

cream cheese filled sugar cookie wedges

Ever get that impulse when visiting the "larger" grocery stores to stock up? Like stock up on stuff you really don't need and shouldn't buy? But you buy it anyways because IT'S ON SALE?

Yeah, me too. And then those things you bought sit in your cupboards and you haven't a clue what to do with them? Well, I found something to do with the 'instant' sugar cookie packs! And they don't taste that bad really, I doctored them up a bit to make them even more appealing and tasty. A nice addition of cream cheese, then a warm chocolate bath followed up with a nice coating of crushed candy canes--they tasted fabulous.

So if you have an upcoming holiday office party or casual cookie swap or like me, need to use up the sugar cookie packs that might be sitting in your cupboards. They were quite a hit here at home --very tasty. Serve with a tall glass of ice cold milk!

Easy peasy to do. Just bake the sugar cookie packs (2) in cake pans. Let cool.





Let them cool. Then spread a nice even layer of the cream cheese filling, being careful not to go to the edges. Place other sugar cookie cake on top and into fridge to set up for a bit.



When ready to start dipping, use a biscuit cutter and place in the middle of the sugar cookie cake. Push down all the way but don't remove--we want to use this as a guide for cutting even wedges. Cut like you would an old fashioned shortbread wheel.





Dip in melted semi sweet chocolate and garnish with crushed candy canes or whatever else you desire. (I tried using milk chocolate but it was just too sweet; the semi sweet tastes much better). Store in fridge.

cheese cream filled sugar cookie sandwich wedges
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Cook notes:
Feel free to use your favorite sugar cookie recipe for this. If you do decide to use your own sugar cookie mix make sure to make enough dough for two- 8 (or 9) inch cake pans.

Sugar cookie dough packs (2) or use your own favorite sugar cookie recipe

filling:
8 ounces cream cheese, room temp
½ cup confectioners’ sugar
Pinch of salt

garnish:
18 ounces semi sweet chocolate, melted
Crushed candy canes, optional but wonderful

Preheat oven at 350 degrees. Prepare cookie mix according to directions, Instead of baking them on a pan we will use 2- 8 or 9 inch cake pans. Make sure to grease up the cake pans, really well as we do not want them to stick.
Bake at 350 for about 12-16 minutes or until edges are golden brown; center might still be somewhat soft. That’s ok as we will let this harden up in fridge. I like to think these sugar cookies taste a little better when they are soft, but if you like crunchy sugar cookies then by all means do what you like most.
Let these cool and meanwhile let’s make the cream cheese filling. Mix the cream cheese with about ¼ cup or so (taste test as you go to see if it needs more sugar). Mix well. Then spread a nice layer of the mixture on one of the giant sugar cookies (be careful not to go to the edges), place the other sugar cookie on top, cover with plastic wrap and chill in fridge for a couple hours or overnight.
When ready to dip in chocolate, take a biscuit cutter and place in the middle of the cake, pushing down, but do not take cutter out as this will help guide us in slicing them into wedges. You want to slice them into wedges like you would shortbread. You should get about 16-18 wedges depending on the size/width you slice them.
While you get your melting chocolate ready, place wedges back on cookie sheet and into fridge to chill them again.
Get your crushed candy canes ready and into a bowl for easy dipping.
Use whatever method you like best for dipping chocolate. (The semi sweet chocolate works best, the milk chocolate was just a bit too sweet). I used a double boiler for melting my chocolate as I have a few wedges to dip and want to keep the chocolate melted for a while.
Dip each wedge into the melted chocolate, then dip into crushed candy canes. I dipped the fuller/wider end of the wedge instead of the longer/skinnier end. If you’re not comfortable dipping then you can easily drizzle the wedges with chocolate. Place dipped wedges on parchment paper to set up.
Keep wedges in fridge until ready to serve. They don’t keep that long, maybe a couple days. I wouldn’t go past 3 days since there is cream cheese in there. Do they freeze well? I doubt it.
Makes about 16-18 wedges depending on how thick you cut them.