Cinnamon Soft Pretzels and Oh, Some Life Changes.

I know, it's been forever.   It's a good thing my livelihood doesn't depend on writing new posts and updating my blog.  There hasn't been tons going on in the kitchen because there's been a lot of this going on....

I really hate packing.  This hasn't been the everyday run-of-the-mill packing either, this time around it's involved selling furniture, booking storage and donating as much as possible--all still part of the "simplify" new years resolution.     And oh yeah, I gave notice last month and bought a one way ticket to Italy.

At the end of July, I'm heading to NY for a week and then it's off to Italy to study some Italian language and history and get a refresher on Renaissance art history. The former Liberal Arts major in me sings "hallelujah."  I'm signed up for a couple of months of intensive total immersion Italian lessons but the biggest plan is to not have any plans--you know, just live a little dolce vita for a bit.  Tranquilo. 

I bought a one-way ticket but I know I have to come back.  The biggest deterrent to this whole adventure was not the part where I quit a stable job that paid the mortgage, but rather thinking about leaving this one....

Finding an acceptable option for Brooklyn was really tough.  Really, really ridiculously tough.  I considered taking her because even with a full ticket, it was cheaper than boarding but smush face dogs aren't very welcome by the airlines.   I talked to quite a few people and long term boarding facilities before finally finding some great people to care for her.  I knew I'd stay home before I'd let her be kenneled for long periods of time each day so it had to be an in-home option with someone who likes loves dogs,  iand very importantly, someone who would definitely give me my dog back when I came back.  You'd think that would be a given but I swear I talked to a woman who was a self-declared "BT Addict" and got the sense I'd never see Brooklyn again if I went with her.   Just like everything else in the planning of this trip, it all eventually worked out.   I do feel so guilty though and already miss this peanut if that's possible.  

So between finding boarding and scheduling everything from movers to cleaners and running a bazillion and one errands, cooking has gone by the wayside.  That is of course except when I come across an abundance of ingredients that I feel guilty about throwing out...like a half-full 25lb bag of flour.  Yikes.  

Luckily, pretzels are one of the easiest doughs to make and when covered with cinnamon sugar are seriously one of the best things ever.  This is the same recipe I posted last year for the pretzel dogs(the same recipe that everyone's posted really).  Pretzel dough is just that flexible. 

Rolling this dough into balls makes some pretty awesome pretzel rolls as well. 

Cinnamon Soft Pretzels

Ingredients:

1.5 c warm  water (about 110-115ºF)
1 tbsp sugar
2 teaspoons sea salt
2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast
4.5 c all-purpose flour
4 tbsp melted unsalted butter
12 cups water
2/3 cup baking soda
1 stick of melted butter

1/2 cup sugar 

2 tsp cinnamon

Canola oil for greasing bowl

Directions:

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer with hook attachment, combine the water, sugar and kosher salt. Sprinkle the yeast on top and allow it to sit for 5 minutes.
2. Add flour and melted butter to the mixer bowl and mix on low until the ingredients are combined.
3. Increase the speed to medium and knead until the dough is smooth and pulls away from the side of the bowl, 6-7 minutes.  Remove and roll into ball.
4. Grease  bowl, add dough and turn, ensuring oil covers all surface of dough.  Cover bowl with towel and let dough rise in bowl until double in size (about 1 hour depending upon temp)
5. Remove the dough from the bowl. Clean the bowl and then grease it with vegetable oil.
6. Fill large stockpot halfway with water and bring to a rolling boil. Add baking soda. The boiling baking soda water can make quite a mess--definitely stick with a big pot filled halfway full if you can. 
7. Preheat oven to 450 and line two sheet trays with parchment paper.
8. Remove dough and place on work surface.   Divide it into 12 equal pieces. 
9. Roll out each piece of dough into an 18- to 20-inch rope. Fold each rope in half, twisting the two pieces around one another and pressing the ends together. Twist the bottom end around the top, feeding it through the top hole and pressing to secure. 
10. Return the twists to the cookie sheet.
11. One by one, carefully place each twist into the boiling water for 30 seconds. Remove each twist from the water using a large slotted spoon or spatula(s) and return it to the cookie sheet. 
12. Bake the twists until golden brown in color, 12 to 14 minutes, rotating the pans (between racks and turning to rotate pans) halfway through, then remove the twists from the oven and allow them to cool for 5 minutes before topping.
13. Mix together 1/2 cup sugar and 2 tsp cinnamon.  
14. Melt butter and lightly brush the top of each pretzel.  
15. Hold over sugar bowl and liberally sprinkle cinnamon sugar over the top of each pretzel.  Serve warm.

For pretzel rolls, shape dough into balls and let rise for 30 minutes before adding to boiling baking soda water.  Pretzel rolls will bake for 15-20 minutes depending upon size. 

Chocolate Strawberry Leibniz S'mores

S'mores are one of those great outdoors requirements and seemingly universal loves.  I don't like them.  For some reason, I spent a lot of my life hiding this fact....do you have any idea what stigma disliking s'mores can cast upon a child? I hid it for a long time.  Sure, I'd accept s'mores but when no one was looking, I'd throw them in the fire.  

As an adult I finally came to accept that it was okay to not like Hershey's milk chocolate or graham crackers.  I would willingly forgo all chocolate before eating milk chocolate.   You can throw Nutella in that category too to understand the pressure I feel with my apparently weird dislikes.  I however, learned to embrace my uniqueness and stood my ground when s'mores pushers tried to get me to cave.  Nope, just ooey, gooey roasted marshmallows for me. 

Recently the bazillion different s'mores ideas on Pinterest alone made me realize that there could be more to s'mores than graham crackers and Hershey's chocolate.  Interesting. 

 I think after a bit of experimenting, I now like s'mores.  Of course anything probably tastes pretty good after a long morning of this...

I really do love snowshoeing, I just forgot how much I disliked walking uphill.  A couple celebrating their 50th anniversary passed me going up the trail.  True enough.  As I gasped for air and cursed altitude, this sweet little couple breezed past me with smiles on their face.  Smiling while hiking uphill at altitude...funny right?  There is a special Colorado type that has evolved to live without requiring oxygen but I am not one them.

The views were all worth it though and there was still a good bit of snow up at 10,000 feet. 

 After all that uphill walking torture, s'mores in front of a roaring fire were actually quite awesome.

When I realized you could mix up the s'more's layers (duh right?), I grabbed my favorite Leibniz cookies.  Have you had these?  The Dark Choco Leibniz are absolutely my favorite cookie in the whole big wide world.  The chocolate is dark without being bitter and paired with the biscuit makes the perfectly not-too-sweet cookie.  Heaven will be full of Choco Leibniz.   The plain Leibniz cookies made a great graham cracker replacement.

See how perfect Choco Leibniz are? I think it's all about the chocolate to cookie ratio.

  They don't even need marshmallows.  

But I did give them a try with marshmallows...I think they need two marshmallows because that's a lot of chocolate.  

Since the chocolate seemed a bit much for s'mores, I  moved on to the plain Leibniz cookies, added just one square of dark chocolate, marshmallows and sliced strawberries.  I'm not sure if it qualifies as a s'more but dark chocolate and strawberries can never be wrong.  And when s'mores pushers come at me next time, I'll feel prepared with my new knowledge that Leibniz make great s'mores.  

I would never throw this s'more in the fire.  

Sea Salt Caramel Krispies

I have a confession.  A friend was in Seattle and he brought me back a box of Fran's Grey Salt Caramels and I didn't share.  I'm usually an extremely good sharer especially when it comes to sweets and chocolates, but I hid my box of Fran's in my desk and didn't offer up a single one to anybody.  

Salt caramels are a serious thing especially when covered in dark chocolate.  And even though making them is easy enough, Fran's caramels are magic.

The other thing that is magical in my opinion, is anything covered in melted marshmallow.  I'm not picky..rice krispies, corn flakes, buttered popcorn...it's all good.  Then I got to thinking about what would happen if these two magical items were combined.  Only good can come from that right?

No recipe required--this one's as easy as the pictures make them look. 

The basic recipe is the rice krispies treat we all know, but I started off by browning the 4 tbsp butter first. Browned butter is just good eats. 

Add one 10oz bag of mini marshmallows, 2/3 cup of caramel and 1/4 tsp salt and stir to melt marshmallows. I used a homemade one from a previous recipe but any good caramel will work.  (Does that "good caramel" make me sound like the Barefoot Contessa? I do get her point about using "good" stuff.) 

Once marshmallows are melted, remove from heat.

Stir in 7 cups of rice krispies and mix well.

Press into buttered 9x13 and let cool while you prepare the chocolate topping. 

In a bowl add one 12oz bag semisweet chocolate and one tsp shortening. Melt in microwave in 20-30 second intervals, stirring well each time until all chocolate chips are fulling melted. 

Pour over rice krispies.  Sprinkle with 1/2 tsp salt.

Cut into bars and enjoy!

Cherry Pecan Biscotti

It's almost time to get fully into Christmas baking mode....woohoooo!  While I'm still stockpiling my baking ingredients, I decided to whip up a quick batch of biscotti to start off the baking season. 

Biscotti doesn't get enough attention if you ask me.  It seems that baking is all about more ingredients, over the top combinations and excess.  While I'm definitely on board with joining in on the super charged up cookies and baking, deep down I really love simplicity.  I'll bake the 24 layer Magic Bars or the cookie with the snickers crust, Reese middle layer and brownie cookie top because it's just plain fun, but place a tray of cookies near me and I'l almost always grab shortbread or cookie with the least amount of things happening. 

Like biscotti.  Crisp firm cookie that holds up well to extra hot and strong coffee?  Good stuff if you ask me.  My favorite biscotti recipe uses only egg whites which makes it a perfect pairing to make with my grandmas butter cookies--which only uses egg yolks.  

And of course, the great thing about biscotti is that you can take the core recipe, and swap in any dried fruit and/or nut you want.  I have a particular affinity for pecans and cherries.

The best thing about biscotti is how simple it is.  It is the perfect thing to kickoff the holiday baking. It's also the perfect thing to enjoy while starting off the holiday wrapping sessions.  I love packages under the tree so much, that I have to admit I'm a little disappointed when it comes time to unwrap them.  I'd leave them there for months if I could. 

Puppies like Christmas too. 

Cherry Pecan Biscotti

Ingredients
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
3 large egg whites
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp orange zest
3/4 cup toasted and chopped pecans
1 cup dried cherries

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer combine the flour, sugar, oats, baking powder, soda and salt. Mix with the paddle attachment until blended - about 30 seconds. 
3. In a separate bowl whisk the eggs, oil, zests, vanilla and almond extract. Add the egg mixture to the flour and oats and mix until it forms a dough. Add the cherries and pistachios and mix until incorporated.
4. Pour the dough out onto a lightly floured piece of wax paper. Shape dough into log 18 x 2 inches.  Lightly flatten top.
5. Bake until lightly browned about 30 minutes. Carefully slide log onto a rack to cool for about 15 minutes. 
6. Reduce the oven to 250 degrees. Transfer the biscotti to a cutting board. Cut each strip diagonally into 1/3" thick slices using a serrated knife. 
7.  Arrange slices, cut side down, on the baking sheet. 
8. Bake the biscotti about 40 minutes, flipping cookies half way through. 
9. Transfer to a rack and allow the cookies to cool completely.

Denver Bronco Whoopie Pies

I hate, hate, hate, white balance, especially on indoor photos using inside lighting.  I can never seem to master the color correction.  That's the number one reason natural lighting rocks if you ask me.  

With that off my chest....let's talk about orange cookies.  

Game day eats often means food coloring.  Ridiculous amounts of food coloring actually.  I ignore all my food coloring concerns when it comes to game day--football food really just needs to be in team colors right?

Chipmunk got into the baking spirit with us while we prepped for the Bronco's game.  Dad is working on his fake-out here.  I don't think he's ever baked in his entire life...but he did stand near the bakers long enough to help Chipmunk pick out blue and orange food coloring and find the football cookie cutters. 

I made a pretty basic vanilla whoopee pie.   The original plan was to make two batches--one orange, and one blue.  Naturally right?  I still know that blue and orange whoopie pies would have been perfect.

I lost steam after the orange batch.  But look how very Mile High, Orange Crush Magic it looks.

My brother asked to pipe some.  In my heart of hearts I knew better but I gave him the benefit of the doubt.  

It started off well enough. 

Starting to go awry.

And voila, brothers will always be brothers. 

Sisters on the other hand, are fantastic pipers.  My sister completed one of my 101s which is to make royal icing and frost up some cookies.  I hear it doesn't count for my goals if she made these cookies. 

Despite the impish sibling stuff, Chipmunk thinks the baking was quite successful.  

Denver Broncos Whoopie Pies

2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp Salt
1 stick (1/2 cup) softened butterButter, softened
1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar
1 egg

1 tsp Vanilla

1/2 cup buttermilk
about 1 tsp food gel food coloring

1. Preheat oven to 375°F.
2. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside. 
3. In medium bowl whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside. 
4. In large mixing bowl beat the butter on high speed until creamy. Add in sugars and beat until light and fluffy. 
5. Beat in the egg and mix well. 
6. Combine vanilla,  buttermilk  and food coloring together in a measuring cup. 
7. Beginning with flour mixture, add half flour mixture, half butter mixture to the sugar and egg mixture making sure to beat after each addition until just combined. Repeat with remaining flour and buttermilk.
8. Spoon batter into a piping bag and pipe whoopie pies onto your cookie sheets. 
9. You can also use a mini cookie scoop to create 1 inch mounds.  Allow at least an inch between cookies.
10. Bake 7 to 9 minutes for 1-inch cookies or 9 to 11 minutes for 2-inch cookies, or until tops are set. Cool completely before filling. 

Marshmallow Cream Cheese Filling

1 8 oz block of softened cream cheese

1/2 cup marshmallow fuff
2 1/3 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla

1. Beat cream cheese on high speed for 30 seconds. Add in marshmallow fluff and vanilla, and beat for another 30 seconds until combined.
2. Gradually beat in the powdered sugar until until well combined.
3. Use a piping bag and top bottom side of one cookie with about 1 tsp of filling.  Top with bottom of second cookie.  

Persimmon Turnovers

Have you ever had a persimmon?  Right around November, these bright orange beauties start popping up in the stores and I go a little over the top.  This season I've already managed to eat over 20lbs of these....by myself.  If they weren't fruit, I'd be ashamed at my lack of control.  

It's difficult to describe the flavor to someone who's never had one...it's definitely nothing like the tomato it resembles.  

Or clarification...the Fuyu persimmon resembles a tomato.  This kind of persimmon can be eaten at any stage.  I start eating them as soon as they first hit the market in bulk and at that point they are a little green still and not the slightest bit soft.  I think they are still pretty fabulous in this stage...apple like in crispness and you can eat the peel just like an apple.  As the season progresses though, these become bright orange and when they are ripe, they are squishy, yummy sweet soft.  The peel never softens so I stop eating those once the texture of the inside fruit becomes softer than the skin. 

The Hachiya persimmon however, is shaped a lot like a human heart and requires that it be completely ripe or you are in for one nasty, astringent, cottony textured surprise.  When ripe though, they are even sweeter than the Fuyu.

I usually just stick to the Fuyus because they are easy . And after eating my 20lbs this season, I thought I'd try baking with these little babies....finally.  I say I'm going to bake with them every year and then I can't seem to sacrifice even one to the baking sheet. 

I used super ripe sweet persimmons with a bit of cinnamon, salt, flour and brown sugar and cooked for about 5 minutes until flour thickened.  If I were baking a pie, or using pie crust, I probably wouldn't have pre-cooked the filling.

A few premade puff pastry sheets and these came together pretty quickly. 

I adore puff pastry.  Or any pastry really.  

The result wasn't too bad.  Il oved the cinnamony goodness and I pretty much like anything wrapped in puff pastry.  Truthfully though, I'm really just as happy snacking on a persimmon in its raw and perfect state.  If you like to mix it up though, this is quite reminiscent of an apple pie, with a bit of a flavor twist. 

Random dog picture.   

Because I can. 

Persimmon Turnovers

4 ripe Fuyu persimmons, peeled and diced
1/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 tbsp flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon grated orange peel
1 tablespoon butter

puff pastry sheet cut into squares

1 egg white with 1 tsp water, well beaten

Sugar in the raw for sprinkling (optional)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees
2. In a medium saucepan combine persimmons, brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, orange peel and butter.  Cook over medium heat for 5 minutes or until flour thickens.  Depending upon ripeness of persimmon, you may need to add 1 tbsp of water.
3. Spoon filling into center of puff pastry square.  Dip your finger in water and run around the edges of puff pastry dough. Fold puff pastry over diagonally and press all edges to seal
4. Brush top with egg mixture and sprinkle with sugar in the raw. 
5. Bake for 20-22 minutes or until golden brown.