notes from my food diary

This is one of my top comfort breakfast dishes to make at anytime.  I wasn’t familiar with cheese blintzes before I moved to the US, but once I made it, I got hooked.  True enough, anything that is as good as this needs preparation.  I usually make this dish in several steps in a several days, first the sauce, then the crepes, last is the assembling part.  Traditionally cheese blintzes are eaten with cherry sauce, but this berry sauce is a good choice when you have frozen berries in abundance after summer harvest. 

Cheese Blintzes with Raspberry-Strawberry Sauce

24 Crepes (recipe follows)

2 cups Raspberry-Strawberry Sauce (recipe follows)

1 cup farmer or pot cheese

1 cup whole-milk ricotta cheese

1 cup cream cheese, softened

1/4 cup sugar

3 large eggs

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon salt

4 tablespoons butter, or as needed

Make the crepes and the berry sauce.  These can be made ahead.  Let the crepes return to room temperature whille you make the filling if they have been refrigerated or frozen.  Warm the sauce.

Combine the cheeses and sugar and beat with a wooden spoon until thoroughly blended.  Add the eggs, vanilla, and salt and stir until smooth.

To assemble the blintzes spoon 2-3 tablespoons filling on the lower third of each blintz.  Fold the bottom of the blintz over the fillng then fold each of the remaining sides over to make a little package.  Repeat with the remaining blintzes.

Melt 1 tablespoon butter in a skiilet over medium-low heat.  Arrange 6 blintzes at a time seam side down in the skillet and saute until faintly brown and crisp, about 2 minutes.  Turn the blintzes and brown on the second side, another 2 minutes.  Repeat with remaining blintzes, adding another tablespoon of butter for each batch, and serve with the warm raspberry-strawberry sauce.

Basic Crepes

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cups milk

2 large eggs

1 tablespoon butter, melted

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Melted butter or vegetable oil to coat pan, as needed

Sift the flour, sugar, and salt together into a mixing bowl.  Make a well in the center of the flour mixture.

In a separate bowl, blend the milk, eggs, butter, and vanilla.  Add the milk mixture to the flour mixture and stir by hand just until the batter is smooth.  Let the batter rest in the refrigerator at least 1 and up to 12 hours before preparing the crepes.  Strain the batter is necessary to remove lumps before preparing the crepes.

Heat a crepe pan or small skillet over medium-high heat.  Brush with melted butter.  Pour about 1/4 cup batter into the crepe pan, swirling and tilting the pan to coat the bottom with batter.  Cook until the first side is set and has a little color, about 2 minutes.  Adjust the temperature under the pan if necessary.  Use a thin metal or heatproof rubber spatula to lift the crepe and turn it over.  Cook on the other side until the crepe is cooked through, 1 minute more.

Stack the crepes to fill now, or refrigerate or freeze them and assemble later.

Raspberry-Strawberry Sauce

Note:  you could vary the sauce by using one type of berry or even more than two types of berries.

Makes 2 cups

2 cups fresh or frozen raspberries, divided use

2 cups fresh or frozen strawberries, divided use

3/4-1 cup sugar, or to taste

1-2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice, or to taste

Combine 1 1/2 cup of the raspberries, 1 1/2 cups of the strawberries, 3/4 cup of the sugar, and 1 tablespoons of the lemon juice in a saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium heat.

Simmer until the sugar has dissloved, about 10 minutes.  Taste the mixture and, if necessary, add more sugar.  Continue to heat until any additional sugar is dissolved.

Puree the sauce with a blender or push it through a wire-mesh sieve.  Return the sauce to a simmer and adjust the flavor by adding additional lemon juice if necessary.  Add the remaining 1/2 cup raspberries and 1/2 cup strawberries and simmer until the sauce is very hot.

The sauce can be served hot or cold; it will thicken slightly when stored in the refrigerator, and keeps for up to 10 days.

Source:  adapted from The Culinary Institute of America:  Breakfast and Brunches

The weather is a bit unusual this time of year because the snow has come early to Portland area this December.  Last Sunday it dumped about 3 inches of snow and as a result schools were cancelled and I ended up not going to work either.  As some of you might wonder why with such small amount of snow all activities got cancelled?  Portland area, west of Willamette river, has many different elevations.  Snow makes it too treacherous to drive on hills and school buses couldn’t go up the hills to pick up children.  It’s the third day of no school, I’m guessing it will be closed for the rest of the week as well because the weather prediction is for more snow today and tomorrow.  Christmas break may become a three-week break instead of a two-week break as usual.  I’m not sure if the children have to make it up at the end of the year, I certainly hope so because I have to make up for my work days next year.

Because I have too much time on my hand, I’m going to write a post about my blueberry turnovers that I made this past week.  The idea was to use up all my frozen blueberries and I found a perfect recipe from the book, The Great Scandinavian Baking Book (first edition).  It may seems like an old repertoire from me, what to do with leftovers and finding a recipe from library’s books.  Do you know that people are starting to borrow more from the library since the economic downturn?  I’m glad I don’t find it out just now, I’ve been using the library since I’ve lived in the US.  If it’s not a coveted cook/baking book, I’d never buy anymore books

Back to the turnovers.  The recipe calls for fresh, preferably wild, blueberies.  Since I used frozen blueberries, I wanted to make sure my turnovers didn’t get drench with blueberries juice while being baked.  I discovered that draining the blueberries in the refrigerator for a few days would solve the problem.  My turnovers didn’t get soggy at all thanks to that.  The only problem that I encountered was that rolling the dough to 20×20 inches was very hard to do.  My pastry mat wasn’t that big and since the dough was so big, it’s a little hassle to throw some flour underneath the dough.  You have to constantly roll, lift, throw some flour, turn repetitively until you get the size required.  I couldn’t get that big, so I gave up by the time my dough reached 18×18 inches.  The thinner you roll the dough the better the crust would be, but I found out that mine was pretty good!  They are the kind of pastry that are not too sweet for either breakfast or afternoon break.

So here is the recipe, I hope you will be tempted to try them:

Blueberry Turnovers (Bláberjahorn)

Makes about 25 turnovers

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

3 tablespoons sugar

1 cup chilled butter

1 egg, beaten

2 teaspoons lemon juice

2 to 4 tablespoons ice water

Filling:

1 1/2 cup fresh blueberries, or frozen blueberries, thawed and drained completely

1 tablespoon sugar

1 tablespoons cornstarch

Glaze and topping:

1 beaten egg

Slivered almonds

Pearl sugar or coarsely crushed sugar cubes

In a mixing bowl or in the workbowl of the food processor with the steel blade in place, combine the flour and sugar.  Cut the butter into 1/2-inch dice and add to the flour.  Cut butter into flour using a pastry blender or process using on/off pulses until butter is the size of peas.

In a small bowl, blend the egg, lemon juice, and 2 tablespoons water.  Add to the flour mixture and mix just until the flour is moistened and pastry holds together.  Press into a ball.  Chill if necessary.

Turn dough out onto lightly floured board and roll out to make a large square about 20×20 inches.  Using a ruler as guide, cut with pastry wheel into 4-inch squares.  You will have 25 squares.

Preheat oven to 400 degree F.

Mix the blueberries, sugar, and cornstarch.  Divide the blueberries among the squares.  Fold over berries to make triangles, enclosing the berries.  Place on ungreased baking sheet.  Brush with beaten egg and sprinkle with slivered almonds and sugar.  Bake 13 to 15 minutes until golden.

Source:  adapted from The Great Scandinavian Baking Book by Beatrice Ojakangas

There is a simple mistake and there is a complicated one.  I made a simple mistake but the result was bad and blah!  While making my flax-sesame seeds bread last week, I’ve forgotten to put salt in the process.  For some people, maybe by not putting salt in food is actually beneficial, but in bread making I don’t think it’s a good idea.  It affects the taste and I think, it speeds up the process of mold.  So while I was dissapointed, I tried to think a way to make the bread edible.  The problem was solved by using pieces of bread for bread pudding!  I have tried the recipe before and I liked it because it’s different from a regular bread pudding since coconut milk was used here.  You could vary the dried fruits used in here, which in my case I used currants.  You could even add chocolate chips or nuts if you like.  But the raw sugar on top is definitely a must.  It adds crunch to the otherwise soft bread pudding’s texture.   

In another note, remember my tiramisu triffle pictures?  That post didn’t have a recipe because I just made up the triffle from leftover tiramisu components.  Apparently the pictures captured the attention of certain person (thank you Michela!) from a company who manages San Pellegrino/Acqua Panna website.  San Pellegrino is a brand of sparkling water from Italy and Acqua Panna is a brand of still mineral water from the same company.  The website profiles the water, travel, cultural events and also foods, which in this case, desserts from various Italian regions.  This features change every month or so, I’m not fairly certain, but my pictures are shown with other tiramisu pictures in the Acqua Panna website this month (look for photos #15 & 21).  I encourage you to see it because all tiramisu pictures are gorgeous and are all taken from Flickr. 

Coconut Bread Pudding

Serves 4

1 teaspoon softened butter

2 eggs

1/3 cup sugar

3/4 cup thick coconut milk

2/3 cup milk

A few drops vanilla extract

6 slices bread, cut into squares

1/3 cup currants

Turbinado/raw sugar for sprinkling

Lightly brush the base and sides of an 8-inch baking dish with softened butter; set aside.  Preheat oven to 350 degree F.

Beat the eggs and sugar together in a medium bowl and pour in the coconut and milk.  Flavor with a few drops of vanilla extract.  Add the bread and currants to this mixture and set aside for 20-30 minutes, stirring the bread occasionally to ensure even soaking.

Place mixture into the buttered container and spread out evenly.  Sprinkle a tablespoon of demerara sugar on the top and bake for 30-40 minutes until golden brown.  Cool before cutting into squares for serving.

Source:  adapted from Classic Asian Cakes and Desserts by Periplus

I don’t remember when I started but I’m not a big breakfast eater anymore. Usually my breakfast consists of milk, juice and banana during the weekdays, days which I don’t want to think “big” in the morning. Weekends are different. These are the days I could plan ahead, a day that I could be a little creative with my or actually, my family’s breakfast. All my breakfast choices that I’ve written in this blog are mostly comfort foods, foods such as pancakes, waffles, sticky buns, or quick breads. I love those and fortunately my family members feel the same too.

This next recipe that I’m going to share is something that I’ve never thought would be good for breakfast item. But actually it fitted in the theme quite nicely. The recipe is called finger pies, which uses pie crust as the skin that would be cut into small rounds and filled with preserves and chocolate chips. The end result looked similarly like empanadas. Later it would be rolled in confectioners’ sugar, just like cookies! I like the size of the pies especially, that way I could nibble on it while reading my comics in Sunday morning.

The recipe suggested that this type of pie is something that you could do with your kids. The size of the pie and simple ingredients really help. I enlisted my son to help me scatter the chocolate chips after I dropped the preserves in the pastry. It was really fun activity! Because this was a success, I’m sending this for Waiter There Is Something In My… that’s hosted by Johanna from The Passionate Cook. The theme for April is breakfast favorite. It has become a new favorite in my family, so hopefully it’ll be one for you too.

Now that I knew how to make this in a snap, I want to try it with different preserves. I was thinking of making pineapple preserves just like the one I usually use to make Pineapple cookies (Nanas tart) and fill the pie with that. This pie needs a preserves that’s thick and substantial. Time to go get the pineapples! Yay…

Little Preserves and Chocolate Finger Pies

Tender Cream Cheese Pastry
Yields 1 single crust, 9-inch standard pie

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
4 ounces 1/3-less fat cream cheese, softened
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon confectioners’ sugar, sifted
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

Combine the butter, cream cheese, and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the flat beater attachment. Blend for 30 to 45 seconds on medium-low speed. Stop once or twice, if necessary, to scrape the build-up from the beater. Stopping the machine before each addition, first add the confectioners’ sugar and 1/2 cup of the flour. With the mixer on low, blend until the flour is incorporated. Add another 1/2 cup of the flour and blend. Add the remaining flour. When all of the flour has been added and the dough starts to ball up around the beater, stop the machine. Remove the bowl and scarpe the dough onto a lightly floured work surface.

Gently knead 2 or 3 times. Divide the dough into 2 pieces of the same size. Knead each piece into a ball, then flatten it into a disk about 3/4 inch thick. Wrap the disk in plastic and refrigerated for at least an hour, preferable longer, until firm enough to roll but not too solid.

Filling

Raspberry, strawberry, or other fruit preserves
Handful of semisweet chocolate chips

Garnish

Confectioners’ sugar

On a lightly floured work area, roll the dough slightly less than 1/8 inch thick with a floured rolling pin. Using a 3 1/2-inch round cutter, cut the pastry into circles. Remove the scraps, leaving the rounds in place.

Spoon about 2 teaspoons of the preserves into the center of each circle. Scatter a few chocolate chips around the preserves. Moisten the entire edge of the pastry with a wet fingertip or pastry brush, then fold the circle in half and press the edge together to seal. Roll the edge up slightly, forming a sort of rope edge. As you work, transfer each pie to the prepared baking sheet, leaving a little room between them. Refrigerate for 10 minutes. Preheat the oven to 375 ^oF.

Using a paring knife, poke 1 or 2 small steam vents in the top of each pie. Bake until golden brown, about 25 minutes.

Transfer the hot pies to a wire rack. As soon as they’re cool enough to handle, put some confectioners’ sugar in a small bowl. Roll each pie in the confectioners’ sugar, coating it heavily, and return it to the rack. Serve warm or let cool to room temperature before serving.

Source: adapted from Pie by Ken Haedrich

This bread has been a staple in my household for a few weeks simply because we are crazy about its texture and the flavor of sesame seeds in it. I adapted the recipe a little bit by using a white whole wheat flour instead of the regular whole wheat flour. The result is exactly what I want in a wheat bread, soft with golden crust. Some time I will leave the crust unadorned, some other time I brush it with milk and sprinkle it with sesame seeds. Using toasted sesame seeds seem to heighten the flavor of it, though it’s fine to use untoasted seeds. The recipe came from my beloved book, The Bread Lover’s Bread Machine Cookbook by Beth Hensperger. But even though the recipe is for a bread machine, I actually use the machine only to knead the dough and do the rest in the oven. I’m really partial to use milk and/or a combination of milk and water to achieve the best texture, and this bread is one of the best recipes in the book. Using only oil and/or water quite often resulted in a dryer bread and that’s not what my family like. The recipe suggested to eat the bread the day it’s made and I’ve proven that it actually lasted longer than one day! Even after three or four days in my bread box, it’s still unbelievably soft.

Old-Fashioned Sesame-Wheat Bread
For 1 1/2-pound loaf

3/4 cup water
3/8 cup milk
2 tablespoons butter, cut into pieces

2 1/4 cups bread flour
3/8 cups white whole wheat flour
2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
1 to 2 tablespoons sesame seeds
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon gluten
1 1/2 teaspoons salt

2 teaspoons SAF yeast or 2 1/2 teaspoons bread machine yeast

Place all the ingredients in the pan according to the order in the manufacturer’s instructions. Set to Dough cycle; press Start. While the dough is rising, grease a 9×5 x 2-inch loaf pan.

When the Dough cycle ends, immediately remove the dough from the pan. Using a rolling pin, and on a work surface lightly dusted with flour to prevent sticking, roll out the dough into a rectangular. Roll the dough by the short side tightly to form a loaf. Place it in the pan, cover and let it rise until doubled in bulk for about 1 hour (preferably in a warm temperature setting).

About 15 minutes before baking, preheat the oven to 350°F. If you desired, brush the crust with egg wash or milk and scatter some sesame seeds on top. Bake the bread for about 25 minutes or until the crust is golden brown.

Remove the bread from the loaf and place it on a rack. Let cool to room temperature before slicing.

Source: adapted from The Bread Lover’s Bread Machine Cookbook by Beth Hensperger

Finger Sticks French Toast

And to add some variety of our daily breakfast, I made finger stick French toast using this bread. This time instead of using whole eggs I used leftover egg whites. Now, the toast wasn’t exactly as fluffy as it would had been dipped in whole eggs mixture, but it was pretty good and quite healthy. The recipe for egg white French toast could be found on the Internet. Four egg whites combine with milk, vanilla extract and ground cinnamon would be enough to soak about 4-5 slices of bread. You could leave the bread whole, make them to sticks, hearts or whatever shape you like. Serve with maple syrup and maybe some fresh fruits, you’ll have a wholesome breakfast.