My Culinary Blog

2 cups milk
1 3/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon vanilla
4 cups heavy cream
1 cup chocolate chip cookie dough
2 cups light cream

Scald milk until bubbles form around edge. Remove from heat. Add the sugar and salt. Stir until dissolved. Stir in light cream, vanilla, and the heavy cream. Cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. Freeze as directed by your ice cream machine’s instructions. Once ice cream has been through the entire ice cream machine process and is now a chilled soft ice cream, add the chocolate chip cookie dough. Just break up the dough as best you can with your hands and drop it in small clusters into the soft ice cream. Try to mix it around to ensure that the cookie dough is evenly distributed throughout the ice cream. Put the ice cream in the freezer for several hours
until hardened.

4 tablespoons espresso coffee
1 tablespoon Grappa
3 eggs, separated
1/2 cup sugar
8 ounces Marscapone cheese
24 Savoiardi biscuits
1 ounce sweet chocolate, grated

In a small bowl, combine the coffee and grappa; set aside In a medium bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff; set aside. In a large bowl, beat the egg yolks together with the sugar until thick and lemon−colored. Add the marscapone and blend. Gently fold the egg whites into
the cheese mixture. Place half of the biscuits in the bottom of a 10−inch square baking dish or larger serving plate. Sprinkle with half of the coffee mixture. Cover with half of the cheese mixture, and repeat process. Refrigerate tiramisu for 4 hours before serving with grated chocolate.

4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 3/4 cup sugar 2 teaspoons salt 1 tablespoon
double-acting baking powder 1 cup sunflower or vegetable oil 1 cup
full-bodied red wine

In a large bowl combine well 4 cups of the flour, the sugar, the salt, and the baking powder and make a well in the center. Pour in the oil and the wine, combine the mixture, incorporating the flour mixture gradually, until it forms a soft dough, and knead in enough of the remaining 1/2 cup flour to keep the dough from sticking. Divide the dough into 40 pieces, roll each piece into a 5-inch rope, and form the
ropes into rings, pinching the ends together firmly.

Bake the rings 2 inches apart on baking sheets the upper third of a preheated 350F oven for 20 minutes. Reduce the heat to 300F and bake the biscuits for 15 to 20 minutes m, or until they are golden. Let the bis on racks and store them in airtight containers. Makes 40 biscotti.

These biscotti are perfect for dipping in espresso and the sweet Italian wine Vin Santo. Since these cookies have no added shortening,
there is very little moisture.

4 cups all purpose flour 2 cups sugar 2 teaspoons baking powder 6 eggs
4 tablespoons Frangelico (Hazelnut liquor) 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 teaspoons almond extract 2 cups roasted hazelnuts, coarsley chopped

I have substituted 2 cups roasted chopped almonds for the  and the results have been   Also, I’ve been thinking about substituting 4 tablespoons of anise liquor for the Frangelico and tossing in a handful of anise seeds. Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. Mix dry ingredients (except the nuts) together in a bowl. In a seperate bowl mix the liquids. Mix the liquids into the dry ingredients until the dough is stiff. Do not overmix. Stir in the nuts.

Shape the dough into 2 flattish logs 3 inches wide and approximately 15 inches long. Place the logs on a buttered cookie sheet.
Bake for 20 minutes at 350. Remove from the oven and let cool to the touch. Using a bread knife, slice the log crosswise into 3/4 inch pieces.

Place the pieces back on the cookie sheet side down. Bake again for 15 minutes until the cookies are a golden brown.
Store in a tight tin. Cookies store well for weeks.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Basic Ingredients for any of the recipes

3/4 C whole and unblanched almonds 1/4 pound butter 3/4 C sugar 2 eggs
2 1/4 C flour 1 1/2 t baking powder 1/4 t salt

For Orange Biscotti

Zest from 1 orange, grated or minced 2 T orange liqueur, or 1 T orange
extract 1 1/2 t cinnamon

For Anise Biscotti

2 - 3 t crushed anise seeds

For Lemon Biscotti

Zest from 1 lemon, grated or minced 1 T lemon extract, or 1 T lemon juice

Procedures for all recipes

Toast the almonds until golden, then chop by hand into 1/4 inch chunks. *Reduce oven heat to *325* degrees* Cream the butter until
light, add the sugar and beat till smooth and creamy. Beat in eggs until the mixture is smooth. Add the (orange, anise, lemon) specific
ingredients. Sift in the flour, baking powder and salt, beat until just mixed. Stir in the almonds. On a floured board, divide the dough in half and roll each half into a long roll about 1 1/2 inches in diameter and about 10 inches long.

Set the rolls on a baking sheet at least 3 inches apart, bake in the top third of the oven (*325*) for about 25 minutes, or until they are
set and lightly browned on top. Cool the rolls for 5 minutes or so, then slice diagonally into 1/2 inch thick slices. Lay the slices flat
on the baking sheet and return to the oven for another 10 minutes.
Turn the slices over and bake for another 10 minutes. Cool on a rack, and keep in a tightly covered tin - they keep for months.

Ingredients:

1 lb blanched almonds or an almond/walnut combination
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp ground cardamom

Syrup:

1 1/2 cup sugar
1 cup water
1/2 cup rosewater (buy the type that comes in 10oz. bottles, not the
exorbitantly priced little bottles.)
1/3 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 lb filo, thawed

Instructions:

Finely grind the nuts. Add cardamom and sugar to the nuts. Cut the filo to fit a 12×15″ pan. Brush bottom of pan with butter and add 6 sheets of filo, brushing each with butter. Sprinkle and spread enoughof the nut mixture until you’ve added about 1/8″ to the pan. Continue
building layers with 3 sheets of filo(brushing each with butter) to every 1/8″ of nuts. Finish with 6 layers of filo. Brush top with butter. Cut through all but the bottom layer of filo in diamond shapes. Bake at 350 degrees F. for 25-30min. While it’s baking, boil the water and sugar for 15min. Remove from heat and add rosewater. When the baking is done, pour the syrup over the baklava.

You can also see: greek baklava, baklava 2, baklava

Ingredients:

1 lb butter
1 lb filo, thawed
1/4 cup sugar
1 Tblsp cinnamon
3 cups finely chopped pecans

Syrup:

2 cup sugar
1 cup water
1/4 cup honey
slice of lemon
strip of orange rind (optional)
stick of cinnamon

Instructions:

Combine nuts, sugar, and cinnamon and set aside. Melt butter and brush bottom of pan. Add 7-8 sheets of filo brushing each with butter.
Sprinkle with nut mixture and repeat process until all the nut mixture is used. Add remaining filo and brush top sheet with butter. Cut into
diamond shapes. Bake at 325 degrees F. for 45min. Lower heat to 300 degrees and bake 15min until golden. Boil all syrup ingredients, except honey to from a light syrup–about 20min. Remove from heat and add honey. Remove lemon, orange, and cinnamon. Let cool some and spoon over pastry.

Ingredients:

Fillo dough (pastry leaves).
1 1/4 cups butter/margarine
1/4 cup sugar
1-2 tsp cinnamon (ground)
4 cups almonds, slivered and chopped.
cloves (NOT ground)

For syrup:

4 cups sugar
3 cups water
1/2 cup honey
1 stick cinnamon
5-6 cloves (NOT ground)

Instructions:

Mix sugar, cinnamon, sugar, and almonds. Lay the fillo dough out on a table. Fillo dough will dry quickly, so you’ll need to work fast, so what spills out of the pan doesn’t dry (although it will anyway), and keep a damp towel on the rest of it (that you had laid on the table) so it doesn’t dry. On a medium-sized, buttered pan (you’ll need to melt the butter) lay one of the sheets of dough. Butter it, and lay another on top of that. Continue until you have 5-6 sheets of dough on the bottom of the pan. Then lay another sheet, and do NOT butter it. On that, put some of the almond mix, enough to cover it evenly, but not making a thick layer. On that, lay another sheet of dough, butter it, and then another, unbuttered. On that place some almond mix again. Repeat until all the mix is gone, or you have only 4-5 sheets of dough left. Fold in the dough that hangs from the side of the pan. Some of sthem  will be dry, so just cut them and discard them. Make sure to butter all of them (except, of course, if they have almonds on them). Lay down some more sheets of dough, buttering every one, and cutting off the edges, that hang from the sides of the pan. here, I’ve found it easier if you just lay the dough down, width of dough to length of pan. That is to say, the width of the dough is sometimes about teh same size as the length of the pan, and the length of the dough about twice teh widht of the pan, so lay the short side of the dough down along the length of the pan, so that some (about half) of it will hang out the end. Then butter it, and fold what hangs back in the pan, buttering that. This way you get it to look better, and stick better.

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Ingredients:

1 lb filo dough
1/2 lb sweet butter
2 cup ground pistachios

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 200 F. (You may want to use a higher setting. I found that it takes too long to bake and the center stays a little dought
tasting at 200 F. I use 275 F.) Melt butter, grease 11×16 jelly roll pan. Lay 1 sheet of filo on bottom of pan and brush with butter. (If it doesn’t fit exactly just fold edges over to make it fit.) Repeat until you have used approx. half the sheets. Spread nuts evenly over entire surface. Continue layering sheets of filo on top of nut layer. Pour any remaining butter over top. Cut into diagonal strips to form diamond shapes. Bake 2 1/2 hours. (Watch carefully after 2 hours to make sure it doesn’t get overdone. The top should be a light golden brown.)

Syrup:

3 cup sugar
2 cup apricot nectar
2 tblsp honey
1 tblsp lemon juice

Instructions:

Bring to boil and then simmer to a heavy syrup (approx. 20-25 min). When baklava is done drain any excess butter from pastry. (I have never done this but if you find it necessary, be very careful the whole thing doesn’t come out of the pan.) Brush surface lightly with butter. Pour warm syrup over pastry a little at a time until all is absorbed. Allow to cool several hours. Makes approx. 30 diamonds. (Baklava freezes very successfully.)

Note:

Don’t let the filo dough intimidate you. I doesn’t matter how messed up the lower layers get cause you can’t see them and by the time you get to the top you will be an expert. If possible use a goose feather baster rather than a basting brush which can tear the sheets if you are rough. But if they tear it’s no big deal, just patch. I always use pistachios (this is the Turkish version) rather that walnuts (the Greek version) because I don’t like walnuts. If I can’t afford pistachios I use almonds, or half-and-half.

You can also see: apple squares,  anzac biscuits

3 egg yolks
2 cups flour
pinch of salt
1/2 # margarine
2 tablespoons vinegar
6 graham crackers, crushed
12 apples, cored, peeled and cut into slices
1 cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon

Cut flour into margarine, pie crust style. Add egg yolks and vinegar and mix well. Divide dough in half and refrigerate several hours or overnight till firm.

Roll out one piece and dough and line a greased 8 x 13 pan with it (make sure the dough reaches the tops of the sides). Sprinkly the graham cracker crumbs over the bottom.

Mix apples with the cinnamon and sugar and fill the crust. Tope with the second piece of dough and seal the edges. Use a fork to poke holes randomly over the top to let steam escape. If desired you can brush the top with melted butter and a light dusting of sugar.
Bake at 400 degrees for one hour or until deep golden brown.