Parmesan Rosemary Gougères

Dear Boyfriend (and readers),

I haven't posted in a week. I am so sorry. I have deprived you, my dear boyfriend and self appointed editor, of 10 minutes of procrastination during work. How careless could I be to leave you with only thousands of internet videos, tablets with video games, and endless hours of facebook for your procrastination fix.

I realize I have broken a small piece of your heart. It's only a small irony that you can't even take out this anguish on my yummy freshly baked treats. My heart feels for you. It truly does. I can only think that you must be whimpering in your high rise office building, looking forlornly out your office window, towards Dupont and wondering how I could have abandoned your need to correct my spelling and punctuation so.

4 u them i gid dis bad bad bad bad bad sentance. meigh u procrasstenate in piece,, and no dat i wuv yous.

xoxo-

jana

ps. dear readers, if I know brandon, he will be harrumphing for a while and not fix that sentence for a long, long while. Since that will be the case, please assume all other typos were also on purpose. ;)

pps. Enjoy these little treats. I love a good cheese puff now and then. Don't you?

Parmesan Rosemary Gougères

1/2 cup water
1/2 cup skim milk
½ cup unsalted butter, cut into tablespoons
Large pinch of kosher salt
1 cup all-purpose flour
4 large eggs
1 cup Parmesan cheese, plus more for sprinkling
1 tsp. rosemary, plus more for sprinkling
Freshly ground pepper

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a small saucepan, bring the water, milk, butter, and salt to a boil. Add the flour, stir until the dough pulls away from the sides of the pan and dries out a bit. Roughly two minutes.

Turn the dough out into a stand mixer with the paddle attachment. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing thoroughly between each one. Add the Parmesan cheese, rosemary and pepper.

Transfer the dough to a pastry bag with a half inch tip (or a disposable bag with the tip cut off) and pipe tablespoonfuls onto the baking sheets at least two inches apart.

Sprinkle with cheese and additional rosemary. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until puffed and golden brown. Serve warm or room temperature.

The gougères can be frozen or refrigerated. To reheat, cook in an 350 degree oven for at least five minutes, or until piping hot and crisped.

Romano Basil Flower Crackers

Happy Monday! and for me, Happy Inspection Day! ......okay, so it's a scary kinda day and I'm just trying to make it feel celebratory. I'm nervous about a professional person walking around my soon-to-be house and telling me everything that's wrong with it. It's good to know, but still less than exciting. Since we're paying him to find flaws, I am doubtful he'll throw in compliments for free. The house is only 86 years old. Psht. What could be wrong with it? Um, everything. The house itself seems incredibly stable and compared to some of the rat traps I toured it's amazing....but the real question is: when in the last 86 years was the electricity, plumbing, roofing, etc, brought up to date? Yesterday I heard that depending on the updates the house might not be able to run a blowdryer. If it can run a fridge can't it run a blowdryer? All these answers and more are coming in just a few hours.

My house related stress eating put me into a sugar coma. I did so much baking this weekend that by the time Saturday night rolled around, I wanted nothing to do with sugar anymore. I loved my parmesan rosemary crackers from last week, so I decided to try again. This time using romano and basil flower buds. Romano is a significantly stronger cheese. Translation: don't add salt. Don't get me wrong, my sugar coma had me one step away from buying a salt-lick, kicking back in my snuggy, and watching a tv show marathon, but for the rest of you who aren't drowning their sorrows in chocolate truffles, you'll most likely be very happy with me for adapting the recipe from my original and incredibly bold attempt.

If you have a basil plantation like me with my 17 basil plants, you have more basil buds than you know what to do with (or how to keep up with pinching). If you're an urban cook with no basil, you're most likely cursing the skies right now. Sorry, but you can't have it all. Oh, snap! I live in DC and have 17 basil plants....yes, you can have it all. Google urban gardening and get on that! DC even has a seed swap and a seedling swap! I'm going next year. I traded seedlings this year and it was fun. Very excited....hmmmm, I feel like I was saying something relevant to the recipe before this.....oh right! You can add basil buds in place of basil in any recipe, and they taste the same as regular basil. The ones I used for these crackers had been vacuum packed and frozen for food storage. Nifty right?

Okay, time to get ready for house inspections! Wish me luck!

Romano Basil Flower Crackers 

1 1/4 cups finely grated Romano cheese or Parmesan Romano blend
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon basil buds
1/4 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into bits
1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons water

Combine all ingredients into a food processor. Pulse until it forms a coarse meal.

On a work surface, knead the dough until it is just combined. Form into a log about one inch in diameter. Chill the dough, wrapped in the wax paper, for 1 hour, or until it is firm enough to slice.

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Cut the dough into rather thin slices, arrange the slices 1 inch apart on wax paper. Cover with a second sheet of wax paper. Using a rolling pin, roll each piece until very thin.

Carefully move to parchment-lined baking sheets, and bake them in batches in the middle of the oven for 8 minutes, or until they are golden around the edges. Remove from heat and allow to cool long enough to be flipped over carefully.

Put the trays back in to the oven for another 5-7 minutes. Allow to cool slightly. Transfer the crackers carefully with a spatula to a rack, let them cool fully.

Rosemary Parmesan Crackers

I am now "under contract." Well, I will be in two days. One of the sellers is out of state, blah blah blah, mailed contracts, etc. So, this means that on Friday I was freaking out and sanitizing every inch of my body from houses that had no roofs, and Monday I am in the process of buying one. A much cuter one...with a roof....and proper flooring. Yep. Saw it Friday, made and offer Saturday, was accepted Sunday, and now Monday morning is hitting me and we're scheduling inspections ..............and yes, the type-A personality caused me to start packing last night. I already have a board on pinterest of color palettes. Yep. I move at break-neck speed and the second best thing is that my boss-man will be out of town for two weeks and that means I can go and do all the inspections without any hassle from him...mostly because he won't know. Also good, it will give me time to pack, clean, call utility companies, and the myriad of other things I need to do. For any of you who have bought a house, please feel free to comment some advice, because WOW am I going to need it.

Rosemary Parmesan Crackers

1 1/2 cups finely grated Parmesan
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1-2 teaspoons crushed rosemary
1/4 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into bits
1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons water
a dash of kosher salt

Combine all ingredients into a food processor. Pulse until it forms a coarse meal.

On a work surface, knead the dough until it is just combined. Form into a log about one inch in diameter. Chill the dough, wrapped in the wax paper, for 1 hour, or until it is firm enough to slice.

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Cut the dough into rather thin slices, arrange the slices 1 inch apart on wax paper. Cover with a second sheet of wax paper. Using a rolling pin, roll each piece until very thin.

Carefully move to parchment lined baking sheets, and bake them in batches in the middle of the oven for 6 minutes, or until they are golden around the edges. Remove from heat and allow to cool long enough to be flipped over carefully.

Put the trays back in to the oven for another 3-4 minutes. Allow to cool slightly. Transfer the crackers carefully with a spatula to a rack, let them cool fully, and sprinkle them with additional rosemary.

Brown Butter, Sage and Parmesan Quiche

Look at me, kicking my type A to the curb. Normally I post on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. HA! It's a Tuesday! I just skipped right over Monday. Yesterday I was thinking "right, I gotta post that recipe from brunch with the ladies on Saturday." Then my inner, newly acquired Jiminy-Sloth-Cricket said "WHY? It's not like posting a day later is a big difference! It's not life or death if you post tomorrow. Take a break. Slow down on a Monday. Kick back, and post tomorrow."

He he. I love my little Jiminy Sloth Cricket. I mean seriously, are any of you gravely disappointed in me for posting a day later? Okay, some of you will feign anger to be funny. To that I say....... Thank you! You are my people! I love sarcasm! To anyone who is really truly angry...I think you might need to consider anger management, as you clearly are displacing your anger of another issue. Best of luck!

That extra sloth day has made a huge difference. I am actually feeling pretty perky....whereas yesterday you would have gotten my incredibly BITTER rant about DC traffic Saturday night. Today I'm kinda like yeah, peace, love, unicorns and puppies. Big difference! (Although, you DCists will understand, my traffic woes were due to rainbows and parades. Holy road closures, Batman!)

So here's the recipe you could have gotten yesterday, but didn't, and I'm not sorry. :) The idea for this recipe came from my having herbs coming out my ears. I've given away roughly 30 basil and 30 sage plants in the course of the last week. Every. Single. Person. that I gave a sage plant to automatically talked about loving brown butter and sage gnocchi. So, I turned that idea into a quiche of brown butter, parmesan and sage for brunch.

Love it. Happy Tuesday!

Brown Butter, Sage and Parmesan Quiche

1 and 3/4 cups flour

 ½ cup unsalted butter

1 egg

1 teaspoon cream

1/2 teaspoon of kosher salt

Put all the dry ingredients into the bowl of a stand mixer.

Cut the butter in tiny cubes. Mix on medium speed using the whisk attachment until the dough looks like coarse sand grains.

Switch to using the paddle attachment and add the egg and cream. Mix until a dough forms.

Scoop out the dough into plastic wrap and let rest in the fridge for at least 1 hour before using.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Allow to warm slightly before rolling out. Roll out to about an eight of an inch thick and transfer to a 9 inch pie dish or smaller tart shells

Bake pie shell in preheated oven for 8 minutes.

Filling: 

8 tablespoons butter

1/3 cup thinly sliced fresh sage

1 1/2 teaspoons finely grated lemon peel
4 eggs, beaten

1 1/2 cups half and half

salt and pepper to taste

1 1/2 cups shredded parmesan

Cook butter in medium skillet over medium-high heat until butter begins to brown, about 4 minutes. Add sage and lemon peel. Season with salt and pepper. Set aside.

In a small bowl, whisk together eggs and milk.

Spread 1 cup shredded cheese in the bottom of pie crust. Cover with egg mixture. Pour brown butter and sage across the top of the egg mixtures. Sprinkle top with remaining 1/2 cup shredded cheese.

Bake in preheated oven for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees, and bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until filling is puffed and golden brown. Serve warm.

Rosemary Parmesan Crostini

The New York Times may have called this recipe a biscotti, but a biscotti it is not. Antonio Mattei would not approve. I'm re-branding this as a good crostini base instead. 

I didn't intend for this post to be so much of a critique of a recipe, but it is what it is. Happens to every baker. Have you ever been thoroughly confused by a recipe? A biscotti with no sugar? Calls for an equal amount of egg whites and yolks? Walnuts instead of a more traditional pine nut, despite the Parmesan and rosemary? I accept that American biscotti is incredibly different than Antonio Mattei makes it (who I think of as the godfather of biscotti), and I do love a recipe renaissance, with new and inventive twists, BUT, I also have an issue with misnomered food. With this recipe the NYT strayed a bit too far and wound up with a an entirely different product. Biscuit, yes, but biscotti no.

That said, it's like most take out Chinese food. It's good food, just not good Chinese food. This recipe makes for a good biscuit, just not a good biscotti. I do however love it as a crostini base. So far I've been using it to go with a cream cheese and artichoke spread. (Tons of flavor!) It's also been a really great dipping bread for lemon flavored olive oil.

With all this said, I am now about to set out to make a more traditional rosemary-parmesan biscotti. The idea is just too good to let go.

Enjoy!

Rosemary-Parmesan Crostini

As adapted from the New York Times

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus additional for kneading

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

3 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary

1/2 cup toasted pine nuts

5 eggs

1/2 cup water

Olive oil spray

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, salt, Parmesan, pepper, rosemary and pine nuts. Whisk together 4 of the eggs and the water. Make a well in the dry ingredients and pour in the egg mixture. Stir to combine.

Lightly flour your hands and a work surface; turn out the dough and knead until smooth. Divide the dough in half and shape each piece into a 2 1/2-inch-thick log. Spray a baking sheet with the olive oil and place the dough logs on it. Whisk the remaining egg and brush it over the dough. Bake for 35 minutes.

Let cool for a few minutes and then cut the biscotti on the diagonal into 1/4-inch-thick slices. Place on the baking sheet cut side down, using 2 pans if necessary. Reduce the oven temperature to 325 degrees and bake until browned, about 20 minutes. Let cool completely.

Parmesan Thyme Shortbread

After all the sweets at Christmas some salty shortbread is a great way to ease the sugar rush. The thyme accentuates the flavor of the Parmesan and makes for a bright cookie that would easily pair with a sparkling wine (or Sparkling grape juice!) for New Years. 

I promised you when I went to the  Metropolitan Cooking & Entertainment Show that I was going to try my hand at making the Parmesan thyme, cheddar (and rosemary) and white chocolate salted oatmeal cookies I tried from Cookie Zen.....and I came through! I've already made the sharp cheddar Scottish shortbread and the  white chocolate salted oatmeal cookies so it was time to round out the batch! The Scottish shortbread should go well with red wines, and the oatmeal would be similar to these lovely little Parmesan ditties and go well with the sparkling wines (and juices). Wondering about all the (things in parentheses?). I don't drink. I'm dry tipsy. The alcohol in cough syrup is enough to make me dance on a table! Okay, so that's an exaggeration, but I trust these wine suggestions from Cookie Zen. 

I have recipes for plenty of the cookie pairings they recommend, so for New Years why not whip up batches of these cookies to pair with the wine you'll be drinking at your parties? Fun and inventive, I'm sure your guests will enjoy it. And the kids can join in too with their sparkling juices (like me)! 

Cherry Tea Cakes Pairing Guide: 

Sparkling Wine/Sparkling White Grape or Peach: Parmesan Thyme Shortbread (recipe below), white chocolate salted oatmeal cookies and lemon basil shortbread

White Wine/ Sparkling White Grape or Pear:  gingersnaps, lemon coconut sables, and macarons

Red Wine/Sparkling Red Grape:  shortbread, chocolate hazelnut biscotti, and sharp cheddar shortbread

It's a really fun idea, for New Years or book club parties! I hope you enjoy it and these cookies! 

Parmesan Thyme Shortbread

1/2 cup unsalted butter

1/2 tsp. kosher salt

1/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper

1 cup shredded Parmesan cheese 

1 cup flour

1 tsp. thyme 

Using electric mixer fitted with paddle attachment, beat together butter, salt, and black pepper at medium speed just until blended. Add Parmesan and flour and mix at low speed just until mixed thoroughly. Use your hands to gather the dough into a ball and then press into a disk, wrap in plastic wrap and chill for half an hour.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper.

On lightly floured surface, roll out dough to 1/2-inch-thick round. Sprinkle thyme over top and proceed to roll dough to 1/2 inch thick. Cut dough into one inch squares and place one and a half inches apart on the lined cookie sheets.

Bake until lightly golden and beginning to brown on edges, about 11 to 13 minutes. Cool on sheets.