A review of "Something Sweet"

Looking to give someone something sweet for Chanukah?  Try “Something Sweet” by Miriam Pascal, creator of overtimecook.com!  It’s a wonderful cookbook for those that are looking to bake...something sweet.  It’s perfect for the beginner as well as the more advanced baker.  The recipes are easy to follow too - Miriam put a lot of time into making sure that the recipes were easy to read and execute.  She also worked hard to eliminate some of the “unhealthier” ingredients like margarine and uses oil in her cookies instead.  

I spent a little time talking to Miriam about her journey into baking, transitioning from her “boring” (her words) old job to her interesting new baking and blogging/writing job.  She works really hard to accommodate her readers and you can see it in the quality of her recipes.

As a baker myself I find the “litmus test” of a good baker or cookbook is how their chocolate chip cookies turn out...the most basic recipe, but sometimes the hardest to execute.  We’re all on auest for the ultimate chocolate chip cookie recipe, right?  Given that Miriam’s chocolate chip cookie was made with oil, I was curious as to how it would compare to another fabulous chocolate chip cookie that always gets rave reviews (wink, wink).   I made the cookies and gave them to a panel of seriously discerning pastry snobs (my kids).  They gave the cookies two thumbs up.  They said that although the texture was different than the ones they were used to, they were still really good - just different.  High praise indeed.  Really.

I also wanted to review another non-traditional recipe in the book, so I made the  Caramel Popcorn.  It wasn’t too hard to make at all.  I can’t make it again though.  I want to.  I can’t .  If I do I’ll eat the whole recipe again and gain 100 pounds and want to make more, again..and again.  Can’t. Make. More. Caramel. Corn.  Sigh.

You can find “Something Sweet” on amazon.com.  to order click below:

No-Margarine Chocolate Chip Cookies

Pareve - Yield: About 4 dozen

1 cup oil

1 cup brown sugar

½ cup sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

2 tablespoons cornstarch

2 ½ cups flour

1 ½ cups good-quality chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375℉.  Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper;  set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer on medium speed, beat together oil and sugars until smooth and creamy.

Add vanilla, baking soda, salt, eggs, and cornstarch, beating well to combine after each addition.  Reduce mixer speed to low.  Add flour; beat until just combined.  Add chocolate chips; stir until evenly distributed.

Using a medium cookie scoop (or heaping tablespoon), drop dough onto prepared baking sheets.  Bake for 8-9 minutes, until tops are set.  Do not overbake.

Easy Homemade Caramel Popcorn

Dairy or Pareve - Yield: 8-9 cups

POPCORN

3 tablespoons oil

½ cup yellow popcorn kernels

CARAMEL

5 tablespoons butter or trans-fat-free margarine

3 cups sugar

1 cup water

1 ½ tablespoons kosher salt

½ teaspoon baking soda

Prepare the popcorn:  Heat oil in a large pot over medium heat.  To make sure oil is hot enough, drop in one corn kernel.  When it pops, pour the rest of the kernels into the pot;  cover pot.

Keeping the cover on, shake the pot to help popcorn pop evenly and prevent burning.

When the popping sound slows, remove pot from heat.  Pour the popcorn into a large, greased, heatproof bowl.

Prepare the caramel:  In a medium pot, melt butter over medium-high heat.  Add sugar, water, and salt.  Stir until sugar has dissolved.

Cook mixture over medium-high heat, without stirring, for 15-20 minutes, until it begins to brown around the edges.

Meanwhile, measure baking soda, grease two heatproof spatulas or spoons, and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.  Coat parchment with nonstick cooking spray.  Time is of the essence in the next step so have everything handy and be ready to work quickly.

Once sugar mixture begins to brown around the edges, remove pot from heat; add baking soda.  Whisk for about 10 seconds.  Mixture will bubble vigorously and thicken.  Quickly pour sugar mixture over popcorn and toss with the two prepared spatulas until all popcorn is evenly coated.  

Pour popcorn onto prepared baking tray and set aside to cool.  Once cooled, break into chunks and enjoy!

The awesome Miriam Pascal!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

All wet the ingredients in the bowl....

 Add the dry ingredients

 

  Mix...then add the chocolate chips!

 Scoop them onto the parchment...

 Bake...look how pretty they came out!

 I want to eat it off the page!

 Oh!

 OH!

 

The Caramel Popcorn was so good this was all that was left.... 

Kosher Everyday is dedicated to the memory of my father

Dr. Theodore Saltzberg - Tuvia Ben Nachum Z”L

May his memory be for a blessing - Yihi zichro baruch.

Look for additional information about Edible Experience Kosher Everyday at www.koshereveryday.com,

JewishExponent.com, aish.com, Mishpacha Magazine’s Kosher Inspired Magazine,

The Chicago Tribune Syndication,

 or on Facebook at Edible Experience by Sharon Matten.

These recipes are for sole, personal use of visitors to Sharon Matten -Edible Experience Kosher Everyday. Edible Experience Kosher Everyday recipes are for your enjoyment but are not to be posted or reprinted without express permission from Sharon Matten. Thank you!!

Garden Fresh "Gourmet" Pizzas

Fresh, gooey & delicious!

At this point in the summer, our Optimistic Garden begins to yield some of its initial bounty. It’s fantastically exciting to pick our first little tomatoes, mint, chamomile, rhubarb, basil and peppers.  This year we bought some unique hot pepper plants: jalapeno, Kung Pao, Hot Banana, Chili and others.  I actually picked the super-hot peppers wearirng gloves!  My favorite pepper plants are the jalapeno purple peppers.  They are really beautiful, with little purple flowers and eggplant colored peppers. I wondered though, at the wisdom of planting so many varieties of hot peppers. I mean, what am I going to do with all the hot peppers we’re picking?? (Read: Sharon picked a pack of purple peppers). The rest of our “crops” don’t take a lot of creativity to figure out how to use.  The kids eat the little tomatoes as fast as I can pick them!   I use the mint and basil for pesto and other recipes. I have started drying out the mint and storing it in mason jars to use for mint tea (the chocolate mint is particularly awesome…think peppermint patty tea), and have started to dry out the chamomile flowers but haven’t yielded more than enough for a single, but superb, cup of fresh chamomile tea. 

Hungarian Black Jalapeno Peppers!
(They're really purple though!)

Chamomile tea anyone??

I have been very perplexed about those hot purple peppers.  I really wanted to find a recipe that would not only highlight the great hot and spicy flavor of the peppers, but would showcase the gorgeous color of the unusual peppers.  Luckily inspiration struck when we were in LA while walking down Pico Avenue.  One store had a menu taped to its window advertising a “cool” hot pizza using marinara sauce, jalapeno peppers, and cheese.  Lightbulb moment!!  What if I made my ubiquitous pizza crust using whole wheat pastry flour (to make it a little heartier), topped it with a light layer of our favorite marinara, finely diced the fabulous purple jalapeno peppers and sprinkled them on top of the sauce, topped that with some marinated fresh mozzarella cheese, then baked it on a pizza stone for a super crispy crust?  Crazy right?  Holy Cow – it was insanely, awesomely, delicious!!  Surprisingly, the purple peppers weren’t quite as hot as I thought they were going to be, so while the pizza was a little spicy it wasn’t “OMG get me a glass of water crazy spicy” and in fact had a nice little spicy after taste. 

While I was already making Gourmet Pizza, I figured…what other kind of pizza can I make using ingredients from our Optimistic Garden?  I had some Garden Fresh Pesto in the fridge and extra whole wheat pastry flour pizza dough.  I spread a thin layer of the super fresh tasting Garden Fresh Pesto on the crust, placed a handful of Optimistic Garden green and purple basil leaves on top of the pesto, then topped a single piece with Trader Joes goat cheese feta (I wasn’t sure how the feta would go over with the troops), and sprinkled the rest of the pizza with shredded pizza cheese.  All I can say is good things happen when I MacGyver in the kitchen (BH!).  The pizza was SO fresh tasting!  I liked the feta cheese piece, and the crowd at home inhaled the rest.  I was a little surprised that both pizzas went over so well.  I had also made some more traditional pizzas too (just in case), but the hands down favorites were the “gourmet” ones.  Who would have thunk it??

During the warm, sunny, Chicago summer days, we go outside to tend to our Optimistic Garden and inspect the newly flowering plants.  We make great optimistic plans for what we will do with the bountiful harvest that our garden yields.  More garden fresh pizza’s in the Matten family’s future perhaps?  B”H, it’s all good.

You can find additional articles and recipes relating to this blog via: Garden Fresh Pesto and Pizza to the Rescue.

Pizza Dough 

2 ½ - 3   cups       whole wheat pastry flour

1              cup         apple juice (or warm water)

1              envelope rapid rise yeast (2 ½ teaspoons)

1 ½         tbsp       olive oil

½             tsp          salt

Nonstick vegetable spray

Combine apple juice and yeast.  Allow mixture to sit for 3 minutes until yeast is dissolved and starting to bubble.

In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, olive oil and salt.  Stir in apple juice/yeast, and knead for 3-5 minutes until dough is smooth.  Remove dough from bowl and spray with non-stick vegetable spray. Return dough to bowl.  Cover with plastic wrap or towel and allow dough to sit for at least 5 minutes.  (Makes one 16” pizza crust or two thin 12” pizza crusts)

Garden Fresh Pesto

This pesto has a little kick to it from the crushed red pepper.  For a milder, less spicy pesto reduce or omit the crushed red pepper and black pepper.

4                                              ripe plum tomatoes, cubed

1              cup                         fresh parsley leaves

½             cup                         fresh mint leaves

½             cup                         fresh basil leaves

½             teaspoon             crushed red pepper

½             teaspoon             black peper

⅓             cup                         extra virgin olive oil

Combine all the ingredients, except the olive oil, in a food processor bowl.  Pulse until ingredients are coarsely ground.  Add the olive oil and pulse until thoroughly combined.  Transfer to container with a lid and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes for flavors to blend. 

Spicy Jalapeno Pizza with Fresh Marinated Mozzarella

(Makes one 12” pizza)

½ recipe Pizza Dough

¼ cup marinara sauce

1 medium jalapeno pepper finely diced

8 ounces fresh marinated mozzarella cheese, sliced

Preheat oven to 375° F Convection or 400° F Bake.

On a lightly floured surface, roll pizza dough to a 12” round.  If not using a pizza stone, lightly grease a 12” pizza pan with non-stick vegetable spray.

Place dough on a round pizza stone or prepared pan.  Evenly spread marinara sauce over the dough.  Sprinkle the dough with the diced jalapeno pepper.  Top with the fresh marinated mozzarella cheese.  Bake for 20 minutes until the cheese is completely melted and bubbling.  Remove from oven and allow to rest for 5 minutes before slicing.

Pesto Pizza with Fresh Basil

(Makes one 12” pizza)

½ recipe Pizza Dough

¾ cup Garden Fresh Pesto

¼ cup fresh basil leaves

8 ounces shredded pizza or part skim mozzarella cheese (or feta cheese)

On a lightly floured surface, roll pizza dough to a 12” round.  If not using a pizza stone, lightly grease a 12” pizza pan with non-stick vegetable spray.

Place dough on a round pizza stone or prepared pan.  Evenly spread the pesto over the dough.  Sprinkle the dough with the fresh basil leaves.  Top with the shredded cheese.  Bake for 20 minutes until the cheese is completely melted and bubbling.  Remove from oven and allow to rest for 5 minutes before slicing.

 Spicy Jalapeno Pizza with Fresh Marinated Mozzarella

Start with Dear Husbands favorite cheese...

Dice a spicy jalapeno pepper...I seeded

this one so it wouldn't be too hot!

(Purple ones are prettier!!)

 Spread the sauce...

 Top with the peppers...

 Silly me...thought I could use only 1/2 a package

of cheese...wait and see what happens...

 Who was I kidding??

Add the rest of the package for 

heaven's sake!!

 Much better!!

AMAZING!!!

That piece is MINE!!!

Pesto Pizza with Fresh Basil

Start with super fresh ingredients...

It doesn't get fresher than this!

After making the pesto, spread

it on the pizza.  Not too much

or it will be too liquidy.

Top with fresh basil.  Yes...

we're growing purple basil too!! 

 Top with your favorite cheese...

here's the feta (it was really good!)

 Or...shredded cheese...

Bake until bubbly... 

 BEST PIZZA EVER!!

And now...

a little optimism from our garden...

So...

Here's what I do with my time....

(when I'm not writing the fabulous Kosher Everyday!)

Kosher Everyday is dedicated to the memory of my father

Dr. Theodore Saltzberg - Tuvia Ben Nachum Z”L

May his memory be for a blessing - Yihi zichro baruch.

Look for additional information about Edible Experience Kosher Everyday at www.koshereveryday.com,

aish.com, Mishpacha Magazine’s Kosher Inspired Magazine,

The Chicago Tribune Syndication,

 or on Facebook at Edible Experience by Sharon Matten.

These recipes are for sole, personal use of visitors to Sharon Matten -Edible Experience Kosher Everyday. Edible Experience Kosher Everyday recipes are for your enjoyment but are not to be posted or reprinted without express permission from Sharon Matten. Thank you!!

"Camp" Corn Bread Muffins

Hot and delicious right out of the
oven...just like at camp!! 

This Sunday we are going up to Wisconsin to visit my daughter at camp for visitors’ day – the same camp that I went to for 10 summers!  So, when my daughter decided that she wanted to go to the same sleep away camp I went to, I was pretty happy.  We actually went to visit the camp for a day last summer (my first time back in a long time) and it was literally a trip down memory lane.  Some of the landmarks have significantly changed (Leech Lake doesn’t have leeches anymore for one), but as much as things change they stay the same.  The Melechet Yad (art room), Beit Kneset (shul), and Marp (infirmary) are all in the same spots they were in when I was there for so many summers.  The Chadar Ochel (lunchroom) is exactly the same, and being there brought back a lot of memories of “bug juice”, some of the worst meals I ever had, and some of the best! My love of grilling and barbecue dates all the way back to my days as a camper and camp counselor.  I was one of the few that actually paid attention when they taught us how to build a “cooking fire”, and by the time I was a counselor my group was one of the lucky ones that had properly cooked meals on overnighters!  One of my favorite camp foods was Corn Bread.  The camp version was a little sweeter than most of the recipes that you find today.  It was served to us warm and in large squares with sticks of butter on the table to spread quickly before it melted.  In honor of going back to camp this Sunday I am sharing with you my recipe for “CAMP” CORN BREAD MUFFINS.  A little sweeter like the ones I remember from camp, you can serve them warm with large pats of sweet butter just like my old camp days. 

We really miss our daughter and can’t wait to see her (and are looking forward to her coming home in a few weeks too)!  I wonder if they’ll serve Corn Bread on visitors’ day…

“CAMP” CORN BREAD MUFFINS

Makes 24 muffins

2          cups                 ground corn meal

2          cups                 all purpose flour

½         cup                   sugar

8          teaspoons         baking powder

1          teaspoon          salt

2          cups                 soy milk

2          large                 eggs

½         cup                   canola oil

Preheat oven to 375°F.  Place 24 muffin tins with paper baking cups.  Set aside

In a large bowl combine the dry ingredients.  Add the soy milk, eggs, and canola oil and stir until combined.  Using a large scoop evenly distribute the batter in the 24 cups.  Place in oven and bake for 18 minutes until lightly browned.  These are best served warm with butter.

Note: Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator or freezer.  Warm for 15 seconds in the microwave for fresh out of the oven tasting muffins.

 So simple to make...

combine dry ingredients in

a large bowl...

 add the wet ingredients...

then mix until combined.

 Evenly distribute in the pan...

 Take out of the oven when browned!

 Hot and yummy!!

Don't forget to eat them warm

with sweet butter....YUM!!!!

  

Look for additional information about Edible Experience Kosher Everyday at www.koshereveryday.com, aish.com,

 or on Facebook at Edible Experience by Sharon Matten.

These recipes are for sole, personal use of visitors to Sharon Matten -Edible Experience Kosher Everyday. Edible Experience Kosher Everyday recipes are for your enjoyment but are not to be posted or reprinted without express permission from Sharon Matten. Thank you!!