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Biscuit Quest Attempt #2… Bon Appetit

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I’m not gonna lie, these biscuits turned out pretty well. Flaky, buttery, thick enough to serve with a slab of canadian bacon or egg…. Bon Appetit‘s Pies and Thighs biscuits didn’t disappoint me as I continued the search for the world’s perfect biscuit. (Ok, obviously this is NOT an objective category, but I have a flavor/texture/look combination that I’m going for here, and I won’t stop until I find it.See other attempts with Flying Biscuits here and Sister Shubert ones here.) The people in my family aren’t really buttermilk biscuit people, but it’s definitely a southern food group all on it’s own, PLUS the photo in BA just looked SO GOOD and pretty close to my vision of perfection so I needed to try it.

What I learned: In terms of what I’m personally shooting for, these biscuits were a little too buttery, but the texture was divine. When I try this recipe again, I could probably use shortening and solve the buttery issue pretty quickly… FYI, Bon Appetit DID NOT LIE when they said they’d found the secret to tender, fluffy biscuits… and the secret is this: don’t over-mix. Want more that just a secret? Keep reading.

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Sweet Potato Gnocchi with Rosemary Browned Butter

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My friend Zach recently introduced me to the delicious world of homemade gnocchi… he brought over all of the ingredients to make beet gnocchi and regular potato gnocchi and we celebrated the end of his first year of teaching. (he’s a rock star) Although I loved what we made, the whole time we were cooking (which was a long time since TWO different kinds of gnocchi and a salad for 4 people means that I used nearly every pot in my house, the blender, several cutting boards, and more mixing bowls than you could imagine)  I just kept thinking, “well now, wouldn’t this be AMAZING made sweet potatoes?”  I mean, what isn’t made better by the south’s very own superfood?
 Thankfully, I didn’t have to invent the recipe since other cooks although thought this would be a great combo. I did, however, made a few changes and combine a few different recipes, given what I had on hand and what flavors I wanted.
Sweet Potato Gnocchi with Rosemary Brown Butter
Serves 4
What you Need:
For the Gnocchi
 2 pounds sweet potatoes
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 egg
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese (1/4 for dough, 1/4 for serving)
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus 1/3 cup for the work surface
For the brown butter
1/2 cup salted butter (1 stick)
2 fresh rosemary stalks
What to Do:
Some recipes I looked up tell you to bake the sweet potatoes, but I was a little bit under the gun since I was hosting two friends/coworkers/fave gals for a summertime dinner and only started cooking about 30 minutes before they were to arrive. Since I’d just tested out regular and beet gnocchi, I knew making this stuff was a pretty involved process, and that meant I needed to cut time in whatever way I could. Rather than bake or roast them, I boiled the potatoes instead, which didn’t really sacrifice flavor as far as I could tell. You could do either, depending on the time you’ve got! (in fact, I’d say if you’ve made gnocchi before, this recipe could take about 75 minutes..but if you’re new to this fun culinary experiment, then allot 90-95 minutes or so from beginning to end)
once I’d gotten the potatoes boiling, I put the flour, egg, and seasonings together in the mixing bowl. When the potatoes were ready, I cooled them in an ice bath, pureed them in a food processor, and mixed it all in with the flour mixture.

 

 

Once the potato and flour mixture have been fulyl incorporated, and the texture of the dough is smooth and not too wet or sticky, I dumped the dough out onto a floured surface, separated in into about 5 equal sized hunks, and rolled each into a long, thin cylinder about the width of a thumb.

Once that’s done, I boiled a pot of water. Then, I started to cut the dough into small rectangles (about 1″ by 1 1/4″).

To give the gnocchi the little characteristic ridges, use a fork to roll the little pieces of dough… mine honestly never turn out perfectly, but they still taste GREAT. Drop the dough into the boiling water and wait until it pops up to the top..about 1 minute (when it floats, it’s cooked all the way through…if it’s still on the bottom of the pot it may need a minute or so more).

 

 

To make the browned butter sauce, take the stick of butter in a sauce pan or skillet and cook over medium high heat, swirling it around the pan a little, and waiting until the bubbles/foam goes down a bit. the butter will start to turn brown, and at that point, drop in the whole rosemary pieces and let simmer for 1 or 2 minutes to infuse the butter with the rosemary flavor. Other recipes call for sage browned butter, or pecan browned butter, or balsamic browned butter… I figure you can’t go wrong with any of them. I chose rosemary because I have a HUGE rosemary plant outside my kitchen door, and I thought the two flavors would mix well together… they DEFINITELY do.

Once every thing is ready, serve the gnocchi with the Parmesan cheese, the browned butter, and a sprig of rosemary and enjoy!

 

Oatmeal Lace Cookies

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Oh y’all, what do you do when you need to take a gift and the hostess doesn’t like chocolate?

Boone’s mama makes the most amazing chocolate covered peanut butter balls (read: an amazing homemade version of a Reece’s cup) every Christmas and this year we had like a zillion extra. We were going to a friend’s house for dinner and I thought we should take them a few (I mean, we could definitely eat ALL of the leftovers, but we probably shouldn’t, right?) but then Boone reminded me that our hostess hates chocolate. Seriously, hates chocolate.

I knew I needed to make something non-chocolatey, festive, and pretty, but was tired from all the holiday cooking. Thankfully I was lucky enough to run across what seemed like an easy recipe my mom used to make for dinner parties and ladies’ luncheons a few days earlier in The Memphis Cookbook from the Memphis Junior League. This little cookie crisp is sweet, and dainty, with a browned butter or caramel flavor, plus it looks pretty fancy although the ingredient list is super easy. Perfect.

FYI, The ingredient list was simple, but it took a little more baking finesse than i’d imagined. in fact, I made 2.5 batches to get the ratio of cookie to cookie sheet right (they spread out A LOT and my first batch ended up as one huge cookie stuck to parchment paper) and get them to look much like lace, and since I was giving them to a friend, they had to look “just so”. Read on for the recipe and my hints!

Oatmeal Lace Cookies (or butter snowflakes)
Yields: approximately 15-20

What You Need:
1/2 C Flour
1/2 C granulated sugar
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 C rolled oats
2 Tablespoon heavy cream
1/2 C melted butter
2 Tablespoons light corn syrup
1 Tablespoon vanilla

What To Do:
Preheat the oven to 375, and get started by sifting the flour, the sugar, and the baking powder together into a medium bowl. Add in the butter, oats, cream, vanilla, and corn syrup (so far so good, right?)

Once it’s all mixed together, drop small spoonfuls onto a greased cookie sheet. When I say “small” I mean a teeny tiny amount, y’all. Definitely less than a quarter sized spoonful but more than a nickel. Also, stay away from wax or parchment paper… A plain old cookie sheet will do.

 

You get the best spreading results if you smush the dough down flat a little. Also, make sure to leave plenty of room for the cookies to spread out (because they will spread, and spread a lot). I got best results when I put only 3 rows across on my sheet, and then about 4 cookies down which ended up being about 2 1/2″ to 3″ between the cookies.

Bake the cookies at 375 for 6-8 minutes or until they’re golden brown and have bubbly holes showing through. (Hence the “lace”). Once you’ve taken the out, let them cool for about 2 minutes and then lift them carefully from the cookie sheet with a thin spatula. Place them on a paper towel until they are crisp. It turns out that I broke about 1/4 of the cookies because I wasn’t careful enough, and just so you know, the ones lighter in color need a little longer to cool before you can pull them up with the spatula… If you try to pick them up too soon they get smushed together and look nothing like lace.

 

But if you get them just right you have THE PERFECT thin, crisp cookie to dress up a bowl of ice cream or serve at a ladies’ tea. Since I was taking these to a friend, i only wanted to give her the pretty ones, so whenever one got broken or had less than perfect edges I just had to keep it for us. (I know, right? so terrible. 😉 They were gone in a day since they’re so thin…I mean, you can have more than one when they’re small right?