I’ve named these little gems cookies, but they are savory of course (with just a hint of sweetness) with the intent to snack on with a nice glass of white wine (or red, but I think that a nice white would be best with these). Also, it’s nice because you can actually make a couple logs, stash them in the freezer and bake them up as you see fit. The recipe makes about 100 little (1 1/2 inch) cookies, which is just enough for a handful for 4-6 people … great for a small gathering.
Let’s talk about garlic bread. It’s a total summer time thing for me and I almost never make it in the winter, even if it does pair nicely with Italian dishes like the traditional “Spaghetti and Meatballs”. But now that it is summer, it’s time to work on perfecting these loaves of yumminess. This time, I decided to not take a loaf from the store and slather it with garlic and herb butter, but I made the bread too. And I made the “pull apart” / “crazy bread” style bread that I have become so fond of. Added a lot of parm and voila. Yumminess! Best part is that it virtually falls apart into slices when removed from the loaf pan, so no need for a knife.
The other day, I made this Ramp Chimichurri which is out of this world, and I mentioned that you can use it on a bunch of things besides just steak. Here is one of those things. The chimichurri moved this from “hey, I have a bunch of random ingredients that I need to use up before they go off” to “wow, this is one heck of a snack in just under 30 minutes of work (and would be much less except that you should salt the eggplant for a bit, lest they get soggy). Cheeky little snack in the middle of my Thursday.
I recently purchased the Huckleberry cookbook (yes, I am a cookbook junkie) and while I rarely make recipes in their entirety without modifications, I am trying out some of the recipes for the first time. Up first from Huckleberry was this Maple Bacon Biscuit recipe. It happens to also be on the theme of maple syrup (see previous post) and … well, bacon is bacon, and bacon is good. While I these were spectacular straight out of the oven (with a bit of butter) and I m sure that they would also pair well with soup or bisque, I decided to make an egg and bacon breakfast sandwich which was fantastic.
Looks kind of crazy, doesn’t it? I’d seen crazy breads (aka pull-apart breads) before, but this was a first attempt. I think that the yeast went crazier than expected though, because the loaf bloomed like mad and quite overflowed the pan. Oh well, nice effect, I guess. The cranberries and walnuts are a nice contrast to the funkiness of the camembert. Not sure if I should consider this a “sweet” or “savory” bread, but I do think that the presentation will wow.