Raincoast Crisp Wannabes

Dear Raincoast Crisps,

You are my new favorite snack.  I can’t seem to quit you, which is unfortunate as you’re considered gourmet / artisanal / something that means you comes with a high price tag.

I like you just the way you are, but you really shine when paired with cheese.  You’re crisp and chewy, sweet and salty, all at the same time.  Are you suffering from an identity crisis or just trying to appeal to all my senses at once?  If the latter, kudos, it’s working.

I admire how you’re not afraid to let your true colors shine through.  You’re so real, with your nuts, grains and dried fruit.  When I look at you, I can see exactly what you’re made of, and I like that.

Please know that I will always love you, but I think we would be better off as just friends.  It’s not you, it’s me.  Really.

XO, Melanie

PS. This won’t make meeting at the occasional party somewhat awkward, will it?

So yeah.  In case it wasn’t really obvious, I really like these crackers.  Unfortunately, it’s price tag makes it hard to justify as a regular purchase so I researched online and found a substitute recipe.  It’s a little more work but it yields me a small mountain of these crackers for about the same price.

Let’s make some crackers, shall we?

The recipe can be summarized as such:  mix ingredients (in one bowl, weeee!), pour into loaf pan, bake, cool, slice, bake.  Yes, bake it twice.  To make the slicing part easier, I line the loaf pan with parchment and lift it right out after it’s done baking.  Then I freeze the loaf overnight before slicing with a mandoline.  I tried slicing the loaf in half length-wise and then slicing, but the v-shaped mandoline of my mandoline makes it harder as the soft edges catch on the mandoline and rip.  Instead, it’s better to keep the loaf intact and then slice in half.

Look at all that color!  Sooooo yummy.

Sliced and ready to bake again.  See what I mean about it showing its true colors?

After they bake, they turn a darker shade of brown, more like what you’d see if you bought an actual box.

So go bake some (or come on over here!) and we can enjoy some together.  I’d serve these  paired with a triple-cream brie or a p’tit basque (my new favorite cheese, a semi-hard sheep’s milk).  Add in wine, good company in the form of a girl’s night and not much can beat it, in my opinion.  🙂

Raincoast Crisps Wannabe
from a ChowHound post, slightly tweaked

2 cups flour (I typically use white wheat flour)
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
2 cups buttermilk
1/4 cup honey
1 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup chopped hazelnuts (or other nut)
1/2 cup pumpkin seeds
1/4 cup flax seeds
1/4 cup sesame seeds
1 tbsp. chopped fresh rosemary

Preheat oven to 350-degrees F and line 2 loaf pans with parchment paper.

Combine 2 cups flour, 2 tsp. baking soda and 1 tsp. salt together and mix to combine.  Add in 2 cups buttermilk and 1/4 cup honey, mixing gently to combine.

Add in 1 cup dried cranberries, 1/2 cup chopped hazelnuts, 1/2 cup pumpkin seeds, 1/4 cup flax seeds, 1/4 cup sesame seeds and 1 tbsp. chopped fresh rosemary.  Mix gently to combine.

Pour into 2 loaf pans (a good trick is to weigh your mixing bowl before and after mixing the batter, then splitting that number into 2 to determine how much each loaf pan should weigh with half the batter in it).

Bake for 45 minutes at 350-degrees or until springy.  Cool completely on a rack, removing from loaf pan after 15 minutes.  Put in freezer to set before slicing.

Slice thinly (about 1/8″ cuts) and lay on baking sheet.

Preheat oven to 300-degrees F.

Bake each side for approximately 10 – 15 minutes, until crisp and darker brown in color.  Let cool completely, then store in airtight container (storing while still warm will lead to condensation and less-crisp crackers).

Servings:  about 60 crackers

Paninis!

I actually cannot believe I haven’t talked about paninis before, because I love them.  I mean, even ignoring the fact that they’re awessome, I don’t see how it’s possible to not love a panini, they’re so crisp on the outside and usually have some hot melty cheese action going on.

They’re like a hot pocket, without the pocket-ness.  Or the weird crust.  Or the tendency to burn your mouth.  So really, I’m not sure where I was going with this analogy, as they are not like hot pockets at all, except for the whole you-eat-them-with-your-hands factor.  Hot pockets!

My current favorite panini is brie, prosciutto and figs on ciabatta:

Fresh figs are best, but since they’re no longer in season, dried are still doing very nicely.  I actually got this panini idea from a restaurant that my friend Kjersti introduced me to.  One bite and it was love.  Of the panini.  Not Kjersti.  I don’t think I need to bite Kjersti to know she’s awesome.  🙂

Tommy and Penney gave us our panini maker and it has truly been a workhorse in our kitchen.  I think we use it about once a week, which is not bad for an appliance with pretty much only one purpose.  Some of the best hints they gave me was that ciabatta always makes awesome paninis (TRUTH, it does!) and to brush the bread with olive oil before use.  The olive oil does help with crispness and browning so it is not to be missed.

I am always on the quest for new ideas, so what are some of your favorites combinations?  Have you tried any that were a complete flop?  I can chime in and say cheese panini:  not as yummy as you might imagine.

Waffles!

Surabhi and Ziga thoughtfully gave us a waffle maker and a teapot as a wedding gift and they have been serious workhorses in our kitchen.  I don’t think a day goes by where we don’t use the kettle, as I am a tea fiend (and slowly turning Martin into one!).  We may not use the waffle iron as much, but I get just as much enjoyment out of it.

Martin isn’t too much of a waffle fan, so if I make waffles, I’m pretty much making them just for me.  Far and away my favorite recipe is the Light, Crisp Waffle from Fine Cooking, introduced to me by Brian.  He and I both love the same style of waffles and I consider Brian a discerning food individual, especially when something as important as WAFFLES are on the line, so I knew this would be a winner.

As Brian points out, the recipe is a little extra work since you have to beat an egg white.  For the record, one time, I accidentally separated my whites into the milk mixture, so I couldn’t beat it before adding it to the batter.  I didn’t feel that the waffle lost a significant amount of lightness, though the batter was a bit runny.  So if you are ever so anxious for waffles that you speed through the recipe too quickly and accidentally drop the egg whites into the milk, it will all work out – take it from me!

The smell of freshly cooking waffles is one of my favorite smells.  I feel like the vanilla really comes out and it’s as addictive as the smell of fresh baked cookies, with the added benefit that you get to eat one every three minutes hot off the iron.

The cold, hard (or hot, crispy??) truth is that I love these waffles so much, I will unashamedly eat them standing by the waffle iron.  Having no pressure to share with anyone, I pop them out of the waffle iron, immediately start cooking another one and dig into my hot, hot waffle.  I don’t even add any toppings or anything – I just pull them apart into their quarters and chomp away.  It’s the best feeling in the world.

I use a heaping 1/3 cup of batter per waffle and this makes more than 5 waffles … probably along the magnitude of 8, which I can actually eat all in one sitting.  Also, following Brian’s recommendations are key.  I found that using my own timer, using a quick blast of cooking spray and making sure it always stays on the lowest setting consistently produced amazing waffles.  My timing preference is 3.5 minutes, I like them a bit more crisp.

Croutons

Awhile back, I wanted to attempt a recipe that called for croutons. It was the only ingredient missing from my list (or so I thought – brought down by marinara sauce!) and I didn’t want to make a special run to the store just for croutons. So I dug around in my refrigerator and found the Parker House Rolls and brioche I’d made a few days earlier. Then I set about to finding out how to make croutons.

It’s actually ridiculously easy. And the results are really tasty – while waiting for the chicken parmesan dish I needed them for to finish, I couldn’t resist dipping the extra croutons into the marinara sauce I made. And dipping. And dipping. And oh god, did I really eat that many croutons!?!?

Yes, yes, I did.

I found recipes both simple and complicated online and did a sort of weird hybrid mash. I actually made 2 batches of croutons, one to use the brioche and one to use the rolls. My techniques varied slightly, but not much. The first time, I didn’t bother to look up a recipe and just sort of drizzled olive oil and garlic salt on top. Then I decided to look up a recipe and ho-boy. I was way off. I had my oven at 350-degrees, way too hot for the slow baking the croutons needed. I might have just barely avoided crouton-disaster!

Also, the recipes all say to place oil and croutons in a bowl and mix to coat. Probably because my bread was hard, it was difficult to get an “even coating” as the recipes called for. So I just sort of mixed my second batch for a little, gave up, and threw it in the oven. I couldn’t tell a difference between the croutons drizzled with oil and the ones I actually attempted mixing. I think the high butter content already present in the bread may have helped with that. So here is the unpatented Melanie version of homemade croutons. It really is ridiculously easy.

Homemade Croutons

Bread, cut into 1” cubes
Olive oil
Garlic salt
Onion powder

1- Preheat oven to 275-degrees.

2- Place bread in large pan and coat / drizzle with olive oil. Sprinkle with garlic salt and onion powder.

3- Place pan in oven and let slowly cook. Shake croutons up every 10 minutes or so. If starting to brown too quickly, lower heat. After 20 minutes, taste crouton to see if it is sufficiently cooked through. If not, keep cooking.

Servings: Varies

Magnolias Biscuits

As many of you may remember, I was the happy recipient of a new cookbook at Christmas, from the chef of the famed Charleston restaurant, Magnolias. I had such a great experience there in 2006 (no longer last year!) when we were in town for Tommy and Penney’s wedding and regarded this book with excitement.

I decided to start with the simplest recipe and make their biscuits, which had 3 ingredients: flour, butter and heavy cream. I am not joking about this.

I was so excited about the idea of fluffy biscuits a la Bojangles but without the pesky cutting of butter. The recipe promised 24 1″ biscuits, which confused me, as I halved the recipe, rolled it out to perhaps 1/4″ and got 5. Granted, they were bigger than 1″ square, but still. Who eats 1″ square biscuits? Blasphemers, that’s who.

I popped them in the oven, popped them back out when they were golden brown and looked on in disappointment at biscuits that rose hardly at all and that were crisp but flavorless. Perhaps this is because I did not brush butter on top – but they looked so sad on the baking sheet I felt they weren’t worthy of putting on a good coat of butter.

Later, when trying to describe them to Amy, I fell short in trying to explain how flat and … weird these biscuits were. So I looked on Flickr for a picture.To demonstrate their flatness, rather than ideal-buttermilk-biscuit-buttery-fluffiness, here is a somewhat good representation.

I can’t write these off biscuits completely, however, because I didn’t quite follow the instructions. I made them the previous night, to go along with the steak I was cooking, but forgot to roll them out for dinner. I stuck them in the refrigerator and tried to salvage them the next day to go along with our Meatball Soup. In the process, I re-rolled them. Perhaps this affected the texture, though we may never know until I try again.

ONE LAST CHANCE is all you get, Magnolias biscuits.

Magnolias Biscuits

2-1/4 cups self-rising flour
1-1/2 cups heavy cream
Butter for brushing later

1- Preheat oven to 400-degrees.

2- Mix flour and heavy cream gently until it comes together as a dough.

3- Pour out onto lightly floured surface. Sprinkle surface with flour and roll flat.

4- Cut into biscuit-shapes.

5- Bake in oven until golden brown.

Servings: It claims 24 1″ biscuits.

Sorry folks, no picture today.

Beer Bread

Here’s another recipe that will go in the pile of “Things to Try.” A recent visit from beloved friends, Amy and Brian, resulted in an awesome dinner that Brian made: yummy steak and mashed potatoes and, the topper, berries with whipped cream on top of his signature biscuits. That resulted in LOTS of self-rising flour for me and a need to get rid of some of it. So here goes!

Beer Bread

1 (12-oz.) bottle of beer
3 cups self-rising flour
⅓ cup white sugar
1 handful jack-and-cheddar cheese blend (optional)

Preparation: Grease two 9” x 5” loaf pans and preheat oven to 350-degrees.

1/ Technique 1: In a large bowl, mix flour and sugar. Add beer and continue mixing, switching to hands after a bit. Pour into loaf pan. Bake until top is crunchy.

2/ Technique 2: Mix flour and sugar. Add cheese and mix to combine. Add beer and mix to combine again. Split into two portions and let sit for half an hour, until doubled in bulk. Brush with butter and sprinkle with garlic salt halfway through baking. Repeat after removing from oven.

3/ In both instances: Mix until just moist. Be careful not to overmix!

4/ Beer guide: light beer – fresh, white bread taste; thicker lager – rich.

Servings: 1 loaf

Shepherd’s Pie and Cheddar Bay Biscuits

The weather has turned abruptly cold in California, leading me to want some good old-fashioned comfort food. Poking through my kitchen, I had some potatoes – putting my Captain Obvious cap on led me to shepherd’s pie.

I looked up several recipes online and kind of mish-mashed one together from available ingredients. I’m not sure if this was the right idea, as the meat was appropriately gravied and the mashed potatoes nice and crisp on the outside but the recipe still lacked a certain oomph. Still, it filled us up. I’ll have to try tweaking this recipe a little bit more because I am rather fond of shepherd’s pie. I keep going back, trying to recreate the magic that was my first experience with it, with a lot of failure.

At least the Cheddar Bay Biscuits I made with them were fairly tasty.

Shepherd’s Pie

Ingredients
5 small potatoes
1 lb. ground lamb
1 small can peas
1/2 onion
Handfull of mushrooms
1 clove garlic
1 small can cream of chicken

Optional
Butter
Sour cream
Milk

Preparation: Prepare skillet to cook meat and baking dish. Preheat oven to 350-degrees.

1/ Mince garlic. Chop onions. Slice mushrooms.

2/ When oil is hot, add garlic and saute for one minute. Add vegetables, sauting for a little bit.

3/ Add ground meat and saute until mostly cooked. Drain of fat and liquid.

4/ Add cream of chicken and can of peas. Spoon into baking dish.

5/ Boil potatoes until easily pierced by a fork. Drain of water. Mash potatoes until smooth, with choice of butter, sour cream or milk.

6/ Scoop mashed potatoes up and dot surface of meat-veggies mixture. With spoon, slowly work the dots of mashed potatoes together until a smooth surface is created.

7/ Bake in oven for 20 – 30 minutes, until top of potatoes are crisp.

Servings: Too many for 2 people

Cheddar Bay Biscuits

Ingredients
2 cups Bisquik mix
2/3 cup milk
1/2 cup shredded cheddar
1/4 cup butter
1/2 tsp. garlic
1/2 tsp. parsley flakes

Preparation: Prepare baking sheet and preheat oven to 350-degrees.

1/ Mix first three ingredients. Add more milk as needed if mixture is slightly dry so that it is moist (but not squishy-wet). Beat vigorously for a few strokes to ensure well mixed. Mixture will be very thick.

2/ Drop by spoonful onto baking sheet. Bake 8 – 12 minutes or until golden brown.

3/ Melt butter. Mix in garlic and parsley. Brush tops of biscuits with them while they are still warm.

Servings: 12 – 5 biscuits