Is it cold enough out there for you?

With the recent Arctic Blast that brought us snow yesterday and the below freezing temperatures I felt like making snowballs.  After going outside to wrap and protect my fruit trees and salvage what crisply frozen Winter greens I could from my garden I decided that it was too cold to stay outside and make snowballs.  So I went inside and made them there instead!

Now this cookie recipe is an age old recipe.  Who knows where it first originated as it goes by sooo many names such as: Mexican Wedding Cakes, Italian Butternuts, Russian Tea Cakes just to name a few.  But I have read that it is a cookie that has a history that dates back as far as the 18th century. I make these little balls of heaven every single year and over the years I have tweaked the standard recipe to create a lovely, nut filled shortbread type cookie that will melt in your mouth.  Mine includes ground almonds, instead of chopped pecans or walnuts and I like to use a Vanilla Bean with a couple little drops of Amaretto to really make the almond flavor sing.

It’s a super easy cookie to make and if you have little ones around they will have fun helping you to shape them into little balls, while keeping snug and warm during this Arctic Blast.  It also keeps really well.

For this recipe I use unsalted butter.  If you are going to use salted butter omit the salt.
Vegan & Lactose Sensitive – If you are vegan or  lactose intolerant, substitute the butter for Margarine. Please note that vegetable oil spreads will make these cookies spread out and flatten a bit.
Gluten Free – If you are gluten intolerant, substitute flour with your favorite GF All Purpose flour and add an additional 2 Tablespoons of water

Snowball Cookies

• 2 Sticks (1/2 Cup) unsalted Butter, softened
• 1/2 Powdered Sugar
• 1 Cup All Purpose Flour
• 1 Cup Cake Flour
• 1 Vanilla Bean, seeds scraped out
• 1 teaspoon Amaretto
• 1/2 teaspoon Salt
• 1 Cup Almond Flour, or finely ground Almonds

For Dusting:

• 1 cup Powdered Sugar
• 1 teaspoon Cornstarch

Dusting Instructions:
Combine in a bowl and set aside

Snowball Cookie Instructions:
Using a mixer or by hand, cream together the butter and sugar.  Add the rest of the ingredients and mix together until they are all well combined.
Divide the dough in half and form two large balls.  Wrap tightly with plastic wrap and place them in the fridge to cool for at least 1 hour and as long as overnight.

Preheat oven to 350°, prepare baking sheets by lining them with parchment paper.
Now go get one of your chilled dough balls out of the refrigerator.  Begin shaping balls by rolling about 2 teaspoons worth of dough at a time into balls using your hands.  They should be just a little smaller than a walnut in the shell.  Place them about 1/2″ apart on a baking sheet (if you are using Margarine – place them 1″ apart).

Bake for 15-18 minutes, or until golden brown on the bottom, the tops will be a very pale golden brown.
Let them cool on the baking sheet for about 10 minutes, then transfer the cookies to the Powdered Sugar and Cornstarch that you made earlier.
Give them a gentle roll until they are well coated.
Reserve a little of the Dusting recipe to sift over the tops of the cookies right before serving.

Images by Kelly Cline ©2010 All Rights Reserved
All content, text and images are  ©2010 All Rights Reserved and may not be used or reposted without express written consent.

Summer is that magical time of year that heralds the arrival of colorful, plump and delicious berries.  There is no way in the world that I could just pick one single berry as my favorite.  I love them all, each with their own unique flavor profile that dances delightfully on my tastebuds.  Right now your local area Farmer’s Markets are offering up these sweet little treasures.  Summer is the best time of year to enjoy their nommy goodness, so make it a plan this weekend to visit a Farmer’s Market – I’ve even put together a list for you.

I’m going to step back in time a bit to share a berry memory.  I grew up in Puyallup, home of Daffodils, U-Pick Berry Farms and little unattended roadside Farmer’s stands – the kind that had an old MJB coffee can to hold the money and your honor to pay for that forearm sized zucchini.  I also grew up in the 70’s with gas lines stretching for blocks, job shortages combined with  a recession meaning trouble for a lot of folks.  Our family was no different and my Father ended up out of work.

With my Dad tirelessly looking for work and struggling to find anything, my Mom went job seeking  to help and found work at Valley Packers, working the conveyor line sorting out the cruddy berries from the good ones.  She used to wear this heavy white rubber apron that she would scrub down every night.  It was stained red with the berry juices and I LOVED the way it smelled, I know… I’m weird.  Every once in a while she would slip a couple  super plump, super sweet berries in the apron pocket at the end of her shift and bring them home as a little treat for my Brother and me.   This is my first memories of the taste of berries and I haven’t found a berry as sweet as they were back then.

So I managed to pick up 4 different kinds of berries and as I was standing at my kitchen counter sorting through them I absentmindedly put my finger to my nose and inhaled… I was 5 again and picturing my Mom in that red stained white apron gathering us around close with her hands behind her back while we eagerly awaited the reveal of what sweet little treasure she had to share with us.  So this recipe is for my Mom… sweet, a teeny bit tart, a little crusty around the edges and all put together…. absolutely beautiful.

Recipe notes: If you don’t have all 4 varieties of berries you can mix and match, or make this with just one kind of berry as long as the measurement is the same.  And also… don’t be frightened of the Black Pepper as a spice, it plays beautifully with berry fruits.

Crispy Berry Crumble

Preheat oven to 350º
Filling

• 1 Cup of each – Strawberry (quartered), Blueberry, Raspberry & Blackberry
• 1 1/2 Cups White Sugar
• 1/3 Cup Flour – All Purpose
• 1/2 Teaspoon Cornstarch
• 1 Vanilla Bean (insides scraped out) or 1 1/2 Teaspoons Vanilla Extract
• 1/4 Teaspoon Black Pepper – finely ground
• Zest of 1/2 Lemon
• Juice of 1/2 Lemon

Combine and mix together in a large bowl, being careful to not crush the berries too much.  When thoroughly mixed pour into an 8″x13″ baking dish – or something close – the fruit filling should fill the baking pan 1/2 way up the side, do not overfill the pan as it will result in spillover during the baking process.

Crumble Topping

• 1 1/2 Cups Light Brown Sugar
• 1 Cup Flour – All Purpose
• 1/2 Cup Rolled Oats
• 1/2 Cup Slivered Almonds
• 3/4 Cup Butter – unsalted, cold and cut into 1/2″ cubes
• 1/4 Teaspoon Baking Soda
• Pinch of Salt

Put everything into a large bowl and using either a pastry cutter or your hands, start mixing until the butter is incorporated.  Do not use a food processor as it will pulverize the oats and almonds leaving this topping with an unpleasant graininess. You will know the topping is ready when you can pinch a large finger full and it holds together.

Final Assembly and Baking
Using your hands start sprinkling the topping mixture over the berries you’ve poured in your baking pan.  The ideal thickness is about 1/2″ to 3/4″, you are likely to have a little leftover topping, so save this for topping your next batch of muffins.
Place the baking pan into your 350º oven and bake for 45 minutes, until the top is a nice toasty brown and the edges of the topping have bubbling fruit peeking out.

Let it cool down for about 15 minutes.  Then when you can comfortably (and carefully!) touch the side of the baking pan for 5 seconds, it is ready to be served warm.  Top it with fresh whip cream or a generous scoop of vanilla ice cream.

U-PICK NEWS!
Wanna pick your own Strawberries?  I just got notification from the folks at Stocker Farms that their U-Pick Strawberry Field is open!
Located at  8203 Marsh Road, Snohomish WA 98296
1 mile West of Highway 9 or 1 mile East from the bottom of Seattle Hill Road
Look for the yellow building to the North of Marsh Road.
U-Pick is open from 10am to 4pm Tuesday through Sunday
Price per pound for Strawberries is $1.80
No pets
For more information visit Stocker Farms website.

Full disclosure: I have received no compensation from Stocker Farms for this article.
Images by Kelly Cline ©2010 All Rights Reserved
All content, text and images are  ©2010 All Rights Reserved and may not be used or reposted without express written consent.

Looking to gain favor with the Easter Bunny this year? Well, I’ve got a little treat in store for you and it is even Gluten Free. Oh yes, my GF friends I have some springtime cookie love that is right up your alley.

This cookie was born out of a need. A need for a cookie. We didn’t have any cookies laying around and the only flour I had was a whole wheat flour. I will just say this now… I was not in the mood for a healthy whole grain cookie, I was in the mood for sweet, chewy, crispy and delectable. I had coconut, I had eggs, I had butter and sugar. Most importantly, I had the desire for a cookie.

So I grabbed a bunch of cookie-ish ingredients, some nuts and dried cherries and some pink food coloring. Why pink? I dunno… I just felt “pink”. I began randomly throwing things into the mixer like a mad scientist (please imagine me wringing my hands and going “Mwahahaha” over the mixer) and from this mad experiment was the discovery of the most delicious coconut cookie I have ever sunk my teeth into.

Crisp edges that are still chewy, an inside that is moist and delectable with strands of coconut, chunks of pecans and sour cherries running through the chewilicious goodness. So get your pink nom on in time for the Easter season. Make ’em for the Easter Bunny, your favorite Hunny Bunny or just for yourself to nom and not share. You won’t want to share… and that is ok. Eat them all with a big, fat pink coconutty grin on your face.

Pink Coconut Cookies

• 1 stick of Butter, softened
• 1/2 cup Powdered Sugar
• 2/3 cup Baker’s Sugar (ultra-fine sugar, but regular will do in a pinch)
• 2 teaspoon Pure Vanilla Extract

Cream together the Above ingredients on high for about 3 minutes, until the butter and sugar mixture looks creamy and fluffy.

• 1/2 teaspoon Salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking Soda
• 6 Egg Whites – ONE AT A TIME

Add the Salt and Baking Soda, mix for 1 minute. Now add in your Egg Whites one at a time, mixing for 1 full minute after each egg white is added.

• 1/4 to 1/2 cup Almond Flour (ground almonds… more Almond Flour results in a fatter, denser cookie)
• 2 cups sweetened Flaked Coconut
• 1/4 cup Pecans, finely chopped (optional)
• 1/4 cup Dried Cherries, finely chopped (optional)
• Food Coloring – pick whatever color makes you happiest

Dump the rest of the ingredients into the fluffy, eggy mixture and fold it in by hand until the ingredients are well combined.
Preheat your oven to 325º C
***You will need parchment paper or a silicon mat. Don’t try to make these cookies without one of these items. You can find silicon mats at any good online kitchen store and parchment paper is at your grocery store near the aluminum foil and waxed paper. Without this you will need a chisel or a jackhammer to pry the tasty cookies off the cookie sheet. I like to use parchment paper.
On a cookie sheet lined with parchment or silicon mat drop very rounded heaping teaspoons onto the parchment or silicon, bake in the oven for 17-20 minutes or just until the edges are golden brown. Remove and let cool completely before removing from the cookie sheet.

When storing these cookies, cut small squares of parchment paper or wax paper and insert in between each cookie otherwise they will stick together. Keep them in an airtight container and they should keep for about 3-4 days.

What the heck is a Vineyard Pie!?  It’s grape laden wonderful bliss, that’s what.  Recently, I entered a pie contest for which I will share pictures and stories at a later time.  Since the contest, I have had numerous requests for the recipe of my Vineyard Pie and so everything else must take a back seat while I share the secrets of my unusual grape pie with my friends.  This recipe is entirely original and my own.

So like I was saying, this was a pie intended for a contest but for me it was really an opportunity to think outside the box and do something… different.  The contest rules stated that the fruit had to be in season.  Immediately my mind went towards things such as pears, apples, plums and the like and then something unexpected creeped into my cranium.  Grapes.  Yep… grapes.

And so I started to do some research.  Was it possible to make a pie made of… Grapes?  Well it turns out that it is, and Concord Grapes seem to be a big deal to pie makers in areas such as Maryland.  My mind was already made up.  Grape Pie, here I come!  In researching recipes I found that the process in which those East Coast pies were made, had a very “jammy” interior.

I most certainly did not want to create a pie that was a big crust covered piece of Grape Jam.  I wanted the grapes to shine, taste fresh, sweet and have a cherry pie like texture.  Upon tasting and re-tasting grapes I decided that a mix of gapes was my ticket to success.  Concords lend their characteristic grapey flavor, Red Grapes for a nice sweet tart and firm fruit and Black Grapes for their honey-like sweetness.

***photo by Rasmus Rasmussen

After putting all these grapes together it struck me that I practically had myself a vineyard of grapes at hand.  Then a light bulb went off in my head… Ooooo!  Wine!!  So I grabbed some different sweet wines from my pantry to taste along with one of each of the grapes.  I liked the flavor of the Port but I went with a Blackberry Dessert Wine from Pasek Cellars, which is a local Cellar located in Mount Vernon.  The Blackberry Dessert Wine added a lovely fruity note that was a lovely accent to the Grapes.

So now it was on to prepping and making pie crust.  My pie crust had additions of Almond Flour, Buttermilk, local Leaf Lard and homemade Butter.  This filling would taste really wonderful in just about any crust, because this pie is totally all about the filling.  This filling could even be turned into a successful Cobbler or Brown Betty as well. (I’ll share the crust recipe in a later post about the Pie Contest)

***photo by Rasmus Rasmussen

In the East Coast grape pies, they squeeze out the centers of the Concord, run it through a food mill to remove the seeds… yadda yadda.  I didn’t want grape mush, I wanted these Grapes to be berry-like.  So to prep I washed the grapes, dried them and cut them in half.  Once in half the Concords revealed their little seed and a quick flick of the fingernail the seed was history and I was left with a lovely purple plump grape.  The Black Grapes & Red Grapes were seedless, but I cut them in half anyway so the filling had a consistent mouth feel, and I didn’t want to have grapes bursting in someone’s mouth and squirting out.

This pie was my great experiment.  It has been at least 10 years since the last time I made a pie from scratch, including the crust.  It is the first time I have ever invented a recipe for a pie and the first time I have ever had a grape pie tickle my tastebuds.  This pie has a light yet subtly rich flavor, not overly sweet.  The Grape flavor is not jammy, as my husband Rasmus put it “You can really taste the freshness of the grape.” and he is absolutely right.  The grapes still have a fruity pop, yet their flavors have melded together.

Vineyard Pie

• 1 double crust recipe of your favorite Pie Crust (this filling is great for a Gluten Free Crust)
• 1 1/2 cups Concord Grapes, seeded & halved
• 1 1/2 cups Seedless Red Grapes, halved
• 1 1/2 cups Seedless Black Grapes, halved
• 1 1/2 cups Organic Cane Sugar
• 1/2 cup Dessert Wine or Port
• 1/4 cup Tapioca Flour
• 1/4 teaspoon Black Pepper
• Zest of 1 Orange
• Juice of 1 Orange
• 1 Egg White for brushing the pie crust (optional)

Preheat oven to 350°.  Combine all ingredients together and stir to coat everything evenly.
Put your bottom crust down into you pie pan.  Ladle the pie filling into the unbaked pie crust, being careful not to overfill it.  The filling should form a mound, flush with the edge of the pie pan and rising gracefully to an inch over the rim at the very center.  If you happen to have extras, save them to make small tarts with your leftover pie crust trimmings.
Place the top crust onto the pie and crimp the edges closed.  Cut a few slits to act as vents for your filling.  If you want a shiny topped pie, now would be the time to put your egg white onto the top crust, using a pastry brush.
Place the pie onto a baking sheet, to catch any spillage.  Make a foil “tent” for the top to protect it from over browning, make sure there is at least an inch of spacec between the pie top and the foil so that the pie has breathing room.

Bake the pie for 45-50 minutes.  Remove the foil tent and finish baking the crust until it is browned to perfection, right around 5-10 minutes more.
Let this pie cool completely before serving, as the Tapioca needs time to set properly.

This is a great alternative to Apples, pears & Pumpkins and makes wonderful Fall pie, the colors and flavors… well it’s just down right beautiful.  Hope you enjoy!

***A special Thank You! to Rasmus Rasmussen for taking the shots of me in action.  You are the bestest! Biggest piece of pie is for YOU!