Monthly Archives: February 2017

Corned Beef Hand Pies

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Flaky little pie crusts stuffed with corned beef, cabbage, carrots, and onions will be the hit of your St. Patrick’s Day party. These savory treats are also a great way to use leftover corned beef, and are easy to pack in a lunch.

Did I say leftover corned beef? The only way that ever happens around here is if I cook two roasts! And now that The Man has had a taste of these hand pies, I may have to cook three.

I originally made these with green pie crust. You know . . . going with the whole green theme. I don’t have a problem eating green baked goods; green doughnuts taste just as good as normal doughnuts, right? But to be honest with you, the green crust didn’t photograph very well.

If you want to do it for fun, just add a few drops of green food color to the buttermilk before you add it to the flour. (I may have gone a little overboard with the coloring.) Hand pies with shiny golden brown crusts are lovely, and can be used for any occasion, so I’ll just let you choose.

I also played with the crust and made shamrock shaped pies. The half circles are easier to make – definitely less time consuming, but the shamrocks are pretty cute. They just have those little corners that you have to pay attention to and get sealed properly. If you’re up for a challenge and you have a large shamrock cookie cutter, give them a whirl!


Corned Beef Hand Pies
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Makes approximately 24 hand pies if using 4-5 inch circles.
Ingredients
  • Filling:
  • 2 cups cooked corned beef, finely chopped
  • 1 cup grated cabbage and carrot mixture, finely chopped
  • ¼ cup thinly sliced green onions
  • 2 teaspoons mustard, yellow or Dijon
  • 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
  • 1 tablespoon flour
  • ¼ teaspoon sugar
  • ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
  • 2 eggs (1 egg is used for egg wash)
  • Pastry:
  • 4 cups flour
  • 2 teaspoons salt
  • 1 cup cold butter
  • 1 cup cold shortening
  • ½ cup buttermilk (you may use regular milk)
  • 2 tablespoons vodka (or vinegar, if you prefer)
Instructions
  1. In medium bowl, combine corned beef, cabbage and carrot mixture, and green onions.
  2. In a small bowl, whisk together the mustard, vinegar, flour, sugar, garlic powder, and 1 egg. Pour into the meat and vegetable mixture and stir well. Cover and refrigerate until needed.
  3. In a large bowl, combine the flour and salt. Add butter and shortening and, using a pastry blender, blend together until small lumps no larger than peas remain.
  4. In a cup or small bowl, combine the buttermilk and vodka (or vinegar). Pour all at once into the dry ingredients and toss with a fork (or your fingers) until combined. Mixture should form a ball when you press it together with your hands. Divide into 3 disks. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate 15 minutes.
  5. Heat oven to 375 F.
  6. Whisk together the remaining egg and 1 tablespoon water in a cup to make an egg wash. Set aside.
  7. On a floured surface, or between two pieces of lightly floured parchment, roll once piece of dough out at a time to about ⅛-inch thickness. If using parchment, you may need to lift the paper and sprinkle dough with flour to keep it from sticking and to keep parchment from wrinkling.
  8. Using a 4-inch round cutter or large shamrock cookie cutter, cut as many pieces as possible. Cover scraps and put aside to re-roll all at once at the end. If you have a small roller, the shapes can be rolled gently to make them a little larger and thinner. 5 inches is perfect.
  9. Brush one piece lightly with egg wash. Add approximately 1 heaping tablespoon of filling. For half circles, fold the circle over. For shamrocks, cover with another shamrock shape. Press firmly around the edge of the hand pie, then use a small fork and go around it again to seal.
  10. Poke a few small holes in the top of each pie and brush lightly with egg wash. Place on parchment covered baking sheets.
  11. Bake for about 20 minutes, or until the bottoms turn golden brown. Serve warm.
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Finely chop the cooked corned beef.

Stir all of this goodness together! I hate to say this, but you could roll out biscuits from and can, fill them with this, and they would STILL taste amazing!

Add sauce to meat mixture.

For crust, blend the fats and flour together, then toss with liquids.

Flatten the dough into 3 disks.

Cut out large circles (about 4-5 inches) and brush with egg wash

Add a rounded tablespoon of filling

Press edges firmly.

Seal with a fork and bake!

 So…the obligatory green pastry has been posted. Now I need to play around with something sweet. I’ll be back soon,

Lorinda

Guinness Cloverleaf Rolls

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They may not be green, but these dinner rolls are exactly what you need for your St. Patrick’s Day meal. Made with Guinness, Irish butter, and oats, their flavor is rich and hearty, and they have a fantastic texture. Soft but substantial – which is what they’ll be calling me if I keep testing my creations!

And believe it or not, the rolls are super easy to make. (See the recipe below? See how short it is? I think this is a personal record.) I made three batches of dough in less than forty minutes, but I admit that flour was flying. My mixer is a real workhorse, thank goodness. For the sake of full disclosure, I also have to mention that each batch uses one cup of beer, so there’s a little left in the bottle. By making 3 batches back to back, I got to have a full bottle of Guinness as I worked. Sweeeeet.

Dividing the dough into 36 equal parts and rolling them into balls is the only thing that will take a little time, but there’s nothing hard about it. I wanted mine to be similar in size, so I weighed the dough, did the math, and (in case you’re wondering) each ball was approximately 1 1/2 ounces, or 45 grams. Just sayin’. You don’t have to do this unless you plan to take photos and put them on a blog!

I used Irish butter because I love it and it seemed appropriate. It’s a little pricey for baking, but hey – St. Patrick’s Day only comes once a year. Splurge a little; it really does have wonderful flavor.

You’ll smell the beer as the rolls are baking. I’ve got to say, it made me a wee bit nervous; it smelled like a distillery in my kitchen. But the rolls didn’t taste like beer at all to me. If anything, the Guinness gives them sort of a whole wheat taste, and I’m good with that. Yum.

The only warning I’m going to give you is this: keep an eye on the bread as it’s rising! Mine only took about 45 minutes for the first rise and once the rolls were formed, it took less than an hour for them to be ready for the oven. They are very enthusiastic.

Guinness Cloverleaf Rolls
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Makes 12 jumbo or 24 standard rolls.
Ingredients
  • ½ cup very warm water
  • ½ teaspoon sugar
  • 2 packages active-dry yeast
  • ½ cup milk
  • ½ cup water
  • 2 tablespoons butter
  • ¼ cup molasses
  • 1 cup Guinness Extra Stout Beer
  • 5½ -6 cups white bread flour
  • 1 cup quick oats
  • 1 tablespoon salt
Instructions
  1. In a small bowl, combine ½ cup very warm water and sugar. Add yeast and set aside to proof.
  2. In a small saucepan, bring milk and water to a simmer. Remove from heat.
  3. Add butter, molasses, and beer. When butter is melted, place mixture in large bowl of stand mixer fitted with dough hook.
  4. Add the yeast mixture and 5½ cups flour, the quick oats, and salt. Mix on low for 3 minutes. If the dough isn’t coming cleanly away from the side of the bowl, or if the dough feels very sticky, add the remaining ½ cup flour. Knead for 3 minutes. (If kneading by hand, place on floured surface and knead for 5 minutes.)
  5. Place in a large greased bowl, turn to coat the dough, cover with a towel or plastic wrap, and allow the dough to rise until doubled – about 1 hour. It may be less, depending on the temperature of the room.
  6. Grease jumbo muffin pans and then divide the dough into 36 equal pieces. (For small rolls, grease standard muffin pans and divide dough into 72 equal pieces.)
  7. Allow rolls to rise until almost doubled, about 1 hour.
  8. Heat oven to 400 F.
  9. Bake 15-18 minutes, or until tops are rich golden brown.
  10. Remove from oven and brush tops with butter. Turn out of the pan and serve warm, or allow rolls to cool completely on rack.
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Stir butter and molasses into the hot milk mixture and then add beer.

Add the foamy yeast to the warm liquids, then add dry ingredients.

This is where you knead the dough, of course. I use my stand mixer and a dough hook.

Put dough into greased bowl. Turn it over to lightly coat.

This dough rises quickly!

Put 3 balls of dough in each cavity of muffin pan

Let 'em rise.

Let ’em rise. Bake!

Brush hot rolls with butter

. . . and enjoy!

Oh, and you might want to keep this recipe around, because it will make two wonderful loaves of bread if you’d rather not fuss with rolls. It slices perfectly, doesn’t crumble, and makes great sandwiches and toast.Three bottles of beer left. Hmm. More bread? I don’t think so. Sláinte!

Lorinda

Wake Up and Get Moving Muffins

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Very strong coffee, bran cereal, molasses, raisins (figs or dates are good too), apple and wheat flour are baked into these tender muffins. They will really wake you up and get you moving. You see where I’m going here, right? All puns and infantile jokes aside, these are really tasty muffins and better for you than a regular berry muffin with a mountain of streusel on top.

This recipe makes 24 muffins. You could cut it in half, but why would you? Wrap and freeze them for a quick on-the-go meal.

Wake Up and Get Moving Muffins
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Makes 2 dozen muffins (a few less if you use tall tulip liners). Wrap individually and freeze for a quick breakfast.
Ingredients
  • ¾ cup very strong hot coffee (I bring ½ cup freshly ground coffee and 1¼ cups water to a boil, let it simmer for a few minutes, and then put it through a fine strainer.)
  • ½ cup coconut oil (or butter, if you prefer)
  • 1 cup buttermilk
  • ¼ cup molasses
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 2 cups All-Bran original cereal
  • 1½ cups all purpose white flour
  • 1 cup whole wheat flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup dark brown sugar
  • ½ teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1 tablespoon dark unsweetened cocoa (Optional. Mostly for color.)
  • 1 cup raisins (or chopped dates or figs)
  • 1 medium apple, grated (leave the skin on, but stop grating before you get to the core!)
  • butter and sparkling sugar if desired to add to the tops of warm muffins
Instructions
  1. Heat oven to 400 F.
  2. Prepare muffin pans by lining them with paper liners.
  3. Stir coconut oil (or butter, chunked into small pieces) into hot coffee until melted.
  4. Stir in buttermilk and molasses.
  5. Add eggs and vanilla and beat until completely combined.
  6. Add bran cereal and let it soak while you prepare the dry ingredients.
  7. In a large bowl, combine white flour, wheat flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, brown sugar, cinnamon, and cocoa. Add raisins (or chopped dates or figs) and grated apple, and toss to coat.
  8. Pour liquid ingredients into bowl and fold or stir gently just until it is mostly incorporated. A few wisps of flour showing is fine. Do NOT overbeat.
  9. Spoon into prepared muffin liners, almost to the top. If you are using tall tulip-type liners, fill a little higher than the level of the pan.
  10. Bake standard size for approximately 16-18 minutes, or tall size for approximately 18-20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted in the center of a muffin.
  11. Move the pan of muffins onto a cooling rack and, if desired, brush with soft butter and sprinkle with sparkling sugar or cinnamon sugar. Then remove from pan and set muffins on a rack to cool completely.
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Ingredients. (The cocoa is mostly for color, so it’s optional.)

Make very strong coffee. I boil freshly ground beans and water, then put it through a fine sieve.

Combine all the liquids, add cereal, and let it soak for a few minutes.

Grate the apple, skin and all. (No core or seeds, of course.)

Toss raisins and apples in the dry ingredients

Stir gently until there are just a few wisps of flour in batter

Fill ’em up!

Brush with butter and sprinkle with sugar if desired. (You can see that I skipped the cocoa in this batch.)

Seriously, how can you resist this??

Love you, but gotta go now. Next up: green stuff for St. Paddy’s Day.

Lorinda

 

Chocolate Peanut Butter Shortbread

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The combination of chocolate and peanut butter is irresistible to me, and I just love getting both flavors in one cookie. There are endless ways to put these two doughs together, and I’ll show you a few, but I’m sure you will come up with some fun ideas of your own.

Yes, you’ll have to make two different batches of cookie dough, but it really is a very easy dough to make, and it won’t take you long at all. If you’re wondering how many this will make, I just don’t know what to tell you. It depends on whether you’re making the three layer cookies or the chain cookies or . . .
Let’s just say it makes a generous amount, at least 4 dozen.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Shortbread
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Two easy batches of shortbread cookie dough can be combined in countless ways to make creative and delicious cookies.
Ingredients
  • PEANUT BUTTER DOUGH:
  • 1 cup butter, softened
  • ½ cup creamy peanut butter
  • 1 egg yolk
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1 teaspoon milk or water
  • 1½ cups powdered sugar
  • ½ cup cornstarch
  • 3 cups all-purpose flour
  • CHOCOLATE COOKIE DOUGH:
  • 1½ cups butter, softened
  • 1 egg yolk
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1 teaspoon water or coffee
  • 1½ cups powdered sugar
  • ½ cup cornstarch
  • 2½ cups all-purpose flour
  • ½ cup unsweetened cocoa
  • To decorate: your choice of chopped peanuts, sprinkles, chocolate icing or ganache
Instructions
  1. PEANUT BUTTER DOUGH:
  2. In a large mixing bowl (a sturdy stand mixer is best) beat butter, peanut butter, egg yolk, vanilla, and milk (or water) together well.
  3. Add the powdered sugar and cornstarch and beat on low until incorporated.
  4. Gradually add the flour. This is a very stiff dough! It will appear crumbly, but with thorough beating, should come together. If it doesn't, drizzle in a small amount of milk or water.
  5. Wrap and refrigerate dough. Scrape bowl out and use for the chocolate dough.
  6. CHOCOLATE COOKIE DOUGH
  7. In large bowl, beat butter, egg yolk, vanilla, and water (or coffee) together well.
  8. Add the powdered sugar and cornstarch and beat on low until incorporated.
  9. Combine the flour and cocoa and gradually add, mixing until dough forms. If necessary, drizzle in a very small amount of water or coffee.
  10. Wrap and refrigerate both doughs for 30 minutes. If you refrigerate the dough longer, it will become very stiff. If that happens, let it rest at room temperature until manageable.
  11. Heat oven to 350 F.
  12. Working with a small piece of one color at a time, roll ¼ inch thick on lightly floured surface or between sheets of parchment. Bake on ungreased baking sheet or on parchment for approximately 10 minutes, depending on the size and shape of your cookies. They should just be beginning brown on the bottom. Here are some ideas:
  13. Try using two different sizes of the same shape of cutter. If using hearts, cut large hearts out of both doughs, then use a smaller heart cutter in the center of half of the large hearts. Gently press a shape with the center removed onto a solid shape. Once baked, fill the center with chocolate ganache or peanut butter icing. You can also marble the colors, roll, and cut. Or try putting a small heart on a large one, topping with a dab of peanut butter, and covering with another large heart, creating a small raised heart in the center. Cover cooled cookie with icing or ganache. Or cut small hearts out of the center of large hearts to create heart "frames". cut one on the side, and slip the other through the cut. Press lighlty for a 2 heart "chain".
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Some of the ideas I tried:

Triple layer cookies. (Okay, if you count the peanut butter I guess they’re quadruple layered.)

A layer of peanut butter dough, a small chocolate heart, a dollop of peanut butter, and top with another layer of peanut butter dough. Or reverse the colors.

See? This one was chocolate, a small peanut butter center, peanut butter, and chocolate.

Drizzle or cover with ganache or chocolate icing, and sprinkle with chopped peanuts

Or, these are fun!

A solid bottom with a cutout top. Once cool, fill with ganache or add a candy center

You can also link two cutout hearts together:

Or . . . the easiest idea of all is to simply combine the two doughs to create a marbled effect:

So many ways to play with this dough, and I’ll bet if you have littles in the kitchen, they will get very creative!

This is it for Valentine’s Day recipes for the year, and you know what that means, right? Everything green is coming your way soon.

Lorinda