White Chocolate Popcorn Balls (or...Easter Eggs!)

This is an adaptation of a recipe some of my Culinary Arts students tested and promoted for the "Good Citizens" treats we make and send to the elementary school at the end of each month (http://www.marthastewart.com/339168/popcorn-balls  ...with a few adaptations). Since Easter comes early this year, we added some food coloring, substituted some rainbow nonpareil "sprinkles" instead of the almonds (one of the 8 common allergens, and generally avoided in school snacks for groups of students). Achieving a true egg-shape is a challenge, especially working fairly quickly to get the entire batch shaped before the marshmallow-chocolate mixture cools too much. But I think the elementary students -- who are not severe critics to begin with -- will enjoy them!

Yield: about 56 (or so says Martha...but only if you make bite-sized tiny balls)

Ingredients
4 quarts popped popcorn
oil for popping
 tsp salt
3 Tbls unsalted butter
10 oz marshmallows
6 oz white chocolate
1/3 C sliced almonds (we used rainbow nonpareil 'sprinkles')
non-stick cooking spray
optional: food coloring

Directions
Pop popcorn in a large sauce pan or stock pot (with a lid): Using jut enough oil to coat the bottom of the pan, add corn kernels over medium-high heat; swirl and shake frequently to avoid burning. Sprinkle popcorn with salt. (Remove unpopped kernels.)

Melt butter in large pan over low heat. Add marshmallows and chocolate, stirring until melted. If desired, add a few drops of food coloring.

Remove from heat; quickly stir in almonds and popcorn and then nonpareils. Shape into balls (or semi egg shaped oblongs!) J  Transfer to baking sheet lined with parchment paper; let stand 30 minutes. We didn't find the parchment paper to be necessary, but it does make for easy clean-up.

Can be stored airtight up to 1 day.

Fried Cabbage with Bacon, Onion & Garlic

Fried cabbage...not necessarily high on my list. But bacon makes everything better! And onion and garlic round out the flavors. I'll post the recipe as I first found it; however... I could do with less salt, especially with the saltiness of the bacon, and I had no garlic powder on hand, but threw in a good amount of fresh minced garlic. I also felt the end product was a bit overcooked. I'd like my cabbage to be tender, but still have a little crunch to it. But I suppose that's easy to suit your personal taste.

Ingredients
6 slices bacon, chopped
1 large onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 large head cabbage, cored and sliced
1 T salt, or to taste
1 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/8 tsp paprika

Directions
Place bacon in large stockpot; cook over medium-high heat until crispy (approx 10 min). Add onion and garlic; cook, stirring frequently, until onion caramelizes (approx 10 min more). Immediately stir in cabbage; continue to cook and stir another 10 minutes. Season with salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, and paprika. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer, stirring occasionally, approx 30 minutes more.

Sweet Potato Fritters

Ingredients:
1 lb sweet potatoes (about 2½ C)
1 egg
¼ C brown sugar
2 T butter
1 C flour
¼ C fine dry bread crumbs
2 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
vegetable oil for deep frying

Directions:
Peel sweet potatoes, cut into ½" pieces. Boil in large stockpot 12-15 minutes until very tender. Drain; cool slightly. Combine sweet potatoes, egg, and brown sugar, blending until smooth. (Using a food processor makes this quick and easy, but it's not necessary.)

In separate bowl, combine flour bread crumbs, baking powder and salt. Add to sweet potato mixture, blending until just combined.

In a large heavy saucepan, heat 1" oil to 350˚. Drop batter by heaping tablespoons into hot oil. Fry in batches about 2 minutes, turning once, or until fritters are golden. Remove with a slotted spoon; drain on paper towels.


These are tasty as a savory appetizer or side dish (serve with a yogurt-garlic-chive dipping sauce*), or dust with powdered sugar for a beignet/doughnut-like bite of sweet.
* 6 oz of yogurt with a tablespoon of minced fresh chives and clove of garlic

Basic Meringue

Ingredients
4 egg whites, room temperature
½ tsp cream of tartar
¼ tsp salt
2¼ C powdered sugar
optional: food coloring

Directions
Preheat oven to 250˚. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

Beat egg whites, cream of tartar and salt in large bowl with mixer on medium speed until foamy. Increase speed and beat until thick and opaque (about 1 minute more). Gradually add powdered sugar a little (¼ C) at a time; beat until stiff shiny peaks form (about 5 more minutes).

Scoop or pipe meringue into desired shapes and bake about 3 hours (4 for larger/thicker shapes) until dry and crisp. Let cool completely on baking sheets. Store in airtight container in dry place for up to 1 week.

Lots of ways to serve these... color with food coloring and pipe into various shapes, sandwich two cookies with jam, dust with cocoa powder, fold in chocolate chips just before piping and baking, dip bottoms in melted white chocolate and then in colored sanding sugar...

Honey - Peach & Blackberry Cobbler

Ingredients
2¼ C flour, divided
8 C chopped, peeled peaches (about 4 lbs)
¼ C honey
3 T fresh lemon juice
¼ tsp salt, divided
3 C blackberries
¾ C sugar
1 T lemon zest
1 tsp baking powder
6 T chilled butter, small diced
1¼ C low-fat buttermilk
2 T turbinado sugar
cooking spray

Directions
Preheat oven to 400˚. Lightly coat 9x13 baking dish with non-stick cooking spray.

Combine ¼ C flour, peaches, honey, juice, and ¼ tsp salt in a large bowl, toss gently. Let stand 15 minutes. Fold in blackberries. Spoon mixture into baking dish.

Combine 2 C flour, ½ tsp salt, sugar, zest, and baking powder. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add buttermilk; stir until just combined.

Drop dough onto top of peach-blackberry mixture. Sprinkle with turbinado sugar. Bake 40 minutes or until bubbly and golden.

Soft Pretzels

 This recipe (a slight adaptation of FoodNetwork's version) makes a dozen LARGE pretzels, or 2 dozen smaller pretzels or pretzel 'knots'. (See lower photo.) For the knots, I used  half whole wheat flour; some are simply lightly salted, some I topped with shredded cheese, some I brushed with honey butter and sprinkled with toasted sesame seeds. Lots of options...

Ingredients
3 T butter, cubed, then softened
2 T butter, melted
2 T dk brown sugar
1 pkg (2¼ tsp) active dry yeast
6 C flour
2 tsp salt
1/3 C baking soda
coarse salt for sprinkling on pretzels
mustard, for dipping

Directions
In bowl of stand mixer, combine 2 C warm water, cubed butter, and brown sugar. Sprinkle yeast on top; let stand 10 minutes.

Add 3 C flour and 2 tsp salt; mix on low speed using dough hook; increase speed to medium as flour incorporates. Return to low speed; add remaining 3 C flour. As flour incorporates, increase speed to
medium, mixing until dough leaves sides of bowl and balls around dough hook. Continue kneading -- in mixer or by hand -- 5 minutes or until smooth and elastic.

Coat a large bowl with oil; add dough, turning to coat. Cover with plastic wrap; let rise in a warm place until doubled (about 1 hour).

Line baking sheets with parchment paper, lightly coat with non-stick cooking spray. Punch down dough. Divide in half; divide each half into 6 equal pieces.

Roll out each piece of dough into a 'rope'...work on flat surface, start in middle roll out to 24"; occasionally lift dough by ends, slapping middle against the counter to stretch evenly. Lay rope in a 'U' then cross ends twice and fold ends downward to create pretzel shape. Gently place on prepared baking sheet. Repeat with all 12 pieces.

Loosely cover with plastic wrap and let stand at room temperature 30 minutes; pretzels should be slightly puffed.

Preheat oven to 425˚.

Cut parchment into separate 'squares' around each pretzel*; remove from baking sheets. Reline sheets with parchment. Fill a wide pot with 6 C water. Add baking soda, whisking to dissolve; bring to simmer. Using parchment, gently transfer pretzels into simmering water*; simmer until pretzels plump (about 45 seconds per side). Remove with a skimmer or slotted spoon, letting excess water drain off. Place on parchment lined baking sheets. Sprinkle with salt.

Bake until golden brown (12 to 15 minutes). Rotate, upper to lower rack, half way through when cooking two trays. Brush with melted butter. Serve with mustard for dipping.

* As BIG as these pretzels are, the parchment paper squares really did help transferring them from one surface to another and into the simmering water bath. With the smaller 'knots' I was able to do it easily enough by hand.

Hummus Stuffed Zucchini with Tomato & Basil

Serves 6-8 (appetizer portions)

Ingredients
3 medium (or 4 small) zucchini
10 oz hummus
2 C cherry tomatoes (red or yellow)
¼ C red onion, thinly sliced
2 T fresh basil, chiffonade
2 T olive oil
2 t red wine vinegar
¼ C panko breadcrumbs
salt & pepper to taste

Directions
Preheat oven to 350˚.

Trim zucchini ends and slice in half lengthwise. Place zucchini in baking dish, flesh side up, with a little water in the bottom; bake 20 minutes or until inner flesh is softened.

As zucchini cooks, halve tomatoes; toss together with onion, basil, 1 T of olive oil, and red wine vinegar. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Remove zucchini from oven; cool as needed until handleable. Scoop out inner, seeded flesh of zucchini; discard or reserve for another use. Spoon hummus into hollowed out zucchini halves*. Top with tomato mixture. Sprinkle panko crumbs over top and lightly drizzle with remaining olive oil.

Return to oven for 10 minutes, using broiler for final 3 minutes to slightly brown tops.

Best served warm.

* If I was making a larger quantity of these, using a pastry bag to pipe the hummus into the zucchini halves would be quicker and easier -- and easier to be neat for a tidier presentation; but for just a few, it's probably not worth the trouble.

South African Melktert (Milk Tart)

Of Dutch influence, there are various versions/recipes of this African dessert -- basically a vanilla 'cream'/milk pie. Here's a very typical recipe from food.com. My World Lit students are just finishing up our African Literature unit and this was on the menu as part of the celebration.

Without the support of a Culinary Arts class this semester, I used store bought pie crusts. I'd prefer homemade, but there's only so much I have time for as we're nearing finals.

JULY 2017 Update:
Here's another melktert recipe. Probably a bit more authentic...a South African family's recipe.

Chocolate Thumbprint Cookies with Caramel and Sea Salt

It's hard to go far wrong with chocolate and caramel. These were in Sunset magazine's Christmas cookie collection this year...though I wouldn't limit these to Christmas. The cookies were a little dense - with no leavening in the recipe, that could be an easy fix by adding a teaspoon of baking powder. Either that or tweak it for a chewier cookie! :)

Sunset magazine - full recipe.

Since I planned to roll mine in sugar (no reason except that I like the look of it), I reduced the sugar in the dough to 1/2 cup.

Danish Salted-Butter Cookies

If you're going to decorate and cover them with icing and sprinkles, save yourself the trouble and just go for regular sugar cookies. But if the cookies are to be the main focus, these are worth the extra effort!

Thanks to Bon Appetit for the recipe.

I did find that mine -- even though I felt I was rolling them a little thin -- took longer than the 10-15 minutes to cook to really delicious, golden brown, light and crispy, buttery cookies...about 20.

Quinoa Bark

My World Lit students are currently in our African literature unit reading Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart. At one point, the tribe rejoices as locusts 'invade' -- ready to be roasted for a tasty, crunchy treat. I often provide ethnic dishes for the students to try, and they jokingly asked in class about the possibility, including comments of "I'd maybe try them...if they were chocolate covered!" 

Well, culinary grade locusts are hard to come by here (not that I've ever given it any serious effort!!) but when I saw chocolate quinoa bark in this month's Cooking Light, I thought it would be fun to see if my students would eat a roasted, crunchy, chocolate covered snack...before I told them exactly what it was. :)

1/2 C uncooked quinoa
1/3 C turbinado sugar
7 oz dark chocolate
1/4 tsp sea salt

Photo and complete recipe from Cooking Light this month.

Sweet Potato & Sausage Strata

1) My culinary students will be making stratas in class this week -- choosing their meat & veggie add-ins.  2) I had leftover wheat rolls from Thanksgiving dinner; and extra sweet potato. 3) This month's Cooking Light magazine (December 2015) had a recipe for Sweet Potato & Sausage Strata.  All that combined to inspire my own strata this morning...largely based on the Cooking Light add-ins -- I added some caramelized onions as well.

I don't do the Black Friday shopping frenzy. My tradition on Black Friday is to decorate for Christmas. So...my tree and twinkle light garlands are up around the house, potted paper whites (planted over a week ago) are beginning to push up green shoots promising fragrant white blossoms soon, pine and cinnamon scented candles are burning, and cozy Christmas pillows and throws are invitingly tucked on the couch and my Christmas books are calling. Christmas music (and the sound of the furnace blowing) are all calling me to enjoy this tasty breakfast on this Sunday morning.