Mango Chutney Almond Milk Rolls マンゴーチャツネとアーモンドミルクロール

This is another example of my wife’s major morphing of a recipe into her own version. She saw the sweet roll recipe in Washington Post which used almond milk, marmalade filling, orange juice and  orange zest for glaze. Since we did not have Almond milk we ended up making it, although in retrospect, we are not sure why the recipe even calls for Almond milk. We had marmalade but did not have orange zest or orange juice. So my wife used Major grey’s mango chutney instead of marmalade and omitted the orange juice. Since she had some sweetened condensed milk left over from making milk bread she decided to use that in the filling too. This is quite different from the original recipe but when substitution of ingredients is needed, my wife is very inventive. The mango chutney worked very well. In any case, this roll is very tender and slightly sweet and perfect for breakfast.

Ingredients:
For the dough
3 1/2 cups flour, plus more as needed for rolling the dough
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp. Salt
2 1/4 yeast
2 1/2 cups almond milk (not sure why almond milk is required next time I’ll just use regular milk)
4 Tbs. Salted butter
1 egg

For the filling:
30-50 grams sweetened condensed milk
30 grams butter softened
2 tsp sugar
3 Tbs. Major Grey’s mango chutney

Directions:
Add the dry ingredients; flour through yeast to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook. Add the wet ingredients; almond milk through egg. Mix until smooth dough forms. Knead for 10 minutes. Turn out onto floured surface and shape into a loaf. Put in a bowl, coat the surface with vegetable oil. Cover and put in the dough proofer at 78 degrees until doubled in size. Punch down the dough. Cover and let rest for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile make the filling by mixing together the ingredients for the filling. Roll out the dough into a large rectangle (#1). Cover the rectangle with the filling then roll it up as tightly as possible without squeezing out the filling (#2). Cut the roll into 14 to 16 equal slices. Put the slices cut edge down in a greased pyrex cooking dish. (Note: it is rather hard to cut the slices; they tend to squish. Out of frustration I just made the last part of the dough into a loaf and cooked it on a small cookie sheet. (I did not take a picture of this.) The loaf turned out just fine and could be cut into slices after it was baked. I might do this in the future instead of trying to make the rolls. ) Bake in a 375 degree oven for 20 to 25 minutes until golden brown (#3, #4).

These muffins were quite good. The dough had a crunchy crust but a soft interior. The filling formed a light custard like texture which was slightly sweet but with a lovely hint of spice from the chutney. Several large pieces of mango from the chutney provide a moist surprise burst of flavor. These were perfect flavorful pastries to have for breakfast with coffee.

Almond Milk アーモンドミルク

This is an offshoot from my wife’s baking project. We never took interest in non-dairy milk except for soy milk (to make tofu). While she was pondering what to bake (not because we need more baked goods but just because she likes baking), she came across a sweet rolls recipe in the Washington Post but the ingredients included “Almond milk” and “orange juice and zest” (in the glaze), both of which we did not have. So, using her inventive mind, my wife decided to “make” almond milk (since we had almonds in the freezer) and “substitute” other ingredients for the orange juice and zest and omit the orange juice. We never had or even tasted almond milk but quickly found several recipes for home-made almond milk on the internet. We deviated a bit but in the end, we came up with a white liquid that was completely tasteless. (It didn’t even taste of almonds.) We could not figure out why the recipe called for almond milk instead of cow’s milk. The recipe also called for butter and eggs so it was not a vegan recipe. In any case, the below is the almond milk we made. If you are to drink this, certainly, some sweetener such as honey and a flavoring such vanilla may be needed…otherwise drink water. Thinking that  maybe our homemade version was lacking while the commercial version might be better, we subsequently got a commercial unsweetened Almond milk. Although it was indeed unsweetened as advertised, some vanilla flavoring had clearly been added to this product. If not for the vanilla, it too would have been totally flavorless. So our home-made almond milk was not off the target. I wondered if besides avoiding cow’s milk for a lactose intolerance or some other reason, there is any advantage using Almond milk in bakiing.

This is based on many recipes available on line. The basic recipe is to soak the almonds in water overnight. Drain, add more water and grind it in a high-speed blender and strain/press it to remove the pulp. It appears there are two types of recipes; one is grind the almond with skin on another is removing the skin after soaking over-night and then grinding it. The latter produces a minimum amount of plup residue. Since we had skin removed and slivered almond in the freezer, we decided to use this.

Ingredients:
1 cup almond, skin less and slivered (picture below)
2 cups water

Directions:
Soak the almond overnight in water
Drain the water
Place the almond and the water in a blender (we used Vitamix on the highest speed) for 2-3 minutes

This produced a rather thick almond milk with a good amount of pulp which was creamy. The recipe we saw added 2 more cups of water and blended it again.  Many recipes call for a pinch of salt. Since we were going to use it for baking we did not add more water or salt.

As metioned before, this is rather tasteless. Beside keeping the dishes vegan, we just did not see the point of Almond milk.

Root Vegetable Stew 根菜の煮しめ

“Nishime” or “Nitsuke” 煮付け, 煮しめ is a type of traditional Japanese cooking method in which food items are simmered in seasoned broth. I have posted many variations mainly based on what was simmered in the seasoned broth. I understand that there are differences between “Nishime” and “Nituske” but that is too esoteric for me. The broth can be based on either vegetarian (kelp, dried mushroom and vegetables) or more commonly including  bonito flakes, kelp, and other dried fish. The basic seasonings are soy sauce, mirin, sake or sometimes sugar. Food items in nitsuke could be vegetables especially root vegetables, mushrooms, fish cakes, tofu, chicken or fish. I made this because I had a package of boiled renkon lotus root 蓮根 which I needed to use. I also got assorted frozen fish cakes for oden and boiled frozen “satoimo” 里芋 taro root (this is the first time I got this, I usually get fresh ones and prepare them myself) and also a package of “shirataki” noodles tied into a knot called “musubi-shirataki” 結び白滝.  Using these ingredients, I made this without much effort. It was nothing special but a homey, gentle and comforting dish. The picture below shows daikon (left), renkon (center), satoimo (bottom left), fish cake (bottom righ). I also added blanched green beans and carrot.

The layer below shows three different kinds of fish cakes (straight chikuwa ちくわ), chikuwa with squid ika-chikuwa イカちくわ, ganmodoki がんもどき(all cut in half) and a knot of shirataki “musubi-shirataki 結び白滝”. Please notice, the taro “satoimo” is perfectly shaped since this is frozen packaged one.

Using prepared vegetables and assorted fish cakes, makes it much easier to make this dish. Beside using prepackaged items, the recipe is essentially the same as I previously posted.

Udon and Shrimp Stir-fry エビ入り焼きうどん

This an impromptu stir fry of udon noodles or “Yaki-udon” 焼きうどん I made for a lunch one day since we had cooked udon noodles. We did not have a protein readily available (we had frozen chicken and pork but they would have required time to defrost). So, I decided to use frozen shrimp which can be thawed quickly. In addition, since we had home pasteurized eggs, I added a fried egg with a runny yolk. This was not based on any recipe but it came out OK.

The egg could have been a bit less cooked but it had a somewhat running yolk. I seasoned the dish with oyster sauce and soy sauce. The oyster sauce (Kikoman brand) was a bit on the sweet side but it tasted pretty good.

This is not really a recipe but just a record of what I did. I just used what ever vegetables were available in the fridge.

Ingredients (for 2 servings):
One bundle of dry udon noodles, cooked according to the package instruction
6 shrimp, thawed, shelled, seasoned with salt and coated with potato starch
One medium onion, thinly sliced
Several leaves of cabbage, cut into small rectangles
5-6 green beans, blanched, cut into 1 inch segments
1 tsp chopped garlic
1 tsp chopped ginger
1 tbs peanut oil and 1/2 tsp dark sesame oil
1 tbs oyster sauce
1 tbs soy sauce

1 tbs dried “aonori” 青のり powdered seaweed for garnish
Two pasteurized eggs, salt and pepper to taste and olive oil for frying

Directions:
Heat a wok and add the peanut and sesame oil, cook the shrimp, 30 seconds on each side, set aside
Add more oil and cook the ginger and garlic. Stir for a few seconds, add the onion and cabbage, cook 1-2 minutes or until the vegetables are soft.
Add the noodles (you may want to add a small amount of water), stir until warmed.
Add back the cooked shrimp
Add the oyster and soy sauce and stir for one more minute

In another frying pan on medium flame, add the olive oil and the eggs. Cook until the edges get slightly browned, place the lid on, cut the flame and let it steep for 1 minute.

Serve the noodles and shrimp and garnish with the aonori (You could also add pickled ginger and sesame seeds) and top with the fried egg.

Cookie Butter Swirls クッキーバターバンズ

Since we got Brod and Taylor’s folding proofer for bread, we are on their mailing list which includes new products and recipes. One of these had a recipe for a lemon and poppy seed buns. The appearance of the buns was very similar to the Swedish cardamon buns that my wife baked sometime ago. So, I drew my wife’s attention to this recipe. She was not crazy about the lemon poppy seed filling. She immediately thought of using the left-over “cookie butter” she made. (First she had excess chocolate covered cookies to use up. Now she had excess chocolate covered cookie butter to use up.) So instead of using the lemon poppy seed filling called for in the recipe, she decided to use the excess cookie butter she had as the filling. She then used the same technique of forming the buns that she used for the Swedish cardamon buns. The result was this elegant looking and good tasting sweet buns/swirls.

Ingredients (makes 12 buns):
Dough
120g (½ cup) Milk (my wife used 1/4 cups evaporated milk, since she had it, and 1/4 cup regular milk)
120g (½ cup) Yogurt, plain unsweetened
2 Eggs (one whole egg + an egg yolk for the dough and the egg white for an egg wash on the final buns.)
45g (3 tbsp + 2 tsp) Sugar
6g (2 tsp) Instant yeast
85g (6 tbsp) Butter, softened
420g (3 ½ cup) All-purpose flour
5g (1 tsp) Fine salt

Filling
370 g Cookie butter (This used up all the available cookie butter)

Glaze
The egg white from the separated egg above.
Sugar

Directions:
Set up the proofer
Set the proofer to 78°F (25°C) and put the water tray in the middle of the warming plate. Pour ¼ cup (60 ml) of water into the tray and place the rack on top of the tray.

Mix the dough:
Using a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook, combine the flour, yeast, sugar and salt in the bowl of the mixer. In a separate bowl, mix the milk, yogurt, and egg, until well combined. Add the wet mixture to the dry. Add the butter. Mix on low speed for 2 to 3 minutes until no dry remains and the butter in incorporated. Turn to medium speed and mix for 7 to 10 minutes until the ingredients form a smooth elastic dough.

1st fermentation: Transfer the dough to a greased bowl and place in the Folding Proofer for 1 to 1 ½ hours until doubled in size.

Roll the dough:
Turn the dough out onto a floured surface. Roll into a rectangle measuring about 10.5" x 16" (27 x 40cm).
With the dough facing you lengthwise, spread filling over the entire surface of the dough.
Spread the cookie butter in a thin layer (#1)
Fold the dough into thirds like a letter. To do so, take the left side and fold it in toward the center. Take the right third of the dough and fold in to the center on top of the fold just made.
Refrigerate it for about 15 minutes which will make it easier to cut and shape.
Roll the dough out again to a 16.5" x 8.5" (42 x 22cm) rectangle (#2). Do the letter fold again and re-roll it out to 16.5” x 8.5” again.
Line two sheet pans with parchment paper. Set aside.
Cut the dough into 12 strips. To do this, mark the dough with 3 lines making 4 section. Then mark each of these 4 sections with 2 lines making a total of 12 sections. Then go back and cut the entire length of the dough where marked (#2). Take one dough strip and twist each end in opposite directions until the entire strip is twisted (#3).
Starting at one end coil the strip to form a circular bun, tucking the tail underneath (#4).
Place on the prepared pan. Repeat until all 12 buns are shaped and placed 6 on each of the 2 trays (#4). (The buns are placed 6 to a tray and each tray is cooked individually. This allows each bun to receive even heat and expand without touching another bun).

Final proof: The cookie sheets do not fit in the proofer. Cover it with a plastic wrap, and place the trays on the towel so they are not resting on the cold table top. Cover with another towel. Allow the buns to rise for about 1 hour.

Glaze the surface: First paint on the egg white then sprinkle on the sugar
Near the end of the proofing time preheat the oven to 375° (190°C).
Bake: Bake the buns at 375°F (190°C) for 18-20 minutes (#6).

My wife is really getting good at forming these swirl/buns. Her idea of using the cookie butter (this is made of chocolate cover cookies) really worked. The buns were sweet but not too sweet with a subtle chocolate flavor and slightly crunchy surface and soft inside.

Miso-marinated Sable Fish 銀鱈の味噌焼き

This is the second dish I made using the sable fish (black cod) or gindara 銀鱈 we got from Vital choice. The last time, I made “Nitsuke” 煮付け, simmered in soy sauce-based broth.  So this time, I made “miso-yaki 味噌焼き. I marinated the fish in a miso and mirin mixture before cooking. Unlike Japanese households where full-size ovens are rare but almost all kitchen stoves have a special fish grill*, we do not have one. Using the broiling element on the regular oven or toaster oven is feasible but it tends to make smoke and the splatters from the fish as it cooks making the inside of the oven dirty. So I decided to try using non-stick aluminum foil on a dry frying pan. This way I would not need to use any oil to prevent the fish from sticking to the pan and I thought this would best emulate grilling, which sort of worked.

*Japanese “gas stove” is called “Gasu-konro” ガスコンロ. “Konro” appears to have originated from a Chinese word 火炉. Japanese gasu-konro almost always have a grilling unit which is optimized for grilling fish with minimal smoke and grills both sides of the fish at once.

I served the fish with a Japanese “dashi-maki” だし巻き omelet and stir fried asparagus and shiitake mushroom seasoned with the same marinate I used for the fish. We also had freshly cooked rice. This fish is amazing. So soft, moist, flakey with a lot of oil. The skin did not get crispy like salmon but was quite good.

Ingredients:

2 filets of “gin-dara” sable fish, skin on, thawed

White miso and mirin mixture (about 1:1 ratio) for the marinade

Directions:

Smear the marinade on a sheet of plastic wrap, place the fish in the center the skin side up, smear the marinade on the skin side and wrap (#1), refrigerate for several hours

Unwrap and remove the marinade (either scrape off using a silicon spatula or wash and pat dry with paper towel) (#2)

Place a sheet of non-stick aluminum foil on a stainless steel frying pan on medium low flame and place the fish skin side down (#3) without added oil or liquid

Put on the lid and cook for 5 minutes or until the fish is 80% done (the meat side becomes opaque) (#3)

Flip it over and cook the meat side for 1 minute (#4)

I flipped it over again in an attempt make the skin crispy (#5) but, in retrospect, this is not needed.

Meanwhile, in a separate frying pan, I sautéed the finely chopped shallot, asparagus and shiitake mushroom in olive oil and seasoned with the above miso marinade (#6)

We think that sable fish (gin-dara 銀鱈) and Chilean sea bass or Patagonian tooth fish (gin-mutsu 銀むつ) are two of the best fish especially in the category of  “white meat fish”. Sable fish “nitsuke 煮付け” and “miso-yaki” are both excellent but nitsuke may have a slight edge especially when enjoyng with white rice since the simmering liquid is perfect to season the rice.

Crab Cake with Shrimp Mousse エビ入りクラブケーキ

We really like  crab cakes and make them every-now-and-then.  We bought an 8oz container of pasteurized lump crab meat some time ago and decided to make a crab cake (other choices would include a California roll or cream crab croquet). I usually make crab cakes without using much in the way of binders (just mayo, Dijon mustard and a small amount of bread crumbs). My philosophy is the less binders/fillers the better to let the taste of the crab shine through.  But sometimes this technique makes it difficult for the crab cakes to keep their shape while cooking (especially flipping). I remembered seeing a recipe using shrimp meat (mousse) as a binder. I looked for the recipe and came across a video from America’s test kitchen demonstrating how to use shrimp as a binder for crab cake. As usual, I made some modifications but we really like this version of crab cake. You do not taste the shrimp and the crab cakes stay together without adding any unwanted texture or flavors. Of course, using a good lump crab meat is important to making a good crab cake. I served it with coleslaw I had just made and blanched rapini.

The original recipe calls for breading but I did not do that. I did, however, add a small amount of bread crumbs (panko) to the crab mixture.

Ingredients (makes 4 small cakes):
8oz (270gram) lump crab (#1)
2oz (57gram) shrimp (about 1/4 the weight of the crab), thawed and cut up into small pieces
2-3 tbs cream
1 tbs Dijon mustard
2 tbs Panko bread crumbs
1-2 tbs olive oil
1 stalk of celery, finely diced
1 small shallot, finely diced
1 small Jalapeño pepper, seeded and deveined, finely diced (optional)
1 tbs olive oil for sautéing the above
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Sauté the celery, shallot, and Jalapeño pepper in olive oil for several minutes, season with salt and pepper and set it aside to cool (#2, on the bottom of the bowl)
Add the shrimp in a small food processor (I used a cylindrical container with an immersion blender), add the cream and process to make a smooth mousse and add to the vegetables and crab meat (#3)
Add the Dijon mustard and Panko bread crumbs and gently fold to mix (#4)
Form 6 small disks (#5) and refrigerate at least 30 minutes
Cook crab cakes with olive oil on medium flame for 2 minutes for each side (#6)

This is a great recipe for making crab cakes. The shrimp moose does a good job of keeping the cakes together without adding unwanted texture or flavors. It does a better job than just mayo. We will adopt this recipe as our standard recipe for crab cakes.

Cheese Stuffed Romanian Flat Bread チーズ入りのルーマニアのパン

Although we have an “excess” of baked goods due to my wife’s baking binge (all hardships should be so easy), she saw an interesting recipe for “Cheese stuffed Romanian flat bread” on Washington Post and declared that she had to make it. Of course, nothing goes without a hitch. The recipe calls for cooking the bread in a cast iron skillet. We know we have a small and large cast-iron skillet plus a cast iron grill. We used to keep them in the drawer under the stove but since that is prime space and we were not using them much, we got organized and moved them somewhere else. For the life of us, we could not remember where “somewhere else” was and after extensive looking could not find them. Like pancakes, my wife made the dough and formed it,  I cooked the bread using a small non-stick frying pan instead of cast iron pan.

The bread looks a bit overdone but it tasted ok with a toasty flavor, crispy crust and the soft cheesy center. Despite some difficulties, I have to say this was a sucess.

As usual, my wife deviated from the original recipe.

Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups (313 grams) all-purpose flour, plus more as needed
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 1/4 teaspoons (7 grams) quick-acting or instant dry yeast
1 pinch fine salt
6 tablespoons sunflower oil or other neutral oil
1/3 + 1/2 cup milk

Filling
6 oz. Ricotta cheese (this is what my wife used)
3 Tbs. Honey
1/8 Tsp. Cayenne pepper
1/4 Tsp. Salt
6 ounces farmers cheese or cottage cheese (if using cottage cheese hang shortly in a cheese cloth to drain excess liquid).

Optional:
Honey, for drizzling
Flaky sea salt, for sprinkling (optional)

Directions:
Put the flour, yeast, salt, sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer with a dough hook. Add the oil to the milk and stir into the dry ingredients. If the mixture seems dry, add cool water, 1 teaspoon at a time; if it seems tacky, add a little more flour. Knead the dough until soft and smooth, about 10 minutes. (Cover the bowl with a clean, damp cloth and let the dough rise at room temperature for 1 hour, or until almost doubled in size. (Alternatively, cover and refrigerate the dough overnight.)

Lightly flour the work surface and turn the dough out onto it. Divide the dough into 6 equal pieces. Working with one piece at a time, roll the dough into a 10- to 12-inch-wide circle. Crumble or spread a sixth of the cheese, about 1 ounce (28 grams), in the center, leaving a 5-inch border around the cheese. Fold the sides of the round into the center in 7 to 8 folds, overlapping them slightly. The dough should cover the cheese. Then press the filled circle of dough with your hands or use a rolling pin to gently press the bread closed. Repeat with the remaining dough and cheese.

In a large, cast-iron skillet (or if you can’t find it any non-stick frying pan will do) over medium heat, heat 1 tablespoon of the oil until it shimmers. Swirl the pan so the oil coats the bottom and place one of the dough rounds in the pan. Fry until golden brown on the bottom, 2 to 4 minutes, then flip and cook until golden brown on the other side, another 2 to 4 minutes, adjusting the heat as needed. Transfer to a plate and cook the remaining dough rounds, adding more oil as needed.

Serve warm, with honey and flaky salt, if desired.

 

In the picture it looks like these became a bit “high-done” but they were nicely crunchy and had a toasty flavor. The mildly sweet and creamy ricotta cheese filling was lovely with the finely textured bread. These opened all kinds of possibilities for potential variations…think ham and cheese.

Cookie and Cream Crumb Muffin

This is another muffin made from the chocolate cookie crumbs from the chocolate covered cookies rediscovered in the pantry.

The recipe came from “Dough-eyed” website.

Ingredients: (makes 12 muffins)

For the muffins:
2 cups AP flour
2/3 cup sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
2/3 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup melted butter
1/4 cup sour cream
2 eggs
3/4 cup roughly crushed Oreos (we used our crushed chocolate covered cookies)
1/2 cup chocolate chunks (we didn’t have any so we did not include them) 

For the crumb:
1/2 cup shortening, room temp.
1 tbs. honey
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup regular sugar
2/3 cup flour
1/4 tsp. salt

(Recipe called for an additional 1/2 cup of crushed cookies. Since we didn’t have any left we did not include this.)

Directions:

For the muffins: 
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, and line a 12 -cup muffin pan with liners of choice. Set aside.
In a large bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Set aside. In a small bowl, whisk together the milk, vanilla extract, egg, melted butter, and sour cream until combined.
Pour the wet mixture into the dry mixture. Add in the crushed cookies (and chocolate chunks if using them) and stir the whole mixture together with a spatula until there are no dry pockets.
Scoop the batter evenly into your prepared tin, filling each cup about 3/4 full.

For the topping :
In a medium bowl, using your hands mix the shortening, honey, brown sugar, turbinado sugar, flour, salt and (additional crushed cookies if using them).
Evenly and generously cover each tin of muffin batter with the topping. Bake muffins for 18-20 minutes, or until just golden. A cake tester should come out clean.

These muffins were amazing and very good. The topping formed a nice crunchy crust that tasted of toasted butter and honey. The muffin was fairly firm but nicely moist. Interestingly, it tasted distinctly like the cookies we had used. In fact it tasted like the cookies in fluffy format. The chocolate flavor really came through and was very pleasant. Never would have imagined something like this. We probably prefer this rendition of crushed cookie muffins more than the cookie butter crumb version.

Cookie Butter Crumb Muffin クッキーバターマフィン

This is a continuation of my wife’s saga about finding old forgotten chocolate covered cookies in the pantry and making muffins from them. She found this recipe on the Internet. Since this recipe calls for “cookie butter”, which she did not have, she started the whole saga by making cookie butter and then proceeded to make this interesting (in a good way) muffin. 

The recipe comes from “Bake or Break”

Ingredients:
FOR THE CRUMB TOPPING:
1/2 cup (60g) all-purpose flour
1/4 cup (50g) firmly packed light brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
pinch of salt
3 tablespoons (42g) unsalted butter, cold and cut into 1/2-inch cubes

FOR THE MUFFINS:
1 3/4 cups (210g) all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup (57g) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup (100g) firmly packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup (140g) cookie butter* (such as Biscoff or Trader Joe's Speculoos Cookie Butter)
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup milk

*My wife made “cookie butter” from the chocolate cookies.

Directions:
TO MAKE THE CRUMB TOPPING:
Combine the flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt in a medium bowl.
Add the butter, and mix with your fingers until the mixture forms crumbs. Set aside.

TO MAKE THE MUFFINS: Preheat oven to 375°F. Line or grease a 12-cup standard muffin pan.
Whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
Using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat the butter, brown sugar, and cookie butter until thoroughly combined.
Add the egg and vanilla, and mix well. Add the milk and mix well.
Add the milk mixture to the flour mixture and mix until fully blended.
Scoop the batter into the muffin tins using a 3 tablespoon scoop (I used the second largest ice cream scoop).
Distribute the crumb topping over the muffin batter.
Bake 20 to 25 minute, or until the muffins are lightly browned and a tester inserted into the center comes out clean.Cool the muffins in the pan for 10 minutes. Then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.

I’m not sure what we expected from these muffins but they were quite good. The topping formed a crunchy crust and the muffins were very tender in texture and pleasantly sweet. Interestingly, the cookie flavor was completely nonexistent. If you were not told, you would never guess cookies were involved in the muffin. I may have detected a slight hint of chocolate but the predominant flavor was cinnamon. Amazing!

Home-made Cookie Butter クッキーバター

Some time ago, we were into chocolate covered cookies; first from GODIVA and then we found a much cheaper alternative made by a German company called Bahlsen (#1, in the composite below). But over time both these kinds of cookies were sort of forgotten and migrated to the very back of the pantry. Recently, my wife found a tin of Godiva with some chocolate cookies remaining and few boxes of Bahlsen’s. We tasted them and, surprisingly, both tasted perfectly OK despite their age. My wife remembered that some time ago while leafing through the La Brea Bakery pastry cookbook there was a reference to using stale brownies, chocolate Madeleines or chocolate cake scraps and grinding them into crumbs to use as the filling in Bobka pastries such as Russian coffee cake or chocolate armadillos. She thought, ‘why not use these cookies the same way for muffins or other baked goods’.  So she started looking on the internet for recipes using cookie crumbs in muffins. She found several. Most of them used Oreo cookies but she thought, ‘substituting chocolate covered cookies should work too.’ Then she saw that the recipe she wanted to use called for “Cookie butter”. Well she didn’t have cookie butter and thought her project was “dead-in-the-water”. Then she found a recipe on line for home-made cookie butter and she was “back-in-business”.  But, before she could make the muffin she had to make the cookie butter. Since this was a work in progress we did not take a picture of the final product but the one below is very close. Cookie butters appear to be made from different kinds of cookies such as sugar cookie, peanut butter cookie, or Oreo cookie . Since this was made from chocolate covered cookies, this must be  “chocolate cookie butter”. 

The recipe is from  the “Beautiful Mess” website with some modifications. (As always)

Ingredients:
2 cups cookie crumbs (we used a chocolate covered cookie from Bhalsen called “Afrika”) (#1)
½ stick butter
½ cup condensed milk sweetened
¼ cup milk evaporated
water as needed

Directions:
Place the cookies in a Ziploc bag, seal, and crush them using a meat pounder. (#2) (We found the food processor couldn’t handle the cookies whole…it’s demonstration of displeasure with the situation was quite impressive!) Place the crumbled cookies into the food processor and pulse until it forms a very fine powder (#3).
In a small saucepan, heat the butter over low heat until melted, and then stir in the sweetened condensed milk and evaporated milk until it’s all melted together (#4).
Starting with 1/2 cup of the liquid, pour it into your cookie crumbs and mix together with a spoon.
Keep adding small amounts of the liquid until the cookie butter is just wet enough to stay together (the first picture).

(The below are direct quote from the original recipe)
“Once your cookie butter is blended, allow it to cool in the fridge for an hour or two. If you want to, you can actually stop at this point, and it will taste delicious. But if you want to make the cookie butter smoother and easier to dip things in, then remove the cookie butter from the fridge and stir very small amounts of water (start with 1/8 teaspoon) into the dough. At first it will look like the water is separating from the dough, but just keep stirring and mashing. You should start to notice that the cookie butter loosens up a bit as you stir in more water. Keep adding and stirring until you get to a consistency you like and refrigerate the mixture again.  Store your cookie butter in the fridge and it should be good for at least a week or two.”




In any case, we have not used the cookie butter as a spread yet but it tasted rather good. We found out that our regular grocery store carries “Lotus Biscoff” cookie butter. We ordered it and will compare it with the one my wife just made. 

This just in: The“Lotus Biscoff” cookie butter arrived and we tasted it. As you can see in the picture above that it looks like peanut butter but tastes like….wait for it….a butter cookie!!

Four Salad Lunch 4種類サラダランチ

I made 4 different salads (not all on the same day) and had the 4 salads for lunch with a cold asparagus soup. We also had a small piece of “Not no-knead bread made with dried fruit”. We feel good about the fact that all salads, soup and bread were home-made. In the center of the four salads, I served snap peas which were blanched and then soaked in Japanese salt broth.

The picture below shows Israeli couscous with artichoke hearts and garbanzo beans with a nice lemony and dill dressing.

The pic below shows a celery, mushroom, and navy bean salad with feta cheese. The mushrooms make the salad. They gave an almost meaty texture and flavor.

The next is a curry flavored sous vide chicken salad. Since we had a nice ripe Champagne mango, I added small cubes of mango which went very well with this salad.

I made this udon noodle salad since I had left-over cooked udon noodles.  The dressing is sesame-flavored. I do make several versions of the sesame dressing (for example, using Japanese “nerigoma” ねりごま sesame paste or peanut butter) but this time I used Tahini with dry roasted white sesame seeds which I ground in a Japanese “suribachi” すり鉢 mortar. Other seasonings included soy sauce, sugar, and rice vinegar.

This was a surprisingly filling lunch. Beans, udon noodles, and couscous all contribute to this and, at the same time, we enjoyed so many different flavors and textures. We just have to make sure we finish all these salads before they go bad.