Chocolate-Covered Strawberry Cream Tart Cookies

The Setting: A lovely Valentine's Eve in chilly Indiana.

The Soundtrack: Gilmore Girls, season 5.

Steaming up the Oven: Bread.

The Scenario: A bite-sized treat to make your V-Day extra sweet.

So I've been fantasizing about these little tarts for a while now.

Initially, they were conceived more as mini-tarts than tart-like cookies. The cream layer was conceived as pastry cream, and the jam layer was supposed to be homemade strawberry jam.

I'm not gonna lie, the original concept still sounds pretty darn good.

But when it came time to finally give these little guys a shot, I couldn't find my pastry cream recipe, and I was was all out of homemade jam. I considered making more jam and going from spotty memory on the pastry cream, but store-bought jam and a no-fool, no-cook cream just sounded, well, easier.

The end result was a more cookie-like creation that could hang out longer at room temperature and be eaten with a few fewer napkins. I'll call that a win.

Chocolate-Covered Strawberry Cream Tart Cookies
These little cookie tarts use the same cream filling as my Homemade Oreos and Homemade Oatmeal Creme Pies. For a different twist, try adding the seeds of a vanilla bean to the filling and substituting orange marmalade for the strawberry jam. 

~tart shells~
1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
7 T powdered sugar
1 tsp fine salt
1 1/2 sticks (12 T) unsalted butter, cut into cm-sized cubes and frozen for at least 5 minutes
2 T heavy cream
2-4 T water, milk, or coconut milk

~fillings~
1 batch Oatmeal Creme Pie cream, shaped into a log with a 1 1/2-to-2-inch diameter
3/4 cup strawberry jam

~topping~
3/4 cup heavy whipping cream
1 T coconut oil
1 T light corn syrup
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips (I used Nestle)
2 T chopped unsweetened chocolate (I used Ghirardelli)

To make the tart shells, process the flour, powdered sugar, and salt together in a food processor. Add the butter pieces and pulse until the mixture is sandy-looking and the largest clumps are roughly pea-sized. Turn the processor on, remove the shoot insert, and gradually pour the cream through the shoot. With the machine still on, gradually add just enough of the remaining liquid to begin to bring the dough together. Turn the dough out onto a piece of very lightly floured parchment paper and press it into a disk. Wrap the disk of dough in the parchment and refrigerate for 20 minutes.

Line three standard-sized muffin tins with paper liners and preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Unwrap the dough and sprinkle with a little flour if the dough seems too sticky. Place another sheet of parchment on top, and use a rolling pin to roll the dough out between the two sheets of parchment until it is about 1/8-1/4-inch thick. Use a cookie cutter or drinking glass to cut out 2 1/2-to-3-inch circles.

Press the dough circles firmly into the prepared muffin liners so that the edges come 1/4-to-1/2 inch up the sides, and prick the bottoms all over with a fork.

Bake one pan at a time at 350 for 12-14 minutes or till just cooked through and very lightly golden, rotating halfway through. Carefully transfer the tart shells to a cooling rack to cool completely.

To fill the tart shells, use unflavored dental floss to slice 1/4-inch-thick rounds of the Oatmeal Creme Pie Cream. Gently press the cream rounds into the tart shells, using your fingers to spread the cream out a little if necessary.

Top each cream-filled shell with a teaspoon-sized dollop of jam, using your fingers to spread it out evenly. If you decide to use my homemade jam recipe, the jam will be a little gushier and easier to spread with a spoon rather than your fingers.

To make the fudgy topping, place the cream and coconut oil in a microwave safe bowl and microwave for 1 minute. Add the chocolate and corn syrup, and stir until completely smooth. If there are some chunks of chocolate that still haven't melted after about three minutes of stirring, microwave  for 10 seconds and stir until completely smooth.

Let the mixture cool for about two minutes, stirring occasionally to keep it smooth and fluid. Use a spoon to gently apply an even layer of the chocolate mixture on top of the jam layer. Allow the topping to set at room temperature for 1 hour before serving. Leftover topping can be refrigerated for up to 2 weeks and eaten with a spoon whenever the chocolate craving strikes, or gently reheated and used as an ice-cream topping.

Makes about 36 cookie tarts.

Thanks for reading! Here's to Being the Secret Ingredient in your life.

Turn up the Heat this Valentine's Day with a Hearty Helping of Nashville Hot Chicken

The Setting: Blue skies, white, puffy clouds, and slightly above-frigid temps. Beautiful day!

The Soundtrack: Some sort of BBQ masters show Hoosband has discovered on Hulu.

Sizzlin on the Griddle: French toast.

The Scenario: When you think of a romantic Valentine's Day meal, the first thing that comes to mind is fried chicken, right?

No?

What if it's spicy? Spicy food is said to be a natural aphrodisiac, you know.

Still no?

Well, what if it's so spicy it's literally red-hot?

Nashville-style hot chicken gets its fiery-red exterior and extra helping of heat fresh from the fryer with a brush of cayenne-and-paprika oil. While the spice runs deep (there's hot sauce in the brine and spices in the breading), this last-minute paint job is what truly sets Nashville hot chicken apart.

Let's just say you can't get this kind of spice in your favorite sandwich at Wendy's.

Still not convinced hot chicken is V-Day material?

Take things to the next level and make it a full-on theme night of heart-warming, cheeks-blushing Southern charm. What's not to love about that?

Suggested menu:

Vanilla-Bean Lemonade with cranberry-juice ice cubes

Oysters on the half shell 

Nashville Hot Chicken with White Bread and Pickles

Bing Cherry Buckle

Now roll out the checkered tablecloth, put on a little Zac Brown Band, and turn on the fan, 'cause it's about to get hot in here.

Nashville Hot Chicken
Nashville hot chicken, like Texas BBQ, is ALWAYS served with white bread and pickles. In fact, at a fancy restaurant on a recent trip to Nashville, Hoosband and I were even served a riff on Nashville hot chicken involving spicy crisped-up chicken skin, Wonder Bread puree, and dill pickle salt. Crazy...but delicious.

~for the brine~
3 cups buttermilk
1 cup hot sauce
1/3 cup honey
2/3 cup kosher salt

1 chicken, cut into breasts, thighs, legs, and wings

~for the "paint"~
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 T cayenne (or up to 2 T if you REALLY want to turn up the heat)
1/2 tsp honey

~for the dredge~
1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp fine salt
1/2 tsp garlic
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 tsp dried oregano
1/8 tsp cayenne

peanut oil for frying

In a large bowl whisk together brine ingredients. Either add the chicken pieces to the bowl with the brine and press a piece of plastic wrap onto the surface, or divide the chicken between two gallon-sized zip-top bags and pour the marinade over the chicken pieces before sealing. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour or up to 4 hours.

In a small saute pan or skillet, stir together the paint ingredients over medium heat until glistening and fragrant,  no more than one minute. Set aside.

Set up two cooling racks, both over rimmed baking sheets. One will be for the dredged chicken before it goes to the fryer, and one will be for the just-fried chicken.

In a shallow dish such as an 8-inch, round cake pan, whisk together the dredge ingredients.

Working with one piece of chicken at a time, use tongs to transfer the chicken from the brine to the dredge. Use the tongs to help coat the chicken completely in the flour mixture and transfer the coated chicken to the prepared cooling rack. Repeat with remaining chicken pieces.

Affix a candy thermometer to a cast-iron skillet or large, heavy-bottomed pan. Make sure the thermometer does not touch the bottom of the pan. Pour a depth of about 3/4-inch of oil into the pan. Heat the oil to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

When the oil is ready, use the tongs to dredge the chicken through the flour mixture one more time before carefully transferring the chicken to the oil. Work in batches as necessary so that you do not crowd the pan. I could fit 3-4 pieces in my skillet at a time, depending on the size of the pieces.

Fry the chicken for 8-9 minutes on each side, or until dark golden brown and cooked through. Adjust the heat as necessary to maintain a temperature of 300-325 degrees Fahrenheit. Use tongs to carefully transfer the cooked chicken to the other prepared cooling rack. Give the paint mixture a stir and brush the paint all over the fried chicken.

Allow the frying oil to come back to 350 degrees, and repeat frying and painting with remaining batches.

Serve right away with white bread and pickles.

Leftover Nashville Hot Chicken is best straight out of the fridge--it won't be as crispy leftover, but it's darn good cold.

Note: I got a bunch of great tips for this recipe from an episode of Cook's Country I saw a while back. Cook's Country members can find the Cook's Country recipe and watch a video of Nashville hot chicken in the test kitchen at www.CooksCountry.com.

Traveling to Nashville? Check out the granddaddy, Prince's Hot Chicken Shack (123 Ewing Dr #3), the double-timer, Bolton's Spicy Chicken and Fish (624 Main St), or the tasty newcomer, Hattie B's Hot Chicken (112 19th Ave S) to see what's getting everybody all hot and bothered.

Thanks for reading! Here's to Being the Secret Ingredient in your life.

Be Mine!

The Setting: A very chilly V-day Eve.

The Soundtrack: ABC Family's Melissa & Joey on instant-stream. So not embarrassed. It's the Who's the Boss of the new millennium.

On the Stove-top: Turkey stock.

The Scenario: My Valentine's plans involve Chinese food, a bottle of Andre, and some TV time with Tim Allen and Courteney Cox.

But if I weren't so excited about all that, I'd probably do a little of this....

Gimme S'more Love

Raspberry Pav-LOVE-as

His and Hers

White-Chocolate-Cranberry "Wedded Bliss" Bars

Bing Cherry Buckle
(so simple and perfect it needs no cheesy title)

Thanks for reading! Here's to Being the Secret Ingredient in your life, and happy Valentine's Day!

Fantasy S'mores

The Setting: An unusually gorgeous day in South Bend, but still too cold to do much playing outdoors.

The Soundtrack: Dripping water--no clue as to its source.

Steaming up the oven: Sweet potatoes for Oia. We're gonna give solid foods a go.

The Scenario: Call it trite, but I am obsessed with S'mores. I am also highly fond of the whole bacon-and-chocolate, savory-sweet thing--I know, I know, it's so overplayed it's been on the menu at Denny's. But that doesn't make it any less delicious, now does it?

For a while now I've been dreaming about what happens when these two worlds collide in an all-natural, made-from-scratch kind of way. It's time to make dreams come true.

Let's meet the players.

The Grahams: Homemade Honey-Butter Graham Crackers. You know how graham crackers are usually lower in fat and better for you? Well, these are pretty fattening. Sorry. However, they do contain mostly whole wheat four, so they have that going for them...which is nice.

The Chocolate: Vosges Mo's Milk Bar--a splurge to be sure, but so, so good. This milk-chocolate-bacon bar was the inspiration for the fantasy in Fantasy S'mores. I used to buy the pork-spiked chocolate on my lunch breaks when I was coping with work stress and pregnancy cravings and imagine it melting between layers of hot, toasted marshmallows and crispy, golden grahams. If you can't find (or don't want to buy) this chocolate, here's what you do: Dice up a slice of bacon, fry it till it's nice and crisp, let the fat drain off on a paper towel, and distribute the bacon in an even layer in a parchment-paper-lined loaf pan. Melt 2-4oz of milk chocolate and pour over the bacon. Sprinkle sparingly with finishing salt (if you desire) and let set. Now you have a hand-crafted milk-chocolate bacon bar.

The Marshmallows: Homemade Maple-Brown-Sugar Marshmallows. Follow this recipe, but swap out 1/4-cup each of the corn syrup and white sugar for 1/4-cup each of pure maple syrup and brown sugar, respectively. I was a bit conservative with this swap. Next time I'll do all brown sugar and 1/2-cup each of corn syrup and maple...or see if I can get my hands on some pure maple extract. Cut the marshmallows into 2-inch squares, or the size you desire.

Marshmallow Making


The Execution: You surely know how this goes campfire-side, but (thanks to my awesome stepsister Becky who read this post and decided to give me a creme brulee torch for Christmas) here's the way I do it indoors:

Place one of the grahams on a microwave-safe plate, top with a square or two of chocolate, and microwave for 20-25 seconds to soften the chocolate.

Place a marshmallow on top of the softened chocolate.

Use a creme brulee torch to carefully melt/brown the top and sides of the marshmallow.

Press a second graham on top of the marshmallow, allowing the melted goo to squish out just a bit on the sides.

Enjoy--with or without your favorite scary stories or campfire songs.

Thanks for reading! Here's to Being the Secret Ingredient in your life.

Raspberry Pavlovas

The Setting: Melting snow, vanishing clouds, messy apartment.

The Soundtrack: Gilmore Girls, Season 4

Steaming up the Oven: Meringue Pavlovas

The Scenario: Working on some Valentine's Day ideas....

If you haven't noticed, I have a bit of a thing for meringues (Peppermint Bark Meringues, Meringue Ghosts).

For Valentine's Day I thought I'd up the romantic ante and turn my classic meringues into Raspberry Pavlovas, or individual meringue wells filled with Chantilly cream and topped with fresh raspberries.

Easy on the eyes and almost as easy to throw together, this impressive looking dessert is perfect for a Valentine's Day dinner party or an intimate dinner for two.

Raspberry Pavlovas
2 egg whites
1/8 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
3/4 cup sugar
Chantilly cream, recipe follows
2 cups fresh raspberries (Do not rinse the raspberries, as they will become waterlogged. Instead, gently pat them with a damp paper towel.)

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. If you desire, you can use a 3-inch biscuit cutter or coffee cup to trace circles on the back side of the parchment paper to give yourself a guide for piping. I like to wing it.

Beat the egg whites, cream of tartar, and vanilla with an electric mixer just until stiff peaks start to form. With mixer on, beat in sugar 1 T at a time, allowing each addition to become incorporated.

Gently transfer the mixture to a piping bag and pipe five 3-inch circles of meringue on the parchment. Fill in the circles, and make two more unfilled circles on top of each to create wells.

Bake at 300 degrees F for 25 minutes or until cream-colored, crispy on the edges, and just set in the centers. Since meringues are very delicate and oven temperatures vary, peek at these after 15 minutes. If they appear to be taking on too much color, reduce the oven temp slightly.

Cool to room temperature before very gently removing from the parchment paper. Handle with care.

To serve, fill each well with Chantilly cream and fresh raspberries.

Chantilly Cream

Chantilly cream is a fancy name for sweetened whipped cream flavored with vanilla. This one is sweetened very lightly because the meringues are so sweet already.

1 cup heavy whipping cream

2 T powdered sugar

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

Combine all ingredients in an electric mixer on med-low speed. Beat for 2 minutes. Gradually increase speed to med-high and beat just till the cream holds stiff peaks. Store leftover Chantilly Cream in an airtight container in the fridge for up to one week.

Extra meringues can be carefully placed in a flat, single layer in a zip-top plastic bag and stored at room temperature for up to 3 days. 

The perfect bite will have a bit of everything: chewy, marshmallowy meringue, light and fluffy Chantilly Cream, and the sweet-tart burst of raspberry, flecked with crunchy bits of meringue crust. In the mood yet? 

Thanks for reading! Here's to Being the Secret Ingredient in your life!