Monthly Archives: January 2011

Cheddar Broccoli Soup

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I love cheese. I love to eat anything with substantial amounts of cheese in it.  This soup is no exception to that rule.  It’s like mac and cheese, but without any of that finicky mac in the way ;).  As a child I remember being obsessed with the Cup-a-Soup Broccoli-Cheddar soup and at one point, within the past couple of years, I finally got to try it, to great dissatisfaction – this was one of the things I wanted out of this soup; that sense of perfect creamy-cheesy-perfection that comes with trying a cheese soup for the first time.

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I recently talked about my current love of soups, stews, anything hearty I can cook in a pot and have excess leftovers from; this was one of those soups.  It’s rich and creamy in all the right ways.  I made it when it was especially cold and icky outside, rainy and gross right at the end of November and BF loved it.  It warmed and filled us up. It was rich and thick –  a perfect accompaniment to Pie Pan Focaccia Bread.

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When I ate this soup as a child, from that little foil lined Cup-a-Soup packet, I thought it would be impossible to make, but as I finally got around to reading a recipe (Cabot Coop twitter feed was great for inspiration),  I realized just how simple it was.  A roux, some milk, stock, broccoli and cheese and there was magic, in the form of broccoli cheddar soup. Bliss.

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Broccoli Cheddar Soup
Adapted from Cabot Coop’s Broccoli Cheddar Soup
Note:  I recommend a sharp cheddar, but nothing that will overshadow the broccoli, or else the broccoli loses some of it’s sweetness. Also, I’m sure you could use low fat milk here, I just don’t because I prefer everything to threaten me with a coronary.

2 Tbs butter
2 Tbs flour
2 cups whole milk
2 cups shredded cheddar (I really like Cabot New York Style Sharp, a Monterey Jack is also very nice)
4 cups of stock (I used chicken, but vegetable is also delicious)
4 cups of broccoli, cut into bite sized pieces

Melt the butter in a large sauce pan and add the flour (make a roux).  Whisk the butter and flour together until they are fully blended (about 30 seconds).  Gradually add the stock until it and the roux are fully combined; this should take a minute or two.  Add the broccoli and the milk.  Let the whole mixture come to a simmer  and leave it there for 10-15 mins, until the broccoli is tender.  Add the cheese and stir, letting it melt and thicken the soup.  Using an immersion blender, regular blender, or food processor, puree one quarter of the soup (or more if you want it silky smooth and lush).  Serve immediately with grated cheese sprinkled on top.

Pie Pan Focaccia Bread

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There’s something satisfying about having a quick and delicious go-to bread in the house.  This is mine.  I like fresh warm bread, as a snack or an accompaniment to a meal. Warm and fresh bread is delicious.  I don’t make my own pizza dough for this as it’s one of those things I typically make on a weeknight when I’m feeling lazy and a premade ball of pizza dough is one of those things I try to have on hand at all times.  It’s easy and totally delicious; sort of instant gratification food.

Everytime I make this it prompts BF to poke his head in the kitchen and sniff hopefully asking, “Focaccia?”  I almost always answer in the affirmative.  I am totally guilty of eating too much bread. I like it with pasta, soup, stew, quiche; in short everything.  I think it’s a quick way to bulk up a meal and still keep it delicious.  Admittedly, I’ve been known to make this particular concoction on a weekend afternoon as a snack for watching a movie or just because I want something savory and what’s around doesn’t work for me. 

This is a morph of the breadsticks my mom used to make when we were kids, which were always super crispy and delicious in a denuded pizza kind of way, but this is an entirely different creature.  This focaccia grew up from breadsticks (which I almost always overcooked) and my Chicago Style Deep Dish Pizza with its crispy and delicious bottom.  This is decadent but so-so-so good.  Swoon-worthy.  I keep thinking that someday I will make something on here that takes less than a tablespoon of butter/oil, but what fun would that be?  Eat this fresh from the oven and share it.  It’s simple and fast.

Pie Pan Focaccia Bread
Note: This is not a classic focaccia bread, with the cornmeal and flatness, it’s pretty pouffy.  But that’s ok.  Also it cuts well with kitchen shears if you have them.

1 pre-made pizza dough (I prefer to get it from Russos in Watertown)
2-3 Tbs fresh green scallion pieces, fresh basil bits, or sundried tomatoes (whatever you’re in the mood for)
1 tsp coarse kosher salt (I use Diamond)
1 tsp garlic powder (alternatively use some fresh minced garlic, but the flavor will be harsher)
1 handful of shredded asiago/provolone/mozzeralla cheese
1-2 tbs olive oil

Preheat the oven to a searing hot 450 degrees farenheit.  Pour the olive oil into a deep dish pie plate or round cake pan.  Add the dough ball to this oil coated pan and cover all the dough with oil.  Poke the dough all over so it looks dimpled consistently.  Sprinkle salt, garlic powder, and scallion/basil/tomato on the dough.  Cover with the shredded cheese and toss the whole thing in the oven for 15-20 mins until it’s brown and the cheese is melted.  If you are responsible you will wash the dishes now; if you are me you will probably be more likely to go play a round of Mario Kart or beat level 1-1 in Super Mario Bros 3.  I have an inanimate love, its’ name is Nintendo Wii. I can admit that with pride even. Is anyone else as stoked for PAX East as I am?

Cheddar-Scallion Drop Biscuits

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It’s January and I’m in full hibernate mode with soups and stews overloading my stove and palette.  I love them creamy, brothy, rich and thick; I’m there.  One thing I love even more than a good soup is bread to go with it though (see here for an example).  Last year, on an impulse, I bought the Cook’s Illustrated Soups and Stews magazine and found this recipe for drop biscuits.  Its simple, it’s delicious and I am obsessed with these biscuits.

I love biscuits and have since I was a small child. Biscuits meant that there was soup or something delicious to eat, usually slathered in butter.  Then I was obsessed with some Pillsbury ultra flaky ones that peeled apart into layers (which I may have loved simply by dint of the fact that they looked like pages stacked together and baked).  But as I (and my palette) grew up and learned more about baking I grew away from the Pillsbury biscuits in a tube and started to look for a perfect biscuit recipe.  My sister obsessively made some from The Joy of Cooking but I found them a bit dry and wasn’t a fan.  So I kept searching.

I got this issue of Cooks Illustrated for the ramen recipe (which I still haven’t tried; I really need to get some good miso) but instead found this little gem regarding perfect drop biscuits.  I tried it, thinking that at worst it would cost me some flour and buttermilk.  These were perfect, flaky and chewy without being messy or crumby.  These are flexible; I used them later to make shortcakes by adding some extra sugar and cinnamon and I almost always add a handful of good quality cheddar cheese and a few spices.  I love a recipe that is flexible like this and will move to be whatever I want.  Also there is none of that classic cutting butter in.  An ingenious method involving melted butter and really cold butter milk makes really consistent butter chunks evenly distributed into a simple flour mixture.

Cheddar-Chive Drop Biscuits
Adapted from Cook’s Illustrated: Soups & Stews


2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp sugar
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup scallions, chopped finely
1/2 cup good quality cheddar cheese (I used Cabot)
1 cup buttermilk (straight from the fridge and v cold)
1 stick (8 Tbs) butter, melted and allowed to cool a little bit

Preheat the oven to 475 degrees Fahrenheit.  Add the flour, baking powder, sugar, salt, baking soda, scallions, and cheese to a large bowl and whisk them until evenly mixed (5-6) stirs.  In a separate bowl, or a 2 cup measuring cup, mix together the melted butter and buttermilk.  It will look lumpy and it will not be pretty, that’s ok.  It will taste delicious.  Add the butter/buttermilk to the dry ingredients and stir with a fork until just mixed, again 5-6 stirs.  Scoop out the biscuits onto a parchment lined baking sheet. Brush some additional melted butter or some milk on top of the biscuits or sprinkle some extra cheese on there.  Bake them for 10-12 mins.  They will be a light golden brown and totally delicious.  Enjoy these biscuits with whatever you want; I like mine at breakfast with an egg and some hollandaise or served with whatever soup I’ve made most recently.  Perfect.

Baking Cookies for Swapping

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A note for all of you with those good health conscious January resolutions.  I’m sorry.  I try to avoid those resolutions.  There’s something about butter and sugar that makes my life need more of them.  And these practically perfect cookies won’t really help you stick to those resolutions at all.  But they are delicious and so rich you can’t really eat more than one or two of either.  🙂

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I hosted a cookie swap in mid-December and in a terribly haphazard way forgot to put these recipes up for the greater blog-reading world (all of you fantastic readers) to make for yourselves… until now.  These are both truly delicious cookies – decadent in all the right ways.  But I’m a fan of chocolate, so I’m probably a little biased.  Also BF goes over the moon every time I make these macaroons, to the point where he has started to learn the recipe so he can make them for himself when I’m not around.  Love it!

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Mountain Top Coconut Macaroons
I have no idea where this recipe came from but it’s awesome.  I dipped it in chocolate and it was better.

4 large egg whites
1 cup white sugar
dash of salt
3 cups shredded coconut (I try to use a mixture of half finely shredded and half coarse, but use what you’ve got on hand)
1/2 cup flour (I used cake flour because I had it but all-purpose is fine)
1 tsp vanilla
1/2-1 semi-sweet chocolate, melted
Finely shredded coconut, for sprinkling

In a stainless steel bowl over a pot of simmering water (or a double boiler if you’re fancy like that), whisk together the egg whites, sugar and salt until they are warm to the touch and frothy/creamy. The sugar will be fully melted and everything should be a uniform white color.  Remove from the heat.  Add the vanilla, flour, and coconut and stir to combine; it will be sticky.  Cover with plastic wrap and stick it in the fridge for an hour or two until the mixture is firm.

Once your cookie dough is firm, preheat the oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit and line two baking sheets with parchment.  These cookies are a little sticky and parchment can do double duty here to hold the cookies after they have been dipped in chocolate, so I strongly suggest that you use it.

Using a small cookie scoop (about 1 Tbs) scoop the cookies onto the parchment. They don’t really expand, so they only need 1″-1 1/4″  between the cookies; enough so that if they do spread they aren’t stuck together.  Bake them for 10-15 mins, until the tops are golden brown.

Allow the baked cookies to cool for about 15 mins so that they are cool to the touch and then dip the tops in the melted semi-sweet chocolate.  Immediately sprinkle a few shreds of coconut on top of the chocolate and let them harden (20-30 mins).  ENJOY!

Jackson Pollock Lace Florentines
Adapted from The Fannie Merritt Farmer Boston Cooking School Cookbook, circa 1959 (best one!)
My favorite part of these cookies is getting all Jackson Pollock with the chocolate.  Spatter painting – it’s for more than just canvas.

2 1/4 cups oatmeal, I use old fashioned oats and give them a pulse in my food processor
2 1/4 cup dark brown sugar (Fannie calls for light but I prefer the deep caramel tones of the dark)
3 Tbs flour (I think you could safely add oat or another kind of flour here; its mostly so the sugar has something to hold it together)
1 tsp salt
1 cup melted butter
1 egg, slightly beaten
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup melted semi-sweet chocolate

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. In a large bowl, mix the brown sugar, oatmeal, salt, and flour together until evenly combined.  Add the butter and stir to coat everything.   Stir in the egg and vanilla.  Drop in teaspoonfuls onto a parchment lined baking sheet at least two inches apart, these spread (a lot) so don’t be stingy with space.  Bake until lightly browned, about 7 mins.  Allow the cookies to cool slightly on the baking sheet then move them to rack once they have set.  Be careful, these cookies will burn you directly from the oven, complements of molten sugar.

Once the cookies are cool to the touch, crowd them onto a wide flat surface and go all Jackson Pollock on them with the melted chocolate; leave swirls (if you like fancy) or spatter paint them!  It’s up to you!  Have fun!  I love this part.

Eat them delicately. They will crumble and be luscious.  They will melt in your mouth the way a good piece of caramel should, but they’ll make you feel a little bit okay about it.  After all, they are oatmeal cookies, right?