Cocoa Almond Spiral Cookies

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If you like the flavours of chocolate and almond together you’ll enjoy these Cocoa-Almond Spirals. They are great to keep on hand in the fridge for a week or your freezer for a few months. Then you can slice and bake off a cookie as you wish- or stock a glass jar with them and see your cookie hounds’ eyes light up. So much better than those commercial cookie tubes -you know the ones I mean.

Cocoa-Almond Spirals

  • 1 pound (4 sticks) butter, cool room temperature
  • 1-1/3 cups granulated sugar
  • 3/4 teaspoon salt
  • 3 egg yolks if large, 4 if medium eggs are used
  • 3 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
  • 4-3/4 cups all purpose flour
  • 1-1/3 cups almond paste crumbled (use the freshest you can find it should be soft)
  • 1/2 cup good quality cocoa powder like Valrhona etc.
  • 1 teaspoon pure almond extract

In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter, sugar and salt together until fluffy. Add the egg yolks and vanilla and beat in well. Slowly add the flour until mixed and a firm dough forms and pulls away from the mixer bowl. Chill this dough for an hour and then remove one cup of it and reserve the rest. Place the one cup of dough in the mixer bowl (note you don’t have to clean the bowl or paddle in between mixing) Add the remaining ingredients and mix until  well mixed and uniform. Roll the reserved butter dough out to a 10″ x 30″ rectangle between sheets of parchment, plastic wrap or waxed paper. Roll the cocoa dough out to the same size and then invert on top of the butter dough. Roll starting from the 30″side together to form a spiraled log. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap. Chill for at least 2 hours before using.  When ready to bake, slice into 1/8″slices and place 1/2 inch apart on parchment lined baking sheets. Bake 20-25 minutes in a preheated 350F oven – or until slightly golden. Remove to racks to cool.

Hope you enjoy them!

xoxo

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Puttanesca Chicken Thighs over Mashed Potatoes

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I was in the mood for a little something spicy and delicious. So I made this sauce that’s very quick- my interpretation of Puttanesca. It’s a meal that can be made mostly from items from your pantry and freezer and it can be ready in just over 45 minutes – making it great for a cold winter weeknight dinner.

I served this one over garlic-mashed potatoes because well- that’s what I was in the mood to eat- even though Rick usually serves his version over a nice creamy polenta.  Somehow the potatoes were lighter feeling.

Chicken Thighs in a Puttanesca Sauce

  • 6 chicken thighs, rinsed and patted dry
  • 2 Tablespoons Olive oil
  • 1 Tablespoon Canola oil
  • 1 and 1/2 medium white onions, sliced thinly into rings
  • 8 cloves garlic minced
  • 2  14ounce cans diced plum tomatoes
  • 1  14 ounce can tomato sauce
  • 1 two ounce jar of anchovies, rinsed drained and minced finely
  • 1 cup pitted Nicoise olives
  • 1 cup pitted and chopped Picholine olives
  • small can of sliced mushrooms
  • 1/2 cup capers in brine, drained
  • 4 Tablespoons Sun-dried tomatoes, chopped
  • 2 Tablespoons good balsamic vinegar
  • 2 Tablespoons Pesto
  • 1 teaspoon dried Oregano
  • pinch of red pepper flakes
  • salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

Rinse and dry the chicken. Heat the oil in a large, deep heavy bottomed skillet or saucepan. Brown the chicken well on all sides and remove to a plate. Keep chicken warm in the oven while you prepare the sauce. Add the sliced onions to the pan you browned the chicken in and sauté until translucent. Add the garlic and cook until soft- don’t let it burn. Add the tomato sauce and then the anchovies, olives, mushrooms, capers, sun-dried tomatoes, herbs and pesto. Cook for a few minutes and then add the Balsamic vinegar. Add the chicken back to the pan- submerging in the sauce and cook, covered for about 40-45 minutes. Taste and add salt and pepper as needed. The chicken will be tender and the sauce flavorful. Serve over polenta or potatoes as below.

Garlic Mashed Potatoes- silly I know but just in case you don’t know

  • 4 large starchy potatoes (such as Russets), peeled and cubed into 1″ cubes
  • water to cover
  • large pinch of salt
  • 2 cloves garlic, peeled but left whole
  • about 6 Tablespoons butter
  • about 1/2 cup milk or half and half
  • salt and pepper to taste

Peel the potatoes, rinse, cube and place in a medium saucepan add the garlic and cover with cold water and add a pinch of salt. Bring to a boil over medium high heat and cook until fairly easily pierced with a fork. Drain the water and return the potatoes in the pan to the turned off burner that is still warm. Let the moisture evaporate for a minute and then mash the potatoes with a masher before adding anything. Then add a couple of Tablespoons of butter and mash that in. This will coat the starch with a little fat and prevent you from making them into glue. Heat the milk or half and half before adding any to the potatoes. Add a little at a time, using only what you need to make the consistency you prefer. Add a little more butter and salt and pepper. The garlic will mash in with the potatoes and give a nice garlic flavor.

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I’ve been tagged- 5 facts Meme

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I have been tagged! Lovely LisaRene from Unique Little Bits tagged me to share a bit about myself. Check out her own wonderful answers here.

This is the first meme I’ve ever participated in but since she asked, I will share 5 random facts with you and then I’ve tagged the people below to do the same.
Here are the rules:
1. Link to your tagger and post these rules.
2. Share 5 facts about yourself
3. Tag 5 people at the end of your post and list their names (linking to them).
4. Let them know they’ve been tagged by leaving a comment at their blogs.

Since everyone else seems to be showing pictures of themselves as a child- I thought I’d give you two.

This first picture is me at one year old. Obviously I was taking my eating seriously hence the hard-hat. 🙂

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This is one of my favorites -it’s me on my fourth birthday. It’s clear I was having a ball opening presents in my jammies.

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Just the facts now – (really there’s more than five in there- but they’re grouped ’cause above all I’m a greedy guts 🙂 :

  1. My eyes are green-grey-blue and they change color depending on what I’m wearing or my mood. If they’re blue watch out-it means I’m very upset.  My hair has also changed color it was black at birth and grew out white blonde from the roots -so I was a punk baby before my time. Now it’s naturally dark golden blonde.
  2. I attended 17 different schools in Utah, Nevada, California and Ohio before I graduated from high school.
  3. I catered my own wedding with help from my lovely aunt and mom. There were 150 guests and we had a 4:00 wedding followed by a cream tea- we had a whole lot of food. Our friends Jeff (the chef) and his honey Michelle- also brought two more of the most scrumptious dishes all the way from the bay area.
  4. After my wedding I worked as the cake baker/decorator for a small patisserie. The worst mistake I ever made while baking cakes there was to leave the sugar out of  a batch of 25  lemon-poppy seed Genoise that I was baking. I just got distracted for a moment. They came out looking all shriveled like golden brains.
  5. One of my favorite ways to spend a day is a “Jammie Day”- Where we get up, shower and put on fresh jammies, make a ton of brownies, cookies and other snacks  and watch our favorite movies all day. Old movies are my favorites.

That’s probably more than was needed. So now I am tagging:

April at Cookworm– she’s my Blogging by Mail partner, a fellow Daring Baker and her Chocolate Tangerine Semifreddo is next on my list to make. She has a great blog!

Melody at Fruit Tart is another fabulous Daring Baker- check out her Death by Chocolate! Mmmm!! She’s recovering from the flu so send her many get well wishes and let her know she gets extra kudos for playing whilst getting back in the swing of things. xoxo

Susan at Sticky,Gooey,Creamy,Chewy  yet another Daring Baker (we have so many wonderful members) her blog is SO amazing and she makes me drool with her Almond Brioche and other delights.

Tempered Woman– yep you guessed it another Daring Baker. Well she just plain cracks me up- I love her sense of humor and she has a fabulous blog. Check out her Rich Salty Sweet Peanut Butter cup brownies.

Dhanggit at Dhanggit’s Kitchen is just as sweet as can be, another Daring Baker as  well and you must see her Toblerone Mini cakes-oozing at the Heart. OOOh! A special thanks to Dhanggit because she’s already been tagged once and was sweet enough to let me get her twice. xoxo so she’s my honorary tag-ee.

Ruthie at Spoonbread for Hieronymus is also my choice -I love reading her wonderfully diverse recipes. Everything she does is a great read and I’d love to learn more about her. Check out her Coconut Curry Noodle Soup.

Love to you all- can’t wait to learn more of you.

xoxo

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