Lemon Sables

This recipe is an elaboration of our basic shortbread cookie recipe. Besides the flavoring, we only use three ingredients to make shortbread:

Flour : to provide structure and strength to the cookies. Flour is mostly starch but it also has protein (gluten) that we can manipulate to produce firm and chewy bread or soft and tender cakes. To develop the gluten in the flour, we must add moisture and then mix the dough. The moisture in our shortbread cookies comes from the water content of the butter (15% water and 85% fat). The more we mix the dough/batter, the more gluten develops. In making bread, we knead the dough so that the gluten forms long elastic strands that will trap carbon dioxide (from the yeast) in tiny pockets and make the bread rise and yield a firm and chewy crust. We don't want that when we make cookies. The more we work the dough, the tougher the cookies. We add the flour last and mix it just until combined.

Different flours differ in gluten content; bread flour has a lot and cake flour not too much. Many cookie recipes call for all purpose flour, which falls in between bread and cake flour.

Butter in shortbread cookies not only adds moistness and richness, it acts as the glue to sugar and flour. Also, the fat in butter increases the shelf life of the cookies.

Sugar adds sweetness and crust color (as it caramelizes with heat). It creates tenderness and fineness of texture and also increases the shelf life of products by retaining moisture.

So now, we are going to alter this shortbread recipe by adding egg yolks. The yolks increase the fat, protein, and moisture content of the cookies. The fat "shortens" the dough by weakening the gluten network thus yielding more tender and crumbly products. Most importantly, the addition of yolks binds the dough together so that we can easily roll it up into a log. And here we have a recipe for:

Lemon Sables

8 oz unsalted butter (cold, cut up into small pieces)
1/2 c sugar
2 egg yolks
2 1/4 c flour (all purpose)

as flavorings, we will add:
2 T lemon zest
a pinch of salt

Place the butter and sugar in the KitchenAid bowl. Using the paddle attachment, mix on low speed just until the butter combines with the sugar. Beat in the egg yolks one at a time until well incorporated. Add the flour, lemon zest, and salt. Mix until just combined. Divide the dough in half. Shape each half into a 1 inch diameter log.

Roll in raw sugar, granulated sugar, candy sprinkles, or chopped nuts. Or you can leave it plain.

Wrap a piece of parchment or wax paper around the dough and use a ruler to press the paper tight around it.

Chill the dough until firm. Slice the cookies 1/4 inch thick, rotating the roll of dough often to keep the log from getting squashed and misshapen from the weight of the knife.

Place the cookies an inch apart and bake at 350F for 12 to 15 minutes, until the cookies are firm to the touch.

Turkey and Cheese Calzone

I don't like waste. With modern technology (i.e. freezer/refrigerator) widely available, it seems unpardonable to have to throw out food because of spoilage. Forethought and a little ingenuity help me reduce what goes in our garbage can. That's why I love recipes that allow me to clear out the fridge in one meal. There's a restaurant we used to go to that offered "Garbage Disposal Omelet" in their menu: an omelet that has a mishmash of whatever ingredients available at that given moment. This is our Garbage Disposal Calzone.

Any pizza dough recipe can be used to enclose whatever ingredients you choose. I would suggest having some kind of cheese to add gooeyness. Here I used pretty bland cheese (ricotta and jack) so I was a little liberal on the spices.

1 Batch of pizza dough

Filling (what's in our fridge)
12 oz ricotta cheese
2 cups jack cheese
2 cups shredded cooked turkey
2 garlic and gruyere turkey sausages chopped up
1 cup fresh spinach
bell peppers sliced
a couple of sprigs of thyme
sprinkle of smoked paprika
salt and pepper to taste

Shape the pizza dough into a ball and let rest for 10 minutes.

Press down into an oblong-ish shape.

Spread out filling on half of the dough, leaving an inch margin.

Fold over the dough and twist edge together.

Brush with olive oil and sprinkle with a little bit of cheese.


Bake at 375F for about 35 minutes.

Cheesy Potato Sticks

4 medium-sized potatoes cut into sticks
about 1/4 cup olive oil
a sprig of rosemary all chopped up
sprinkling of cajun seasoning
a handful of grated cheese (we used Parmesan here)

Toss everything into a bowl except the cheese. Spread on an oiled cookie sheet.

Bake at 400F until the potatoes are done to your liking (for us, about 40 minutes). Take the potatoes out of the oven and sprinkle the cheese!

Bake for another 5 minutes until the cheese browns a little. And that's it!

Of course these are not as good as french fries cooked in a deep vat of fat. I'm not sure what is. For dinner tonight, we had turkey and cheese panini, salad of baby lettuce with honey mustard dressing, and these cheesy potato sticks served with a dollop of ketchup and not much guilt.

Up In the Clouds

Often, that's where we find Rosalind's head.

Yes, she is a dreamer and it's wonderful that she hasn't learned to shut out all of life's vast possibilities. In fact, she still entertains the prospect of receiving a letter from Hogwarts School of Wizardry when she turns eleven. Her imagination is amazingly active. As doting parents, we find it adorable, most of the time. Sometimes it makes us want to pull our hair out.

Often, we find her nose stuck in a book. She is very good at shutting out the rest of the world when she is reading. Try talking to her when she is engrossed in a story! It's wonderful to see how much enjoyment she gets from reading, but after repeating for the sixth time whatever it is you are trying to communicate to her, it doesn't seem very cute anymore.

Often, she is lost in thought, out in space, forgetful, and absent minded. The worst part is that I can't really complain about it because as some of my friends will point out, I too am a space cadet. Although, I can confidently claim that I am less so this past few years. I think I can credit my profession for keeping me grounded.

To be an effective baker/pastry chef, I always need to have a game plan. Speed is of the essence and efficiency is what I need to gain speed. In short, I can't go on in my scatterbrained ways. When I get to the restaurant in the morning, my first task is to take inventory so I can make a list of what needs to be done for the day. In organizing this list, I have to take into account what equipment I need for each task, how long I need it, and when I have access to it. For example, in the spirit of camaraderie, I refrain from using our big mixer an hour or so before lunch service because that's when the prep cooks need it to mash up their potatoes. Also around this time, I make sure that there's an oven free for them to roast their red potatoes and cook their bacon and croutons. I don't put "bake apple pies" at the end of my list because it takes over an hour to bake them and it's nice to be able to accomplish other tasks while waiting for the pies to bake. Organization not only allows me to do two, three, or four things at the same time, it limits the use of unnecessary resources. Being organized allows me to use just one bowl!

When Rosalind starts a baking project, I ask her to read the recipe from start to end so she can form a plan of approach. I am hoping that baking will give her practice in staying focused and organized when needed and being able to look at the big picture while scrutinizing the details.

Since she apparently inherited her tendency to obliviousness from me, it falls upon me to find an antidote for it.

Pizza Dough

For a fictitious character, Betty Crocker is a pretty reliable source. Steve has the 40th anniversary edition, which he received as a gift when he went away to college. Now that I think of it, most of my roommates in college owned a copy of Betty Crocker's Cookbook. In my life, Nancy Drew is to mystery novels as Betty Crocker is to cookbooks. Nancy and Betty introduced me to their respective genres and caught my interest hook, line and sinker.

This recipe for pizza dough is based on Betty Crocker's "Traditional Cheese Pizza" crust recipe. It's quick. It's easy. It's a great last-minute meal. Kids love it.

Pizza Dough

1 cup warm tap water
1 T yeast
1 T sugar
2 T olive oil
1/2 t salt
2 3/4 c flour (all purpose, bread, or wheat)

Place warm water in a bowl. Sprinkle yeast and sugar on top. Let rest for 5 minutes. Add the remaining ingredients.

Mix with a wooden spoon until well combined.

Cover with plastic wrap and let the dough rest until needed (at least 10 minutes). Press the dough onto a pan lined with Silpat or a lightly greased pan sprinkled with cornmeal. Rubbing olive oil on your hands helps in working with this slightly sticky dough.

Add your favorite toppings.

Bake in a 400F oven for about 20 minutes or until the bottom of the crust is golden brown.

Scones for Aunt Lisa

To Rosalind, not much can top a visit from an aunt, an uncle or a grandparent. I'm confident in this assertion because the only time we can get her to clean her room (with the thoroughness an eight year old is capable of) is in anticipation of these visits. Today, she not only found "time" to clean her room but also to make these yummy melt-in-your-mouth scones.


Cream Scones

In making scones, the "biscuit method of mixing" is usually used. Combine all the dry ingredients in one bowl, all the liquids (anything wet, to be precise) in another. Rub the butter with the dry ingredients then mix in the liquids. Just like pie dough, the less you work the dough, the better. Using cream yields flaky melt-in-your mouth scones and buttermilk makes softer/cake-like texture. This formula is based on a recipe from Nick Malgieri's book How To Bake.

3 c flour
1/4 c sugar
1 T baking powder

5 T butter

1 c cream or buttermilk
2 eggs
1 t vanilla

Raw sugar for sprinkling


Place the flour, sugar, and baking powder in the KitchenAid bowl. Mix for 10 seconds.

Cut the butter into small pieces then drop in the bowl a little at a time while the mixer is mixing on low speed. When there are no more big chunks of butter, stop the mixer.

Measure out cream in a liquid measuring cup (2 cup capacity at least). Add the eggs and vanilla to the cream and whisk together using a fork or a small whisk.



Start the mixer again using the lowest setting and slowly pour in the milk/egg mixture. Continue mixing until just combined.

Using 2 spoons or a portion/ice cream scoop, scoop out mounds onto a lightly greased cookie sheet or a pan lined with a Silpat or parchment paper. Sprinkle raw sugar on top.



Bake for about 10-12 minutes or until they look done!

Back to Basics

I don't think a cookie can get any simpler than a shortbread cookie. All we really need is butter, sugar, and flour--mixed in that order, rolled, cut, then baked. It is rich and scrumptious as is, but very amenable to flavorings. Toss in citrus zest, ground nuts, ground espresso, or any spices of your choosing. We decided on cinnamon and finely chopped chocolate. Rosalind calls this shortbread of ours:

Chocolate Cinnamon Rectangles

8 oz unsalted butter (cold, cut up into small pieces)
1/2 c sugar
2 1/4 c flour

1/4 t salt
1 t cinnamon
1 c finely chopped chocolate chips

Place the butter and sugar in the KitchenAid bowl. Using the paddle attachment, mix on low speed just until the butter combines with the sugar.



Add the salt, cinnamon, and chopped chocolate chips. Mix a little bit more. Scrape down the dough that clings to the paddle.

Add the flour and mix on low speed, scraping the bowl a couple of times until the dough has just about pulled together.

Roll the dough to a 1/4 of an inch thick between two pieces of plastic wrap or sheets of parchment paper.



Cut. We decided to use a ravioli cutter to have that nice edge to it and make them rectangular shaped.



Place 1/2 inch apart on a baking sheet. Bake at 300 F for about 30 minutes, until the cookies are golden on the bottom and the edges.

Starting From Scratch

In a spiral bound notebook, Rosalind asked me to write down some recipes that she can make all by herself. Having a mother who bakes for a living, she is not a blank slate. I haven't made any special efforts in inducting her to the world of pastry but she somehow lives in that world. In fact, she learned fractions by measuring ingredients for chocolate chip cookies! Still, transcribing recipes for her was not as easy as photocopying from a cookbook. The directions needed to be simplified, baking terms defined, and abbreviations expanded.

Her recipe book now includes pancakes, waffles, and chocolate chip scones. Yes, she does love breakfast food, but I think what she loves even more is making it for her family. Her eyes sparkled with undeniable pride as she presented us with a plateful of warm scones one morning. There is something phenomenal in creating something so yummy just by mixing a handful of ingredients and then heating it all up. What was even more amazing was that these recipes only required her to dirty a bowl, a pan and couple of cooking/measuring utensils, thus she easily cleaned up her mess and left the kitchen as she found it.

For my part, I am proud that she appreciates hand-made stuff when all around her mass-produced things abound. At least that's how it is for now. If there's anything I've learned during my eight years of parenthood is that children are fickle. Maybe next year, she won't prefer the Statue of Liberty costume her grandma sewed for her over one that can be purchased at the Halloween store, but I am hoping that she will continue to appreciate food made with wholesome ingredients. I understand that I won't have her attention forever, so this is my chance to help her get to know what she eats.