Food, Photography and Bons Mots

Author: Blue Cayenne

Blueberry Cornmeal Shortbread Tart: It’s a Cinch!
August 10, 2022

Blueberry Cornmeal Shortbread Tart: It’s a Cinch!

Pie crust.   Let’s see a show of hands from those of you who love love love the taste of a crisp and flaky homemade crust but find making  it challenging–particularly during these hot summer months when those pea-sized balls of butter that are critical…

Blueberries, Desserts, Pie, Tarts, Vegetarian
Lemon Raspberry Cornmeal Cake
July 27, 2022

Lemon Raspberry Cornmeal Cake

This Lemon Raspberry Cornmeal Cake is a sweet little dessert. It’s easy to prepare and I can personally attest to the fact that it is delicious any time of the day.  It’s pretty, too, with tart jewel-red raspberries suspended in the pale yellow cake. It’s…

Cakes, Desserts, Vegetarian
Raspberry Shortbread Bars
July 24, 2022

Raspberry Shortbread Bars

These Raspberry Shortbread Bars are sublime!

The shortbread melts in your mouth and the raspberry jam is, well, raspberry jam. 

This recipe comes from Joanne Chang’s cookbook, Flour. You can buy the cookbook at your local bookstore or on Amazon here. Chang is also the author of another wonderful cookbook, Pastry Love.

Intriguingly, Chang, with a Harvard degree in applied mathematics and economics (with honors!), left the corporate world to become a chef.  Today, she operates the renowned bakery Flour Bakery-Cafe in Boston along with a chain or bakeries in other locations and an Asian-fusion restaurant, Myers + Chang, with her husband. She is also a James Beard Foundation Award-winner.

In her cookbook Flour, Chang credits the inspiration for the shortbread in this recipe to her mentor Boston pastry chef Rick Katz. Among other culinary accomplishments, Katz operated the prep kitchen for Julia Child when she was filming the PBS “Baking With Julia” series. 

These bars are wonderful with raspberry jam, but I’m thinking these would be good with apricot jam, too. Maybe even marmalade.

Here is the recipe as I prepared it in my kitchen. 

Prepare for a treat.  

 

Raspberry Shortbread Bars

July 24, 2022
Print This
Ingredients
  • For the Shortbread:
  • 1 1/2 C. unsalted butter (3 sticks)
  • 1/2 C. granulated sugar
  • 3 T. powdered sugar
  • 2 egg yolks
  • 1 t. vanilla extract
  • 1 1/4 C. all-purpose flour
  • 1 1/2 C. cake flour
  • 3/4 t. baking powder
  • 3/4 t. kosher salt
  • For Finishing the Bar:
  • 1 1/2 C. raspberry jam
  • 1/4 C. powdered sugar
Directions
  • Step 1 Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Be sure the rack in your oven is in the middle position.
  • Step 2 Using a stand mixer, cream the butter, granulated sugar and powdered sugar. Use the paddle attachment and set the mixer at medium speed. Cream the mixture for about 5 minutes until it is light and airy, stopping occasionally to scrape down the sides of the bowl. Set aside.
  • Step 3 Whisk the egg yolks and vanilla together and add to the whipped butter mixture. Process for only a few minutes to totally incorporate the egg mixture into the butter.
  • Step 4 Sift the all-purpose flour and the cake flour together. Whisk in the baking powder and the salt. Turn the mixer on low speed and slowly add the flour to the butter/vanilla mixture. Only mix until the flour is completely incorporated into the batter. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and be sure you don’t have any pockets of flour in your dough.
  • Step 5 Lay out a sheet of plastic wrap and spoon the dough onto the plastic wrap. Then, divide out 1/4 of the dough and place it on another sheet of plastic wrap, wrapping the plastic wrap around the dough and then pressing the dough into a disk. Place the disk in your freezer for at least 2 hours. Wrap the remaining 3/4 of the dough in its plastic wrap sheet and press it into a disk that is about 8 inches in diameter and about 1 inch thick. Refrigerate this disk for at least 30 minutes.
  • Step 6 When you are ready to bake, remove the refrigerated dough disk (the disk made with 3/4 of the dough). Place two sheets of parchment on your counter. Dust larger dough disk and the parchment with flour. Place the dough disk between the two sheets and gently roll into a rectangle that measures about 9 inches by 13 inches. The rectangle should be about 1/4 inch thick. Transfer the dough sheet to a large metal baking sheet. Place the rolled-out dough sheet in your refrigerator to firm up for a few minutes.
  • Step 7 Remove the top parchment sheet, trim the edges of the chilled dough to make your dough rectangle more even (I used a pizza cutter wheel for this),  and bake the dough sheet for about twenty minutes. It should just be getting a very light brown. Remove from the oven and let the dough cool for about 15 minutes on a rack.
  • Step 8 While the dough sheet is baking, remove the small frozen dough disk from the freezer. Using the large holes in a box grater, grate the frozen dough. Set aside.
  • Step 9 Spread the jam onto the still-warm dough sheet using a spatula being careful to put an even layer of jam on all parts of the sheet. Then, sprinkle the grated dough on top of the jam, again being careful to spread the grated dough evenly across the jam. Bake for another 20 minutes until the grated dough on top of the sheet is just beginning to pick up a bit of color. Remove from the oven and let the shortbread cool completely.
  • Step 10 Cut the shortbread into bars. Dust the top of the shortbread with powdered sugar.
  • Step 11 Cook’s Note: If you don’t have cake flour in your pantry, you can easily make your own. Put 1 1/2 cup of  all-purpose flour into a measuring cup. Remove 3 T. of the flour from the measuring cup  and replace the 3 T. of flour with 3 T. of cornstarch. Now, sift the  flour/cornstarch mixture twice and you are ready to go! Be sure to remeasure your flour/cornstarch cake flour before adding it to your recipe. The sifting adds air to the mixture and you may have more than 1 1/2 C. when you are finished sifting.
Cookbook Reviews, Cookies, Desserts, Pastries, Vegetarian
Oldies But Goodies: Spicy Fruit Salad
July 15, 2022

Oldies But Goodies: Spicy Fruit Salad

Every month Blue Cayenne features recipes from our archive of more than four hundred recipes. These recipes are our “Oldies But Goodies.” Today’s Oldie But Goodie is a Spicy Fruit Salad that makes wonderful use of summer’s fruit bounty.  You will find a link to…

Fruit, Fruits, Oldies But Goodies, Vegetarian
French Breakfast Radishes and My Good Friend Joyce
July 13, 2022

French Breakfast Radishes and My Good Friend Joyce

Joyce. She’s smart, kind, talented, elegant–all the things I want to be if I ever grow up. Joyce and I used to work together. Serendipitously, her daughter was a student in one of my classes: Smart. Kind. Talented. Elegant. (It runs in the family.) Now,…

Appetizer, Vegetables, Vegetarian
America Doesn’t Have a Monopoly on Chocolate-Chip Cookies: Chocolate-Chip Oatmeal Cookies With a Middle-Eastern Twist
July 12, 2022

America Doesn’t Have a Monopoly on Chocolate-Chip Cookies: Chocolate-Chip Oatmeal Cookies With a Middle-Eastern Twist

Every place in the world deserves a good chocolate chip cookie. Am I right?

These Chocolate Chip Cookies With Ras el Hanout are right out of the Middle East. The recipe comes from New York Times Food Writer Nargisse Benkabbou and can be found on the NYT Food site here.

According to Benkabbou, Ras el Hanout is a common Moroccan spice blend.  Benkabbou says the term translates to “top of the shop” in Arabic, meaning that the spice is a blend of the best available spices available at the time. Ras el Hanout, then,is infinitely variable.

I bought my jar of Ras el Hanout at Trader Joe’s (Trader has everything!) and it is a blend of coriander, cayenne, cinnamon, cumin seeds, caraway seeds, spearmint, chili, ginger, allspice, long pepper (what’s that?), black peppercorns, cardamom pods, cloves, mace, and (wait for it) rose petals .

Here’s the recipe as I prepared it in my kitchen. I’m eating  cookies as I type this post and the cookies are spicy and delicious.

 

Chocolate-Chip Oatmeal Cookies With Ras el Hanout

July 12, 2022
Print This
Ingredients
  • 2/3 C. packed light brown sugar
  • 1/2 C. unsalted butter (melted and cooled to room temperature)
  • 1 large egg
  • 2 t. vanilla extract
  • 1 1/2 C. rolled oats
  • 1 C. all-purpose flour
  • 1 t. ras el hanout
  • 1/2 t. baking soda
  • 1 t. fine sea salt
  • 1 C. semisweet chocolate chips
Directions
  • Step 1 Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
  • Step 2 Line a large baking sheet with parchment.
  • Step 3 Combine sugar, butter, egg and vanilla in a large bowl. I used my stand-mixer with the paddle attachment. Mix the ingredients at a slow speed until thoroughly mixed and smooth.
  • Step 4 Measure oats, flour, ras el hanout, baking soda and salt. Mix with a whisk. Add the dry mixture to your butter mixture, mixing at a low speed for about a minute. You want all the ingredients to be incorporated but you don’t want to overmix.
  • Step 5 Fold in the chocolate chips.
  • Step 6 Scoop the cookie dough into large tablespoon-sized balls. (I used a small ice cream scoop for this.) Arrange the dough balls on the baking sheet you lined with parchment. Space the dough balls about 2 inches apart.
  • Step 7 Bake for approximately 12 minutes at 350 degrees F. When done, your cookies should be very lightly brown on the edges and bottom and a bit soft in the center. Cool and enjoy.

Cookies, Desserts, Vegetarian
Asparagus in Puff Pastry
June 29, 2022

Asparagus in Puff Pastry

Need an easy but impressive dish for the end of the month? This Asparagus in Puff Pastry just might fit the bill. Don’t be put off by the puff pastry ingredient. There is no need to make your own. You’ll find puff pastry in the…

Appetizer, Main Dishes, Vegetables, Vegetarian
Where Have All The Smorgasbords Gone? Buttermilk-Molasses Quick Bread
June 28, 2022

Where Have All The Smorgasbords Gone? Buttermilk-Molasses Quick Bread

What ever happened to those wonderful Swedish smorgasbord restaurants?  They were having a moment when I was a younger cook. I remember the beautiful buffets of delicious delicacies. I still crave the savory breads. So it was with great anticipation and a good bit of…

Appetizer, Breads, Fruit, Fruits, Vegetables, Vegetarian
Oldies But Goodies…Midsummer Pasta With Corn, Zucchini and Tomatoes
June 15, 2022

Oldies But Goodies…Midsummer Pasta With Corn, Zucchini and Tomatoes

Every month Blue Cayenne features recipes from our archive of more than four hundred recipes. These recipes are our “Oldies But Goodies.”  You will find a link to a recipe for Midsummer Pasta With Corn, Zucchini and Tomatoes here.

You don’t want to miss this great recipe…again.

Want to dive deeper into our recipe archive? Just click one of the categories at the top of this page or use the category search drop down menu on the right side of this page.

And…here is a link to Blue Cayenne’s main page: Blue Cayenne.  If you are in the mood to cook (or eat!), we hope you will take a moment to look at the many excellent recipes we have featured.

 

Oldies But Goodies, Pasta, Vegetables, Vegetarian
Mediterranean Spinach Salad With Dates and Almonds
June 14, 2022

Mediterranean Spinach Salad With Dates and Almonds

I’m a salad person through and through. I have six cookbooks on my bookshelves that are dedicated entirely to salads. I have a new one on order. When I buy a new cookbook, one of the first sections I check out is the salad section.…

salad, Salad Dressings, Salads, Vegetables, Vegetarian

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