PS CULINARY presents…
Autumn in Our Tummy
by Hazel Balintag-Marquez
& Tony Balintag
Contributors, California, USA & The Bahamas
Another season arrive one after the other, leaves are starting to fall and so with life’s unexpected painful events, from the heat of summer, now we’re slowly bracing the cool breeze of autumn. In all walks of life, people come and go, whatever happens, life must go on. This fall, let us entice your appetite with these new recipes adapted from great food bloggers around the globe that continue to inspire me and my brother Chef Tonnz to learn and try new recipes that will surely satisfy your tummy.
Hasselback Garlic Cheesy Bread
yield: 2 loaves
Ingredients:
1 cup Warm Water
1 Tablespoon Honey
1 envelope Active Dry Yeast (2 1/4 Teaspoons)
1 teaspoon Salt
3 cups Bread Flour
Olive Oil, For Greasing Surfaces
⅓ pounds Sharp White Cheddar, Or Any Other Cheese You Prefer
½ cups Garlic Butter
Directions:
In a large bowl, stir water, honey and yeast together. Let yeast proof 5 minutes. Once you know yeast is active, stir in salt and the flour in 1/4 cup increments. If you are using a stand mixer, be sure to not increase your speed higher than a 2 or ‘stir’. Once dough starts pulling away from the sides and the bowl seems to be pretty clean, set a timer for 5 minutes and walk away. Let the machine knead the dough. After 5 minutes, dough should be smooth and tacky but when touched shouldn’t leave any dough on your fingers.
Grease the bowl and the dough. Cover with plastic wrap or a kitchen towel and let rise 1 hour or until doubled in size.
Punch down dough and cut into two equal portions. Form into two long baguettes the length of the cookie sheet. I like to twist mine because it looks cool, but it also keeps its length and doesn’t shrink. Cover with plastic wrap and rise 30 minutes. Start to preheat oven to 400 degrees F and place dough close to the oven where it’s nice and warm. Once oven is preheated, remove plastic wrap, from the dough reduce oven to 350F, put the bread into the oven and bake 20 minutes.
In the meantime, slice the cheese into thin slices and melt the butter.
Pull loaves of bread out of the oven after 20 minutes and brush with the melted garlic butter. Bake another 5-7 minutes or until bread begins to turn a golden brown. Remove from oven and cool 15 minutes.
Cut 1-inch slices 3/4′s of the way through the loaves. Brush garlic butter in between each slice and fill with a slice of cheese. Bake another 3-5 minutes or until cheese is completely melted.
Serve immediately.
Cream of Cauliflower Soup
yield: 4 entree portions
Ingredients:
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion, diced
1/4 cup all purpose flour
5 cups good quality chicken stock
1 large head cauliflower, cut into small florets
1 bay leaf
salt
pepper
1 cup cream or half & half
Directions:
In large pot, heat butter and olive oil over medium heat. Sauté onions until soft and translucent, about 5 minutes. Sprinkle flour over onions and stir to create a paste. Cook 2 minutes. Slowly whisk in chicken stock and increase heat to high. Soup should thicken slightly. Stir in cauliflower, salt, pepper and bay leaf. Simmer lightly with lid cracked for 30 minutes or until cauliflower is soft. Reduce heat to low, remove bay leaf, stir in cream and adjust seasonings to your taste. Top with parsley if desired. Serve with biscuits.
Recipe TIPS
- once you add in your cream or half & half, be sure not to boil the soup! Bad things will happen.
- add in quite a bit of salt to my pot of soup to make it taste great, so don’t be afraid to sprinkle in more!
Both recipes above were from Lauren’s Latest.
Pumpkin Pie White Chocolate Cups
makes about 10 mini (2 inch) cups
ingredients:
- 10 oz good-quality chopped white chocolate or white chocolate chips
- [10 mini (2 inch) aluminum/tin foil muffin liners]
- 2 oz (about 4 Tbsp) 1/3-less-fat neufchatel cream cheese, at room temperature
- 1/4 cup pumpkin puree
- 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup powdered evaporated cane juice or powdered sugar
- 1 cup finely ground cinnamon graham cracker crumbs (a food processor works best here)
Directions:
- Place chocolate in the top of a double boiler (or make your own by setting a heat-proof bowl over a pot with 1 inch of water) over high heat. Bring the water to a boil, then reduce stove heat to low.
- Continuously stir the chocolate until completely melted. Remove bowl from the heat and place on a heat-proof surface.
- Using a small spoon, “paint” the melted chocolate all over the insides of 10 mini tin foil muffin liners (the tin foil cups are easier to peel off than the paper cups). The layer of chocolate should be thick enough so that you cannot see through it, but thin enough that the paper cups remain upright and intact. You will not use all of the melted chocolate in this step.
- Allow chocolate cups to cool and harden completely by placing on a tray in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. You can also complete this step the night before.
- In a medium bowl, combine the cream cheese through vanilla extract and beat with an electric mixer until smooth. Add in the powdered evaporated cane juice and beat until smooth. Stir in graham cracker crumbs.
- Using a mini ice cream scoop or a small spoon, evenly divide the pumpkin mixture between the hardened chocolate cups. Smooth the top to create an even surface.
- If the remaining melted chocolate has hardened too much, simply repeat steps 1-2.
- Evenly divide the remaining melted chocolate amongst the filled cups, smoothing the tops and making sure the chocolate reaches all the way to the edges in order to seal the cups.
- Chill in the refrigerator until set, about 1-2 hours.
- Unwrap cups and enjoy!
- Store in an air-tight container in the fridge.
Healthy Food for Living by Lauren
(What a coincidence, both of the bloggers whose recipes featured on this issue got same name. )
