Cookaholics Bulletin Board

Alina, do you just sub an equal amount of dried apricots for the dried blueberries in that recipe, or did you make other alterations to the recipe? I don't have that cookbook but the recipe is online at various sites and I'd like to try it with the apricots. Thanks!

Emilie

Hi Emilie, hope you are recuperating well. Here's the recipe I made in 32 servings, I also have a 16 serving version. I made the original recipe exactly as written with dried blueberries, then the adapted one with half the batter with dried orange cranberries and the other half with dried apricots. The apricot ones were the winners (though the cranberry ones were a close second). Hope you like them as well as we do.

EXPORTED FROM LIVING COOKBOOK

MILK CRUMBS MS Servings: 32 Yield: 1½ cup

Oven Temperature: 225°F

15 TBS. nonfat milk powder divided
6 TBS. all-purpose flour
3 TBS. cornstarch
4½ tsp. sugar
3/8 tsp. salt
4½ TBS. unsalted butter, melted
3/4 cup white chocolate chips, melted (90 g.)

Preheat oven to 225° F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper; set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together 7½ TBS. milk powder, flour, cornstarch, sugar, and salt. Stir in melted butter until well combined. Spread mixture on prepared baking sheet and transfer to oven. Bake until dried and crumbly, 8 to 10 minutes. Remove milk crumble from oven and let cool completely.

Transfer milk crumble to a large bowl and fold in remaining 7½ TBS. milk powder and white chocolate. Use immediately or transfer to an airtight container and keep refrigerated until ready to use.

Preparation Time: 20 minutes Cooking Time: 10 minutes Inactive Time: 30 minutes Total Time: 1 hour

Source: Martha Stewart
Web Page:http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/milk-crumbs

APRICOT AND CREAM COOKIES***** Servings: 32 Yield: 96 cookies

Original recipe uses dried blueberries and is great, the apricots and dried orange cranberries take it over the top. Better smaller than original. Excellent with apricots instead of blueberries.For other changes, the original can be found on the source link. Milk crumbs must be fully made before cookie recipe is started. Temp is 350° F convection bake or 375° F for regular oven.

Oven Temperature: 350°F Convection Bake

32 servings MILK CRUMBS MS (see above)
2¼ cups white whole wheat flour (270 g.)
2¼ cups all-purpose flour (270 g.)
5/8 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
3¾ tsp. kosher salt
15 oz. Plugrá European-style unsalted butter
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup Light-brown sugar packed
3/4 cup glucose 9 oz.
2 large eggs
1½ cup diced dried apricots (285 g) or use half orange cranberries

Make MILK CRUMBS if not already on hand.

Line 4 large baking sheets with parchment paper; set aside.

In a large bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment mix together butter, sugars, and glucose until well combined. Add egg and mix until well combined.

Add flour mixture and mix until well combined. Add apricots and milk crumbs and mix until well combined. Using a #50 disher, scoop dough into balls and place about 1" apart on prepared baking sheets (24 per cookies sheet). Transfer baking sheets to refrigerator until dough is chilled, at least 15 minutes but better for an hour or more or overnight.

Preheat oven to 350° F convection bake or 375° F regular. Transfer baking sheets to oven and bake, rotating pans halfway through baking, until cookies are golden brown and tops begin to crackle, about 9-11 minutes. Transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool. Will keep well in tins for several days. Also freeze well.

Preparation Time: 19 minutes Cooking Time: 11 minutes Inactive Time: 1 hour Total Time: 1 hour and 30 minutes

Recipe Type: ALINA'S ADAPTATION, Cookies, Desserts, Dried Apricots, Main Dish, Martha Stewart, Momofuku

Source: Adapted from the Momofuku Blueberry and Cream Cookies on Martha Stewart's Website
Web Page: http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/blueberries-and-cream-cookies

Nance, I checked the Moosewood Cooking for Health out of the library and so far I've made the Rice Salad with Herbs and the Chickpea Crepes which are delicious. The dressing on the rice salad is so good that I may adopt it for my go to vinaigrette.

I got all exccited over the Italian Sweet Potato Gratin until I read the ingredients. Somehow I just can't see tomato sauce on sweet potatoes. I'm trying to think of a sub - maybe cheese sauce. There are a couple of others I'm interested in.

What have you made?

fitzie

Whole Grain Pancakes; Spicy Eggplant Spread; Chickpea Crepes; Watercress and Cauliflower Soup; Greek Tomato-Yogurt Soup. Some of the others that are on my to-do list are Sweet Potato, Apple and Chipotle Soup; Skillet BBQ Tofu; Quinoa and Collard Leaf Dolmas; Greek Vegetable Pie; Mediterranean Eggplant Casserole; Savory Asparagus and Mushroom Bread Pudding; Polenta Casserole with Winter Squash and Greens; North-South Chili; Spanish Stew; Three Sisters @ Four Corners Stew; Red Fried Rice; and the list goes on with at least 15 more recipes to taste.

So far everything I've tried from this cookbook has been delicious Fitzie!
Nance

Desserts in Jars by Shaina Olmanson is a must-miss. This is clearly a concept book, most likely invented by the publisher, who didn't bother to think much about how 1974 the concept sounded. The only value of the book is the inadvertent entertainment it provides as we witness Olmanson's descent into desperation to round out the required 50 recipes.

Many of the recipes are just fairly straightforwards substitution of jelly jars for ramekins, parfait glasses or cupcake tins. Others are ... reaching. My favorite is "Macaroons in Jars", a recipe which could be summed up as two steps:

1. Make some French-style macaroons
2. Put them in jars

For that matter, most of the recipes aren't exactly gourmet even without the jars; this is BH&G territory. If anything I feel bad for Olmanson, who has her own, successful blog ( http://foodformyfamily.com/ ) in which she apparently does know how to cook like a real person. I just hope she got paid in advance!

Seems like it's "disappointing cookbook month". This week's disappointing cookbook is Patricia Wells' Salad As a Meal.

Good thing we're borrowing them from the library.

Why was Salad as a Meal disappointing? Well, for one thing, you'd expect such a book to be fairly vegetarian-friendly, but you'd be wrong; around 2/3 of the recipes involve some kind of meat. Further, Wells seems to have a more liberal definition of "salad" than I've encountered before; from my perspective, deep-fried founder served cold is not a salad. In fact, I found a sum total of 5 recipes in the book I'd even be willing to try.

Would not buy. Returning to library.

The new Smitten Kitchen cookbook just arrived, though, so things are looking up!

I agree with you, Fuzzy. I returned my copy of the Wells' book
fitzie

Eeeew, cold deep fried flounder (or even hot) as a 'salad' is not appealing. Good to know so I too can take a pass.

I just got Ina's Foolproof. Might just be me, but I'm not feeling that inspired. I was hoping it would be more of a menu driven book, as that's what the advance info seemed to suggest. Then again, that's how I felt about the last two books as well, but then found myself using a number of the recipes a lot. Jeffrey's chicken and the banana cake are DH's all time favourites, which are either from back to basics, or how easy is that. She does her version of caramel salty brownies (using her outrageous recipe as the base). Lots of seafood (lobster) in this one. Tomato orzo soup, panko chicken, marinated flank steak, high heat roast turkey, and crab stuffed phyllo rolls looked pretty good too. Could just be that I'm sick and the house is too much of a disaster for me to want to cook that is making me luke-warm.

I agree it's not a salad, but I love cold deep-fried foods. Well, not potatoes, but chicken and fish, sure.

So, continuing "disappointing cookbook month", we have Tate's Bake Shop by Kathleen King. To quote my sweetie:

"Badly written, boring recipes which would make bricks if I were fool enough to make them."

Shame, because the illustration and design of the book is quite charming. Oh, well. 'least we didn't buy it.