Category Archives: Baking

Strawberry Short-Cup-Cakes

Posted in Baking, Dessert by

My toddler loves strawberries.  She requests that I always cut off the leaves, and insists that I do NOT sugar them, and then can eat roughly half a pound a day.  She essentially exists on strawberries, cherry tomatoes, and cheese.  It’s a good life.  Because we always need to have strawberries on hand for her, I buy a carton every time I see them (sort of like milk – it’s never on the list because it’s ALWAYS on the list) – the grocery store, Costco, Target, etc.  So sometimes I don’t pay enough attention and end up with 5 pounds of strawberries.  While my little cutie COULD consume 5 pounds of strawberries in a matter of days before they go bad, it would be awfully hard on her stomach.  Enter strawberry shortcupcakes.  They’re basically a vanilla cupcake with a strawberry balsamic filling and a strawberry buttercream on top.  Pure heaven.

Unfortunately my strawberry-lovin’ daughter takes books very seriously and had recently become obsessed with Pinkalicious before I made these.  In the story, the little girl makes pink cupcakes with her mom, eats too many, and turns pink.  To my two year old literalist, it was not a risk worth taking, so she wouldn’t eat them at all.  Her loss.

Note: if you don’t have/want to buy cake flour, you can substitute AP flour, just take 2T of each cup out and replace it with cornstarch.  Also, all in all, you’ll need 5 sticks of  butter, 1.5-2lbs of strawberries, and 9 eggs so, just be aware.  These really are a lot of work, but if you’re looking for something impressive and outstanding, their worth the effort.  I’d recommend baking the cupcakes the evening before, and filling/frosting the next morning.

Strawberry ShortCupCakes

for the cakes:

2 sticks butter, softened

1 cup white sugar

1 cup brown sugar

5 eggs

1 Tbsp vanilla extract

3 cups cake flour

1Tbsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1 1/4 cup buttermilk

for the filling:

12 oz strawberries (fresh or frozen)

3 Tbsp sugar

1 tsp balsamic vinegar

for the frosting:

12 oz strawberries (fresh or frozen)

1T balsamic vinegar

1 and 1/4 cup sugar

4 egg whites

3 sticks of butter

1. Preheat the oven to 350. To make the cakes, begin by beating the butter and sugars together until light and fluffy.  Add in the eggs, one at a time, and the vanilla.  Stir the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, and salt) together and alternate adding the dry ingredients and the buttermilk until everything is incorporated.  Fill cupcake liners to 2/3 full (mine made roughly 24).  Bake for 15-18 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.  Allow the cupcakes to cool completely before proceeding.

2. To make the filling, hull and finely dice the strawberries and toss with the sugar and balsamic vinegar.  Allow the mixture to set while you core the cupcakes.  You can either use a knife or a handy coring tool (like this).  Spoon a bit of the strawberry mixture in each cupcake until full – sort of mashing the strawberries in with the back of the spoon.  They can mound a little over the top, they will be covered by the frosting.

3. To make the frosting, hull and roughly chop the strawberries and toss with balsamic vinegar.  Cook the mixture over medium heat in a small saucepan for several minutes until fragrant.  Allow to cool.  Meanwhile, stir the egg whites and sugar together in a heatproof bowl over simmering water, whisking constantly until it hits 160 degrees.  Transfer to a stand mixer with the whisk and beat on medium high until the mixture is completely cool and stiff peaks form.  This takes 10-12 minutes for me.  While it’s beating, pour the strawberries into a blender or food processor and blend until smooth.  Put it in the freezer while you finish the frosting so it’s nice and cool.  Once the stiff peaks are achieved, turn the mixer down a notch or two and add in the butter, in small chunks until it’s all incorporated.  Bump the speed back up and beat another 4 minutes until the frosting is fluffy.  Add in the strawberry puree until incorporated.

4. Frost the cupcakes using a piping bag to cover the strawberry filling.

Nutrition:

If you yield 24 cupcakes: 352 calories per cupcake, 18g fat, 31g sugar.

Hawaiian Buns

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We’ve been in the midst of picnic season in North Texas lately, so picnic food has long been on my mind.  Sandwiches are my go-to, especially egg salad, tuna, and a bizarre TVP concoction I’ve been eating since I was a kid.  At the crux of all small picnic sandwiches are my favorite store-bought bread – King’s Hawaiian rolls.  Soft, fluffy, sweet – they’re one of those foods I could eat for every meal, and polish off the whole bag in a day.  Of course, I’ve longed to make my own.  These are not quite the same as the standard King roll – they aren’t quite as fluffy, a little denser, especially if you make them with some whole wheat flour, but they also don’t come with hundreds of unpronounceable ingredients.  The beauty is that you can customize them to fit any sandwich – small for picnic sandwiches, big for hamburgers, etc.  They do need to rise for a substantial amount of time (that’s why they’re fluffy!), but they aren’t much work otherwise.

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Hawaiian Buns

3 eggs

7ish cups AP flour

2 cups pineapple juice

1/2 cup suga,

2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp vanilla extract

1.5 Tbsp yeast

1 stick of butter, melted

1. Beat the eggs and add the pineapple juice, sugar, salt, ginger, vanilla, and melted butter (I use my stand mixer).  Stir together until combined.  Add the yeast and mix until the yeast is fully incorporated.  Add the flour, one cup at a time, waiting for each to fully incorporate.  Continue to add flour until the dough is sticky, but not overly wet (usually 7 gets it there for me).  Continue to knead the dough either with a bread hook or your hands until it forms a soft ball.  Transfer to a greased bowl and allow to rise for a few hours, until doubled in size.

2.  Once doubled, punch the dough down and roll sections of dough into individual rolls (I shoot for ping-pong ball sized).  Place these into a greased pan – I usually fill one 9×13 pan and one 8×8 pan.  Place the rolls far enough apart to allow them to double in size.  Cover with a dishtowel and allow to rise for another hour or two until the rolls have doubled in size again.

3. Bake at 350 for about 25 minutes.  Overbaking will cause these to become crunchy, so be sure to pull them out before they get too brown.

Crazy good cheesecake

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Full disclosure: as much as butter, sugar, and baking are my “jam”, cheesecake is not my jam.  It’s not like cheesecake is gross to me (like flan), but as far as desserts go, it’s really low on my list.  To me, it’s too rich and often a lot more work to make than it’s worth.  That said, it’s one of my husband’s absolute favorite desserts so, because I love him, I make him a cheesecake every year for Valentine’s Day.  This year was our TENTH Valentine’s Day together, and though there have been some cheesecake winners in the past, this one was my favorite – to the point that I might consider making 2 per year.

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Cheesecake is an inherently difficult dessert to make, and this is no exception.  It’s a lot of work because there are four layers of goodness involved, but none of the steps are too challenging.  The chocolate-covered espresso beans aren’t crucial to the cheesecake and I’ve heard they can be hard to find, so if you can’t it’s no problem.  I found them in the bulk foods section of a local store, and I’ve gotten them at Trader Joe’s before.   Be sure to allow plenty of cooking and cooling time – you might even want to start a day early.  The cake is good for a solid week covered in the refrigerator (maybe more, ours was gone by then).

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Chocolate Espresso Cheesecake

Crust:

2/3 package of oreo cookies

6T butter

1/4tsp salt

Ganache:

1 1/2 cups heavy cream

20 oz bittersweet chocolate (chopped or buy it in chocolate-chip form – Guittard makes a great bittersweet chip)

1/4 cup kahlua or similar coffee liqueur

Cheesecake:

24 oz cream cheese (3 packages)

1 cup sugar

1.5 T flour

2 T rum

2 T instant espresso powder

2 tsp. vanilla extract

1 1/2 tsp molasses

3 eggs

Topping:

1.5 cups sour cream

1/4 cup sugar

2 tsp vanilla extract

Chocolate covered espresso beans for garnish

1. Set the cream cheese out to soften.  To make the crust: twist the oreos in half and discard the cream.  Place the cookies in a food processor to make a very fine crumb.  Melt the butter and add stir the butter, oreo dust, and salt together in a medium bowl.  Press the mixture into a 9-inch springform pan completely covering the bottom and coming up about halfway up the sides.  Put the crusted pan in the refrigerator until you’re ready to pour in the ganache.

2. To make the ganache: in a small saucepan, heat the heavy cream to a simmer.  Place the chocolate in a medium bowl and, once the cream is simmering, pour it over the chocolate and stir until the chocolate melts.  Add the liqueur and stir until incorporated.  Pour about half the mixture into the springform pan, just make sure the chocolate doesn’t come above the crust.  Reserve the rest of the ganache for topping.  Return to the refrigerator.

3. Preheat the oven to 350 with the rack in the middle.  To make the filling: beat the cream cheese and sugar together until smooth.  Add the flour, rum, espresso powder, molasses, and eggs, one at a time, beating until incorporated.  Pour the mixture into the pan and place on a rimmed baking sheet before placing in the oven.  Bake for 45 minutes to an hour – until the top is puffy and starting to pull away from the edge of the pan.  Remove from the oven, but leave it on while you prepare the topping.

4. To make the topping: beat the sour cream, sugar, and vanilla together until smooth.  Carefully spread over the top of the cheesecake, using a spatula to smooth.  Return to the 350 degree oven and bake for 10-15 more minutes.  Allow the cheesecake to cook for at least half and hour, then pipe the remaining ganache over the top and garnish with espresso beans.  Be sure to pipe along the edge to give it a nice side view.  Then move to the refrigerator (or freezer, if you watch carefully) to chill for an additional several hours until completely cool and set.  Carefully remove the springform and cut with a sharp knife.

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Almond Poppy Seed Bread

Posted in Baking, Quick and Easy by

Before you go any further, let’s just get one thing straight: this is “bread” in the sense that a bellini is a “fruit smoothie”, but eating bread for breakfast seems so much more reasonable than eating cake for breakfast and it IS baked in a loaf pan.  This comes together really quickly, uses pretty basic pantry ingredients, and smells absolutely divine while it’s baking.  Pair it with your favorite coffee for breakfast, or with a hot cup of tea for an afternoon snack and you’ll feel super decadent, even for a Tuesday.  Of course, pair it with a bellini and you basically have toast and a fruit smoothie – super healthy breakfast!

Almond Poppy Seed Bread

3 cups flour

2 tsp, baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1 cup vegetable oil

3 eggs

2 cups sugar

1 1/2 cups milk

1 Tbsp poppy seeds

1 tsp almond extract

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/2 Tbsp melted butter

for the glaze:

3/4 cup flour

1/4 cup orange juice

2 Tbsp butter

1/2 tsp vanilla or almond extract

1. Preheat your oven to 350.  Whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt.  Stir in the oil and eggs until well combined.  Mix in the sugar and milk.  Fold in the poppy seeds, extracts, and butter.  The batter should be a thin, not at all dough-like.

2. Divide the batter into two greased loaf pans.  Bake for 50 minutes, until the tops begin to crust.

3. As soon as you remove the bread from the oven, stir the glaze ingredients together in a small saucepan.  Cook over high heat until the sugar melts (I brought mine to a boil, which was fine), stirring constantly.  When the glaze has cooled a bit, remove the bread from the pans and drizzle the glaze on top, stopping occasionally to let it soak in.  I recommend doing this on a plate or over foil because it will drip over the sides.  Allow the bread to cool before serving.

 

Honey Wheat Bread

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At my house, Monday are bread baking days.  More specifically, I make the bread on Monday, but per my husband I can’t start baking it until Monday evening when he gets home because he hates missing out on the fantastic smell that baking bread fills the house with.  This honey wheat bread is pure heaven from the smell of the baking to cutting the first piece.  It’s not overly sweet, and it isn’t outstanding for sandwiches (it’s a bit dense – it’s great with an open-face sandwich), it’s absolutely the perfect bread for toast.  During the week, I’m not into huge breakfasts and I like something fast and easy on my stomach since I go to Stroller Strides in the morning to workout, so 2 pieces of this bread with a little butter or peanut butter works really well.

The recipe yields 2 loaves and in my family we never have trouble polishing off both loaves by Sunday, but if you don’t eat as much, you could easily freeze one loaf after it’s cool.  The only downside would be that you don’t get bread baking smell as often.  The original recipe comes from a West Texas Girl Scout cookbook (odd since we don’t, to my knowledge, know any West Texas Girl Scouts).

Honey Wheat Bread

2 envelopes dry yeast (or 1.5T if you buy it in a jar).

1/2 cup warm water

1/2 cup honey

1 T salt

1/4 cup melted butter

1 3/4 cup warm water

3 cups whole wheat flour

3-4 cups all purpose flour

1 T butter

1. Dissolve the yeast in 1/2 cup of warm water in a mixing bowl (I use my stand mixer).  Add the honey, salt, butter, and 1 3/4 cup of water.  Stir together until well combined.

2. Add the whole wheat flour and mix until incorporated – I use the bread hook on my mixer.  Add the flour, one cup at a time, making sure it’s completely incorporated before adding more.  Stop when the dough is still a little sticky, but pulls away from the side of the bowl.  Continue either kneading or letting your bread hook do the kneading until the dough forms a ball.

3. Transfer the dough to a large bowl with a little oil in the bottom and swirl the dough to make sure all sides are coated.  Place the bowl in a warm area of your kitchen (I turn my oven on warm and then turn it off when I put the dough in so it’s not HOT, but still warm).  Allow the dough to raise until it has doubled in size – an hour or so.

4. Punch the dough down and split into two loaves.  Place the dough into two greased loaf pans and allow the dough to raise in the loaf pans for another hour or two until doubled again.

5. Bake at 375 for 40 minutes.  Rub the last T of butter over the top of the hot loaves.

 

Peppernuts

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When I was 14, my mom, grandma, and I took a 3-day road trip to Iowa to attend Schmeckfest – a festival celebrating the cuisine of Germans-from-Russia, our ancestors.  I’m not sure how many teenagers would be willing to drive 16 hours each way with her mom and grandma to essentially eat a lot of food, but my love of food goes back to infancy, so naturally, I was thrilled.  Among the classic dishes served (strudel, kuchen, lots of sauerkraut), one distinct memory I have from the trip was eating peppernut cookies.

A cookie with pepper in it seems weird, I know (and weirder yet, these contain no nuts!), and the fact that you roll them out into little worms?  Weird, too.  But the thing is, you end up with these tiny, spicy, crunchy little cookies that you could seriously eat by the handful.  There are tons of peppernut recipes out there, but this is my favorite because there’s a lot of great spice happening.

I’ll also note that these are great cookies to make with kids because the worm-rolling is totally fun and uniformity isn’t really important.  My toddler also loves that they are the perfect size of cookie for a doll or stuffed animal.  Excellent at a tea party.

Peppernut Cookies

1/2 cup butter, softened

2 cups brown sugar

1 egg

1 tsp. anise oil

3 cups flour

2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp cream of tartar

1 tsp cloves

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp nutmeg

1 tsp mace

1. Preheat oven to 350.  Stir the dry ingredients together (flour, baking soda, cream of tartar, and spices).  Beat the butter and sugar together until fluffy, then add the eggs and anise and beat for another minute.

2. Slowly add the dry ingredients.  If the dough gets too dry, add in a little water (you shouldn’t need more than 1/4 cup).

3. When the dough is workable, roll it into a long rope (a ‘nake, as my daughter calls it).  Cut the snake into small, 1/2-inch pieces, transfer to a baking sheet, and bake for about 8 minutes, until they just begin to get crispy.  Allow them to cool on the pan.  I let the cookies dry out overnight before transferring to a jar or airtight container.

Roasted Strawberry Coffee Cake

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If Robin could eat one food for breakfast, lunch, and dinner it would be strawberries.  She requests them every time she is hungry and prefers them cut in half with the “leafs” cut off.  She can easily eat a half pound in one sitting, so we do try to limit her intake, but I pretty much buy a box or two every time we go to the grocery store.  Lately our strawberries have been fantastic at the store, and on sale!  To that end, I can make this coffee cake with things I have on hand.  It comes together really quickly and has the perfect coffee cake texture and isn’t too sweet.  You could really use any amount of strawberries you have – I used a 1lb carton with a few strawberries eaten out, but anywhere from half to a whole pound would work.

I baked mine in a cast iron skillet and I’d recommend you do the same, just for rustic appeal and because you don’t have to worry about greasing it.

Roasted Strawberry Coffee Cake

1/2 to 1 lb fresh strawberries

1T olive oil

2T maple syrup

1/4tsp salt

2.5 cups flour

1T baking powder

1/2 cup sugar

1/2tsp salt

2 eggs

1.5 cups buttermilk

4T melted butter (plus an extra T for the skillet)

1/2 tsp almond extract

1. De-leaf and quarter the strawberries. Whisk the syrup, olive oil, and salt together in a small bowl and toss the strawberries in the mixture until they are coated.  Spread the strawberries out on a baking sheet with parchment paper (unless you want to scrub strawberry goo off of your favorite cookie sheet) and bake for 40 minutes at 350.  Stick your cast iron skillet underneath the pan to heat up while the strawberries roast.

2. Stir the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt together in a mixing bowl.  Whisk the eggs, buttermilk, melted butter, and almond extract together in a small bowl.  Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir together until smooth.

3. When the strawberries are done, turn the oven up to 400.  Melt the remaining T of butter in the bottom of the skillet and swirl it up the sides.  Then pour the batter in the skillet.  Spread the strawberries on top and return the skillet to the oven for 25 minutes or so.  Allow the cake to cool in the skillet.

Source: adapted from Joy the Baker 

Cheese Blintzes for Sochi!

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The Sochi Olympics have started and I really couldn’t be more excited.  For me, everything pretty much stops for the Olympics fortnight and I focus all of my time and energy on watching the games.  I cry at every medal ceremony, I fill our DVR with coverage, I refrain from the news to avoid spoilers, I wikipedia the official rules for curling – it’s really an obsession.  Ten years ago, for the opening ceremonies of the Athens games, my extended family had the brilliant plan of having a party to celebrate the opening ceremonies wherein we ate the host country’s cuisine (or at least our interpretation of it).  From that, a tradition was born and last night we celebrated our sixth opening ceremonies party.

Admittedly, when Russia was announced as the host country a few years ago, we were a little concerned about the meal because really, Greece, Italy, and China all have seriously good cuisine, but all we could think of for Russia was borscht, potatoes, and vodka.  However, tradition is tradition, so we planned a Russian meal and were pleasantly surprised that the meal was one of the best yet.  I’ll be sharing several Russian dishes over the next two weeks, but I feel like you need a really awesome Russian dessert to start things off.

The blintz has 3 parts – the crepes, the filling, and the topping.  You start by making the blintz, then you fill them, roll them up like burritos, and fry them.  For a topping I just cut up some strawberries and added a little sugar and vanilla and drizzled chocolate syrup, but I you could use any sweet fruit (berries, pears, apples).  Give them a try – you’ll feel so authentic watching ski jumping while eating blintzes.

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Cheese Blintzes

For the shell:

6 eggs

1.5 cups flour

1T sugar

1/4tsp salt

2 cups milk

butter to grease the pan

For the filling:

1 cup ricotta cheese

8oz. cream cheese, softened

1/4 cup sugar

1 egg yolk

1 tsp vanilla

juice of 1 lemon

for topping:

chocolate sauce

fruit

1. To make the blintz, whisk the eggs, flour, sugar, and salt until smooth with no lumps.  Stir in the milk to make a thin batter.  Heat a small frying pan (8″) over medium heat.  spread a bit of butter into the pan (I just use the stick and run it around the pan once in a circle.  Pour about 1/4 cup of batter in the pan and swirl it around to coat the bottom.  Allow the blintz to cook until the one side is done, then carefully flip to finish the other side.  It should be solid, but not brown.  It may take you a few trials to adjust your pan to the right heat and get the hang of frying and that’s OK – the batter will make a few more blintzes than you’ll need.  Set the finished blintzes on a plate to cool.

2. Stir the ricotta cheese, cream cheese, and sugar.  The filling can be a little lumpy.  Stir in the sugar, egg yolk, vanilla, and lemon to complete the filling.  To assemble, spoon a few tablespoons of batter onto one side of the blintz in a line.  Fold in the ends and roll like a burrito.

3. Once all blintzes have been assembled, butter a frying pan and brown the blintzes on both sides over medium heat until golden brown.  Serve warm topped with fruit, chocolate sauce, or both.

 

 

Crunchy Apple Pie

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This week I had a special request for a recipe.  A neighbor from 20 years ago, one of my very favorite babysitting clients, contacted me for a recipe for apple pie to make for her boyfriend’s birthday this week.  I love a challenge, so of course, I had to make an apple pie this week.  The thing is, for being a mainstay in piedom, I haven’t made all that many apple pies in my day.  See, apple pie is my grandma’s pie.  Her signature – the one she always makes for holidays and always is amazing and so delicious that there would be no use in me making one.  In our family, we have a strong respect for one’s signature pie – my sister-in-law makes an amazing pecan bourbon pie, my grandma does apple pie, and my signature is cherry.  So basically, I have no business replicating my grandma’s apple pie, which is a classic 2-types of apples, cinnamon, sugar, and double-crusted.  Instead, I sought out a recipe that was very different, but still fit the bill of an awesome apple pie.  This pie truly delivers.  It tastes amazing, is pretty easy to put together, and the topping gives it a nice texture.

I made this with an all-butter crust, which is different from my usual crust.  It turned out really well.  I’m planning on doing a step-by-step tutorial on making your own pie crust in the future.  Obviously, a homemade crust is fabulous with this pie, but certainly not required.  Also note that the pie starts out looking ridiculously tall, but as it cooks, and especially cools, it will flatten down significantly.

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Crunchy Apple Pie

1 prepared pie crust (unbaked)

6 granny smith apples

1 lime (for juice)

1/2 cup sugar

4 T and 1/2 cup of flour, divided

salt

12 T cold butter (1.5 sticks)

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup oatmeal

1 cup pecans

1.  Preheat your oven to 375.  Peel and core the apples.  I use a vegetable peeler first, then one of those apple slicers that cores and cuts the apple into 8 slices.   This is the most time consuming part of the recipe.  Slice the apples into 1/4″ to 1/2″ slices (I just cut each of the 8 pieces in half).  Squeeze the lime over the apples and toss with the sugar and 4T of flour.  Set aside.

2. Cut the butter into the 1/2 cup of flour.  I slice the butter into 1cm sized cubes first, then mash it up with a pastry cutter.  Stir in the brown sugar and the oatmeal.  This mixture will be crumbly and dry, but that’s the way it’s supposed to be.

3. Arrange the apple slices into the pie crust.  Spoon the brown sugar/oatmeal/butter topping over the top.  You may have to use your hands to press the topping into the apples to make sure it stays put.  This may cause your pie to look really tall and precarious, but I promise it will flatten down.

4. Carefully transfer your crust to the oven.  Bake for 25 minutes and then check on the pie.  If the crust is beginning to brown, add some foil around the edge.  Rotate the pie 180 degrees (especially if you have an oven that has a hot spot).  Bake the pie for another 25 minutes.  During the second baking session, chop the pecans.  After the pie has baked for 50 total minutes, scatter the pecans over the top of the pie (I used an oven mitt to sort of pat them in).  Bake for 5 more minutes (55 total minutes of baking).  Allow the pie to cool for several hours and serve, ideally, with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Dill Cheddar Scones

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I really feel like if you serve soup for dinner, you need some sort of homemade bread or muffin to go along with it.  I have pretty much eaten my weight in goat cheese biscuits this winter, so when I made potato soup tonight, I decided to revisit these savory scones to go along with them.  Having made the recipe before, I knew that it yielded way more scones than I needed so I figured I’d half the recipe.  Unfortunately, I’m quite poor at math, so I split the whole recipe in half up until the end, when I added a whole cup of cream instead of a half cup, so, obviously, I ended up making the whole recipe of them.  The one I posted here makes about 12 medium-sized scones, a good amount to serve with dinner.  Like all scones, what keeps the flakiness intact is streaks of unincorporated butter.  Be mindful about that as you mix, especially if you use a stand mixer.

Scones

Dill Cheddar Scones

2 cups flour, plus a few tablespoons for assembling

1 T baking powder

1 tsp salt

1 1/2 sticks butter (12 tablespoons)

2 eggs

1/2 cup heavy cream

4 oz. cheddar cheese

handful of fresh dill

1. Preheat your oven to 400.  Using either a large bowl or mixer, mix the flour, baking powder, and salt.  Cut the butter into small, centimeter-sized pieces and toss them in.  Mix briefly until the pieces of butter have broken up a bit.  Add the eggs and cream and mix until just incorporated.

2. Grate the cheese and chop up the dill, fold both into the dough.  Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and mold into a big rectangle, roughly an inch tall.  Using a bench scraper or  chef’s knife, cut triangles off and transfer to a baking sheet (I do 3-4″ hypotenuse triangles).

3. Bake for 16-18 minutes, until the tops begin to brown.

Adapted from Ina Garten, the Barefoot Contessa