Sfogliatelle Scones

So, the insomnia monster hit me yesterday, and I was completely out of sorts. I kept forgetting 1) that it was already April, 2) that they'd moved the first session of Camp NaNoWriMo to April, 3) that I wanted to change up my updating schedule because of my Doctor Who series, and 4) that today was Tuesday, one of the days I had pegged for updating.

I also misspelled study as "studay" about 4 times in a row. Insomnia monster does funny things to my cognitive function.

So that's why this is getting posted a little later than usual. But it's a day earlier than usual, so I get a pass, right? Right.

The first time I made these scones, my momma insisted that they tasted like sfogliatelle (Pronouned sfwi-a-delle or sfoy-a-delle, depending on where you're from. I pronounce it the first way), which is one of her favorite pastries in the world. Sfogliatelle are these super flaky pastries, with with an orange-ricotta filling.

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The combination of the orange zest, almond meal, and ricotta in these scones give them their sfogliatelle flavor, but the addition of oats makes them okay to eat for breakfast. I consider that a win.

So does my momma.

Sfogliatelle Scones {Printable Version}
Yield: 12 scones

Ingredients
2¼ cups all-purpose flour
¾ cup almond meal*
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp. baking soda
¼ tsp. salt
¾ cup cold butter, diced
½ cup ricotta
1/3 cup buttermilk
1 egg
1 tsp. orange zest
½ tsp. vanilla extract
¼ tsp. almond extract
2 cups uncooked quick or old-fashioned oats**
2 tbsp. milk or cream
¼ cup sugar
½ tsp. orange zest

Directions
Preheat the oven to 425°F. In a large bowl, mix together the flour, almond meal, sugar, baking soda, and salt. Cut in the butter with a pastry blender (or rub it in with your fingertips) until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. In a separate bowl, mix together the ricotta, buttermilk, egg, zest, and extracts. Add the wet ingredients and the oats to the flour mixture, and mix until the dough comes together (it will be slightly sticky). Turn out the dough on to a lightly floured surface and knead gently about 10 times. On a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper or a silpat mat, shape the dough into 2 even 6-inch rounds. Using a sharp knife, cut each round into 6 wedges, but do not separate them. Brush the tops with milk or cream. Mix together the ¼ cup sugar and ½ tsp. zest, and sprinkle evenly over the scones. Bake 15-20 minutes, until the tops and edges are golden brown. Remove the scones from the cookie sheet and place on a wire cooling rack, carefully separating them. Best served warm.

*Or use 3 cups all-purpose flour

**I used quick oats. Old-fashioned oats will add a more distinctive texture.

Recipe by Kim

Cannoli Cream Icebox Cake

Benedict Cumberbatch did not win a Golden Globe. >_<

No, I am not over it yet. I will never be over it. Because I believe in Sherlock Holmes.

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Oh, the trials and tribulations of being a fangirl. And they still haven't started filming the third series, but I heard a rumor about March.

So after the epic let down of Benedict not winning a Golden Globe-- which he totally deserved, Hollywood Foreign Press. Have you even seen The Reichenbach Fall?-- I needed the comfort of icebox cake. Because icebox cake is the ultimate comfort food. The texture of the softened graham crackers, and the real cream, and the thousand different flavors you can incorporate makes it perfect to soothe you when awards shows make mistakes. *grumble*

I decided to do a cannoli icebox cake, because I had all the ingredients on hand, and it sounded like a good idea at the time. I just adapted my Pumpkin Pie Icebox Cake recipe, and like in that recipe, the cream is very light in flavor and texture. I thought about just slathering cannoli cream in between the graham crackers, but I like the whipped texture, and it's covering the graininess that ricotta can give the cream

I also put regular chocolate chips in the cream instead of listening to my instincts and using minis, which made the layering a little more difficult than is should. The cream layers were so thick that the cake ended up being a little unstable. Hahaha, whoops. Still, it tasted good. And my cannoli-loving family gave it their seal of approval

So, Benedict, if you're still smarting from Sunday, here's a recipe that'll make you feel better. And if you don't want to make it, you can always come over so I can give you a slice. But only if you tell me how Sherlock survives. Deal?

Cannoli Cream Icebox Cake {Printable Version}

Yield: 8-10 servings

Ingredients
1 cup boiling water
½ cup plus 2 tbsp. sugar
1 tbsp. (1 packet) unflavored gelatin
1½ cups ricotta cheese
½ cup (4oz.) cream cheese, at room temperature
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. orange zest
¼ tsp. almond extract
1 cup whipping cream, chilled
1 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips
Approx. 1 box graham crackers*
Crushed ice cream cones and candied citrus peel for decorating (optional)

Directions
Prepare the filling: whisk the boiling water, ½ cup sugar, and gelatin together until the sugar and gelatin are completely dissolved. Set aside. With an electric beater, beat the ricotta, cream cheese, zest, vanilla and almond extract together at medium speed until smooth and fluffy. Reduce the speed to low and carefully stream in the gelatin mixture. Beat until completely mixed, cover, and refrigerate for 1-2 hours, until thickened. Meanwhile, whip the cream and remaining 2 tbsp. sugar at high speed until soft peaks form. Carefully fold the whipped cream and chocolate chips thickened ricotta mixture.

Assemble the cake: line a loaf pan with plastic wrap. Spread the filling evenly in the bottom of the loaf pan, about ¼ inch thick. Place a row of graham crackers on top, filling as much space as possible. Top with another layer of graham crackers and spread with filling. Repeat until the top of the loaf pan is reached, ending with the filling. Refrigerate 8 hours or overnight.

To serve: invert the loaf pan over a serving dish to release the cake (it should pop right out). Frost the
sides with the remaining filling. If desired, top with crushed ice cream cones and candied citrus peel.
Serve chilled.

Tip: You can also make a freeform cake. Just line the serving dish with graham crackers and layer from there.

*Almond cookies would also work well

Recipe by Kim

Source

I could stare at that gif all day long. I think I have a problem...

This recipe is featured on Foodie Friends Friday Linky Party

Spinach and Sausage Calzones

Am I the only one that gets a little worried about how their mind works sometimes? I was going to make pretzels. I had planned (that dirty, dirty word) to make stuffed pretzels. I had done research on stuffed pretzels. I had pinned recipes for stuffed pretzels. I had decided to do a spanakopita-inspired stuffed pretzels, with goat cheese (because I didn't want feta) and spinach and sausage.

And I made calzones. Brain, stop trolling me. I now have an unused log of goat cheese in my refrigerator, all thanks to you.

To be fair to Mr. Brain (although he doesn't deserve it, since this is far from the first time he's done it to me)(and he's now apparently male for some reason. I don't know. I'm special.) I was already a bit disheartened by a recipe fail earlier on. I had found the easiest bread recipe in the world, and I was going to make it, then I was going to make a panini with it, and I'd be set with my recipes for the week. Then the bread came out of the oven, and it was gross. See, more planning, and more planning fails. I should really know better.

Anyway, I was disheartened by the bread fail, and Mr. Brain didn't want to go through that agony again. So slowly, stuffed pretzels became stuffed pretzel buns, which became stuffed buns, which turned into calzones.

And, you know, these turned out amazing, so you can't really be too mad at Mr. Brain. He came up with this filling, which is the most epic of noms. Seriously, if it wasn't for the fact that there was raw egg in it, more of the filling might have ended up in my mouth than in the calzones. Creamy and garlicky with the spinach and the sausage and the little tang from the Swiss. Cripes, I'm drooling. I made it pretty super garlicky, but you could tone that down if you want. Just don't tell me, because then we can't be friends.

If you increased the ricotta, this would make killer lasagna or stuffed shells. Or you could wrap it in super simple pizza dough and have a bunch of these hand-held beauties ready for your Superbowl party. Which is soon, right? Soonish? I don't know; I have board game parties, not football parties. But these work well there, too.

So maybe Mr. Brain's trolling all works out for the best. But that doesn't mean I have to like it.

Spinach and Sausage Calzones {Printable Version}

Yield: 10 individual calzones

Ingredients
1 tbsp. olive oil
1 small onion, diced
1-2 cloves garlic, minced
Big pinch crushed red pepper (optional)
1lb sausage meat (casings removed)
16oz. ricotta cheese
1 pkg. (10oz.) frozen spinach, thawed and drained
½ cup shredded Swiss cheese
2 eggs
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. dried oregano
½ tsp. dried basil
½ tsp. sea salt
Freshly cracked pepper, to taste
1 recipe Basic Pizza Dough (see below), or premade pizza dough
1 tsp. water

Directions
Preheat the oven to 450°F. In a large skillet over medium heat, heat the olive oil. Add the onion, garlic,
and red pepper and cook, stirring constantly, until the onions are translucent. Add the sausage meat and
continue to cook until the sausage has cooked through. Drain off the fat and set aside to cool.

In a large bowl, mix the ricotta, spinach, Swiss, 1 egg, and seasonings until smooth. Mix in the sausage.

Divide the pizza dough into 10 even pieces. Flatten into rounds and roll out to ¼” thickness. In the center
of each round, mound about 3 tbsp. of the sausage filling. Fold the dough in half over the filling, and
pinch the sides together to seal. Place the calzones on an ungreased cookie sheet, and pierce with a
fork. Beat the remaining egg with 1tsp. of water, and brush the tops of the calzones with the egg wash.

Bake 10 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 400°F and bake another 5-10 minutes, until the
calzones are an even golden brown. Let cool a few minutes before serving.

Recipe by Kim

Basic Pizza Dough {Printable Version}

Yield: 1 12inch thin crust pizza

Ingredients
1 tbsp. active dry yeast
¾ cup plus 2 tbsp. warm water (about 110°F)
2¾ cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for dusting
1 tsp. salt
1 tbsp. olive oil

Directions
Dissolve the yeast in the water and let activate for 10 minutes. In a large mixing bowl, mix the flour and
salt, and make a well in the center. Pour the yeast mixture into the well, and using a fork, pull the flour
into the yeast mixture. Continue stirring until a dough forms.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and knead until the dough is smooth and elastic,
about 10 minutes. Add more flour as necessary to prevent the dough from sticking.

Coat the inside of a clean bowl with the olive oil. Form the dough into a ball, and place it in the bowl,
turning it over to coat with the oil. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise until doubled in size, about 1
hour. Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured surface. Punch down the dough, and form it into a ball.
Cover with a dish towel and let rise again for about 20 minutes, until almost doubled in size. Stretch into
desired shape and bake as directed.

Recipe adapted slightly from Williams-Sonoma The Best of the Kitchen Library: Baking

This recipe is featured on Foodie Friends Friday Linky Party

Gluten Free Orange Rosemary Ricotta Cookies

So, my car's in the midst of it's death throes. It's really not unexpected, but it's sad. My car's old enough to be getting it's own driver's license, if you know what I'm saying. In some states, it would have already had it for a year. But just the provisional license, of course. It's not old enough for a full license. And I've found that I not only know absolutely nothing about cars, but can be swayed by the cute and the pretty.

Case in point, I found this adorable yellow car for well under my max price point, with just under 60k miles (for what I can spend, that's generally the best I can find) and I fell in love. I decided that I would name it Bumblebee and pretend that it's really just a sentient alien rather than a car and play the Transformers theme song all the time and we'd go on adventures, and I'd always be happy when driving, because really how can you not be happy driving a yellow car? Turns out this car has an engine that pretty much craps out at 60k miles and is pretty cheaply made. But a part of me still wants it because it was adorable. And yellow. So now my family is helping me look because they're all secretly afraid that I will just buy the cutest car that I can find, regardless of how good it is.

I'm not really bothered. Car shopping might not be my thing, but I can out-bake any one of them.