Apple Peel Twigs

I've been spending some time lately trying to conquer a few kitchen anxieties in an effort to become more proficient in my cooking skills.  Peeling things and pastry-making, specifically.  I'll address the pastry business if I manage to crack the code on that niggly awful process (which yields nearly 16 million google hits for good reason), but until then, peels!

I'll be the first to admit that I'm the laziest prep cook in existence and if there's a step in a recipe that even remotely seems like it doesn't need to be done, it's just not going to happen in the Trash Salad kitchen.  There's always a Law and Order SVU marathon on, you see, and that is always going to take precedence.  As a result of this cooking philosophy, I have peeled apples maybe twice in my life and really never had a problem with chunky applesauce or brown betties with an extra special texture to them.  But autumn is a time for productivity and personal challenge, and thus I decided to go the whole nine with desserts while also learning how to peel without looking like a thumbless orangutan.

Glory be, if I didn't discover the most outrageously delicious, easy to make, and healthy snack food item made from scraps in the process.  Apple peels, tossed with cinnamon sugar and dehydrated at low temperature.  So simple sounding, they have a light crunchiness with a sweet and spicy tart flavor that is impossibly addicting.  The entire batch was inhaled in less than 24 hours (by me).

Just toss them in the oven while you're waiting on your pie dough to transform from a chilled blob into magic unicorn crust that should flake to infinity.

Apple Peel Twigs

Adapted from Sassy Radish via MStew
Total time: 2.5 hours, active time 2 minutes

• Peels from 6-8 apples
• 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• pinch of salt (optional)
• pinch of nutmeg (optional)

Preheat oven to 250F/120C.  Mix sugar, cinnamon, salt, and nutmeg in a large bowl.  Toss apple peels with the spiced sugar, using a few drops of water if more moisture is needed to help the sugar stick.

Spread peels out in a single layer on a parchment-lined baking sheet.  Bake for 2 hours, rotating halfway through until peels are curled and crisp.  Let cool in the oven for another 30 minutes to dry before serving.

White Chocolate Almond Biscotti

 95% of the time when I make a batch of cookies, I subtract at least two minutes from the suggested baking time.  Why?  Soft, chewy, gooey, and delicious cookies are almost always way better than the careful-don't-crack-your-teeth kind that I always associate with interminable meetings, eating them just because they're there.  I've also found that the crunching action and associated crumb clean-up helps you stay awake in the mid-afternoon slump.  But an enjoyable cookie eating experience it is not.

And until recently I thought that biscotti, crunchy by definition, also fell into this undesirable category.  What I didn't consider, however, is the hot-beverage-dunk/transformative-phase-change factor in which the biscotti become wonderfully soft, warm, and melt in your mouth after they are dunked in tea or coffee.  A similar hot-beverage-dunk/transformative-phase-change factor turned me onto plain donuts 20 years ago and I've never looked back (except for Boston cream of course).  Anyone remember when plain donuts used to be made with a bonus dunking handle?  Apparently this dates me.

Anyway, the genius of biscotti is two-fold: the oblong design ensures that the cookie exposed to moisture is limited to a bite size, and the double baking process ensures that it doesn't immediately suffer from the inedible mushiness that befalls your average vanilla wafer.

So I have a new appreciation for biscotti.  They probably won't surpass my favorites, but they certainly have a place at 3pm with a cuppa. This recipe is only lightly sweet so you don't feel like it's too much of an indulgence.  They're also gorgeous with a white chocolate drizzle, last for weeks in an airtight container, and make a great gift for all the moms in your life when paired with chai concentrate.  It's really giving the gift of an afternoon break and relaxation, which is basically the same as a spa gift certificate without the associated cost or anxiety.

White Chocolate Almond Biscotti
Adapted from Allrecipes.com

Makes 24-30 cookies
Total time: 2 hours (Active time 30 minutes)

•  1/4 cup (55g) unsalted butter, softened
• 3/4 cup (170g) sugar
• 2 tablespoons orange zest (from about 1 1/2 large oranges)
• 2 teaspoons (10mL) vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• 1 egg white
• 2 cups (250g) all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 4 oz (110g) white chocolate, chopped and divided (about 1/2 c of chips)
• 1/2 cup (80g) dried cranberries or raisins
• 1 1/4 cups (140g) slivered almonds, toasted

Beat together butter, sugar, orange zest, and vanilla extract until light and fluffy.  Add eggs and egg white one at a time, mixing well after each addition.

In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt, then gradually add the dry to the wet mixture.  Stir in 3/4 of the white chocolate, dried cranberries/raisins, and slivered almonds.  Cover and chill in the fridge until the dough is solid enough to handle (30-60 minutes).

Pre-heat oven to 325F/165C and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.  Divide dough in two and form each half into a log roughly 3 x 12" (8 x 30cm) and arrange them on the parchment with at least one log's space between the two.  Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden and cool on baking sheet for 10-15 minutes, or until cool enough to handle.

Cut the baked logs crosswise on a diagonal into roughly 1"/2cm slices (you should have about 12 per log) using with a serrated knife in a smooth downward motion to avoid crumbling.  Arrange slices evenly back on the baking sheet and bake for another 15 minutes until golden(er).  Transfer to wire racks and cool completely.

Optional (but looks really cool) white chocolate drizzle:  Melt the remaining 1oz of white chocolate in a double boiler (or microwave) until smooth.  Use a fork to quickly drizzle the chocolate back and forth over the biscotti until evenly covered.  Let stand at room temperature until cool.

Lemon Blueberry and Ricotta Scones with Lemon Curd

This is in no way inspired by the royal wedding hooplah whatsoever.

It's totally normal to think about making scones for the first time in years on a random Thursday night so you'll have them for breakfast on a random Friday morning with or without a cup of tea or Pimms.

Right?  Right.  No matter, these are fantastic and look gorgeous.  And lemon curd?  Not nearly as hard as I would have thought.  Only five minutes of stove-tending creates a deliciously tart scone topping that would go great with some clotted cream if, for whatever reason, you do decide to go all out for a random Friday morning celebration.

Lemon, Blueberry, and Ricotta Scones
Adapted from my favorite on Allrecipes.com


Makes 16 small scones
Total time: 35-45 minutes (Active time 15-20 minutes)

• 2 cups (250g) all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup (75g) sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• zest of one lemon (two teaspoons)
• 1/2 cup (115g) unsalted butter, frozen
• 1/2 cup (75g) fresh or frozen blueberries
• 2/3 cup (160g) fresh ricotta
• 1 egg

Preheat oven to 400F/200C.  Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and lemon zest in a large bowl.  Grate butter on the large holes of a box grater and work in with your hands (or to make this step immensely easier, cut the frozen butter into chunks and combine with dry ingredients with a food processor).  Mix in blueberries.

In a small bowl, mix ricotta and egg until smooth and add to the rest of the ingredients in the large bowl.  Stir until large dough clumps form.  When most of the dough has clumped, turn it out on a floured surface and work into one large ball.  Pat into an evenish rectangle about 3/4" thick.  Cut into 8 smaller rectangles, then cut each on the diagonal to form 16 triangles and sprinkle with 1 teaspoon sugar.

Transfer triangles to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and place about 1" apart.  Bake 10-15 minutes until golden.

Lemon Curd
Adapted from Baking Bites


Makes ~1/2 cup
Total time: 10 minutes (Active time 5-6 minutes)

• juice of two lemons (about 1/3 cup/80mL)
• zest of one lemon (about 2 teaspoons)
• 1/3 cup (75g) sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter 

In a small sauce pan, combine sugar, lemon juice, and zest over medium heat.  Remove from heat once the sugar is dissolved.

Beat the egg in a medium bowl and add the lemon-sugar syrup in a slow drizzle (this should take at least a minute or two), whisking constantly until well combined.

Pour back in the saucepan and add the butter.  Cook over low heat until the curd is thick (about 5 minutes), stirring constantly.  Store in an airtight container in the fridge when cool.

Crunchy Millet Pumpkin Spice Trash Granola

As much as I love Garden of Eden for cheese, it fails me tremendously when it comes to other snacks.  Yesterday, for example, I spotted a 4-cup container of granola for $8.  Outrageous!

I baked this in vengeance after I got home, wanting to both one-up the price gougers and clean out my pantry of some dry goods.  I personally think this is much better than store-bought granola, which I don't eat except as an ice cream topping because it's usually way too sweet and full of oil.  This recipe is cobbled together from a few sources and uses applesauce and mashed pumpkin as the main binders.  It's not very sweet except for the dried fruit, but still spiced, very flavorful, and the millet adds a really unique texture.

Options for clumpage and textural variety.  When you're using a granola recipe that relies on high moisture/low-fat binders, sacrifices are unfortunately necessary to find a balance between clumps and crunch.  Either you bake the whole grains until the moisture is driven off (high crunch, low clumps), or turn some of it into flour and add oil which will hold more moisture in (low crunch, high clumps).

25% clumpage / 75% crunch - Leave the millet whole and use maple syrup to sweeten with no added oil/butter.  This is the easiest route since you can skip a step, but you'll get quite a lot of rogue non-clumped millet accumulating at the bottom of your storage containers.  This has it's own appeal of course but is kind of difficult to eat with a spoon.  Very crunchy with a texture of crushed Nature's Valley bars.

For 50% clumpage / 50% crunch - Grind 1/2 of the millet to a powder and add 1-2 tablespoons of melted coconut oil or butter.  The best of both worlds approach.

For 75-100% clumpage / low crunch - Grind 1/2 of the millet to a powder, use honey as a sweetener, substitute 1/2 cup of the rolled oats for wheat germ, and add 2-4 tablespoons melted coconut oil or butter.  This version is super clumpy but will be rather soft and similar to the texture of crumbled power bars.


There is also a very fine line between "crisp" and "burnt."  If your oven is uneven or runs hot, don't let it get the better of you: rotate your pans halfway through cooking, watch them carefully, and don't forget to check the underside.  Evening out the edges with a spatula helps too, since thin areas or lonesome bits will turn black before you know it.

Crunchy Millet Pumpkin Spice Granola
 Makes 16 cups (probably more if you don't snack while you're making this)
Total time: 1 hour (Active time 20-30 minutes)

• 5 cups (400g) oats
• 1 cup (200g) uncooked millet, divided
• 1 cup (80g) unsweetened flaked coconut
• 1 1/2 cup (150g) nuts/seeds (I used a mix of sunflower seeds, slivered almonds, and whole flax seeds)

• 1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice OR a mixture like:
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon cardamom
• 1/4 teaspoon allspice
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup (185g) unsweetened applesauce OR
• 2 small granny smith apples, diced (peel on), simmered for 10 minutes with a large splash of water, and mashed with a fork
• 3/4 cup (185g) mashed pumpkin (fresh or canned)
• 1/2 cup (100g) sugar
• 1/4 cup (85g) molasses
• 1/4-1/2 cup (80-160g) maple syrup or honey
• 2-4 tablespoons (25-50g) melted coconut oil or butter (optional)

• 1 cup in-shell toasted pumpkin seeds
• 1-2 cups chopped dried fruit (raisins, dates, dried cranberries, prunes, apricots, banana chips)

Preheat oven to 300F/150C and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Grind half of the millet in a spice grinder or processor until it turns into a flour.  Combine ground millet with the rest of the first 4 dry ingredients in a large bowl.  Combine spices and wet ingredients in a separate medium bowl and mix well.  Pour the wet mixture into the dry bowl and mix well with a spatula until the dry ingredients are coated.

Dump the mixture out onto the prepared baking sheets and spread it out into a single layer (don't leave the edges skimpy or they are more likely to burn).  Bake for 20-30 minutes until the top is a light golden brown.  Check the underside after 20 minutes.

Remove baking sheets from the oven.  Carefully flip granola over using a large spatula in sections (you might want to swap the center sections with the edges to ensure even baking).  Sprinkle in pumpkin seeds and chopped dried fruit over the top and loosely mix in, but don't break up the clumps.  Bake for another 10-15 minutes until golden brown and crisp.

Cool completely on the baking sheets before transferring to airtight containers.

Sausage Rolls, Two Ways

The end of March is going to mark the first year of my Hoboken residence, and this past weekend marked my first Hoboken St. Patrick's Day.   This fake holiday is oddly celebrated 2 weeks early with a parade and, more importantly, a city-wide party commencing at 7am and lasting until everyone passes out.  I wasn't sure what to expect having read the news articles, but I guess it was everything I had imagined and more.  My apartment hosted since it is rather perfect for fake holiday revelry: far enough away from the main drag to avoid the melee, and also has a lovely backyard for grilling and other important activities to usher in spring.


In certain more idyllic places than New Jersey, it ain't a decent party unless sausage rolls make the rounds.  I internalized this philosophy because sausage rolls are a perfect pair to drinking beer outside wherever you are.  Pastry-covered delicious meat bites eaten by hand with tomato sauce/ketchup, these puppies are definitely messy but line the stomach suitably in case you are inclined to actually start drinking green beer at the crack of dawn.

Now, I didn't make the pastry from scratch, but these are still quite a bit more work than your more convenient frozen options which are available if you're lucky enough to live in a Commonwealth country.  But as is the case with most homemade treats, you'll be handsomely rewarded if you put in the time.  These sausage rolls are much more flavorful than the frozen versions and are completely customizable to any number of seasonings you might have on-hand.

The successful hostess also tries to cater to food allergies and preferences, hence the two onion-free-meat and vegetarian variations presented here.  The vegetarian one actually does taste and look remarkably like meat, who knew?

Unfortunately a successful hostess also focuses on feeding and watering guests and not on taking blog photographs.  The above scene is all that was left of the sausage rolls on Sunday, so I think that speaks for itself.

 Sausage rolls in profile, what they actually looked like.

Image via Deliaonline.com

Sage and Apple Sausage Rolls
Adapted significantly from Delia


Makes enough for a crowd
Total time: 1 hour (Active time 30-40 minutes) 

• 1 lb (450g) sausage meat, casings removed
• 1 lb (450g) lean ground pork
• 2 small granny smith apples, peeled and grated (or 1 small apple and 1/2 small onion)
• 2 cloves of garlic, grated
• 2 teaspoons dried sage 
• 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
• handful of fresh parsley, chopped
• big pinch of salt and pepper 
• 2 sheets puff pastry (450g), thawed 
• beaten egg 
• sesame seeds (optional)

Mix meat, apples, and seasonings in a large bowl until just-combined.

Roll out puff pastry on a floured surface until you have a rectangle about 12 x 16 inches (30 x 40 cm).  Cut each sheet in half lengthwise so you have two rectangles about 6 x 16 inches (15 x 40 cm).  Spoon 1/4 of the meat mixture over one edge of the pastry and brush the other side with beaten egg.  Fold pastry over the meat mixture and pat down to ensure the roll is closed; repeat with the other three sheets of pastry.  Whole rolls can be frozen at this stage in plastic wrap and thawed before continuing below.

Brush beaten egg over the top of each roll and sprinkle with sesame seeds (you will probably use about 2 tablespoons total).  Cut each roll with a sharp knife into 1/2 inch-1 inch pieces (1-2 cm) and stab the top of each a few times to let out steam.

Evenly space roll pieces on parchment paper-lined baking sheets and bake for 20-25 minutes at 400F (200C) until browned; you will need more than one sheet.

Unbaked rolls can be refrigerated layered on wax paper in containers overnight, or flash-frozen on the parchment paper for one hour, then transferred to plastic bags.

Image via smallmagazine.typepad.com

Vegetarian Sausage Rolls
Adapted from smallmagazine

Makes enough for a crowd
Total time: 70 minutes or so (Active time 40-50 minutes)

• 3 eggs
• 2/3 cup (80g) roughly chopped nuts (I used half walnuts, half pecans)
• 1 cup (80g) rolled oats
• 1 medium onion, roughly chopped
• 1 clove garlic, roughly chopped
• 1 cup (250g) cottage cheese
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• handful of fresh parsley, chopped
• 2/3 cup (55g) breadcrumbs
• 1 cup (115g) shredded cheddar cheese
• 2 sheets (450g) puff pastry, thawed
• beaten egg
• sesame seeds (optional)

Combine 3 eggs, nuts, oats, onion, garlic, cottage cheese, and soy sauce in the base of a food processor.  Process until well-mixed, about 1 minute or so.  Transfer mixture to a large bowl and stir in breadcrumbs and parsley.

Roll out puff pastry on a floured surface until you have a rectangle about 12 x 16 inches (30 x 40 cm).  Cut each sheet in half lengthwise so you have two rectangles about 6 x 16 inches (15 x 40 cm).  Spoon 1/4 of the mixture over one edge of the pastry and top with 1/4 cup of cheese.  Brush the other side of the pastry with beaten egg and roll over the oats mixture.  Pat down to ensure the roll is closed and repeat with the other three sheets of pastry.  Whole rolls can be frozen at this stage in plastic wrap and thawed before continuing below.

Brush beaten egg over the top of each roll and sprinkle with sesame seeds, if using (you will probably use about 2 tablespoons total).  Cut each roll with a sharp knife into 1/2 inch-1 inch pieces (1-2cm) and stab the top of each a few times to let out steam.

Evenly space roll pieces on parchment paper-lined baking sheets and bake for 20 minutes at 350F (180C); you will need more than one sheet.

Unbaked rolls can be refrigerated layered on wax paper in containers for a few days, or flash-frozen on the parchment paper for one hour, then transferred to plastic bags.