A Word On Risotto

Risotto with Parmesan, garlic and basil

  I have mentioned before that I work part-time at Williams-Sonoma. And although I have many great products from there, I rarely talk them up. I believe the last time I did so was when I wrote about the Breville Mini Pie Maker. This is a fun electric which I compared to the Easy Bake Oven.

  Well today, I want to make mention of the Breville Risotto Plus. This electric is a thing of beauty. It is a medium sized slow cooker which comes equipped with a steamer basket. This beauty has settings for saute, steam, rice, risotto, and both low and high slow cook. Here is the link for this little marvel.  Breville Risotto Plus

   For those of you not familiar with risotto, here is a description...Risotto /rəˈzɒtoʊ, rəˈzoʊtoʊ/ is a north Italian rice dish cooked in broth to a creamy consistency. The broth may be based on meat, fish, or vegetable. Many types of risotto contain butter, wine and onion. It is one of the most common ways of cooking rice in Italy.

  To be honest, I had never made risotto before I purchased this machine. I heard that is was a somewhat daunting task. I also heard that it was difficult to get the consistency right. I always resorted to eating risotto when I was out to dinner. I also did not own a slow cooker of any kind.  When this product came out several of my WS coworkers bought the machine. These were women who had made risotto by hand. All I heard was them raving about how easy it was to use and about how great the risotto was. I took the plunge and purchased the machine. And....

  I have used it as a slow cooker several times. I have now used it for risotto twice. The first risotto experience was good. The second risotto was absolutely fantastic! As I said to my friends Amy, the risotto police might come after me because I left the risotto sit in the container on the keep warm setting for a bit so it was not quite as saucy. The risotto police may not have approved but I sure did. It was super yummy!! 

  The risotto pictured above was made with aborio rice, onion, garlic, white wine, chicken stock, garlic olive oil, butter, Parmesan cheese, fresh basil and salt and pepper. I enjoyed it as a main course along side a salad.  I have not included a recipe because the preparation varies depending on whether you are using the Risotto Plus or stove top.

  Anyway, think about risotto. Pretty close to the perfect food for cool fall evenings...warm deliciousness for those blustery nights.

An Apple A Day...

  I'm gonna be honest here and say that apples have been on my mind. This is due in part to the fact that I have found the PERFECT apple. And I am not the only one who thinks so. My friend-boss has been ranting about this apple off and on for a while now. Most recently this occurred after a visit to the fruit farm. During this trip she was denied THE APPLE. Later during a classroom visit to the same farm, we were able to pick these apples. And.... oh my.... the Pixie Crunch is an amazing apple. It is closely compared to the Honey Crisp. The Pixie Crunch is a small, super sweet and crunchy apple. It is so delicious! The apples I picked on our field trip where the best I have ever had. These apples are perfect for eating, not for baking. But good luck trying to find them. They are an elusive breed of apple.
  Another reason I have apples on the brain is that I actually have a lot of apples to use. My best friend keeps handing over bags of apples. Mostly in an attempt to acquire homemade baked goods of her very own. And I am all too happy to oblige. But a gal needs to use apples in a variety of different ways. So today, we are exploring Spiced Apple Bundt Cake with Rum Glaze. The inspirational recipe came from Alton Brown. Of course I changed it quite a bit, because I am me and that is what I do.

Whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, nutmeg, pepper, ginger, Chinese 5 spice, cinnamon and rosemary.

Cream together the sugars and butter.

Add the eggs and vanilla paste.

Prepare the apples, crystallized ginger and bundt pan.

Fold the apples and ginger into the cake batter.

Bake the bundt for 70 minutes. Let it cool in the pan for 30 minutes.

Turn out the bundt on a wire rack. Let it cool completely before adding glaze.

Make the glaze by whisking together powdered sugar, rum and water.

Spiced Apple Bundt Cake with Rum Glaze

Ingredients 

3 and 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp freshly ground nutmeg
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp Chinese 5 spice
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp fresh rosemary, finely minced
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
12 tbsp unsalted butter
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla paste
3 apples, peeled, cored and finely diced
4 tbsp crystallized ginger, finely chopped
2 cups powdered sugar
5 tsp rum
2 tsp water
demerara sugar for sprinkling

Instructions

Preheat oven to 325F. Prepare the bundt pan with butter and flour.

In a large bowl whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, nutmeg, pepper, ground ginger, Chinese 5 spice, cinnamon and rosemary. Set aside. In the bowl of a stand mixer cream together sugar, brown sugar, vanilla paste and softened butter. Add eggs, one at a time. Add the flour mixture one third at a time. The batter is a thick one. Fold diced apples and crystallized ginger into the batter with a spatula.  Pour batter into the prepared bundt pan.

Bake at 325F for 70 minutes. Let the bundt cool in the pan for a half an hour. Turn the cake out onto a wire rack. Let the cake cool to room temperature.

Prepare the glaze by whisking the powdered sugar, rum and water together. Drizzle the glaze over the cooled cake. Sprinkle the demerara sugar on the glaze.

Practice, practice, practice....

  Look what happens when you get help from a pro! This weekend my very talented friend and co worker gave me a cookie decorating lesson. She was full of great advice and information. Plus I learned how to make polka dots, hearts and flowers using the wet on wet icing technique! So the coolest thing about using royal icing (in my humble opinion) is it allows you to make multicolor designs that blend into each other to make one smooth surface. As you can see, I am now a huge fan of polka dots!!
  In other news...  I have had the whole weekend off. So that means lots of baking time. I made two loaves of bread, decorated cookies. I plan to make apple crisp later on today. And I made chocolate chip banana bread this morning.
  I talked to my mother this morning. I mentioned I was making chocolate chip banana bread. She was appalled. She said adding chocolate chips to banana bread was a bastardization. Well frankly, I don't care because it is super yummy!! And as you can probably tell, I love chocolate. And I am willing to add chocolate to any baked good. I mean come on...It's good stuff!
  Here is the recipe. This began as a Joy the Baker recipe before I made several adjustments. It's a sickness, but I have a difficult time not changing recipes to make them my own. But thanks Joy the Baker, you know what you are doing!!

The Ingredients:

4 very ripe bananas
1/2 cup melted unsalted butter
2 eggs
1 and 1/2  tsp vanilla
1 and 3/4 cup AP flour
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 cup chocolate chips

Directions:

preheat oven to 350F

In a large bowl mash bananas.  Add the melted and cooled butter, the eggs and the vanilla. Mix together these until everything is incorporated. Add flour, baking soda, sugar, salt and cinnamon. Mix together until just incorporated. At this point, fold in chocolate chips. Spoon mixture into a prepared loaf pan. Bake at 350F for 55-60 minutes. Make sure to do the toothpick test. If the toothpick comes out clean you are good to go!

Let the bread cool in the loaf pan for a bit before turning it out.

This is a dense, yummilicious bread. Great for breakfasts in a hurry. Or really, great for any old time!!