Pear and Gorgonzola Crostini from "400 Best Sandwich Recipes"

Pear, gorgonzola and walnut crostini from "400 Best Sandwich Recipes" by Alison Lewis.
Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

The versatile sandwich can be elegant or casual, like a little black dress. It is also a perfect expression of seasonal ingredients. This snappy little number from Alison Lewis’ "400 Best Sandwich Recipes" (Robert Rose, 2011) speaks of late summer to early fall, when the harvest is rolling in and the evenings are cool. A crostini with a shmear of gorgonzola-spiked cream cheese, topped with a slice of ripe pear. A drizzle of honey adds sweetness to offset the pungent blue cheese.

Lewis’ book catalogs 400 recipes from casual wraps to elegant appetizers, all with an eye for nutrition and tastiness. Give the book and this smart little app a try.

Pears. Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

Pear, Pecan and Gorgonzola Crostini

Serves 8 to 10

8 to 10 baguette slices about ½ inch thick

4 ounces cream cheese, softened

¼ cup crumbled Gorgonzola cheese

1 ½ cups thinly sliced pear (about 2 medium)

4 tablespoons honey

½ cup chopped pecans, toasted (I used walnuts and it was delicious!)

1. Preheat oven to 350. Arrange baguette slices on a large baking sheet. Bake in a preheated oven for 5 minutes or until lightly toasted.

2. Preheat broiler with rack 4 inches from heat. In a small bowl, combine cream cheese and Gorgonzola. Spread bread slices evenly with 1 tablespoon of the Gorgonzola mixture. Top with epar slices. Drizzle with honey and sprinkle with pecans.

Broil crostini for 1 to 2 minutes or until pears are tender and cheese is slightly melted. Serve immediately

“400 Best Sandwich Recipes” by Alison Lewis (Robert Rose, 2011), 360 pages with index and 24 color photographs. Paperback, $24.95 list price. A review copy was provided by the publisher. All opinions are my own.

On Valentine's Day, bake biscotti for those you love

Cherry Pecan Biscotti by Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

On Valentine’s Day, we celebrate the ones we love and what better way to celebrate than by baking? Chocolate is traditional and a good place to start – who doesn’t love brownies or cake or fudge? In my house, I bake biscotti for my valentine.

My husband likes the crunchy texture and fruity flavors in this twice-baked, butter-less cookie. You’ve probably seen biscotti in jars at cafés, the dry spears just perfect for dunking in a latte. My biscotti are crisp, but not tooth-breaking tough; they are enjoyable even without an accompanying cup of joe.

Although there are two trips to the oven, this is still a very simple cookie. First, you mix the dough, shape it into two loaves and bake for 25 minutes. When done, remove the loaves from the oven, let cool slightly, then slice loaves on the bias to show off the crispy crust. The cookies are delicious at this point – chewy and soft – but a final toasting in the oven will yield the crispy crackle of true biscotti. If you still want a taste of chocolate, you can gild the lily by dunking the cookies halfway into melted chocolate chips.




Baked loaves, ready for slicing. Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books


Cherry-Pecan Biscotti

2 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1 cup pecan meal (see note)

1 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

4 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2/3 cup dried cherries

1. Preheat oven to 350. Prepare pans - a half-sheet baking pan with Silpat or parchment paper. In the bowl of an electric mixer, blend flour, pecan meal, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Add eggs and vanilla, beating until dough is formed. Stir in dried cherries.

2. Turn dough out on a lightly floured surface and knead several times. Form the dough into two flat logs about 9 inches long and 4 inches wide. Bake for 25 minutes at 350 or until the loaves have risen and are lightly browned on top. Let cool on cutting board for 10 minutes.

3. While still warm, slice on the bias, about 1/2 inch thick, or a little less. You know what bias means - diagonal. This will give you the classic, elongated biscotti shape. Place on baking sheet and bake for 5 minutes at 350. After 5 minutes, flip cookies over and toast other side for five minutes. Remove from oven and cool on baking rack. Store biscotti in an airtight container at room temperature.




Sliced biscotti, ready for the second baking. Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books


Note: Pecan meal is available in local grocery stores by the packaged nuts. If not available, use chopped pecan pieces, whizzed in the food processor for about 15 seconds.

Biscotti are one of my favorite cookies to bake - what about you? What flavors do you like? Do you plan to bake for Valentine's Day?

Molasses Pecan Squares: Or the Cookbook, the Chef and Me

Molasses Pecan Squares/Heart of the Artichoke (Artisan/2010).



Sorghum Pecan Squares by Chef Linton Hopkins, Holeman and Finch (photo by Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books)


When I was a little girl, just starting to bake, I would become very upset when my creations didn't look like the pictures in the cookbooks. The cakes would be lopsided, or cracked, too dark, sometimes too light. I remember my mom telling me that my creations were homemade and that's better than what's pictured in the book. Her advice has reassured me all these years in the kitchen because, while my food looks and tastes great, it still doesn't look like the picture.

I thought about this recently as I tried the recipe for Molasses Pecan Squares from David Tanis' wonderful cookbook "Heart of the Artichoke and Other Culinary Journeys." Tanis is part-time chef at the legendary Chez Panisse in Berkeley, Calif., the remainder of the year he writes and cooks from his home in France. I had the opportunity to meet Chef Tanis in December for lunch at Holeman & Finch Public House. Chef Linton Hopkins prepared a splendid meal for about a dozen Atlanta writers, bloggers and photographers, using recipes from Tanis' book.

The meal consisted of roasted chicken, Sea Island peas with ham hocks and bacon, cabbage with apples, and many more delightful items. The dessert was a very homey kind of sweet, typically Tanis, who has a gift for simple, elegant, seasonal food - Molasses Pecan Squares, the texture of a blondie and that molasses taste reminiscent of gingerbread (without the ginger). (The top photograph is from "Heart of the Artichoke" and shows Tanis' mouth-watering version of the recipe.) Chef Hopkins' version went all-out Southern, using sorghum instead molasses. The Holeman & Finch serving was flatter and larger and absolutely choked with pecans, as you can see in the second photograph, and was absolutely yummy. I intend to find some sorghum and give his version a try.

And here's my version, darker, flatter, with fewer pecans because I couldn't find that extra bag that I swore was in the freezer. Still, they were tasty and chewy and my Mom loved them. Thanks, Mom.



Homemade Molasses Pecan Squares by Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books


Molasses Pecan Squares



Molasses is a classic American ingredient, and so are pecans. Here they make a dessert that is a little like gingerbread.

8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter, softened, plus more for buttering the dish

1 cup packed dark brown sugar

2 eggs, separated

2 tablespoons molasses

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup chopped pecans, plus a handful of whole pecans for topping

1. Preheat the oven to 375°F. Butter and flour a 9-inch-square baking dish. Cream the 8 tablespoons butter and sugar in a mixing bowl. (An electric mixer is helpful.) Add the egg yolks, molasses, and vanilla and beat well.

2. Sift the flour with the baking powder and salt, and add to the mixing bowl, stirring well. Stir in the chopped pecans.

3. In another bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff. Gently fold them into the batter.

4. Spread the batter in the dish, and sprinkle the whole pecans over the top. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes. Check for doneness with a kitchen knife; when it comes out dry, the dessert is done. Cool in the pan and cut into 3-inch squares.

Excerpted from "Heart of the Artichoke and Other Culinary Journeys" by David Tanis (Artisan Books, 2010)

Text and images copyright 2011, Lucy Mercer, unless stated otherwise.



For more stories and recipes from David Tanis, see:

Grapefruit Drinks

Black-eyed Peas with Ham Hocks and Bacon

Flat-Roasted Chicken with Rosemary

Favorite Southern Christmas cookies

“Oh Buddy, I think it’s fruitcake weather,” goes the opening line to one of the best short stories ever written (and certainly a sentimental Southern favorite), “A Christmas Memory” by Truman Capote. Capote based the story on his own memories with his elderly cousin Sook, his eccentric best friend, who baked fruitcakes each Christmas and sent them to acquaintances and people they admired, including Mr. and Mrs. Roosevelt at the White House.

These days, the idea of fruitcake is as stale a joke as some of the cakes that remain on the bottom shelf of the Frigidaire from last Christmas. The main appeal of fruitcake for me is the candied cherries, the red and green chewy bits of sugary former fruit. Although a candied cherry is as similar to a real cherry as plastic-encased American cheese is to aged Manchego, they still hold a visual and sentimental appeal.

Fruitcake is not a tradition in my home, although my mom makes stellar "fruitcake cookies." (That recipe is hers and I hope to share it soon). I buy the candied cherries, however, to top Mom’s sandy, crispy, buttery shortbread. Shortbread is the easiest, most elemental cookie – butter, confectioner’s sugar, flour, salt and vanilla. When I wake up in early December and say “it’s cookie baking time,” I always start with a tray of shortbread. Like Sook and Buddy's fruitcake, it’s a tradition, and it’s simple – I already have butter, sugar and flour out and the oven’s pre-heating.

Scottish Shortbread

1 cup unsalted butter, slightly softened

½ cup powder sugar (10X)

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

¼ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla

Candied cherries or pecan halves for garnish, if desired

1. Preheat oven to 325. In a mixer, cream butter and sugar, then add flour gradually. Add salt and vanilla.

2. Line a rimmed baking sheet with a Silpat or parchment paper. Using a rolling pin, gently roll out the dough to 1/4 –inch thick, in a rough rectangle. Using a sharp knife, cut into 1-inch square pieces. Press cherry or pecan halves onto each square.

3. Bake at 325 for 20 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from oven and let cool. The cuts will have melded back together, but quick work with a sharp knife will take care of that. Store in an airtight container at room temperature.

There are traditions to keep and traditions to make your own, like pecan tassies. This is a Southern sweet - tassie is a Scots variation of “cup” and a pecan tassie is a small cup of pecan pie filling, a tasty two-biter, rich and sweet. I make tassies each December with Georgia pecans, and they occupy a coveted corner on my cookie plates, but this year, I decided to part with tradition and use macadamias. You know the part of “Christmas Memory” where the fruitcakes are done and Sook gives Buddy and Queenie (the dog) some of Mr. Haha Jones’ whiskey and they dance in the kitchen and feel the Christmas spirit? Well, if I’ve learned anything this year, it’s to take the recipe as a suggestion, drink the whiskey and dance in the kitchen.

Macadamia-Rum Tassies


If you can’t get past the idea of messing with traditional Pecan Tassies, just sub pecans for the macadamias and vanilla for the rum (and tell your friends the recipe came from your cousin Sook.)

Pastry

1 3-oz package cream cheese

½ cup unsalted butter

1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour

Filling

1 egg

¾ cup packed dark brown sugar

1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted

1 teaspoon rum

2/3 cup chopped macadamia nuts

1. Combine cream cheese, butter and flour in mixing bowl. Form into a ball, wrap in plastic wrap and chill in refrigerator for one hour. After one hour, remove from refrigerator and shape into 22 balls. As much as I want this recipe to make 24, I’ve never managed to get the dough to stretch that far. Press each ball into a cup of a mini-muffin pan.

2. Preheat oven to 325. For filling, beat egg with brown sugar, add melted butter, rum and macadamias. Pour into shells, just a spoonful in each because they puff when they bake. Bake at 325 for 25 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool. Store in a covered container at room temperature.

Text & images copyright 2010, Lucy Mercer.
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