In A Nutshell

Adapted from Food & Wine; you could add a bit of ginger, cardamom or some dried cherries to the filling if you wanted to jazz it up a bit but I loved it with just a touch of cinnamon. It makes one smallish galette or 4 mini galettes. I served these with a bit of  bourbon buttered pecan ice cream  and a cup of coffee. Perfect for autumn! I make the filling only right before I’m ready to form the galettes.  Crust : 1 cup flour 1 stick cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes 1/4 t salt 2-4 T cold water Process butter, flour and salt in food processor until butter is in small pieces; empty mixture into a large bowl and toss 2 T water with a fork into the crumbs- check to see if it holds together, if not, add more water and dump out dough onto the counter. Divide into 4 pieces and form into disks; wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour. Streusel : (this makes more than you need- just seal it up and stick it in the freezer for when you need it; ...

This recipe comes from Fine Cooking Magazine; while there is a good chance for grievous bodily harm inflicted by this tart during the inverting portion of this recipe, it is worth the risk. Have the burn cream on stand-by.... A word about the apples: the recipe called for Granny Smith but I find them to be soulless and chalky. I prefer to get honeycrisp or other fresh Michigan apples for any apple dessert. For the pastry : 1 1/4 cup flour 1 t sugar 1/4 t salt 8 T unsalted, cold butter cut into cubes 1 large egg beaten with 1T water plus an additional 1-2 T if needed Pulse all the ingredients except the egg mixture in a food processor until coarse and crumbly; at this point, I prefer to take it out of the food processor and put it into a regular bowl. Using a fork, add the egg mixture in 3 additions, tossing with the fork until dough holds together when pinched-- don't overwork it. Gather it into a disc and refrigerate for 1 hour. For the Tart : 5-7 firm Honeycrisp ap...

I love a theme and this week was the glorious and beloved "sandwich week". This sandwich comes from Fine Cooking magazine and was supremely delicious. I used the Kerrygold Red Leicester which has a super nice creamy texture and melts well. I am not going to put specific measurements so that you can adjust your ingredients to however many sandwiches you want to make. I always have this tendency to think that if a little of something is good, a lot is even better, but in this case you don't want to overload the sandwich. 1/2" thick sliced Italian or sourdough bread (I used the huge Turano loaf that I would normally never buy but it held up really well to all the ingredients and tasted good grilled) apple butter Dijon mustard shredded cheddar cheese pastrami (I used Vienna all-beef pastrami from the deli) very thinly sliced honeycrisp apples (mandoline at 1/8" or 1/16" setting) softened butter Spread the outside of 2 pieces of bread with butter. Fl...

This recipe is adapted from Bon Appetit; the bars are actually better the next day after making them (although delicious warm out of the oven as well).  A bit of work but worth it... For the crust : 3 sticks unsalted butter, softened 3/4 cup sugar 3 cups flour 1/2 t kosher salt Preheat the oven to 375º and line a 12 X 17 rimmed baking sheet (a half-sheet pan) with parchment paper. Beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy (about 2 minutes) and add in the flour and salt at low speed just until a soft dough forms. Press into the prepared pan- this part is fussy and it will seem as though there is not enough dough. Bake for 20 minutes until the crust is light golden. For the filling : 12-14 tart, firm apples- about 6 lbs (I used Zestar and Honeycrisp but the instructions say to use Granny Smith), peeled and thinly sliced 6 T butter 1/2 cup brown sugar 1 T cinnamon a good squeeze of lemon In two large skillets (or you can do this in two batches), melt 3 T of ...