1/2 pound thinly sliced beef, cooked
1 cup shredded cheese
2 Tbsp cream cheese
1 large jalapeno, minced
half batch of Empanada Dough III or other pastry dough

Preheat oven to 425.

Mix together cheeses and jalapeno until somewhat smooth (about 40 times around the bowl).

Add meat and mix well.

If using the empanada dough or pastry dough, separate out into 8 equal parts. Roll nearly flat. Place a heaping tablespoon of meat mixture into the center. Fold over and press close.

Bake on 425 for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown.

As I was rolling out the dough, I was thinking, “man, this would be a lot faster if I’d just used bread and made sandwiches in my sandwich maker”. Oh well, next time.

2 cups flour
4 Tbsp butter, chilled
4 Tbsp shortening, chilled
6-10 Tbsp really cold water
1 tsp salt

Mix salt into flour in a large bowl. Using a pastry blender (or the absolutely impossible double-butter-knife chopstick method), cut butter and shortening into flour until mix is crumbly with pea sized lumps or smaller. Slowly add one tablespoon of water, mix. Repeat this until dough forms a ball.

You should definitely use your hands to press the dough together after the 4th tablespoon of water.

Maybe it was the Peter Seller’s clip, maybe it was how easy the pita bread was, or maybe it’s just because I want a brownie recipe for when that pouch of yummy mix is not on sale… Whatever the case may be, I’ve lately been inspired by Michele at Veggie Num Nums to bake a lot of things.

3/4 cup + 2 T all purpose flour
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
2 large eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2 T butter
1/2 tsp instant coffee (optional)

Preheat oven to 350.

In a small microwave safe bowl, melt butter and chocolate chips. Stir every 20 seconds.

Mix everything up, mix in chocolate, scrape into a greased pan. And to quote Michele “Bake for 25-30 minutes, rotating the pan from front to back halfway through. Brownies should be slightly firm to the touch and a crust should form on the top. A toothpick will not come out clean.”

I baked for 14 minutes, rotated, then baked for another 14 minutes.

Today, I am using 1/2 tsp of instant coffee from a packet of Starbucks Decaf Italian Roast VIA.

These were crisp around the edges, nice and chewy. The texture was spot on what I like in a brownie. I felt there was a sort of aftertaste of sugar, but that might have been from inhaling…

1 cup flour *
3/4 cup almonds, chopped
3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup butter (one stick), softened* + 1 Tbsp butter, melted
6 Tbsp cream cheese, softened*
1 egg
2 Tbsp heavy cream
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
pinch of cinnamon
pinch of allspice

Preheat oven to 350.

Cream together cream cheese and 1/2 cup butter. Add flour to make a dough. Press pastry into the bottoms and sides of a tassie pan (24 tassie size) or muffin tin (8-12 muffin size).

Mix together remaining ingredients. Spoon 1 tsp to 1 Tbsp of filling into each tart for tassie pan or 2-3 Tbsp of filling into each muffin cup.

Bake 20-35 minutes. Long range, I know; but what you’re looking for is for the pastry to turn golden and/or the filling to puff up. Tassie pans are typically 20-25 minutes. Muffin pans are 30-35 minutes. You definitely want to watch after you round the mark to make sure the golden doesn’t turn brown (it happens fast, apparently!).

* Use these items to make your own dough, or use store bought pastry shells, or use your favorite pie crust/pastry dough.

Canadian butter tarts are made like American pecan pies. You want for your gelatinous filling to settle at the bottom and for any nuts or filling to “float” to the top and create a crisp top.

I used my muffin tin, and I got 10 butter tarts. They were perfectly done at 25 minutes on 350. A toothpick came out clean.

It’s embarrassing how quickly these were devoured, so I’m just not going to tell you how many are left.

Gluten-Free intrigues me, and I couldn’t help but try making my own version of these. I thought that substituting some brown sugar in place of white sugar would help with some “stickiness”, but I still feel these could have held together better. The key might be xanthan gum or guar gum; if you’ve got either, try adding a teaspoon.

2 cups cooked black beans, rinsed and drained
3 eggs
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/4 c brown sugar
1/4 c white sugar
2 Tbsp canola oil
2 Tbsp butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp instant coffee (optional)
1/4 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350. Lightly grease your brownie pan, and set aside.

In a small microwave safe bowl, melt butter and chocolate chips. Stir every 20 seconds.

In a food processor or blender, combine beans and melted chocolate until it forms a smooth paste. You can add the rest of the ingredients and blend well, or you can transfer the beany chocolate to a large bowl and mix everything in the large bowl.

Transfer to an 8×8 brownie pan (or 7 x 11 glass pan), and bake for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Today, I am using a packet of Starbucks Decaf Italian Roast VIA, which measured 1.5 tsp. I shouldn’t have put the whole packet in, as you can definitely taste the coffee. Maybe espresso powder or just cutting down to 1 tsp would make a better flavor. I don’t mind tasting the coffee, though. <3 coffee.

Overall, these were delicious and awesome. If I bake brownies from scratch again, I’ll be using this recipe. I might add some flour or guar gum to bind the brownie together better (it’s kind of crumbly), but I wouldn’t change anything else.

Day 2: They’ve been in a covered pan all night, and the top is now “sweaty” and they seem to be pretty dry. You can definitely tell it’s beans today. Very interesting.

Day 6: Don’t keep these for this many days. They developed a stench, and I had to throw them out.

The 2010 February Daring Cooks Challenge was hosted by Michele of Veggie Num Nums. Michele chose to challenge everyone to present a mezze table. The required recipes were pita bread (here) and hummus.

Recipe adapted from Flatbreads & Flavors by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid

2 teaspoons regular dry yeast (.43 ounces/12.1 grams)
2.5 cups lukewarm water (21 ounces/591 grams)
6 cups all-purpose flour (17.5 -21 ounces/497-596 grams)
1 tablespoon table salt (.50 ounces/15 grams)
2 tablespoons olive oil (.95 ounces/29 ml)

Directions:
1. In a large bread bowl, sprinkle the yeast over the warm water. Stir to dissolve. Stir in 3 cups flour, a cup at a time, and then stir 100 times, in the same direction to activate the gluten. Let this sponge rest for 90 minutes.
2. Sprinkle the salt over the sponge and stir in the olive oil. Mix well. Add more flour, a cup at a time, until the dough is too stiff to stir. Let the dough rest 10-15 minutes.
3. Turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 8 to 10 minutes, until smooth and elastic. Rinse out the bowl, dry, and lightly oil. Return the dough to the bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let rise until at least doubled in size, approximately 90 minutes.
4. Place a pizza stone, or two small baking sheets, on the bottom rack of your oven, leaving a 1-inch gap all around between the stone or sheets and the oven walls to allow heat to circulate. Preheat the oven to 450F (230C).

5. Lightly flour the top of the dough and both sides of your hands. Gently punch down the dough. Divide the dough in half, and then set half aside, covered, while you work with the rest. Divide into 8 equal pieces and flatten each piece with lightly floured hands. Roll out each piece to a circle 8 to 9 inches in diameter and less than 1/4 inch thick. Keep the rolled-out breads covered until ready to bake, but do not stack.
6. Place 2 breads, or more if your oven is large enough, on the stone or baking sheets, and bake for 4 to 6 minutes, or until each bread has gone into a full balloon. If for some reason your bread doesn’t puff up, don’t worry. Wrap the baked breads together in a large kitchen towel to keep them warm and soft while you bake the remaining rolled-out breads. Then repeat with the rest of the dough.

Makes 16 large pitas.

Shown here with kalamata olives, Almost Turkish Piyaz, hummus, cucumber raita, and tabouli.

Recipe adapted from The New Book of Middle Eastern Food by Claudia Roden

Prep Time: Hummus can be made in about 15 minutes once the beans are cooked. If you’re using dried beans you need to soak them overnight and then cook them the next day which takes about 90 minutes.

1.5 cups dried chickpeas, soaked in cold water overnight (or substitute well drained canned chickpeas and omit the cooking) (10 ounces/301 grams)
2-2.5 lemons, juiced (3 ounces/89ml/6 Tbsp)
2-3 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed (2 tsp)
a big pinch of salt
4 tablespoons tahini (sesame paste) OR use peanut butter or any other nut butter—feel free to experiment) (1.5 ounces/45 grams)
2 tsp ground sumac

Directions:
1. Drain and boil the soaked chickpeas in fresh water for about 1 ½ hours, or until tender. Drain, but reserve the cooking liquid.
2. Puree the beans in a food processor (or you can use a potato masher) adding the cooking water as needed until you have a smooth paste.
3. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well. Adjust the seasonings to taste.

I normally like to edit the Daring Cooks recipes to make them more understandable outside the DK, but in this instance, I thought I’d keep all of the extra notations in the ingredients. Really, if you’re using dried garbanzo beans, your directions are different than if you’re using canned beans. And sometimes your canned beans are too firm and need to be boiled anyway. It’s something you’ll just have to decide each time you try to make hummus. If you’re lucky like me, you have a pressure cooker that does all the work for you, in 30 minutes or less.

Adapted from Burcu’s Antalya Bean Salad (Antalya Usulü Piyaz) on Almost Turkish Recipes.

2 cups of cooked northern beans
1/2 onion, cut finely in half-moons
1/2 cup parsley, finely chopped
1 Tbsp crushed pepper
2 hard boiled eggs, sliced or diced

Dressing:
1/4 cup tahini
1/4 cup vinegar
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 cloves of garlic, minced

Mix together dressing ingredients, set aside.

In a small bowl, knead onion slices with 1 tsp salt. Rinse and drain.

In a medium large bowl, mix together beans and onions. Stir in dressing, coat well. Fold in parsley and eggs. Sprinkle with crushed red peppers.

Serve chilled or room temperature.

Adapted from Holy Land Brand’s website.

2 cups dry bulgur wheat
2 cups very hot water
1 cucumber, chopped and blotted with paper towel
1-3 small tomatoes, chopped
3 green onions, finely chopped
2 cups fresh chopped parsley
1 clove garlic, minced

Dressing:
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon pepper, or to taste
2 teaspoons salt, or to taste

In a small bowl, mix together dressing ingredients, set aside.

Soak the wheat in the hot water until the water is absorbed, about 30 minutes. Drain any excess water, if necessary, and squeeze dry.

Combine the salad ingredients, including wheat, in a large bowl. Gently stir dressing into the salad.

Serve chilled or at room temperature. Makes about 8 cups, 12 to 16 servings.

This made a whole lot of salad. We ate it for almost 4 days, with lots of help from friends, in pita bread with other assorted yummies. I’ll definitely be halving this recipe in the future (I don’t think quartering it will work very easily).

Recipe adapted from The Indian Grocery Store Demystified by Linda Bladholm

1 medium cucumber, peeled and most of the seeds removed
1 teaspoon cumin seeds (.1 ounce/3 grams) OR use a small pinch of dried cumin—to taste
2 cups plain whole milk or Greek yogurt (17 ounces/473ml)
1 garlic clove, peeled and minced
fresh cilantro, chopped, a couple pinches or more to taste
cayenne pepper, just a pinch to use as a garnish (optional)

Directions:
1. Peel cucumber, de-seed, and dice. Blot off moisture with paper towels.
2. Toast cumin seeds for a few seconds in a small, heavy frying pan over high heat.
3. In a bowl, stir yogurt until it is smooth.
4. Mix in the cumin, garlic and coriander leaves.
5. Stir in the cucumber and sprinkle with cayenne. Chill before serving.