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Posts Tagged ‘Kim McGuire Recipes’

Original Nestlé Chocolate Chip Cookies

Posted in Recipes, tagged , , , , , , on 29/05/2012| 3 Comments »

Question: When is a biscuit, not a biscuit in Ireland?

Answer: When it’s a chocolate chip cookie!

In Ireland the treat one often takes with a cup of tea is called a biscuit. In America the same treat is called a cookie. The only time I am unable to comply with this basic understanding of linguistic difference is when talking about Nestlé Toll House Cookies: aka Chocolate Chip Cookies. No matter how I try it just doesn’t sound right. Here, see for yourself:

Say: Chocolate Chip Biscuit……………now say: Chocolate Chip Cookie……………Do you hear it? It’s just not right. The biscuit doesn’t roll off your tongue the same way the cookie does. I’m not for changing the biscuit/cookie reference for all treats…just the ones with little morsels of chocolate as a main ingredient.

I remember years ago when a group of women from the American Women’s Club in Dublin sent a letter to the Nestlé Corporation in Switzerland asking them to please sell their famous yellow bags of chocolate chips in Ireland. I don’t think the reply was ever made public but the gist of it was, most politely, “No – but thank you for asking.”

What Americans living in Ireland can’t understand is why (or is it, why not)? Nestlé products are readily available in Ireland. There is, for example, bottled water, coffee, breakfast cereals, sweets and dairy products in every corner shop and supermarket across the nation. One can even buy Nestlé’s Nesquik to turn their glass of milk chocolaty. You’d think that bags of chocolate flavoured chips would be equally popular?! But, alas, it must not be or else the corporation that is Nestlé would be selling them.

Thankfully one can buy non-Nestlé chocolate chips from places such as Avoca Handweavers and Caviston’s Food Emporium and, maybe, even Donnybrook Fair. I’ve never had a need to know but, most likely, they are also available elsewhere sold in small plastic tubs or from large glass jars on shelves behind counters. If one is truly desperate, it is possible to make excellent chips by chopping up a bar of good quality chocolate into small pieces, much the way Ruth Wakefield, the inventor of the first chocolate chip cookie, did long ago in her B&B in Massachusetts.

Once you have your mind set on making these crunchy yet soft, sweet yet salty, treats, a recipe must be found. I love the original recipe baked accidentally by Ruth and made famous by Nestlé but I am told that Alton Brown and the New York Times have excellent versions worth considering. What follows below is the original recipe and links for the other two for your consideration.

And, if I may, here are four suggestions I have found helpful in making the chocolate chip cookies. I hope they are helpful to you too.

1. After you make the dough, refrigerate it up to 24 hours, if you have time.

2. Use room temperature eggs.

3. Take the cookies out of the oven before they bake past a “golden” colour: brown cookies are hard cookies.

4. Be sure your oven is set at exactly the right temperature. If not, your cookies may sink in the middle.

Original Nestle Toll House Cookies

Makes 5-6 Dozen Cookies

Ingredients

1 cup/8oz butter

3/4 cup/6oz sugar

3/4 cup/6oz packed brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 1/4 cup/13oz self-raising (all-purpose) flour

1 teaspoon baking soda (bread soda)

1 teaspoon salt

2 large eggs

1 package Nestlé Real Semi-Sweet Chocolate chips or 12oz/340g chopped chocolate or chocolate pieces

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375°F/190°C.

2. Combine flour, baking soda (bread soda) and salt in a small bowl.

3. Beat butter, sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract in a large mixer bowl until creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

4. Gradually add flour mixture to butter-sugar-vanilla mixture. Add chocolate chips (chocolate pieces).

5. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheet (baking tray) and bake for 9-11 minutes, or until golden brown.

6. Cool on baking tray for about 2 minutes and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Notes: For High Altitude Baking (5,200 feet above sea level): Increase flour to 2 ½ cups. Add 2 teaspoons water with flour and reduce both sugar and brown sugar to 2/3 cup each. Bake drop cookies for 8 to 10 minutes and pan cookies for 17 to 19 minutes.

NY Times Article about the Best Chocolate Chip Cookie at: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/09/dining/09chip.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&ref=dining and cookie recipe at:  http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/09/dining/091crex.html?ref=dining

Alton Brown’s Recipe for Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies, which he calls The Chewy at: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/the-chewy-recipe/index.html

The History of the Toll House Cookie at: http://www.nestleprofessional.com/united-states/en/Documents/TollHouse/NESTLE%20Toll%20House-%20Story.pdf

May 15th is National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day in America.

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Lemon Chiffon Cake

Posted in Recipes, Trips/Holidays, tagged , , , , , , , on 26/05/2012| 1 Comment »

Jen Castle’s Lemon Chiffon Cake

Yesterday I promised to tell you about the Lemon Chiffon Cake I had at Hell’s Backbone Grill in Boulder, Utah. Here’s everything you need to know:

1. The recipe was created by Jen Castle, co-owner of Hell’s, and is featured in With a Measure of Grace, the cookbook she wrote with her business partner and friend, Blake Spalding.

2. This cake won Jen a blue ribbon at the Coconino County fair in Flagstaff, Arizona.

3. It is the lightest cake you can imagine: akin to an angel food cake but made with egg yolks and oil (which are not in angel food cake).

4. It is so le-le-le-lemony.

5. It is easy to make.

6. Everyone who tastes it will love it!

And that, Dear Readers, is everything you need to know about the Lemon Chiffon Cake at Hell’s Backbone Grill. A big “thank you” to Jen and Blake for generously sharing their recipe with us.

My Attempt at Hell’s Cake: Not as Pretty but Delicious!

Lemon Chiffon Cake

Serves 10-12

Cake Ingredients

2 cups/8oz/240gm flour

1 ½ cups/10oz/300g sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup/8oz cold water

7 egg yolks

8 egg whites

½ cup/4oz canola oil

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Zest of two lemons

½ teaspoon cream of tartar (optional if you can’t find it)

Icing Ingredients

1/3 cup/2oz softened (not melted) butter

2 cups/8oz icing sugar (confectioners’ sugar)

3 teaspoons lemon juice

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 335° F/168°C. In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.

2. In a small bowl, thoroughly combine water, yolks, oil, vanilla, and zest. Stir yolk mixture into dry ingredients until smooth.

3. In a large mixing bowl, beat egg whites with cream of tartar at medium-low speed until foamy and frothy. Increase speed and beat whites until stiff, but not dry, peaks. If you do not have cream of tartar, beat egg whites until stiff peaks form.

4. Pour yolk mixture over whites in ribbons, folding mixtures together very gently until just combined. Pour into ungreased 10” tube pan.

5. Bake 55 minutes until the top of the cake springs back when touched. Immediately invert pan and hang upside down on the neck of a bottle for 2 hours to cool.

6. Run a long, thin knife around the edge of the pan to loosen cake and remove from pan. The wider end of the cake will be the top when turned out onto a serving dish.

7. Make icing by combining all ingredients in small mixing bowl and whipping until smooth. Spread icing over cake top, allowing some to drip over the sides. Top with lemon zest.

Notes: I wasn’t sure what kind of flour to use for this recipe, so I used cake flour. I have since seen, on at least one other blog, that self-raising (all purpose) may also be used. And, if you’re not a fan of butter icing on cakes, consider a glaze made of lemon juice and icing sugar (confectioners’ sugar). Once made, pour the glaze over the cake and let set before serving. Add a dollop of freshly whipped cream on the side with a spring of mint.

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Twelve Miles to Make Pea & Mint Soup

Posted in Recipes, tagged , , , , , , , , on 23/05/2012| 3 Comments »

Photo from Jessyparr on Flickr

There’s a belief in Ireland and elsewhere that Americans are fat. It’s a stereotype to be sure but a quick look at the website for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that “more than one-third of adults and approximately 17 percent of children and adolescents in the U.S.” are obese. While it’s unfair to capture all Americans and lump them in one big fry-pit, if things don’t change it is conceivable that by 2o2o, 83 percent of men and 72 percent of women in this country will be extremely unhealthy.

What I can’t help but wonder is this, “Where are all the large people the C.D.C. is talking about?” They’re not living near me on the edge of the Rockies. The trend here seems to be quite the opposite. I wasn’t kidding when I wrote back in March about the 60-year-old with arms like Madonna and the well toned thighs of some ladies taking a Boxercise class. The people around me are fit. Really fit. I mean…über fit!

There’s a joke among us “blow-ins” about how many athletic enthusiasts live around us. There are walkers, joggers, mountain bikers, road bikers, hikers, rollerbladers, tennis players, golfers, lacrosse teams, rugby teams, swim teams…the list is endless. Those of us who are new to the area find it funny until we get hooked too.

Take me, this morning. I rode my bike 12 miles (19.3 kilometers) to buy ingredients to make my family’s favourite soup for this evening’s supper. TWELVE MILES! Getting to the shops was easy: it was mostly downhill. It was the six miles (9.6 kilometers) back up the hill that was the killer. Remarkably, I enjoyed it.

As I rode my bike I kept thinking, “What would my friends back in Ireland say?”

“Kim! Are you mad?” immediately came to mind.

Mad? No. A little crazy? Maybe. Thrilled I made it? Definitely!

Today marked the day I went from blow-in to settling in. Actually, I’m not ready for that leap, so let’s just say I’m a temporary “local” bucking the American trend towards obesity. You might even say I’m living Irish in America. In Ireland people don’t think much about exercise or their weight because they walk everywhere. Conversely, in many America cities, shops, restaurants, schools and churches aren’t within walking distance so people are forced to get into their car and drive. With such a sedentary lifestyle it’s easy to pile on calories and gain weight.

Twelve miles to make Pea & Mint Soup…was it worth it? Absolutely! What’s the craziest thing you ever did for exercise?

Pea and Mint Soup

Serves 4

Ingredients

450g/3 cups fresh or frozen peas

1 bunch spring onions/scallions (or onion) roughly chopped

1 head iceberg lettuce, roughly chopped

2 tablespoons olive oil

900ml/3 ¾ cups vegetable or chicken stock

1 large sprig mint

Black pepper

For the Garnish (Optional)

Yogurt

Mint leaves

Directions

1. Wilt the peas, onions and lettuce in the olive oil.

2. Add the stock and simmer until the vegetables are tender, about 15 minutes.

3. Add the mint and liquidize. For a smoother texture, the soup can be put through a sieve.

4. Garnish with a dollop of yogurt and the mint leaves

Note: This recipe is taken from Terence Stamp’s cookbook called The Stamp Collection

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Brown Soda Bread Recipe #1

Posted in Recipes, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on 26/07/2011| 2 Comments »

Bread baking has long been part of Ireland’s culinary heritage.  The earliest breads were little more than thin oatcakes baked over the fire on an iron plate or placed directly on embers. In the mid-1800’s bicarbonate of soda (baking soda) was introduced and the birth of soda bread, as it is known in Ireland today, was born.

My first introduction to Brown Soda Bread was at the kitchen table of my mother-in-law.  Every week she made a loaf from scratch.  She worked quickly and efficiently, as only a woman who raised twelve children can do, and when the bread came out of the oven the smell was just delicious!

Both nourishing and comforting, Irish Soda Bread is perfect in the morning for breakfast, as part of a sandwich at lunchtime or served with a hearty homemade soup or a green salad fresh from the garden in the evening.

Brown Soda Bread

Makes One Loaf

225g self raising flour

225g extra coarse wholemeal

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1 teaspoon salt

about 450ml buttermilk

Directions

1.  Preheat the oven to 180C. Put a little vegetable oil into a bread tin and put the tin into the oven to warm.  When the oil is warm, use a pastry brush to get it all over the inside of the tin.  Set aside.

2.  Sieve the two flours, the soda and salt in a large bowl.

3.  Make a well in the centre and pour in most of the buttermilk.

4.  Using a wooden spoon or your hand, stir the liquid into the flour.  The dough should be soft but not sticky.  If needed, add more buttermilk to get the right consistency.

5.  Put the mixture into the bread tin and bake for one hour in the center of the oven.  Ease the loaf from the tin and tap the bottom.  If it sounds hollow when tapped it is cooked.  If not, put it back into the oven for another 5-10 minutes.  There’s no need to put the loaf into the bread tin for this, just place it right on the rack in the oven.

6.  When baked completely, cool on a wire rack.

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