Cuccidati | Sicilian Fig Cookies

Cuccidati! The first time I tried an authentic Cuccidati was in a very small yet delicious Mediterranean Cafe nestled deep in New York City. The first bite I was taken!  For the last 1.5 years I have determined myself to make a batch. It just so happens that I had an extra pound of dried figs(dried figs are a staple in my house) so today was the day I decided to experiment!

The taste is very similar to a fig newton in my opinion. The fig filling is sweet and rich and the cookie shell buttery! After searching out a good recipe I ended up combining a few recipes to create the cookie. I decided to use 100% whole wheat for the dough and honey for the filling. Many recipes called for a variety of dried fruit & nuts but I decided to stick with just figs for a basic Sicilian fig cookie! Perhaps I will try a few different fruit combinations next time. (:

Yields: 2-3 dozen cookies

Ingredients

For filling

  • 1lb dried mission figs
  • 1/2 cup orange juice
  • 3/4 cup honey
  • zest of 1 orange
  • 1 tsp vanilla

For pastry dough

  • 4 cups  flour (wheat or white)
  • 3/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1 tablespoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 2 sticks (1 cup) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
  • 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
  • 1/2 cup whole milk
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
  • 1 teaspoon finely grated fresh lemon zest

Directions

Make filling:
Soak figs in orange juice, orange zest, honey, and vanilla. Allow to set covered for 4 hours. Once soaked, puree in food processor. Refrigerate for 3 hours.

Make dough:
Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. Add butter and blend with your fingertips or a pastry blender (or pulse in a food processor) just until most of mixture resembles coarse meal with some small (roughly pea-size) butter lumps. Add eggs, milk, vanilla, and zest and stir with a fork until a soft dough forms. Halve dough and gather each half into a ball, then flatten each half into a rough 6- by 4-inch rectangle between sheets of plastic wrap. Chill until firm, at least 6 hours.
Form cookies:
Preheat oven to 350°F.
Roll out 1 rectangle of dough (keep remaining dough chilled) into a 15- by 14-inch rectangle on a well-floured surface with a floured rolling pin. Trim to a 13- by 10-inch rectangle (chill trimmings), then cut into 4 (10- by 3 1/4-inch) strips. Arrange 1/3 cup filling in a 1-inch-wide log lengthwise down center of each strip, then fold sides of each strip up over filling to enclose it, pinching edges together to seal. Turn rolls seam-sides down and press gently to flatten seams. Cut logs crosswise with a floured knife into 1 1/2-inch-wide slices and arrange 1/2 inch apart on buttered large baking sheets. Make more cookies in same manner with remaining chilled dough, trimmings (reroll once), and filling.
Bake cookies in batches in middle of oven until golden around edges, 16 to 20 minutes. Transfer cookies to racks and cool until warm, about 10 minutes.
Enjoy!
6 Comments

Peanut Butter Cups Made Healthy

Who doesn’t love peanut butter and chocolate… together?!  Almost everyone in my family LOVES Reeces Peanut butter cups but they obviously aren’t the healthiest or most ideal food for daily consumption. (:  So, I came up with a home-made reeces peanut butter cup recipe, sweetened with pure maple syrup! Now I can eat them whenever I want without feeling guilty! (;

I debated between honey and maple syrup when I first created this recipe last year. Both are delicious but the grade A maple syrup offered a more neutral flavor and allowed the delicious flavor of the peanut butter to stand out! I made a batch a couple days ago and I am finally getting around to posting the recipe. My family is used to eating unsweetened peanut butter but if you aren’t you may want to add additional maple syrup or perhaps less depending on how much sweetness you prefer… just add syrup  to taste! 🙂

If you really need a good excuse to make these peanut butter cups,  with the pure maple syrup, peanut butter, and chocolate(darker the better) they are a wonderful source of iron! 😀

Yields: 12 Delightfully delicious AND healthy Peanut Butter Cups

Ingredients

  • 12 oz simi sweet chocolate chips or dark chocolate chips (the darker the chocolate the better!)
  • 1 1/2 cup raw peanut butter (unsweetened/unsalted)
  • 1/2 cup pure Grade A maple syrup
  • 1 tsp salt
Directions
  1. Line a standard muffin tin with 12 muffin cups.
  2. Melt 1/2 of the chocolate chips. Using a spoon, drop about 1.5tbs melted chocolate into a cup and line bottom and sides with the chocolate, creating the chocolate cups. Repeat with remaining muffin cups. Once completed, place in freezer for 5-10 minutes.
  3. Meanwhile, Combine Peanut butter, Maple Syrup, and Salt until well combine. Remove chocolate cups from freezer and divide peanut butter filling evenly between 12 muffin cups. Press peanut butter filling with a spoon to flatten. Return the muffin cups to the freezer.
  4. Melt remaining chocolate. Spoon and spread evenly over the tops of each peanut butter cup.
  5. Refrigerate for approximately 1 hour to set.
  6. Enjoy!
7 Comments

Home-made Caesar Salad Dressing

Caesar Salad is my personal favorite salad and I just happened to make it for dinner tonight! So I thought I would share my dressing recipe with you all. (:

Yields: 1.5 cups Dressing

Ingredients

  • 1 recipe Home-made Mayonnaise or 1 1/2 cups store-bought mayo
  • 3 Anchovies Fillets
  • 2 tbs Lemon Juice
  • 2 cloves Minced Garlic
  • 1 tsp Dijon mustard
  • 1 tsp Worcestershire Sauce
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp freshly ground Pepper
  • 1/2 cup grated Parmesan
Directions
  1. Blend all ingredients except Parmesan in food processor until well blended. Add Parmesan and  pulse just until combined.
  2. Pour over romaine and toss. Top with additional Parmesan and crutons if desired.
  3. Enjoy!
5 Comments

Mediterranean Flat Bread

One of my family’s favorites! I tried my first piece of Mediterranean Flat Bread at a small coffee shop in the beautiful hill country of Texas and loved it! But obviously couldn’t take the coffee shop home with me so I came up with a recipe. 🙂 If you like Olives and Feta you will LOVE this recipe!

Soft bread topped with olives, provolone, fresh spinach, sundried tomatoes, and finished off with feta!

Yields 6  individual pieces of flat bread

Ingredients

Bread

  • 1 cup warm water
  • 2 1/4 tsp years
  • 1 tbs sugar
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 2 tbs butter melted
  • 3 cups flour
Toppings

  • olive oil
  • 24 kalamata olives pitted
  • 1 7oz jar Sundried Tomatoes in Olive oil
  • fresh spinach
  • 8oz sliced provolone
  • 8oz crumbled feta

Directions

  1. Activate yeast in warm water with sugar. Add salt, butter, and enough flour to make sticky dough.
  2. Turn dough out onto floured surface and knead until soft and elasticy, adding additional flour as needed, approximately 5 minutes.
  3. Place dough in greased bowl and rise until double.
  4. Once doubled divide dough into 6 equal pieces, form into balls, and flatten with rolling pin. Place on a parchment lined pan.
  5. Preheat oven to 400°F.
  6. Brush each piece of flat bread with olive oil then add the toppings. First the olives(lightly pressing into dough), on top place a slice of provolone, then a few leaves of fresh spinach, sundried tomatoes, and top with feta.
  7. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until cheese and bread are lightly golden.
  8. Serve warm and ENJOY!
5 Comments

Lemon Cream Cheese Pound Cake

Sunday dinners are always followed by a Sunday dessert at my house. This Sunday happened to be very warm in my part of the country and nothing sounded better than Lemon Pound Cake with fresh Strawberries and freshly whipped cream! I spent an entire hour looking for a Lemon Pound Cake recipe that DIDN’T take pudding mix or lemon extract but couldn’t find one that looked like it would be a success. So I  finally decided to add lemon zest and juice to my favorite Pound Cake recipe. The cakes turned out moist and very delicious!

Yields 2 loaves

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
  • 1 bar (8 ounces) cream cheese, room temperature
  • 3 cups sugar
  • 6 large eggs
  • 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 3 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 teaspoons salt
  •  The zest and juice of 3 lemons

Glaze

  • 4 ounces cream cheese, softened
  • The juice of 1 lemon
  • 1/3 cup confectioners’ sugar
  • 2 tablespoons milk

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. With an electric mixer, beat butter and cream cheese until smooth. Add sugar; beat until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Mix in vanilla, lemon juice, and zest. With mixer on low, add flour and salt in two additions, beating until just combined.
  2. Generously coat two 8 1/2-by-4 1/2- by-2 1/2-inch loaf pans (1 1/2 quarts each) with butter and dust with flour; immediately pour in batter (pan will seem full). Tap pans on work surface to eliminate any large air bubbles.
  3. Bake until golden and a toothpick inserted in the centers comes out almost clean, 50 to 75 minutes (if the tops begin to brown too quickly, tent with aluminum foil).
  4. Cool 10 minutes in the pan. Turn out the cakes; cool completely, with top sides up, on a wire rack.
  5. Enjoy!
18 Comments

Home-made Ketchup and Oven Roasted French Fries

Ketchup, who doesn’t love it?! In my opinion, onion rings, french fries,  and cheeseburger are not complete without the tangy red sauce and If you are anything like my brothers you can find an excuse to put ketchup on most everything!

With that being said, you wouldn’t believe how excited I was to find a recipe for ketchup on a new favorite cooking blog, Stir It Up! I had no idea you could make ketchup at home (; And the best part, her recipe contained NO corn syrup! I was so inspired by the ketchup post that I quickly pulled together the ingredients and made my first batch of Ketchup. A few burns from the bubbling sauce and a tongue that is somewhat tired of sampling the batch of ketchup later and here I am to share the recipe with y’all. When I told my brother, who is practically a ketchup connoisseur(; , that we might never have to buy a bottle of ketchup again he was a bit skeptical but after tasting the batch he was actually excited!

Ketchup Recipe from Stir it Up

 

Ingredients

  • 1 6oz. can of tomato paste
  • 1 c. water
  • 1/4 c. evaporated cane sugar
  • (or brown sugar)
  • 3/8 c. white balsamic vinegar
  • (or apple cider vinegar)
  • 1 t. salt
  • 1/8 t. garlic powder
  • 1/4 t. onion powder
  • 1 t. Worcestershire sauce
  • pinch of cayenne pepper
  1. Combine all ingredients in a large pot. (Take my word for it – you want a large pot even though it doesn’t look like much ketchup in the bottom of it. It makes a bubbling, sticky mess!) Bring to a boil and stir constantly until liquid evaporates and mixture is as thick as ketchup. Bottle and chill before using.

Oven Roasted French Fries

Yields 4 servings

  • 4 baking potatoes sliced into desired shape
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 2 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp garlic powder
  • 1/2 tsp paprika
  • 1/2 tsp dill weed
  • 1/2 tsp pepper
  1. Preheat oven to 400°.
  2. Toss potatoes with all ingredients and spread evenly over a baking sheet.
  3. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until crispy and golden!
  4. Serve with the Ketchup and enjoy!! (:

6 Comments

Homemade Mayonnaise

So delicious! Homemade mayonnaise is something I have been wanting to try for a while and am glad I did (:

 

Yeilds 1 1/2 cups mayonnaise!
Ingredients

  • 2 egg yolks
  • 1 whole egg
  • 1 TBS lemon juice
  • 1 tsp Dijon mustard
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1-2 cups olive oil

Directions:

  1. In a Kitchen aid blender blend the eggs, lemon juice, dijon mustard, and salt until well blended. Add olive oil very slowly while blending until mayonnaise is perfect consistency.
  2. Watch this mayonnaise making video!!  It is very helpful (:

3 Comments

Vanilla Cupcakes with Buttercream Frosting

Yeilds 18-20 cupcakes or 9 4oz mason jars
Cake:

  • 3/4 cup BUTTER softened
  • 1 1/2 cups sugar
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
  • 2 1/4 cup sifted flour
  • 3 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 cup milk
  • 5 stiffly beaten egg whites (beat until stiff peaks form)

Frosting:

  • 3/4 cup butter softened
  • 1/2 cup heavy cream (milk can be substituted)
  • 1TBS vanilla
  • 1/2tsp almond extract
  • 5-6 cups powder sugar
  1. Preheat oven to 375°F. Line 18 muffin Cups with liners. Or if your using mason jars butter and flour 9 mason jars.
  2. Cream butter and sugar until light. Add vanilla and mix well; set aside.
  3. Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. Add to creamed mixture alternately with milk, beating after each addition. Gently fold in egg white. Divide between muffin cups. I find 1 mounded ice cream scoop per cup is the perfect amount. For the 4oz mason jars 2 ice cream scoops are perfect!
  4. Bake for 10-15 minutes or until done and slightly golden. Cool thoroughly.
  5. Icing instructions:
  6. Cream together butter, cream, vanilla, and almond extract. Add powder sugar 1 cup at a time until icing reaches the right consistency.
  7. Pipe onto cooled cupcakes and enjoy!
0 Comments

New York Cheesecake with Cinnamon Crust

Original Recipe Yield 12 servings

Ingredients

  • 2 1/2 cups  Graham Cracker Crumbs
  • 1/2 cup butter, melted
  • 2 tsp cinnamon
  • 5 (250 g) packages PHILADELPHIA Brick Cream Cheese, softened
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 3 tablespoons flour
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla
  • 1 cup sour cream
  • 4 eggs
Topping
  • 8oz cream cheese softened
  • 1/3 cup sour cream
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla

Directions

  1. Heat oven to 325 degrees F if using a silver 9 inch springform pan (or to 300 degrees F if using a dark nonstick 9-inch springform pan). Mix crumbs and butter; press firmly onto bottom of pan. Bake 10 minutes.
  2. Beat cream cheese, sugar, flour and vanilla in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until well blended. Add sour cream; mix well. Add eggs, one at a time then zest of lemon and lime, mixing on low speed after each addition just until blended. Pour over crust.
  3. Bake 1 hour 10 minutes or until center is almost set. Run knife or metal spatula around rim of pan to loosen cake and cool.
  4. Blend together all topping ingredients until smooth and spread evenly over cheesecake
  5. Enjoy!

0 Comments

Honey Rolls

Usually made with 50% whole wheat flour and 50% white, theses honey rolls have become a Sunday dinner staple!

Original Recipe Yield approximately 2 dozen rolls

Ingredients

  • 4 1/2 tsp yeast
  • 1tsp white sugar
  • 1 1/2 cup warm water
  • 1 1/2 cup warm milk
  • 1/2 cup melted butter
  • 1/2 cup honey
  • 1 tbs salt
  • 6 cups Flour, either all white or a combination of whole wheat and white
  1. Dissolve yeast and sugar in a large bowl with warm water until foamy, approximately 5 minutes.
  2. After years is activated add milk, butter, honey, and salt. Stir until well combine.
  3. Add just enough flour, one cup at a time, until dough is sticky yet workable. Roll out onto a well floured counter top and knead until no longer sticky and dough is elasticy, added additional flour if needed. Place in a greased bowl and rise until doubled (approximately 1 hour)
  4. Preheat oven to 350°. Grease 2 9×13 pans with butter. Once dough is risen, punch down and cut into 24 individual pieces. Form each into balls and place in the greased pans. Allow to rise to double (approximately 45 minute)
  5. Bake until golden brown, 15-20 minutes and enjoy!
0 Comments
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