butter Archives | butter loves company

cornmeal pancakes with honey cayenne butter

August 20, 2015 by Butter Loves Company

These delicious little pancakes have a natural sweetness and slightly grainy texture from the addition of cornmeal. They are crisp on the outside and fluffy on the inside and taste a bit like seared cornbread you may find at a neighborhood BBQ joint. Don’t skip slathering with a generous smear of creamy honey cayenne butter. The sweet heat pulls it all together.

Pancakes have always been tough for me. Even though they aren’t my favorite breakfast carb (Hello, things like bagels and sticky buns EXIST.), I actually make them fairly often because they are quick for a weekday morning breakfast and because I’ve yet to master the flip and I like the challenge.

Honestly, my pancake flipping ability is an embarrassment. Greg says I’m not flipping fast enough. Okay, sure. Then, I try flipping fast and basically invent pancake batter wallpaper and inevitably find that the half-cooked pancake landed perfectly on the pan’s edge as if trying to escape from the impending breakfast disaster. If you follow me on snapchat (butterlc), you may have seen my first attempt at these cornmeal pancakes with honey cayenne butter. The flavor was great but it was NOT PRETTY. Obviously, I had to try again. I’m so glad I did!

We have your flour cornmeal mixture, your yogurt milk mixture and your butter honey mixture. Time to make some batter!

Look at that butter sliding right across the hot pancakes, yum!

This honey cayenne butter is luscious. Make some extra to have on toast!

You can see some of the cayenne flecks from when the butter melted right off of this stack of pancakes…..

These cornmeal pancakes have a natural sweetness and slightly grainy texture from the addition of cornmeal. They are crisp on the outside and fluffy on the inside and taste a bit like seared cornbread you may find at a BBQ joint. Don’t skip slathering with a generous smear of the creamy honey cayenne butter. The sweet heat pulls it all together!

blueberry and lemon cream tart

February 10, 2015 by Butter Loves Company

Easy as pie tart? Yup. This puppy is even easier than pie! You want to know why? You know that part in pie making when you have to roll out the chilled dough and then transport it to the pie dish and, if you’re like me, you want to then slice more dough for a lattice top or try cut-outs, or patterns, or ruffles, or fringe … this is beginning to sound like the E! Grammy’s Fashion Police wrap up! Well, with this tart, you don’t have to do ANY of that! Easy pease, my friends.

Once you prepare the dough, you can just push it right into the pan with your sticky little fingers. It is a tad more crumbly than a pie crust with a texture like that of shortbread. Once you line the pan, you partially bake the dough so it can stand up to all the juicy blueberries and tart, creamy filling you’ll top it with next. The blueberries stay whole and plump up in the oven so you can pop them with your teeth as you devour a slice. Then you’ll pour a lemony Greek yogurt sauce over the sweet blueberries and bake the entire tart until the sauce sets into what is similar to a loose custard. The combination of the buttery crust, sweet blueberries, and tart lemon cream is bright, fresh, and dreamy.

The tart holds well in the fridge for a few days and can be served cool or at room temperature. It can also be served for breakfast when you are snowed-in in Boston. I can attest to that.

blueberry and lemon cream tart
adapted from Gourmet Magazine, July 1990

prep time: 30 minutes
cook time: 60 minutes
total time: 1 hour 30 minutes (plus more for chilling dough)
Makes 1 12-Inch Tart in Pan with Removable Bottom

Ingredients:

For the crust:
2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 sticks (1 cup) very cold, unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch cubes
2 large egg yolks, beaten with 4 tablespoons ice water
pie weights, dry beans, or raw rice for weighting the shell

For the filling:
3/4 cup plain greek yogurt
1/4 cup heavy cream
3 large egg yolks
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon freshly grated lemon zest
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1/2 stick (1/4 cup) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
4 cups fresh blueberries (Take a look and remove extra stems or any bluebs that look dried out.)

Instructions:

Make the crust: In the bowl of a food processor, pulse together the flour, sugar, and salt. Add the chilled butter and pulse the mixture until it resembles coarse meal, about 10 pulses. Pour in the yolk and water mixture and pulse until the liquid is incorporated and the dough begins coming together. Turn the dough onto a clean surface and, using your hands, gather the dough into a ball. Wrap the ball in plastic wrap and chill for 1 hour.
Grab your tart pan (with removable fluted rim) and remove chilled dough from the refrigerator. Grab small chunks of the dough at a time and push into the tart pan with your fingertips. Continue pressing the dough into the pan until you have lined the bottom and sides with dough about 1/4 inch thick. Chill the crust for at least 30 minutes in the fridge, 15 minutes in the freezer, or cover and leave overnight. Preheat your oven to 350°F. Line the inside of the tart crust with foil, fill the foil with the pie weights, dry beans or rice, and bake the shell in the middle of the oven for 25 minutes. Remove the foil and weights carefully, bake the crust for 5 to 10 minutes more, or until it is pale golden, and let it cool in the pan on a rack. Keep the oven heated at 350°F while you prepare the filling.
Make the filling: In a blender, food processor, or large bowl with a vigorous hand, blend together the yogurt, cream, yolks, granulated sugar, lemon zest, lemon juice, butter, vanilla, salt, and flour until the mixture is smooth. Set aside.
Spread the fresh blueberries evenly over the bottom of the par-baked tart crust. Pour the yogurt and lemon mixture over them. Bake the tart in the middle of the oven at 350°F for 30 to 35 minutes, or until the filling is just set.
Let the tart cool completely in the pan on a rack. Serve at room temperature or store the tart in the refrigerator and serve chilled. Tart keeps for 4 to 5 days (keep chilled).

blueberry buttermilk scones with cinnamon sugar butter

July 10, 2014 by Butter Loves Company

When spending your vacation at a house on the water, you’d better not forget to pack your bathing suit, sunscreen, aloe vera for when you inevitably get burned regardless of the sunscreen, boogie board, frisbee, Stephen King or Emily Griffin novel (pick your poison), kitchen tongs and measuring cups/spoons. You’re probably thinking those last two don’t scream ‘sand between the toes,’ but if you have access to a kitchen, these tools will make life much easier and breakfast much more delicious.

I learned from my mom that you should always travel with tongs.* The reason being, she told me, you never know what the kitchen supply situation will be. With this in mind, I decided that because of my baking obsession I should also always travel with measuring tools. You see, some vacation rentals are equipped for a chef, while others are equipped for a stack of take-out pizzas (no knock there, love me some take-out pizza). Luckily, even if you’re staying in the latter, you can make delicious homemade treats because, with just your hands, you can be quite the little bakeshop.

You’ll already be all sandy after the beach; why not also get a little flour on your hands while making some blueberry buttermilk scones with cinnamon sugar butter? The butter—oh the butter—may be my new little obsession. It is SO easy to make, and with just just three ingredients, you can have this addictive sweet spiced spread at your disposal in no time. I’m going to start making it by the pound.

Your cohorts will thank you when they’re slicing through the sweet, juicy blueberries in the light, buttery scone and smearing it with the cinnamon sugar butter. They may actually volunteer to make you a piña colada for your hard work. (Our little secret will be how easy the ‘work’ was, but go on, accept that island drink reward ;-))

* For clarification: this applies when you have a kitchen to work with. I did not, for example, bring tongs to Las Vegas for a girl’s weekend. That would be strange. Probably not all that surprising, but definitely strange.

blueberry buttermilk scones with cinnamon sugar butter
Adapted from M.S. Milliken & S. Feniger, 2007

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 16–18 minutes
Total Time: 30–35 minutes
Makes 8 large or 16 medium-sized scones

Ingredients:

3 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter
1 cup buttermilk
1 cup fresh blueberries
1 egg lightly whipped with 1 tablespoon water (for brushing)
A dash more granulated sugar for sprinkling
Cinnamon sugar butter (recipe follows)

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F and lightly grease a cookie sheet or line with parchment paper. Combine the flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, baking soda and ground cinnamon in a large bowl. Add butter and mix with your fingertips or with a pastry blender until it reaches a coarse meal and the butter is in pea-sized pieces or just smaller. Add buttermilk and mix until almost combined. Mix in blueberries until everything is just combined.
Transfer dough to a floured board (divide into two parts if you’d like smaller scones). Roll into 1-inch thick rounds for larger scones or into 3/4-inch thick rounds if you divided the dough and are making smaller scones. Cut each round into 8 wedges and place slightly separated onto the prepared baking sheet. Brush the tops of the scones with the egg mixture, sprinkle each lightly with sugar and bake for 16–18 minutes, or until lightly browned. Serve warm, split in half with a smear cinnamon sugar butter.

cinnamon sugar butter

makes 1/4 cup

Ingredients:

1/4 cup butter, softened at room temperature (I use salted, but if you use unsalted, add a dash of salt)
2 tablespoons light brown sugar
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Instructions:

In a small bowl, stir together butter, light brown sugar and ground cinnamon until completely combined and fluffy. Chill and serve.

candied ginger rosemary triangles

April 9, 2014 by Butter Loves Company

A candied ginger dotted shortbread/brownie-like bar filled with fresh, fragrant rosemary for a slightly sweet treat.

Back when I was a shy little pig-tailed girl, I had absolutely no interest in these. My mom always made them at Christmas, forcing the herby bar to compete for my attention in a house that may as well be the Olympic stadium of the holiday dessert games (see Cinnamon Pinwheel Cookies).

In first place, with 80 kajillion points, our gold medalist, Whoopie Pies! In second place, with 70 kajillion, Grandma’s Apple Pie! And so on and so forth, until you finally get to the Candied Ginger Rosemary bars, who barely got a consolation prize.

“Bleh!” I would say, “Why would anyone ruin perfectly delicious treats by putting rosemary and ginger bars next to them?!”

To pre-teen Jenna, they screamed pinkies up, foo foo, chi-chi, museum-enthusiast adult.

Flash forward to two years ago: I was home baking with my mom for Christmas and she asked me to make a batch of these. I think I ate 2–3 immediately (let’s be honest, it was 4–5) and then found myself reaching for them even on Christmas Eve. They were right next to the whoopie pies, so that is huge.

I had grown up to appreciate the freshness of chopped rosemary, the slight spice and chew of candied ginger, and the harmonious interplay between these two flavors in this subtly sweet bar. Its texture is similar to that of a buttery shortbread/brownie hybrid. The candied ginger makes it chewy and the rosemary aroma emerges every time you take a bite. They can be served as a dessert, but I’d also like to try them served with appetizers.

Have any of you had “consolation prize” foods you’ve grown to love over time? I’d love to hear about them!

candied ginger rosemary triangles

Author: butter loves company

Prep time: 15 mins

Cook time: 25 mins

Total time: 40 mins

Serves: makes 32 triangles

A candied ginger dotted shortbread/brownie-like bar filled with fresh, fragrant rosemary for a slightly sweet treat.

Ingredients

2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
¾ cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
2 cups flour
½ teaspoon salt
2 large eggs, one beaten lightly, the other reserved for egg wash
½ cup finely chopped crystallized ginger
1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary (or 1½ tablespoons dried rosemary)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Set aside an 8 x 8 inch baking pan (You do not need to butter or coat it with non-stick baking spray.)
In a large bowl, or the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat together the butter and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy.
In a medium bowl, sift together flour and salt. Gradually beat this flour mixture into the butter mixture on low speed until just combined. Add the one lightly beaten egg. Beat in ginger and rosemary until just combined. Press the dough evenly into the 8 x 8 inch baking pan (it will be thick).
In a small bowl, beat remaining egg with 1 tablespoon water to make an egg wash and brush on dough. Bake in the middle rack of oven for about 25–30 minutes or until a toothpick poked in the center of the dough comes out clear. Cool in the pan on a rack then cut into triangles.
May be made 5 days ahead, chilled and covered. May also be frozen in an airtight container for up to 1 month.

broyé (salted butter table cookie)

March 23, 2014 by Butter Loves Company

A large, rustic, buttery, salty cookie adorned with a pretty crosshatch meant to be shared at your table (although, it does not need to be!)

I am obsessed with this.

Yes, it may only have 5 ingredients and sounds pretty basic, but I just love everything about this recipe. The simple, buttery, salty, crunchy yet tender cookie is one you keep reaching back for until you “accidentally” eat the entire thing. But, what I love most, perhaps even more than its taste, is its sheer concept. The large, rectangular cookie is intended for sharing with many on the center of your table, each guest breaking off his or her portion as you sit and enjoy each other’s company.

On a table, this little rustic guy is somehow casually dramatic.

In her book Around My French Table, Dorie Greenspan explains the broyé, meaning crushed cookie in French, is a tradition in the butter loving Poitou region of western France. Although I’ve never been there, if this cookie is a staple, I could see myself calling the region “home.” The cookie can be made with flaky or coarse sea salt, or sel gris, for a noticeably salty flavor between sweet, buttery bites, but can also be made with table salt.

broyé (salted butter table cookie)

Recipe Type: cookies

Cuisine: dessert

Author: adapted from Dorie Greenspan

Prep time: 1 hour 10 mins

Cook time: 25 mins

Total time: 1 hour 35 mins

Serves: 6-8

A large, rustic, buttery, salty cookie adorned with a pretty crosshatch meant to be shared at your table (although, it does not need to be!)

Ingredients

1 ¾ cups unbleached all purpose flour
2/3 cups granulated sugar
¾–1 teaspoon sel gris or kosher salt
9 tablespoons (1 stick plus 1 tablespoon) cold unsalted butter, cut into 18 pieces
3–6 tablespoons cold water
1 egg yolk, for glazing

Instructions

Put the flour, sugar and salt in the work bowl of a food processor and pulse to combine. Drop in the butter and pulse until the butter is in both pea-sized pieces and some in small flakes, about 8 to 9 one-second pulses. With the machine running, start adding the cold water gradually; adding just enough water to produce a dough. To test, you can stop the processor and feel the dough to determine if it has become malleable.
Scrape the dough onto a work surface or a large piece of plastic wrap. Form it into a ball and then pat it down slightly into a disk. Wrap tightly with plastic and refrigerate for about 1 hour (the dough can now be refrigerated for up to 3 days or frozen for up to 2 months.)
When you’re ready to bake, center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with a silicon mat or parchment paper.
Remove the dough from the fridge. Place the dough between 2 sheets of plastic wrap or wax paper and, with a rolling pin, roll it into a rectangle that’s about ¼ inch thick and about 5 inches wide x 11 inches long. Keep in mind, it should be rustic! Don’t worry about exact size or even edges. Transfer the dough to the lined baking sheet.
Beat the egg yolk with a few drops of water to create the glaze, and, with a pastry brush, paint the top surface of the dough with the glaze. Use the back of a fork to create a crosshatch pattern.
Bake the cookie for 25 to 35 minutes, or until it is golden (check fairly often as mine was done after just 25 minutes). It will be firm around the edges, but may have a spring in the center. Transfer the baking sheet to a rack and cool the cookie to room temperature.
To serve: place the cookie in the center of your table and let your friends and family reach their hands in and crack off pieces.