A Perfect Pair: Baked Pears with Feta Cheese

Sep 28, 2011 By Love & Flour in Sides 2 Comments Tags: feta cheese, honey, pear

“Did you use those biscuits as a blog post?”

“Yeah. ”

“You did?”

“Yes. Why, what’s wrong with that?”

“Well…it’s just…they’re biscuits.”

“So? People eat biscuits. What’s wrong with using biscuits as a blog post?”

“But, you made tortilla chips. You can’t post biscuits after you’ve made tortilla chips.”

Sigh…The past few blog posts have not been my best. After making it over the 90-day hump, I feel like I crashed and burned out. I had so much going on in my work life and personal life this month that I didn’t really get to plan my blog posts as well as I would have liked. Case-in-point: I had no idea what to post today until I saw the weekly grocery store ads this morning and realized pears were on sale.

My mom used to bake apples with melted marshmallows floating in pools of brown sugar. They were good. Really good. So when I saw pears were cheap, I immediately thought of deceptively fancy, yet super simple baked pears with feta cheese. I am oh, so happy pears were on sale because these are delicious.

Though I don’t care for the pungent taste of feta, I was willing to give it a try. I don’t know what causes the cheese to mellow, be it the sweet or the heat, but once baked the feta cheese is no longer the prominent flavor. The salty cheese balances the sweetness of the pear, sugar and honey quite nicely to make this dish a good choice for an appetizer, side or dessert.

I don’t recall where I first saw a recipe for baked pears and feta cheese, but there are plenty of online recipes and variations. The recipe that most closely resembles what I chose to make is the baked pear with mint, feta and honey at BBC Food Recipes.

A couple of my favorite’s were Smitten Kitchen’s Vanilla Roasted Pears and Eating Well’s Riesling Baked Pears, and some other ideas I liked included using blue cheese and walnuts in place of feta or topping a round brie cheese with a baked pear. Delicious!

Baked Pears with Feta Cheese

Author: adapted from BBC Food Recipes

Serves: 4

Ingredients

2 pears, cored and halved
1 tablespoon butter, quartered
8 teaspoons crumbled feta cheese
4 teaspoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon honey
Fresh mint and cinnamon, to garnish

Instructions

Place the pears, cut side up, in a baking dish.
Place a square of the quartered butter in the wells left by the removed cores.
Sprinkle equal amounts of feta cheese and brown sugar over each pear.
Bake at 350 degrees for approximately 35-40 minutes or until tender.
Remove the pears from the oven and drizzle with the honey.
Garnish with the mint sprig and cinnamon if desired.

Notes

Bartlett pears were used for this recipe. The dish is best when served warm.

Rainy Day Rosemary Biscuits

Sep 26, 2011 By Love & Flour in Breads No Comments Tags: biscuits, rosemary, savory

It’s rained nearly every day for a week. I don’t live in Seattle, so the weather has dampened most everyone’s spirits and placed me in a bit of a contrary mood. The childhood rhyme “Rain rain go away, Come again another day…” certainly fits my state of mind. It was one of my favorites behind “Queen Queen Caroline, Washed her hair in turpentine…”

Since childhood, or at least as far back as I can remember making a decision, my favorite food has been bread. So surely a new bread recipe will lift my spirits! I went looking and found these rosemary biscuits in Catherine Atkinson’s cookbook 500 Cookies, Biscuits and Bakes.

The biscuits are super easy to make. Just a bit of flour, baking powder, butter, and milk for the main ingredients, and an herb of your choice for seasoning. My rosemary bush is growing like crazy, so I chose rosemary for these biscuits.

The cookbook suggests using dill if planning to serve the biscuits with seafood and basil if the biscuits will accompany a chicken or vegetarian dish. Not only tasty, but also versatile! Things are looking up, enjoy!

Rosemary Biscuits

Author: adapted from 500 Cookies, Biscuits and Bakes, by Catherine Atkinson

Serves: 12

Ingredients

2 cups self-raising flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon rosemary, chopped
¼ cup (1/2 stick) butter
⅔ cup milk
Optional: 1 egg, beaten

Instructions

Whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl.
Stir in the rosemary.
Add the butter and rub it into the flour mixture by hand until the ingredients resemble bread crumbs.
Stir in the milk until the mixture forms a soft dough. Do not overmix or the dough will become sticky.
Place the dough on a lightly floured surface and roll out to about ¾ inch thickness.
Cut into circles with a two-inch round cookie cutter.
Repeat the rolling and cutting with the leftover dough.
If desired, brush the tops of the biscuits with the beaten egg wash.
Bake at 450 degrees for 8-10 minutes or until lightly browned.

A Toast: Pink Champagne Cupcakes

Sep 24, 2011 By Love & Flour in Cupcakes 2 Comments Tags: booze

Today, I am going to spend the afternoon drinking champagne and eating cupcakes. Just another typical Saturday. I kid about that last part, though I am going to a wedding where champagne and cupcakes will be present. Jenn and Ben are tying the knot, getting hitched, going to the chapel…you get the picture.

As I began to write this post, it was raining. I was pleased by this because rain on your wedding day means good luck. But then the light rain turned into an intense rain that transformed the possibility of frizzy hair into a definite. I was concerned.

But then the rain changed to a drizzle, and the sun peeked out. Now it’s a beautiful, sunny day. Perhaps the weather is a metaphor for marriage. Things will be gray and stormy from time to time, but if you wait it out, the sun will shine again.

This morning I baked pink Champagne cupcakes from the cookbook I used for my very first blog post, Booze Cakes: Confections Spiked with Spirits, Wine and Beer by Krystina Castella and Terry Lee Stone. Both the cake and the frosting are light and have just a hint of Champagne flavor. Perfection!

Raise your cupcakes in a toast to the couple. Best wishes to Ben and Jenn!

Pink Champagne Cupcakes

Author: Booze Cakes by Krystina Castella and Terry Lee Stone

Recipe type: Dessert

Ingredients

1½ cups all-purpose flour
1½ teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
½ cup (1 stick) butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3 egg whites
1 cup pink Champagne
Optional, pink food coloring
Frosting
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) butter
4 cups confectioners’ sugar
2 tablespoons milk
1½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract
¼ cup pink Champagne

Instructions

Whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl and set aside.
Cream the butter and the sugar on medium speed.
Add the vanilla and the egg whites one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
Beat in the flour mixture and the Champagne in three alternating additions. Start and finish with the flour mixture.
Add pink food coloring if desired.
Line a cupcake pan with paper liners and pour batter into liners until approximately ¾ full.
Bake at 350 degrees for approximately 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into one of the cupcakes comes out clean.
For the frosting, cream the butter and slowly add the confectioners’ sugar.
Add the milk, vanilla extract, and pink Champagne and beat at high speed two to three minutes until the frosting is light and fluffy.

Notes

To decorate, spoon the frosting into a decorating bag fitted with a decorating tip 1 M. Gently pipe the icing onto each cupcake by starting at the outermost edge and forming a circle inwards towards the center.