Loaded Baked Potato Chowder in the Microwave

It was cold here today and on my home from work I was thinking what can I make for dinner tonight that is fast and warming? Loaded baked Potato Chowder! Talk about simple comfort food... this soup is delicious and takes about 30 minutes in the microwave to make! There is only one requirement you need to have a ceramic covered baker that holds about  3 quarts/12 cups.

Loaded Baked Potato Chowder(Recipe adapted from the Pampered Chef)

Ingredients:

2-2 1/2 lbs baking potatoes ( 3-4 large)

3 1/2 cups warmed milk, divided

8 oz cream cheese, softened

2 Tlb butter

1/4 cup green onions sliced with green included(2-3)

1 small yellow onion chopped

salt and pepper to taste

8 oz grated cheese- cheddar, cheddar jack...I've even used Velveeta!

8 or so slices of cooked bacon ,chopped ( I buy the pre-cooked to have on hand)

Additional Toppings: sour cream, steamed broccoli florets...or what ever your heart desires!

If you didn't have time to set out the milk and cream cheese...warm the milk...then the cream cheese in the microwave....not together yet!

Wash your potatoes, slice your onion and green onions get all your ingredients ready.

Slice the potatoes in half lenghtwise and place them in the bottom of the ceramic baker...if you needed more than 3 potatoes because yours were small... don't worry just stick them in! Salt and pepper potatoes.

Pour 1/2 cup of the milk over potatoes, cover the baker,put into the micro and cook on high for 11 minutes.

Remove the baker rearrange the potatoes add the chopped yellow onion. Cover the baker pop it back in the micro and cook another 8-11 minutes or until the potatoes are easily pierced with a fork.

While your potatoes are cooking in a small bowl mix the cream cheese till smooth. Slowly add the warmed milk. Set aside.

Remove baker from microwave and coarsely mash the potatoes.

Add cream cheese mixture and butter to potatoes. Cover and microwave 5-7 minutes or until mixture is hot.

Remove from microwave add grated cheese and chopped bacon. Cover and microwave 2-3 minutes more.
Almost there! Remove the baker one last time stir in green onions, season with salt and pepper to taste and mix till well combined! You now have Loaded Baked Potato Chowder! In in 30 minutes!

Ladle chowder into bowls and garnish with sour cream and any other topping your heart desires!

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Lefse Time at my house!

A couple of months ago I got a bug in my head to make Lefse. What is lefse, it is a traditional soft, Norwegian flatbread. Lefse is made out of potato, milk or cream and flour, and cooked on a griddle. Special tools are available for lefse baking, including long wooden turning sticks and special rolling pins with deep grooves. So guess what I got for my birthday...you got it... a deluxe Lefse making kit from Lefse Time.I guess my husband really wanted homemade lefse! The kit came fully loaded everything including the griddle and a booklet Making Lefse in 8 Easy Steps.  Now I was ready!

So I embarked on my first Lefse making journey . It really wasn't that bad now that I had all the official Lefse making tools and some tips from a group of Norwegian ladies on Face Book..thank you NT members for the warnings!

Lefse in 9 Easy Steps...more or less...I added an extra!

Aunt Charlotte's Lefse recipe ( From Lefse Time )


4 cups riced potatoes
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
2 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups flour

Step 1: Boiling your potatoes

Peel 2 to 2 ½ lbs of russet potatoes. Rinse and cut potatoes in half and then quarters. It’s important that your potato pieces are of similar size so they are all cooked through at the same time. Place potatoes into a large pot of salted water and boil until fork tender. (You should be able to pierce potatoes with a fork easily.) This should give you 4 cups of riced potatoes equaling 12 lefse rounds, you can easily double this recipe for a larger batch. But if it is your first attempt do yourself a favor and start small!


Step 2: Ricing your potatoes

When the potatoes are done boiling, drain into a large colander. Drain well and rice. Don’t waste a lot of time here, your potatoes need to be warm to melt the butter in the next step. To help keep your potatoes warm, rice them into the empty pot you used for boiling. Rice all your potatoes and then measure out 4 cups (lightly packed) into another large bowl. Note: Make your ricing a bit easier and only fill the ricer basket 1/2 to 2/3’s of the way full. And take it slow, a lot of pressure all at once and the potatoes will come out too fast and all over. You don't want to get a potato burn!

Step 3: Well just step 3

To your 4 cups of riced potatoes, add 1/4 cup butter in pats so it melts in evenly. Stir a few times to get the butter mixed in well. Cover and refrigerate overnight. If you would like to cook the same day you can cover the potatoes with a towel and set aside on your counter top until they are completely cooled. Or to cool faster, place uncovered in refrigerator for 30 minutes, pull out and stir, refrigerate 30 minutes longer, stir. Keep repeating until cooled. Even faster? Use the freezer. Same process: freezer, stir, freezer, stir until cool.
 or so the directions say. I made my potatoes the night before better safe than sorry!

Step 4: Get your lefse making area set up!

To your This is the step they left out of the booklet! Set up your work area and cover your table or area with a plastic cloth of some sort... making lefse requires a  lot of flour and sometimes a lot of flour ends up all over the place!

Put lots of flour on your lefse board and your rolling pin!

Preparation is the key to success with rolling. Round pastry boards are great for rolling lefse. They have size guides to indicate how large your sheets are and can be a great guide to round sheets. Prep your pastry board by spreading out about 1/4 cup of flour into a circle just a bit bigger than the sheet of lefse you intend to roll. Rub the flour in thoroughly to your pastry cloth. You will need to lightly rub in a bit of flour onto your pastry board between each sheet, paying special attention to the center as it tends to build up the most moisture and could cause sticking. remember this it is important!!!!!

 

Prep your rolling pin by working flour into every groove of your pin. This can be sped up by rolling your pin directly into flour. For example, place a cup of flour onto a tray and roll your pin back and forth through the flour. Be sure to rub flour in on any missing spots and to rub in more flour between each lefse sheet. You can also use a rolling pin cover; it functions the same as a pastry cloth when prepped with enough flour.

Step 5: Mixing

To your cooled potatoes add the 1/2 cup whipping cream, 1 tsp salt, 2 tsp sugar and 1 ½ cups flour. If you have refrigerated overnight, break up the potatoes into small crumbles before adding the remaining ingredients. Once added, stir until most of the flour is worked in (loose crumbles). Then knead (like bread dough) 10 - 15 times. You can knead right in your mixing bowl. You should feel your dough come together into a smooth dough.

Step 6: Making the patties

Using a 1/4 cup measuring cup, scoop out patties onto a tray or cookie sheet, I ended up with 18 patties. Then shape each patty much like you would a hamburger patty – gently knead between your hands, roll into ball and press flat. It is very important that the edges of your patties are smooth with no cracks. Those small cracks will develop into bigger cracks as you roll. Set your patties aside to rest while you turn on your lefse grill and let it heat to 500 degrees. Note: A 1/4 cup patty rolls into a 12 inch thin round ;if you like thicker lefse roll to 10 inch round. Also you can do 1/3 cup patties which will roll into a nice and thin 14 inch round. If you like thicker lefse roll only to 12 inches.

Place patties on a cookie sheet and bring over to your work area.

Step 7: Rolling

Make sure there is lots of flour on your board! To begin rolling,  flour your patty on both sides then place it down at the center of your prepped pastry board. Gently roll forward and back using mostly the weight of the pin, only a very slight downward pressure so that your patty becomes a small oval. Then either rotate your board slightly or change your angle and roll forward and back. Continue rotating or switching your angles so that you keep your lefse round and of even thickness. Keep rolling until you have achieved the size of lefse you’d like.

I rolled mine thin that's how we like them!

Step 8 : Transferring your rolled lefse to the griddle!

Using a lefse turning stick, slide the stick under the lefse sheet (middle of sheet) making sure to keep the tip of the stick down. Lift gently from the board and move quickly to the lefse grill. Matching the edge of your lefse to the edge of the lefse grill, lay the lefse down and “unroll”. Again you will need to move quickly, and in one smooth motion. If you miss the grill and part of your lefse is hanging off, let it cook for 10-15 seconds, then using a hot pad, lay it on top of the cooking portion of lefse and gently pull the lefse that is hanging off onto the grill. Another method to transfer is to flip the edge of a sheet over the stick and roll in a couple turns and then lift up, again match your lefse to the grill, lay down and unroll.
They make this step seem complicated but it's pretty easy just make sure you have the lefse stick flat side down...I found this out the hard way! Sorry no pics of this step because I couldn't multi task this one..

Step 9 : Grilling and chilling..as Bobby Flay would say!

Cook the first side 30 seconds, give or take. The surest way to know if your lefse is ready to flip is to watch for cues. Your sheet should bubble up and when you peek under the edge there should be light golden brown spots. Then run your lefse stick down the middle, lift and turn over using the same method mentioned in step 7. Cook the second side until you see the same signs. The second side will cook considerably faster than the first side as the sheet has been heated through. From there simply transfer your lefse to lefse cozies or towel (do not use towels laundered with scents). Wipe off excess flour on your lefse grill with a dry cloth between each sheet to avoid burnt flour on your sheets.
While your first lefse is cooking you can start to roll out the next one but make sure you re-flour your board well, especially the middle before you roll out your next lefse.
Repeat the above steps till all your patties are cooked.
Let about 10 to 12 sheets stack, cover with a cozy or towel, then set them aside to cool. If you see that your sheets have a bit too much flour, wait until cooled and dust off.

When all your lefse are cooked its clean up time and lefse eating time. I served mine with dinner that night! My kids...like to spread butter on the lefse, sprinke it with sugar than roll it up and eat it!

You can also,your lefse is completely cooled, fold in half, then half again and store in zip-top freezer bags. They will keep in the freezer for 6 months or more.

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Scandinavian Almond Bread

Scandinavian Almond Bread (bread machine)



Ingredients for Bread:
1 cup Milk
1 Egg
3 tablespoons Butter Softened
8 ounces Almond paste -- 1/8" slices
2½ cup Flour -- not bread flour
2 tablespoons brown Sugar
½ teaspoon Salt
2 teaspoons Yeast


Ingredients for Glaze:
1 teaspoon light corn syrup
1 teaspoon warm water

Almonds -- slivered



Unless the instructions that came with your ABM call for putting the yeast in the pan first and incorporating the liquid ingredients last, pour the milk into the baking pan of your ABM and break in the egg.


If the butter is not soft, cut it into small chunks to ensure its blending into the dough, then add it to the liquids. Next add the almond paste, sliced so it will blend better too. Measure in the flour, brown sugar, and salt, and add the yeast as directed for your bread maker. You can use your machine's full cycle with this bread. If a light color setting is available, use it as well.


As soon as the bread has finished baking, remove it from the machine, closing the cover again, and ease the loaf from the pan. Combine the corn syrup and warm water and brush the top of the loaf with this mixture, using a pastry brush. Sprinkle the slivered almonds over the glaze, put the bread gently back in its pan, and return it to the electronic oven for a few minutes to dry the glaze a bit. Source: The Bread Machine Bakery Book

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Kransekake Sticks another Bakers Odyssey!

I belong to a few Norwegian groups on Facebook. They are groups where people share their heritage and their recipes. This was posted on a site and I knew I had to try them. I love Kransekake and add the dipping of chocolate and I was sold. So I set out to make them. What I thought would be a relatively simple task....Baking is my thing... has turned into a journey of sorts. 

The recipe is so simple just 3 ingredients what could go wrong?  Here is the Recipe from M.F. Scott as posted...

****Beware read this whole article before trying these cookies...learn from my mistakes!!!!


Kransekake sticks


1 lb finely ground almonds

1 lb powdered sugar

3 egg whites

Mix the ingredients into a dough and place in the fridge overnight.

Roll the dough so that it's the size of a finger and cut into 3 inch long sticks

Bake for ten minutes at 350 degrees.

Once they've cooled down dip half of the stick into melted dark chocolate.

* Sometimes, after dipping in the chocolate, I'll have extra ground almonds that I'll dip the chocolate end into, just makes them a little more festive.

So I whipped out my handy food processor and ground those almonds up to what I thought was finely ground. And stuck it in the fridge over night.
 

The next day I'm all excited to get started with rolling these puppies out...I was dreaming of Kransekake all night. So I roll them out about the size of a finger...my index finger seemed like a good choice cut them to  3 inches... put them on a cookie sheet and poped them into the oven.

Now I've seen and eaten Kransekake sticks before so I know what they look like so when I opened the oven to take the cookies out I almost died... sorry I don't have a pic of this I was too much in shock.. My cookies had expanded soo much they were stuck together and all strangely shaped... ugh! I guess I picked the wrong finger. So the next batch I decided to roll out much thinner... the size of my pinkie finger and keep the cookies much further apart.
 

I put them in the oven again. This time they look a bit better but I know they still don't look like the Kransekake sticks I've seen.

But they tasted delicious (my husband and son ate the first sheet  no chocolate needed)...so I finished up the dough and figured once I dip them in chocolate I could hide some of the funny shapes and like I said they tasted delicious!

Now another person on the site also tries the recipe and posts a picture of her cookie asking if that is how they are supposed to look. And what do my eyes see... squiggly cookies that look like mine. So i say to myself OK Christine something is not quite right. Mind you it's 11:00 PM and I decide to search the internet to see what the heck is going on, is it the recipe..but they taste great...so I search the net to see what I can find.

This video sent me on my next quest:
A Baker's Odyssey "Kransekake" Recipe

OK so now I know what I did wrong what I thought was finely ground almonds were not fine enough. I don't own one of those nut grinders but I was sure in my arsenal of kitchen gadgets I must have something that will grind up those almonds fine enough! So out comes the Kitchen Aid and the special food grinder attachment..

In go the almonds and out comes...not what I'm looking for...and the grinder jammed up..oops! Ok what do I try next out comes the Kitchen Aid coffee grinder thin I bought for grinding up spices...

Another no go the results were worse than the food grinder and mind you its now 1:00 AM... my family is trying to figure out what the heck is she doing down there at 1 in the morning. So I go an view the video again...hum I think to myself I have a Pampered Chef cheese grinder that  sort of looks like part of that nut grinder thing so into the closet I go and pull that baby out!



What did I have to lose at this time of night and it was the last thing in my grinding arsenal! So in went the almonds and low and behold out came.... finely ground almonds... woo whoo!....maybe not as fine as the video but closer than anything I was able to achieve with anything else!

Now I'm thinking to myself I don't think Pampered Chef had almonds in mind for this greater..I hope it holds up..and am I going to do a pound of almonds this way? Well the answer was no way so I decided to halve the recipe. Buy the time I was done with the dough it was 2:00 AM but I was happy!

Kransekake Sticks

1/2 lb finely ground almonds (almost like a powder see pic above)

1/2 lb powdered sugar

1.5 ounces egg whites ( the whites from 1 1/2 eggs)

Optional about 9 oz. of good quality chocolate to dip the ends in.

*****************************************************

Finely grind the almonds so they are almost...I did say almost.... like a powder.

Add the ground almonds to the powdered sugar and mix buy hand till combined. Then put in the bowl of your food processor ...turn on and add the egg whites... process till combined. Put in a covered container and refrigerate over night.

Taking small portions of dough...Roll so that it's about the thickness of a pencil and cut into 3 inch long sticks. Place on parchment lines baking sheets..do not put them too close together!!!!

Bake for 6-7 minutes at 350 degrees. Start rolling out your next sheet while your first pan is baking.

Remove from baking pan to cooling rack.

As you can see they are still a bit squiggly but look sooo much nicer when you get the nuts ground to the right consistency!

Once they've cooled down  you candip half of the stick into melted dark chocolate. I am fussy about my Chocolate being an Official Chocoholic so I used Lindt for these I like the taste and consistency of the chocolate when it is melted.

Chop up the chocolate and melt in the microwave. I do  1/2 the chocolate at a time. Zap it for 30 seconds them mix and another 30 seconds mix and you should be good to go!



Once the chocolate has hardened store in an airtight container till ready to eat. This recipe even though it was 1/2 of the original made 50 cookies!

Also... if you are going to freeze them do not dip in chocolate...I did this and they get a blush on the chocolate..live and learn!

 A side note from the owner of the original recipe:

* Sometimes, after dipping in the chocolate, I'll have extra ground almonds that I''ll dip the chocolate end into, just makes them a little more festive.

Good Luck on your Kransekake Odyssey!!!!!!!



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♬ Santa Lucia Crown for the Feast of St. Lucia ♬

Think I'll Give this a try looks sooo good! 
♬ Santa Lucia Crown for the Feast of St. Lucia ♬

Jam Filled Cream Cheese Cookies

When I was a kid my mom always made a cookie she called Cookie Bows. They were a cream cheese  cookie filled with jam. I had never made them. Then in 2009 a friend gave me a subscription to Everyday Food and on the cover was an intriguing cookie on the cover...I just had to make and low and behold they ended up being cream cheese cookies. My Mom made them in a bow shape but I love how they look when made with a star shaped cookie cutter!

Jam filled Cream Cheese Cookies

Ingredients:

8 ounces bar cream cheese softened
1 stick unsalted butter room temperature
1/3 cup sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
2 egg yolks
Jam- your choice of flavors

 
Directions:

In a large bowl beat cream cheese, butter, and sugar until light and fluffy. With mixer on low, add flour and salt; beat until just combined.

Divide dough into 3 portions; flatten each into a disk. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 20 minutes an hour is better!

                                     
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Mix egg yolks with 1 teaspoon water.

Working with 1 dough sheet at a time, roll dough out on a very lightly floured surface to 1/8 inch thick.

Using a 3 inch star-shaped cookie cutter, cut out cookies.

Spoon 1/4 teaspoon jam into center of each.....

and brush exposed inside dough with egg wash.

Shape cookies by bringing the points of the star together in the center of the cookie twist and gently push down.

Place on parchment lined cookies sheets, 2 inches apart,and refrigerate 20 minutes (re-roll scraps).

Repeat  above with with each disk. I use a different flavor jam for each disk. This year I used Seedless Raspberry Jam, Apricot Jam , Seedless Blackberry Jam  and  Cognac Vanilla Peach Jam!
After 20 minutes take cookies out of fridge brush outside with egg wash and sprinkle with finishing sugar course sugar.



                                

Bake until cookies are light golden brown, about 15 minutes, rotating sheets halfway through. Let cool completely on wire racks.

If you work at an even pace, buy the time you fill up a cookie sheet with cookies and refrigerate for the 20 minutes begin working on the next batch. When the next sheet is done it should be 20 minutes pop one cookie sheet into the oven and the next into the fridge.

These cookies are worth the time.... they look beautiful and taste great. And don't worry a few might pop open on the top... those are the ones you get to eat right away!!!!