Friday, August 2, 2013

Brown Sugar Shortbread

Brown Sugar Shortbread:

1 cup butter
1 cup dark brown sugar
1 vanilla bean, seeds scraped out (toss the husk into your sugar bin)
1-2 tsp vanilla, depending upon preference
2 cups flour
1/4 tsp kosher salt
beat butter til lightened. mix vanilla bean scrapings into brown sugar, then beat sugar into butter. mix in vanilla. combine flour with salt and add flour to butter/sugar, trying not to overmix.
grease a springform pan, and press dough into a circle. (optionally, at this point, mix 1 tbsp white sugar with 1 tsp or less cinnamon and sprinkle dough). cut into 12 wedges. bake at 325 for 50 min or until firm and golden. cut into wedges again.

Swedish Meatballs

Lingonberry jelly is traditionally used with Swedish meatballs; you can substitute cranberry, red currant or raspberry jelly if you can't find lingonberry jelly.

Ingredients

Meatballs:

1 large yellow or white onion, peeled, grated (through a cheese grater)
2 Tbsp butter
2/3 cup milk
4-5 slices of bread, crusts removed, bread cut into pieces
2 eggs
1 pound ground pork
1 1/2 pounds ground beef
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
2 teaspoons black pepper

Sauce:

6 Tbsp butter
1/3 cup flour
1 quart beef stock
1/2 to 3/4 cup sour cream
Salt

2 to 4 Tbsp of Lingonberry, cranberry, red currant or raspberry jelly, more or less to taste (optional)

Method

1 Sauté the grated onion in the butter over medium-high heat until the onions soften and turn translucent, about 3-4 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool.

2 In a medium bowl, mix the bread pieces with the milk. Set aside for 15-20 minutes, or until the bread soaks up all the milk. When it does, pulverize the bread in a food processor and pour it into a large bowl.

3 Add the cooled onions to the bowl of milk and bread. Add the rest of the meatball ingredients - eggs, ground pork, ground beef, salt, nutmeg, cardamom, pepper. Using your (clean) hands, mix well for about 2 minutes until the ingredients are well combined.

4 Use a tablespoon to measure out the meat for the meatballs. As you form the meatballs, set each one aside on a sheet pan or plate. You should get 40 to 50 meatballs.

http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/swedish_meatballs/