Plaid

I saw it and had to try it: plaid as a new baking trend. Whether in icing or cut out of fruit leathers, it was popping up everywhere and I for one love it. So combining my love for "fancy" cookies with this great decorating idea, I ended up with Plaid Blueberry Linzer Tarts. Okay, they are made with a sugar cookie recipe which is nothing like a true linzer. I take creative license. I apologize for their lack of veganness, but you could solve that with vegan substitutes. Here you go.

Blueberry Linzer Tarts

1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
3 cups flour
2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup blueberry jam

1 circle cookie cutter (or drinking glass)
1 tiny circle cutter (or bottle cap)

1. Cream butter and sugar.
2. Add egg and vanilla.
3. Add flour and baking powder.
4. Chill.
5. Roll out and cut an equal number of circles and "donut" shapes.
6. Bake for 6 to 7 minutes at 400ºF.
7. Let cool, then spoon about 1/2-1 teaspoon of blueberry jam onto solid circle cookies, then sandwich a "donut" cookie on top.

Plaid Decoration

1/2 cup white chocolate chips
few drops blue food coloring

1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
2 teaspoons butter

1. Melt the white chocolate chips with 1 teaspoon butter, and add the blue coloring.
2. Pipe (I just used a plastic "snack bag" with a hole cup in the corner) the blue "icing" on the cookies: two blue stripes up one side, and a perpendicular blue stripe across the bottom.
3. Melt the semisweet chocolate chips with 1 teaspoon butter. Spoon into bag for piping.
4. Pipe two chocolate stripes on either side of the blue stripes on the side and the blue stripe across the bottom, and two chocolate stripes on the top of the cookie parallel to the bottom blue stripe.
5. Or just ignore my attempt to create plaid and go for it yourself. I tried to putting opposite-color dots on intersections, but the "icing" just wasn't the correct texture for that to work.
Enjoy!

Time Flies

Wow, I've let two weeks pass without a post...and it's not like I haven't been in the kitchen. My culinary exploits, however, have veered towards the less photogenic and savoury, with Moroccan stew, tortilla española, salsa, and wheatberry salad. I have had a couple of dinner parties - one a cheese sampler, the other with pesto pizza and veggies from the garden. I've had a friend come and stay and spent time with others, but college is looming on the horizon for all of us and yet again comes the leaving and the goodbyes. During the summer I always have the time to bake, but never enough people around to eat the results - and when my dormmates are getting hungry, I'll probably be too busy to play around in my kitchenette! But I'll do my best to bake something pretty, and soon.