How you doin’? It’s back-to-school time, and these cookies will improve any student’s attitude in just one bite. Our best-selling confections at Choclatique were truffles that incorporated both chocolate and peanut butter. But we weren’t the first ones to discover the magic in this combination. H. B. Reese, a former dairy farmer from Hershey, Pennsylvania, created the original Peanut Butter Cup in 1928. A peanut butter cup is a wonderful confection filled with peanut butter and enrobed in chocolate.
 
This yummy peanut butter cookie recipe is baked in a small muffin tin with a mini-peanut butter cup pressed into a hot, just out-of-the-oven cookie before it has time to cool and set. This is a peanut butter cookie fancier’s dream. 
 
Prep Time:  25 minutes
Baked Time:  10 minutes
Cool time:  3 minutes
Yield: 12 to 15 cookies
 
Ingredients:
1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 tablespoons whole milk
12 to 15 mini-peanut butter cups (I prefer the original Reese’s)
 
Directions:
1.    Preheat an oven to 375⁰ F.
2.    Sift together the flour, salt and baking soda and set aside.
3.    Cream together the butter, sugar, peanut butter, and brown sugar until very fluffy.
4.    Beat in the egg, vanilla extract, and milk.
5.    Add the flour mixture; mix well. Shape into 12 to 15 balls and place each into an ungreased mini muffin pan.
6.    Bake for about 8 minutes until they just turn light brown.
7.    Remove from the oven and immediately press a peanut butter cup into the hot center of each cookie.
8.    Cool the muffin pan on a rack for about 30 minutes. 
9.    Carefully remove each cookie from the pan.

ChefSecret: There is only one way I know to make a great thing even better. Smear a little grape jelly on top of the baked cookie and then push in the peanut butter cup.

Quip of the Day: “A million kids want to clean up the earth—a million parents would be grateful if they started with their room.”
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Do you have a question or comment? Send your thoughts to ed@perspectives-la.com. All recipes and cooking tips are posted on our website https://www.perspectives-la.com/covid-19-survival-guide. We have added a new search feature to make it easier to navigate through our blogs. 
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To you and everyone dear to you, be strong and positive, stay well and safe and be kind to others. If you have a little extra in your pockets to share with others at this difficult time, please consider donating to Feeding America. Thanks for reading.

#Desserts #Cookies #PeanutButter #PeanutButterCups #Reeses #BackToSchoolTreats #NationalPeanutBoard #NPB #PeanutFarmers #QuarantineKitchen #Covid19 #FeedingAmerica #PerspectivesTheConsultingGroup

                                        ©Perspectives/The Consulting Group, Inc., 2021

​How you doin’? Are you dying for a little afternoon chocolate fix? My Chocolate Ganache Mini Tarts are a chocolate lover’s dream. I make a homemade flaky crust—not store bought—and fill it with an irresistible chocolate ganache that’s so easy, you won’t believe it.
 
Chocolate Ganache Mini Tarts are perfect for almost anytime you have a chocolate craving. And so seriously easy, it will become your go-to chocolate dessert recipe.
 
While any tart crust works, yes, even store-bought, this decadent, chocolate mousse-like filling and flakey, tender crust make this tart very special. Be sure to coat hands well with flour when putting the dough into the pastry cups.
 
Prep time:  30 minutes
Bake time:  20 to 25 minutes
Tart Cool time:  5 minutes
Chill time:  20 minutes
Yield:  24 mini tarts
 
Ingredients
For the flaky pastry
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
3 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 cup all-purpose flour
 
For the ganache filling
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup milk chocolate chips
2/3 cup heavy whipping cream
 
For the optional garnish
Whipped cream, fresh raspberries and confectioners' sugar
 
Directions
To make the tart shell

1. Preheat your oven to 325°F.
2. In a medium sized bowl, beat the butter and cream cheese until very smooth.
3. Add the flour and mix until incorporated. Do not overmix.
4. Drop the dough by scant tablespoonfuls into greased mini-muffin cups.
5. With well-floured hands and fingers, press the dough onto the bottoms and up the sides of the cups.
6. Bake at 325° F for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.
7. Cool for 5 minutes before removing the shells from pans to wire racks to cool completely.

To make the ganache filling

1. Place the chocolate chips in a small bowl. In a small saucepan, bring cream just to a boil. Pour over chocolate, whisk until smooth.
2. Transfer to a smaller bowl, cover and refrigerate until firm.
3. Beat the chilled chocolate ganache mixture until soft peaks form. Using a pastry bag, pipe the ganache into tart shells.

ChefSecret:  Dress up the tarts by garnishing with whipped cream, raspberries and/or confectioner’s sugar if desired.

Quip of the Day: “You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, smarter than you think, and loved more than you'll ever know.”
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Do you have a question or comment?  Do you want to share a favorite recipe or pictures with our readers?  Send your thoughts to ed@perspectives-la.com. All recipes and cooking tips are posted on our website https://www.perspectives-la.com/covid-19-survival-guide.
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To you and everyone dear to you, be strong and positive, stay well and safe and be kind to others. If you have a little extra in your pockets to share with others at this difficult time, please consider donating to Feeding America. Thanks for reading.

#Desserts #Baking #Chocolate #ChocolateGanache #ChocolateTarts #SemisweetChocolate #MilkChocolate #Snacks #Sweets #QuarantineKitchen #Covid19 #FeedingAmerica #PerspectivesTheConsultingGroup

                                              ©Perspectives/The Consulting Group, Inc., 2021

How you doin’? I love using fresh cherries and fancy words. Frangipane is named after 16th century Italian nobleman Marquis Muzio Frangipani, who, while living in Paris, invented a bitter almond-scented fragrance that was used to perfume gloves. French pastry chefs were inspired and invented the recipe, which became a classic.
 
A galette resembles a type of single crust, free-form pie with a fruit filling and the crust folded partway over the top of the filling. Cherries are named for cherries—did you expect a better story? Here it is, cherries have a filial relationship with almonds—they’re kissing cousins.
 
What is Frangipane you ask? It is a sweet almond-flavored custard used in a variety of cakes and pastries. It was originally designated as a custard tart flavored by almonds or pistachios; it came later to designate a filling that could be used in a variety of confections and baked goods. It is made of butter, sugar, eggs and ground almonds… some of my very favorite things!
 
On Epiphany, the French celebrate with a King Cake—a round cake made of frangipane layers into slices to be passed by a child known as le petit roi (the little king) who is usually hiding under the dining table.  The cake is decorated with stars, a crown, flowers and a special bean hidden inside the cake. Whoever gets the piece of the frangipane cake with the bean is crowned "king" or "queen" for the following year.
 
Prep time: 20 minutes to 30 minutes
Bake time: 45 minutes to 50 minutes
Yield:  serves 6 to 8 (1 galette)
 
Ingredients 
1/2 batch Cream Cheese Dough (see recipe below), rolled out to a 10-inch round that's about 1/8-inch thick
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/4 cup plus 2 teaspoons granulated sugar
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 cup almond flour
2 teaspoons tapioca starch
1/4 teaspoon sea salt, plus more for the egg wash
1 pound fresh, sweet cherries, pitted
2 to 3 tablespoons granulated sugar or packed brown sugar, for the cherries
1 large egg (for egg wash)
Pinch of salt
1 tablespoon large-crystal sugar for sprinkling
 
Directions

1. Place the dough circle on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet, cover, and chill in the refrigerator until firm, about 10 minutes. Review recipe below.
2. Meanwhile, prepare the frangipane. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar until creamy, about 3 minutes.
3. Add 1 egg and almond extract and mix well.
4. Stop the mixer and use a rubber spatula to scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl.
5. Add the almond flour, tapioca starch, and sea salt and beat until fully incorporated. (If not using the frangipane right away, store, covered, in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.)
6. Remove the dough from the refrigerator and spread the frangipane in the center of the dough circle, leaving a 2-inch border all around.
7. Taste the cherries for sweetness to determine how much sugar you want to use to sweeten them. Scatter the cherries evenly over the frangipane, then sprinkle with the sugar.
8. Fold in the sides of the dough to cover the cherries partially, making sure not to create any valleys where the fruit juice can run out.
9. Refrigerate until firm, about 15 minutes.
10. While the galette chills, arrange a rack in the middle of the oven and heat the oven to 425°F. If you have a baking stone, set it on the rack in the oven to preheat for 30 minutes.
11. Whisk together the remaining egg with a pinch of salt. Brush the egg wash over the pastry edges, then sprinkle with the 1 tablespoon large crystal sugar.
12. Bake the galette on the baking stone at high heat for 20 minutes.
13. Reduce the oven temperature to 375°F, move the baking sheet to the middle rack, and continue baking until the pastry has a nice, dark golden brown color and the fruit is bubbling, 25 to 30 minutes more.
14. Remove from the oven and serve hot or let cool on a wire rack and serve warm or at room temperature with or without ice cream.

 
                                                                   Cream Cheese Dough

Yield:  One 9-inch or 10-inch double-crust pie

Ingredients 
3/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon brown rice flour
1/3 cup potato starch
1/2 cup tapioca starch
1-1/2 cups oat flour
1-1/2 teaspoons xanthan gum
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup cream cheese, very cold
1 cup unsalted butter, very cold, cut into 1/4-inch-thick slices
Cornstarch or tapioca starch, for rolling
 
Directions

1. In the bowl of a food processor fitted with a metal blade, combine all the dry ingredients and blend to mix well.
2. Add the cream cheese and butter and pulse about 15 times, then let the food processor run just until the dough begins to come together in a ball but is not completely smooth, about 20 seconds. You should still be able to see some butter and cream cheese chunks.
3. Divide the dough into 2 equal balls and shape each ball into a disk about 1 inch thick. Wrap well in plastic wrap and chill for at least 2 hours or overnight.
4. To roll out, place a dough disk on a surface lightly dusted with cornstarch. Roll to 1/8 inch thick, rolling from the center evenly out in all directions. Dust with additional cornstarch as needed to resist sticking.
5. Cut out a circle 2 inches larger than the paddle. Carefully lift and transfer to a paddle, easing the dough to the paddle but not stretching or pressing too firmly, or it will shrink during baking.
6. If the dough tears, just patch with a little extra dough, pressing gently to adhere.
7. Trim the dough level with the top of the pan. (Any leftover dough scraps can be frozen for future use or used as a simple cookie dough).
8. Place the dough shell in the refrigerator to chill for 15 minutes.
9. Using a fork, dock the bottom of the dough shell approximately every 2 inches.
10. Follow the directions above.

ChefSecret:  Before starting, make sure you have a cherry pitter which you can easily buy for under $20. I like the OXO Good grips multi-cherry pitter.  

Quip of the Day: “I’m not sure which is harder on a relationship—sharing a bathroom with 1 sink or sharing an iPhone charger for an hour.”
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Do you have a question or comment? Send your thoughts to ed@perspectives-la.com. All recipes and cooking tips are posted on our website https://www.perspectives-la.com/covid-19-survival-guide. We have added a new search feature to make it easier to navigate through our blogs. 
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To you and everyone dear to you, be strong and positive, stay well and safe and be kind to others. If you have a little extra in your pockets to share with others at this difficult time, please consider donating to Feeding America. Thanks for reading.

#Desserts #Gallette #Cherry #Frangipane #Baking #Sweets #Snacks #QuarantineKitchen #Covid19 #FeedingAmerica #PerspectivesTheConsultingGroup

                                           ©Perspectives/The Consulting Group, Inc., 2021

ow you doin’?  We’re coming down to the Dog Days of Summer and Labor Day is just about a week away. It’s been very hot in Los Angeles this year and I wanted to bring you something a little different, completely refreshing and a unique way to celebrate the end of summer. In some places in the United States the leaves are already falling from the trees. In California it’s just still hot.
 
Jimmy Buffet was a client of Perspectives. We had the pleasure of developing the menu for the Las Vegas Margaritaville restaurant. I apologize in advance to some of our many clients, but Jimmy was the most fun and easy to be around. It started with backstage passes to several of his concerts and the fact that he is just a great person to work with. He made few demands and gave us carte blanche to develop the menu as long as we didn’t change his mom’s meatloaf recipe. 
 
We were looking for a thirst-quenching change-up on the margarita. Now when you’re Jimmy Buffet and you own your own tequila brand it’s kind of hard to come up with something that hasn’t already been done. I don’t know if this was Jimmy’s idea or John’s or Chef Spencer’s, but together we dreamed up Margarita Pops—talk about hard liquor… this cocktail is truly frozen. It debuted at the Hilton on the Strip at one of the free, pre-opening Buffett concerts. They sold like Popsicles. This is the first time I’ve seen this recipe in several years and I can honestly tell you, they are as good as the first time we debuted them.
 
Start making these a day before you plan to serve them. This is an adult frozen treat—keep it away from the kiddies. 
 
Prep time:  20 minutes
Freeze time:  6 hours or better yet, overnight
Yield:  4 pops
 
Ingredients
5-1/2 ounces granulated sugar
6 ounces fresh lime juice
4 ounces cold filtered or bottled water
1 ounce fresh lemon juice
1 ounce fresh orange juice
1 ounce Margaritaville Tequila
1 ounce Grand Marnier
 
Directions

1. Put the sugar, lime juice, water, lemon juice and orange juice into a saucepan.
2. Cook the mixture over medium-high heat, stirring periodically, until sugar fully dissolves.
3. Remove the pan from heat.
4. Transfer the mixture to bowl and allow to cool.
5. Put the cooled mixture into blender and add the Tequila and Grand Marnier.
6. Blend until smooth.
7. Pour into serving cups and cover with foil or pour into popsicle molds.
8. Place a popsicle stick in center of each cup, piercing through foil.
9. Place the cups into freezer until frozen, preferably overnight.

 
ChefSecret:  Always drink responsibly!

Quip of the Day: “I had decided to turn my gun over the government, but I ran a background check first but found that none of them were mentally stable.”
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Do you have a question or comment? Send your thoughts to ed@perspectives-la.com. All recipes and cooking tips are posted on our website https://www.perspectives-la.com/covid-19-survival-guide. 
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To you and everyone dear to you, be strong and positive, stay well and safe and be kind to others. If you have a little extra in your pockets to share with others at this difficult time, please consider donating to Feeding America. Thanks for reading.

                                            ©Perspectives/The Consulting Group, Inc., 2021

​How you doin’? There is something truly special about Italian cookies. They’re great for holidays, birthdays in, fact just about any day and they’re perfect for people of any age. Need a little energy? They’re a wonderful quick snack or dessert. They are smooth, chewy, and delicious cookies. This is a recipe from Zallie’s Shoprite supermarkets on the east coast. George Zallie used to bring Italian bakers over to the U.S. once a year to help his bakers create new recipes. Hopefully, you’ll love them as much as I do!
 
Italian biscuits or cookies are said to have been invented by Antonio Mattei in the mid-1850s in Prato, just north of Florence. The cookies were instant hits at international fairs in Florence, Paris and London. Biscotto (for 'cooked twice') are also known as cantucci. Look forward to our biscotti recipe in a future blog.
 
Prep time:  15 minutes
Bake time:  10 minutes
Additional time:  30 minutes
Yield:  48 cookies
 
Ingredients
1 stick butter
3/4 cup confectioners' sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/8 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 cup confectioners' sugar (for coating)
 
Directions

1. Preheat your oven to 350⁰ F.
2. Spray sheet pan with non-stick spray.
3. Beat together the butter and 3/4 cup confectioners' sugar with an electric mixer in a large bowl until smooth.
4. Add the egg, vanilla extract, and almond extract.
5. In a separate bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder and salt and combine into the butter mixture until just incorporated.
6. Shape the dough into 1-inch balls and arrange on the prepared sheet pan spaced about 2 inches apart.
7. Bake in the preheated oven until firm, about 10 minutes.
8. Cool on the sheet pan for 10 minutes before removing to cool completely on a wire rack.
9. Spread the 1/4 cup confectioners’ sugar on a plate; roll the cooled cookies in the confectioners' sugar to coat.

 
ChefSecrets:  This is one of those recipes when you need be careful not to over mix the batter when adding the flour.

Quip of the Day: “A little gray hair is a minor price to pay for all this wisdom.”
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Do you have a question or comment? Send your thoughts to ed@perspectives-la.com. All recipes and cooking tips are posted on our website https://www.perspectives-la.com/covid-19-survival-guide.
-------------------------------------------
To you and everyone dear to you, be strong and positive, stay well and safe and be kind to others. If you have a little extra in your pockets to share with others at this difficult time, please consider donating to Feeding America. Thanks for reading.

#Desserts #ItalianButterCookies #Zallies #Snacks #Sweets #QuarantineKitchen #Covid19 #FeedingAmerica #PerspectivesTheConsultingGroup

                                                ©Perspectives/The Consulting Group, Inc., 2021