Sunday, February 15, 2015

Homemade Spinach and Mushroom Ravioli


Dough:
2 eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 teaspoon olive oil
2 tbsp water

Mix the wet and dry ingredients separately. Combine the wet and dry ingredients in a large bowl and stir until combined. Turn out onto floured surface. Add water until the dough comes together (mine took an additional 3 tablespoons - but add it incrementally). Knead for about 5 minutes. Form into a ball. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes. While the dough is resting, make the filling.

Filling:
4oz goat cheese (softened)
1/3 cup Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup mozzarella cheese
8oz finely chopped mushrooms
1/2 cup frozen chopped spinach (thawed and drained)

Chop mushrooms and saute in olive oil. Drain excess liquid. Combine ingredients in medium size bowl. 

Making the Ravioli:
Take the dough ball out of the refrigerator and cut into quarters. Use one quarter section at a time, keeping the remaining dough wrapped in plastic wrap on the counter so as not to dry out. Cut the quarter section in half. Roll out each half to desired thickness. I used a pasta maker and did several passes, each pass setting the pasta maker incrementally thinner, until the sheet has passed through the thinnest setting. This make the ravioli thin and delicate, so as not to be too doughy. Lightly flour the dough between passes so it doesn't stick. 

Place one sheet over a ravioli mold. You can buy these online or in kitchen supply stores, but I just used a miniature cupcake pan which worked well. Gently poke the dough over each cup in the mold to make a little pouch for the filling. Using a tablespoon put in as much filling into each cup as will fit. Gently pat down the filling in each cup to remove air pockets that have formed. Place the second sheet on top and, holding the ends of the dough and the pan, flip quickly onto a lightly floured surface.  


Gently press down around the filled pouches for each ravioli to remove air pockets. With a ravioli stamp, or cutter, cut out the ravioli into your desired shape. Stamps or cutters are preferable to using a knife because they crimp the ends of the dough together, sealing the ravioli. This works better than pinching it by hand, and looks a whole lot more professional.

Cooking:
Once your ravioli are all made, bring a pot of water to a rolling boil. Boil ravioli for 3-4 minutes. Drain and serve.  




Vegan Chocolate "Cheesecake"


An old coworker gave me this recipe and it is one of my favorite "healthy" desserts as of late. It's pretty easy to make, but is best made a day in advance.

Ingredients
Crust:
2 cups almonds
1 cup dates

"Cheese":
3 cups cashews (soaked for at least an hour)
3/4 cup raw honey
3/4 cup coconut oil (should be in liquid form)
1 1/4 cup almond milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 tablespoons cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

Optional berry sauce:
3 cups frozen berries
1/4 cup honey

Place the almonds and dates in a food processor and process until fine. Press the crust mixture into the bottom of a 9 inch spring form pan.

Put all of the "cheese" ingredients in the food processor or a Vitamix (make sure the coconut oil is melted first) and process at high speed until very smooth. Adjust to taste.

Pour the mixture onto the crust. Tap the pan on your countertop a few times to remove any air bubbles.

Put the "cheesecake" in the freezer until firm, at least three hours but if possible overnight. 

Transfer "cheesecake" to the fridge for at least an hour before eating.

To make the berry sauce, blend or process ingredients until smooth, and adjust to taste. Store in an airtight container in the fridge and spoon a couple of tablespoons onto slices when serving. 

Enjoy!


Valentine's Day Mini Cheesecakes


My parents have always had a Valentine's Day tradition of surprising my brothers and I with gifts on the kitchen table the morning of Valentine's Day. There was something so special about running down the stairs to find wrapped gifts at each of our places on the kitchen table. Although I live across the country, my sweet mom has kept up the tradition by sending me a gift every Valentine's Day. A couple of years ago she gave me mini heart shaped spring form pans. It gave me the perfect excuse to bake some mini cheesecakes for V-Day yesterday.

Ingredients
1 cup graham cracker crumbs (I used a food processor)
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
3 tablespoons butter or margarine, melted
3 8oz packages cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 eggs

Stir-In Options (for each 1/4 of batter)
Peanut butter - 2 tablespoons peanut butter and 1 tablespoon milk (or almond milk)
Chocolate chip - 1/4 chocolate chips

Other options from the recipe that I haven't tried:
Apple pie - 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon, 1/2 cup warm apple pie filling, 1/2 teaspoon brown sugar
New York cheesecake - 1/4 cup sour cream and 1 tablespoon flour
S'mores - 3 tablespoons chocolate chips, 1/4 cup mini marshmallows, 1 tablespoon broken graham crackers
Mocha - 1 teaspoon instant coffee granules mixed with 2 teaspoons hot water, 2 ounces semi-sweet baking chocolate, melted


In a small bowl, mix the graham cracker crumbs, sugar, and butter. With a spoon press about 1/3 cup of the mixture onto the bottom of each of four mini spring form pan. 


Bake at 300 degrees for about 7 minutes.


Meanwhile, mix the cream cheese, 3/4 cup sugar and vanilla with an electric mixer until well blended. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing at a low speed until just blended. Pour about 1 cup of the batter into each of the four spring form pans, unless you are planning to do a stir in option.


If you are doing the stir in option pour the batter into 4 separate small bowls. Add in the stir in ingredients, mix well and then pour into the spring form pans.



Bake at 300 degrees for 40 to 45 minutes or until the centers are almost set. Run a knife or metal spatula around the rims of the pans. Let the cakes cool before removing the rims of the pans. Refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight.


Enjoy!

Pizza Dough


For the last six years our so we have been really into making our own pizza. However, we were not so ambitious as to make our own crust until very recently. We found a recipe and thought we would give it a shot but had little expectations it would turn out well on our first try. It ended up turning out so well and was surprisingly easy to make. I don't think we will be able to go back to making pizza using Trader Joe's premade crust. 

Ingredients
1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast
1 1/2 cups water
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt

In a large bowl, dissolve the yeast in 1/2 cup water. Stir in a 1/2 cup of flour and mix well. Cover the bowl in plastic wrap and let it rise until it's foamy, about an hour.


Mix in the remaining water, flour, and salt and beat well.


When the dough starts to form as you're mixing, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and supple, about 15 minutes.


Place the dough in a large bowl, dusted with flour, and cover with plastic wrap. Let it rise until doubled, about 2 or 3 hours.


Deflate the dough and separate it out into two equal pieces. Bring one piece out to a lightly floured surface. Roll the dough out to half of its final size. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

Stretch out the dough with your hands or a rolling pin until it is slightly larger than your pizza pan (room for the crust). Put dough on the pan, evenly spread some tomato sauce around, and form the crust. Add desired toppings, and bake for about 10 or 15 minutes, or until the crust becomes crispy.

For an even tastier crust, once it has been formed but before you put pizza in the oven, brush some olive oil and sprinkle some Parmesan cheese on the crust. It's super easy but really brings the pizza up a notch. 




Side note - we often play around with different toppings but our favorite toppings are normally goat cheese and olives.

Enjoy!


Slow Cooker Lasagna


Ingredients
1 lb ground beef
1 26 oz can spaghetti sauce
1 14 oz can petite diced tomatoes
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups ricotta cheese
1 egg
9 whole wheat lasagna noodles
1 1/2 cups mozzarella cheese (divided)
1 1/2 cups Parmesan cheese (divided)


In a large skillet brown the ground beef. Once browned, drain any excess grease.


In a large bowl stir together the spaghetti sauce, tomatoes, salt, ricotta cheese and egg. 


Add in 1/2 cup of mozzarella and 1/2 cup of Parmesan. 


Add about a half cup of meat sauce to the bottom of the slow cooker (or however much it takes to cover the bottom of the slow cooker). Top with a layer of lasagna noodles. You will likely need to break up some of the lasagna sheets to make them fit. Continue layering this way until you have used all of the noodles. Top with the remaining sauce.


Sprinkle with the remaining cheese.


Cover and cook on LOW for 3 to 5 hours or until noodles have reached a desired consistency.


Enjoy!