Grab a couple jars of our Fruit Perfect Sour Cherries and start baking! Click here for the recipe and here for the cherries.
Archive for the ‘Recipes & Suggestions’ Category
March
2011
2011
4
Jam, Granola & Yogurt Parfait
by megan@spoon
Each year, as the snow begins to melt and the ground begins to thaw, we turn our thoughts to the American Spoon Café and begin refining the menu. These days, Chef Chris Dettmer divides his time between new product development and menu development, and his latest creation is this lovely jam, granola and yogurt parfait.
It starts with our terrific homemade granola, sweetened with Michigan Maple Syrup and studded with Dried Red Tart Cherries. It’s rich and hefty and wholesome — just the way granola should be — and it’s a delicious snack all by itself.
For breakfast, we layer this granola with our intensely fruity preserves or Fruit Perfect and a generous scoop of thick Greek yogurt. The resulting parfait, served in a jar, is not only pretty but eminently edible. The sweet fruitiness of the preserves and the warm maple notes of the toasted granola contrast beautifully with the creamy tang of the yogurt. It’s rich and filling but not heavy, sweet but not cloying, creamy but not fatty — in short: it’s perfect. You’ll be seeing a lot of this parfait at the Café this summer, but in the meantime, perfection is as close as your own kitchen. Bake up a batch of granola, open a container of yogurt, dip into a jar of preserves, and daydream about a warm, sunny spot next to the grassy greenness of Petoskey’s beloved Pennsylvania Park.
Jam, Granola & Yogurt Parfait
printable recipe
For the Granola:
(makes about 10 ¾-cup servings)
printable recipe
2 cups rolled oats
1 cup rolled barley
1 cup pepitas
1 cup chopped pecans
1 cup sweetened coconut
¼ cup brown sugar
1½ tsp. kosher salt
½ cup Michigan Maple Syrup Add to Cart
¼ cup vegetable oil
1 cup American Spoon® Dried Red Tart Cherries Add to Cart
¼ cup American Spoon® Dried Cranberries Add to Cart
Heat oven to 275°F. In a large bowl, mix together all ingredients except dried fruit. Spread evenly on parchment-lined baking sheet and bake for about an hour, stirring every 20 minutes, until granola is golden brown. Remove from oven and allow to cool. Stir in dried fruit. Store in airtight container.
For the Parfait:
(serves 1)
4 Tbsp. of your favorite American Spoon® Preserves or Fruit Perfect®
6 oz. Greek yogurt
¾ cup Maple Granola
Spoon 2 Tbsp. preserves into the bottom of a 12 oz. jar or cereal bowl. Sprinkle half the granola over preserves and top with yogurt. Spoon remaining 2 Tbsp. preserves over yogurt and top with remaining granola to serve.
February
2011
2011
2
Wordless Wednesday: Are You Ready for Some Football?
by megan@spoon
December
2010
2010
28
Fruit & Spice Holiday Cocktails
by megan@spoon
A few weeks ago, we shared a scene from our R&D kitchen and promised that cocktail recipes were coming soon. Chris, our Culinary Director, is fond of a French ginger liqueur called Domaine de Canton, and we’d been experimenting with that in anticipation of holiday merriment.
We started with our luscious Ginger Pear Butter, mixed with Canton and a bit of white rum for an elegant gingery cocktail enhanced by the delicate sweetness of Leelanau Bartlett Pears.
But we didn’t want to leave you with just one delicious cocktail and a nearly full bottle of Canton, so we kept experimenting. We muddled a few spoonfuls of our brandied Winter Compote with bourbon and the ginger liqueur, then strained the heady mixture into a martini glass. The resulting cocktail is sweet and spiced and delightfully fruity, with the warm caramel notes of bourbon and a gentle kick of ginger.
Of course, champagne is often the drink of choice on New Year’s Eve, and its light effervescence melds beautifully with the ginger spice of Domaine de Canton and the intense sweet-tartness of our Red Raspberry Butter.
Any one of these fruit and spice cocktails would make a deliciously sophisticated and particularly pretty addition to your New Year’s celebration. Or, better yet, try all three and let us know which is your favorite. Cheers!
Ginger Pear Cocktail
printable recipe
2 ounce American Spoon® Ginger Pear Butter Add to Cart
2.5 ounces Domaine de Canton ginger liqueur
3.5 ounces white rum
Combine ingredients in cocktail shaker with ice and shake vigorously. Strain through mesh kitchen strainer into martini glass. Serve up.
Gingered Winter Cocktail
printable recipe
3 ounces American Spoon® Winter Compote Add to Cart
3 ounces Domaine de Canton ginger liqueur
2 ounces Bourbon
Place Winter Compote in bottom of cocktail shaker and muddle until whole fruit pieces are roughly broken. Add Canton and bourbon with ice and shake vigorously. Strain cocktail through mesh kitchen strainer into martini glass. Serve up.
Gingered Raspberry Sparkler
printable recipe
1 ounce American Spoon® Red Raspberry Butter Add to Cart
4 ounces Domaine de Canton ginger liqueur
6 ounces chilled sparkling wine
Combine Red Raspberry Butter and Canton into cocktail mixer with ice and shake vigorously. Strain liqueur through mesh kitchen strainer and split between two champagne flutes. Top each glass with three ounces of sparkling wine.
December
2010
2010
13
Linzer Cookies
by megan@spoon
Since ancient times, humans have marked special occasions with sweet baked goods, and the modern-day Christmas cookie dates back nine centuries to Medieval Europe, when western cooks began to spice their cakes with the newly discovered flavors of the East. I’m not sure why we do this, but we do. For ordinary occasions, we make solid, dependable, everyday cookies like chocolate chip or oatmeal raisin, but special occasions call for special cookies — cookies scented with cinnamon or ginger or citrus, cookies flecked with almond meal or filled with fruit, cookies cut or pressed into pretty holiday shapes — the kind of cookies we make because they’re special.
These Linzer cookies are exactly that sort of cookie. I can’t tell you that they’re easy because they’re not, but they’re beautiful and delicious and well worth the effort. The buttery almond dough bakes up tender and golden, yielding a sandy, nutty cookie with just a whisper of cinnamon.
Of course, what makes this special cookie so special is its festive jam filling. Raspberry jam is traditional for both Linzer cookies and the Linzertorte from which they’re derived, but I used our new Cherry Raspberry Preserves for their irresistible sweet-tartness.
A dusting of powdered sugar cloaks these beauties in a soft sweetness, and the delicate, buttery crumb gives way to an intensely fruity filling for a delectable little cookie that’s every bit as special as the season it celebrates.
Linzer Cookies
(printable recipe)
1 cup almonds
1/8 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
2/3 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 jar American Spoon® Cherry Raspberry Preserves Add to Cart
or any flavor American Spoon® preserves
confectioners’ sugar
Place the almonds, cinnamon, and 1 Tbsp. of the sugar in the work bowl of a food processor and process until the nuts are finely ground. Set aside.
Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add vanilla and egg and mix until combined. Beat in ground almond mixture. Mix in flour, 1/2 cup at a time. Divide dough in half and shape into disks. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for at least two hours.
Preheat oven to 325°F.
Remove one disk of dough from refrigerator and roll dough out to 1/8″ thickness between two sheets of plastic wrap. (The high butter content of this dough makes it somewhat difficult to roll out; rolling it between plastic eliminates the need for additional flour and prevents the dough from sticking.) Using a round fluted cookie cutter (1″ - 2″ diameter), cut as many cookies as possible. Roll out remaining dough and cut an equal number of round cookies, but in these, cut a small hole, or use a small shaped cookie cutter to cut out a shape. Re-roll scraps and repeat. Transfer cookies to parchment-lined baking sheets and refrigerate for 20 minutes.
Bake cookies until pale golden, 8-10 minutes. The edges of the cookies should be just barely beginning to brown. Cool on rack for 20 minutes.
Dust cutout cookies with confectioners’ sugar. Spread uncut cookies with about 1 tsp of preserves; place a cutout cookie on top to form a sandwich. Spoon an extra dab of preserves in the hole of each cutout, if desired.
Makes about 3 dozen cookies.
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