Sherried Chicken--Riley Adams

Penzeys is celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2011. Congratulations! At Mystery Lovers’ Kitchen, we’re celebrating by featuring a week of Penzeys-inspired recipes.

Even if there’s not a Penzeys store in your town (click here to see where their brick-and-mortar stores are located), their spices are easy to stock up on—just order online, like I do. They have over 250 spices and seasonings, so you’re sure to find something fun to liven up your cooking. Actually, just browsing through their catalog can really help you brainstorm new recipes.recipes on the blog.
The recipe I’m sharing this week is a sort of special-occasion meal for me. Usually it’s something I’ll make when I’ve got company over. But it’s so easy that I really should cook it more often. The longest part of the preparation is the cooking time. And clean-up is a snap.

The Penzeys spice is Bouquet Garni which is a combination of savory, rosemary, thyme, Turkish oregano, basil, dill weed, marjoram, sage and tarragon.

Penzeys Sherried Chicken

4 T butter (divided)
1 cup fresh sliced mushrooms
1/4 cup sliced green onions
1 teaspoon Penzeys Bouquet Garni
4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
3/4 cup dry sherry
1/4 cup water
1/2 teaspoon cornstarch
Melt 2 T of the butter in a frying pan. Add the sliced mushrooms and green onions and sauté until the mushrooms are tender. Set the mushroom mixture aside. Add the remaining 2 T of the butter to melt, then add the chicken breasts. Sprinkle the chicken with Penzeys Bouquet Garni while browning the chicken (about 3-5 minutes). Pour the sherry into the pan. Cover and simmer for 40 minutes, or until tender. Blend the water and cornstarch and add to the chicken. Cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens (about 5-7 minutes). Add the mushrooms and green onions to the pan. Serve (also good over rice or pasta).

What’s your favorite spice to cook with?
Riley/Elizabeth Hickory Smoked Homicide (now available!)
Finger Lickin’ Dead (Riley Adams)Progressive Dinner Deadly

DON’T FORGET TO ENTER THE MYSTERY LOVERS’ KITCHEN CHRISTMAS COOKIE CONTEST!

To enter, send your favorite recipe to Krista (KristaDavis at KristaDavis dot com).
We'll choose 10 finalists, recipes that we'll bake and post here on the blog.
Then you, our readers, will choose the overall winner who will win a fabulous collection of cookie decorating supplies!

Cleo Coyle’s Oatmeal Cookie Brittle (No Flour or Butter) + Win $25 in Penzeys Spices

We're celebrating cooking with Penzeys spices! One lucky commenter on this post has won a $25.00 shopping spree of Penzeys spices (in stores, by phone, or online). The runner-up has won a large bottle of apple pie spice, which is featured in this recipe. Winners will be announced here in my new blog post on Tuesday, December 13th!

Cleo Coyle, who thinks
spice is the spice of life,
 is author of the
Coffeehouse Mysteries.

The holidays in my big, Italian family were always gastronomically glorious. Several of my relatives were in the food or restaurant business and my aunts, great aunts, and cousins were all excellent cooks, most of whom took pride in giving trays of homemade Italian cookies as holiday gifts.

I learned much growing up at the knees of these folks, and (no surprise) I was a chunky monkey through much of my girlhood. Over the years, the bathroom scale has gone up and down, but I’ve never let it kill my joy of cooking and eating. The older I become, the more I channel my foodie passion into experimenting with recipes, challenging myself to make them lighter and healthier—without giving up the pleasure of flavor. 

Of course, I still enjoy baking up decadent treats. To see the many (mainly chocolate) recipes featured in my latest Coffeehouse Mystery, Murder by Mocha, like these ganache-dipped chocolate chip cookie dough bites, click here. :)

For today, however, I’m sharing a somewhat healthier cookie option for your holiday trays: Overnight Oatmeal Cookie Brittle. There is no flour in my recipe yet the cookie is delightfully crispy and chewy. There is no butter yet the caramelization in the baking makes the cookie taste buttery. It’s also packed with the heart-healthy whole grain of oatmeal, the wonderful Omega-3 nutrition of walnuts and the antioxidants of raisins.

(I know, I know!) So the cookies have a great personality. How do they taste? My husband, Marc, who often cooks with me, declared this one of the best oatmeal treats he’s ever eaten. Certainly, if you prefer your oatmeal cookies thick and soft, you won't agree—and might be happier using the “drop cookie” instructions I provide instead. But if you’re game for a thin, crisp yet chewy cookie that’s full of flavor, the brittle may work for you.

This recipe is also pretty versatile. You can keep it healthy and simple or you can tart it up for holiday or dessert trays, adding toffee bits, Craisins, butterscotch and/or white chocolate chips.

I ❤ PENZEYS 

You’ll notice I’m using Penzeys apple pie spice in this recipe. Like my fellow bloggers, I find Penzeys herbs and spices to be of the highest quality and potency. You can certainly make your own apple pie spice by blending spices in your own kitchen (and I give you a quick recipe for it today), but I find buying the blend pre-mixed is a time saver.

(Read more about today’s Penzeys giveaways after my recipe below.)

AN OAT BY ANY OTHER NAME 

Finally, this recipe calls for “quick cooking oats,” and in case any of you are wondering…

QUESTION: What’s the difference between Quick Cooking Oats, Rolled Oats, and Steel Cut Oats? Is one “healthier” than the other? Can I substitute one for another in a recipe? 

ANSWER: (1) Steel cut oats (left) are whole oats that have been chopped up a bit. (2) Rolled oats (center) are whole oats that have been steamed and rolled flat. (3) Quick cooking oats (which is what this recipe calls for) are rolled oats that have been chopped up even further so they'll cook faster. 


All three of these oats carry nearly the same amount of fiber and nutrition. The primary difference among them is in how they’re cut. Read more here. As for recipes, do not substitute. Any recipe the specifies a certain kind of oats is attempting to create a specific texture in the end product, so substituting one type for another will produce less than optimum results. 

Cleo Coyle’s
Overnight Oatmeal Cookie Brittle
(Or drop cookies)

As readers of this blog know, whole grained oats and I are old friends. For today’s recipe, I’m employing the same technique I used in my Oatmeal Cookie Muffins. (For a PDF of that recipe, click here.)

The technique is simply this: I soak the oats overnight. This hydrates the oats, allowing the mixture to develop great flavor and the proper texture for the recipe. The next day, I simply stir in a few more ingredients and then bake the whole thing as a large, flat pan cookie. It hardens as it cools. Then I’ll either break it up like brittle or cut it into shapes with a pizza cutter. You can also create drop cookies from this recipe, just be sure to flatten them out with the crisscross of fork tongs before cooking. 

To download a PDF copy of this recipe that you can print, save, or share, click here. 

My highly sophisticated method for finely
chopping nuts: Seal whole walnuts in a
plastic bag and bang away. Whole
walnuts are less expensive than
pre-chopped and can't we all use a
little primal pounding therapy before
the holidays?

Makes about 24 pieces of brittle or 2 dozen drop cookies 

INGREDIENTS

For the overnight mix:

2 cups “quick cooking” oatmeal (not instant, not rolled)
1 cup light brown sugar 
1/3 cup apple sauce (natural, 
no-sugar added) 
1/3 cup canola or vegetable oil 
1-1/2 teaspoons apple pie spice (I use Penzeys; you can also mix your own, see how below**) 

For the next day additions: 

1 large egg, lightly beaten
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts (chop first, and then measure)
1/4 cup raisins

Tasty variations: Replace raisins with Craisins or dried cranberries; replace walnuts with finely chopped pecans or hazelnuts.

Holiday add-ins: 1/4 cup toffee bits (such as Heath brand Bits ’O Brickle). In addition, try adding 1/2 cup butterscotch chips; OR 1/2 cup white chocolate chips; OR split the amount, adding 1/4 cup of butterscotch and 1/4 cup of white chocolate chips.

**Make Your own Apple Pie Spice (from About.com): For every 1 teaspoon mix the following spices: 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg, 1/8 teaspoon ground allspice, 1/8 teaspoon ground cardamom (some cooks replace cardamom with ginger)

DIRECTIONS

Step 1 – Overnight soak: Into a plastic container, stir together the quick-cooking oats, light brown sugar, apple sauce, oil, and apple pie spice. Mix until well combined. Seal the plastic container and place in the refrigerator for 6 hours or overnight. Do not skip this step. You must allow the oats to hydrate and the flavors to develop. (Do not soak longer than 48 hours.) 

Step 2 – Create the dough: Add in the egg, salt, vanilla, finely chopped walnuts, and raisins. Mix well. (If you are adding any other optional extras, fold them in at this time.) 

Step 3 – Line your pan: Preheat oven to 350º F. Very important: You must line a baking sheet or half-sheet pan with parchment paper. If you do not line the pan, you will not be able to lift the brittle off the hot pan and cool it properly. 

Step 4 – Flatten the dough: The secret to this cookie is spreading it very thin. So dump the dough onto the lined pan and use a fork (yes a fork, it works best) to flatten the dough into an extremely thin layer (around 1/8 inch). 

Step 5 – Bake and cool: Bake for 25 to 30 minutes. The cookie is done when it turns a light brown, feels fairly firm to the touch in the center, and is crisp around its edges. (See my photos.) Remove pan from oven and see below for options on cutting. 

Option A - Break like brittle: Slide the parchment paper off the hot pan and onto a cooling rack. Allow to cool for at least 30 minutes. You can speed up this process by sliding the rack into the refrigerator. Once the cookie is hard, break it into pieces with your hands, as you would peanut brittle. To keep the brittle from become too dry or stale, store it sealed in a plastic container. 

Option B - Slice into shapes: For this option, you'll want to under-bake the brittle slightly, leaning more toward 25 minutes rather than 30. When the pan cookie is finished baking, slide it, parchment paper and all, onto a cutting board. Quickly, while the pan cookie is still warm, use a pizza cutter to slice off the rough ends off the cookie, creating a straight edge on all four sides. Now slice up the warm cookie. Cut first into large squares. Then slice the squares into diagonals to create triangles. Once it's completely cool, store it sealed in a plastic container. 

(Option B - Sliced into Triangles)

Option C - Drop Cookies: Instead of making one big pan cookie, you can simply drop heaping teaspoons of dough onto a lined baking sheet. With the prongs of a fork, crisscross each mound to flatten, much as you would a traditional peanut butter cookie. Bake for about 15 minutes. 

The drop cookies in my photos are all dressed up for the holidays and include my optional add-ins: butterscotch chips, white chocolate chips, and toffee bits. 

Penzeys
Apple Pie Spice

Penzeys makes its Apple Pie Spice from a mix of China and Korintje cinnamon, nutmeg, mace, and cloves. Frankly, I didn’t know the difference between China and Korintje cinnamon, but Penzeys catalog educated me. China Cinnamon (Tung Hing) is extra sweet, spicy and strong. Indonesia Cinnamon (Korintje) is as strong as China cinnamon but smoother, more mellow, and not as nippy. I love the two cinnamons working together to give the best flavor possible to my cookies.

As is obvious, simply reading the Penzeys catalog (which includes info and recipes) is a joy. It’s free and you can subscribe to it here via their online site. If you win the $25.00 Penzeys gift card, you can order your herbs and spices through their website, drop by their stores, or order by phone via their catalog. Then you can cook and...

Eat with joy!

~ Cleo Coyle, author of
The Coffeehouse Mysteries

To get more of my recipes,
enter to win free coffee, or

learn about my books,
including my bestselling
Haunted Bookshop series,
visit my online coffeehouse:

CoffeehouseMystery.com

The Coffeehouse Mysteries are national bestselling

culinary mysteries set in a landmark Greenwich Village 

coffeehouse, and each of the ten titles includes the 

added bonus of recipes. 

 

The Ghost and
Mrs. McClure

Book #1 of 
The Haunted Bookshop
Mysteries, which Cleo writes
under the name Alice Kimberly
To learn more, click here.



Northwoods Spice Oven-Fried Chicken

My mom, who is a great cook, introduced me to Penzeys.  She has been a devoted customer for decades.  Remember my post on making your own vanilla?  I buy the vanilla beans at Penzeys.  By the way, homemade vanilla makes a wonderful gift for the bakers on your holiday list.

During my last major move, most of my possessions were in storage for almost two years.  Did you know that spices lose their potency after one year?  I was like a kid in a candy store ordering new spices!

While I use their basics, like cinnamon, I have fun trying out blends from Penzeys. I've been trying to incorporate more curry in the food I cook.  Many years ago, a friend and I were eating in an Indian restaurant.  They offered four levels of heat in their dishes.  My friend boldly ordered level three.  I was a total chicken and opted for level one.  My dish was wonderful.  Out of curiosity, I had to taste my friend's level three heat.  Seriously, my tongue was numb for hours where the food touched it.  So I'm a little bit shy of curry, even though I know that curry doesn't mean heat -- it's a blend of spices.  I can heartily recommend Penzeys Sweet Curry.  It has the tiniest little kick to it that even chickens like me enjoy.

My latest addiction is their Lemon Pepper, which probably ought to be called Lemon Salt and Pepper.  It sparks up all kinds of dishes.


One of my favorites is Northwoods Spice.  It's the perfect blend for seasoning meat.  I sprinkle it on pork chops in the frying pan and use it in marinades for meats that I'm going to grill.  I used it in a flank steak marinade and sauce recently which was so good that I've been getting requests to make it again.  But saying "sprinkle generously on meat" isn't much of a recipe, so I'm sharing an all-the-flavor none-of-the-guilt recipe.

I love fried chicken, but we're all trying to avoid fried foods, so I'm always playing with oven-fried chicken recipes.  Once again, Northwoods Spice is the ticket for flavorful chicken.  The blend contains salt, so you may want to omit salt from the recipe.  I used 1/2 tablespoon Kosher salt in the buttermilk and 1/2 tablespoon in the Panko.  The chicken was delicious, and declared not too salty by my taster, but she admitted to having a fondness for salt.

After many oven-fried chicken attempts, I think the key is to use spices generously.  If you only add a teaspoon, the result will be underwhelming and bland.

Northwoods Spice Oven-Fried Chicken

1 teaspoon olive oil
3 pounds chicken pieces (about one chicken cut-up)
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
1 1/2 cups Panko Breadcrumbs (Italian herb)
1 cup flour

4 teaspoons Northwoods spice (divided)
Kosher salt (1 tablespoon divided -- optional)

Preheat oven to 400 and move rack to bottom level of the oven. Coat a baking sheet with the olive oil.

Mix the Panko and flour and add 2 teaspoons of Northwoods Spice (also 1/2 of the salt if using) in a large zip top type bag.

Mix 2 teaspoons Northwoods spice (and remaining salt if using) with buttermilk.

Dip each piece of chicken in the buttermilk and add to the bag.  When all pieces have been dipped in the buttermilk and added to the bag, shake vigorously to coat.  Place each piece on the baking pan.  Do not crowd.

Bake 40 minutes or until the chicken has cooked through and the outside is crispy.

Don't Forget Our

Christmas Cookie Contest!

To enter, send your favorite recipe to Krista (KristaDavis at KristaDavis dot com).  Better hurry!  We're baking right now.  If you wait too long, your chances get slimmer.

We'll choose 10 finalists, recipes that we'll bake and post here on the blog.

Then you, our readers, will choose the overall winner!

What does that winner win? A fabulous collection of cookie decorating supplies, that's what!

Pastel Sanding Sugar

Primary Sanding Sugar

Powdered Food Colors

Cute Flower Cookie Stencils

Send your recipe ASAP to Krista at KristaDavis dot com.

We're still looking for squares and bars, cookies with ginger, cookies with chocolate, cutout cookies, spritz cookies, and gluten-free cookies -- hurry!

The PENZEYS Week Kick-Off: No Crust Cranberry Pie

Welcome to Mystery Lover's Kitchen's special Penzeys week! At this time of year, it seems like dishes call for spices and herbs even more than usual. The Mystery Lover's Kitchen bloggers are friends and discovered that we all use Penzeys spices. Each of us has our favorites, of course, so we thought we would dedicate a special week to our favorite spice store. For those of you who haven't heard of them, Penzeys has stores all over the country, as well as a lovely catalog and an online ordering site.

All cooks have their favorite spices and for Ella Mae LeFaye, nothing beats the fresh, pure tastes of Penzeys spices. This is the time of year to she loves to fill her Charmed Pis Shoppe kitchen with the scents of vanilla, orange, cloves, rosemary, thyme, and more.

Today, Ella Mae wanted to share a very simple no crust pie with you. That's right, you don't have to mess with a crust and with cake-like nature of this pie, you won't miss it! Tart cranberries blend with crunchy pecans and are flavored with Penzeys spices.

This is the pie for folks who don't normally like pie. Enjoy!

    Charmed No Crust Cranberry Pecan Tart

   Ingredients:

1 cup all-purpose flour     1 cup white sugar     2 cups fresh cranberries     1/2 cup chopped pecans     1/2 cup butter, melted     2 large eggs     Directions:

¼ teaspoon PENZEYS pure almond extract ¾ teaspoon PENZEYS pure vanilla extract ½ teaspoon PENZEYS ground cinnamon ¼ teaspoon PENZEYS ground cloves

	Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease one 9-inch pie pan.
	Combine the flour, sugar, and salt. Stir in the cranberries and the pecans, and toss to coat. Stir in the butter, beaten eggs, vanilla and almond extracts. Add cinnamon and cloves. Spread the batter into the prepared pan. It will look more like cake batter than pie filling.
	Bake at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes, or until a wooden pick inserted near the center comes out clean. Serve warm. A scoop of vanilla ice cream or real whipped cream tastes great on this pie.
	Do you have a favorite spice? The one you love to uncap and sniff before sprinkling it over your food?

Kicking Off PENZEYS Week: Christmas Scones

A small part of my collection (note the Spanish anise,
top row of small jars, fourth from left)

Welcome to Mystery Lovers' Kitchen's special PENZEYS week!


So many holiday and winter-time recipes lean heavily on herbs and spices. The scents and flavors of piquant herbs, lush spices, and luscious extracts can conjure up loving memories with a single whiff, a single nibble. And good cooks know that our dishes are only as good as the ingredients that go into them. The Mystery Lovers' Kitchen bloggers are friends as well as blog-mates, and our food chats extend behind the scenes. We've discovered we love Penzeys spices almost as much as we love getting lost in a delicious mystery. We each have our favorites, of course, so we thought we would dedicate a special week to our favorite spice store. For those of you who haven't heard of them, Penzeys has stores all over the country, as well as a lovely catalog and an online ordering site.

Christmas Scones with a cup of Constant Comment

I'm kicking off the week with these Christmas scones, enriched with a flavor that is the very definition of the holidays to me: anise.

My Grandma Mary Ellen had a handful of recipes she pulled out every Christmas: her amazing lemon cookies, spritz cookies, jelly cake (which is basically layers of flaky pastry separated by thin layers of currant jelly), and panettone.

Panettone is a slightly sweet Italian bread studded with candied citrus and raisins. My grandma's panettone was perfumed with ground anise and had a healthy drizzle of powdered sugar icing.

In theory, it should have been delicious. In reality, it was kind of horrible. The bread is a complex concoction of scalded milk and eggs, and it tended to come out a little dry. Instead of candied citrus, Grandma used that weird citron stuff that is completely fake-looking. And fake-tasting.

Still, for me, that panettone is the flavor of Christmas morning. While we opened our presents, we'd nibble on slices of the bread and sip black tea--strong and sweet--from chipped Blue Willow tea cups.

My challenge was to create a dish that captured the flavors of panettone (the intriguing licorice of the anise, the tart burst of winter fruit, bright notes of citrus, and a subtle homey sweetness) without being, well, my grandma's panettone. I wanted to avoid the pitfalls of her dish and create something both simple and delicious.

These scones offer the flavors of the classic Italian dish in a simple-to-make form that is sure to brighten your Christmas morning. The Penzeys ground anise provides a solid punch of flavor, but be sure to use the full tablespoon to give the scones that "special occasion" zing.

Wishing you all a happy holiday and many delicious memories of your own!

Christmas Scones

Cooling, pre-glazing

2 c. flour

¼ c. sugar

1 Tbs. baking powder

½ tsp. salt

1 Tbs. PENZEYS ground Spanish anise

1 Tbs. orange zest, chopped very small

1 c. chopped dried fruit (apricots, golden raisins, and cranberries)*

1 ¼ c. whipping cream

¾ c. powdered sugar

strained juice of one orange

Preheat oven to 425

Sift together dry ingredients (down to orange zest). Mix in dried fruit. Add cream and fold in gently until dough forms. Turn out onto lightly floured surface and knead ever-so-gently until the dough holds together. Form dough into a 1/2 inch thick square. Quarter the square, and then slice each square diagonally, to make a total of 8 triangles.

Dough patted out for cutting - see the glimpses of fruit!

Place triangles on baking sheet (lined with parchment paper or sil-pat, if you have it). Bake 15 minutes. Transfer to rack and cool. Meanwhile, mix enough juice to the powdered sugar to make a thin icing. Drizzle over the cooled scones and serve!

* I found a pre-mixed assortment in the dried fruit aisle: cranberries, golden raisins, apricots, peaches, and apples, already diced into tiny bits just perfect for baking.

What about you? What herb or spice says "holidays" to you?

~~~~~~

Wendy is the author of the Mysteries a la Mode. Visit her on the web or on Facebook. She also writes the Pet Boutique Mysteries under the name Annie Knox; you can follow Annie on Facebook, too!

~~~~~

Christmas Cookie Contest!

Have you heard about our fantastic Christmas Cookie Contest? Here's how it works:

To enter, send your favorite recipe to Krista (KristaDavis at KristaDavis dot com).

We'll choose 10 finalists, recipes that we'll bake and post here on the blog.

Then you, our readers, will choose the overall winner!

What does that winner win? A fabulous collection of cookie decorating supplies, that's what!

Pastel Sanding Sugar

Primary Sanding Sugar

Powdered Food Colors

Cute Flower Cookie Stencils