Showing posts with label ricotta. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ricotta. Show all posts

Monday, May 19, 2014

Lemon Ricotta Muffins for #MuffinMonday


When you mix baking soda with lemon juice in a batter, the result is a light and fluffy muffin. Add in butter and ricotta cheese for richness and these are easily some of best muffins you’ll ever eat. 

Last year I posted a couple of lists I called Blog Love Fest 2013 and Blog Love Fest, Part 2 to introduce you to some of my favorite bloggers. It just hasn’t happened yet but I have every intention of writing more Blog Love posts because, frankly, my list of bloggers I love just keeps growing. I can hardly keep up and I feel terrible when I am behind on my reading because I just know I’m missing something wonderful.

Which brings me to a great new Facebook group that I was invited to join. It’s called Fearless Friends Sharing Recipes and it was started by one of my favorite people, the fabulous Jenni Field from Pastry Chef Online. The best part is that it has 11 of my favorite bloggers (plus yours truly) sharing recipes in one convenient place, so I don’t have to worry about whether Facebook is going to choose to show me their posts - or not. I just scroll down the group wall and drool. :) Click on the link here and ask to join the community so you can drool with me. B.Y.O.N. (N is for napkins, you’ll need them.)

Anyhoo, a couple of weeks back, Fearless Friend Cheryl from Pook’s Pantry posted a photo of scrumptious lemon ricotta cookies and I was inspired to muffinize them. And don’t bother telling me that muffinize is not a word. I’ve just added it to my spellcheck dictionary and you would be wise to do the same. I have a feeling it's going to keep happening.

Ingredients
2 cups or 250g flour
3/4 cup or 150g sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
Zest of 1 large lemon
2 eggs
1 cup or 250g ricotta cheese
1/3 cup or 80ml lemon juice
1/2 cup or 115g unsalted butter, melted and cooled

Method
Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C. Butter your muffin pan or line it with paper liners. The batter turns out really fluffy so I got 15 muffins out of it, instead of the usual 12.

Combine the flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, baking soda and lemon zest in a large mixing bowl.


In another smaller bowl, whisk together the eggs, ricotta, lemon juice and melted butter.



Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ones and stir until just mixed through.


Divide the mixture between the muffin cups.

Look how fluffy!


Bake in your preheated oven for 20-25 minutes or until golden.

Allow the muffins to cool for a few minutes then remove them to a wire rack to cool completely.



Enjoy!




Sunday, February 3, 2013

Little Filo Cheese Rolls

Crispy, crunchy filo pastry baked around a lovely green onion, feta and ricotta cheese filling makes these little filo cheese rolls the perfect snack.

Food Lust People Love: Crispy, crunchy filo pastry baked around a lovely green onion, feta and ricotta cheese filling makes these little filo cheese rolls the perfect snack.

So it’s the Super Bowl today! As the old Texas saying goes, I don’t have a dog in that fight, but that won’t stop me from setting up my dvr to record the game (since it comes on a 3:30 a.m. Monday morning for me in Dubai) and then watching the most super of bowls munching on snacks and sipping on drinks.

And I am just going to warn you right now that I won’t be on Facebook on Monday until I’ve watched the game. It’s more fun to watch if I don’t already know the winner, don’t you think?

This week for Sunday Supper everyone is making delicious dishes that they would like to eat while watching the big game. The hard part was narrowing it down to just one! But I have to tell you that I am delighted with my choice! Crispy, crunchy filo pastry baked around a lovely green onion, feta and ricotta cheese filling. And as I bit into the first one, I decided it needed a little something to dip it into. So I poured some honey in a ramekin and added a chopped fresh red chili. The saltiness of the cheese was complemented beautifully by the sweet honey with a bite of spicy heat. So good!

Ingredients
1/3 cup or 75g melted butter
About 4 1/2 oz or 125g ricotta
3 1/2 oz or 100g feta
Generous bunch green onions
9 1/2 oz or 270g pack of filo – you won’t use all

Optional dip: About 1/4 cup or 60ml runny honey and one small red chili pepper

Method
Preheat your oven to 325°F or 165°C.  Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.  I give the pan a quick spray with Pam to stop the parchment from slipping around and you might want to do the same.

Finely chop about four inches or 10cm off the ends of your green onions.


In a small bowl, measure out your feta and ricotta and add in the green onions.  Use the tines of your fork to crumble the feta. 


Add in your egg and use your fork to beat it just a little bit.  Mix the whole lot together.  Set aside.



Remove the filo pastry from the package and figure out how to unfold it without ripping it so that you can see exactly how large the sheets are.  This is the trickiest bit of the whole recipe.  Once your sheets are unfolded, decide how you can best cut them into large rectangles of around 4 inches wide and 10-12 inches long. 

As you can see, my sheets were quite large so I ended up cutting them in fourths.  Stack all the layers on top of each other.  Place them on your clean kitchen counter.  I usually lay a piece of cling film down first to make clean up easier.



Brush the top sheet with melted butter and put about a tablespoon full of filling about an inch or two centimeters from the short edge.  



Roll the filo around the filling a couple of times and then fold in the two sides. Continue rolling until you reach the end of the sheet of filo.  Place seam side down on your prepared baking sheet. 






Continue buttering and adding filling and making cheese rolls until all of your filling is gone.  You will probably have some filo sheets left over.


Brush the tops of the rolls with the remaining butter and bake in your preheated oven for around 30-45 minutes or until golden and crispy. 


While there is no official dipping sauce to go with this, as I mentioned above, I mixed a little honey with a chopped fresh red chili and it was lovely with the cheese rolls.  You might want to do the same!


Enjoy!

Food Lust People Love: Crispy, crunchy filo pastry baked around a lovely green onion, feta and ricotta cheese filling makes these little filo cheese rolls the perfect snack.

This recipe was adapted from an original by Claudia Roden in The Accidental Foodie. 

Have a look at all the wonderful dishes the #SundaySupper crew have prepared today!

#SundaySupper Super Bowl Appetizers & Snacks:



#SundaySupper Super Bowl Main Dishes:



#SundaySupper Super Bowl Desserts:



Pin these little filo cheese rolls!

Food Lust People Love: Crispy, crunchy filo pastry baked around a lovely green onion, feta and ricotta cheese filling makes these little filo cheese rolls the perfect snack.