Sunday, March 31, 2013

Labbit Cookies: Easter Edition


For Christmas, Ted DeCoste made a wonderful labbit shaped cookie cutter and made labbit butt sugar cookies in festive red, green and white. For Easter, Pipkin got a visit from Ishtar Labbit, and they got together to work on some spring coloured labbit cookies.


Pipkin particularly wanted some cookies with mustaches, so they worked out a template together. They decided that making a tiny cookie cutter in that shape would take about as long as it would to hand shape mustaches, so instead, they used their paws to roll out mustaches. Then they iced the cookies in different colours: pink, mint green, lilac, and buttery yellow. Don't they look delicious?


If you'd like to make your own labbit shaped cookie cutters, click here for a handy tutorial. Then make the sugar cookies by clicking here. Happy Easter!

Easter Goodies!

EASTER GOODIES!

Looks like Pipkin found what he wanted. Cadbury Creme Egg! "Oeuf-fondant" is the French translation, and, in Pipkin's opinion, makes it sound so much more luxe.


Yum!

What Does Chocolate Have to do with Easter?

People often wonder what on Earth chocolate has to do with Easter. Well, Ishtar Labbit here explains exactly where the tradition comes from. Eating chocolate at Easter is a celebration of the droppings of all Earth's creatures, and how those droppings go to feed the soil which in turn helps plants grow so that creatures will eat them and grow and other creatures might eat those creatures and grow, and then those creatures leave droppings for the Earth and so on ad infinitum. Labbits eat their own droppings, but since other creatures don't, we celebrate with chocolate, which represents droppings, which represents the cycle of life and birth and rebirth and all that good stuff.

HAPPY EASTER!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter from the Green Mountain Warren! Did you paint eggs (or yourself) in the colours of spring?

Did you pick any spring flowers, like hyacinths, crocuses or tulips? The Ishtar Labbit did, and she arranged them in a lovely vase.

Hope you get to hopping along outdoors, getting close and cozy with your loved ones and enjoying new signs of life after a long winter.

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Labbits For...

...marriage equality. Let's let love rule.


Sunday, March 17, 2013

Labbits Like: Baileys Irish Cream Cheesecake

The name might suggest she's Irish, but Clover's actually from Milwaukee, WI. With no Irish heritage, Clover feels her celebration of St. Patrick's Day is free to be completely non-traditional. No corned beef and cabbage on the menu here at the warren (well, okay, labbits kinda like cabbage). Her soda bread is spotted with raisins (traditional soda bread has only 4 ingredients and none of them are raisins) and although she eats her soda bread with real Irish cheddar, she's not sure the Irish were into cheesecake.

Clover swore she had three bottles of Baileys. Have you seen a missing bottle? She knows Doddy Blue's into whiskey, not Baileys...

Clover enjoys Baileys Irish Cream - in her coffee, over some ice cream - so why not in some cheesecake? She took a basic cheesecake recipe and added some Baileys. Result?

Well, based off licking the batter from the whisk, it's amazing. Will you be celebrating with a traditional Irish feast today? Or are your culinary leanings more towards food dyed green and green beer? Whatever your tastes, Clover wishes anyone with a bit of Irish blood a Happy St. Patrick's Day.

Click here for a printable recipe.

It's a lot of Cabot products, but Clover's not sponsored. :)

Baileys Irish Cream Cheesecake

Ingredients:
12 graham crackers
4 Tbsp unsalted butter, softened
2 8oz packages of Neufchatel Cheese or Cream Cheese at room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
3 large eggs, room temperature
1 1/2 cups light sour cream
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup Baileys Irish Cream liqueur
Unsweetened cocoa powder





Preparation:

Preheat the oven to 350°F degrees. Grease a 9" springform pan and set aside. In a food processor, mix together the graham crackers and butter until crackers are finely ground.



Press crumbs into the bottom and along the sides of the pan. Put the prepared pan into the refrigerator while you prepare the rest of the cheesecake.

In a large bowl, cream together the cheese and sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl after each egg to ensure the batter is well mixed. Mix in the sour cream, vanilla extract and Baileys Irish Cream.

Gently pour the batter into the prepared springform pan. Bake in oven at 350°F for 45 minutes or until the edges pull away from the pan and the center is still slightly jiggly. Remove from oven and place pan on a wire rack to allow the cake to cool down. When the cake and pan has cooled down (this may take a few hours) cover with foil or plastic wrap and refrigerate for 8 hours or overnight.

Serve with a dusting of unsweetened cocoa powder.

Yields: one 9" cheesecake, 8 - 12 slices

To freeze: Do not freeze your cheesecake with any toppings. Instead top the cheesecake when thawed and ready to serve. Slice the cooled cake with a spatula. Carefully transfer slices to a cookie sheet covered with parchment or wax paper and place in the freezer for an hour. Once the slices have frozen, wrap each slice in heavy duty foil or plastic wrap, and store in a freezer bag with the date. Slices will be good for three weeks. To serve, thaw in the refrigerator overnight, or on the counter for 30 minutes.

Happy St. Patrick's Day


It's a good day to be green.

Thursday, March 14, 2013

3.14 HAPPY PI DAY!

Clover needs to work on her pie top weaving skills!

There's no better way to celebrate 3.14 (AKA Pi Day) than with the kind of pie you can eat. Now if only there was infinite pie. Yum.


So what do you do when you have a jonesing for pie but you don't want to bake a whole pie? Or maybe you're a solo labbit and just want a single serving. Well, the solution is to make some pie dough and freeze it so there's always some on hand. Making pie crust is ridiculously simple, and the following pie crust recipe is a labbit favorite. It's been used on mini cream pies and egg tarts and it's buttery, flaky, and so, so, tasty. As for the filling, you've probably got a handful of berries or an apple, so all you need is a bit of lemon juice and pantry staples and snap, you've got yourself your very own single serving pie. Click here for a printable pie crust recipe, and click here for a printable recipe for the fillings. Happy Pi Day!


Blueberry Mini Pie Ingredients:
1/6 of pie dough recipe
1/3 cup blueberries
2 tsp sugar
Sprinkle of ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp freshly squeeze lemon juice
1/2 tsp cornstarch
Pinch of Turbinado (raw) sugar



Preparation:

Preheat oven to 425°F. Roll out a portion of pre-made pie dough to 1/8" thickness. Press into a mini pie dish or a 4" brioche pan. Poke some holes in the bottom of the dough with a fork. Reserve excess dough for the top.




Toss the blueberries with the sugar and sprinkle on ground cinnamon (Clover likes lots of cinnamon). In a small dish, add lemon juice to cornstarch and mix well. Add to the blueberries and stir to mix.


 Pour blueberries into pie mold. With excess dough, create a weave pattern or a flat top with a few holes cut into the crust to allow steam to escape. Sprinkle the top crust with some Turbinado sugar. Bake at 425°F for 20 - 25 minutes, until the crust is golden brown. Allow to cool before serving. A dollop of whip cream never hurt anyone...

Yields: Pie for one lucky labbit


Apple Mini Pie Ingredients:
1/6 of pie dough recipe
1/3 cup peeled, thin sliced, chopped apple
1 tsp lemon juice
2 tsp sugar
Generous sprinkle of ground cinnamon

Preparation:
Preheat oven to 425°F. Roll out a portion of pre-made pie dough to 1/8" thickness. Press into a mini pie dish or a 4" broiche pan. Poke some holes in the bottom of the dough with a fork. Reserve excess dough for the top.






Clover loves to play with her apple peeler/corer/slicer contraption which is overkill for one pie, but what the hey, it's Pi Day! Give your apple a spin, then set aside enough for your one pie.

(She'll save the leftover pieces for her oatmeal breakfast tomorrow morning. Oatmeal + apple slices + brown sugar + cinnamon = OH YEAH.)





Toss the apple pieces in lemon juice and sugar. Give the apples a generous sprinkling of ground cinnamon and mix well.




Pour apples into pie mold. With excess dough, create a weave pattern or a flat top with a few holes cut into the crust to allow steam to escape.



Clover decided to celebrate with a little pi symbol cut-out. Sprinkle the top crust with some Turbinado sugar. Bake at 425°F for 20 - 25 minutes, until the crust is golden brown. Allow to cool before serving. Throw on some whip cream or some vanilla ice cream and enjoy!

Yields: Pie for one lucky labbit

Friday, March 8, 2013

Shhhhh...We Can Hide Here Overnight!

Pipkin's been reading in the library all day, just hiding in the fiction section, keeping quiet. He's thinking he could stay here all night. Who would know?

Monday, March 4, 2013

When Life Gives You Lemons...

...make Lemon Pound Cake! Sadly, Pipkin's most recent baking adventure resulted in a mushy, gloopy mess. He'll have to give it another try, but that particular cake was for a party and Pipkin needed to bake another cake right away. He had a lot of lemons so...Lemon Pound Cake sounded good, with a lemon glaze and lemon zest. A big dollop of whip cream and some berries on top and Pipkin's already forgotten about...was there something to forget about? Click here for a printable recipe.


Lemon Pound Cake With Lemon Glaze
Cake Ingredients:
1 cup butter, plus more for the pan
3 cups of all-purpose flour, plus more for the pan
3/4 low-fat buttermilk
Zest of 2 lemons
1/2 cup lemon juice
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 cups sugar
5 large eggs

Lemon Glaze Ingredients:
Zest of 1 lemon
Juice of 1 lemon
Up to 2 cups of confectioners' sugar

Preparation:
Preheat oven to 350°F, with rack in the lowest position. Grease and lightly flour a 12 cup bundt pan.

In a small bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, lemon zest and lemon juice. In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder.

With an electric mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time. With mixer on low, add the flour mixture in three parts alternating with the buttermilk mixture in two part, starting and ending with the flour mixture. Beat until just smooth, but do not overmix.

Pour into the prepared pan and bake at 350°F until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean, for 50 - 60 minutes. Allow to cool for 15 minutes in the pan before turning out onto a wire rack to cool.

For the lemon glaze, slowly mix in the confectioners' sugar into the lemon juice until you reach the desired consistency, which should be thick, but pourable. Pour slowly over cooled cake. Before the glaze dries, sprinkle cake with lemon zest. Serve after glaze has hardened, and keep in an airtight container.

Yield: One 12 cup bundt cake pan, 12-24 slices, depending on how big you like your slices!