I consider ourselves the luckiest people - because we have all this great customers with the most amazing culinary creativity sharing their recipe ideas using our products. It's like a giant think tank - and a tasty one to boot!

Today, we are sharing a recipe from Andrew Cheng. A former pastry chef gone video game developer, he loves kitchen projects and one of them is to see how The Scrumptious Pantry products can elevate classic pastry and desserts. Lucky us! While he is still experimenting with finding the best application of your various EV olive oils (ice cream? pound cake? brownie?), he has fine tuned this flaky shortbread cookie using Roberta's All-purpose Herbed Salt. It is a buttery sensation with just enough salt to tickle your tastebuds and the elegant note of rosemary, sage and oregano. We think it tastes pretty spectacular.

Surely a strong contender for this month's recipe give-away! Do you have recipe ideas to share on how you used our products? Eggplant spread in deviled eggs? A great pasta salad recipe for summer? Share your ideas on our facebook page or send me an email lee (at) scrumptiouspantry (dot) com to enter the contest - all recipe ideas submitted will be voted on on our facebook page on August 1st! Who receives the most "likes" wins.

Shortbread with herbed salt (courtesy of Andrew Cheng)

cream together:

6 oz (1.5 sticks) butter
3/4 tsp The Scrumptious Pantry All-purpose Herbed Salt
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

add

1 cup all purpose flour
2 Tbsp cornmeal

and mix just until combined. refrigerate the dough until chilled.

Roll out on parchment, to a even thickness (i use chopsticks), and cut in rectangles, but leave together. Dock with a fork.

Bake at 325 degrees F for... 30 to 45 minutes?, until just lightly browned, depending on the thickness. When you take them out, immediately recut the shortbreads along the original cuts. Let cool before eating.

Updating...

I realize this picture has a somewhat christmassy feel to it, but given that we had hail the size of golfballs yesterday night and that it has been so dark this morning that I have all lights turned on in my apartment, it sure is fitting! After working the Farmer's Market till 8.30pm yesterday I did not really feel like eating a full dinner, so I just munched on some fresh greens from my garden. So of course that made me wake up pretty hungry this morning. Hungry + no sun outside = comfort breakfast. I whipped up some German pancakes (not the ones you find at the International House of Pancakes. I do not know what those are. Pancake balloons do not exist in Germany!) with Barbara's Tomato Jam w. Grappa. It is super easy, very tasty and actually makes a nice dessert for a dinner party, too. You might want to add some ice cream in a dessert situation!

Compared to American pancakes, German pancakes are closer to an omelette with flour. They are much more moist and fluff up just like an omelette would. Do not wait for bubbles to appear - there are none! We often eat pancakes for dinner, too - both sweet and savory. Classics include cherries, sliced apples (served sprinkled with sugar & cinnamon) or bacon, cheese, salami - you can even put kale or spinach... you add the toppings on the pancake after you put the mixture in the pan and have to wait for it to settle well before you flip it. Make sure your pan is not too hot!

The following recipe yields either 10 small pancakes 3 inches in diameter (if you serve them as dessert) or can be a big dinner size one. If you choose a big dinner size one, pls. exclude the shredded coconut and adjust the cooking time!

Ingredients

1 egg

1/3 cup flour

1 tbsp shredded coconut

1/3 cup of water

pinch of salt

butter

5 tsp Barbara's Tomato Jam w. Grappa

powdered sugar to finish

Method

(1) Using a fork, beat egg with water. (2) Gradually sift the flour into the mix. (3) Let stand 15 minutes for the mixture to thicken. (4) Add shredded coconut and pinch of salt. (5) Adjust with water/flour if seems to thick or liquid - you can always do a test run if you are not sure. (6) Add butter in warm pan (if you insist you can use some non stick spray, but butter really tastes much better and a dab of butter in your pancake will not kill you. On the other hand, I am not quite sure if that spray thing can be considered real food) and melt. (7) Once pan is lined, drop a tablespoon of the mixture in the pan and let cook for about 90 seconds. Flip over and cook the other side.  A standard frying pan will allow you to cook four pancakes at once. (8) Spread 1/2 tsp of Barbara's Tomato Jam on each pancake and serve hot. Although they are also really good cold.

Guten Appetit!

Extra Virgin Olive Oil is a wold of flavor in itself. And it can bring a world of flavor to other dishes, savory and sweet. In Italy I got used to baking with Extra Virgin Olive Oil - one of my favorites is a light spongecake made orange juice and EVOO. So now that I am on the other side of the ocean, where local oranges in winter are rare and the cold screams for higher calorie count, I wondered about chocolate brownies. So I paired Cosimo's nice peppery Extra Virgin Olive Oil with unsweetened chocolate, added some smoked sea salt and pink peppercorns for an extra luxurious treat. The texture of this brownie is more on the lighter side, like chocolate cake. If you like your brownie all gooey and dense, you can incorporate EVOO and pink peppercorns into your favorite brownie recipe. The suggested "conversion rate" from butter to Extra Virgin Olive oil is ¾ cup of olive oil for one cup/two sticks of butter. When working with dark chocolate make sure you choose a robust EVOO to stand up to the taste of the chocolate!

Have you ever baked with Extra Virgin Olive Oil? What is your favorite recipe?

Pink-Peppercorn Brownies

Ingredients

4 eggs

8 oz. unsweetened chocolate

3/4 cup Cosimo's Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1 cup raw sugar

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp smoked sea salt

1 tbsp pink peppercorns

Method: (1) Beat egg yolks and sugar (2) Add Cosimo's Extra-Virgin Olive Oil and melted chocolate (3) In a separate bowl, beat egg whites until they are stiff (4) Add 1/3 of the flour and baking powder (5) Fold parts of the egg whites under the batter (6) Repeat mixing in flour & folding in egg whites till all the ingredients are incorporated (7) Add salt and the crushed pink peppercorns (8) Line a baking sheet with Extra Virgin Olive Oil, fill with the batter and bake in a 375F oven for about 40 minutes if using a 8x8 pan. That will give you fairly high brownies. If you use a larger pan, reduce the baking time to about 20 minutes.

You can glaze the donuts with chocolate-EVOO and sprinkle them with a little coarse sea salt & crushed peppercorns for decoration - melt the chocolate and mix in 1tsp of EVOO for every 1 tbsp of melted chocolate.

I love baking. Trouble is, with weather like this a hot oven is the least thing one needs. Still, nothing is better than satisfying your sweet tooth with a homebaked good. Given that my tooth is rather semi-sweet, I really like sponge cake. It has a subtle sweetness to it, but neither sugar not fat jump you in the face. It is fluffy and light and does not leave you feel like a dumpling in 100 degrees. The perfect choice for summer!

This recipe marries my grandmothers recipe for sponge cake, Barbara’s and Fabio’s Tomato Jam w. Grappa (from The Scrumptious Pantry) and fresh goat cheese. Yes, you heard correctly. Fresh goat cheese. It gives a nice little kick to the cake, balancing the sweetness of the jam, plus it adds a little creaminess.

So, here we go and I am curious to hear what you think!

Ingredients:

4 egg whites

4 egg yolks

3/8 cups brown sugar

½ cups flour

1 pinch salt

1 jar of Barbara’s & Fabio’s Tomato Jam w. Grappa

3 oz. fresh creamy goat cheese

Method: (1) Heat oven to 420F. (2) Beat egg yolks till stiff. (3) Gradually add sugar. (4) Add one egg yolk at a time, folding them into egg whites slowly with a wooden spoon. (5) Sieve the flour and a pinch of salt into the mix, folding it gently into the mix. (6) Pour batter on a greased baking sheet and spread evenly. (7) Bake at 420F for about 10 min, until top is golden brown. (8) Turn over onto a clean linen towel or a piece of baking paper. (9) Spread Tomato Jam w. Grappa evenly onto the cake. (10) Crumble goat cheese onto the cake and spread a little (does not have to be perfectly covered). (11) Using the towel/baking sheet roll the cake up tightly. (12) Slice and serve. This cake holds up well for a couple of days. Make sure you keep it in the refrigerator! You can decorate it using powdered sugar, but I would not recommend it, as the sweetness might overpower the match of fresh goat cheese and Tomato Jam w. Grappa.

Enjoy!

PS. Apologizing once more for the quality of the pictures. Am still hoping to have a new, better camera soon!

The Zabaione is a “dolce a cucchiaio” – a dessert to eat with a spoon. Or better: eat it with Cantucci Cookies from Giovanna and Nicolina!! You can either use the Cantucci to dip into the Zabaione and sort of spooning it out of the bowl.  Alternatively you can crumble them over the Zabaione before serving!
Ingredients:

6 egg yolks

1 egg white

2/3 cup sugar

1 cup of Marsala wine

1 package of Giovanna's & Niccolina's Cantucci alla Mandorla

Method: (1) Beat the yolks and the sugar well until the mixture is smooth and the color is leaning towards white. (2) Then beat in the Marsala and cook over a double boiler. Remove it from the fire as soon as it thickens – before it comes to a boil! (3) When it has cooled to merely warm, fold in the egg white beaten to very firm peaks. (4) Fill into small glass bowls and sprinkle with crumbled Cantucci alla Mandorla from Giovanna and Niccolina.

This ricotta dessert is a great way to wow your guests with an easy to prepare dessert. The earthiness of the ricotta intermingles beautifully with the sweetness of the Tomato Jam and a hint of nutmeg fires up the taste sensation.

Ricotta is traditionally made with sheep’s milk. If you happen to find some, that would be terrific. Otherwise you can substitute with ricotta made from cow’s milk.

Ingredients:

9 oz or 1/2lb of ricotta
a shot glass of grappa or dark rum aged for a minimum of 7 yrs
two tablespoons of cane sugar
nutmeg

Barbara's & Fabio's Tomato Jam with Grappa

Method: (1) Mix ricotta, sugar and rum. (2) Pour into small glass bowls (or long shot glasses). (3) Add a thin layer of Barbara's & Fabio's Tomato Jam with Grappa and chill. (4) Before serving, grate a hint of fresh nutmeg over it and serve.

Who said the Tomato was confined to salads, salsas and sauces? This recipe has it stand out in all its glory as a extravagant dessert. Well, it will be perceived as being extravagant by your dinner guests. It is really very easy to prepare. But we will not tell anyone, deal?

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/3 cup butter, melted
2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese
1 pint heavy whipping cream
1/3 cup white sugar

5 tablespoons of Barbara’s & Fabio's Tomato Jam with Grappa

Method: (1) Stir together the graham cracker crumbs, brown sugar and melted butter. (2) Press into the bottom of an 8 or 10 inch springform pan. Chill until firm. (3) In a medium bowl, beat the cream cheese until fluffy. (4) In a separate bowl, whip the cream. (5) Fold the whipped cream under the cream cheese. (6) Tablespoon by tablespoon add the sugar to the cheese mix. (7) Pour into the crust. (8) Spread Barbara’s & Fabio's Tomato Jam with Grappa evenly on the pie. (9) Chill for several hours. Just before serving, remove the sides of the pan.