Tag Archives: Sylvanus Urban

Upgrade Your Bagel with Homemade Fresh Dill Cream Cheese

So you’ve picked up a baker’s dozen of bagels from your local bakery, but smearing those golden circles with store bought cream cheese seems like a travesty.  Luckily, cream cheese is one of the easiest cheeses to make at home- making it a hassle-free option when it’s your turn to host a boozy brunch.  Is there any snack more satisfying than a cream cheese and cucumber bagel? I think not.

Dill Cream Cheese Ingredients:

3 cups milk

1 cup whipping cream

2 tbsp white vinegar

1 tbsp fresh lemon juice

¼ tsp salt

Fresh Dill

fresh dill cream cheese with cucumber and bagel recipe ingredients

Tools:

Hamilton Beach Professional Food Processor

Cheesecloth

hamilton beach food processor

Method:

1. Add milk and cream to a heavy-bottomed saucepan and bring to a rolling boil

2. Reduce your heat to medium and slowly add 1 tbsp of vinegar, wait about 3-5 minutes and add the remaining vinegar.

3. Add 1 tbsp of fresh lemon juice and remove from heat, allow to cool for 10 minutes.

4. While the curd is forming and cooling, line a colander with cheesecloth and place over a bowl.

5. Strain your curds from the whey.

6. Squeeze out the extra whey. (I got about 2 cups of whey from my curd).

7. Time to “cream” your cheese.

8. Add fresh dill, salt and cheese curd into your food processor and blend on medium until smooth.

Pro Tip: once you start adding the vinegar do not stir vigorously, this will break up the curd and not allow it to form properly.  Use a spatula and gently stir back and forth not forgetting to scrape down the sides of the pan.

fresh homademade dill cream cheese recipe

Pro Tip: you can save the whey as a great marinade for the meat. The acid from the milk and vinegar breaks it down and makes meat extra tender.

fresh homademade dill cream cheese recipe

 

hamilton beach food processor

 

fresh dill cream cheese with cucumber and bagel

Upgrade Your Bagel with Homemade Fresh Dill Cream Cheese



You’ll Go Nuts for This Pistachio Cream Sauce

Swap out Nona’s red sauce (sorry Nona!) and try dressing up your pasta with this Pistachio cream sauce. It’s sweet, nutty and besides shelling the pistachios it’s super easy to make.  Of course, you can always enlist the help of a few friends or treat yourself to some pre-shelled nuts.  To gild the lily and make this dish even more delicious try using fresh pasta.

Pistachio Cream Sauce Ingredients:

1 cup Shelled Pistachios

1 cup Heavy Cream

1 cup Milk

½ cup shredded Parmesan cheese

¼ tsp Fresh ground nutmeg

1 tbsp Palm sugar (or white sugar)

Cherry or Grape tomatoes

Juice from half a lemon

Salt to taste

Fresh chopped Basil

Pro Tip: Double the recipe, it’s easy to freeze and use at a later time.

 pistachio-cream-sauce-recipe-hamilton-beach-processor

Tools:

Hamilton Beach Professional Food Processor

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Method:

  1. Chop your pistachios in your food processor and set aside 1/4 of a cup for later
  2. Add the dry ingredients to your food processor and blend
  3. Add your wet gradients and continue blending until smooth
  4. Move your cream sauce to a stove top pan and bring to a simmer adding in your freshly chopped basil
  5. Roast your tomatoes in a salamander grill or broil in your oven until roasted and the skins have popped.
  6. Stir your cream sauce and the set aside ¼ cup of crushed pistachios and tomatoes into your freshly cooked pasta
  7. Grate more Parmesan cheese on top and add a little bit of fresh basil and serve

 pistachio-cream-sauce-recipe-final

You’ll Go Nuts for This Pistachio Cream Sauce



Orange Meringue Cookies Dipped in Dark Chocolate

Meringues are magical, airy little desserts with stunning peaks. A good meringue is hard to beat. Literally. Do your biceps (and your dessert) a favour and use a stand mixer to whisk your egg whites to perfection. (HAMILTON BEACH’s 7 Speed Orbital Stand Mixer is our go-to). For this recipe, we decided to use orange extract to counteract the bitterness of the dark chocolate, but you can easily substitute for another extract like mint, lemon or go nuts with almond.

orange-meringue-recipe-baking-sheet

Meringue Ingredients:

· 4 Egg whites

· ½ Tsp Cream of Tartar

· ¼ Tsp salt

· 1 Cup Sugar

· ½ tsp vanilla extract

· 1 ½ tsp orange extract

· 1 Cup Dark chocolate chips

Pro Tip: Room temperature eggs will achieve greater volume.

orange-meringue-recipe-ingredients

Tools:

· 7 Speed Orbital Stand Mixer

· 14” piping bag

Pro Tip: Make sure your bowl is spotless. Any traces of grease or fat will prevent egg whites from getting stiff.

orange-meringue-recipe-hamilton-

Method:

1. Pre-heat your oven to 200 degrees Celsius.

2. Separate your eggs; you will only be using the whites for this recipe. Save the yokes in your fridge! They are great for making fresh pasta.

3. Place your egg whites and cream of tartar in your mixer and slowly increase speed.

4. Add 2 Tbsp of sugar at a time to the mixer, allowing time for the sugar to dissolve. You don’t want to have sugar granules in your cookies.

5. Your egg whites will start to thicken, and peak, as the sugar fully integrates.

6. Once your meringue has formed, and you have added all of the sugar, turn down the speed of your mixer and add your extract flavorings.

7. Line a baking sheet with two layers of parchment paper and fill your piping bag with your meringue.

8. Begin piping your meringue onto your lined baking sheet. You can pipe your cookies quite close together since they won’t expand while baking.

9. Once piped on your baking sheet, place in your oven and bake at 200 degrees Celsius for 1 hour.

10. After an hour, turn off your oven and leave your meringues in the oven to cool for an additional hour.

11. 15 minutes before your meringues are fully cooled, melt 1 cup of dark chocolate chips in a double boiler (or a heat resistant bowl over a pot of boiling water).

12. Take your cooled meringues and dip the bottom of your cookie in the melted dark chocolate and place back on your baking sheet to cool/dry.

orange-meringue-recipe-ingredients-final

Orange Meringue Cookies Dipped in Dark Chocolate