Tag: May

Cottage Loaf with Homemade Ricotta, Honey Roasted Hazelnuts, and Macerated Blackberries

Posted May 25, 2023 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 0 Comments

 

 

The next dish in my Brambly Hedge menu is inspired by the bountiful harvest in AUTUMN STORY. I couldn’t decide on just one recipe, so I brought a bunch of them together into one delicious entree!

Bread is a Brambly Hedge staple, so I started with a traditional English cottage loaf (using this version of Paul Hollywood’s recipe that provides American measurements). To top the bread, I made Attainable Sustainable’s homemade ricotta cheese. This was my first time making ricotta, which was a lot of fun. It’s very similar to farmer’s cheese, which I made for my SARAH PLAIN AND TALL menu a few years ago. I highly suggest ricotta or farmer’s cheese if you’re new to making homemade cheeses. They’re super easy, and the only special tool they require is a cheesecloth.

Blackberries are all over AUTUMN STORY (including the illustration on the cover!), so for a touch of sweetness I macerated some blackberries in elderflower liqueur. Finally, I tweaked my roasted hazelnut recipe from MY SIDE OF THE MOUNTAIN to make honey roasted hazelnuts, the perfect complement to the blackberries.

Top it off with fresh sage for a bit of herbal earthiness, and you’re ready to celebrate harvest time with the woodland creatures of Brambly Hedge.

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Strawberry Scones with Lemon Moscato Glaze

Posted May 11, 2023 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 2 Comments

 

 

Welcome to a menu I’ve been wanting to make for years: one inspired by Brambly Hedge! If you’re unfamiliar with the series, just imagine if Redwall had been written as early chapter books with cozy cottagecore themes and utterly gorgeous illustrations. I have the box set of the Brambly Hedge seasonal stories, and I’ve been itching to make a menu inspired by each season. So let’s get started!

We’ll begin with SUMMER STORY, which follows the events surrounding the wedding of Poppy Eyebright, who runs the Brambly Hedge dairy, and Dusty Dogwood, the local miller. I brought their two crafts together and made a recipe that uses flour, butter, milk, and cream—scones! Strawberry scones to be exact, since fresh strawberries are one of the foods brought to the wedding. To jazz things up, I drizzled my scones with a lemon Moscato glaze inspired by the homemade white wine Basil Brightberry sets aside for the wedding.

I think the glaze might be my favorite part of this recipe. It gives the scones some needed zing, brightening all the other flavors. My son, our resident bread enthusiast, is a huge fan of these scones. He’s already asking when I’ll make them again!

P.S. If you’re a Brambly Hedge fan and are bummed I didn’t make Poppy’s iconic wedding cake, don’t worry. It’s coming! Since we get a beautiful illustration of her cake but no description of the flavor, I decided to combine it with the birthday cake from SPRING STORY, which has a detailed flavor description. So for dessert I’m make Wildfred Toadflax’s strawberry hazelnut birthday cake and style it to look like Poppy’s wedding cake. It will be my 4th Brambly Hedge recipe (the second-to-last one in the menu), so stay tuned!

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Seared Salmon with Pineapple Mango Chutney

Posted May 26, 2022 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 2 Comments

 

 

Are you ready to get tropical??? 😀 Since Swiss Family Robinson mentions LOADS of tropical ingredients, I wanted to use as many as possible in this menu. I don’t get many chances to make island-inspired dishes here on the blog, so this has been lots of fun for me. Let’s begin!

As the canvas for my island flavors, I chose the salmon Ernest catches in chapter four. I love that it’s such a personal triumph for Ernest. He’s one of my favorite characters, maybe because I think his father is too hard on him (Astronomy is a worthy pursuit, Mr. Robinson! 😉). Plus, salmon pairs well with so many of the fruits mentioned in the book, so it’s a great choice from a culinary perspective too!

For my fruit, I chose to make pineapple mango chutney. Since this was my first time making chutney, I looked to two recipes for guidance: a pineapple chutney recipe from Garlic & Zest and a mango version from Tastes Better from Scratch. Mango isn’t expressly mentioned in Swiss Family Robinson, but I felt it would bridge the gap well between the sweet pineapple and other savory flavors of the chutney. It’s also great at carrying spice, and although this chutney isn’t flaming hot, I wanted the heat that IS there to shine through.

Everything came together so beautifully. The salmon was tender and delicate, melding perfectly with the juicy fruit, bright bell pepper, and sharp onion. The spicy kick from the pepper flakes and sweet Thai chili sauce (one of my favorite condiments!) added just the right level of complexity. What an easy way to make a memorable dish!

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Mouse on the Go: Stuart’s Hummus Deviled Egg Boats and Mini Pepper Roadsters

Posted May 20, 2021 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 0 Comments

 

 

 

Hold onto your hat’s, folks! Today we’re gettin’ whimsical! 😀

Lately I’ve been trying to make a lot of historically accurate blog recipes, like Rustic Brown Bread from JANE EYRE and Rüeblitorte from HEIDI. I planned to stick with that theme through this menu too, but the only entree in STUART LITTLE is lamb stew. Since I already shared my go-to lamb stew recipe in my HUNGER GAMES MENU, I decided to have some fun and make something silly instead. Plus, I’m unofficially trying to make everything on this menu work for a birthday party just because I think STUART LITTLE would make such a cute party theme, and I’ve never seen lamb stew served at a birthday.

For my focus, I chose Stuart’s favorite modes of transportation: his car and boat. I made deviled egg boats for a WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE menu a few years ago, and the one’s I’m sharing today are a slight variation on that. I made homemade hummus from Gimme Some Oven, mixed it into the filling, dyed the egg white blue to match the boat in the story, and topped it all with a pita chip sail. The rest of the hummus went to fill the roadsters: mini peppers I cut in half and fitted with tomato wheels, pretzel steering wheels, and chive seat backs.

These were SUPER simple and so fun to make. If you’ve got kids, I highly recommend getting them involved with this one. My 4-year-old loved putting the sails on the boats and driving the little cars around his plate!

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Mrs. Little’s Seed-Topped Banana Muffins

Posted May 6, 2021 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 0 Comments

 

 

Happy May, folks! I’m appreciating these few sunny spring days before there’s enough pollen to absolutely allergy-adle my brain. All the brightness and life outside has me in the mood for a fun new cooking project, so today we’re starting a menu inspired by STUART LITTLE! I just finished reading it with my 4-year-old as our first read-aloud chapter book, and he loved it (especially the roadster and Margalo). A light-hearted, kid-friendly menu would pair perfectly with the great weather. So let’s get started!

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Blueberry Oatmeal Bars from “Blueberries for Sal”

Posted May 7, 2020 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 0 Comments

 

“Blueberries for Sal” first came on my radar almost 20 years ago. My mom had just started homeschooling me and my younger brothers, and for the boys she started using a reading curriculum called Five in a Row. With this program, you read the same picture book each day for five days, followed by activities that are relevant to the story. At the start of the next school week you, start a new book. I was too old for it, but I remember my brothers really enjoying particular stories, especially “How to Make Apple Pie and See the World,” “The Story About Ping,” and “Blueberries for Sal.”

When I started light homschooling with my toddler earlier this year, the preschool edition of Five in a Row was the only curriculum I purchased (we do more subjects, they’re just not curriculum-based). I’m a big believer in focusing on building enthusiasm for learning in the very early years of education, and I like that Five in a Row adopts this philosophy.

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Gurgi’s Magical Wallet: Chocolate Peanut Butter Surprise Cookies

Posted May 2, 2019 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 2 Comments

 

 

In The Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander, Gurgi receives a magical wallet as a reward for his faithfulness to his companions. The little leather coin purse may look unassuming, but it provides its owner with unlimited food for as long as there is enchantment in the land of Prydain! Pretty darn awesome. I’ve had several readers request a recipe from the Prydain books, so I decided to make cookies inspired by Gurgi’s wallet. After all, a coin purse with the power of unlimited snacks is SO my thing. 😉

Let’s talk inspiration. Have you ever seen on Pinterest or Instagram those cookies with the hidden pocket inside filled with candy, sprinkles, sugary cereal, etc.? I’ve heard them called surprise cookies, pocket cookies, and confetti cookies, but whatever you call them, I think they look SO COOL. Since wallets are for holding things, now seemed like a great time to make my own surprise cookie recipe. So I got to work!

I used a chocolate version of the sugar cookie recipe from my cookbook, A Literary Tea Party. Chocolate cookies made the most sense, since a leather bag would be brown. But I also wanted detailed decorations inspired by medieval leather tooling, so I broke out my favorite royal icing recipe (developed by Julie M. Usher), which would allow me to make more delicate shapes than buttercream would. As for the filling, I went with Reese’s Pieces to get that unbeatable chocolate peanut butter combo. 

I was more than pleased with the results. The wallets looked so darling with their tidy little icing swirls and yellow Reese’s piece clasps. I can’t tell you how fun it was to give them a little shake and hear the candy rattling around inside. Now hurry up and go make your own! 😀

P.S. If it’s your first time using royal icing, I recommend Julia Usher’s how-to Youtube video. She has a lot of good tips to make it easier.
P.P.S. I’m taking reader requests for blog recipes, so email me here if there’s a classic book you’d like to see featured on the blog!

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There’s Tea in that Nebula: Vulcan Spice Tea

Posted June 5, 2018 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Teas / 2 Comments

 

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Coffee may be the most iconic “organic suspension” in Star Trek: Voyager, but Vulcan Spice Tea is a close second. It’s a reigning favorite of Captain Janeway, who has been known to share a cup while meeting with her Vulcan head of security, Lieutenant Tuvok. I started this blend with spiced mate tea, a high-caffeine Brazilian tea flavored with cinnamon, ginger, and orange. I paired it with orange honeybush to increase the zesty flavor and honeybush hazelnut to compliment the toastier notes in the mate. Definitely the perfect blend to sip while watching the adventures of the starship Voyager!

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Bilbo’s Birthday Cupcakes: Vanilla Cupcakes with Lemon Buttercream and Blackberry Curd Filling

Posted May 31, 2018 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 6 Comments

 

 

For my Lord of the Rings bonus recipe, I loved the idea of making the cake from Bilbo’s birthday party. It’s not expressly mentioned in the book, but it’s hard to imagine a birthday without one. As you may recall, the one in the movie is huuuuge—2 giant tiers with 2 layers each, enough to fit 111 candles and a host of fresh flowers. I thought about doing a recreation of that same cake, but I’ve seen enough other bloggers do it that I wanted to try something different. Plus, I just finished making a giant chocolate chip cookie, and I made a 10-inch 2-layer double chocolate cake last month. They were fun (and delicious), but I think I’m done with giant desserts for a while. I was in the mood for something mini, but not JUST mini. I wanted a unique, creative element to make this dessert just a little bit special. And that’s where I got the idea for these cupcakes!

The cake in the movie appeared to be white cake with vanilla frosting. I decided to stick with the white cake for the cupcakes themselves but went with a lemon frosting on top, garnishing with candles and edible flowers just like the movie. Inside, I added a surprise: homemade blackberry curd! It’s super delicious and easy to make—an invisible surprise, just like at the end of Bilbo’s party!

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Hobbit Door Giant Chocolate Chip Cookie

Posted May 24, 2018 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 4 Comments

 

 

The round, green door of Bag End is one of the strongest icons in the stories of Middle Earth. It represents so much—home and journey, beginnings and endings, comfort and adventure—and it holds all these otherwise contradictory ideas in effortless resolution. It’s the door through which Bilbo greets his unexpected guests and leaves for adventure in The Hobbit. It’s a symbol of the home that Frodo longs to return to in The Lord of the Rings, but when he does, he finds that although we can go home, we can never go back. It’s a door that, when opened, leads to the promise of good company, a full larder, and a kettle of hot tea. It holds a special place in my heart (and that of many other Tolkien fans as well), so I knew my Lord of the Rings menu wouldn’t be complete without a tribute to it.

I’ve made giant chocolate chip cookies in the past, and I loved the idea of making one to look like a hobbit door. So here it is! The recipe is the giant chocolate chip cookie recipe from Tollhouse. I love how it turned out, though if I’d been thinking ahead, I might have tried to create a wood grain effect with my smoothing knife as I spread out the frosting for the base. I love the yellow doorknob and Gandalf’s rune in the corner. The quote around the border comes from Bilbo and Frodo’s traveling song, and it couldn’t be more perfect! 🙂

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