Home Made Manicotti

This is how my mother taught me to make Manicotti, she never used store bought noodles she made a crepe like batter and cooked them in a frying pan and then filled them and baked them smothered with mozzarella cheese on top.
Cooking them this way makes for a light and delicate noodle, with a very distinctive taste. I promise you this is a very easy recipe to follow, once you make manicotti this way you won't use a store bought noodle again.

Manicotti Shells:
1-1/4 cups water
5 large eggs
1-1/4 cups all purpose flour
Pinch of salt
1 teaspoon melted butter or margarine, cooled
Additional melted butter, margarine, or vegetable spray, as needed to make crepes


Sauce:
1/4 cup olive oil
1 cup onion, finely chopped
1 to 2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 28-ounce can Italian plum tomatoes, with liquid
1 6-ounce can tomato paste
3 tablespoons fresh parsley, finely chopped
2-1/4 teaspoons sugar
1-1/2 teaspoons oregano
1/2 teaspoon basil
1/2 teaspoon salt
Freshly ground pepper


Filling:
2 pounds ricotta cheese, regular or low fat
1/2 pound mozzarella cheese, diced
1/2 cup parmesan cheese, grated
2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
Salt
Freshly ground pepper

To Make the shells:
Place the water, eggs, flour, salt, and melted butter in a blender or processor and process until smooth.

tip: You should use a teflon coated fry pan 7" or 8" n diameter, I use a ladle full of batter place it into the frying pan swirl to coat and using the tip/corner of a spatula ease up the edge of the shell and flip, They pretty much cook as soon as they're swirled around, so don't wait to flip. Once you do get it flipped just give it 2 seconds and it will be done, take it out and stack them with wax paper in between each shell.

Heat a 7" or 8" crepe pan over medium heat for a few minutes, then brush with a little melted butter or vegetable spray. Pour in just enough crepe batter to cover the bottom of the pan.


Cook the shell until it is "dry" on top and barely light brown on the bottom.

Turn the shell over and cook about 10 to 20 seconds.

Remove shell to a large plate and repeat the process until all the batter is used.


Preheat oven to 350°F.

Make Sauce:
Prepare sauce by heating the olive oil in a large skillet and sautéing the onions and garlic.

Add all the remaining sauce ingredients and bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer, covered for an hour.

Make Filling and Assembly:
In a large bowl combine the ricotta, mozzarella, and 1/3 cup parmesan cheeses (The rest is for topping). Add the parsley, salt and pepper, and mix well.

Pour some of the sauce into the bottom of a large shallow baking dish. Place about 2 tablespoons of the cheese filling in the center of each shell. Fold shell in thirds and place it seam side down in the baking dish. Repeat until all shells and filling is used. Cover the shells with the remaining sauce, and sprinkle on the remaining parmesan cheese.



The dish can be assembled in advance to this point and frozen or refrigerated until needed.

Bake the manicotti, uncovered, at 350°F for 30 minutes.

Remove the pan to a wire rack and let cool for 5 minutes before serving.

If baking manicotti directly from the freezer, bake at 350°F for an hour or until thoroughly heated.

Poster's Notes:
This sauce can be used in any recipe calling for a marinara sauce, and it freezes well.

Crepes/Shells can be frozen in a stack, but a sheet of waxed paper must be placed in between each shell.

The shell transform this into a light, delicate main course. Can be made ahead and frozen. The tomato sauce can be made, frozen and used on any pasta, fish, or chicken.



Nutritional Info Per Serving: N/A

Rugelach Recipe

From Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My Home to Yours

Ingredients:

For the dough
4 ounces cold cream cheese, cut into 4 pieces (See Note below)
1 stick cold unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces (See Note below)
1 cup all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt

For the filling
2/3 cup raspberry jam, apricot jam or marmalade ((I used peach jam)
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 cup chopped nuts (pecans, walnuts or almonds)
1/4 cup plump, moist dried currants ((I used raisins)
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped, or 2/3 cup store-bought mini chocolate chips

For the glaze
1 large egg
1 teaspoon cold water
2 tablespoons sugar, preferably coarse sugar

Method:

For the dough
1) Let the cream cheese and butter rest on counter for 10 minutes. It should be slightly softened but cool.
2) Put the flour and salt in a food processor, scatter over the chunks of cream cheese and butter and pulse the machine for 6 to 10 times. Then process, scraping down the sides of the bowl often, just until the dough forms large curds. Do not work the dough too long that it forms a ball on the blade.
(Note: I used a stand mixer and I find that it's easier to process by cutting the cream cheese and butter into cubes of 1-cm)
3) Remove the dough from the food processor, divide into half, shape each half into a disk, wrap in plastic wrap and then refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or up to a day. (Wrap airtight, the dough can be frozen for up to 2 months.)

To make the filling
1) Heat the jam in a saucepan over low heat, or microwave until it liquefies. Mix sugar and cinnamon together.
2) Line 2 baking sheets with parchment or silicone mats. (Silicone baking mats are great for rugelach.)

To shape the cookies
1) Pull one packet of dough from the refrigerator. If it is too firm to roll easily, leave it on the counter for about 10 minutes or give it a few bashes with your rolling pin.
2) On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough into an 11- to 12-inch circle. Spoon (or brush) a thin gloss of jam over the dough, and sprinkle over half of the cinnamon sugar.
3) Scatter over half of the nuts, half of the chopped chocolate and half of the currants. Cover the filling with a piece of wax paper and gently press the filling into the dough, then remove the paper and save it for the next batch.
4) Using a pizza wheel or a sharp knife, cut the dough into 16 wedges, or trigangles. (The easiest way to do this is to cut into quarters, then cut each quarters into 4 pieces.)
5) Starting at the base of each triangle, roll the dough up so that each triangle becomes a little crescent.
6) Arrange the roll-ups on one baking sheet, making sure the points are tucked under the cookies, and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. (The cookies can be refrigerate overnight or frozen for up to 2 months; don't defrost before baking, just add a couple of minutes to the baking time.)

Getting ready to bake
1) Position the racks to divide the oven into thirds and preheat the oven to 350 degree F.

To glaze
1) Stir the egg and water together. Brush a bit of the glaze over each rugelach. Sprinkle the cookies with sugar.
2) Bake the cookies for 20 to 25 minutes, rotating the sheets from top to bottom and front to back at the midway point, until they are puffed and golden.
3) Transfer the cookies to racks to cool to just warm or to room temperature.

Baba's Cream Cheese Kolacky Submitted by LIN

This recipe won #1 Cookie for 2008 in the Chicago Tribune Contest...it's wonderful!!

This recipe, submitted by Emily Dressel of River Forest, was handed down by her grandmother, Baba. During a kolacky-baking lesson, Baba offered this advice for making these tender cookies: "You have to just sense it, Emily. The dough will tell you what it needs."

1bag (10 ounces) dried apricots

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 sticks (1 cup) butter, at room temperature

1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, at room temperature

2 cups flour (I added 1/2 tsp. of sugar to the flour)

Confectioners' sugar

1 Place apricots in medium saucepan; cover with water. Soak overnight. Heat the apricots and water to a boil in medium saucepan over high heat; reduce heat to low. Simmer, stirring often with fork to mash and adding water if needed, until smooth and thick, about 10 minutes. (If necessary, you can chop finely with a knife or process about 1 minute in a food processor or chopper.) Add the granulated sugar, stirring until it dissolves. Cool completely.

2 Blend together the butter and cream cheese in a large bowl; gradually blend in flour, using hands once the dough has begun to form, until it can be shaped into a ball (this may be more or less than 2 cups). Refrigerate 4 hours or overnight.

3 Heat oven to 350 degrees. Divide dough into thirds. Roll out each third on a floured board into a 12-by-8-inch rectangle, 1/8- to 1/4-inch thick. Cut into 2-inch squares with a pizza cutter. Place 1/2 to 3/4 teaspoon of the apricot filling in the middle of each square. Fold each corner into middle; pinch together. (Moisten fingers with cold water if dough does not stick.)

4 Place cookies on ungreased cookie sheets; bake until golden, about 17 minutes per batch. Cool on wire rack; sprinkle with confectioners' sugar.

Makes: About 6 dozen