Cheese Zombies

I have no idea why these are called cheese zombies. I have no idea what zombies have to do with them at all. It looks like it was created in the Yakima valley. What I do know is that a friend of mine who used to cook for a local Catholic school made them for lunches there, and said that they were a favorite until a certain President's wife crusade to make everything "healthier" and they could no longer use as much cheese or the butter. I have no such restrictions, so I made it with even more butter and added garlic. Rich added finely chopped jalapeños to his.

double recipe of pizza dough
32 ounces of cheddar cheese or a mix of cheddar and another cheese, shredded
6 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup butter

In a medium saucepan, simmer the butter with the garlic for five minutes, to infuse the butter with the garlic. Strain the garlic out, reserving it for the inside of the zombies.

Preheat the oven to 450° F. Brush an 11 X 17 inch baking pan generously with the melted butter. Pat out a layer of the pizza dough into the bottom of the pan. Sprinkle with cheese and the reserved minced garlic. Roll out the second half of the pizza dough to fit the pan and press over the top, sealing the edges as you can. Brush the top with more butter, leaving some to drizzle over the top later. Bake for 25 minutes, and brush remaining butter over the top when you remove the pan from the oven. Cut into serving size pieces and eat with tomato soup.




Kiflice

These little crescent cookies are so lovely and, again, are food from our beloved Croatia. I understand that if the plum preserves are not thick enough, it is fairly normal to thicken it with ground walnuts so the preserves do not ooze out of the cookies. I found a recipe online, and kind of translated it to American units and a method that made sense to me, because it was a little loose on those instructions. I used a stand mixer for this, but a hand mixer or even a bowl and whisk or wooden spoon would be fine. This recipe makes 32 crescents. If you cut the circles into 10 pieces, and used 1/2 to 3/4 teaspoon of jam, you could have 40.

Dough

2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
1 cup white sugar
3 egg yolks
1 cup sour cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
zest of one lemon
2 tablespoons of dark rum
4 1/2 cups pastry flour
1 teaspoon baking powder

Filling

12 - 13 ounce jar plum preserves

Serving

2 - 3 tablespoons powdered sugar

Combine the egg yolks and white sugar and beat until thick and pale. Add in the butter, rum, vanilla essence, lemon rind, sour cream mix well.

Whisk together the flour and baking powder. Add the dry ingredients to the egg and butter mixture, little by little until a soft ball of dough is made.

Cover the dough with plastic and refrigerate for at least an hour and up to two hours. Remove from the fridge and divide into four equal pieces. Working quickly with one section at a time on a lightly floured surface, roll each piece out to about a 10 inch circle and divide into eight pieces each.

Preheat oven to 350° F and line two large baking sheets with parchment. Butter or spray the parchment.

Place a dollop of the jam, about 3/4 to 1 teaspoon, on the wide end of each triangle and roll up into a crescent.

Bake for about 20 minutes or until light golden in color.

Transfer to a wire rack and allow to cool. Dust with powdered sugar to serve.

Labels: Homemaking, Recipes, Tales from the Kitchen