Fried Apple Pie
We have a work party coming up next week and I need to come up with a dessert for the Party Hearty Dessert Table. We thought it would be fun to have a bit of a dessert throw-down. I work with some pretty clever and creative folks, so I really need to think outside of the [Pillsbury Cake] box on this one.
It's a simple contest - no rules, no categories. Bring anything you want. You don't even have to make it, yourself. No rules.
But not having any rules or categories means that anything goes. And if anything goes, well... one needs to be a bit over-the-top if one wants to win.
Victor told me I should just make a pie - because he likes my pies. I like my pies, too - but this is war. Sorta.
On the other hand, I actually do make a fairly decent pie - and even won a 2nd Place in a Cherry Pie contest once upon a time... so... I started thinking about what I could do do make it award-worthy. I took a concept from my days at UCSF - If we fry it, they'll buy it - and the Fried Apple Pie was born.
The concept is pretty simple. Roll out your pie dough, add scoops of filling, cover with another crust, cut, crimp, and fry.
I didn't want it overly-sweet because I thought it would need a sugar-drizzle for looks when it was done. I also wanted to use one of the liqueurs we brought back from Sicily. No rules means it's fair game to use ingredients not readily available to the other entrants. There are moments when I have no morals or scruples, whatsoever. This is about fame and glory, after all...
Apples blended with a cinnamon liqueur... How could it be bad?!?
It couldn't. And it wasn't. They came out awesome! Totally freaking awesome.
But even though Victor and Nonna both loved them, I'm not sure if they're totally award-winning awesome and not just merely really freakin' good. This is tough. Low as they may be, I do have standards and if I'm going to throw morals and scruples to the wind it had better be a pretty heavy wind.
Dilemma, dilemma...
So I'm going to have to think about this. I still have three days before the event - that's plenty of time to completely over-complicate this and drive Victor crazy. And in the meantime, we have a pretty awesome dessert to finish up!
Fried Apple Pie
- 2 granny smith apples
- 2 braeburn apples
- 1/3 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 cup flour
- 3 tbsp butter
- 3 tbsp Cannella - cinnamon liqueur
- pinch salt
- 1 egg - for sealing
- oil for frying
Make crusts - or buy them if you must - and roll into two equally-sized rectangles.
Peel and slice apples and cut to about a 1/4" dice. Mix in the liqueur and then the sugar, flour, butter, and pinch of salt.
Place small scoops of filling evenly-spaced along the first piece of dough in neat rows. The neat rows are important.
Beat the egg, and with a pastry brush, brush between the scoops of filling in both directions, making sure to get the edges, as well.
Carefully cover with the second piece of dough. Press firmly along the edges of each pie and cut with a fluted pastry cutter or pizza wheel. Or use a sharp knife.
To cook... in a small pan heat about 3" of oil to 360°F. Carefully add 2 pies and cook about 4 minutes, or until crispy-browned. Place on rack to drain and continue with the rest.
When cool, mix a bit of powdered sugar with milk and a splash of vanilla and drizzle over.
So... I just ate another one - totally for research purposes - and I'm beginning to think maybe they are award-worthy...
And maybe if I made them smaller...
Stay tuned.
Blueberry Peach Pie
I had planned to make a blueberry caramel the other day, based on the raspberry caramel I made last week. Notice I said planned. I didn't make it. I also had a half-dozen peaches that needed eating.
Now... I could have made a simple fruit salad and left it at that - but to paraphrase Tina Turner... we never ever do nothing nice and easy... It was time to bake a pie.
I thought of several possibilities, from crumb-top to lattice-topped to a biscuit-topped cobbler, but in the end, a traditional pie won out. A not overly-sweet traditional pie, I might add. I like my sweets, no question about it, but with fresh fruit, I want to taste the fruit. If it's good, it's sweet enough, already. And if it's not good, no amount of sugar is going to make it better.
I made my standard pie crust and while it was relaxing in the refrigerator, I went to work on the filling.
I did a quick blanch-and-peel on the peaches and cut them into fairly thick slices. Ofttimes I will leave fruit unpeeled because I actually like the taste and texture of the peel, but this time around I went for it. I used a mixture of brown and white sugar and a bit of vanilla. No other spices. Feel free to add what you like, but I thought the fruit was too good to mask.
Pie Dough
for a double crust:
- 2 cups flour
- 1/3 cup cake flour
- 1/2 lb butter, frozen
- pinch salt
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 3 tbsp ice water
- 3 tbsp chilled vodka
Using a food processor, add flour, salt, and sugar. Pulse to mix.
Chop up frozen butter and add. Pulse until butter is incorporated and mixture looks grainy.
Slowly add ice water and vodka. Pulse until mixed.
Turn out onto counter. Press and form mixture into 2 disks . Wrap in plastic and refrigerate about an hour to allow the flour to properly absorb the water and to relax the gluten.
Roll out crust and place in pie plate. Crimp edges and fill.
It really does make a difference refrigerating the pie dough. I usually end up pulling it out at 30 minutes, but an hour is best.
Today, I made a goodly amount of filling because I was using up what I had in the house and I was using a 10' deep pie plate. And I used it all. The pie bubbled over, but I had placed it on a sheet pan, so it was not a problem. You can definitely get by with less. Adjust sugars and flour, accordingly.
Blueberry Peach Pie
- 6 medium peaches
- 1 1/2 lbs blueberries
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 1/4 cup flour
- 3 tbsp butter, melted
- 2 tsp vanilla
- pinch salt
Peel and thickly-slice peaches. With clean hands, gently mix in blueberries and remaining ingredients until well-blended.
Pile into prepared pie shell and cover with second crust. Crimp edges to seal and cut steam vents into top.
Place into a preheated 425° oven for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 375° and bake an additional 50 minutes - or until crust is browned and filling is bubbling and cooked.
Cool completely before cutting.
This went over well. Really well.
When I was a little kid my grandmother would occasionally give me a piece of homemade peach pie and vanilla ice cream for breakfast. It wasn't all of the time and she rationalized that it really was no different than a peach danish and a glass of milk.
I'm thinkin' grandma would approve if I had a piece of this tomorrow morning...
Lemon Polenta Cake
It's been about 3 1/2 years since we last made Nigella's Lemon Polenta Cake and today seemed the perfect day to rectify that. It's a great cake with lots of flavor - and really easy to pull together.
The original recipe calls for almond meal. I used macadamia meal today, because that's what I had in the cabinet. I also used demerara sugar that I pulverized in the food processor and stone-ground yellow grits from Adluh in South Carolina that I also pulverized in the food processor.
The changes made for a great cake - although the original is pretty darned good to begin with!
Lemon Polenta Cake
adapted from Nigella Lawson
Cake:
- 1 3/4 sticks unsalted butter
- 1 cup superfine sugar
- 2 cups macadamia nut meal (or almond or nut of choice)
- 1 cup fine polenta or cornmeal
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 3 eggs
- Zest 2 lemons (save the juice for the syrup)
Syrup:
- Juice 2 lemons
- 1 cup confectioners’ sugar
For the cake:
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line the pan with parchment paper and grease lightly with butter.
Beat the butter and sugar till light.
Mix together the nut meal, polenta and baking powder, and add a bit to the butter-sugar mixture, followed by 1 egg, then alternate dry ingredients and eggs, beating all the while.
Beat in the lemon zest and spread the mixture into the pan and bake for about 35 minutes. A cake tester should come out clean and the edges of the cake will have begun to shrink away from the sides of the pan. Remove from the oven to a wire cooling rack, but leave in its pan.
For the syrup:
Make the syrup by boiling together the lemon juice and confectioners’ sugar in a small saucepan. Prick the top of the cake all over with a cake tester and pour the warm syrup over the cake. Leave to cool in the pan before placing it on a cake plate.
Powerfully lemony with a really interesting cornmealy-grit. It's pretty much a taste sensation and just different enough to be really enjoyable.
I don't think we'll wait another 3 1/2 years before making it, again.
Nectarine Squares
This is a bit of a no-brainer bar cookie that really works well with thin slices of fresh fruit. I've made it it peaches, plums, and nectarines, so far, and I imagine just about anything would work - including bananas or thin-sliced or chopped cherries. Or apricots. Or whatever looks good at the grocers or farmers market.
What's nice is there is no additional sugar in the filling - just a thin layer of fresh fruit.
Nonna loves them. She's finding lots of reasons to get up and head into the kitchen for one of those "as long as I'm here" moments!
Nectarine Squares
- 3 cups flour
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 cup butter
- 1 egg
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp cloves
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg
- pinch salt
- 3-4 nectarines or peaches
Preheat oven to 375°
Butter a 9×13 inch pan. Mix together sugar, baking powder, flour, salt and spices. Cut cold butter into dry ingredients. Add egg and mix well.
Press 2/3 of the crumbs into buttered pan, pressing well.
Layer nectarine slaices over packed crumbs.
Sprinkle remaining crumbs evenly over the top and bake about 30 minutes or until top is slightly brown.
Cool and then cut into squares.
Birthdays and Mother's Day
Today was Victor's Mom's Birthday. I remember the Mom' Birthday/Mother's Day combo quite well - my mom's birthday is May 13th and many was the year they fell on the same day. I always thought it funny that my mom and Victor's mom were born 2 days apart, 3000 miles away, in the same year - and were so totally different.
But since my mom is no longer here to spoil, I have to make sure Nonna gets her deserved spoils for the day.
Starting with a cheesecake. This is one similarity the two moms shared - a love of cheesecake. And the cake I made is a variation on Lucille's cheesecake - our old neighbor from 46th Avenue.
We had a ton of food, today - antipasto platters, baked pasta, homemade meatballs, sausages, salads - enough food for an army or two. Somehow, I only managed to get pictures of the desserts. Go figure.
A Variation on a Cheesecake
Crust
- 2 pkgs graham crackers
- 1 cup walnuts
- 2/3 cup melted butter
- 6 tbsp sugar
Mix graham crackers and walnuts in a food processor. Add sugar and pulse a few times. Add melted butter and mix well. Pack into 10″ spring form pan bringing it up on sides. Place in refrigerator while preparing filling.
Filling
- 4 8oz pkgs cream cheese
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1 cup sugar
- 5 eggs
- 2 tbsp vanilla
Topping
- 16oz carton sour cream
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 2 tsp vanilla
To make
Cream cheese with sugar. Add unbeaten eggs one at a time. Mix well, scraping down bowl, as needed. Add unwhipped cream. Stir in vanilla.
Pour into crust. Bake at 350° for 45 minutes.
Allow to cool on rack for 15 minutes. Spread on sour cream topping.
Return to oven for 5 minutes.
Cool completely and refrigerate.
I have to tell ya - it came out great. Nonna was thrilled with it - and there's going to be plenty left over for treats while we're away. I sliced up several pieces and put them in the freezer to be doled out...
Since there were two occasions, we needed two cakes, right?!? Right!
The second was a caramel cream roll.
Basic sponge cake with a filling of heavy cream whipped with a jar of salted caramel sauce. Yes. It was decadent.
Caramel Cream Roll
- 1 1/2 cups pastry flour
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- ¾ cup white sugar
- 1 cup nonfat milk
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 1 cup egg whites (approximately 8 large eggs)
- ½ cup white sugar
- pinch of salt
Sift the flour and baking powder together.
Dissolve the ¾ cup of sugar in the milk. Add the vanilla. Beat the whites with ½ cup of sugar and salt until stiff moist peaks form. Gently add the flour into the liquid ingredients and fold in the egg whites. Do not overwork. Spread gently into a sheet pan pan that has been lined with parchment paper and sprayed with nonstick spray.
Bake in a preheated 350° oven for 15-18 minutes until set and golden. Let cool for at least 10 minutes before removing from pan. Dust a clean kitchen towel with powdered sugar. Turn cake out onto towel and roll cake. Allow to cool.
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 1 jar salted caramel sauce
Whip cream with caramel until thick. Unroll cake, spread with filling and re-roll. Top with powdered sugar.
And because no party is complete without chocolate-dipped strawberries, Victor dipped strawberries!
We had 5 mothers and 1 birthday, today. And seven mothers who I wish were here with us, today. My mom, my four sisters, and my two sisters-in-law.
Happy Mother's day to all of ya!
Chocolate Chocolate Cookies
After yesterday's Coca-Cola Cake Disaster, I had to come up with something new. My first thought was to make a peach pie with the frozen peaches from last summer - but cookies were quicker. Sometimes speed trumps desire. (I may be making that pie this weekend, though. I want the freezer space back!)
I've been making variations of this cookie for a long time and started mixing in mini peanut butter cups about 5 years ago. What I keep forgetting is that mixing the mini peanut better cups in with the mixer tends to break them up - they really should be mixed in by hand.
I'll probably forget next time, too.
This recipe calls for regular cocoa powder - not Dutch-processed. Cocoa that is Dutched is treated with alkali to neutralize the cocoa acid, so baking soda doesn't react properly with it. Dutch-processing makes for a darker and more complex cocoa while natural cocoa powders like Hershey's, Ghirardelli, and most other American brands are lighter in color and fruitier in flavor.
Most single-origin and other top-shelf cocoa powders are generally natural. In most cases, it's just a personal preference, but remember that if the recipe calls for baking soda - you need to use natural cocoa.
If you only have Dutch-process, the workaround is to add 1/4 tsp of vinegar with the vanilla to add the acid back into the recipe.
Chocolate Chocolate Cookies
- 1 1/2 cups flour
- 1/2 cup cocoa powder
- 3/4 tsp baking soda
- 2 tsp espresso powder
- pinch salt
- 2 cubes (1 cup) butter, softened
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
- 1 egg
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 12 oz mini peanut butter cups
- 1 cup chocolate chunks
Preheat oven to 350°.
Sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, espresso powder, and salt. Beat together butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla and mix well.
Mix in flour mixture until just combined. Stir in mini peanut butter cups and chocolate chunks.
Use a heaping #30 scoop (a good 2 tablespoons) and place about 2 inches apart onto ungreased baking sheets.
Bake about about 16 minutes.
The recipe made 24 over-sized cookies. That will get us through to the weekend. I do think a peach pie is in order...
Coca-Cola Cake FAIL
I just threw out a cake. A homemade cake. That I made.
I have to admit that I have not thrown out too many cakes in my life. I'm a cake-eater and - for better or worse - can eat just about any of them out there. But I met my match, tonight.
I don't drink soda as a rule, but a couple times a year I can go for an ice-cold Coke. Real Coke. The stuff made in every country but the USofA. - with sugar - and not high fructose corn syrup. At $1.25 a bottle, it's pricey enough that I'm not downing six-packs of the stuff, but eminently affordable to have around. There's been a bottle in the cupboard for a couple of months that I first thought I'd use to make a BBQ sauce. Today, out of the blue, I decided to make a Coca-Cola cake.
I should have made the BBQ sauce.
I got the recipe from the Coca-Cola website. I had done a bit of searching and just about every recipe out there was identical. I thought I'd go with the pro. It was horrible. The cake was moist and all - but it just had no flavor. And the icing was nothing but sugar-flavored sugar.
Victor summed it up perfectly: "All I can taste is sweet. There is no flavor, at all - just cloying sweet."
What a disappointment.
I went back and read comments on the Coke site and while a couple of folks didn't like it, either, we're in the minority. Most folks who have made it love it.
I have to admit I didn't know what to expect because I had never had one, before, but the ingredient list should have given me a bit of an alert - 2 cups of sugar and a cup of Coke is going to make a sweet cake no matter what else goes in it. And the icing was just more sugar and more Coke.
I guess it would have been nice if there had been a hint of Coke flavor - but it was buried under all the sugar.
Oh well... Live and learn.
Pistachio Ricotta Tart
It's always fun when Victor disappears into the kitchen. I know I'm in for a treat. And treat is what I got on his take on a Mario Batali recipe.
We had ricotta, we had pistachios, we had pistachio cream - why not make a pistachio ricotta tart instead of his Sambucca and orange and stuff? Why not, indeed?!?
The original recipe called for a 9" cake pan. Victor used a 10" springform to make a thinner tart-like dessert.
Pistachio Ricotta Tart
- 1 16oz container ricotta
- 2/3 cup granulated sugar
- 3/4 cup Pistachio Cream Liqueur
- 3 eggs, separated
- 3/4 cup coarsely-chopped roasted, unsalted pistachios
- Butter for greasing the pan
Preheat the oven to 300°.
Lightly butter a 10" spring form pan.
Combine the ricotta, sugar, pistachio cream, and 3 egg yolks. Mix until blended. Add the egg whites 1 at a time, mixing well after each addition.
Pour the ricotta mixture into the prepared pan and bake until light golden brown, about 45 minutes.
Serve warm, room temperature, or cold!
It rocked! Rich and creamy with the perfect amount of crunch. I even went back in and sneaked another sliver. I could have consumed more.
The beauty of a dessert like this is as long as you keep the proportions in line, you can make it into anything you want.
Have fun with it - and when you're heading back for that second piece, don't say i didn't warn you!
Snow Day and Biscotti
I missed the Staff Meeting and Cookie Contest last night. I think I've mentioned that I'm not quite as adventurous in the snow as I was in my youth. Not getting power until Monday and heading up north to get Nonna Tuesday left no time for baking cookies, anyway.
But since I'm home enjoying a snow-day, I thought I'd bake a batch to bring in for the staff tomorrow. These may well have been the winning cookie, but, it's a moot point, now. The good part is now folks can just enjoy them - no pressure involved! That is assuming, of course, that the township does come by at some point and plow our street. We just got the latest robo-call from them letting us know how hard they're working - and they are - but they're still concentrating on main thoroughfares. They will get to the side streets within 8-10 hours after the snow stops - tomorrow.
I did shovel out the driveway this morning while it was still coming down because I knew that rain and ice were coming between snow storms. The joys of the Winter of 2014!
It's blissfully quiet outside. It's one of the joys of snow - the muffling of sound. We are assaulted by so much noise all of the time that the quiet is really welcome. I brought Cybil out to romp while shoveling. Our neighbors across the street and our new neighbor next door were also out clearing their drives. She went and visited and we all stopped for a few moments to catch up and kvetch about the weather. There were no problems with her crossing the street - there are no cars traveling on our block until it's plowed.
By the time the next round hits us this evening, I'm expecting the bottom rung of the fence to be buried completely. Drifts have covered the top rung in places already. There's a lot of snow out there!
So while the snow falls, I'm cooking and baking. There's a pot of black bean soup on the stove and the last batch of biscotti coming out of the oven any minute.
Pistachio Biscotti
- 2 3/4 cups flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 cube (stick) butter
- 2/3 cup sugar
- 3 eggs
- 3 tbsp cream of pistachio liqueur
- 8 oz pistachios, roasted – unsalted
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 egg mixed with a splash of water
- demerara sugar
Sift together dry ingredients. Cream sugar and butter, add eggs one at a time. Add vanilla and pistachio cream. Stir in flour. Stir in pistachios.
Divide dough in half. Shape into logs. Place on greased cookie sheets and brush with egg wash. Top with demerara sugar. Bake at 350° for 18-20 minutes.
Cool completely. Slice into 1/4 to 1/2″ slices and toast on both sides in 350° oven - about 20 more minutes.
Here's to another storm!
Molasses Chews
Okay... So maybe I've been going about this cookie contest wrong. Maybe a simple perfect cookie is the way to go. And this is most definitely a simple perfect cookie!
I was cleaning the baking cabinet the other day - everyone has a baking cabinet, right?!? - and while cleaning the molasses and honey jars that were glued to the shelf, a chewy molasses cookie came to mind. Since I have a free day off, today, and it's a zillion degrees below zero outside, I thought it a perfect day for experimenting!
I just reworked an old cookie recipe I've had forever - adding some brown sugar and rolling them in demerara sugar before baking.
They're crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside. Good flavor but not overpowering.
I think they're contenders!
Molasses Chews
- 2 cups flour
- 2 tsp baking soda
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp ginger
- 1 tsp cardamom
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 egg
- 1 stick butter, melted
- 1/3 cup molasses
- 1/3 cup granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- demerara sugar
Preheat oven to 375°.
Mix egg, butter, molasses, and sugars. Blend flour, baking soda, and spices together. Mix wet and dry ingredients just to combine.
Scoop out walnut-sized pieces of dough and roll into balls. Roll in sugar and place on parchment-lined baking sheets about 2" apart.
Bake cookies until cookies are puffed and cracked - about 10 minutes.
Cool and enjoy!
This is a cookie that you don't want to incorporate a lot of air into, so melting the butter instead of creaming it and mixing just until everything is incorporated works best. You don't even need to dirty the mixer - it can all be done by hand.
And if you don't have demerara sugar, roll them in granulated. It will still work.
Now... if you really do want to take them over the top, you can always make a ginger cream filling - or a lemon cream - and turn them into sandwich cookies!
I'm leaving them alone, for today and enjoying their outrageous simplicity!
Butter Rum Caramel Florentines
I decided to try another cookie after seeing a recipe posted from Smitten Kitchen by my friend Vanessa for an Egg Nog Florentine. She had talked about making the egg nog into a creme brulee. I thought caramel of some sort would be fun for the cookie contest...
I set to work...
It's funny how my idea of good changes. Had someone offered me one of these cookies I would have raved about how good they are. Critiquing them for a cookie contest has me looking at them totally differently. I liked the cookie - I didn't like my caramel filling.
The cookie itself is pretty straightforward. Nicely chewy-crisp with a pretty good pecan flavor, although just a tad greasy, even after blotting with paper towels. Not really unusual for a Florentine, but I noticed it. The filling was more like a cake frosting - just not what I was looking for. I also think toasting the pecans a bit might help.
I took the basic recipe that was posted and tried reworking it with a bit of caramel. While the original recipe called for 2 tablespoons of rum, I added a mere teaspoonful and it was overpowering. I added more caramel to counteract, which necessitated more powdered sugar, which is why the filling was more of a frosting - and still not caramelly enough!
It's definitely not a bad cookie by any stretch of the imagination. But it's not an award-winner. I think an actual caramel would be better - or maybe a chocolate caramel.
I think I shall play a bit more in the kitchen this weekend...
Macadamia Lemon Cookies with Blueberry Creme
We're having a cookie contest at work next month so I thought I had better start getting prepared. There's some tough competition in that place!
We bake a ton of cookies every year, but trying to come up with one cookie for a contest can be rather daunting. It needs to be slightly over-the-top.
I've actually been thinking about this concept for a while since getting the idea from a cookie I saw in La Cucina Italiana and finally decided to give it a try, tonight. I think with a couple of little tweaks, it's a winner!
The cookie is lemon and macadamia nut. It has a bright, crisp flavor on its own, but paired with the blueberry creme filling and a dunk of white chocolate, it shoots right up to the top of the class. I know it had both of us calling for more!
You should make the filling first, since it really needs to refrigerate a couple of hours before putting everything together.
Macadamia Lemon Cookies with Blueberry Creme
filling:
- 1 cup blueberries
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 4 tbsp butter
- 2 large eggs
- 1 1/2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
- 1 1/2 tsp cornstarch
cookies:
- 1/3 cup macadamia nuts, finely ground
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 1/2 sticks butter, softened
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 large egg white
- Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
topping:
- 6oz white chocolate
- 1 tbsp neutral oil
filling:
In a small saucepan, combine blueberries, sugar and 2 tbsp water. Bring to a boil, then cook, stirring frequently, about 2 minutes. Stir in butter until melted and combined. Use an immersion blender or transfer to a blender and purée until smooth. Place in a heatproof medium bowl. In another bowl, whisk together eggs, lemon juice and cornstarch.
Add water to a small saucepan and bring to a simmer. Set bowl with blueberry purée over but not touching water. Slowly whisk egg mixture into purée. Keep whisking until filling is smooth and thickened. Cover and chill until thick - at least 2 hours or overnight.
cookies:
Preheat oven to 350º.
Cream sugar and butter. Add nuts, flour, salt, egg white, and zest; blend until a soft dough forms.
Form dough into 1-inch balls and place 2" apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Flatten balls to 1/4 inch thick. Bake cookies until lightly golden on bottom, about 12 minutes. Cool cookies completely.
Spread half the cookie bottoms with blueberry creme. Sandwich with remaining cookies.
topping:
Place white chocolate in double boiler. Add 1 tbsp oil and slowly melt, stirring occasionally.
Freeze cookies on sheet pan about 10 minutes and then dip half of each cookie in white chocolate.
I'm heading into the kitchen for another...