If you've searched for a recipe online in the last decade, chances are you've come across one of the delicious dishes on the award-winning food blog Smitten Kitchen.
Blog creator Deb Perelman, a cookbook author and self-taught home cook, now has a new book with 100 recipes that make shopping easier, prep more practical and food more reliably delicious.
She joined "Good Morning America" to celebrate the launch of "Smitten Kitchen Keepers: New Classics for Your Forever Files" and shared two full recipes to try at home.
After her previous best-selling titles, "The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook" and "Smitten Kitchen Every Day," this cookbook covers essential recipes for meals that Perelman believes home cooks will want to prepare again and again.
Plus, Perelman has expertly tested and executed all of these home cooked recipes in her tiny New York City-sized kitchen to make sure that no bowls are wasted and that the results are always worth the effort.
Check out her two dishes from the new book, below.
"I thought it would be easy, silly me, but the truth is that I made a lot, I mean a lot, of leek galettes on the way to this one. There were a few with potatoes (so heavy), a few with leeks that had been caramelized on the stove (so much work), one with a garlicky Parmesan béchamel underneath (even more work), one with leeks boiled until meltingly tender, closer to classic leeks vinaigrette (but too sapped of flavor), one with salt-wilted leeks (that tasted grassy when baked). So I hope you know that when I tell you this is the one leek galette you should make, I don't say it lightly," Perelman writes in her book.
"My goal was a galette to show off the gorgeousness (those fanned yellow-to-green ombré layers) and flavor (one part mild onion, one part green vegetable) of leeks without being a horror to prepare or eat. Long ribbons of leeks are awfully pretty, but they're a pain to cut neatly once cooked, so, here, segments of leeks bake (hands off!) in an easy puddle of olive oil, lemon zest, salt, and pepper until they're tender and sweet, and then they're arranged on a layer of Brie, which rests on top of a dead-simple crust that comes out so flaky and rich, few will believe you didn't use puff pastry. What emerges from the oven is luxurious, a dream of a holiday appetizer or a show-stealing potluck contribution. Listen, I'm going to be a total embarrassment here, an absolute mom-staying-too-long-on-the-first-day-of-school, but I'm getting a little verklempt at imagining all the places you might take it. I hope you have fun together."
Serves 6 to 8 as an appetizer
Ingredients
1 medium lemon
3/4 cup (100 grams) all-purpose flour
1/2 cup (65 grams) rye or whole-wheat flour
Kosher salt 1/2 cup (4 ounces, or 115 grams) unsalted butter, chilled
1/4 cup (60 grams) plain yogurt or sour cream
1/4 cup (60 grams) cold water
2 to 3 large leeks (see note)
2 tablespoons (25 grams) olive oil
Freshly ground black pepper
1 large garlic clove, minced or finely grated
1 tablespoon (15 grams) smooth Dijon mustard
4 ounces (115 grams) Brie, cold, sliced 1/4-inch thick
1 egg, lightly beaten (optional, for shine)
Note: Leeks' sizes range tremendously, even from week to week in the same store or market stand. Plus, some have a larger dark-green portion, which we won't use here, and some only have a little, so weight is little guidance to how much usable leek you'll get from each one. Instead, if they look small either in width (1-inch-thick stalks) or usability (i.e., the white/light-green portion looks very squat, only a small proportion of the stalk), just grab an extra bundle.
Directions
Heat the oven to 375 F (190 C). Finely grate the zest of your lemon into a 9-by-13-inch or 3-quart baking dish, and set aside. (We zest before juicing to avoid bad moods.)
Make the crust: Whisk the flours and 1/2 teaspoon salt in a large bowl. Cut the butter into small pieces, and sprinkle them over the flour. Use a pastry blender or your fingertips to squash the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles coarse meal, with the biggest pieces of butter the size of tiny peas. Add the yogurt, water, and 2 teaspoons lemon juice (from half the zested lemon), and stir this into the butter-flour mixture until a large mass forms, with no unmixed pockets of yogurt. Wrap it with a large piece of parchment paper -- we will use the paper again -- and chill for 1 hour, or up to 2 days.
Prepare the leeks: Fill a large bowl with cold water. Lop off the darkest-green parts of the leeks; we will use the white through medium-green parts for this galette. Halve the usable leek parts lengthwise, and fan them open under water, letting any dirt and debris fall to the bottom of the bowl. Shake off the excess water, and cut them into 2-inch diagonal segments.
Bake the leeks: Add olive oil, 1 teaspoon salt, many grinds of pepper, and garlic to the zest in the baking dish, and mix. Arrange the leek segments, cut side down, in the dish, and cover with a lid or tightly with foil. Bake for 25 minutes, or until the tip of a knife can be easily inserted without meeting rubbery resistance.
Transfer the baking pan to a cooling rack, carefully remove the foil, and set it aside to cool to lukewarm while the crust finishes chilling.
Increase the oven temperature to 400 F (205 C) degrees.
Assemble the galette: Unwrap the chilled dough, and flatten the parchment paper that wrapped it on a large baking sheet. On a floured counter, roll the dough out into a large roundish shape, about 14 inches across. Gently transfer it to the parchment paper. Spread Dijon mustard thinly on the dough, leaving a 2-to-3-inch border clear. Arrange the brie slices over the mustard, then season the brie with salt and pepper. Use a thin spatula to lift the leek segments from the baking dish, and arrange each, cut side up, over the brie. Scrape any juices left in the pan over the leeks. Season with more black pepper, then fold the edges of the dough in pleats over the filling, leaving the center open. For a darker, glossier crust, beat an egg with 1 teaspoon of water, and brush it over the crust.
Bake the galette: Bake for 30 minutes, until the crust and leeks are a shade darker and the brie is melted. Finish with a squeeze of juice from the remaining lemon half, cut the galette into wedges, and serve it warm.
Do ahead: This galette keeps in the fridge for 3 days. Rewarm on a baking sheet in a 350 F (175 C) oven for 10 to 15 minutes.
"Here goes: I wish we'd all admit that apple-crisp recipes rarely work as well as they should," Perelman writes. "I mean, of course it's almost impossible for cinnamon baked apples with a buttery, nutty oat-and-brown-sugar topping to taste bad, but I wish more recipes owned up to the fact that the topping often burns before the apples reach bubbly, pie-like perfection, especially if you like your apples in big wedges, as I do. You can fix this by covering the crisp midway with foil if it's getting too dark -- every home cook enjoys leaning into a 400 F oven to mold a highly conductive metal against a scalding-hot dish, right? Or, you can parcook your apples before the topping is added, evening out the baking times for a truly failproof crisp."
"That's where this headnote might have ended -- but as I was sautéing apples in some brown sugar and butter on the stove to get them started, I realized that I was kind of making a butterscotch sauce. Why kinda make a butterscotch sauce if I could really, actually make a butterscotch sauce? Butterscotch -- butter, brown sugar, vanilla, and salt -- is one of the best substances on this earth, and surprisingly easy to make -- so here we are going to use it twice, first to parcook and deeply infuse the apples with heady deliciousness; and later as the finishing touch on an apple crisp that's unsubtly striving to be the best apple crisp you've ever made."
Serves 6 to 8
Ingredients
For the filling
2 1/2 pounds (1.15 kilograms) baking apples (about 5 or 6 medium; my favorites are Mutsu, Granny Smith, Golden Delicious, or a mix thereof)
Juice of half a lemon
1 cup (215 grams) packed dark-brown sugar
1/4 cup (60 grams) water
1/2 teaspoon flaky sea salt, plus more to taste
2 tablespoons (30 grams) unsalted butter, cold is fine
3/4 cup (170 grams) heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Topping
1/2 cup (4 ounces, or 115 grams) unsalted butter, melted
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 cup (55 grams) packed dark-brown sugar
1/4 cup (50 grams) granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 cup (75 grams) old-fashioned rolled oats
3/4 cup (85 grams) chopped pecans
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons (115 grams) all-purpose flour
Vanilla ice cream, to serve (not optional, sorry)
Note: You're going to end up with twice the extra butterscotch sauce that you need to drizzle on the crisp -- you're welcome. The sauce keeps in the fridge for a month and tastes good on everything from ice cream to oatmeal, pancakes, and spoons. From the fridge, it will be too thick to pour and might have separated; rewarm it for 10 seconds (watch carefully) in a microwave or briefly in a small saucepan on the stove, whisking until it's even and pourable.
Directions
Heat the oven to 400 F (205 C).
Prepare the apples: Peel, halve, and core the apples; then cut the halves into 1/2-inch-thick wedges. Toss them in a large bowl with the lemon juice, and set aside while you make the butterscotch.
Make the butterscotch: In a 12-inch heavy skillet, stir together the brown sugar, water, and salt. Turn the heat to medium-high and cook, without stirring, until it's dark brown and smells caramelized, about 7 to 8 minutes. Do not fret if it smokes; this is par for the course with butterscotch.
Reduce the heat to medium, and carefully (it's going to sizzle dramatically) whisk in the butter, and then the cream, being sure to mix everything well into the corners of the pan, and cook for another 3 to 4 minutes. Add the vanilla. You'll have a scant 1 1/2 cups of butterscotch sauce. Remove from the heat just long enough to ladle half of it carefully into a spouted dish or bowl for later, and set that portion aside.
Parcook the apples: Keeping the heat at medium, add the apples to the remaining butterscotch in the pan, and cook, stirring frequently, until the apples begin to soften and become translucent, but aren't fully cooked, about 12 minutes.
If your skillet is ovenproof, you can keep the apples and butterscotch in it (but I prefer to proceed in a more snug dish). If it's not, transfer everything to a 2-quart baking dish; a deep-dish pie pan will work, too.
Make the topping: Mix all of the topping ingredients in a large bowl until the butter is evenly dispersed and the mixture is rubbly. Sprinkle the topping over the apples, and bake until the apples are tender, their juices visibly bubbling, and the topping is a light, nutty brown, about 20 minutes. Let it cool, if you can bear it, for 10 to 15 minutes before digging in.
To serve: Scoop the crisp into bowls and top with ice cream and a drizzle of the reserved butterscotch sauce. If your butterscotch sauce has cooled and firmed up, you can warm it up quickly in the microwave -- check every 10 seconds, as it warms and bubbles up quickly -- or in a small saucepan on the stove.