Cooking With Butter Recipes

BUTTER TARTS

Steps:

• Make the pastry: In a large mixing bowl, combine flour and salt. Using a pastry blender or your fingertips, rub butter or lard into flour until mixture is in pea-size pieces.
• In a small bowl, mix water, egg yolk and vinegar until well combined. Add liquid to the flour mixture, using a fork to combine. Add 1 tablespoon more water if it looks dry.
• Knead dough several times by hand to bring it together and shape into a flat square. Wrap with plastic and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
• Once chilled, roll out the dough into a 16-inch-by-12-inch (40.5 centimeters by 30.5 centimeters) rectangle about 1/8- to 1/4-inch (3 to 6 millimeters) thick. Flour the work surface and rolling pin as you work with the dough.
• Use a circular 4-inch (10 centimeter) cookie cutter (or a clean 28-ounce/496 milliliter can) to cut 12 pieces. Reroll dough if needed to cut more circles, but try to cut as many pieces on the first pass. With your fingertips, press each circle into the cup of a standard muffin tin, so that the edge of the dough is flush with the pan. Refrigerate while while you make the filling.
• In a bowl, cover raisins with hot tap water to plump. Heat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C).
• Make the filling: In a bowl, mix brown sugar and salt, and then beat the butter into the sugar by hand until smooth. Add vanilla and egg and mix until combined. Do not use an electric mixer; it will add too much air to the filling.
• Drain the raisins and place seven or eight raisins in each chilled tart shell.
• Divide the filling evenly among the tart shells, filling each one about halfway. Place muffin tin on a baking sheet. Bake 13 to 15 minutes for a runnier tart and 17 to 19 minutes for a firmer one.
• A few minutes after removing the tarts from the oven, run a knife or offset spatula around the edge of each tart to loosen. Let cool completely in the tin. To remove, run a butter knife or offset spatula around and under each tart to pop it out of the tin.

BUTTER

Steps:

• Turn on the food processor, and pour the cream through the feed tube. Process for about 10 minutes, until butter has hardened around the blade, leaving the liquid that has separated from the cream in the bottom of the bowl.
• Transfer the butter to a sieve and shake 2 or 3 times over the sink to allow any excess liquid to drain.
• Put the butter in a bowl, cover, and chill for at least 1 hour before using.
• Store it in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.

CHEWY PEANUT BUTTER-MARSHMALLOW BARS

Steps:

• Grease a 9-inch square pan with butter and sprinkle 1/2 cup/17 grams of the cornflakes on the bottom of the pan.
• In a large pot, melt the 6 tablespoons/85 grams butter over medium-low heat. Add the marshmallows and kosher salt, and cook, stirring often, until about half of the marshmallows have melted but the mixture is not completely smooth. Add the peanut butter and mix until just combined, keeping some lumps of marshmallow.
• Take the pan off the heat, and working quickly, add about half the remaining 5½ cups cornflakes, folding them into the marshmallow mixture as gently as possible to avoid crushing the cereal. Repeat with the remaining cornflakes. If the mixture becomes too sticky to work with, briefly return the pot to the heat on low.
• Working quickly, transfer the mixture to the prepared pan, using a wet spoon or spatula to spread and pat into an even layer, again being careful to avoid crushing or packing the cereal.
• Place the chocolate in a small heatproof bowl and microwave it in 15-second intervals, stirring between intervals, until melted and smooth. Drizzle the chocolate over the bars in overlapping lines. (If using chocolate chips, scatter the chips onto the surface of the bars while they are still warm and let sit for 5 minutes, allowing the heat of the cornflakes to melt the chocolate before dragging a fork or toothpick through it to create lines.) Sprinkle the bars lightly with flaky sea salt, and set aside at room temperature (in a cool spot, if possible) until completely set, about 2 hours.
• Cut into bars and serve. Bars will keep, wrapped well at room temperature, for up to 3 days.

BUTTER BISCUITS

Steps:

• Beat the butter with the icing sugar, a pinch of salt and the lemon zest until a smooth.
• Sift in the flour and add the milk, mix to a dough and then knead briefly. Wrap and chill for 1-2 hours.
• Heat the oven to 200C/fan 180C/gas 6. Line 2 baking sheets with baking parchment. Roll the dough out on a floured worksurface to 2mm and cut out different shapes. Arrange the biscuits on the baking sheets, grouping all the same sizes together. Bake for 10-12 minutes until golden, then cool completely.
• Melt the chocolate in a microwave or in a bowl set over simmering water. Dip one side of each cookie into the chocolate and leave to cool and set.