Recipes: Something local & Something imported

After the harvest is over, after all those hours of preparing and storing the bounty of the earth, its so nice to pull out a package of fresh fruits for a taste of summer. So, this morning I made a delicious batch of local raspberry and local blueberry muffins:

Local Berry Muffins

Mix
1 1/2 c. flour
3/4 c. white sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. baking powder

In a 1 cup measure put
1/3 c. oil
1 egg
top up the cup with milk

Combine and fold in 1c. local berries.
Bake at 400oF for 20 minutes.


Then because sometimes I get a hankering for chocolate and that happens to be something not so local, I made some pinwheel shortbread cookies, using cocoa powder from the US and vanilla from the Dominican.

Pinwheel Shortbread Cookies

Mix:
1 c. butter
1 c. icing sugar
2 c. flour
1 tsp. vanilla
2 tbsp. water*

Remove half the dough and roll between 2 sheets of wax paper.

With remaining dough, add 1/4 c. cocoa and 1 tbsp. water* and combine.


*If dough does not resemble play dough/is too dry to work, add more water 1 tbsp. at a time.

Roll this dough between 2 sheets of wax paper as well, then layer onto 1st dough. Roll the two layers into a log, wrap in wax paper and quick chill in the freezer for about 15 minutes, or until solid. Unroll from wax paper and slice cookies off log at about 1/4" thickness. Place on pans and bake at 300oF for 15 minutes or until bottoms are golden.