Easter Archives - Extra Helpings

Celebrate Mother’s Day with Rosemary Currant Scones

What’s your first food memory? This past week at Blue Apron, we’ve been thinking a lot about our moms. For so many of us, mothers and grandmothers played a pivotal role in shaping our relationships with food. We helped them cook, begged them for snacks, and if we were good, we got to pick out a treat at the grocery store.

This Mother’s Day feels a little different. Some of us are isolated away from our family and wish we could be closer. Some of us are with our family, and could probably benefit from a little personal space. All of us are craving some of our childhood classics. Chef Annabel Epstein is missing her mom’s classic stuffed peppers. Chef Alex Saggiomo loves his mom’s banana bread so much that he’s shared the recipe with the entire test kitchen. For Chef Jessica Halper, teatime with mom is a sacred ritual.

This year Jessica is recreating the tradition with these flaky rosemary and currant scones. They make a perfect addition to any brunch table, but they’re also an excellent snack all on their own.

Rosemary Currant Scones

Adapted from Ovenly bakery in New York City, makes 8 larges scones

INGREDIENTS:

8 tablespoons (4 ounces) chilled, unsalted butter cut into ½-inch cubes
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup dried currants
1 teaspoon orange zest
2 tablespoons finely chopped rosemary
1 1/2 cups chilled heavy cream plus more for brushing
2 tablespoons turbinado sugar for garnish

METHOD:

Preheat the oven to 425° F. Place the cubed butter and heavy cream in the freezer 10 minutes before using.
Whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a large bowl.
Using a pastry cutter or your fingertips, work quickly to cut or blend the cold butter into the dry mixture until it resembles small pebbles. Add the orange zest, currants and chopped rosemary to the flour-butter mixture. Carefully mix until just combined.
Slowly stir the chilled cream into the flour-butter mixture with a large wooden spoon until the dough begins to come together. The flour should not be fully incorporated at this point. Do not overmix the dough.
Transfer the dough and any loose floury bits to a floured countertop and quickly knead the dough until it comes fully together. Using a rolling pin or the palm of your hand, flatten the dough into a 3/4 inch-thick mound. The shape does not matter at this point.
Fold the dough in half, give it a quarter turn and then flatten it again using the palm of your hand or a rolling pin. Repeat this process 3 more times. This helps to build the flaky layers in the scone.
Flour your surface once more, and then shape the dough into a 3/4 inch-thick round. Use a bench scraper or a knife to cut the dough into 4 equal triangles. Then cut those in half to make 8 even triangles. Place the triangles on an ungreased rimmed sheet pan.
Place the sheet pan in the freezer for 10 minutes. Brush with cream and top with turbinado sugar just before baking.
Bake for 18 to 20 minutes, or until the tops are golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center of the scones comes out clean. Cool the scones on a wire rack. Serve warm with butter and jam and a cup of tea.

Leftover Peeps? Make Peeps Krispies

Peeps are an enduring Easter tradition. It wouldn’t feel like the holiday without their brightly colored little faces staring vacantly up at us from our seasonal baskets. The problem is, even though they’re basically mandatory, they’re really not that delicious. When it comes to Peeps, flavor seems to be an afterthought.

peep rice krispies — Look at that marshmallow pull

After Easter has passed, it suddenly doesn’t make as much sense to have sugar-coated chick-shaped marshmallows filling up our houses. Here’s how Blue Apron chef Sarah Entwistle turned excess Peeps into colorful cereal treats.

peeps, cocoa krispies, butter — Get creative with your cereal choice

Chocolatey Peeps Krispies

Adapted from Serious Eats

3 tablespoons butter
2 packages of Peeps, two different colors
6 cups of cereal, we used Cocoa Krispies

Brown the butter. Place a medium pot over medium heat and add ½ of the butter. Move the butter around with a spoon or heat-proof spatula while it melts. After it has completely melted, you’ll see it start to foam up around the edges. Continue to stir, and watch the butter closely. After the foam subsidies and you can see some brown specks forming in the bottom of your pan, the butter is ready.
Add one color of peeps and stir to melt.
Stir in 3 cups of cereal.
Using a spatula coated in cooking spray, spread this mixture evenly into a 13 X 9 inch pan.
Repeat this process with the second half of ingredients to form two colorful layers.
Once cool, cut your treats with a serrated knife and enjoy

I Tie-Dyed Easter Eggs to Match My Sweatsuit

Chef Ashely Giddens has been spending more time than usual at home over the past few weeks. When she isn’t cooking, she’s keeping busy with crafts. Her latest project? Tie-dyed Easter eggs. Here’s Ashley:

tie-dyed easter eggs — Isn’t she lovely?

Being cooped up at home leaves plenty of time for crafty experiments. Last week I tie-dyed a sweatsuit, and I loved the results. With Easter around the corner, I wondered if I could apply the same methods to dying Easter eggs.

tie-dyed easter egg inspiration — The Easter egg inspiration

I discovered ice dying when I was researching tie-dye techniques for my matching set. Basically you surround whatever you’re dying with a little wall, top it with crushed ice, and then drop random bits of dye directly onto the ice. When the ice melts, the dye falls onto the item and creates a watercolor effect. It worked so well on my clothing, that I wanted to see if the process could work on other projects: Enter, eggs.

For dye to adhere to eggshells, you need to add an acid. To adapt the ice dying process for eggs, I just doused the ice in a splash of vinegar before dotting the dye over the cubes.

For variety, I also dyed a few eggs with my tried and true practice of dying: wrapping eggs in various objects from my craft bin (string, wire, stickers, rubber bands, etc) and soaking in dye baths. I also colored a few with a food safe marker.

General Tips:

Make sure your eggs are hard-boiled, it makes it easier to handle them without cracking.
I used both white and brown eggs, the brown had less color but were still pretty.
Protect your work surface, I covered my countertops with some parchment paper.
If they’re available, use gloves.
Have fun! There’s no need to stress about perfect results this year. Consider this a fun time to be creative, either on your own, or with loved ones.
If you want to be able to eat the eggs, stick to food safe dyes and edible glitter. Other than that, go wild!

How to Dye All-Natural Easter Eggs

What do turmeric, blueberries, grape juice, and spinach all have in common? They’re each a key ingredient in our-all natural Easter egg dyes.

Using vegetables, fruits, herbs, and juices as natural dye for easter eggs is a fun adventure in kitchen chemistry–and a way to avoid having synthetic dyes in close contact with your food. After you’ve used natural dyes, you’ll find the inside of your eggs completely untouched and practically begging to be turned into deviled eggs.

Instructions for Dying Easter Eggs Naturally

1) Soft boil your eggs. Bring a pot of water to a full roiling boil, plunge in those eggs, and wait for about 6 minutes before removing them.

2) Place eggs in bowls or jars, separated by how many you’d like in various colors.

3) Make your natural dyes by combining any of the ingredients below with 1 quart water and 2 tablespoons of white vinegar in a pot. Boil the natural dye ingredients for 5-7 minutes to get the colors out.

4) Pour your all-natural easter egg dyes into your various bowls and jars with your eggs, and allow them to sit for 4 to 6 hours, checking occasionally to see if colors are as saturated as you’d like.

5) Remove your beautiful eggs and place them on a rack, or on paper towels, to dry.

Watch how this went down with various ingredients in the Blue Apron Test Kitchen!

List of Natural Dyes

Turmeric

Quantity: 3 or more tablespoons of turmeric
Color your egg will turn: Yellowish orange
Things to note: The spice will turn your fingers yellow! Embrace it, or wear gloves.

Paprika

Quantity: 3-4 tablespoons of paprika
Color your egg will turn: A soft orange-ish pink

Red Cabbage

Quantity: 4 cups, chopped and boiled in water and vinegar
Color your egg will turn: Robin’s egg blue
Things to note: The cabbage plus vinegar will smell a bit strong but don’t worry! It’s for a good reason.

Grape Juice

Quantity: 2 cups grape juice to 2 cups water, plus 2 tablespoons vinegar
Color your egg will turn: Dark gray-ish blue
Things to note: Because the grape juice is pretty concentrated, this dye produced the most saturated egg color.

Spinach

Quantity: 4 cups of raw spinach
Color your egg will turn: Extremely pale mint green
Things to note: Unless you’re obsessed with subtlety, consider skipping the spinach dye. It’s really, really pale.

Blueberries

Quantity: two handfuls of fresh blueberries
Color your egg will turn: ‘Blue Apron‘ blue
Things to note: Mash the blueberries in the pot as they heat to bring out the colors. They’ll turn sort of jelly-like as they sit, but don’t worry, that’s normal!

That’s it. Let us know what you think if you try it. And look how perfect the interiors of the eggs stay? Here’s to all-natural eggs! Happy Easter!

P.S. If you’re feeling all-natural AND lazy, here’s a tip. Run to the farmers’ market and pick up eggs in a few different colors (white, brown, blue, and green). You’ve got Easter eggs–no dye needed!