Cheddar Cheese Thumbprint Cookies with Pepper Jelly

These were a tasty and easy to make appetizer. I used Jalapeno Spread on half and Tri-Color Hot Pepper Spread on the other half.

Cheddar Cheese Thumbprint Cookie with Hot Pepper Spread

Makes about 36

1-1/2 cups shredded white cheddar cheese
1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 egg yolk
1 cup all-purpose flour (I used whole wheat flour)
1 cup Small Batch Kitchen Hot Pepper Spread

Preheat oven to 350 F. In food processor, pulse together cheddar and parmesan cheeses and butter until smooth. Add egg yolk; pulse until blended. Add flour; pulse just until soft dough forms. With hands, roll tablespoonfuls of dough into 1-inch balls. Place on ungreased baking sheet. With thumb, make indentation in center of each. Refrigerate for 15 minutes. Bake 15 minutes or until firm outside and lightly golden. Remove the baking sheet from the oven and place the baking sheet on a cooling rack, allowing the cookies to cool directly on the baking sheet. At this point cookies can be stored in airtight containers at room temperature or frozen. Before serving, fill indentations with hot pepper spread. If you have stored the cookies for a time before serving them, you can re-crisp them by baking them at 350 F for 3 minutes, then allow them to cool fully before adding the spread.

Adapted from the recipe found at: http://www.christmas-cookies.com/recipes/recipe363.savoury-cheddar-cheese-thumbprint-cookies.html 

Oktoberfest - October 18th

We'll be at the Oktoberfest event at the Indian Valley Farmer's Market on Saturday, October 18th.

This FREE event runs all day - 8:30 am - 4 pm at Stover Beverages at 115 S. 4th Street, Telford, PA.

We are closing our first Farmer's Market season with a bang, and are debuting our beer and wine line this Saturday.

Also, be sure to place your orders for holiday gifts soon! You can email me at thesmallbatchkitchen@gmail.com to place an order - check out our "What's in Stock" page to see our current availability.

In the Kitchen!

We've been busy in the kitchen!

On Sunday, I went to Frecon Farm Orchard in Boyertown, PA and picked lots of apples and pears. I'm busy working up some sweet and tasty preserves and will have them available at the market starting September 27th. I'll be turning the pears into my mother-in-law's favorite: Brown Sugar Cinnamon Pear Spread!



I also finally jammed up some of our homegrown ground cherries. This recipe turned out better than I could have dreamed! Tastes like a mix of pineapples and strawberries. And the best thing of all - only 3 ingredients! These will be available at the market this week - September 20th.




The pickled beets (3 ways!) will also be ready for the market this week. I jarred these up a few weeks ago, and they have been curing up. Beautiful and delicious!



And lastly, the watermelon rind pickles are an interesting and tasty pickle. My mom told me that she remembered her grandmother taking these out of the pantry and serve them with cucumber tea sandwiches and sweet tea when she would have her friends over.



I couldn't let the watermelon meat go to waste, so I mixed up a batch of watermelon preserves. I'm going to hold onto a jar of this and breakout in the middle of February. It's like a jar of summer!



And I'm excited to announce that I've been working on some tasty beer preserves recipes. I'll be debuting these at the Indian Valley Farmer's Market Oktoberfest on October 18th. I'll probably post some pictures ahead of time, but these will make GREAT stocking stuffers and hostess gifts this holiday season!

Availability Update

I've updated the "Where We'll Be" page to reflect the upcoming farmer's markets dates.  Note that there will be a fun Oktoberfest event on October 18th! I'm also going to be attending a few craft markets this holiday season and will update the page accordingly. 

Current Availability

Mustard & Salt
Blueberry Jalapeno Mustard: 4 oz and 8 oz available

Curry Mustard: 4 oz available
Sage Honey Mustard: 4 oz available

Hot Pepper Salt: 4 oz available

Chutney & Sauces & Salsas

Blueberry Chutney: 8 oz available

Chinese Plum Sauce: 4 oz available
Peach Salsa: 8 oz available
Salsa Verde: 8 oz available
Pepper Relish: 4 oz and 8 oz available

Savory Spread

Roasted Garlic Balsamic: 8 oz available

White Wine & Herb: 4 oz and 8 oz available

Onion Marmalade: 4 oz and 8 oz available

Jalapeno Preserves: 4 oz and 8 oz available

Tomato Peach: 4 oz and 8 oz available

Tomato Jalapeno: 4 oz available
Tomato Basil: 4 oz and 8 oz available
Spicy Tomato: 8 oz available

Tomato Curry: 4 oz and 8 oz available

Beet Marmalade: 8 oz available

Sweet Spread
Honey Plum: 4 oz available
Honey Plum Cardamom: 4 oz available

Peach Bourbon: 4 oz available

Ground Cherry: 4 oz and 8 oz available

Pickles
Sweet & Sour Pickled Onions: 8 oz available
Sweet & Spicy Pickled Onions: 8 oz available

Watermelon Rind Pickles: 8 oz available

Pickled Beets - Spiced: 8 oz available

Pickled Beets - Honey: 8 oz available

Pickled Beets - Cardamom & Clove: 8 oz available

Down to the Last Jar!

Spiced Honey Plum - 4 oz

Lemon Basil - 8 oz

Cherry Bourbon Chipotle - 4 oz

Roasted Garlic Mustard - 8 oz

Blueberry Ginger - 8 oz

Saturday August 2

We will be at the Indian Valley Farmer's Market this Saturday (August 2nd) from 8:30 am - 12:30 pm.

We will have the following products available for purchase:

Sauce
Blueberry BBQ

Mustard
Blueberry Jalapeno
Roasted Garlic
Curry 
Sage Honey Mustard

Chutney
Blueberry

Fruit Spread
Spiced Blueberry
Blueberry Basil
Blueberry Ginger

Glaze
Cherry Bourbon Chipotle 
Onion Marmalade Glaze

Other Spread
Sweet Tea Lemonade
White Wine & Herb
Balsamic Garlic
Lemon Basil 

Pickles
Sweet & Sour Onion Pickles
Sweet & Spicy Onion Pickles

Saturday - July 19th

We will be at the Indian Valley Farmer's Market this Saturday (July 19th) from 8:30 am - 12:30 pm.

We will have the following products available for purchase:

Sauce
Blueberry BBQ

Mustard
Blueberry Jalapeno
Roasted Garlic

Chutney
Blueberry

Fruit Spread
Spiced Blueberry
Blueberry Basil
Blueberry Ginger
Blueberry Vanilla

Glaze
Cherry Bourbon Chipotle

Other Spread
Sweet Tea Lemonade
White Wine & Herb
Balsamic Garlic

Blueberry BBQ Sauce

This is a great BBQ Sauce. We just had this on a grilled pork tenderloin - YUM! It's got a great balance of spicy, heat, and sweetness. I bet this would make a killer grilled chicken sandwich!

Ingredients

Blueberry

Ketchup (Homemade!)

Cider Vinegar

Brown Sugar

Garlic

Spices (Ginger, Chili Pepper Flakes, Black Pepper)

Blueberry Chutney

Turned out to be a wonderfully delicious, tangy chutney. This will go fantastic on any type of grilled meat - would be awesome wrapped up with some fresh veggies and pulled pork in a tortilla too. 

I'll be making up a triple or quadruple batch of this to sell at the market next weekend. 

Ingredients:

Blueberry

Onions

Brown Sugar

Cider Vinegar

Jalapeno Pepper

Spices (Ginger, Mustard Seeds, Nutmeg, Cinnamon, Salt)

Pork Tenderloin with Blueberry BBQ Sauce

Tonight for dinner, we grilled up a pork tenderloin and served it along with some of the Blueberry BBQ Sauce.
Delicious!

It's Official!

Small Batch Kitchen passed inspection today with the PA Department of Agriculture. We are approved and able to start selling our wonderful preserves!

Check back soon with a schedule of the markets we are going to be selling at.

Also, check back to see what we'll be whipping up to sell. Our variety will be changing based on produce availability this season!

Glazed Roasted Chicken

This is a great way to use up some preserves that have been sitting in your fridge. For this particular dinner, I used some delicious IPA jelly I picked up at a market in Vermont, but this would go great with White Wine Garlic, Cherry Chili Bourbon, or Sweet Tea Spread! This would also be good on grilled chicken, or baked legs/breast. Just adjust your cooking time accordingly!

4.5 lbs whole chicken - bag of innards removed

4 garlic cloves

Salt and Pepper

4 oz preserve of choice (melted - about 30 seconds in microwave) If melting in jar - remove lid!!

Preheat oven to 425.

Pat chicken dry and put garlic cloves in cavity

Generously salt and pepper  all sides of chicken and put on roasting rack

Bake chicken (uncovered) at 425 for 15 minutes. Leaving chicken in oven, reduce temperature to 350 and cook for 20 minutes per pound (in this case 1.5 hours) until meat thermometer inserted at thigh registers 180. 

About 15 minutes before the timer goes off, slather the chicken with the melted jelly and return to oven to finish cooking. 

Once temperature is reached, cover chicken with tin foil and let rest about 10-15 minutes.

Carve and enjoy!

Chicken is almost done roasting

Slather with melted jelly and return to oven for another 15 minutes

Perfection!

Enjoy!

Garlic Jelly Roasted Potatoes

A great idea for any savory jelly or spread.

3 Potatoes (thinly sliced)
1/4 Onion - Chopped & lightly sauteed
Salt and Pepper to taste
Milk
2 oz. Jelly (Used White Wine Garlic) - Heated
Grated Parmesan Cheese

Layer Potatoes and onions, salt and pepper between layers
Drizzle with milk
Cover with tin foil
Bake at 350 for 15 minutes
In the meantime, take about 2 oz of jelly and heat in microwave until melted (about 15 seconds)
Remove pan from oven, drizzle with melted jelly, sprinkle with cheese.
Return to oven (uncovered) about 15 minutes (or until potatoes are tender)

Blueberry Jalapeno Mustard

I didn't want to waste the fruit pulp from the Blueberry Vanilla Jelly, so I whipped up a batch of Blueberry Jalapeno Mustard with some of our freshly harvested peppers. We've already had this with pretzels, and I think it would go great on sandwiches!

Cherry Chili Bourbon Spread

I picked up some cherries at a roadside fruit stand and experimented with a new jam recipe!

Cherry Chili Bourbon Fruit Spread

Ingredients
Sweet Cherries
Sugar
Bourbon
Ancho Chili Powder
Pectin
Lemon Juice

It's a great Bourbon-Cherry combination - with the right balance of sweetness and chili heat.

I'm looking forward to serving this alongside a grilled pork tenderloin with a fresh salad and roasted potatoes. It also might be good on turkey burgers or a pulled pork taco with shredded cabbage.

I might whip up another batch and try Chipotle Chilis instead of Ancho for an added bit of smokiness.

PA Preferred!

I'm very excited to announce that our PA Preferred application was approved!

Not only will all Small Batch Kitchen products be made in Pennsylvania, they will be made WITH Pennsylvania produce!

Buy Local. Eat Local.