Blush-worthy

I am shocked an honored that one of the bloggers I greatly admire, Evil Chef Mom, has decided to give me an award!

I haven’t been doing this all that long, but it’s been so much fun and this encouragement just makes it that much better.

So this is how it works:

1. Awarded parties must nominate five people who have not received the award.

2. The blogs that receive the award must serve some purpose.

3. In their post about the award they need to link back to this entry.

4. Awarded parties must post the award banner on their site. The banner must remain linked to this site.

So here are the five incredible bloggers I wish to acknowledge:

1. Kittens in the Kitchen - I haven’t commented that much on her blog, but she always has incredible recipes and one little thing she doesn’t know - her blog is actually one of the reasons I started this in the first place.

2. Straight From the Farm - Heathy and incredibly knowledgable, this woman never fails to inspire me. She has a great blog with incredible recipes and even better pictures and really deserves this award.

3. White on Rice Couple - I can’t believe these two haven’t received this award yet, because their blog is exactly the kind of thing this award was made for. They never fail to over new and helpful information, especially when it comes to the more traditional recipes, and they never fail to inspire.

4. For the Love of Food - Not only does this women constantly offer great recipes, but with the Taste and Create events she hosts with much dedication every month, she brings together other food bloggers that might not run into each other without it. What better purpose could a blogger have?

5. Baking Bites - this wonderful blogger not only offers great recipes that never fail, she also gives out general information that has proven to be irreplacable. This blog is one of the first places I go when I have questions.

Thank you again, Evil Chef Mom, for this award, and for the chance to acknowledge these incredible bloggers, and thank each of you for writing such great blogs.

Phew, now that this is out of the way, I should have more great recipes for you guys soon. Stick around cause I really think you’ll enjoy them 

Just Desserts

One of my favorite bloggers, Evil Chef Mom has declared this day a day to paaaaarty! That means all of us out in this lovely world of blogging are preparing incredible dishes for our virtual pot luck!

Three guesses what I made…..yup, you guessed it, CHOCOLATE! It’s a little early for dessert, of course, but who says you have to save the chocolate till after dinner? hehe

Aaaand to make things even better for all of you out there joining our party, I came home to a wonderful treat last night. You see, Blake, of Blake Makes does wonderful food givaways for his faithful followers, and this last one gave every single one of us…yup, you guessed it…CHOCOLATE! Free Amano chocolate

I cannot tell you how great this chocolate is. I used the Ocumare for this recipe, but I had to of course eat some of it straight. For that I chose the Cuyagua, a limited edition chocolate and I gotta tell you, this stuff is amazing. It has such full flavor and body, like a fine wine. You should really check out the site and order some yourself.

But enough of that for now, you guys want the good stuff don’t you? Well how does this sound? Pudding, Chocolate Whipped Cream and Brownie crumbs, all with a little (okay, a LOT) of godiva dark chocolate liqueur? Hehe.

This stuff is perfect for any party, because not only is it easy and tasty, but it’s really easy to make it pretty, too 

Triple Chocolate Pudding Parfait
Adapted from recipe on Epicurious

pudding
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup unsweetended cocoa powder
pinch of salt
2 cups whole milk
4 oz chocolate, finely chopped
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
generous splash of chocolate liqueur

whipped cream
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon chocolate liqueur

about 1 cup of brownies, crumbled
more chocolate liqueur

Mix all of the ingredients for the whipped cream in a bowl, but do not whip yet. Put in the fridge with your beaters/whisk to chill.

Whisk cornstarch, sugar, cocoa and salt in a saucepan, then gradually whisk in milk.

Bring to a boil, whisking constantly. Allow to boil until it’s nice and thick. Do not stop whisking while it’s cooking. Remove from heath and whisk in chopped chocolate and butter until melted.

Transfer pudding to a metal bowl and quick-chill by setting in an ice bath, stirring constantly. Allow to sit until you’re ready.

Take out the bowl with the whipped cream ingredients and beat until stiff peaks form.

Now comes the fun part. Sprinkle some of the brownie crumbs into the glasses/serving bowl/ dish you wish to use. drizzle on some of the liqueur, then layer the pudding and whipped cream. Repeat as many times as you can. Garnish as desired. Enjoy

I really had fun making this. If you’re gonna be sharing with kids you can take out the chocolate liqueur completely, and just replace it with vanilla for the whipped cream.  The Amano chocolate really made a difference with this. I have one more bar left, and already have a great idea for it

Sweetness By Request

I am one of those people that try to please everyone. I know, I know, it’s never a good idea, but I do enjoy making people happy. So when not just one, but two people commented about their interest in the cinnamon-sugar crackers, I just had to try it

I am pretty happy I did cause they really did turn out great, so ladies, I hope you’ll try it yourself. They’re well worth it!

Cinnamon Sugar Crackers
Source: Straight From the Farm

2 ½ c. flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 t. salt
4 T. olive oil
¾ c. cold water

For sprinkling on top:
3 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Preheat oven to 400 F.  Mix dry ingredients together in a medium bowl being sure to get everything well blended.  Add the oil and half of the water and begin mixing.  Add more water as necessary to form a rough dry dough.  Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead just until it comes together into a cohesive ball.

Divide dough into even quarters.  On a piece of parchment paper, roll dough as thin as possible.  Cut the dough into squares or other desired shape and use a fork to prick each square.  Sprinkle generously with cinnamon/sugar mix.

Bake for 15 minutes, or until golden brown, turning the sheet once half way through.  While the first batch is baking, roll out another quarter of dough.  Let baked crackers cool before breaking apart.  Store in a ziplock bag. Enjoy

This is a wonderful treat, and it would be something fun to make with kids since it is so very easy.

Oh and I was tagged, so I might as well add it here. Grace from A Southern Grace was tagged for a new game called “Look What I Made” and decided to pass on the love. Basically, you compile a list of five recipes that you’ve tried from other blogs. Not so hard for me since that seems to be where I’ve gotten most of the recipes on this blog

The creator of this little game, Farida of Farida’s Azerbaijani Cookbook, says that “this is a great opportunity to give kudos to the fellow foodies whose recipes we used and inspire them to post more of their yummies. A way to say thank you for what they do. I also think this tag will help us discover some interesting recipes and blogs out there. There are a lot of delicious recipes hidden somewhere in the archives, and this tag may actually give them another chance to shine.”

So here we go five things I’ve made:

Artisan Herb Crackers from Straight From the Farm
Buttermilk Biscuits from For the Love of Food
Cheesy Bread Braid from Cookie Baker Lynn
Kahlua Hot Chocolate from We [Heart] Food
and
Hearty Potato Bread from A Year in Bread

Unfortunately I don’t have that many readers yet, so I don’t have many people to choose from to tag back. However, I will go with Krysta, the Evil Chef Mom, Either/both Todd and Diane from White on Rice Couple and Lisa Rene from Little Bits. Hopefully you guys will have fun with it and not hate me forever

The Hands-On Approach

So a while ago I mentioned that my pasta machine broke. It’s very sad. I missed making pasta enough that I got to the point that I even opened the damn thing up and tried to fix it myself. I thought I got it but of course when I tried to use it again it refused to play nice. *sigh* No problem, once I get that stimulous money I will be buying myself another.

In the meantime, I still miss making pasta, and friday night it hit me that there were types of pasta that didn’t need to be rolled out! I could make some of that easily! So yesterday I did just that. I made Cavatelli!

It’s an easy enough process, but takes a while so make sure you have the time before you start. It is well worth it though. It’s always so soothing to work with dough.

Cavatelli
Source: Eating Cleveland

16 oz. Ricotta Cheese
2 Eggs
1 Pinch of Salt
3 Cups (1 pound) All Purpose Flour 

Pour about 2 1/2 cups of the flour into a bowl and make a well in the middle.  Add the eggs and cheese and stiring in circles, mix everything up well. Add more flour it needed.

Dump the dough out onto your work surface and knead it well, working in more flour as needed until you have a soft but not sticky dough. Cover and allow to rest for 30 minutes or more.

Divide the dough into at least eight balls (the smaller the balls, the easier it is to work with so you might even want to make it 16) cover all but one ball of dough. Take the ball you’re working with and roll it between your palms above your work surface, working it into a long thin tube. Once it gets harder to work with like that, place on the work surface and roll out with your palms until you have a long thin tube about 1/4 inch diameter.

Cover and work out the other balls the same way then cut each tube into pieces 1/2 to 1 inch long. 

With a pastry cutter or the flat edge of a butter knife, angle the blade at approximately 45 degrees, then starting at the far edge and pulling the dough towards you, drag the blade across the dough. It should roll up around the edge of the blade. Drop your cavatelli into a well floured pan and continue working till you’ve done all of the dough.

To cook, drop by handfuls into well salted boiling water and cook until it begins to float. Test one before taking them off the heat but fresh cavatelli should only need a few minutes to cook. Enjoy

Just a Little Snack

I don’t really need more forms of bread in my life. A true carbovore, I actually have to ration the amount of bread I eat every day, or I will just eat the entire loaf in one sitting. Seriously

HOWEVER, when I saw this very easy recipe for homemade crackers I decided right away that I just had to make them. Yes, you read that right. Homemade Crackers. The only hard part (well, besides actually trying to make them last) was what spices to use… rosemary? garlic? parmesan? Italian herbs? something with sugar and cinnamon? mmmmmm

The site I got this from, Straight From the Farm, is quickly becoming one of my favorites. Not only does she seem to be as smitten with homemade bread as I am, but I think it’s pretty great that all her recipes include something from her farm. Pretty cool, huh?

I figured this would be a good way to start in on my “more spices” resolution. I went back and forth on it for a while before finally deciding on rosemary, garlic and pepper.

I cannot tell you how great this dough smelled while I was kneading it. I just wanted to keep sniffing it the whole time.

Artisan Herb Crackers
Source: Straight From the Farm

2 ½ c. flour
3 t. dried herbs/seasonings
1 t. salt
4 T. olive oil
¾ c. cold water
coarse salt for sprinkling on top

Preheat oven to 400 F.  Mix dry ingredients together in a medium bowl being sure to get everything well blended.  Add the oil and half of the water and begin mixing.  Add more water as necessary to form a rough dry dough.  Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead just until it comes together into a cohesive ball.

Divide dough into even quarters.  On a piece of parchment paper, roll dough as thin as possible.  Cut the dough into squares or other desired shape and use a fork to prick each square two or three times.  Sprinkle with course sea salt. 

Bake for 15 minutes, or until golden brown, turning the sheet once half way through.  While the first batch is baking, roll out another quarter of dough.  Let baked crackers cool before breaking apart.  Store in a ziplock bag. 

These things are great for any day, but considering all the rain we’ve been getting, what could be better than a bowl of soup and some homemade crackers?

I think I added too much pepper, and they definitely needed more garlic, but they were really great and a lot of fun to make. And again this is a recipe that’s only limited by your imagination. I am thinking about trying a cinnamon sugar blend next

Bite Sized Heaven

It’s always a little difficult to come up with decent treats for a gathering of any sort, and much more difficult to come up with something not only easy, but impressive as well.

When I saw this recipe on Joy of Baking, I thought it would be something fun and tasty. I had no idea it would be easy too.  You have to work kinda fast, so it’s a good idea to have everything set up before hand, but it is incredibly tasty; and who could resist something this cute??

I was really surprised at how easy this was. You just bake the dough and it puffs up to this beautiful hollow pastry that you can fill with anything you like. I chose a chocolate whipped cream this time, but the sky is really the limit

Pate a Choux
Source: Joy of Baking

1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup unsalted butter
1/2 cup water
2 large eggs

Egg wash:
1 large egg
pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 400F. Cover cookie sheets with parchment paper.

In a bowl sift together the flour, sugar and salt. Set aside.

Lightly beat each of the eggs in a separate bowl.

In another bowl mix the salt and egg for the egg wash.

Place the butter and water in a saucepan over medium heat and bring to a boil. Remove from heat and quickly mix in the flour mixture with a wooden spoon. Return to the heat and stir constantly until the dough forms a thin dry film on the bottom of the pan.

Dump the dough into another bowl and beat for a minute or two to release the steam. Let dough rest until lukewarm. Beat in the eggs one at a time until the dough forms a thick smooth paste. Spoon into a zip lock bag, cut off the tip and pipe into mounds on the parchment paper. (Note, you do not have to pipe into mounds. You can make the dough into any shape you want. Be creative and have fun with it!) If you want they nicely rounded be sure to flatten the tips lightly with your fingers.

Brush the dough lighlty with the egg wash, then bake for 15 minutes, turning the tray halfway through. Reduce heat to 350F and bake for another 30 minutes (turning halfway through again.) Turn the oven off and with the door proped open, let the shells dry out further. Remove from oven and let cool on a wire rack. When you split them open they should be completely dry and hollow inside.

Unfortunately I don’t know the exact measurements for the whipped cream. I didn’t quite have enough heavy whipping cream for a full 1/2 cup, and even though I put 1 teaspoon of chocolate liqueur at first, after whipping I decided to add another splash of it. It was approximately 1/2 cup whipped cream, 1 teaspoon cocoa powder, 1/2 teaspoon of sugar and 1-2 teaspoons of chocolate liqueur. Just keep beating it until stiff peaks form.

Then you just pipe or spoon into the cut open pastry, sprinkle with powdered sugar and enjoy. Your imagination is really the limit on these things cause you can literally do whatever you want. Just have fun with it and enjoy

Tasty Tweaks

It’s always fun to adjust recipes and try to perfect them to your own tastes. Most of the recipes that I have posted here so far, I have changed at least a little bit to make it perfect. A little extra butter, more sugar, less this, more that. Whatever it might take to make them perfect for me.

Well these rolls have been on my mind since I first made them. I assumed that adding sugar to the dough, maybe a little extra honey or something like that might give me what I was looking for, but they didn’t really turn out. That little bit changed the recipe just enough so it wasn’t quite as good as they were before, and the crust wasn’t the least bit crispy so I put it aside once again and continued to let it turn in the back of my mind, hoping to come up with something.

A couple days ago I was looking at the notes on The Fresh Loaf on substituting instant yeast for active dry yeast for another recipe I wanted to try, and a light bulb came on. Check it out…. “using less yeast and letting it rise more slowly will result in a more flavorful loaf.” Total epiphany moment.

So that is what I have done here. I reduced the yeast by a whole 1/2 teaspoon. I will probably do a less drastic reduction next time, but this is exactly what it needed. Now not only are they super pillowy soft inside and gloriously crispy outside; they are huge, and incredibly tasty. Don’t you just love when a recipe comes together like that??

Crispy Rolls Redux
Adapted from Harvest King Flour Recipe

3 1/4 cups flour
3/4 teaspoon instant yeast
1 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 1/2 cups water
2 teaspoons honey

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour and yeast. Stir in the water and honey then mix in the salt. Mix well by hand then dump out onto a work surface.

Knead the dough for approximately 10-15 minutes until soft and slightly sticky. You can add more flour or water as needed.

Put the dough in a lightly greased bowl. Grease the top of the dough then cover with a clean towel or saran wrap and allow to sit for two hours or more until doubled. This will take longer to rise than normal.

De-gas the dough, then cut it into eight even portions. Cover all but one.

Take the ball you are working with, flaten it and fold the edges in. Flaten and do it again, stretching the dough a bit as you go. Repeat until the bottom is smooth and flat. Place on a clean surface with the creased-side down and cover with a wet towel. Do the same for the other pieces.

Cover the rolls and allow to rise for another hour until doubled. Preheat oven to 450F. Put cookie sheet in oven about 5 minutes before you’re ready to bake them.

Place the rolls on a sheet of parchment paper on a pizza peel or sheet of stiff cardboard and carefully slide onto the cookie sheet. Bake for approximately 10 minutes, rotate the cookie sheet then bake for another ten minutes or until a thermometer inserted inside reads approximately 200F.

Remove from oven and immediately brush with melted butter. Allow to cool before diving in. Enjoy

As you can see I didn’t cut the tops this time and I kinda like the look it gave. It was also kinda cool to hear the crust cracking as it cooled.

These things are just so incredibly tasty, I will be using this recipe often myself. Let me know if you decide to try them.

Taste & Create VIII - Naan

This month’s taste and create actually took me out of the country, to India!…Okay, so I didn’t actually go anywhere, but my partner this month has a blog called Cooking 4 All Seasons, and she makes lovely traditional Indian dishes.

It’s kinda exciting. I actually found a few recipes that I am tempted to try, but decided to go with Naan, a traditional Indian bread, and apparently one of my partner’s favorites. I only hope I’ve done it justice.

The recipe actually calls for cooking it in a tawa, which, from what I can figure out is much like a wok, only cast iron. Unfortunately I do not own a wok, or a tawa, so I just used a frying pan. So very American of me, right? It isn’t nearly as pretty as hers turned out, but it tastes damn good and it was actually lots of fun to try something like this.

She didn’t have exact amounts on some things, but thankfully all the bread I have been making recently gave me enough experience to make it work out.

Naan
Source: Cooking for All Seasons

3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tsp instant yeast
1 1/2 cup warm milk (not above 100F)
1 tsp sugar
Sesame Seeds
Butter

Dissolve the yeast and sugar in the milk. Let rest approximately 10 minutes.

In a large bowl, mix well the flour with the yeast/milk mixture then mix in the salt. Knead until soft and elastic. Cover with a damp towel and leave in a dark place to rise until doubled, about two hours.

Remove the dough from the bowl, degas gently then divide into ten even balls.

Roll out into triangles, dusting lightly with flour as needed. I discovered that the thinner you roll out out the better.

Heat up a frying pan, generously brush one side of the dough with water, and begin to cook on medium heat, then brush the other side. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and as a triangle by dusting it with the flour. The dough should bubble a bit as it cooks, just leave it on the heat for a few minutes, then flip it to cook the other side for a shorter amount of time.

Move to a plate a generously butter. Enjoy.

My partner recommends having this with her Chicken Tikka Masala. If you try either of them, let me know how it turned out.

This recipe, especially the cooking part took a bit of trial and error since a frying pan is so not a tawa, but it was still a lot of fun. Can’t wait to see who I am paired with next month!

Simply Sweet

I have a pretty big event that I am gonna be baking for in the near future (yay!), so a lot of the recipes coming up, including this one, are gonna be practicing for that. Most of the recipes I want to use are things that I have done often, but as a few are new, I of course want to try them out first, make sure I can actually do them before attempting to do them in bulk

I don’t know what it is about shortbread cookies, but for some reason I love them. They are a very simple, delicate cookie. They are kinda sweet, so that could be part of it, (you all know of my sweet tooth) but it is just something about the combination of that specific texture and the taste that makes me very happy…it could also have something to do with the fact that I have always been able to convince myself this is healthier than other cookies

I also wanted to practice working with white chocolate since it is so very different from milk/dark chocolate, so some of these are dipped or decorated a little, but they are great plain too. Just make yourself a nice cup of tea, grab a few of these things and unwind.

Shortbread Cookies
Source: Joy of Baking

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon sale
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla

In a small bowl whisk the flour with the salt. Set aside.

In a large bowl, cream the butter until smooth. Add the sugar and beat until smooth. Beat in the vanilla extract. Gently stir (do not beat) in the flour mixture just until incorporated. It will seem very flaky and dry but that’s okay.

Flatten the dough into a disk, wrap in plastic wrap and chill for at least an hour.

Preheat oven to 350F with the rack in the middle of the oven. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.

On a lightly floured surface roll out the dough to 1/4 inch thick. You might have to knead the dough a bit to work it. If it starts sticking to the rolling pin, lightly dust the pin with flour. 

Cut cookies as desired and place on cookie sheets and place in the refrigerator for about 15 minutes. This will firm up the dough so the cookies maintain their shape. Bake for 5 minutes, turn the cookie sheet and bake for 5 more minutes or until lightly brown. Cool on a rack.

 These are better the next day. They taste a little too much like powdered sugar that same day but after they get really good.

If you’d like to decorate them with chocolate, chop up the chocolate and melt in a double boiler. After that it’s up to your imagination. Swirl, drizzle, dip…whatever you please.

I also played around with chocolate covered oreos. I obviously need to work on my technique a little but it was still much fun and very tasty.

Even Treats Grow Up Sometimes

 

So my friend Kim, (the fiancee of my dear friend Dean, whom I have mentioned before) finally turned 21 last month! We were all very excited about it, and of course I just had to make something special for her.

It took me quite a while to come up with a great gift. I thought up, and shot down a few ideas before coming up with something I liked, but I don’t think I wavered once on this treat.

You see, Kim is a chocoholic like me. Which makes it easy to come up with ideas, and to top it off when she and Dean came to my place for a season finale party, she couldn’t resist the brownies I had made. Granted, being such a good friend I kept moving the plate right in front of her, but still, they seemed to make her really happy so I was already leaning that way when I saw a recipe on Culinary Concoctions by Peabody for liqueured brownies!

Yes, my dear friends, brownies, like the hot chocolate I made last month, have finally grown up

Because I really like the brownie recipe I made back in February, I decided just to take the concept from Peabody and use my own recipes. I’ve used that same brownie recipe here, added a little liqueur (okay, a lot of liqueur) and instead of her buttercream frosting I used a powdered sugar glaze. With liqueur instead of water, of course

Can you imagine anything better than these after a long hard day? You get tons of rich fudgy chocolate AND just enough alchohol to make the stresses of the day melt away.

Boozy Brownies

source: CookingClub.com

1 cup butter, melted
2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 bag dark chocolate chips
1/3 cup creme de cacao

Glaze
1/3 cup powdered sugar
1 tablespoon creme de cacao

1. Heat oven to 350°F. Grease 8-inch square pan. In large bowl, whisk together melted butter, sugar and 2 teaspoons vanilla. Whisk in eggs until well-combined.

2. In medium bowl, stir together flour, cocoa, baking powder and 3/4 teaspoon salt. Gradually stir flour mixture into egg mixture until well-combined. Stir in chocolate chips then spread in pan.

3. Bake 35 to 40 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean but with some crumbs attached (brownies may sink in center). While brownies are still hot, generously brush liqueur over the top then allow to completely on wire rack.

4. Once cool, cut brownies, place them on wire rack with a little space between them. Mix the ingredients for the glaze, adding a little more liqueur if needed. Pour into a zip lock bag, cut off the tip and drizzle over brownies.

As you can probably tell, adding so much liqueur after they were baked made them a little gooey, almost like they were underbaked (even though they weren’t!) If you try it yourself, you might want to overbaked them a little. Then again, gooey chocolaty, boozy brownies are always good.

I am really happy with how these things turned out. They are rather potent, so make sure little hands don’t stray to the wrong plate, but they really are great.

Update: I sent some of these home with Kim, and brought some into work. Dean dove into the home ones immediately and loved them, and at work they were gone almost instantly, so this is definitely a winner