Daring Baker’s December Challenge
December 26th, 2009

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Gingerbread House

The December 2009 Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to you by Anna of Very Small Anna and Y of Lemonpi. They chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ everywhere to bake and assemble a gingerbread house from scratch. They chose recipes from Good Housekeeping and from The Great Scandinavian Baking Book as the challenge recipes.

I had very mixed feelings about this months challenge both excitement and dread.  At first I was really excited to make my first gingerbread house from scratch.  I had all these lofty ideas of recreating a famous building from here in Vancouver, but that was very short lived.  After a few weeks of thinking I finally decided to make the dough and that was when I realized maybe I should be a bit more realistic.

Over the first couple weeks of December I was following along with others that were having problems with the dough, which wasn’t very encouraging.  I was convinced that mine was going to work out great.  As I put the wet ingredients together in my kitchenaid I was feeling pretty good, that was until I saw that the recipe called for 9 cups of flour!  How did I miss that?  I don’t even have 9 cups of white flour, so I ended up using 4 cups of whole wheat flour as well.

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As you can see from the picture, there was so much flour, I was pretty skeptical that all of that flour was going to fit in my mixer.  As I began adding the flour I realized half way through that I was in trouble, there was no way it was all going to mix with the little amount of liquid the recipe called for.  And it definitely wasn’t going to fit in my mixer.  I found myself going back to the recipe to make sure that I had included everything.  Sure enough I had, but goodness it is so dry.

I decided the only way to mix it all together was to move the wet ingredients to the large bowl the flour was in and just mix it with my hands.  A word of advise though would be to take off your rings before you start doing that, I was left with some very messy rings.

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After finally getting the dough mixed together I again was skeptical that it was going to stay together enough to actually roll out.  Anna assured everyone that after you let it rest in the fridge for 4 hours it comes together, so that is what I did.  After 4 hours of resting in the fridge I was a bit discouraged because it was just as dry as when I put it in the fridge.  I decided to just go ahead and freeze the dough and deal with it the following weekend.

Thankfully over the week that I waited to tackle the dough again, many more of my fellow Daring Baker’s had tried different things and came up with some great solutions for the dry dough.  Come to find out that it was better to weigh the dough than to use it by volume.

After thawing my dough I added a bit more whipping cream, kneaded it a bit and it was ready to be rolled out.  Since I scaled back my plan I definitely didn’t need all the dough that was made so unfortunately I ended up tossing half of the dough.  If I was to do this again I would plan a little better and make a half recipe instead.

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Thanks again to more of my fellow Daring Baker’s suggestions I rolled out the dough between pieces of saran wrap and then cut them while on pieces of parchment so that I didn’t have to move them after cutting.

At this point in the process I was kind of just ready to be done but I pushed ahead to make some royal icing while the gingerbread was cooking so I could start assembling.  After the gingerbread cooled a bit I was ready to assemble which surprisingly was done in record time.

After 20 minutes or so I had a finished gingerbread house that didn’t look too stable, probably because I put it up so quick.  If I was to do this again I would do it with another person, it is just a bit boring to do all these steps an sit there and decorate alone, I should have had my husband make one too.

The end result was a cute gingerbread house that my husband almost immediately started eating after taking the pictures.

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2 1/2 cups packed dark brown sugar

1 1/2 cups heavy cream

1 1/4 cup molasses

9 1/2 cups all purpose flour

2 tablespoons baking soda

1 tablespoons ground ginger

In a very large bowl, with wire wisk, beat frown sugar, cream, and molasses until sugar lumps dissolve and mixture is smooth.  In medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda and ginger.  With spoon, stir flour mixture into cream mixture in 3 additions until dough is too stiff to stir, then knead with hands until all the flour is incorporated and dough is smooth.

Divide dough into 4 equal parts, flatten each into a disk to speed chilling.  Wrap each disk well in plastic wrap and refridgerate atleast 4 hours until doug is firm enough to roll.

Roll out dough, 1 disk at a time between two pieces of plastic wrap and cut into desired shapes.

Preheat oven to 300 degrees

Chill for 10 minutes prior to baking if the dough seems soft.  Bake for 25-30 minutes until pieces are firm to the touch, do not over bake.

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Tags: , | Posted in Baking, Daring Bakers |
Long Overdue Sushi Making
December 20th, 2009

First Sushi RollMaking SushiFinished Sushi Roll

I do have to confess something about this post, it is a bit overdue.  We made sushi back in July!  I have had every intention of writing about it but one thing or another kept me from doing it, mostly out of laziness.  I have had the pictures in my inbox for the entire time saying to myself as long as I keep them in plain sight then I will eventually write the post.

I am happy to say I am finally writing the post.

Sushi is a food that my love for it comes and goes.  For many years I enjoyed it and then I got to the point where although I didn’t hate it I felt like I could only have a couple pieces before I was done.  Well I am back to a love of sushi and thought it was about time to make my own.

Sean and I have some wonderful friends in Qualicum Beach who are gracious enough to give us their daughter Amy’s room whenever we want to come visit, which is not nearly often enough.  We have been hearing for year’s about Erik’s homemade sushi and with my renewed love of sushi we decided to get all the makings and roll ourselves some sushi.

What I loved about this whole process was that Erik and Danielle got all the different ingredients together and then we just went about creating any sort of roll we wanted.  We had tuna, avocado, cream cheese, salmon, crab, cucumber and some spicy sauce.

Erik explained the importance of good sushi rice and the whole process that goes into it, little did I know that the rice was so important.  He then showed us the basics of rolling both with rice on the inside and on the outside and then we were creating our sushi.

Sushi towerSushi Tower 3Sushi tower 2

As we made our tower of sushi I thought that there was no way we were going to be able to eat all that food.  Little did I know that Amy and Lydia, Erik and Danielle’s daughters, were such huge sushi fans and that when challenged Sean and Erik will egg eachother on until they have stuffed themselves sick.  Thanks to these two things we finished all the sushi and were ready for a bit of a nap.

We had a wonderful visit with the Weisner family and hopefully there are many more sushi visits in our future.

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Tags: | Posted in Seafood |
Afternoon of Baking
December 15th, 2009

Black Bottom Coconut Bar

Baking is something that I really enjoy the only problem I find with baking is that I really don’t want to have all the baked goods in my house.  I am weak when it comes to sweets and I know that I would eat them all and I am really trying to be good over the holiday season.  My solution to that problem is to bake lots of things and then give them away to either family or coworkers.

For a second weekend in a row I did some serious baking, but this time I was fortunate enough to go over to friends house and use her big kitchen for all things baking.  We weren’t sure what we wanted to make since we are tired of making all the usuals, so I set out on the internet to get some good ideas of holiday treats and came across Martha Stewarts suggestions.

I am not normally a Martha Stewart fan, but she had some really good ideas so I thought I would make our baking afternoon a Martha Stewart themed day and make 4 of her top holiday recipes.  The recipes for the day were black bottom coconut bars, pecan bars, ginger cookies and almond ginger biscotti.  All of these recipes seemed to have really good potential but as with any recipe you start coming up with the ways you would do them differently the next time around.

Since these recipes pretty much called for basic ingredients there were only a few things we had to pick up at the store.  So after a quick trip to the store we were ready to start baking.  As the recipes were coming together they were both quick and easy, which is always nice.

Pecan Bars

I find that baking is much more fun when you have a warm cup of coffee and a friend to visit with.  We had a great time baking and ended up with two really good recipes and two duds.  I would definitely make the coconut and pecan bars again but pass on the ginger cookies and biscotti.

Biscotti

The unfortunate part about the ginger cookies was that they ended up very flat and tasting a bit too much like molasses.  The biscotti didn’t cook all the way through so when we cut it up it just never got crunchy.  I am beginning to wonder if I am destined to keep making bad biscotti, considering my biscotti last weekend didn’t turn out either.

Ginger Cookies

We had a great time regardless of the results and look forward to doing some more baking together in the future.

Black-Bottom Coconut Bars

Courtesy of Martha Stewart.com

For Chocolate Base

1/2 cup unsalted butter

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 egg

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/4 cup all purpose flour

For Coconut Topping

2 large eggs

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup all purpose flour

1 package sweetened shredded coconut

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Place butter in a large microwave-safe bowl; melt in microwave. Add sugar and salt; whisk to combine. Whisk in egg, then cocoa and flour until smooth. Spread batter in prepared pan. Bake just until sides begin to pull away from edges of pan, 10 to 15 minutes (do not overbake). Let cool slightly while preparing coconut topping. Keep oven on for topping.

In a medium bowl, whisk eggs with sugar and vanilla. Gently mix in flour and coconut (except 1/2 cup reserved for sprinkling). Drop mounds of mixture over chocolate base; spread and pat in gently and evenly with moistened fingers. Sprinkle with reserved 1/2 cup coconut. Bake until golden and a toothpick inserted in center comes out with moist crumbs attached, 25 to 30 minutes. Cool completely in pan. Lift cake from pan, peel off foil, and cut into 24 bars.

Pecan Bars

Courtesy of Martha Stewart.com

For the Crust

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1/2 cup unsalted butter, chilled and cut into small pieces

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 large egg, lightly beaten

For the Filling

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1/4 cup light corn syrup

1/4 cup heavy cream

1/4 teaspoon salt

8 ounces  pecans

1/2 cup chilled unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Line a 9-inch square baking pan with foil. In a food processor, pulse flour, sugar, and salt to combine. Add butter; pulse until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add egg; pulse just until a dough forms. Transfer dough to prepared pan; with floured fingers and an offset spatula, press firmly into bottom and 3/4 inch up sides. Freeze until firm, about 15 minutes. Prick bottom of dough; bake until lightly golden, 22 to 25 minutes. Let cool while preparing filling.

In a large saucepan, bring butter, brown sugar, and corn syrup to a boil over high heat, whisking constantly, until smooth; continue boiling, without stirring, until slightly darkened, about 2 minutes. Remove pan from heat. Whisk in cream and salt; mix in pecans.

Spoon hot filling evenly over crust, using spoon to arrange and press in nuts so they fit snugly (create as flat a surface as possible). Bake until bubbling and amber-colored, 18 to 22 minutes. Cool completely in pan. Using foil, lift cake from pan; peel off foil. With a sharp knife, trim edges (if desired). Cut into 6 even strips; cut each strip crosswise into 4 even strips to make 24 bars.

Ginger Cookies

Courtesy of Martha Stewart.com

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

2 1/4 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon allspice

1/2 teaspoon pepper

3/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

6 tablespoons molasses

1 large egg

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper; set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, ginger, allspice, and pepper. With an electric mixer, cream butter, brown sugar, and 1/2 cup granulated sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in molasses and egg. With mixer on low, gradually beat in flour mixture until just combined. Flatten into a disk, wrap in plastic, and freeze for 20 minutes.

Divide dough into twelve 2-inch balls. Place remaining 1/3 cup granulated sugar in a bowl. Roll balls in sugar to coat; place at least 4 inches apart on prepared baking sheets. Flatten into 3-inch rounds. Sprinkle with sugar remaining in bowl. Bake until brown, rotating sheets halfway through, 12 to 15 minutes. Cool cookies on a wire rack.

Almond Ginger Biscotti

Adapted from Martha Stewart.com

2 cups all purpose flour

3/4 cup sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 tablespoons grated lemon zest

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups slivered almonds

1/4 cup chopped crystallized ginger

3 large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, 3/4 cup sugar, baking powder, zest, and salt. Stir in almonds and ginger. In a small bowl, whisk together eggs and vanilla; stir into flour mixture. (Dough will appear very dry but will come together when kneaded.) Transfer dough to a lightly floured work surface; knead until smooth. Divide dough in half; shape into two logs, each about 1 inch high and 3 inches wide. Place on a parchment lined baking sheet; sprinkle with remaining sugar.

Bake until logs are puffed and outside is firm (the tops may crack), about 30 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool for 20 minutes. Using a serrated knife, thinly slice the logs crosswise,1/4 inch thick. Lay slices on two parchment-lined baking sheets. Bake until crisp and lightly golden, rotating pans and turning biscotti over halfway through, 20 minutes total. Cool completely before serving or storing.

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Tags: , , , , | Posted in Baking |
Honey Curry Chicken
December 15th, 2009

Honey Curry Chicken

While looking through various blogs and websites I came across a recipe for Curry Honey Chicken which looked really good.  It looked like a perfect meal for a week night dinner so I added it to the schedule for the week.

After mixing together the ingredients for the sauce I decided to make a couple of changes which actually in my mind changed the recipe from a Curry Honey Chicken to  Honey Curry Chicken, let me explain… 

Originally there was much less honey in the recipe and I found that it had a very strong soy sauce taste and was lacking in the sweetness of honey that I was expecting.  The original recipe was good but I wanted to take it a different way and make it more of a sweet chicken recipe.  So the recipe went from 1 tablespoon of honey to 1/4 cup or so, to be honest I was just adding honey until it was the right amount of sweet. 

The end result was really good, just the right amount of sweet with the honey being the star of the show. 

Honey Curry Chicken

Adapted from Palachinka

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into pieces

1/4 cup honey, to taste

2 tsp curry powder

1 tablespoon oil

2 tablespoons lemon juice

1/4 cup soy sauce

1 teaspoon corn starch

Heat oil over medium high heat in frying pan.  Cook chicken for 5 minutes until done.

Mix remaining ingredients together and add to the finished chicken.  Simmer until thickened.

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Tags: , , | Posted in Chicken |
Memories of Monte Cristo Sandwiches
December 13th, 2009

Monte Cristo Sandwiches

Monte Cristo sandwiches will forever be in my mind as a wonderful memory of a special time with my aunt.  When I was 6 years old my aunt started a tradition with my two sisters and I, but I was the lucky one who got to go first.  Every year on our birthday she would take us out to lunch and then go shopping with us for our birthday present.  This was always a trip I looked forward to, especially after that first year.

For any of you from the Seattle area you will probably remember a department store called Frederick & Nelson’s.  The only thing I remember about Frederick & Nelson’s, partly because it closed when I was only 10 years old, was the cafe in the department store.  It is here at the cafe that I had my first monte cristo sandwich and  a frango milkshake.

It was a sad day when the department store closed, because I knew that when my aunt and I went shopping that year I was going to have to find somewhere else to have my lunch.  Over the years we all got busy and some of us moved away but whenever I came across a monte cristo sandwich I would smile and think back to those days when I was just a little girl being spoiled by my aunt with a sandwich and  milkshake.

Here I am almost 20 years later having my first monte cristo sandwich.  It was everything I remember it to be with the melted cheese, warm ham, and the sweetness of powdered sugar on the outside.  I find it amazing that food can transport you back to a different time, bringing forward all these memories you hadn’t thought of in years.

Here is my version of the Frederick & Nelson’s Monte Cristo Sandwich and some home made tomato soup.  If only I had some frango’s to make a milkshake with.

Monte Cristo Sandwich

bread

swiss cheese

deli sliced ham

eggs

splash of milk

powdered sugar

Assemble the cheese and ham on the sandwich (I prefer 2 pieces of cheese and 4 pieces of ham).  Whip the eggs and a little milk in a bowl.  Dip the sandwich in the egg and flip over, making sure to coat the entire sandwich.   Place in a warm pan and fry until golden on each side.  Sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Tomato Soup

Adapted from Sinlessly Delicious’s recipe

3 ribs of celery

2 can of diced tomatoes

1 1/2 cups chicken broth

1 tablespoon oregano

1 teaspoon rosemary

1/4 teaspoon cayenne (or to taste)

4 cloves of garlic

salt and pepper to taste

1/4 cup heavy cream

Sauté the celery and garlic in a medium non-stick saucepan. When the celery begins to soften, add the tomatoes, broth, oregano, rosemary, and cayenne. Simmer on very low heat for 10 minutes.

Using an immersion blender puree the soup until it is the consistency you prefer. Add cream and salt and pepper to taste, and simmer for about 10 minutes to allow the flavors to blend

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Tags: , | Posted in Sandwiches, Soup |
Dijon Potato Soup
December 13th, 2009

Dijon Potato Soup

It was one of those nights that completely justified having a warm soup for dinner.  Plus it is really that time of year when you could have soup every night and never get tired of it.  Soup is such a comforting thing food, and I figure why not take a recipe of a soup that I absolutely love and change it up a bit.  No reason to have the same soup again when you can try something new.

This soup is a remake of my Kale Potato Soup with the new addition of some dijon mustard.  I really do like the original recipe but I thought it might be nice with the spiciness of dijon mustard in the broth.  It was a nice subtle hint of mustard that complimented the potatoes, sausage and kale.

With a great piece of crusty bread this soup was complete and just what the cold and raining evening called for.

Dijon Potato Soup

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 cups finely chopped onion

1/2 teaspoon pepper

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 1/4 pounds cubed potatoes

4 cups fat free, low sodium chicken broth

1 cup half and half

1/4 cup dijon mustard (to taste)

4 ounces Romano cheese

6 ounces hot italian sausage

2 cups chopped kale

Heat 2 teaspoons oil in a dutch oven over medium high heat.  Add 1 1/2 cups onion, saute 4 minutes stirring frequently.  Stir in potatoes, 1/8 teaspoon salt and pepper, saute 2 minutes.  Add broth and mustard and bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer 20 minutes or until potatoes are tender; stirring occasionally.

Heat 1 1/2 teaspoons oil in a large skillet over medium heat, add remaining 1/2 cup onion; saute for 6 minutes stirring frequently.  Stir in 1/8 teaspoon salt and sausage; cook 8 minutes or until browned.

Add half and half and kale to soup and cook for 4 minutes or until kale is softened.  Stir in sausage and heat soup thoroughly.

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Tags: , , , | Posted in Sausage, Soup |
Holiday Baking
December 10th, 2009

Holiday Baking

This last weekend Sean and I headed over to Victoria to his mom’s house to celebrate an early Christmas with his family.  With all of us going in different directions around Christmas we decided to celebrate early so that everyone could make it.  We were all very happy to have Sean’s youngest brother fly over from Nelson to join us.

Other than my mother in laws famous rum ball we weren’t going to be exchanging gifts so I thought I would bake up some holiday treats to bring over with me.  But in the interest of keeping them fresh I decided to get up early Saturday morning before we left and bake.

With only 3 1/2 hours available for baking, I could only get up so early, I got started on my mom’s brownies.  These brownies are really amazing.  They are quick and easy and the perfect base for just about any add ons.  For today’s brownies I decided to add mint chocolates since my mother in law like mint chocolate as does my husband.

Once the brownies were in the oven I started working on the pumpkin biscotti, a recipe that I got from older sister.  Having only made biscotti once before I wouldn’t say that I was confident about this.  I mixed everything together and formed my dough and popped it in the oven.

The recipe said to cook it until it is firm in the middle, which I thought I knew what firm was until I started cutting up my biscotti.  I didn’t want to over cook the biscotti so I pulled it out when apparently it wasn’t quite firm in the middle.  I had a dilemma on my hands do I put the pieces back together and put it in the oven to cook a little more or do I move on to the next step and just hope that it finishes cooking.

In the interest of time I decided to move onto the next step and keep my fingers crossed that it would not be gooey.  My finished biscotti were cooked but really lacked that crunch you would normally see in a biscotti.  The taste was good and when dunked in some coffee or tea you wouldn’t know the difference.

Now on to the final recipe, peanut blossoms.  These cookies are something that I have been making for as long as I can remember.  They are one of my dad’s favourite cookies so I remember making them for him on various occasions over the years.

As was a theme in that morning I hit a snag when I realized I didn’t have any baking soda.  Thanks to google I did a bit of research and found that if I added extra baking powder it should still work…

Unfortunately I was led astray by my information and ended up with some very flat cookies.  But I have to say I wasn’t too upset because they tasted soooo good.  That warm peanut butter cookie with a hershey kiss on top can’t be beat, they really are great cookies even if they were flat.

So after my marathon baking we hit the road with the cookies still on the cookie sheets hoping they would cool while on the ferry so I could package them up.  Fast forward 2 hours and you find me in the back seat of my car, down the street from my mother in laws house, packaging everyones fresh baked goods.

No one would be the wiser :)

You may notice there is a lack of pictures, I was so busy baking I didn’t have time to stop and take any more pictures than the first one.

Mint Chocolate Brownies

Adapted from my Mom’s recipe

3/4 cup melted butter

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

3 eggs

3/4 cup flour

1/2 cup cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

Chopped up mint chocolates

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix butter, sugar and vanilla.  Add remaining ingredients.  Put in an 8×8 pan and bake for 40-45 minutes.

Pumpkin Biscotti

Adapted from Simply Recipes

2 1/2 cups flour

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg, ginger and cloves

Pinch of salt

2 eggs

1/2 cup of pumpkin puree

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350

Sift together the flour, salt, sugar, baking powder, and spices into a large bowl.

In another bowl, whisk together the eggs, melted butter, pumpkin purée, and vanilla extract. Pour the pumpkin mixture into the flour mixture. Give it a rough stir to generally incorporate the ingredients, the dough will be crumbly.

Flour your hands and a clean kitchen surface and lightly knead the dough. Lightly grease a baking sheet or line it with parchment paper. Form the dough into a large log, roughly about 15-20 inches by 6-7 inches. The loaves should be relatively flat, only about ½ inch high. Bake for 22-30 minutes at 350ºF, until the center is firm to the touch. (Feel free to also form two smaller logs for cute two-bite biscotti; just cut the baking time to 18-24 minutes.)

Let biscotti cool for 15 minutes and then using a serrated knife cut into 1 inch wide pieces. Turn the oven to 300ºF and bake for an additional 15-20 minutes. Cool completely.

Peanut Blossoms

1 3/4 cup flour

1/2 cup sugar

1 1/2 cup brown sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 egg

2 tablespoons milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup shortning

1/2 cup peanut butter

Hershey’s kisses

Preheat oven to 375.

Mix all ingredients in a bowl except the kisses and mix with electric mixer.  Make balls of dough and bake 10-12 minutes..  Remove and place 1 hershey kiss in the center.  Press down until edges crack.  Let cool.

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Tags: , , , , | Posted in Baking |
Epicure Party
December 4th, 2009

New Moon

A few weeks ago while visiting friends on Vancouver Island we took a break from New Moon madness to go to an Epicure party.  Although my friend Danielle was the host of the party it was being held at a more conveniently located house in town.  Having only ever had the salsa from epicure I was excited to try some of the other products, you really can’t turn down a chance to sit around and visit with people while ’sampling’ food.  Although I typically like to create things from scratch I had a fun time trying all the different spice mixtures and ended up getting a variety of mexican inspired products. 

Not many people know about my obsession with all things mexican…

While sampling at the party I had tunnel vision for the queso dip which is probably one of my favourite foods of all time.  I was pleasantly surprised with the queso dip from Epicure.  Nothing sounds better than a big bowl of warm cheese and unlimited chips to dip in them.  In fact on a recent trip to Jamaica I had queso and chips as a ’snack’ before lunch and dinner every day.  Who really needs that much cheese, I know I do!  I really just can’t imagine a more perfect meal really.

For any of you who haven’t had the epicure salsa you are definitely missing out.  It has the flavour that I always wish my homemade salsa had.  I thank/blame Danielle for introducing me to the salsa because just like with my queso I want a huge bowl to scarf down.  I find that I am constantly looking for reasons to have salsa on things.

I am looking forward to my next trip to the island so I can pick up my goodies and start making all things mexican.

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Tags: , , | Posted in Party Food |
Daring Baker’s November Challenge
November 27th, 2009

Nutmeg Cannoli with Eggnog Mousse

Nutmeg Cannoli with Eggnog Mousse

The November 2009 Daring Bakers Challenge was chosen and hosted by Lisa Michele of Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drives. She chose the Italian Pastry, Cannolo (Cannoli is plural), using the cookbooks Lidia’s Italian-American Kitchen by Lidia Matticchio Bastianich and The Sopranos Family Cookbook by Allen Rucker; recipes by Michelle Scicolone, as ingredient/direction guides. She added her own modifications/changes, so the recipe is not 100% verbatim from either book.

As the holiday’s roll around I find that I want to use holiday ‘ingredients’ as much as possible.  Athought I know that nutmeg is a year round spice I find that when I use it I think of Thanksgiving and Christmas.  The ingredient that is truly a holiday ingredient is eggnog something I knew I had to use for this months Daring Baker’s Challenge.  Since this round of Daring Baker’s let us have much more creative control over the recipe I thought I would go for a free form cannoli with some mousse between the layers.

I started making my dough with the flavours just as I wanted them and then I went and added the wine.  I wasn’t even thinking when I decided to use Shiraz wine which then turned the dough purple.  Even with the coloured dough it still had a great taste and a different look than your average dough would.

Dough

Having never done deep frying I was a little hesitant about the whole process.  I knew that the oil shouldn’t get too hot and I had to be really careful when putting in the cannoli dough.  Other than that I wasn’t really sure what to expect.  All I knew is that I didn’t want to have a frying accident and end up burned.

Deep Frying

Thankfully my deep frying was a success and I was left with squares of cannoli in varying size.  They really did turn out great and had a little added something with the shiraz in the dough.  I have come to realize that as long as you are careful with the oil, deep frying is not as scary as it seems.

Now we come to the part of the recipe that seemed like a great idea in my head but turned out to not to work as I thought.  Having never made mousse before I though it would be a great filling for my cannoli’s and why not make eggnog mousse.

Mousse IngredientsI figured I could take a basic mousse recipe and just substitute the whipping cream for eggnog, thinking that the fat content would be close enough for it to still whip up.  I was unfortunately wrong and was left with a bowl of eggnog, sugar, and an egg white that never made it to soft peaks.  It was at this point that I had to improvise and create my own version of eggnog.

After a quick trip to the store for some whipping cream I was ready to make my eggnog, or atleast whipping cream flavoured like eggnog.  I added a bit of cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg and vanilla and was left with a very close replica of eggnog.

Mousse is something I can check off the list now, because it really wasn’t as hard as I thought it might be.  My whipped egg whites turned out much better this time than they did for my macaroons last month.  It is always nice to be improving in my skills.

After assembling the ingredients and sprinkling with a little powdered sugar I was left with a successful version of stacked cannoli.

Cannoli Dough

Courtesy of Daring Baker’s November Challenge

2 cups all purpose flour

2 tablespoons sugar

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 teaspoon white wine vinegar

1/2 cup wine or any variety

1 large egg, seperated

4 cups oil

In the bowl of an electric stand mixer or food processor, combine the flour, sugar, nutmeg and salt. Stir in the oil, vinegar, and enough of the wine to make a soft dough. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and well blended, about 2 minutes. Shape the dough into a ball. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest in the fridge from 2 hours to overnight.

Cut the dough into two pieces. Keep the remaining dough covered while you work. Lightly flour a large cutting or pastry board and roll the dough until super thin, about 1/16 to 1/8” thick (An area of about 13 inches by 18 inches should give you that).

Heat 2-inches of oil in a saucepan or deep sauté pan, to 350-375°F (176 – 190 °C).

Cut out desired shapes with cutters or a sharp knife. Deep fry until golden brown and blistered on each side, about 1 – 2 minutes. Remove from oil with wire skimmer or large slotted spoon, then place on paper towels or bags until dry and grease free. If they balloon up in the hot oil, dock them lightly prior to frying. Place on cooling rack until ready to stack with filling.

Eggnog Mousse

Adapted from Katy at Sugarlaws.com

1/4 teaspoon cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg and vanilla

2/3 cup sugar

2 egg whites

1 cup heavy cream

Whip heavy cream with spices and 1/3 cup sugar until soft peaks form (err on the side of slightly overwhipped). Set aside. Next, in a medium mixing bowl, beat egg whites until foamy. Add 1/3 cup sugar and beat until stiff peaks form.

Fold together the whipped cream mixture and the egg mixtures (I folded the eggs into the whipped cream).

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Tags: , , , , | Posted in Baking, Daring Bakers |
Dinner Party
November 12th, 2009

For a couple years now I have wanted to have a dinner party, but I usually lack the space where I am living to pull something like that off.  I am happy to say that last friday I hosted my first dinner party and it was a success!!

Aftermath

Sean and I have lived in our apartment for close to a year we have finally had guests over for a meal.  I was very nervous leading up to the big event and wanted everything to be perfect.  Even though I was cooking for family it still didn’t lessen the nerves.  Our guests were my mother in law Linda, her partner Pedro and my brother and sister in law Kevin and Laurie.

Other than cooking for Sean and the occasional dish for my mom and sisters I haven’t cooked for people so this was my first test.  I thought I would go for something I knew I could make that would work for everyone, as it needed to be a vegetarian dish.  I decided to make an Orange Balsamic Roasted Salmon on a shaved fennel, asparagus and orange salad; a dish I learned at the Dirty Apron Cooking School.  I was confident that I could pull off the relatively easy dish for 6 people yet still impress them.

While I cooked the meal every one enjoyed a little Rock Band on our Wii, thankfully the kitchen is open to the living room so I was able to enjoy it while I cooked.  Everyone seemed to be having a good time which helped calm my nerves.

When it came time to take the salmon out of the oven I was a bit unsure, I don’t have a thermometer that works very well and I always seem to either undercook or over cook meat.  Thankfully Linda was on hand to help me with the timing and we ended up with wonderfully cooked fish.  As we all sat down to dinner I was finally able to relax and enjoy the meal with everyone.

After dinner it was time for a quick game and some dessert as Kevin and Laurie had to catch a ferry back to Bowen Island.  The night before I made vanilla bean panna cotta with dragonfruit pieces inside in a wine glass.  It was nice to have the dessert all ready with just a strawberry garnish added before serving.

Dragon FruitDragonfruit is not an ingredient I have really worked with.  While traveling in Asia Sean and I had dragonfruit for the first time and we weren’t very impressed.  There are two types of dragonfruit, one that has a good taste and the other that is not so good.  When buying the dragonfruit for my panna cotta I wasn’t sure which one I was getting I just figured it would be an interesting ingredient and texture for the panna cotta.  Thankfully I got the one that tastes good and it was a great conversation piece when explaining what was inside.

As everyone was gathering their things to head home I was so happy at the end result of our first dinner party.  I am happy to say that I finally used the beautiful china I got from Linda at our wedding.  We had good food, good wine, and a wonderful time.  I look forward to holding more dinner parties in the future.

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Tags: , | Posted in Uncategorized |
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