Cooking in Pajamas

Red Velvet Cookies

2012-02-15T21:53:00.000-06:00

1/2 c. Butter, unsalted, room temperature
1/2 c. Brown sugar
1/2 c. White sugar
1 Egg
1 tsp Vanilla
1 tsp Vinegar
2 tbsp Sour cream
1/2-1 tsp Red gel colour, "no taste"
1 3/4 c. Flour
1/4 c. Cocoa powder
1 tsp Baking soda
1/4 tsp Baking powder
1/4 tsp Salt
1 c. White chocolate chips
1/4 c. Coconut flakes

[Optional: Toast the coconut flakes on the stove top for 3-5 min or until the coconut flakes begin to turn golden brown. Remove from heat completely and set aside to cool.]

Preheat oven to 350°F. Prepare a cookie sheet by lining with parchment paper.

Whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Break up clumps of cocoa powder as much as possible. Set aside.

Cream together the butter and sugar until fluffy. Add the egg, vanilla, vinegar and sour cream. Beat until combined.

Add 1/2 tsp of food colouring, beat until the colour is evenly distributed. Scrap down the sides and beat again. Continue to add food colour until the desired shade of red is achieved. The wet mixture should be close to the colour of blood orange.

Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture and beat until smooth.

Stir in white chocolate chips.

Using two spoons (or forks), drop about 1 teaspoon of dough onto cookie sheet. Flatten cookie with the spoon and sprinkle coconut flakes on top. Bake for 8-10 min. The cookies should look puffy but it will not rise or spread a lot.

Allow the cookies to cook for 10 min before transferring to cooling rack. Store cookies in airtight containers.

My comments:

It's Valentine's Day and there are tons and tons of red velvet recipes floating around the internet. I love red velvet cupcakes, which I made with a friend a few weeks ago, but I think I'm definitely a cookie girl at heart because it was all the Red Velvet Cookies recipes that really caught my eye.

I originally saw Red Velvet Cheesecake Cookies by Two Peas And Their Pods around Christmas time. I wanted to make it but their recipe called for the use of store bought cake mix. I didn't like the idea of using cake mix, plus I can't find a red velvet cake mix at my grocery store anyway. So then, I got this brilliant idea of converting a red velvet cupcake recipe into a cookie recipe. How hard could that be, right?

It was much easier than I thought...after I got my hands on a totally awesome red velvet cupcake recipe. I compared the cupcake recipe with a couple of cookie recipes, adjusted a few ingredients, and voila! my very own red velvet cookie recipe.

With only 1/4 cup cocoa powder, this cookie isn't super-chocolatey. I think I prefer a chocolate cookie with a lot more chocolate flavour. However, this is as close to inventing-my-own-recipe as I am ever going to get. I am truly proud of what I've done here!! :)

I made these for my son's daycare Valentine's Day party. I originally wanted to make red velvet coconut cookie (add 1/2 cup coconut flakes), decorate the top with a few white chocolate chips, and shape the cookies into hearts before baking. But I ran out of coconut flakes and my dough was too gooey to shape into anything. Ah well... I packed up the cookies in little baggies and taped the Green Lantern Valentine's Day card to each treat bag; it's super cute!! (Especially the cards with Ryan Reynolds on it! Ha!) I honestly can't tell you whether people liked it or not. I can only assumed the kids enjoyed it because kids will love anything sweet. But the cookies have been in the kitchen for 3 days now and they are still as soft and moist as the day I baked them. To me, that's a successful cookie recipe!!

(Don't judge me. I really like Ryan Reynolds. *blush* While I tried to dissuade my son from choosing the Green Lantern cards, I was secretly glad I had an excuse to buy cards with Ryan's face on it. Heehee...)

Next time, I will definitely try the cream cheese filling from Two Peas And Their Pod. I think the taste will resemble red velvet cookies even more and I love red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. Thinking about it makes me want to bake the cookies now!! :)

Cheddar, Onion and Garlic Scones

2012-01-11T21:18:00.002-06:00

Adapted from Smitten Kitchen.

1 cup All-purpose flour
1 cup Whole wheat flour
1 tbsp Baking powder
1/2 tsp Salt
1/2 cup Butter, diced and keep cold
1/2 cup Whipping cream
3 Eggs
1 1/4 cup Old Cheddar cheese, diced or shredded
1 clove Garlic, minced
1/2 cup Red onion, diced

Preheat oven to 400°F. Line a baking sheet with a Silpat or parchment paper.

In a small frying pan, melt about 1/2 tbsp of butter and sauté the onions and garlic until soft.

Place the sautéed onion and garlic mixture in the freezer to cool quickly.

Transfer the onion and garlic mixture in a small bowl with the cheddar cheese. Coat them lightly with a little bit of flour.

Whisk to combine the flour, baking powder and salt. Cut in the remaining butter with a pastry blender or a fork until the butter is pea-sized lumps.

Lightly whip 2 eggs with the cream and add to the flour-butter mixture.

Fold the mixture until it begins to come together to form a dough. The dough is moist but not too sticky. Add the cheddar mixture to the dough and mix.

Turn out the dough onto a well-floured surface. Using floured hands, knead gently 2-3 times. Work quickly to avoid warming the butter with your hands, pat down the dough to about 3/4" thick. Sprinkle more flour on the dough if it begins to stick to your hands. Using a cookie cutter (or a small glass), cut out the scones and place them on the prepared baking sheet.

Whisk the last egg with 1 tsp of water to make an egg wash. Brush the scones with the egg wash.

Bake for 20 min or until golden brown.

These scones are the best when they are fresh out of the oven. Store them in an air-tight container, warm before serving and eat them as quickly as you can. :)

If you need to keep them for longer than 1-2 days, try freezing them. Place the scones on a cookie sheet and freeze them for 1 hr. Then transfer the scones to a freezer ziplock bag for storage. Consume within 3 months. When you want fresh scones, there is no need to thaw. Bake from frozen and add a few more minutes to the baking time. Keep an eye on the bottom edge to avoid burning.

My comments:

O.M.G.!! I don't know what else to tell you. These scones totally rock!! I made Apple Cheddar Scones a few days ago and those were good. But these savoury ones are heavenly. Simply heavenly.

The thing is, you can't really go wrong with a flavour combo of cheese, onions and garlic. Because these scones taste so good, I ate them last night for post-baking snack, this morning for breakfast, this afternoon for lunch and then late afternoon snack and then, I ate them again for dinner with our turkey soup. My 1-yr-old daughter ate one whole scone all by herself and she wanted more.

Oh! and you see the melted cheesey bits around the scones? Well, they may not look very attractive but they are the best part of the scones. They are crunchy, packed full of flavours. YUM! If you don't want your scones surrounded by ugly cheese crust, try shredding the cheese (instead of dicing), mix 1 cup into the dough and sprinkle the rest of the cheese on top.

There really isn't much to say about these scones except they taste super super good and they are really easy to make. If you make nothing else from this blog, you need to try these.

Spinach and Beef Ravioli

2012-01-09T13:56:00.001-06:00

Pasta dough
2 c. Whole wheat flour
1 1/4 c. All purpose flour
4 Eggs
3-5 Tbsp Water

Filling
1.5-2 lbs Ground beef
1 bulb Garlic, roasted
3 c. Spinach, fresh
1 Large onion, finely chopped
3 Eggs
1/2 c. Rolled oats
4-5 Tbsp Parmesan, freshly grated

To roast the garlic, cut off the top of the bulb and drizzle with olive oil. Roast at 350°F for 45 min.

While the garlic is roasting, cook the ground beef and onion on a frying pan and drain the excess fat and liquid. Set aside.

Cook the spinach until just wilted. Add to the ground beef mixture.

Combine the ground beef, roasted garlic, spinach, ground beef mixture, oats, Parmesan and eggs in a large mixing bowl. Blend it in a food processor until well mixed. This can be made ahead of time, store in the fridge for 3-4 days or freezer for several weeks.

To make the pasta, add the two types of flour, eggs and 1 tbsp of water into the stand mixer mixing bowl. Using the paddle attachment, stir for 1 min or until all the ingredient start to come together. Change to the dough hook and knead for 2 min. If the dough looks crumbly, add more water, one tablespoon at a time. The final dough should look like 2-3 large clumps. [Note: You don't need a mixer for this, you can prepare the dough by hand, which is what we did before we got our fancy-schmancy machine.]

Take the dough and knead on a flat surface for 1 min. Return to the mixing bowl, cover with a towel and let stand for 15 min.

To make the pasta, follow the instruction on your pasta maker. We divided our dough into 4-5 portions and passed each portion through the pasta maker 3-5 times, decreasing the thickness of the pasta with each pass. The final setting we used for our flat noodle was 5; we found 7 too thin to handle.

Place the flat pasta noodle on a lightly floured surface. Using a pizza cutter, trim the flat pasta into long rectangles. Place filling (about 1 tsp) along the top side of the pasta, spacing them 2 cm apart. Fold the bottom edge up and gently press down on the seams to hold the pasta in place. Then using a fork, press long the seams to seal the edges of the pasta. Then slice the pasta into individual raviolis using the pizza cutter again and seal the remaining edges of the raviolis with the fork.

Cook the pasta for 3-5 min, or until they float to the surface. Serve with your favourite pasta sauce.

(The ravioli can be frozen in single layers in an air-tight plastic container for several months.)

My comments:

Happy New Year!!

From 2011's Toasted Coconut and M&M Oatmeal Cookie, we rolled into the new year with some healthy, homemade ravioli!! We received a pasta machine a few years ago for Christmas but haven't used it much, mainly because we didn't have the counter space in our old kitchen to do it. Hubby had an itch to use the pasta machine over the holidays so we decided to make something we've never done before. Ravioli is just the Italian's version of dumpling and we made Chinese dumplings many times in the past; how hard could it be?

Well, the ravioli was a lot of work but it wasn't hard. The pasta machine made the whole process easier: the pasta noodles came out perfectly every time and they were easy to manipulate. We prepared one batch of noodles using 1/2 all-purpose and 1/2 whole wheat flour and a second batch of noodles using only all-purpose flour. I personally prefers the noodles using only all-purpose flour because I don't like the texture of whole wheat. But I don't really like anything whole wheat; I only eat it in an attempt to make our diet healthier. So don't take my personal preference as a reference of how tasty the whole wheat noodles are. The other thing I find with our homemade pasta, whether it's flat noodles, spaghetti or fettuccine style, is that the pasta is very heavy, very filling. We tried to make our flat noodles thinner to reduce the heaviness of the final dish, but we were not successful because the the thinner noodles were harder to work with and they break easier during the ravioli making process.

We prepared two different fillings: one meat and one vegetarian. The beef and spinach was Hubby's idea and they were delicious when served with a regular pasta sauce. With the aid of a food processor, the meat filling came together really nicely. These ravioli are perfect for lunch at work because they re-heat very well in the microwave and they keep you filled up for a long time, so that you are not scrounging for a snack 2 hours later.

The vegetarian version only had 4 ingredients: butternut squash, garlic, cinnamon and olive oil. I roasted both in the oven and then simply mashed them together. I will have to post this recipe later because although the ravioli tasted great, it didn't go well with the tomato-based spaghetti sauce. I am thinking a light cream sauce or even a pesto might go well with it. However, that's an experiment for another time.

One of the best thing about these ravioli is that, just like the Chinese dumplings, we can store them in the freezer for the rainy days when we need a quick, last minute meal idea. They are fantastic to have for the kids too since it only takes 20-30 min to prepare a ravioli meal. The ravioli is super healthy and so tasty that the kids can't really complain. :)

Toasted Coconut and M&M Oatmeal Cookie

2011-12-31T23:02:00.001-06:00

Adapted from Two Peas and Their Pod's Cinnamon M&M Oatmeal Cookie.

1/2 c. Unsalted butter, room temperature
3/8 c. Brown sugar
3/8 c. White sugar
1 Egg
2 tsp Vanilla
1 c. All-purpose flour
1/2 tsp Baking powder
1/2 tsp Baking soda
1/4 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Cinnamon
1 c. Rolled oats
1 c. Unsweetened coconut flakes, toasted
1/4 c. Flax seeds
1/2 c. M&M's
1/2 c. Milk chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone mat.

Using a non-stick frying pan, toast the coconut flakes until golden brown on low to medium heat. Once the browning process begins, stir frequently to ensure even toasting and remove quickly from heat as soon as the coconut is toasted. This takes only a few minutes. Toast only 1/4 to 1/2 cup of coconut flakes at a time, depending on the size of your pan.

In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, rolled oats, flax seeds and toated coconut flakes. Set aside.

In another bowl, cream the butter and sugars together until smooth. Add the egg and vanilla and combine well.

Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and stir until combined.

Fold in the M&M's and chocolate chips. Drop ~ 1 Tbsp of cookie dough onto prepared baking sheet, placing each dough 2" apart. If you have extra M&M's, press 2-3 M&M's on top of each cookie.

Bake for 10-13 min. The bottom and edges should be golden brown. Transfer to cooling rack.

My comments:

Wow! 2011 has come and almost gone. I can't believe I survived this whirlwind year and live to tell the tales: mat leave, going back to work, selling the old house and buying a new one, moving, housewarming party, job searches, new stand mixer, Christmas... Phew!!! What A Busy Year!!

Despite of the madness, I managed to get into my kitchen occasionally and I got my hands dirty. Well, alright, who am I kidding..."occasionally". Ha! That's a laugh! I was in my kitchen more than I had time for. Particularly since I got my new stand mixer, which happened just before Christmas. And we all know Christmas is not Christmas without baking. In my case, I went a bit crazy and I baked for 3 weeks straight. Hubby was starting to complain.

This M&M Oatmeal cookie is the last recipe of 2011 and the first post of 2012. I think you will not be disappointed with this recipe. It's delicious...and somewhat healthy. I am usually not a big fan of oatmeal cookies. I like them ok, whether they are made with chocolate chips or raisins, but I just don't care much for them. They seem so boring!! But I love how these cookies turned out - soft chewy centre with a crunchy bottom. I have to thank my 3-yr-old son for this idea; he was the one who wanted to make M&M cookies because he has a little obsession with M&Ms (or Smarties).

I cheated a little with the butter: I had 1/4 cup salted butter and 1/4 cup unsalted butter. So I figured, "What the heck! I might as well use them both!" Then, I got cheap as I was scooping the M&M's into the bag; I didn't buy enough for 1 whole cup. So I had to top up with some milk chocolate chips. The result of my mistakes? YUM!!!

I would've loved to try the original recipe with the cinnamon chips but my beloved cinnamon chips were nowhere to be found this year. I couldn't even make these awesome cinnamon chip chai cookies and my white chocolate chip version just wasn't as good. I was quite sad about it; I think I'll have to look online for a steady supply of these little cinnamon chips because they are super tasty in baking.

There was no way I was just going to make an ordinary oatmeal cookies, even with the M&M's. I had to spice things up a bit, so in goes the toasted coconuts and flax seeds. I think the toasted coconuts was the thing that really made this cookie. It smells so good and the coconut flakes added another level of chewiness to this oatmeal cookie. As for the flax seeds, it was meant to boost the fibre content. However, flax seeds as it is cannot be digested easily and it usually comes out the other end unscathed. I know because I've got kids and they eat (and thus poo) like pigs. So if you are serious about upping the fibre in this cookie, use ground flax seeds instead of whole.

OH! Look at the clock! 12:01am!

Goodbye, 2011!!

Hello, 2012!!

Happy New Year, everyone!! :D

Oreo Cream Cheese Truffles

2011-12-21T09:49:00.000-06:00

Adapted from Easy Decadent Truffles on Allrecipes and inspired by Oreo Truffles from The Girl Who Ate Everything.

8 oz (1 pkg) Light cream cheese, room temperature
2 c. Icing sugar, sifted
3 c. Oreo crumbs
1 1/2 tsp Vanilla
2 c. Dark chocolate chips
6 oz Baker's white chocolate (not chocolate chips!)

In a large bowl, whisk together the oreo crumbs and icing sugar. If not sifted beforehand, make sure there is no sugar lumps.

Beat cream cheese until smooth.

Slowly add the oreo/sugar mixture until well blended.

Chill for 1 hour to firm up the cream cheese mixture.

Melt the chocolate (white or dark) in the microwave on high power, stirring every 30 seconds until most of the chocolate are melted. Then, remove from the microwave and stir until all the chocolate is melted and no lumps are left.

Roll the chilled cream cheese mixture into 1" balls. Working quickly, dip cream cheese balls into melted chocolate using 2 forks (or spoons). Place on wax paper and wait for chocolate to harden. (If the cheese balls become too soft to work with, place the balls in the freezer for 10 min before dipping.)

To decorate, sprinkle toasted coconut flakes, chocolate chips or sugar sprinkles on the truffles before the chocolate hardens. I also topped some truffles with a chocolate covered coffee beans. Drizzling melted chocolate on top is always a great option.

My comments:

To be honest, I wasn't going to post this recipe. I made these truffles as part of my Christmas cookie exchange with my friends. My first impression was that they were way too sweet and I didn't care much for them. However, a couple of people tried it and liked it; they didn't think it was too sweet. So when I opened up my cookie exchange box a few nights ago and saw there was only one truffle left, I decided to give it another go.

O.M.G.!! I can't believe I almost missed out on this amazing truffle. The center was smoothy and soft; it was chocolatey with a bit of tang. The dipped chocolate gave it a nice "crunch" when you bite into it. This truffle was full of yummy goodness and it was Not Too Sweet!!

I think my problem with my first truffle was that I just spent a whole week baking cookies and I was suffering from sugar overload. I was actually sick of the taste/sight/smell of sweets and sugar. *gasp* Imagine that!!!

I did encounter a few little problems while making these truffles. The cream cheese filling came together quickly and I put it in the fridge to chill for an hour. It made it easy to work with but you have to work quickly. Once the cream cheese started warming up, it'll stick to the palm of your hands, at which point you can either chill the filling again until firm or just work with a sticky filling. I just continued on with the sticky filling because I didn't have time nor the patience to wait.

Also, I have never dipped anything before, so it was interesting to find out that the consistency of white Baker's chocolate is different from the consistency of dark chocolate chips. The chocolate chips were more liquidy, which made it easy to dip/roll the cream cheese ball in, while the melted white chocolate was a bit thicker and harder to work with. They both tasted great but the size of my truffles varied a lot.

For the decorations, I looked around my kitchen for various things that would stand out on my truffles. I loved the coconut flakes and the chocolate covered coffee beans. But regardless of what you choose, the presentation of these truffles will be sophisticated and fantastic.

Will I make these again? Definitely!! I might try a few other variations before coming back to this one but I am sure this will not be the last time these little beauties find their way into my kitchen again.

Cranberry and White Chocolate Biscotti

2011-12-18T11:57:00.001-06:00

1/4 c. Vegetable oil
1/2 c. Brown sugar*
2 tsp Vanilla extract
1/2 tsp Almond extract (optional)*
2 Eggs
1 3/4 c. All purpose flour
1/4 tsp Salt
1 tsp Baking powder
1/2 c. Dried cranberries (mine were pomegranate flavoured)
1/2 c. White chocolate chips*

[Note: Original recipe used 3/4 cups of white sugar instead of brown sugar and it also used the 1/2 tsp of almond extract and 1 1/2 cups of pistachio nuts. Omit salt if using salted pistachios.]

Preheat oven to 300°F. Line the cookie sheet with parchment paper or silicone baking mat.

Mix oil and sugar together until well combined. Add vanilla (and almond extract, if using). Whisk in the eggs one at a time.

Combine flour, salt and baking powder. Slowly stir into the egg mixture. The dough will be soft and sticky.

Fold in the cranberries and white chocolate chips.

Divide the dough in half and form two long skinny logs. Silicone spoons works well for forming the logs since the dough does not stick to it; alternatively, wet fingers with cold water before handling the dough would also work.

Bake for 35 min; the logs should be lightly golden brown.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 15-20 min. Meanwhile, reduce the oven heat to 275°F.

Using a non-serrated knife, slice the logs into 1/2-3/4" slices. Lay them on the sides on the cookie sheet and bake until dry, about 10 min.

Biscottis can be store in air-tight containers.

My comments:

Many years ago, I attempted to make biscotti. I was a novice baker back then and I probably should've stuck to the recipes instead of altering the ingredients because I was too lazy to go to the grocery store. It was so surprise that my biscotti turned out...not so well. They taste ok but those darn things were rock hard; they could cause serious bodily harm if they were chucked across the room. I couldn't eat them, but Hubby (bf at the time) took them to work with a pot of caramel for dipping. He said they were all gone by the end of the day (which in office cookie time, that's a long time for homebaked goods to disappear).

I learned 2 things from this biscotti debacle:

Do not make biscottis again.
Caramel can make anything edible, even rocks disguised as biscottis

Fast forward many years. I have come along way since my rock biscotti days and I can make changes to most recipe without catastrophic damage. One of my coworkers told me about her biscotti recipe and she said it was really easy to do. It's been awhile since I tried something different, so I took on the challenge to invite biscotti into my kitchen. Besides, my coworker used her new mixer (she bought the same one!!) and I wanted to use mine too. Plus I figured there's a good chance of success since she gave me a sample of her finished product and it was good!

I made mine nut-free because of nut allergies in the family plus I didn't have almond extract on hand. So I replaced the pistachios with white chocolate chips which always worked well with dried cranberries. I bought pomegranate-flavoured cranberries and it was pretty good in the biscotti, although regular dried cranberries would be just as tasty. However, I think a drizzle of white chocolate would make these biscotti taste infinitely better.

This recipe has a lot of potentials. Now that I can make biscotti and it's so simple to do, I foresee lots of time spending with my new mixer, experimenting on flavour combinations!!

Brown Butter Sugar Cookies

2011-12-15T20:55:00.002-06:00

Adapted from Cookie Craft.

1 c. Butter, unsalted
3/4 c. Brown sugar
1 Egg
2 tsp Vanilla extract
2 3/4 c. All purpose flour
1/2 tsp Salt
Sugar sprinkles

[Note-1: If you are not decorating with sugar sprinkles, increase the sugar content to 1 cup.]

[Note-2: I have made this recipe using white granulated sugar instead of brown sugar. The cookies were lighter in colour and has a gritty crunch to them which adds character to the texture. I liked it. If you are using only white sugar, reduce the flour to 2 1/2 cups; the 2 3/4 cups makes a crumbly dough and it's harder to work with.]

[Note-3: Substitute the vanilla extract with 1 vanilla bean for the great vanilla flavour.]

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or Silpat.

Brown the butter over the stovetop and transfer to another mixing for cooling.

Once the butter is no longer hot to touch, beat in the brown sugar until all the lumps are gone.

Add the egg and vanilla extract. Beat until smooth.

[Note-3: If using vanilla bean, split the pod down the middle with a sharp pointy knife, scrape out the seeds and add to the wet ingredient.]

Whisk together the flour and salt. Slowly beat into the butter mixture.

Divide the cookie dough into 4 portions. Take one portion and roll it between two sheets of wax paper until it's about 1/4"thick. Chill in the fridge for 15-20 min until firm. Repeat with the other 3 cookie doughs.

Once the rolled cookie dough is firm enough to handle, cut out the shapes with your favourite cookie cutter. Transfer the cutout cookies onto the prepared cookie sheet and decorate with sprinkles.

Bake for 8-10 min until the bottom is slightly golden brown. Allow the cookies to cool for a few minute before transferring to a cooling rack.

Baked cookies can be store in air-tight containers for several weeks.

Make 36 mini cut-out cookies.

My comments:

Of all the recipes I've tried over the years, these are by far my favourite cut-out sugar cookies. This dough was easy to work with and the resulting cookies had the perfect crunch. I didn't make these overly sweet because I like my sugar cookies this way. But feel free to play around with the sugar content to suit your taste.

I am planning on baking another batch of these cookies for Christmas. I think this time, I'll throw in a vanilla bean to boost the vanilla flavour. (Done! recipe updated.) I also found an eggnog spiced cookie I think I may try as well. The nice thing about this recipe is that it is a great basic cookie recipe. You can tweak it in many ways and produce all sorts of different flavoured cookies!

Mini Peppermint Whoopie Pies

2011-12-15T10:45:00.000-06:00

Cake recipe adapted from Joy of Baking and filling recipe adapted from The Girl Who Ate Everything.

1 3/4 c. All purpose flour
3/4 c. Dutch-processed cocoa powder
1 tsp Baking powder
1/4 tsp Baking soda
1/4 tsp Salt
3/4 c. Unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 c. White sugar
1 Egg, room temperature
1 tsp Vanilla extract
1/4 c. Buttermilk (or 1/4 c. Milk + 3/4 tsp Lemon juice)
1/2 c. Strong coffee, lukewarm (or 1/2 c. Water + 1 tsp Instant coffee)

1 pkg (8 oz.) Light cream cheese, room temperature
1/4 c. Unsalted butter, room temperature
2 c. Icing sugar
1.5 tsp Peppermint extract
10-15 Small candy canes, crushed

Preheat oven to 375°F. Line baking sheet with parchment paper or silicon mat.

Whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

Combine buttermilk and coffee. Set aside.

Beat the butter and sugar together until fluffy. Add in egg and vanilla extract.

Add the flour mixture into the butter mixture in 3 additions, beginning and ending with the flour and alternating with the buttermilk mixture.

Dropped a heaping teaspoon of batter (as circular-shaped as you can) onto the prepared cookie sheet, approximately 2" apart. Bake for 6-7 min until the toothpick comes out clean.

Transfer the cookies onto a cooling rack and allow to cool completely before assembling the whoopie pies.

Whip the softened cream cheese and butter together. Add the icing sugar and peppermint extract.

To assemble, try to match up all the cookie pairs base on their shape and size as best as you can. Add a generous helping of cream cheese filling on the bottom side of one cookie (I used a piping bag but you can also use a knife). Top the filling with a second cookie (of similar shape and size), bottom side down.

To decorate, place the crushed candy canes in a large bowl. Roll the side of the whoopie pie in the crushed candy canes.

My comments:

I have a thing for whoopie pies - I absolutely LOVE them. When I went to university, my best friend, KS, and I would go to The Goodie Shop by the campus and treat ourselves to their amazing whoopie pies, so decadent, so chocolatey, so sweet; it was exactly what we needed to get us through another study session. Whoopie pies bring back a lot of great memories for us.

KS and I have successfully made whoopie pies before using a recipe she found in her mother's recipe box. However, I have tried making it on my own a few times but the cake always turned out really dry. It was likely due to me trying to make this treat "healthy"...or you can simply call it karma - I only make good whoopie pies when KS is around. :)

I made these peppermint whoopie pies this weekend for our [hopefully annual] Christmas cookie exchange. KS happened to be visiting me this weekend and I attributed the success of these babies entirely to her. The whoopie pie cakes were chocolatey but moist and fluffy at the same time. The cream cheese filling was creamy and smooth with a hint of peppermint. Rolling the sides of the whoopie pies in crushed candycanes made the peppermint flavour stands out even more.

I originally made these into mini whoopie pies for convenience. However, after tasting them, I think I really like this mini version! The traditional whoopie pies are fairly large and pretty sweet. I think these minis are the perfect size snack, big enough to leave you feeling satisfied but small enough that you won't feel guilty.

The only problem I encountered was that the crushed candycane looked beautiful when you first rolled them onto the whoopie pies but they melted into little tri-colour blobs overnight. The tri-colour blogs were not attractive at all and I was a tad disappointed because I wanted my whoopie pies to look wonderful at the Christmas exchange.

Brown Butter Bacon and Chocolate Chip Cookies

2011-12-12T11:06:00.000-06:00

Adapted from Mouth from the South.

1.5 c. All-purpose flour
1/2 tsp Baking soda
1 c. Unsalted butter
1 c. Dark brown sugar
1/2 tsp Salt
2 tsp Vanilla
1 Egg
1 c. Dark chocolate chips
1 c. Bacon

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone mat.

Cook the bacon on a frying pan until crispy. Lay the bacon on paper towels to drain the excess fat and cool before cutting into 1/2" size pieces.

Combine flour, salt and baking soda and set aside.

Melt the butter in a sauce pan, swirling occasionally. Bring the butter to a boil and whisk until the butter begins to brown. The butter will foam up quite a bit at first, making it difficult to see the colour. But before turning brown, the foaming will subdue a little bit and you will see the butter change colour. Also, you will smell the delicious caramel-y aroma as the butter browns. Continue to whisk until you see brown bits floating around. Transfer the brown butter into another bowl and allow to cool. (Do not leave the brown butter cooling in the hot sauce pan because the butter will continue to cook and you will end up with burnt butter.)

Once the butter cools to room temperature, mix in the brown sugar, salt and vanilla. Add the egg until the mixture is smooth. The mixture should have no sugar lumps and its texture should be thick, smooth and shiny.

Stir in the flour until just combined. Fold in bacon chunks and chocolate chips.

Roll the dough into 1" dough balls, place on the prepared cookie sheet and flatten slightly with your palm. Bake for about 8-10 min. Allow the cookies to cool for 5-10 min before transferring to a cooling rack.

My comments:

Brown Butter - Huh?

Bacon in a cookie - WTF?!

Wow...you must think I'm completely off my rocker. It's ok, I know, because I felt the same way when I first saw dessert recipes popping up online using these ingredients. But apparently, brown butter and bacon cookies are the bomb right now. It's hip, it's trendy and it's Tasty!!!

I love chocolate and I love bacon but I was a bit apprehensive about a dessert with both of these favourites in it. However, the balance between the sweet chocolate chips and the salty crispy bacon was perfect. Everyone in my house loved it. Some of our friends said it needed more bacon (only because you can never have enough bacon) while some liked the cookie and was very surprised to hear the secret ingredient was bacon!!

As for the brown butter, I was a bit disappointed in that. It smelled so amazing when it was browning in the sauce pan, the rich sweet caramel smells... *drool* I was expecting a caramel flavoured cookie base, but it wasn't. Don't get me wrong - this is a GREAT cookie!! It could very well be the brown butter that made these cookies taste so good. But I didn't get what I expected, hence the disappointment. I'll have to make another batch of these cookies with regular butter and compared with the brown butter cookies (which I have saved a bit of the dough in the freezer). :D

If you've never brown butter before, it's easy. Just make sure that you watch the butter because the butter will turn from brown to burnt very quickly. Also, it is important to transfer the brown butter to a new bowl once it is done. The second time I made brown butter, I didn't think to transfer it to a new container; my butter continued to cook in the sauce pan and I almost burned it.

I didn't take any pictures of my brown butter, but here are two sites I went to when I made my brown butter for the first time. Both sites contains detailed instructions and beautiful pictures to show you exactly what you need to do to make this delicious, aromatic brown butter for your goodies.

Sticky Apple Cinnamon Biscuits

2011-10-04T22:43:00.003-05:00

Adapted from Gooey Cinnamon Biscuits by Two Peas and their Pod.

Biscuits
2 cup All-purpose flour
2/3 cup Rolled oats
1 tbsp Brown sugar
2 tsp Baking powder
1tsp Cinnamon
1/2 tsp Salt
2 cup Heavy cream (or 1/4 cup unsalted butter + 1 3/4 cup whole milk)
2 Apples, medium size, cut into 1 cm cubes

Filling
6 tbsp Brown sugar
2 tsp Cinnamon

Toppings
1 Apple, medium size, cut into thin slices
1/3 cup Confectioner's sugar
1tsp Vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 425°F. Lightly greased a 9x9" baking pan or use a silicone mold.

For the filling, combine brown sugar and cinnamon with a fork. Mix well. Take 1-1.5 tbsp of this mixture and sprinkle over the sliced apples; toss to coat. Set aside the remaining sugar mixture aside.

For the biscuit, mix together the flour, rolled oats, brown sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and salt in a large bowl. Break up any clumps of brown sugar.

Make a well with the flour mixture and pour in the heavy cream.

(Alternatively, melt the unsalted butter in the microwave and top the volume up to 2 cups with whole milk. If the butter solidifies again with the addition of the milk, microwave it again for another 30 sec and whisk until there are no clumps. The milk and the butter will separate, so you will need to stir frequently.)

Mix the flour and cream together until just combined. The dough will be wet and sticky; a silicone spoon works best for this step. Fold in the diced apples.

Take about 1/2 of the dough and spread evenly onto baking pan. Sprinkle about 1/2 of the cinnamon sugar mixture onto the dough.

Take the remaining dough and drop them by the spoonful on top of the sugar mixture. Gently spread the dough out evening with the spoon without disturbing the cinnamon sugar layer too much.

Sprinkle the rest of the cinnamon sugar mixture on the dough and layer the apple slices on top. Bake for 18-20 min. The sticky biscuit should be puffy and the center is just cooked.

Whisk together remaining 1/4 cup cream, confectioner's sugar and vanilla. Drizzle over the biscuits before serving. (If you used the butter/whole milk combo, don't forget to whisk it quickly before adding the sugar and vanilla.)

My comments:

We took the kids to go apple picking a few weekends ago. We didn't pick as many as we did last year but we still have too many to eat. So instead of dumping all the apples in a pot to make applesauce, I decided to take this opportunity to explore some new apple baking recipes. We have a bunch of Courtlands and Spartans which were delicious to eat but also great for baking, especially the spartans which has tons of flavour.

I came across this Gooey Cinnamon Biscuits recipe a few weeks ago and I wanted to try it out because I love Love LOVE cinnamon buns. It is my dream to bake my own cinnamon buns but I'm just too lazy. So when I saw this easy biscuits recipe with the promised of cinnamon-bun-taste, I was ecstatic!! Then, a light bulb went off in my head and I thought throwing in a bunch of apples in it would make it even better. Armed with a handwritten copy of this beloved recipe, I went into the kitchen to bake.

*gasp* Could it be?!?! I must have cream somewheres...and cinnamon chips...and I know I have icing sugar!!!

Oh wait!! I did have cinnamon chips and icing sugar, but they are packed away. We are moving in a few days and I have been "ordered" to pack as much stuff as I can over the weekend. I took one look at the cinnamon chips and icing sugar, and tossed them both into a box, sealed it with 10 layers of packing tape, and wrote "FOOD" on the box in big black letters. Oops!!

Oh, and I never keep cream in the house, so I really don't know what planet I was on when I opened my fridge expecting to find a carton of cream. Heavy cream, no less!!

Anyway, as I said, I LOVE cinnamon buns and I was determined to make this easy version of "cinnamon bun", even though I have nothing to bake with. So I butchered...um, I mean, I improvised...and then a few days later, I improved the improvised recipe and voila! here you have it - my own version of apple cinnamon biscuits!!!

Maria (from Two Peas and their Pod) made these biscuits for breakfast. My version is most definitely more like a dessert because it's sweeter and it's packed full of flavours. The thing is, I consider cinnamon buns a dessert, not breakfast. Breakfast is supposed to be healthy and cinnamon buns are not. So if you are looking for a healthy, delicious, easy recipe to kick start your day, stick with Maria's Gooey Cinnamon Biscuits.

If you want to eat my apple cinnamon biscuits for breakfast, by all means, go for it. I did!! I also like to take it to work as my lunch dessert. I bake this at night, refrain from eating the whole thing, bring a couple of pieces into work, ding it in the microwave for about 8-10 sec and I eat. Omnomnomnom... So Good!! This is one of the few baking experiments my Hubby enjoyed, I mean, he really enjoyed it. He couldn't stop eating it. He kept asking for more; in fact, I had to hide it from him. That's how good this apple cinnamon biscuit is!!! (Incidentally, he preferred the first unimproved improvised version, probably because it had less apples and no rolled oats, so less healthy. Hahah...)

So now, stop boring yourself with my babbles and go make this. You won't regret it!!

Homemade Ice-Cream Cake

2011-09-15T11:23:00.002-05:00

Most Important Ingredients

Imagination

Creativity

!! -- Patience -- !!

You really do need patience to make ice-cream cake.

Cappuccino and Vanilla Ice-cream with Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
and Homemade Butterscotch Drizzle

1/2 L Vanilla frozen yogurt
1/2 L Vanilla ice-cream
1L Cappuccino ice-cream
1 batch Chocolate chip cookie dough (makes ~ 12 cookies), chilled
Homemade butterscotch

Line a 9x9" square pan with wax or parchment paper.

Soften the cappuccino ice-cream until it is "spreadable".

Warm the butterscotch in the microwave at 10-second intervals until it has a "drizzling" consistency.

Cut the cookie dough into 1 cm chunks.

Once the ice-cream is softened, spread the cappuccino ice-cream onto the bottom of the prepared pan. Sprinkle cookie dough chuncks on the ice-cream layer and generously drizzle butterscotch on top. Freeze for at least 30 min to harden the ice-cream.

While waiting for the bottom layer of ice-cream to harden, soften the vanilla frozen yogurt and vanilla ice-cream. Stir to mix.

Spread the vanilla ice-cream mixture on top of the frozen ice-cream cake. Generously drizzle more butterscotch.

Freeze the ice-cream cake overnight.

Mint Chip and Vanilla Ice-cream with
Homemade Brownie Pieces and Mini Oreos

1/2 L Vanilla frozen yogurt

1/2 L Vanilla ice-cream

1L Mint chip ice-cream

9 mini oreos

1 batch Homemade brownies, pre-baked

1 c. Chocolate chips

2-3 tbsp Milk

Line a 9x9" square pan with wax or parchment paper.

Soften the mint chip ice-cream until it is "spreadable".

Cut the pre-baked brownies into 1 cm chunks. Store in the freezer until ready to use.

Melt the chocolate chips with the milk in the microwave at 30-second intervals, stirring in between. When most of the chocolate chips are melted, do not return to the microwave. Continue to stir until all the chocolate chips are melted. If the chocolate is too think to drizzle, add more milk, 1 tablespoon at a time. Stir until smooth.

Once the ice-cream is softened, spread the mint chip ice-cream onto the bottom of the prepared pan. Sprinkle brownie chuncks on the ice-cream layer and generously drizzle the melted chocolate on top. Freeze for at least 30 min to harden the ice-cream.

While waiting for the bottom layer of ice-cream to harden, soften the vanilla frozen yogurt and vanilla ice-cream. Stir to mix.

Spread the vanilla ice-cream mixture on top of the frozen ice-cream cake. Generously drizzle more chocolate.

Using a spoon or small ice-cream scoop, place 9 mint chip ice-cream balls evenly across the top of the cake. (You may need to use your fingers to gently shape the balls.)

Place a mini oreo cookies on each mint chip ice-cream ball.

Freeze the ice-cream cake overnight.

My comments:

Who doesn't like ice-cream cake?

"ME!", I'd say. I am ashamed. I mean, everyone likes ice-cream cake, right? Am I a freak or what? I don't like the chocolate ice-cream layer and I don't like the fudgy layer between the chocolate ice-cream and vanilla ice-cream.

Oh Wait! That's the DQ ice-cream cake!!

Perhaps the question should be re-phrased: Who doesn't like DQ ice-cream cake? The answer is still, "ME!"

Now, asks me this instead: Who doesn't like ice-cream cake made of all your favourite flavours?

Ah...now you wouldn't hear a peep from me. :D

My friend B. inspired me to make my own ice-cream cake. She's been doing it for 2 years for her son's birthday parties and I've been buying DQ ice-cream cakes for 2 years for Hubby's birthday. Making your own ice-cream cake is cheap and so easy to do. I don't know why I didn't think of copying her idea before!!

I've been thinking about my ice-cream cakes for many weeks. I want to make something Hubby would love but at the same time, flavours you can't buy in the stores. My flavour combos weren't entirely original but they were nothing short of "O.M.G. It's Awesome!".

Aside from the ice-cream itself, everything else was homemade, including the butterscotch. I came across this butterscotch recipe, complete with tutorial, pictures and tips, on Simply Recipes and I have been dying to try it. Butterscotch and caramel are Hubby's favourite ice-cream topping and I thought it'd be nice to be able to make it myself at home instead of wasting money on mediocre quality butterscotch from grocery stores. This butterscotch was simple to make and it tastes divine. Let me tell you this, I will never buy butterscotch ever again!!

The chocolate chip cookie dough and the brownie were also made from scratch. I used this mini chocolate chip cookie recipe because it was what I had in the freezer. Whenever I make chocolate chip cookies, I always double the recipe and divide the dough into portions for freezing. This way, I will always have cookie dough ready to bake and I will only bake enough to satisfy my cravings, not to mention leftover cookies are just not as good as warm, gooey cookies that are fresh out of the oven. For this reason, I highly recommend you use this vanilla pudding chocolate chip cookie instead of the mini chocolate chip cookie I used because the vanilla pudding ones are much tastier as cookies. However, whatever cookie recipe you choose, perhaps you can even try something completely whacky like the Cinnamon Chai Shortbread Cookie, your ice-cream will be super tastey. :D

Actually, that cinnamon chai cookie idea sounds really good. Mmmmm... *drool*

Anyhow, I should probably explain my reason for using a mix of frozen yogurt and ice-cream. Hubby thought this vanilla frozen yogurt a few weeks ago and to be honest, it was crap. It had no taste, no flavour and the lack of creaminess just made everything about it seems wrong. The only good thing going for it is the uber-reduced sugar content. This is not sweet at all. When I did a trial run for my ice-cream cake, I found the cake a little bit too sweet. So I figured if I mix a little bit of the frozen yogurt in with the regular ice-cream, it'd be perfect...and it was. It didn't really change the texture of the ice-cream once they are mixed and frozen, but it did have the effect I wanted - less sugary. If you don't have frozen yogurt at home, don't go out of your way to buy some. You can use just another 1/2L of regular ice-cream.

Finally, as a reward for having the patience to read all my ice-cream babble, I have a really good tip for you: Once your ice-cream cake hardens, remove it from the pan and cut into bars. Then wrap each ice-cream bars with parchment paper (which works much better than wax paper, by the way, but either will do the trick) and freeze them again in a freezer container. This way, whenever you want an ice-cream bar, you just go to the freezer, pluck one out of the box and off you go. No hassle, no mess!! :D

Cookie Monster Carrot Cupcake

2011-09-13T21:11:00.000-05:00

Adapted from Kary Osmond's Best Recipes Ever - Canada's Best Carrot Cake

Cupcake
2 c. Whole wheat flour
2 tsp Baking powder
2 tsp Cinnamon
1 tsp Baking soda
1/2 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Nutmeg
1/2 cup White sugar
1/2 cup Brown sugar
3 eggs
3/4 c. Vegetable oil
1 tsp Vanilla
2 c. Carrots, grated (or use the food processor to chop)
1 c. Crushed pineapple, drained

Icing
1 pkg Cream cheese, room temperature
1/4 c. Butter, room temperature
1/2 tsp Vanilla
1/2 - 3/4 c. Icing sugar

Decoration
1 c. Coconut flakes, unsweetened, medium coarseness
Blue food colouring
Jumbo chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line the muffin pan with paper liners.

Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg.

In another bowl, beat together the vegetable oil and sugars until smooth. Add one egg at a time, beat until well mixed. Add vanilla and beat until combined.

Add the dry ingredient to the wet. Stir until just combined.

[Note: Overmixed batter will result in dense cakes.]

Stir in carrots and pineapple.

Spoon batter into paper liners until 1/2-2/3 full. Bake for about 20 min or until the toothpick comes out clean.

Cool completely on the rack before decorating with frosting.

For the frosting, beat cream cheese and butter together until smooth. Beat in the icing sugar, 1/4 cup at a time until smooth.

[Note: 1/2 cup sugar was sweet enough for the kids.]

For the blue coconut flakes, add 4-5 drops of blue colouring into a ziplock bag, smush it around to spread the colouring. Add in the coconut flakes, seal the bag and give it a really good shake to dye the flakes evenly. Repeat this process with a few drops of blue colouring until the desired shade of blue is achieved.

[Note: You can add blue food colouring to the cream cheese frosting as well. Just remember, a little colouring goes a long way, so don't add too much at one go.]

To decorate, transfer the frosting into a piping bag. Pipe the frosting onto the cooled cupcakes and sprinkle the blue coconut flakes on top. Alternatively, you can use a knife to spread the frosting.

For the cookie monster, you can bake your own cookie (I used this mini chocolate chip cookie recipe but I actually liked this vanilla pudding chocolate chip cookie recipe better) or buy cookies from a store. Simply crumble up the cookie and put them on the cupcake for the Cookie Monster's mouth. If it doesn't stick well, use a little frosting to "glue" it on. For the eyes, you can buy small white chocolate wafers and "glue" chocolate chips on it. But I chose to pipe a blob of frosting on the flat side of the chocolate chip and stick the whole thing onto the cupcake to make it look like an eye.

[Note: If you are using cake toppers like these Thomas ones, put the toppers on the frosting before sprinkling the coconut flakes on. They will stick to the cupcakes better.]

My comments:

I did it!!! I've been thinking about this Thomas cake for almost a year but wasn't sure how to go about it. I am not a cake decorator, not because I don't want to do it, but because I don't know how. It is a skill I'd love to learn someday but I don't foresee this in my near future; I simply don't have the time. So what to do when I have zero cake decorating skills? Hmm...yeah, I hummed and ha-ed over that one for a long time.

For my son's actual birthday, I bought him a Thomas cake from the grocery store because he has been asking for it for months. They have a cupcake version of this cake and I thought it was a brilliant idea!!! I can build my own version of the cupcake cake and it will be great!!!

Ok, so my cupcake cake didn't look much like a cake. It was more like Thomas was delivering the Cookie Monster cupcakes through a field of cupcakes. :) It was fun for me to do and it turned out pretty well for a late night craft project. My son loved it because this idea involved a lot of Thomases. And I did a pretty decent job on the Cookie Monster for my daughter. I saw that idea a few months ago and I have been obsessed with it since. I'm glad it turned out alright. I'd hate to ruin her first birthday cake and have to go BUY one for her. *gasp*

As for the tastes, my kids and all their friends at the birthday party. It wasn't too sweet so I don't feel so bad feeding this to the toddlers and babies. Not to mention the adults liked it too!!

I have made this recipe several times, either as cupcakes or a regular loaf cake (bake for ~ 40 min). Both were delicious, especially when it is paired with the tangy cream cheese frosting. With the reduced sugar content, this recipe can be made into muffins as well (without the frosting, of course) and these carrot muffins (or mini ones, bake for ~9-10 min) make great snacks throughout the day. :)

Thomas Muffins

2011-07-10T23:06:00.003-05:00

Adapted from AllRecipes's To Die For Blueberry Muffins

Muffin
1 c. All-purpose flour
1/2 c. Rolled oats
2/3 c. Brown sugar
1/2 tsp Salt
2 tsp Baking powder
1/3 cup Vegetable oil
1 Egg
~1/3 c. Milk
1 c. Blueberries, fresh or frozen

Streusel Toppings
1/3 c. Brown sugar
1/6 c. All-purpose flour
1/6 c. Rolled oats
1/4 c. Unsalted butter, cubed
1.5 tsp Ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 400°F. Line muffin pan with paper liners.

For the streusel topping, combine the ingredients in a bowl. Smush the ingredients around with the finger tips but do not over-handle the butter. Cold butter is necessary for great streusel toppings. Set this aside while making muffin batter.

For the muffin batter, whisk together the flour, rolled oats, brown sugar, salt and baking powder.

Measure the vegetable oil into a large measuring cup. Whisk in the egg. Then, add enough milk to make the volume up to 1 cup. (I used 1 large egg and I used a little more than 1/3 cup of milk.)

Combine the wet mixture with flour mixture; do not over-stir. Fold in blueberries.

Divide the batter into 12 muffin cups and sprinkle with streusel topping.

Bake for 20 to 25 min. or until the toothpick test comes out clean.

My comments:

Umm...Thomas Muffins?! Yeah, I know...it's creepy. I mean, "Who Does That?!?!"

Oh wait! I do!! I made Thomas muffins!!! My son saw these Thomas paper liners at Bulk Barn and I couldn't resist. It was cheaper than buying the Thomas cake mold or the Thomas pinata. Plus, I wanted it for myself too. :P Hahah!!

When the original baker, who posted this recipe on AllRecipes to be THE To Die for Muffin, she really wasn't kidding. These muffins are SO. Freakin'. Good!!! They are moist, not too sweet and OMG! the streusel topping is awesome!! I made my standard modifications to the recipe to make it more toddler friendly. (eg. reduced sugar, increased fiber contents, etc.) But otherwise, I followed the recipe to the T!

I asked my son to help me make these. There isn't a whole lot a 2.5-year-old monkey can do. I prepared everything but I let him fold in the blueberries (which he insisted on eating) and sprinkled on the streusel topping. It wasn't much but he enjoyed himself tremendously, especially since he got to eat the food he made himself; he was rather proud.

These muffins were really good; I couldn't stop eating them. This is definitely a keeper recipe and I imagine different variations on the fruits will also give pretty good results. We have plans to go raspberry picking this week; perhaps I'll make some "James Muffins" next week!! :P

Spiced Poached Pears

2011-03-20T19:49:00.001-05:00

Adapted from Kitchen of Friends.

3-4 riped Bosc pears, peeled but do not remove the stems
2 c. Red wine (your choice)
1/4 c. Grand Marnier
2 Cinnamon Sticks
3 Tbsp Sugar
2-3 slices Mandarin orange (or 1-2 slices Navel orange)

[Note: I used Bartlet pears because it's what I have at home. But when they are perfectly ripe (like mine was), they are very soft to handle once they are poached. Therefore, I highly recommend using the Bosc pears (as most recipes do) for a firmer flesh that will make it easier to work with and gives a better texture when they are consumed.]

Arrange the pears in a sauce pan.

Combine the red wine, Grand Marnier, cinnamon sticks, sugar and orange slices. Pour over the pears. Bring to a simmer.

Allow the pears to simmer in the wine sauce for approximately 30 min. Rotate or bast the pears occasionally with the sauce.

Carefully transfer the poached pears to another dish and allow the pears to cool to room temperature.

Discard the cinnamon sticks and orange slices. Continue to simmer the wine sauce until only ~ 1/4 cup of sauce remained, approximately 30-40 min. It will appear to coat the bottom of the pan.

Pour the sauce over the poached pears. Once both pears and wine sauce have cooled to room temperature, chill for a minimum of 3 hours.

Drizzle the wine sauce over the pears and serve with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream.

My comments:

I love pears. When it is perfectly ripe, there is no other fruit on this planet that can compare. So sweet, so juicy, so delicious!!

Pears never last long enough to become part of any recipes in my house. While I often drool over recipes and photos, poaching pears just seems to be to a lot of work for something that's already heavenly delicious. I mean, why ruin a good thing, right?

I've been itching to try something new; it's overdue that I expand my dessert repertoire beyond chocolate and butter. There's nothing wrong with chocolate and butter, but there's also nothing wrong with having a light and healthy dessert every now and then. Since I've got 4 riped pears awaiting its fate, I figured I might as well put a spin to their ultimate sacrifice...and I came across this super easy poached pear recipe...plus I've got a huge bottle of Grand Marnier at the top of my fridge, collecting dust.

Oh boy! Was I glad that I didn't just chowed down those pears!! These poached pears were Awe-Some!! My mom and I each had one. Then, we looked at each other and our brainwaves connected: we are splitting the third pear. And my house smelled so good while the pears were poaching - the fruity, cinnamon-y red wine smell. Deeeee-lish!!!!

The pears' sweet and fruity aroma paired wonderfully with the tartness from the red wine sauce. The citrus and cinnamon flavour reminded me of sitting in front of a warm cozy fire in a cold winter day. The best thing about this dessert is that it is low in calories when eaten by itself but if you are looking for something a little richer, serve the pears with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream. Mmm, mmm, mmMM!!

Now that I know how easy it is to make poached pears, I'll have to explore some other recipes. I have a feeling this is going to be very popular in this house. :)

Roasted Vegetables and Quinoa Casserole

2011-03-18T22:11:00.001-05:00

Adapted from An Edible Mosaic.

Roasted Vegetables
Olive oil
Salt & pepper
Your favourite vegetables (this is what I used)

4 medium size onions, halved
1 large green pepper, quartered
2 tomatoes, halved
1/2 cucumber, quartered
10-12 white mushrooms

Quinoa Mixture
1 c. Red quinoa
1-2 c. Water
1 clove Garlic, minced
1 can (680 mL) Thick tomato-based pasta sauce
Sprinkle of oregano
Sprinkle of allspice

Cream Sauce
2 tbsp Butter
2 tbsp Flour
1.5 c. 1% or 2% Milk
2 Egg yolks, lightly beaten
Pinch of nutmeg
Salt & pepper

2-3 sprigs Fresh basil, chopped (optional)
1 pkg Shredded cheese (I used PC Tre Formaggi Shredded Italian Cheese)

Preheat broiler.

Brush both sides of the vegetables with olive oil. Arrange the vegetables in a single layer on the baking sheet. Season with salt and pepper.

Bake for 12- 15 min, flip the vegetables 1/2 way through.

Note: You can also preheat the oven to 400°F and bake the vegetables for 40 min, flipping them 1/2 way through.

Transfer the roasted vegetables to a bowl and let them cool. Remove the vegetables from the liquid, cut them into bite size pieces and set aside. Reserve the liquids.

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Transfer the reserved liquid to a measuring cup. If the volume is less than 2 cups of water, top the liquids up to 2 cups. (If there are more than 2 cups of liquid, only use 2 cups in this recipe and discard the rest.)

Wash the quinoa thoroughly to remove the bitter taste. In a medium sauce pan, combine the minced garlic, quinoa and the reserved liquid; bring the liquid to a simmer. Turn down the heat and simmer for 10 min, uncovered. Then, remove the sauce pan from heat, cover and let sit for 5 more minutes. Fluff with fork.

Add the pasta sauce, fresh basil, oregano and allspice to the quinoa, stir to mix.

For the cream sauce, warm the milk in the microwave. (In my microwave, I warm each 3/4 cup of cold milk for 1 min.)

In a small sauce pan, melt the butter over medium heat. Add flour and quickly whisk to combine.

Slowly whisk in the warm milk and cook until smooth.

Remove from heat and stir in the nutmeg, salt and pepper.

Transfer about 1/4 cup of the cream sauce to the egg yolks, added a little bit at a time to prevent cooking the egg. Whisk until smooth.

Slowly add the egg yolk mixture to the rest of the cream sauce, whisk until well combined. Turn the heat on low, cook for a few minutes until the sauce thickens.

Assemble the casserole in a 13"x9" glass dish, in this order, starting at the bottom: quinoa mixture, cheese, roasted vegetables, quinoa mixture, cream sauce and top with more cheese.

Bake for about 35-40 min, until the cheese on the top is golden brown.

My comments:

The original recipe was a vegetarian moussaka but no one in this household likes eggplants. However, there are a lot of potentials for this recipe to be tailored to everyone's tastebuds. The first time I made it, I simply replaced the eggplants with onions and bell peppers. It was pretty good but based on my family's suggestions and my own creativity, I've tried a couple versions of this casserole and I think I've got a winner!!

I love the flavours all these different roasted vegetable bring to this dish. You can literally use any vegetables you want - zucchinis, eggplants, cauliflower, etc. I particularly love the roasted mushrooms. I ate about 1/3 of them while putting the casserole together. My son recently decided he doesn't like mushrooms, so next time, I may have to omit the roasted mushrooms from the casserole and just eat them myself. :)

Quinoa is a very nutritious grain, high in protein content and a great source of dietary fibre and iron; it is also gluten-free. I've also tried substituting 1/2 of the quinoa with red lentils {1/2 c. quinoa + 1/2 c. red lentils + 1.5 c. liquids}. This variation did not alter the flavour but it did change the texture of the dish. Personally, I love the way the quinoa "pop" in my mouth while I chew; it's super fun to eat!! But if you don't like quinoa or if you find the texture a bit weird, then just use lentils {1 c. lentils + 1 c. liquids}.

I have incorporated tofu in this casserole before. Tofu is another way of boosting the nutritional value in a dish without changing its flavour. Tofu comes in different varieties: firm, medium, soft or silken. For a casserole like this, I simply use whatever I have on hand. If you are using soft or silken tofu, you can add it to the quinoa mixture at the same time you stir in the tomato sauce. If you have firm or medium tofu, cut them up into small cubes and mix it in with the roasted vegetables.

Finally...we come to the best part of the casserole: the cream sauce. I love this cream sauce because it is uber creamy but it's made with low-fat milk!! No cream, no guilt!! So I doubled this part of the recipe and we love how the cream sauce stands out from the tomato sauce. Mmm... So. Freaking. Good!!!

This is a very healthy dish. The ingredients are rich in nutrients and low in fat. Only a small amount of cheese is needed to complement the variety of flavours from the vegetables and quinoa. What I love most about this recipe is that it is versatile. You can make this with your favourite vegetables or herbs, throw in a few pieces of chicken breasts or experiment with a couple of different cheeses - the possibilities are endless!

Lemon Basil Avocado Sherbet

2011-03-15T21:55:00.001-05:00

Adapted from Sweet Life.

3 Avocados, medium size, seeded and peeled
1 cup half-and-half or light cream
1/2 c. Honey or 2/3 c. Powdered sugar
2/3 c. Fresh squeezed lemon juice
Zest from 1 lemon
15-20 Fresh basil leaves

Blend the avocado, lemon juice, lemon zest and basil leaves in a blender until smooth.

Add the cream and honey. Blend again until well combined.

Note: Adjust the amount of honey to your taste. Start with 1/3 cup and slowly add more to sweeten the avocado mixture.

Divide the avocado mixture into containers. Cover and freeze for a few hours or overnight.

Before serving, let stand at room temperature for 15-20 minutes.

My comments:

I don't own an ice-cream machine and I have no interest in buying one. Knowing me, an ice-cream machine will likely have the same fate as a pasta maker in this house: used a few times and then live out the rest of its life in some dark corner at the top shelf, never to be seen again.

However, I've always wanted to make my own ice-cream. I've seen some pretty fab combination of flavours and it's almost a sin that I can't try the recipes. So when I came across this simple sherbet recipe, I jumped all over it. I had reservations on using avocado in a dessert but I figured if it isn't great and no one else will eat it, my son will still eat it and it won't go to waste. I am not kidding when I say he's a human-garbage-can; that boy will eat pretty much anything under the sun.

I was a bit off my rocker the first time I made this. I bought a bunch of limes instead of lemons because I could've sworn the recipe asked for lime. Anyhow, those limes were expensive so I went ahead and made Lime Avocado Sherbert, following the original recipe almost to the T. It was great! I loved the taste of the lime and my son couldn't get enough of it.

However, my mom and Hubby didn't care for the lime. So when I made it again, I gave the lemons a whirl. While shopping for the lemons, I saw fresh basils on sale - *gasp* I Love Basil! I can never pass up a sale on basil. So I brought some home and threw a bunch into the avocado mixture. I like this lemon basil version even more. It's the basil that made this dessert rock, but then, I think everything tastes better with basil, I really do. Initially, I found the lemon flavour in the avocado mixture was a bit overpowering but it mellowed out once the sherbet was frozen and it was perfect for me and my little guy. Next time, I'll attempt a lemon-lime basil avocado sherbet. Mmm...that sounds super yummy!!

I really love this recipe. It is easy to do and it is a healthy dessert for a toddler, way better than store-bought ice-cream. Because of its simplicity, you can easily adjust the amounts of each ingredient and tailor the final product to your family's taste buds. I prefer the taste of the sherbet sweetened with powdered sugar but since this is mostly for my son, I substituted the powdered sugar with honey.

I divided the sherbet into the Baby Cubes and I give my little guy one serving for dessert along with his favourite fruit. Once in awhile, I would fill a mini ice-cream cone with fruits and 1/2 a serving of the sherbet for variety. He loves this avocado sherbet in very shape and form.

Raspberry Truffle Brownie Cupcakes

2011-02-14T20:44:00.002-06:00

Adapted from The Girl Who Ate Everything

Brownie layer
1/4 c. Unsalted butter, melted
1/3 c. Unsweetened applesauce
2/3 c. Sugar
2 Eggs
1 tsp Vanilla extract
1/2 c. All purpose flour
1/3 c. Unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 tsp Salt

Raspberry truffle layer
1 c. Semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 pkg (250g) Cream cheese, room temperature
1/3 c. Seedless raspberry jam (or strawberry jam)

White chocolate topping
3 oz White chocolate
2 tsp Butter

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Whisk together the melted butter, applesauce and sugar. Beat in one egg at a time and mix well. Add vanilla.

Combine flour, cocoa and salt in a separate bowl. Add to butter mixture and whisk until just combined.

Divide the brownie batter into 12 muffin cups lined with paper cups (fill ~ 1/3 of the cups). Bake for 10-12 min. Insert a toothpick to check for doneness; there should be little clumps on the toothpick. Do not overbake. Set brownies aside to cool.

While the brownies are baking and cooling, prepare the raspberry truffle layer. Begin by melting the semi-sweet chocolate chips. Allow the chocolate to cool until it is warm to the touch.

Using a handheld beater, whip the cream cheese until fluffy (~ 3-5 min).

Add sugar and raspberry jam. Beat until incorporated.

Stir in the melted chocolate and mix until combined.

Spread the truffle over the cooled brownies. Chill for 1 hour.

For the white chocolate topping, melt the white chocolate with the butter. Mix well.

Drizzle white chocolate over the truffle layer and spread with a fork. Keep in refrigerator until serve.

My comments:

I spend a lot of time surfing the internet, reading recipes and drooling over the pictures. I get a warm fuzzy feeling when I see something I like and I can't stop thinking about it until that recipe appears in food form on my table (or some version of it). The name of this dessert alone was enough to rope me in; let's face it, who can resist a food that has the words "truffle" and "brownie" in its title?

When I wrote down the recipe, I had every intention of following it to the dot. But I am notorious for making substitutions and modifications to recipes even before trying the original recipe once. My little changes don't always work but I like experimentation. I guess it is an occupational hazard, me working in a research lab.

I love my brownie recipe. I use it for everything that calls for brownies as part of the finished product. However, I did substitute 1/2 of the butter for applesauce. The reason I used 1/3 cup of applesauce instead of 1/2 cup is because I noticed the volume of the melted butter is closer to 1/3 cup. I read somewheres that you can actually substitute all the butter in the recipe with applesauce, but I am not convinced that it'll taste as good. I figured this is a brownie afterall, a little butter is ok. If I'm really concerned about eating healthy, I should not be eating brownies at all.

The taste of my brownies were pretty good, except I overbaked the brownie bottom in the cupcakes and that made the brownie tasted more like a dense chocolate cake. My second batch of mini-brownies were much better. Also, I tried using whole wheat flour instead of all-purpose flour and I must admit, I am not a fan. I guess the moral of the story is that I should just stick with an evil brownie recipe, enjoy it but eat less of it.

Making these brownies into cupcakes worked out well but I found the size a bit too big. Even with the reduction in sugar, this cupcake is very rich. I find myself feeling chocolated-out after one cupcake, instead of feeling satisfy with a desire to have more, which is the feeling I have when I enjoy the perfect dessert. I will have to try this recipe again and make the brownie squares so that I can cut them into more desirable sizes.

I was quite happy with the white chocolate topping; it paired very well with the raspberry truffle. I had some white chocolate lying around, the type that has a high cocoa butter content, perfect for melting. The melted chocolate was a tad grainy, probably because I used a microwave instead of a double-boiler. But once solidified, the white chocolate tasted pretty great.

Crunchy Oat Fudge Bars

2011-01-17T21:23:00.001-06:00

Adapted from First Look, Then Cook.

Crust and topping
1 c. Rolled oats
1/4 c. Flax seeds
2/3 c. Brown sugar, unpacked
3/4 c. Whole wheat flour (or all-purpose)
1/4 tsp Baking powder
1/4 tsp Baking soda
1/8 tsp Salt
1/4 c. Unsalted butter, melted

Filling
1/4 c. All-purpose flour
1/4 tsp Salt
1.5 c. Semi-sweet chocolate chips
2 tbsp Unsalted butter
1 Large egg, beaten
1 tsp Vanilla
2 tsp Instant coffee (optional)

Preheat oven to 325°F. Grease an 8" square pan or use a silicone square pan.

Combine the oats, brown sugar, flour, flax seeds, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Stir in melted butter. Set aside 3/4 cup of the mixture for the topping.

Press the remaining oat mixture onto the bottom of the square baking pan. Bake for 8 min, until the crust is golden brown.

Set the crust aside to cool while you prepare the fudge filling.

Melt chocolate chips with the butter in the microwave, stirring every 30 seconds. Allow the chocolate mixture to cool for 10-15 min (should be able to touch it comfortably with your finger).

Combine flour, sugar, salt and instant coffee (if using).

Whisk the egg and vanilla into the cooled chocolate. Add the flour mixture and blend well.

Spread the fudge filling on the crust. Sprinkle the reserved oat topping on top. Bake for 25-30 min, until the toothpick comes out mostly clean with only a few clumps stuck to it.

Allow the bars to cool before cutting.

My comments:

Mmmm...these bars are good, really good. The crust and topping are amazing. It's crunchy with just the perfect firmness and not overly sweet. In fact, as I'm sitting here thinking about what to write about the crust, I am hit with a wonderful idea!! Why not bake simple oat bars with the crust recipe? *gasp* Brilliant!! At least I think so. But this little experiment will have to wait for another night. :)

I must admit, I had to give these bars time to grow on me. That was probably my own fault because I used dark chocolate chips instead of milk chocolate chips. It was the only thing I had at home because I was a bit obsessed with making Salty Cracker Toffee over the Christmas season, then the dark chocolate chips went on sale and I stocked up. I had 6 bags of these dark chocolate chips in the cupboard and I was too embarrassed to buy more chocolate chips. These dark chocolate chips are awesome but they made the fudge part too rich. The chocolate was just a tad overpowering.

Desserts are not necessarily bad for you as long as you practice moderation. Well, I don't do moderation. So it's no surprise that I had 3 of these in 1 hour and I have every intention of going back to the kitchen for a 4th. :P For this reason, I try to hide some good stuff in my baking to alleviate the guilt. I use whole wheat flour whenever I can and I love using flax seeds in my baking. Flax seeds are very nutritious and I find it gives the bake goods a hint of nutty flavour.

Anyhow, it's getting late. I'm going to grab one more bar before calling it a night. :) Stay tune for more recipes to come in the next week or so. I have a few avocado recipes lined up for this week. :)

Brownie Surprise

2011-01-15T18:16:00.003-06:00

Brownies
1/2 c. Unsalted butter, melted
3/4 c. Sugar
2 Eggs
1/2 c. Whole wheat flour
1/3 c. Unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 tsp Salt
1 tsp Vanilla extract

Surprise
1/3 c. All natural peanut butter, no sugar/salt added
1/4 c. Confectioners' sugar
1/4 c. Crushed graham cracker
1/2 tsp Salt

12 Rolo candies (not the minis)

Preheat the oven to 350°F. (Grease a mini-muffin pan if you are not using silicone bakeware.)

Mix together the peanut butter, sugar, graham cracker crumbs and salt to form a ball. Refrigerate while you prepare the brownie batter.

Beat together the butter and sugar. Add eggs one at a time, whisk well after each addition. Add vanilla.

Mix the flour, cocoa powder and salt together. Stir into the wet ingredients. Whisk until the batter is smooth with no lumps.

Fill 1/2 of the muffin cup with brownie batter and bring the batter up the sides. Take a little bit of the chilled peanut butter dough and roll into 3/4" balls. Place the ball in the center of the brownie batter and make sure the peanut butter ball is not touching the side of the muffin cup. Cover the peanut butter ball with more brownie batter.

Bake for 10 min. Allow the brownies to cool completely before removing them from the muffin pan. The brownies are too soft for transfer when they are not.

Replace the peanut butter balls with the Rolo candies and repeat the last 2 steps.

My comments:

I recently came across two totally awesome food blogs: Two Peas and Their Pod and The Girl Who Ate Everything. I've been stalking them on Blogger and Twitter, just to be sure I don't miss out on any new recipes. The photos on their blogs can stimulate involuntary drooling on your keyboard, so you really shouldn't read them without wearing a bib. What I love the most about these blogs is that their meals are often composed of very healthy and simple ingredients but their desserts are sinfully decadent.

This brownie surprise recipe was inspired by some of their recipes. I mean, using Rolos in baked treats is just ingenious. And the peanut butter? It's such a simple idea, I don't know why I never thought of it before. I couldn't decide which I wanted to try first, so I made both!

Peanut Butter Brownie Cups: I LOVE this peanut butter filling. I use the same filling for my chocolate peanut cups. It's a bit crunchy from the graham cracker crumbs and it has the perfect balance between sweet and salty. It's sooooo good. It takes an enormous amount of self-control not to eat it all while I make the peanut butter dough ball. Because this is not overly sweet, it complemented my brownie recipe very well. These are way better than my chocolate peanut butter cups. This is definitely a keeper recipe.

Rolo Brownie Cups: I searched for a long time for the regular size Rolos. The mini-Rolos seem to be the new flavour, probably a marketing scam for people who think the Rolos are better for them because they are smaller. Anyway, I am glad I persevere on my Rolo search because these were the perfect size for the brownie cups. The caramel center were gooey when the brownies came out of the oven and it became chewy once they are cooled. Both consistencies were great!! My only complaint about these was that the extra chocolate from the Rolo candy made the brownie cup too rich for my liking. My hubby LOVED it, but I think I prefered the peanut butter version.

I have to admit, after chowing down this batch of brownies, I'm a bit chocolated-out. I know...I must be out of my mind to put something so sinful down in writing. But don't worry, I'm already surfing the web for the next great chocolate treats and you bet these brownie cups will regularly make their appearances in my kitchen. :)

Lemon Bars with Buttery Shortbread Crust

2011-01-10T21:30:00.002-06:00

Shortbread Crust
1/3 c. Icing sugar
1 c. All-purpose flour (I used whole wheat)
1/2 c. Unsalted butter, room temperature

Lemon Filling
1/3 c. Unbleached flour
1 c. Sugar
2/3 c. Lemon juice (fresh squeezed from 2 - 3 small lemons)
Lemon zest from 1 small lemon
4 Large eggs
1 Egg yolk
salt pinch

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

For the crust, mix the flour and icing sugar together. Cut in the butter and mix to form a smooth soft dough.

Press the dough evenly onto the bottom of a 9x9" silicone baking pan (or a greased metal baking pan). Spread the dough up about 1/2" on the sides of the pan.

(For a uniform flat crust, line the crust with parchment paper and fill the bottom with pie weights.)

Bake the crust for about 20-25 min, until it is golden brown.

While the crust is baking, prepare the filling. Mix together the flour and sugar in a large mixing bowl.

Add lemon juice and lemon zest. Stir well to dissolve the sugar.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs and egg yolk with a pinch of salt. Add the eggs to the lemon mixture. Whisk until well blended.

As soon as the crust is done, pour the lemon filling into the pan.

Reduce the heat to 300°F. Bake for about 25-30 min, until the center is just set.

Cool completely. Cover and chill in the refrigerator before cutting into squares. Store in an air-tight container in the refrigerator.

My comments:

My hubby loves lemon treats. He has been after me to make him some lemon tarts for weeks now. I love my lemon tars but I've been making these for so long that I am ready for a change. I've tried several lemon treat recipes before but they never turned out right. It was either my fault for messing up the recipe or the recipe itself just didn't hit any spots.

When I came across this lemon bar recipe, it looked simple enough to do that I figured I had nothing to lose if they don't turn out. So this afternoon while my kids were napping, I baked instead of participating in the family nap. And I am glad I did.

While these are not the most tastey thing I've ever made, this recipe definitely has potentials. I made a few changes to the original recipe, mainly reduced the sugar in the lemon filling by 1/3. We like our lemon treats to be super lemony, more sour and tart rather than sweet.

My only complaint about this recipe is that I found the crust to be a bit soggy. It could very well be my own fault. I didn't use pie weights because I don't have any. The baked crust was mostly flat except for a few spots where the crust bubbled up. I thought I could flatten them with a fork, but instead, I made holes on the bottom. Of course, I didn't noticed the gaping holes until I punctured all the crust bubbles, so when I poured the lemon filling onto the crust, the filling seeped under the crust. Next time, I'll leave the bubbles alone. It probably won't look as nice once the bars are cut but they don't affect the taste at all.

I will definitely make these bars again in the future. I think they'd be delicious if topped with toasted almonds or coconut. Tomorrow, I will test them out on my little guy. I'm sure he'll love it since he pretty eats everything under the sun.

Day 2 Updates:

The lemon bars are not as soggy today. Chilling the bars overnight made the crust (and the filling!) a little firmer. I think my little screw-up with the crust bubble only partially contributed to the texture of the crust. Perhaps next time, I'll make the bars in the evening and let them chill overnight in the fridge. Making them in the afternoon is simply too tempting for me not to taste-test it on the same day. :)

Oh! and my son LOVED the lemon bar. :) We all did. I divided this into 16 bars and between 3 adults and 1 toddler, there is only 1 left in the fridge as of now. That last bar will likely disappear in the next hour or so before my husband turns in for the night. :)

Cinnamon Chip Chai Shortbread Cookie

2010-12-06T22:40:00.002-06:00

2 1/4 c. All-purpose flour
1 tsp Baking powder
1/4 tsp Salt
1 c. Butter, unsalted, room temperature
2/3 c. Sugar
2 Egg yolks
1/4 tsp Cinnamon
1/4 tsp Nutmeg (freshly grated if possible)
1/4 tsp ground Ginger
1/4 tsp ground Cloves
1/4 tsp ground Coriander
1/4 tsp ground Cardamom
1 c. Cinnamon Chips

Preheat the oven to 350ºF.

Combine all the dry ingredients. Set aside.

Beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg yolks.

Add the flour mixture in two additions and mix until clumpy. Gather the dough into a ball.

Roll the dough into 1" balls and place on baking sheets. Flatten the balls a little with the bottom of a small glass.

Bake until the cookies are golden brown, approximately 7-9 min. Cool the cookies on a baking rack.

My comments:

Ever had the Chai Latte from Starbucks? It is one of my all-time favourite latte. Mmm...yum!! Imagine my excitement when I saw this Cinnamon Chip Chai Shortbread Bars recipe. The pictures looked super tasty and the instructions were simple. What could go wrong?

Well, first of all, I found the spices in the original recipe way too strong. My nose had a Chai-spice overload and to be honest, I found the scent a bit of a turn-off. *gasp* Chai? Turn-off? Blasphemy, I tell ya!! Bake goods are always best when they are fresh out of the oven, but I was very disappointed in these shortbread bars. I tried them again the next day, with a cup of coffee as suggested by Natalie. The chai spices mellowed overnight but sadly, the shortbread bars just didn't do it for me.

I knew the problem was the texture of the bar. It almost seemed as though the bar didn't cook through properly. So instead of chucking the recipe straight into the compost bin (like I did with my shortbread bars), I decided to incorporate these chai spices into my basic thumbprint cookie recipe.

[Original Comments]
These chai thumbprint cookie turned out pretty well. The chai spices were perfect and the cookies baked perfectly. My only disappointment was that the cinnamon chips did not melt in the indentation the way I expected it to. So next time, I'm just going to mix the cinnamon chips right into the dough and forget the thumbprint part.

Finally, I must apologize for the ugly picture. I baked these for the Christmas cookie recipe exchange with my friends. Between the 4 of us, we baked 8 different types of cookies and we each got a dozen of each type. I was too busy stuffing myself with yummy cookies and had no time to lay out my own cookies nicely on a plate for pictures. I'll definitely make these again, so perhaps I'll update this post with a prettier picture then. :)

[Update...3 months later]
This is probably one of my best and favourite cookie recipe. I just Freakin' Love It!!! If you are looking to bake something for the wow-factor, this is IT!!!

This new and improved version of the Cinnamon Chip Chai Cookie totally rocks! I made these on several occasions and I have gotten nothing but two-thumbs up from friends and family. Even my Hubby can't keep his hands off of them and I never thought he'd like anything chai.

At the Christmas cookie recipe exchange, the size of my cookies were "normal", meaning they were about 2-2.5" in diameter. They were a bit too big for my liking. So I've been making them bite-size cookies and I gotta tell ya, they actually taste better when they are smaller!!! I absolutely love the mini cookies... My waistline hates them, but I Love Them!! We don't keep these on the kitchen counter anymore because we literally inhale them and they clog our arteries way too fast. :P

Cranberry Thumbprint Cookies

2010-12-06T22:20:00.000-06:00

Grand Marnier Cranberry Sauce
1 8 oz. package of Fresh cranberries
1/2 c. Sugar
1.5 tbsp Fresh squeezed orange juice
Zest from 1 orange
2 tbsp Grand Marnier

Preheat oven to 325°F.

Toss the cranberries together with sugar, orange juice and orange zest in a glass baking dish. Cover with foil and place the glass dish on a baking sheet.

Bake for 1 hour.

Remove the cranberries from the oven and stir in the Grand Marnier.

Store in the refrigerator until use.

Thumbprint Cookie
2 1/4 c. All-purpose flour
1 tsp Baking powder
1/4 tsp Salt
1 c. Butter, unsalted, room temperature
2/3 c. Sugar
2 Egg yolks
Zest from 1 orange
1 tbsp Freshly squeezed orange juice
1 tsp Vanilla extract
1/3 c. Grand Marnier Cranberry Sauce (optional: puree sauce)

Preheat the oven to 350ºF.

Combine flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

Beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg yolks, orange zest, orange juice and vanilla.

Add the flour mixture in 2 additions and mix until clumpy. Gather the dough into a ball.

Roll the dough into 1" balls and place on baking sheets. Make an indentation in the center of each cookie with your thumb. Fill each hole with a little bit of cranberry sauce.

Bake until the cookies are golden brown, approximately 12-13 min. Cool the cookies on a baking rack.

My comments:

I love cranberry sauce. Once I learned how to make it from scratch, I never went back to the crappy canned stuff. I usually follow the instruction on the fresh cranberry packaging and it's good cranberry sauce but it's nothing like this Grand Marnier Cranberry Sauce. The orange zest and Grand Marnier gave the sauce a real unique flavour, very citrus-y. Awesome!

I also really enjoyed these thumbprint cookies. The cookies came out very buttery and very moist. It paired very nicely with the Grand Marnier Cranberry Sauce. I pretty much followed the original recipe to the T, except I did not puree the sauce because I was too lazy to whip out the immersion blender. I also reduced the baking time because I almost burned the first batch of cookies after leaving them in the oven for 15 min!

These cookies were super! Definitely going to be part of my holiday baking repertoire from now on.

Salty Cracker Toffee

2010-12-06T21:20:00.001-06:00

1 c. Salted butter, room temperature
1 c. Dark brown sugar, packed
1 tsp Vanilla extract
16 Salted-top soda crackers
~ 1.5 c. Hershey's special dark chocolate chips
A few pinches of sea salt (not iodized table salt) or colour sprinkles

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Line the bottom of a 9x9" square silicone baking pan with soda crackers. (If you are not using silicone bakeware, line the baking pan with tinfoil and spray with cooking spray before placing the crackers.)

(This next step is important to avoid the butter from separating from the toffee, forming an ugly layer of fat on your toffee and chocolate.)
Melt the butter and sugar together in a sauce pan on low-medium heat, stirring slowly. When the butter and sugar are melted and mixed well, increase the heat to medium-high. Once the toffee starts to boil, stop stirring. Bring the toffee to an angry boil and boil for 3 minutes without stirring. The toffee should be a dark golden brown colour.

Remove from heat. Carefully add the vanilla (a few drops at a time). Swirl to mix, but do not stir. The vanilla will splash when you add it to the toffee. (I suggest using an oven mitt to hold the sauce pan to avoid getting hot caramel splatter onto your hand.)

Pour the toffee over the soda crackers. (The toffee should have a thick consistency.) Bake for 4-5 min.

Sprinkle the dark chocolate chips on top and wait for a few minutes for the chocolate chips to melt. Spread the melted chocolate evenly on top.

Place the candy in the refrigerator for about 20 min. Decorate with colour sprinkles or add a little bit of sea salt. Return the candy to the refrigerator for 2 hours and allow the toffee to harden.

Cut into triangles. Store in air-tight container in the refrigerator. If stacking the toffee in layers, separate each layer with wax paper.

My comments:

I came across this recipe about a month ago and I've already made it 3 times. It is That Good! So stop reading this post and go make it now!!

Ok...so you chose to keep reading (hopefully with toffee in your hand) and as your reward, you get to read about why I love these candies so much.

First of all, every candy recipe I came across so far required a candy thermometer. I don't own one and I don't want to buy one. So I was very happy to discover that you can make beautiful candies without it. However, each batch of toffee I made were slightly different and I suspect that a candy thermometer will give me a better control over the cooking time and thus minimizing the variations between batches. The different batches varies in the chewy-ness of the toffee, so if you don't care about that (which I don't), then you don't need a candy thermometer.

I chose to use dark chocolate chips because I Love Dark Chocolates. It's my favourite!! And these dark chocolate chips paired beautifully with the toffee. I used approximately 1.5 cups of chocolate chips but you can use more if you like your toffee more chocolatey. My suggestion is not to skim on the chocolate because it does make it a little hard to spread once it's melted. What to do with the leftover chocolate chips? Eat them!! I usually go through a whole bag of them while making these toffee. Yum!!

I made these for the Christmas cookie exchange with my friends this year. Instead of adding sea salt (see original recipe on notes on sea salts), I decorated the toffee with red and green sprinkles. It was awesomely festive!!

'Tis the season to eat toffee. Fa-la-la-la-la La-la-la-la!

Chocolate and Peanut Butter Cookie Sandwich

2010-09-28T01:52:00.000-05:00

Chocolate Cookie
1.25 c. All-purpose flour
1/2 c. Premium cocoa
1 tsp Baking soda
1/4 tsp Baking powder
1/4 tsp Salt
1 c. White sugar
1/2 c. + 2 tbsp Butter, unsalted at room temperature
1 Large egg

Peanut Butter Cream
1 c. Icing sugar
1 c. Chunky peanut butter, all natural, no sugar added
5 tbs Butter, unsalted at room temperature
1 tsp Vanilla extract
1/4 tsp Salt
1/4 - 1/3 c. Milk

For the chocolate cookies:

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line two baking sheets with Silpat (silicone baking mat) or parchment paper.

Mix together the flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

In another bowl, cream together the butter and sugar with an electric mixer. Beat in the egg.

Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture. Stir until well combined.

Set up a bowl of water for moistening your hands. (If you don't do this, the batter will stick to your fingers.)

Take a rounded teaspoon of batter and roll it gently into a ball with moistened hands. Flatten the ball on the lined baking sheet and space the cookies about 1" apart. Bake for 8 min.

Tip: Watch the cooking time carefully because the cookies burn easily. Start with 7 min and go from there.

Allow the cookies to cool for 5 min before transferring them to the cooling rack.

For the peanut butter cream:

Beat together the sugar, peanut butter, butter, vanilla and salt using an electric beater. Once combined, slowly add the milk until smooth and the cream reaches your desired consistency.

Tip: If you make the peanut butter cream first, you won't have to wash the beater before using it to make the cookie batter. However, if you make the cookie batter first, you'll have to wash the beater part before you can use it for the peanut butter cream because the cookie batter contains raw eggs.

To assemble:

Try to match pairs of chocolate cookies by size. When the cookies are cooled, divide the peanut butter cream among the cookies and make the sandwiches.

Serve with milk.

Makes 24 cookies, 12 sandwiches.

My comments:

One of the biggest problem with being on mat leave without a baby is that I have all day to explore recipes on Tastespotting.com. I am convinced that recipes like this Oreo with Peanut Butter Cream is the reason my little babe refused to join the rest of humanity. I mean, why on earth would he want to be born when he could eat yummy yummy desserts in my tummy whereas the moment he enters the world, he's officially cut off from decadent sweets for the next 3-4 years?!

These cookie sandwiches were easy to make and very good to eat. I adapted the original recipe from Momma Hen's Kitchen to make them a little less sweet. Also, the original recipe utilized a food processor to make the cookie batter which is a great idea but unfortunately for me, I don't own a good food processor. I have a mini one that I used to prepare baby food but it's not very powerful and I doubt the batter will form properly in my mini. So I made the cookie batter the same way I do with all my other cookies: beat the wet ingredients with an electric beater and stir in the dry ingredients by hand. The stirring part was tough for my wimpy little arms but the cookies turned out great.

I like using all-natural peanut butter in my baking. I don't know if the "all natural" part is indeed better for my health but I find that I have more precision over the sweetness of the bake goods because it does not contain added sugar. I made a mistake in purchasing a crunchy peanut butter this time instead of the smooth and I was worried that my peanut butter cream would be weird. But it turns out that the crunchy peanut butter really adds to the texture of the peanut butter sandwich. I think I will make this with crunchy peanut butter again in the future.

One problem with an all-natural peanut butter is that the oil in the peanut butter separates when you first open the jar. It takes time to stir and create a uniform consistency in the jar. Depending on how well you incorporated the oil into the peanut butter, the thickness of your peanut butter may be vary from batch to batch. This is important when you beat the milk into the peanut butter cream. Always add the milk in slowly, perhaps 1-2 tbsp at a time, beat well before adding more. This will ensure you do not add too much and end up with a runny peanut butter cream.

The best thing about these cookie sandwiches is that although they are not super-sweet, they are rich. So one sandwich with a glass of cold milk makes a fantastic snack and I didn't feel like I need to go back for seconds. Ok...not right away anyway. :P I made these in the morning and I only had 2 so far; that, alone, is quite an accomplishment for me. :)

Chocolate Caramel Oatmeal Bars

2010-09-23T22:22:00.000-05:00

2 c. Flour
2 c. Rolled oats
1 c. Brown sugar
1/2 tsp Baking soda
1 c. Butter, unsalted
1 pkg (250 g) Hershey's Special Dark Chocolate Chipits
1 c. Dulce de leche Caramel Cream Spread
3 Tbsp Flour

Optional: 3/4 c. Pecans, toasted and chopped

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Grease a 13” x 9” pan. (I sprayed mine with PAM canola oil.)

Combine flour, oats, sugar and baking soda in a large bowl.

Cut the butter into the flour mixture and mix with your hand until the butter is incorporated. This mixture should be crumbly. Set aside 3 cups of this mixture (approximately 1/2).

Press the remaining mixture into the greased pan.

Bake for 10 min.

Sprinkle the chocolate chips (and pecans) over the baked crust bottom.

Mix 3 Tbsp of flour with the the caramel cream spread. Drop blobs of the caramel cream on top and try to spread them out as much as you can (they won't spread as they bake).

Sprinkle the rest of the oat and butter mixture evenly over the top.

Bake for 20-25 min or until the top is golden brown.

Let the bar cool for an hour before cutting them into squares.

My comments:

My husband is not a chocolate fan (I know...Weeeiiiirrrdddoooo!!) but he loves caramel (ok, downgrading him to just a mini-weeeirdooo). So I was quite excited when I came across this Oatmeal Carmelitas recipe. I thought he'd go crazy over it, but alas! I was wrong.

First off, I will say that the bars did turn out well. In fact, I liked them so much that I didn't even get a chance to whip out my camera and take pictures. That's why this is a picture-less post. The good news is, I will definitely make this again but I'll have to wait 'til then to snap a few nice photos.

But remember...I said I was making these for my husband, not me, so I will tell you why he didn't like them. The problem was that I always tweak recipes; I simply can't leave a good recipe well enough alone. In this case, I added way too much chocolate and Hubby found this to be too chocolatey and not enough caramel. So he was disappointed in the bars, but I, on the other hand, loved them.

If I am making these for myself again, I'd definitely keep the caramel:chocolate chip ratio the same but also include the toasted pecan. The bars were missing something and I think the pecans will definitely do the trick. Unfortunately, I had to leave the pecans out of the bars this time because Hubby has nut allergies.

I have an idea on how to make these more caramel-y. Next time, I'll make 1/2 a batch with pecans (for Me!!) and 1/2 a batch with more caramel. If it works, I'll most definitely update this recipe...with pictures!!!

Meanwhile, don't hold your breath. Lil' Babe #2 is 4 days overdue so it's a race between the caramel bars and the baby...and the baby will probably win!

Lemony Apple Spread

2010-09-21T22:44:00.001-05:00

8-9 c. Apples, peeled, cored and cubed
3-4 Tbsp Fresh lemon juice
1 Cinnamon stick
1/4 - 1/2 c. Brown sugar
1.5 c. Water
4 strips Lemon peel

Place the apples in a large sauce pan.

Add water, 2 Tbsp lemon juice, cinnamon stick, 1/4 c. brown sugar and lemon peel.

Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 20 min.

Adjust the amount of lemon juice and brown sugar according to your taste.

Remove the lemon peels and cinnamon stick. Mash the apples with a potato masher.

My comment:

My friend and I took our boys to a local apple orchard a few weekends ago and we came home with way too many MacIntosh apples for us to eat by themselves. So I decided to make some applesauce and I found this wonderful recipe on Simply Recipe that promised a hint of citrus flavour in the applesauce. My family loves lemony treats, so I was rather excited about this recipe.

As always, I didn't follow the recipe to the dot. I ended up with a lemon-flavoured applesauce that was super yummy. The first word out of my son's little mouth after taking a spoonful of applesauce was "Lemon!" and I knew I went a little overboard with the lemon. However, because we both loved the applesauce so much, I decided to post the recipe the way I made it and simply ask you to adjust the ingredients according to your taste.

I am calling this recipe an apple spread rather than an applesauce because I found this apple spread/sauce is superb on a piece of buttered toast. My little guy loves jam sandwich and every morning, I'd make him a little sandwich with this apple spread for breakfast (minus the butter). Since the spread is homemade, I put on a little more spread than I normally would with jam and he can't get enough of his sandwich!! For myself, I drop big blobs of apple spread on my toast and the taste is so refreshing for a quick morning snack.

I kept a big jar of it in the fridge that lasted about a week and I froze the rest in the freezer. My freezer stash is quickly dwindling in numbers. Luckily, this is so easy to do that I think I will make this again real soon!!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars

2010-09-05T23:12:00.004-05:00

1 c. Butter or margarine
1/2 c. Natural peanut butter (ie. no sugar added)
1/2 tsp Vanilla extract
1.5 c. Brown sugar
2 c. Graham cracker crumbs
1 c. Rolled oats
1 bag (250 g) Hershey's Special Dark Chocolate Chipits

Melt the butter in the microwave and and stir in the peanut butter. Blend well. Then, add the vanilla extract and set aside.

In another mixing bowl, combine the graham cracker crumbs, rolled oats and brown sugar with a fork.

Pour the peanut butter mixture into the dry mixture. Stir until everything is combined.

Line a 9x13" dish with wax paper. Spread the peanut butter and graham cracker crumb mixture in the dish and press down firmly.

Put the chocolate chips in the same bowl you used for mixing the butter and peanut butter. Melt the chocolate chips in the microwave at 30 second intervals, stirring in between, until all the chocolate chips are melted (approximately 3-4 times). Spread the chocolate on top of the peanut butter bar bottom.

Tip: If you chill the graham cracker bottom for 15-20 min until it begins to harden, it is easier to spread the melted chocolate on top.

Chill in the fridge until the chocolate is set (approximately 45 min). When the chocolate is hard to touch, cut into bars. Then chill for several more hours until the bars are firmly set.

My comments:

One of my new favourite website is Tastespotting. It is a collection of fantastic food blogs and it updates frequently. I visit this website 3-4 times a day and I just can't get enough of it. My last few recipes were discovered through Tastespotting.

Sometimes you see several similar recipes popping up on the same day. When there are 10-20 of foodies all attempting the same recipe, you know it's the time for the Daring Baker Challenge. The last one I saw was back in July for some pretty mouthwatering ice-cream cakes. Well, I'm not a daring baker...I'm more of a lazy baker. The easier the recipe, the better.

I came across two recipes [1, 2] for chocolate peanut butter bars that required very few ingredients and zero baking. Ah! my kind of recipe. We've just survived a massive late summer heat wave and believe me, the last thing you want to do is to turn on the oven, even when you have AC. I was a bit suspicious about the no-bake part but the ingredients were cheap, so I gave it a try.

The bars turned out amazing!!! I substituted the powdered sugar for brown sugar because I was too lazy to climb up to the top cupboard to retrieve my powdered sugar. I also reduced the amount of brown sugar to 1.5 cups (instead of 3). I thought the end result was pretty good, if not a bit too sweet.

The first time I made this, I found the graham cracker bottom, while tastey, was too greasy, too buttery. It needed to be serve chilled, otherwise, the bar becomes too soft to hold in your hand. I had an idea to improve it and I wanted to try it out before posting the recipe. However, I have been reading up on the art of food photography [1, 2] plus extracting a few pointers from a friend. I had the opportunity to try out what I've learned today and my pictures turned out really nice. They are, by no means, professional quality but as you can see, they have improved tremendously since last night when I photographed my sweet potato rolls. So I need to show these off because I don't know when I'll have another opportunity to do this again without my toddler stealing the food and running away from me while I try to be artistic.

Anyhow, I made them again a few weeks later and this time, I added a cup of rolled oats to the graham cracker bottom. The bottom firmed up really well and these newly improved bars tasted great even when kept at room temperature. I brought them into work and the unanimous consensus was that this recipe is a keeper. :)

(I ate all the peanut butter bars before I got a chance to re-do the pictures. So what you see above is actually pictures of the old rolled-oat-less bars, but they looked pretty much the same.)

Sweet Potato Rolls

2010-09-04T22:59:00.000-05:00

2.5 tsp (8 g) Active dry yeast
1/2 c. Warm water
4 tbsp Brown sugar, unpacked
1 small sweet potato
3 tbsp Butter, softened
1 tsp Salt
2 Eggs, beaten
3-4 c. Flour

Cook the the sweet potato in the microwave on high (about 2-3 minute). Peel and mash. Set aside 1/2 cup.

Dissolve 1 tsp of brown sugar in warm water. Stir in the yeast and let stand for 5 min.

In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter and the remaining sugar. Stir in the mashed sweet potato, eggs and salt. Add the yeast mixture.

Slowly add the flour, about 1 cup at a time, and mix with a wooden spoon. As the mixture turn dough-y, switch to kneading with your hands. Continue to add the flour until the dough is soft but not sticky.

Grease another large mixing bowl lightly with cooking spray. Shape the dough into a ball and place it into the greased bowl. Cover with a towel and let the dough rise for about 1.5 hours. The dough should double in size.

On a lightly floured surface, divide the dough into 15 pieces. Roll each piece into a ball and place it on a baking sheet lined with a Silpat (or any silicone mat or parchment paper), spacing the balls 1" apart. Cover with a towel and let the dough rest for another 15 min.

Pre-heat oven to 375°F. Bake the rolls for approximately 15 min or until the top is golden brown.

Cool slightly before serving.

My comments:

I have never baked bread before but I've always wanted to try. I was told it's not hard and the secret to successful bread baking is fresh yeast. So when I stumbled across Cate's Sweet Potato Rolls recipe that promised good results with minimal kneading and rising time, I was inspired to embark on a new baking adventure.

I didn't have the knowledge base to make a lot of changes to the recipe. I wanted the rolls to be at least edible so that I will try baking homemade bread again in the future. I must admit, I do like these rolls and my mom gives them two thumbs up!! We taste-tested them while they were still warm and with a little slab of butter, we decided that I will most definitely make them again. :)

As a novice breadmaker, I found the following tricks useful:

Flour a knife and use it to divide the dough instead of your fingers. Cutting the dough into small pieces first made it much easier (and less sticky) to work with the dough.
When the recipe said "lightly floured surface", it really meant Lightly. I used way too much flour and the dough did not absorb the flour while it was resting. So my rolls looked a bit floury. I think it still tasted ok; they just don't look at tastey as Cate's.
It helps if you know how to knead properly. I didn't and Hubby had to instruct me on the basics. Incorporating flour into the dough went much smoother once I mastered the art of dough kneading.
Use fresh sweet potatoes. Mine was a bit old and therefore dry. It didn't mash very well.
To prepare the yeast mixture, dissolve the sugar in hot water before mixing with a little bit of cold.
The rolls do not "spread" like cookies!! So they did not expand to touch each other while baking. My bread all came out as individual rolls and they were perfect!! :)

I think I will buy 2 more sweet potatoes this week. I have enough yeast to make this again, double-batch. I think these rolls will freeze very well. Perhaps I'll freeze a dozen or so in preparation of the lil babe's arrival in the next few weeks. I don't expect I'll have to a lot of time to bake once the little one is here.

Blueberry Cream Cheese Tarts

2010-08-30T22:36:00.001-05:00

1 pkg (8 oz. ; 250 g) Cream cheese (light), softened to room temperature
1 container (1 L) Whipped topping (light), thawed in fridge
1/2 c. Sugar
24 Tart shells (frozen or homemade)
2-3 c. Wild blueberries

Several hours before tart assembly, wash the blueberries, lightly pat dry with paper towel and then air-dry as much as possible.

Bake tart shells as instructed on the box or your recipe until the edges are slightly brown. Set aside and allow to cool.

Using an electric beater, cream together the cream cheese and sugar.

Beat in the whipped topping until just blended.

To assemble the tarts, you have 2 options:

Fold the washed blueberries into the cream cheese filling and divide them into the tart shells.
Cover the bottom of the tart with berries. Drop a large spoonful of cream cheese filling on the blueberries. Place more blueberries on top of the filling. (This works best with wild blueberries because they are smaller.)

My comments:

When I saw the wild blueberries at a local farmer's market a few weeks ago, I knew I had to have them. But they were too expensive to justify a random, spontaneous purchase. Then I had the brilliant idea to serve them at my son's birthday party. Remember this delicious concoction I did awhile ago? I thought the fresh wild blueberries would go perfectly with that light, fluffy and yet creamy filling.

These blueberry tarts were delicious. I whipped up the creamy filling the night before and prepared the blueberries and the tart shells the morning of the party. It took 2 pairs of hands to finish 24 tarts in only 5 min. This dessert works really well when you have limited space in the fridge because the only thing that needed to be kept cool was the filling. Furthermore, not chilling the tart shells after they have been baked kept the shells from turning soft.

What I love about wild blueberries is that they are sweet and flavourful, unlike those steroid blueberries you find at the grocery stores. I could have done this with the steroid blueberries but trust me, if you can get your hands on the wild stuff, do it. It's worth every penny.

I came across this blueberry tart with icewine glaze last week while planning the menu for the birthday party. The glaze looked easy enough to do and I was tempted. But I realized it would've been over-ambitious to do the glaze with everything else going on. Maybe next time I'll actually try the ricotta cheese filling and introduce another variation of cheese filling dessert into my repertoire. :)

Easy Berry Cobbler

2010-08-25T23:47:00.000-05:00

3 c. Fresh berries (I used 2 c. Blueberries + 1 c. Strawberries)
3 tbsp Sugar
1/3 c. Orange juice
1/2 c. Rolled oats
Dash of cinnamon

2/3 c. All-purpose flour
1/4 tsp Baking powder
1 pinch salt
Dash of cinnamon

1/4 c. Butter, softened
1/4 c. Applesauce, unsweetened
1/2 c. Sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 375°F.

If you are using large berries, cut them into smaller size (approximately 1.5 cm big).

In an 8" square baking dish, mix together the berries, 3 tbsp of sugar and orange juice. Add the rolled oats and cinnamon. Set aside.

In a bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Set aside.

In another bowl, cream the butter and 1/2 cup of sugar together until fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla extract.

Add the flour mixture, stirring until ingredients are just combined. Drop batter over the berry mixture using a rounded teaspoon. Try to cover as much of filling as possible, spread the batter with the spoon if necessary.

Bake for 35 to 40 min, until topping is golden brown and filling is bubbling.

My comments:

My son's birthday party is this coming weekend and I got it in my head that I absolutely must have wild blueberries for my cream cheese pie. So off I went to the local market and purchased a basket of tastey but expensive wild blueberries. I underestimated how much blueberries one of those baskets can hold; when I got home, I realized I have WAY too much. I know they won't last very long, so I need to do something with them, preferably something quick and easy.

One disadvantage of shopping at a fresh produce market is that everything looks super delicious. I simply couldn't resist the big baskets of strawberries next to the baskets of blueberries. Walking further down the aisle, I bought more fruits and vegetables, more than we can possibly eat. So yes, I really need to bake.

I found this easy Blueberry Cobbler Recipe and decided to do my own version of Mixed Berry Cobbler. I took note of some reviewers' suggestions and incorporated into my little creation. I must confess that I cheated a bit with this recipe tonight because I started it at 10:30 pm and I have to work tomorrow (thus it explains why I'm at the computer at 12:20 am, updating this blog). So I just creamed the butter and the sugar together with a fork, then mixed in the rest of the wet ingredients quickly with the same fork. The wet ingredients looked a bit lumpy but that can't be helped. I also didn't quite have 1/4 cup applesauce; I made up the difference with some homemade strawberry jam. In all laziness, my cobbler top turned out rather well. :)

As some of the reviewers mentioned, this recipe is definitely not sweet. I like that and I think I will keep the sugar content the way it is. However, I taste-tested this tonight with whipped cream and that was super good. I think it'd taste even better with a scoop of rich vanilla ice-cream.

All in all, this was a satistfactory dessert and I'd definitely make it again. It's so easy and quick to do; it is perfect to serve at dinner parties. :)

Thai-inspired Cream of Zucchini Soup

2010-08-22T19:46:00.000-05:00

3 Zucchini
2 tbsp Basil, fresh
2 c. Chicken (or vegetable) broth, low sodium
2-3 tsp Curry powder
1 tsp Hot chilli sauce
400 mL Coconut milk

Wash and cube the zucchini. Place the zucchini in the blender or food processor, along with the basil and chicken broth. Puree until the zucchini are fine and creamy.

Transfer the soup to a large pot. Add the curry powder and the hot chilli sauce. Bring the soup to a boil. Once the soup starts boiling, reduce heat and continue to simmer for anoterh 30 min. If the soup is too thick, you can add some water.

When the zucchini is cooked, stir in the coconut milk and warm up the soup, but do not boil.

Serve with 1/2 tsp hot chilli sauce for extra heat!!

My comments:

If you are looking for quick recipe to impress a friend on a spur of the moment, this soup is for you. Prep time is minimal and it's mostly hands-free cooking. The combination of curry and coconut is classic and super tastey. Zucchinis are light tasting vegetables but the coconut milk and curry made up for its mildness; not to mention this is a great way to get some vegetable into a meal.

This soup makes a great starter for proper multi-course meal but it also made wonderful leftovers the next day. I ate it as the main course and I threw in some rice to make it a little more filling.

I used this Chinese garlic chilli sauce which is something I always have in my fridge. It goes well with Hubby's favourite noodles and dumplings; I also love using it stir-fries or in any recipes that ask for a bit of a zing. I found 1 tsp of this chilli sauce in this zucchini soup gives the soup a subtle kick and it was perfect. However, you can add more according to your desired taste.

Aromatic Sesame Seed Cookies

2010-08-14T21:36:00.002-05:00

7/8 c. Sesame seeds
1/8 c. Flax seeds
3/4 c. Brown sugar
4 Tbsp Butter, unsalted, softened
1 Egg
1/2 c. Flour
1/4 tsp Salt
1/8 tsp Baking powder
1 tsp Lemon juice, fresh squeezed
1/2 tsp Vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 325°F.

Toast the sesame seeds on a frying pan* until they are golden brown.

Using an electric beater, beat the brown sugar and butter together until fluffy. Beat in the egg.

Combine the flour, salt, and baking powder. Add to the butter mixture and mix well by hand. Stir in the vanilla extract and lemon juice.

Mix in the toasted sesame seeds.

Chill the dough for at least 30 minutes in the refrigerator.

Drop a teaspoon-size cookie dough on the Silpat (or any silicone mats) or lightly oiled cookie sheet, leaving approximately 2" space in between the dough. Bake for 12-13 min, until the edges are slightly brown. Cool for a few minutes on the cookie sheet before transferring to a cooling rack.

* To toast the sesame seeds, do them in batches and stir constantly to ensure even toasting. My sesame seeds appeared shiny when they were done and some of them even started to "pop" out of the pan.

My comments:

This is another one of my non-original recipes. I saw these Benne Wafers a few months ago on Simply Recipes and I've been meaning to try them. I always have sesame seeds lying around the house, so I don't know what took me so long to actually make them. These cookies are so easy to do and they are delicious!!

I tweaked the recipe a bit to my taste. I didn't have enough sesame seeds to make 1 cup, so I topped up the cup with a bit of flax seeds, another staple ingredient in my cupboard. Both sesame seeds and flax seeds are highly nutritious and they are super tasty when incorporated into baked goods. I also reduced the sugar by at least 1/4 cup and I found my cookies are plenty sweet! The original recipe asked you to bake the cookies for 15 min but in my oven, I found 13 min was more than enough. In fact, if you didn't chill the dough, I'd check the cookies at 12 min to avoid overbaking.

All in all, I enjoyed these cookies. I had to be careful not to eat them all while the baking was on-going. They smell wonderful and tasted so good while still warm from the oven. I think they'd go very well with some vanilla ice-cream too!!

Jamaica Cake

2010-08-10T22:02:00.000-05:00

1/2 c. Brown sugar
2 c. Flour
2 Banana, chopped
2 Eggs
1 can (14 oz) Crushed pineapple with juice
1 tsp Vanilla extract<
1/2 tsp Salt
1 tsp Baking soda
1/4 c. Vegetable oil
1/2 c. Applesauce, unsweetened
Coconut shreds, unsweetened

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Mix together sugar, vegetable oil and applesauce.

Stir in eggs, vanilla and pineapple with the juice.

Add the flour, salt and baking soda. Mix well.

Fold in the chopped bananas.

Pour the cake batter into a greased 9x9" baking dish. (I used a silicone baking pan, therefore no need to grease.)

Sprinkle the top with coconut shreds.

Bake for approximately 30-35 min until the top is brown. Do the toothpick test to see if the cake is done. If not, cover with tinfoil and bake for another 10 min. Check for doneness again.

Cool for 5 min before serving.

My comment:

My son's 2nd birthday is fast approaching and I wanted to bake him a cake. But I didn't want to do a boring banana cake because banana cakes are way over-done. My original idea was carrot cake but I hate grating, so the grated carrots sort of turned me off the idea.

Then I came across this Jamaica Cake on AllRecipes.com. The instructions couldn't be more simple and it has raving reviews. I decided to try it out and I was impressed. I have found a winner!!

I tweaked the recipe a little bit to accommodate my 14 oz can of crushed pineapple and to make it more toddler-friendly (ie. less sugary). The cake turned out very moist with an excellent combo of flavours. I like sprinkling the top of the cake with coconut shreds because the coconut complimented the fruits without overpowering. My only complaint is that it tasted a bit egg-y for me. Next time, perhaps I'll throw in a little more vanilla and a dash of cinnamon.

For my son's birthday, I can make this cake the morning of the birthday party (because it is That Easy!) and I will serve it with a bit of whipped cream. I'm sure the kids would love it and hopefully ask for seconds!!

Crunchy French Toast

2010-07-25T23:16:00.000-05:00

2 slices Bread, thick slices
2 Eggs
1/3 c. Milk
1/2 tsp Vanilla extract
1 c. Special K cereal
1 c. Rolled oats

Preheat the oven to 400°F.

Lightly toast the bread. Set aside and allow them to cool. Cut the bread in half.

Whisk together the eggs, milk and vanilla extract.

Soak the bread in the egg mixture for approximately 1 min on each side.

Mix together the Special K and rolled oats in a shallow dish. Carefully transfer the soaked bread to the crunchy mix and coat the bread on both sides.

Line the cookie sheet with a Silpat (or a silicone mat or parchment paper). Bake the French toast for 10 min, flip them and bake for another 5 min. Top and bottom of the toast should be brown.

Serve warm with butter and maple syrup.

My comments:

I am a huge fan of baked french toast. I love this recipe with the baguette because I can prepare it ahead of time and it tastes great. Not to mention I totally suck at frying french toast on the stove top because I always manage to break them and I end up with a pile of egged flavoured bread.

I was quite excited when I came across this new baked French toast recipe on Simply Recipes. It is such a simple and yet fabulous idea that I can't believe I didn't think of it first!! I tweaked the recipe a little bit because I didn't have cornflakes and I forgot to buy cornflakes. I think my little experiment turned out pretty well and I'll do it this way again. The Special K worked well and I love the fact that rolled oats give you an extra boost of fibre.

I like the idea of using the thick slices of bread (3/4") instead of the regular bread (1/2"). The thickness was perfect for French toast because the bread doesn't fall apart as easily after soaking up the egg mixture; however, the thicker the bread, the more egg mixture it requires for soaking. I also love the way the thick French toast feels in my mouth; it gives each bite a little more substance.

For a few slices of bread, I added unsweetened coconut shreds to the cereal mix. I don't have the exact measurements for the coconut shreds since I just sprinkled a bunch in. But I enjoyed the subtle taste of the coconut and I think that will become a staple in this recipe.

I think the egg mixture from my old recipe tastes better, but I love the idea of coating the French toast with cereal and thus giving it that little crunch in each bite. I'll have to experiment with amalgamating the two methods and come up with a new creation of my own. Until then, give this Crunchy French Toast recipe a try because I don't think you'll be disappointed.

Wicked Breakfast Cookies

2010-07-18T23:25:00.000-05:00

2/3 c. Vegetable oil
1/3 c. Unsweetened applesauce
1 c. Brown sugar, unpacked
2 Eggs
1 tsp Vanilla extract
2 c. Flour
1 tsp Baking soda
1/2 tsp Baking powder
1/2 tsp Salt
1.5 tsp Cinnamon powder
2 c. Rolled oats
1 c. Special K cereal
1/4 c. Coconut shreds, unsweetened, medium
1/2 c. Flax seeds
1/2 c. Sesame seeds, toasted
3/4 c. Sunflower seeds, unsalted
3/4 c. Raisins

Preheat oven to 350˚F.

Creamed together the vegetable oil, applesauce and brown sugar using an electric beater. Beat in eggs one at a time. Stir in vanilla extract.

In a separate bowl, combined the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Stir into creamed mixture.

Stir in oats, Special K, coconut shreds, flax seeds, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds and raisins.

Drop a walnut-size ball of cookie dough on a Silpat or greased cookie sheet.

Bake for 8-10 min. Check the cookies around 8 min. They should be done when the edges start to brown. Do no overcook.

Allow the cookies to cool on the Silpat for 5 min before transferring to a cooling rack.

My comments:

We visit our in-laws every summer. They live in a very small town and one of the things we found lacking is the availability of fresh brewed coffee. We like to take morning walks with our son by the river (weather permitted). We discovered a local grocery store that sells all sorts of organic, natural foods and products, including freshly brewed fairtrade coffees and fresh baked goods. That little niche of heaven quickly became part of our morning routine.

While I was there this summer, I fell in love with their breakfast cookie. Even at $ 0.95 a pop, I simply couldn't say no to it. The cookie is always soft, chewy and not too sweet. I was determined to re-create this little nugget of delicious goodness when I get home from vacation.

I finally got around to it tonight and I thought I'd have to fiddle with the recipe a few times before getting it right. But I was wrong. OMG! These cookies are awesomely wicked!! They taste so good, so soft, so chewy. The unique flavours from the various seeds blended together very well, giving the cookie a subtle nutty aroma.

I started off this little experiment with a basic oatmeal cookie. I read some of the reviews and made a few modifications to make this a little healthier. I substituted the butter with oil and applesauce. I reduced the sugar by a half since I wanted this to be a breakfast treat, not a dessert. Also, I would like to be able to share this with my 2-year-old toddler, so I don't want to overload it with sugar. I have an old chocolate chip cookie recipe that uses a mixture of rolled oats and Special K cereal. The Special K gave the cookie a bit of a crunch and I love the texture of the cookie. So I incorporated the Special K in this breakfast cookie recipe as well.

I like the proportion of coconut shreds and the seeds. However, you can certainly adjust the amount of each ingredients to suit your taste. I also used a small golden raisin just for the fun of it but you can substitute that for your favourite raisins, or cranberries, or even chocolate chips.

I think this recipe is definitely a keeper. It's easy to do and it tastes great. Hubby gives his chocolate chip version two thumbs up and I loved my golden raisin cookies. I think this recipe is versatile enough that it'll keep everyone in the family happy.

Simple Strawberry Cream Treat

2010-07-14T21:56:00.000-05:00

Fresh strawberries
Basil (dry or fresh)
Honey

1-2 tbsp Light cream (or 2% evaporated milk)

Whipped cream

Mash up a handful of strawberries.

Sprinkle a little bit of dried basil. (Alternatively, you can add some finely chopped fresh basil leaves.)

Drizzle a little bit of honey over the strawberries and add the light cream. Mix.

Top with whipped cream.

My comments:

My little guy loves fruits but even he is getting a little tired of the plain boring things I feed him on a regular basis. So tonight I thought I'd jazz up the strawberries a bit and see if I can fool him into eating the last of the strawberries.

When I was young, my grandmother used to cut the strawberries into cubes and serve them with white sugar and evaporated milk. I loved the taste of it and I knew my son would too. I had some light cream at home and I sweetened the dessert with a drizzle of honey. Honey is a natural sugar which is a healthier choice of sweetener than white sugar. The addition of basil was inspired by the Strawberry Basil Gelato I once had from Canadian Maple Delights. Finally, I couldn't pass up the chocolate whipped cream that is sitting in the fridge, calling my name every time I open the door.

With these simple ingredients, I transformed an old favourite into something fun and tastey. The chocolate whipped cream complimented the strawberry and cream. However, the chocolate flavour did overpower the basil a little bit. I think either one of these combination would make this dessert even better:

Strawberry cream + Basil + plain regular whipped cream (no chocolate)
Strawberry cream + chocolate whipped cream + chocolate shavings (no basil)

Mmm...I think the chocolate shavings will be an excellent addition. Maybe I should buy another box of strawberries. Afterall, I have to test out all my recipe ideas!! :D

This is a versatile treat for the little ones at home. For my toddler, I served this strawberry cream as a dessert and so I added a bit of honey as a treat for him because he loves sweet stuff. I didn't give him any chocolate whipped cream either and he loved it. This can also be served as part of a healthy breakfast or in-between-meal snack. In this case, I'd omit the honey since it is not a necessary ingredient. Let's face it, our children do not need extra sugar in their diet anyway. To make this even healthier, skip the whipped cream and sprinkle some granola and/or almond slivers on top instead!! Mmmm...yum!!

Note: If you are feeding this to children less than 1-year-old, please omit the honey. Infants should not be fed because of the increased risk of contracting Infant Botulism.

Chocolate Chip Brownies

2010-06-17T23:08:00.001-05:00

2 c. (12 oz) Semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 c. Butter or margarine
4 Eggs, beaten
3/4 c. Sugar
2 tbsp Vanilla extract
1-1/4 c. Flour
1/2 tsp Salt
1 c. Walnut (optional)

Melt 1 cup of chocolate chips with the butter. It is best to use a double-boiler but you can also use low heat but make sure you stir constantly to prevent scorching. Cool the chocolate sauce to room temperature.

Preheat oven to 325˚F.

Whisk together the sugar and the eggs. Stir in vanilla and salt.

Gradually add flour into the egg mixture. (I put in 1/8 cup of flour at a time and whisk until blended.)

Stir in the chocolate sauce. Fold in the remaining chocolate chips (and nuts, if using).

Bake for 25-30 min, or until the toothpick comes out almost clean.

My comments:

I was craving brownies two nights ago but I didn't have any cocoa powder which is what I needed for my own brownie recipe. So I found this one on RecipeZaar; it had good reviews and it will use up the chocolate chips I have lying around at home. I procrastinated on making it because I was too lazy to make the chocolate sauce and then wait for it to cool before using it. It would've been easier to just pop out to the grocery store to pick up that can of cocoa powder but unfortunately, I was even too lazy to do that!! Anyhow, the recipe was easy to do but I made a few minor adjustments based on some reviewers' suggestions.

First of all, I reduced the sugar from the original 1.5 cups to 1 cup. I still found it way to sweet; thus I further reduced it to 3/4 cups in the ingredient list above. Also, when you buy the chocolate chips, make sure you buy the semi-sweet or the dark chocolate; otherwise, you'll have a sugar overload when you bite into that delicious looking brownie. It'd be a shame if you can only eat one piece of brownie because it is too sweet to inhale a second piece. :)

Secondly, I substituted 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce for 1 egg because I only had 3 eggs. My brownies came out nice and moist but not too gooey. If you don't have enough eggs, I'd go as far as substituting 1/2 cup of applesauce for 2 eggs but no more than that. I'd also suggest that if you plan on using applesauce, perhaps start with mixing in 1/2 cup of sugar, then do a taste-test before adding more sugar to adjust the sweetness. Even unsweetened applesauce is sweet. :)

[Note: For fellow preggers, don't do the taste-test because the batter contains raw egg. It's not worth getting sick over the perfect tasting brownies. :) This is partly why my brownie was so sweet tonight because I didn't want to do that taste-test.]

Thirdly, the original recipe asked you to sift the flour into the egg mixture. I find adding 1/8 cup at a time worked just as well. It's hard to mess up a brownie recipe and I don't think you need fancy equipment like the sift, which I don't own anyway. :P

I think this recipe will be even better if toasted walnuts (see original recipe for toasting instructions) are used instead of the extra chocolate chips. The chocolate chips made the brownie too sweet but the walnut will add a nice aroma to the brownie without increasing the sugar content. A walnut chocolate brownie will go well with a bit of icing sugar on top or serve warm with vanilla ice-cream.

Will I make this again? Definitely!! But I think if I have cocoa powder at home, I'd rather use that recipe since I don't have to spend an extra hour preparing the chocolate sauce. I haven't posted my old brownie recipe but it is certainly on my To-Post list. :)

Healthy Fruits n' Yogurt

2010-06-06T20:40:00.000-05:00

1/4 - 1/2 c. Your favourite fruits (bananas, mangoes, blackberries, strawberries, etc.)
2-3 Tbsp Plain yogurt
2 Tbsp Special K cereal
Honey

Combine the fruits, yogurt and Special K cereal in a bowl. Drizzle some honey on top for taste.

Mix and serve immediately.

My comments:
I love yogurt but a small 100 g of flavoured yogurt contains 15 g of sugar. Although the sugar is supposed to be "natural", from the fruits, 15 g is equivalent to approximately 1.4 Tbsp of sugar and it tastes quite sweet. So I've decided that if I'm going to be eating that much sugar, I might as well get it straight from the source, especially summer time is the best time to stuff ourselves with fresh fruits.

I tried this without adding the honey but the plain yogurt was a bit bland for my palette. But I think drizzling a small amount of honey is still better than eating flavoured yogurt because it is definitely less sugary and I can also control the level of sweetness better this way. The honey also compliments the fruits and berries very well.

You can literally use any types of fruits you want. My son loves the banana and mango combination. Blueberries and blackberries went over well with him as well but then, we love fruits and you simply cannot substitute good tasting fresh fruits with flavoured yogurts!

I chose Special K for the "crunch" factor here but granola or your favourite nuts (eg. walnut, pecan, etc) will work just as well.

I think I'll have to pick up some apples sometime this week and try an apple-cinnamon combination which will probably go something like this:

1/2 Red delicious (organic), cubed, not peeled
Sprinkle of cinnamon
Handful of chopped toasted walnuts
Honey or Maple Syrup

Ginger Lemon Carrot Soup

2010-06-06T20:12:00.000-05:00

1/4 c. (1/2 stick) Butter, unsalted
2 Onions, chopped
2 Tbsp Fresh ginger, peeled and minced
1.5 tsp Garlic, minced
4 Carrots, peeled and chopped (about 4 cups)
2 Tomatoes, seeded and chopped (about 1 1/3 cups)
1.5 tsp Lemon peel, grated
4 c. Chicken or vegetable broth, low sodium
2 Tbsp Fresh lemon juice

Garnish:
4 Tbsp Sour cream, low fat (but I find the soup tasted better without it)
1 Carrot, peeled and grated

Melt the butter in the soup pot and sauté the onions for about 4 min.

Add the ginger and garlic, sauté for 2 min.

Throw in the chopped carrots, tomato and lemon peel, sauté for 1 min.

Add the chicken stock and bring to boil. Then, reduced heat, partially cover and simmer for 20 min or until carrots are very tender. Allow the soup to cool a bit.

Purée the soup using a blender and return the soup to the pot. Mix in the fresh squeezed lemon juice and season with salt and pepper. (Add more broth/water if the soup is too thick.)

Before serving, bring the soup to a simmer. The soup can be garnished with a drop of sour cream and grated carrots.

My comments:

After a long day at work on a cold winter day, I often crave for a warm hearty soup to go with my dinner but doesn't have the energy to slave over the stove for 2 hours. This recipe is the answer to my problem. It's super easy to do and I often have these ingredients lying around the house. Carrots are full of vitamins and they are cheap. You can make a huge pot and have healthy leftovers for the next night. (This soup as leftover is SUPER!)

The proportion of ingredients I have listed is perfect for my tastebuds. The hint of ginger and lemon gives the otherwise boring carrot soup an exotic flavour, neither which are overpowering. This is a fairly mild flavoured soup and I don't recommend adding the sour cream because I found it made the soup bland.

Roasted Garlic Bread

2010-01-17T21:22:00.001-06:00

3 bulbs Garlic
2-3 Tbsp Olive oil
1/2 c. Butter, salted
1 Tbsp Fresh parsley, finely chopped or 1/2 Tbsp Dried parsley flakes (optional)
2 Tbsp Frech Parmesan cheese, grated (optional)
1 French baguette

(This recipe makes approximately 1 cup of garlic spread.)

Preheat the oven to 350˚F.

Slice the tops off of the garlic bulbs to expose the tips of the cloves.

Place the bulbs in an oven-safe container (or a baking sheet) and drizzle the top with olive oil.

Bake for 35-40 min. The garlic should be soft and slightly browned.

When the garlic is cool enough to touch, squeeze the cloves from their skin into a small bowl. Reserve the olive oil if you used a bowl for roasting.

Mash the garlic with the olive oil. Then mix in the butter, parsley and parmesan cheese.

Cut the baguette diagonally into 1" slices. Generously spread the garlic butter on one side.

Toasting methods:

Quick 'n Easy - Heat in the toaster oven for 5 min or until the edges of the bread are slightly browned.
Broiler - Arrange the garlic bread in its original pre-cut form and wrap it in tin foil. Warm it in the oven at 400˚F for 10-15 min. Then transfer the garlic bread onto a baking sheet with the garlic butter side up. Broil (on low) for 5 min or until the edges are brown and the bread is crispy.

My comments:

Garlic butter isn't expensive to buy but this garlic spread is definitely worth the trouble. It's an easy recipe and it makes a lot. I've made it twice and both times the garlic bread was a bit hit.

I've tried a couple of different things with this garlic spread recipe. I made with chopped green onion instead of parsley and that was a very nice variation in flavour. I also used unsalted butter once but I definitely find the salted butter much better. It's just not the same adding salt to the unsalted butter afterwards. Also, if you are going to sprinkle cheese on the garlic bread, use the real stuff. Kraft Parmesan just won't cut it: no taste and doesn't melt.

I listed 2 different toasting methods and both produced excellent results. If you own a toaster oven, this is definitely the way to go because you can get crispy garlic bread in 5 min. If you don't own a toaster oven or making this for a dinner party (ie. garlic bread in large quantities), then the oven will be your best chef. The only thing with the oven is that you need to keep a close eye on your bread while broiling; otherwise you'll burn the tips of the garlic bread.

I foresee lots and lots of garlic toasts in the near future. Mmmm...Awesome! :)

[Click here for the original recipe]

Creamy Butternut Squash Soup

2009-12-30T10:17:00.002-06:00

2 Butternut squash, peeled and cubed
1 Onion, diced
6 c. Chicken broth, low sodium
2 Bay leaves
2 Cinnamon sticks (~ 3-4 in. long)
1-2 pkg Cream cheese, light

Place all the ingredients, except for the cream cheese, into the slowcooker. Ensure the broth is covering the squash but do not fill it up too high because you will need to save room for the cream cheese.

Cook for 10 hours.

Discard the Bay leaves and cinnamon sticks.

Puree the soup and the cream cheese together using a blender or food processor. You can add 1-2 packages of cream cheese, depending on how creamy you want your soup to be.

Transfer the soup back into the slowcooker to keep warm. Do not boil. (Alternatively, you can warm up the soup on the stovetop.)

My comment:

I've made the Brandy-laced Squash Soup several times and I love it but I am ready to try a different squash soup recipe this year. I found a really easy squash soup recipe with great reviews and thought I'd run with it for our Christmas dinner...except for 2 small problems: 1) I don't have all the ingredients at home on Christmas Eve when I started the preparation and 2) I was feeling really lazy.

First off - Laziness was my main motivation to change my squash soup recipe because I really didn't feel like roasting my squash for an hour. So there was no way I was going to cook my soup on the stove and have to feel like I need to slave over it for hours. Also, I have no time to cook soup on Christmas Day, not with everything else going on, so I needed to improvise. Thank goodness for the slowcooker because it was a beautiful solution to my problem.

As for the lack of ingredients, well, that was my own fault for not checking the cupboards before heading to the grocery store. I could've sworn that I have both marjoram and cayenne peppers at home but I didn't. So I resorted to flavouring this squash soup with ingredients from the old recipe and turned this into a beautiful, delicious holiday soup. Everyone loved the soup...my father-in-law even asked me for the recipe and he told me he doesn't normally like squash.

The thing I've always found with squash soup is that it always tastes better the next day. However, our fridge was so full this year that I couldn't possibly prepare the soup the day before and store it overnight. This is where the slowcooker came in: I put the soup on for 10 hours the night before, then puree the next day and keep the soup warm in the slowcooker. :) My only complain about this soup was that I added too much creamcheese (2 packages); next time, I'll cut it down to 1 package and that should be plenty rich.

Chicken Lentil Curry

2009-11-19T08:10:00.002-06:00

2 c. Green lentils
1/2 c. Chickpeas, soaked overnight
1 large Onion, diced
6 pc. Chicken thighs
3 c. Chicken broth, low sodium
1 c. Water
1 tbsp Curry powder
1 tsp Ground tumeric
1 tsp Cumin
1/2 tsp Ground coriander
1 tbsp Chinese garlic chili sauce (or chilli pepper flakes)
1 tsp Salt
1 tsp White sugar
1 tbsp Ginger root, minced
4 cloves Garlic, minced
1 pkg Curry paste
1 can Diced tomatoes
Plain yogurt (optional)

[Vegetarian option: Omit the chicken thighs and substitute in a vegetable stock.]

Put everything, except for the chicken, in the slowcooker. Stir to mix.

Place the chicken thighs on top and baste them with a little bit of liquid. Add more water if necessary.

Cook for 4-8 hours.

When the curry is done, de-bone the chicken thighs and stir the meat back into the curry.

Serve with basmati rice and a dollop of plain yogurt.

My comments:

I have always been hesitant in making curry from scratch for two simple reasons:

1. I was told that it's difficult to make all the spices work together if you don't know what you are doing (which I don't). It takes a seasoned Indian cook to do it right (a.k.a. a friend's mother or grandmother).

2. I have tried making my own before and it tasted like crap. We ended up throwing out 1/2 of it and needless to say, we never attempted to make our own curry from scratch again.

We are huge fans of store-bought curry sauce. Cut up all the ingredients (anything you want), throw in a bottle or two of premade curry sauce (my fav: President's Choice Blue Menu Butter Chicken sauce) and 30 min, you have a delicious Indian curry meal. This was our staple easy curry...that is, until now...

I knocked this delicious curry recipe off A Year of Slow Cooking and made a few minor changes to accommodate for my sense of adventure in the kitchen and more importantly, my limited selections of ingredients available at hand. :P My version of this lentil curry was super, uber yummy! So good that my husband asked for it again the following week...the week after...and the week after that! This is a very healthy meal: no added oil, low sodium, lots of veggies and not to mention, lentils and chickpeas are very nutritious. Both lentils and chickpeas are excellent sources of protein, dietary fiber and folate. Lentils are also high in vitamin B1 and iron while chickpeas are a good source of zinc and low in fat. Because the lentils and chickpeas are so nutritious, you can easily omit the chicken and turn it into a healthy vegetarian curry!

When I made this, I added too much of the Chinese garlic chilli sauce and the curry was way too spicey for me. So I stole some of my baby's plain yogurt and mixed it with my curry to dumb down the heat. It was delicious; the plain yogurt complimented the spicey curry perfectly. I highly recommend using a Mediterranian style yogurt (brand: Liberté Méditerranée) because it's delectably thick and creamy. I confess that we loved this yogurt so much that we ended up using more than just one little dollop. I felt guilty eating high fat yogurt (I did buy this for a little toddler, afterall, who needs the fat but I certainly don't), so I went out and bought a low fat plain yogurt (same brand) to serve with the rest of our leftovers. It just wasn't the same. :P But since this recipe is so healthy to begin with, I think it's ok to indulge a little bit with our high fat yogurt next time.

Sundried-Tomato and Basil Pesto

2009-09-28T20:40:00.042-05:00

2-3 sprigs of fresh basil, leaves picked
4-5 halves of sun-dried tomatoes (in oil), drained
2 cloves of garlic
Olive oil
1 c. Parmesan cheese
Squeeze of fresh lemon juice
Salt & Pepper

Coarsely chop the basil leaves, sun-dried tomatoes and garlic. Pulse in a food processor until the ingredients are minced. If the ingredients stick to the side of the food processor, add a little bit of olive oil, stir it up and pulse again.

Turn the minced ingredients into a bowl. Add half of the Parmesan cheese and stir.

Add olive oil to bind the ingredients together. The oil in your pesto should ooze a little bit.

Do a taste test here. Add more cheese and olive oil until you get the flavour right. You can also add salt and pepper to taste.

Finally, squeeze a little bit of fresh lemon juice into the pesto and stir.

My comments:

Mmmmm...this was one delicious pesto!! Easy to make but with amazing result. The thing about this recipe is that it is only a guideline. You can add more or less of any one of the ingredients to suit your tastebuds.

Usage: I made a delicious pasta salad by tossing together a little bit of pesto with cooked spicy Italian sausage and macaroni. This yummy dish made my coworkers drooled at our lunch table. It was that good!! You can omit the sausages and substitute your favourite vegetable to turn this into a vegetarian meal. Although I haven't tried, I'm sure this pesto will be tastey on a pizza or bruschetta.

One caution note - 2 cloves of garlic is STRONG! You can probably ward off vampires with your after-lunch-breath. I suggest you start off with only 1 clove, do a taste test before throwing in the second clove. And remember to brush your teeth, use mouthwash and eat strong mints after your pesto meal.

Strawberry Cream Angel Cake

2009-07-25T20:28:00.006-05:00

Vanilla Cream
1/4 c. Sugar
4 tsp Cornstarch
1/8 tsp Salt
1 c. Light cream
1 tsp Pure vanilla extract (or 1 vanilla bean)
2 Egg yolks, beaten

In a saucepan, combine the sugar, cornstarch and salt together. Slowly stir in the light cream. (If using, split the vanilla bean lengthwise, scrap out the seed into the mixture and then add the whole vanilla bean.)

Cook the cream mixture over medium heat, whisking often until thickened and bubbly. Cook for 1 more minute.

Gradually whisk approximately half of the cream mixture into the egg yolk. Pour the mixture back into the saucepan and bring it to a boil. Reduce the heat and cook for 2 more minutes, whisking constantly.

Remove the cream from heat and stir in the vanilla extract. (Or discard the vanilla bean.)

Place the bowl of cream in ice water and chill for approximately 5 minutes, stirring often to allow the cream to chill evenly. Cover the cream with plastic wrap and continue to chill in the fridge until cold.

Strawberry Sauce
1.5 c. Strawberries, chopped
1/8 c. Sugar
1 tbsp Fresh lemon juice

Stir the ingredients together in a saucepan over medium heat and bring the mixture to a slow boil.

Reduce heat and simmer until the strawberries are soft. (Do a taste test here to see if the sauce is sweet enough. Add more sugar as desired.)

Chill the sauce until cold.

Cake Assembly

4 Mini angel food cakes
Whipped cream (optional)
Fresh strawberries

Prepare the vanilla cream and strawberry sauce the night before.

Using a large bread knife, gently holding down the cake and slice the mini angel food cakes horizontally into 3 layers.

Spread the vanilla cream and the chunky strawberry sauce between the cake layers.

Spread vanilla cream on the top layer, drizzle a little bit of strawberry sauce on the cream and garnish with strawberries or whipped cream.

My comments:

This cake was so good that Hubby and I had it for dinner. We couldn't wait until after dinner. And of course, after eating the cake, mini as they were, we didn't feel like real food anymore. Ah well...it's Saturday night, we are allowed to indulge, aren't we? ;)

I swiped the vanilla cream recipe from Leslie and she wasn't lying when she said you have to make her strawberries and cream tart NOW. The cream went perfectly well with the strawberries, so creamy, so heavenly...and super easy to make. I didn't have any vanilla bean at home so I doubled the amount of vanilla extract. However, I have every intention of making this again and next time, I will track down a vanilla bean because I do agree it would make a big difference in taste.

The strawberry sauce wasn't difficult to do either, very similar to the raspberry coulis I've made before. I wanted to use store-bought angel food cake rather than making my own. So I added enough sugar to give the sauce a hint of sweetness instead of turning the sauce into a strawberry syrup. This worked out well for me. However, if you want to make your own cake, you can play around with the sugar content in the cake as well as the strawberry sauce to satisfy your sweet tooth. Try experimenting the sauce with different types of berries!!

This cake is perfect for a dinner party. It looks fantastic and it tastes fabulous. The fillings can be prepared the day before and it's quick to assemble right before serving. Your guests will be totally wowed because they'll think you've spent hours slaving over this dessert.

Creamy Potato Salad

2009-07-25T20:25:00.007-05:00

6 Potatoes, medium size
4 Eggs
1/2 c. Red onions, chopped
1/2 c. Sweet pickle relish
2 cloves Garlic, minced
2 tsp Celery seeds
1 tbsp Prepared mustard
1/2 c. Light mayonnaise (Hellmann's)
Ground black pepper and salt to taste

In a large pot, boil the potatoes until tender but firm, approximately 15 min. Drain, cool and cut into cubes. (If you are using large potatoes, halve them before boiling them. Otherwise, it will not cook evenly and you will end up with half mushy and half raw crunchy potatoes.)

To cook the eggs, place the eggs in a pot of cold water and bring water to a boil. Then reduce the heat and continue to cook the eggs for another 10-12 min, covered. When the eggs are done, cool the eggs in cold water and peel.

In a large bowl, mix together all the ingredients and add salt and pepper to taste. Chill before serving.

My comments:

I must admit, I thought adding relish to the potato salad was a bit weird. But the original recipe had really good ratings and I was looking to try something different. I was amazed how good this recipe was. The relish tasted surprisingly good; in fact, it was the relish that really made this recipe shine. It was the best potato salad I have ever had. I will most definitely make this again, and again...and again.

Oven Roasted Vegetables

2009-07-11T21:09:00.011-05:00

Dressing
1/4 c. Olive oil
2 Tbsp Balsamic vinegarette
1/2 tsp Thyme, dried
1/2 tsp Rosemary, dried
1 tsp Basil, dried
4-5 cloves Garlic, minced
Salt & Pepper to taste

Vegetables
4 Potatoes, cubed with skin on
1/2 Onion, sliced
2 Sweet bell peppers, cubed
1 Zucchini, cut into bite-size
8-10 White mushrooms
Handful of snowpeas

Preheat the oven to 450˚F.

Combine the dressing ingredients in a large mixing bowl.

Mix together the pepper, zucchini, mushrooms and snowpeas. Toss them in the dressing until coated. Transfer the vegetables to another bowl and set aside.

Toss the potatoes an onions with the remaining dressing.

Spray the bottle of a roasting pan with oil.

Spread the potatoes and onions evenly on the roasting pan.

Bake for 10 min and flip them potatoes.

Add the rest of the vegetables. Toss to mix.

Bake for 10 min and flip the veggies once. Bake again for another 10 min.

My comment:

Summer is a great time to include fresh vegetables to your diet. You can get delicious vegetables at your local grocery store for really decent price. For this reason, sometimes I go overboard with buying the vegetables but I don't actually eat them fast enough. I always have these great ideas on how I want to prepare the vegetables and never actually execute the ideas. Thus I always end up with loads of veggies on the verge of rotting in my fridge.

What is wonderful about this recipe is its versatility and it is so easy to do. I got the idea from All Recipes and then did my own thing based on what I have available at home. The dressing turned out absolutely delicious and the vegetables were cooked perfectly.

I cooked these veggies slightly different from the method I stated above. We made oven-baked porkchops for dinner tonight and we didn't have enough room to fit everything. So I cooked the potatoes and onions first, removed them from the oven and set aside. When the porkchops were almost done, I roasted the rest of the veggies for 10 min and then added the cooked potatoes to the roasting pan for the last 10 min to reheat the potatoes. This worked out really well and we had a wonderfully delicious dinner.

Raspberry Cream Cheese Pie

2009-07-08T10:05:00.008-05:00

1 pkg (8 oz. ; 250 g) Cream cheese (light), softened to room temperature
1 container (1 L) Whipped topping (light), thawed in fridge
1/2 c. Sugar
1/2 pint Fresh raspberries
1 1/2 c. Oreo baking crumbs
1/4 c. Butter, melted

Alternative: Instead of fresh raspberries, use 1 can (400 mL) crushed pineapple and press the pineapples into the strainer to squeeze out as much juice as possible. Reduce the sugar to 1/4 cup.

Combine the oreo crumbs with the butter. Press it onto the bottom of a 9" pie plate.

In a large bowl, mix together the cream cheese and the sugar until smooth using a electric mixer.

Blend in the whipped topping until smooth.

Mash the raspberries with a fork and fold into the cream cheese mixture.

Pour the mixture onto the oreo pie crust and refrigerate until set.

My comment:

This was a super easy no-bake cheesecake recipe with super tasting results. The cream cheese filling is smooth and creamy. It is lightly sweetened and the fresh fruity taste of the raspberries complimented the cream cheese perfectly. The raspberries juice gave the pie a beautiful pink colour. And of course, the oreo pie crust was just the best!!

I must be honest and tell you that I did not come up with this recipe all by myself. I had a slice of pineapple cream cheese pie at a BBQ and it was so good that I couldn't stop thinking about it when I got home. I adapted this Cream Cheese Pineapple Pie recipe with fresh raspberries because Hubby doesn't like pineapple and I also used oreo crumbs instead of graham cracker crumbs.

When I whipped up the cream cheese mixture the first time, I realized I had way too much of it and I couldn't possibly fit it all into my pie plate. So I divided the cream cheese mixture in half, used half of it for the raspberries and the other half for the pineapple. My pineapple cream cheese pie was awesome awesome awesome!! Just as good as the one I had at the BBQ. :)

I made one little mistake with this recipe: I didn't pre-thaw the whipped topping because I didn't read the instructions on the container. But I was impatient and I blended it into the creamcheese while it was still mostly frozen. It took a bit more time to do but it worked alright.

If you want to impress your friends at a potluck party, this recipe is a Must! It doesn't take long to do and it tastes superb. You can make them into mini-pies for dinner parties using little ramekins instead of a big pie plate.

Vegetable Couscous

2009-05-25T10:17:00.005-05:00

1 c. Israeli couscous
1 c. Chicken stock, low sodium
1 c. Water
4 c. Vegetables, chopped
1 clove Garlic, chopped

1 tsp Basil, dried
2 tbsp Olive oil
Sesame oil
Salt & Pepper to taste

Rinse the couscous with water.

Bring the chicken stock and water to a boil in a sauce pan. Stir in the couscous. Reduce to low heat and simmer for about 10 min, covered.

When the couscous are soft, fluff with a fork. You may drain the excess liquid with a strainer.

Prepare approximately 4 cups of vegetables, chopped the way you like. I used mushrooms, asparagus, green onion, white onion and sweet peppers.

Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan. Add garlic and white onions and cook for about 1 minute until fragrant.

Stir in the basil and the rest of the vegetables (except for the green onion) and cook until they begin to soften. (Cooking time depends on whether you like your veggies soft or crunchy.)

If you are using green onion, add them to the rest of the vegetables and cook for a few more minutes.

Stir in the cooked couscous and season with salt and pepper. Drizzle a little bit of sesame oil before serving.

My comments:

I fell in love with Israeli couscous the first time I had it as a side dish at a fancy local restaurant. It was prepared with veal juice and oh boy, I'm drooling just thinking about it. I don't have any veal juice at home but I did have tons of vegetables that were going to go bad if I didn't do something about it. So I whipped up this simple vegetable couscous recipe and it was delicious, not to mention very healthy.

Israeli couscous actually tastes more like a pasta than the regular couscous. The package instruction said to "fluff" with a fork once the liquid is absorbed but it doesn't really "fluff". I found it helps to have a bit of oil (olive or sesame) to keep the couscous from sticking together too much. One important thing to remember when preparing couscous (regular or Israeli) is to use low sodium chicken stock. Once the stock is reduced and absorbed, the salt concentration increases and you end up with a very salty dish. So it is wise to start with a low sodium stock and add more salt as needed.

Marble Banana Bundt Cake

2009-02-23T21:05:00.005-06:00

Banana Bread
1.5-2 c. Ripe banana, mashed (approximately 2-3 large bananas)
1 c. Sour cream, fat free
½ c. Vegetable oil
1 c. Brown sugar (do not pack down)
2 Eggs, room temperature
2 tsp Vanilla
3 c. All purpose flour
2 tsp Baking powder
2 tsp Baking soda
1.5 tsp Cinnamon
¼ tsp Salt

Chocolate Sauce
2 c. Unsweeten dark chocolate wafers
3 tbsp Butter
½ tsp Vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350˚F.

Butter bundt pan if not using silicone mold.

Combine banana and sour cream. Set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together the vegetable oil and brown sugar. Beat in one egg at a time. Then stir in the vanilla and the banana mixture.

Combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Slowly stir into the banana mixture.

In a double boiler, melt the chocolate wafers with the butter. Add vanilla.

Put 1/3 of the banana bread batter in the bundt pan and then add ½ of the chocolate sauce on top of the batter. Careful not to get chocolate on the side of the pan. Repeat with more batter, chocolate sauce and finally finish with batter on top.

Swirl a knife through the batter to create the marble effect.

Bake at 350˚F for 50 min or until the skewer inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Rotate the cake 180˚ half way through baking.

Cool on rack before removing banana bundt cake from the mold.

Serving suggestions:

For breakfast, reheat in toaster oven and spread a little bit of butter.
For snack, eat as it is.
For dessert, reheat in toaster oven and couple with vanilla ice-cream.

My comments:

Mmm Mmmm... This was super-duper yummilicious!! I took my basic banana bread recipe, adjust the amount of ingredients, added a chocolate sauce and voila! the perfect marble bundt cake. If you like your banana bread sweeter, try adding a little more brown sugar in the cake recipe; you can also sweeten the chocolate sauce by melting the chocolate with a bit of sugar.

This cake would also do well with a bit of walnut bits. Simple toast the walnut pieces on a baking sheet for about 8 min and then stir into your banana bread batter (before layering with the chocolate sauce).

Spinach Mushroom Swiss Pancakes

2009-02-23T21:02:00.003-06:00

Crepes
3/4 c. All purpose flour
1 c. Milk
1 Egg
Sprinkle of salt

1 tsp Butter
1 tsp Olive oil

Filling
5-6 White mushrooms, sliced
1/2 Red onion, sliced
2 c. Baby spinach, wilted
Swiss cheese
Olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Sauté the onions for a few minutes with small amount of olive oil. Then add in the mushroom and cook until the liquids (sweat from the mushroom) are gone. Season with salt and pepper. Set aside.

Using the same frying pan, heat the baby spinach until just wilted. Set aside.

Whisk together the flour and milk until smooth. Add egg. Set aside for 1 minute.

Melt together the butter and olive oil in the microwave for about 20 seconds.

Heat a large non-stick frying pan. To test the temperature, sprinkle some water on the pan and it should sizzle.

Reduce the heat to medium. Lightly coat the surface of the pan with the oil mixture using a silicone brush.

Pour 1/4 cup of crepe batter onto the pan and swirl quickly to spread the batter as much as possible. Cook for 1 minute. The bottom should be golden and the edges should start to curl.

Flip the crepe over quickly and cook for another 30 sec.

Set the crepe aside and repeat with the rest of the batter.

When the crepes are almost done, quickly reheat the vegetables in the microwave.

To assemble the pancake, place the mushroom/onion mixture and baby spinach to the center of the crepe. Add in 1-2 slices of swiss cheese (use as much as you want). Roll up the crepe and transfer to a baking sheet.

Preheat oven to 400˚F. Bake the pancakes for 5 min.

Serve immediately.

My comments:

I got this idea from Julia, author of A Slice of Cherry Pie. It is a perfect addition to my recipe collection because you can have an infinite number of variations with these pancakes, ie. fill it with whatever you want!! I had tons of vegetables left and so I made mine vegetarian. I thought the swiss cheese went very nicely with the spinach, which has a very strong flavour. My pancakes were not very big but oh boy, were they ever filling!! These pancakes made a great lunch and everyone in my house loved it.

If you are looking for a sweet brunch, you can omit the salt from the crepe recipe and replace it with 1 tbsp of white sugar and 1 tsp vanilla. Then, filling it with your favourite fruit and serve with maple syrup or whipped cream or both!! You can also fill the crepes with your favourite ice-cream and turn it into a dessert everyone will love.

Ham and Cheese Breakfast Muffins

2009-01-22T09:48:00.006-06:00

4 Eggs
3/4 c. Milk
1 tbsp Honey Dijon mustard
1/4 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Pepper
5 c. Bread (approx. 5 slices)
1 c. Cheese, shredded (eg. Mozzarella, Cheddar, Swiss...anything you like)
1/2 c. Ham, cubed
1/2 Onion, medium size, diced
12 Cherry tomatoes, sliced in half

Preheat oven to 375°F.

Butter the muffin pan or use a silicone muffin mold or liner.

Whisk together the eggs, milk, mustard, salt and pepper.

Stir in the bread, cheese, onion and ham in to the egg mixture until evenly coated.

Spoon into muffin pan and drizzle in any leftover liquid.

Place 1-2 halves of the cherry tomatoes on each muffin.

Bake for approximately 25 min. The muffins should be golden on top and the toothpicked inserted in the center should come out clean.

Cool on rack for 10 min before serving.

My comments:

I received a Got Milk calendar for free in the mail. There are tons of recipes that looks delicious and probably easy to do. Most of the recipes use ingredients that can be easily be found around the house on any given day.

I had some cottage pork roll leftover from dinner the night before and tons of mozzarella cheese in the fridge. So I thought I'd give this breakfast muffin recipe a go. The muffins were pretty easy to make and it used up a lot of my old bread that will probably be thrown out in a few days anyway. I also threw in some fresh onions and Dijon mustard. These muffins were tastey and healthy too!

In the future, I think I'll use a stronger cheese, such as cheddar, to bring out the cheese flavour a bit more. Also, I think sprinkles of basils (or your favourite herb) would make a very savoury addition as well.

Bacon Wrapped Pork Tenderloin

2009-01-22T09:37:00.006-06:00

1 Pork tenderloin
6-8 slices Bacon
2 tbsp Olive oil
1 clove Garlic, minced
1 tbsp Onion, minced
1 tsp Basil, dried
1 tsp Oregano, dried
1/2 tsp Rosemary, dried

Mix together the olive oil, garlic, onion and the herbs. Set aside.

In a casserole dish, line the bacon slices side by side to approximately the length of the pork tenderloin.

Place the tenderloin on the bacon slices and rub half of the herb mixture onto the meat. Carefully flip the tenderloin over and rub on the rest of the herb mixture.

Wrap up the tenderloin with the bacon and secure with toothpicks. Marinade in the refrigerator for 20-30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Bake the tenderloin for 45 minutes. (Longer or shorter may be required, depending on the size of your tenderloin.)

Remove from oven and let stand for 5 minutes before slicing into medallions.

My comments:

This is one of those recipes that looks and sound fancy when in fact it is super simple to do. The only difficult part is finding the correct bake time if you don't have a meat thermometer. If you have a meat thermometer, bake the meat until it reads 155°F or 70°C. Otherwise, 45 minutes should be good for a medium size tenderloin. Avoid overcooking it because the tenderloin will become tough and dry.

I served the pork medallions with a curried rice salad and steamed baby bok choy.

Heart Attack Double Chocolate Skor Cookies

2009-01-22T09:29:00.005-06:00

2 1/4 c. Flour
2/3 c. Cocoa powder
1 tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp Salt

1 1/3 c. Butter, unsalted, softened
1/3 c. Brown Sugar
1/3 c. White Sugar
2 tsp Vanilla
2 eggs

1 c. White chocolate chips
1 c. Skor toffee bits (Chipits)

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Combine the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

In another bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar and white sugar. Stir in the vanilla. Then, add one egg at a time. The mixture will be lumpy but that's okay.

Add the butter mixture to the dry ingredients. Stir until the dough is evenly mixed.

Stir in the chocolate chips and skor toffee bits.

Drop the dough by tablespoons onto an ungreased cookie sheet, placing them 2 inches apart.

Bake for 8-10 minutes. (My oven produced very soft cookies with baking time of 8 min.)

Too much cookie dough?

This cookie dough freezes really well. Simply double wrap the unused dough in plastic wrap, place it in a ziplock bag and with a label indicating the type of cookies and the date prepared. Pop the whole thing in the freezer and can be stored for several months.
Thaw the cookie dough in the refridgerator overnight and bake as normal.

My comments:

I swiped (and slightly tweaked) this cookie recipe from Creamsicle on ChickAdvisor. These cookies were uber chocolatey, uber soft and uber delicious. There is nothing healthy about this recipe but believe me, it is worth temporarily giving up your diet for. Besides, this recipe actually makes quite a lot of cookies. So use the butter guiltlessly but only bake what you can eat and freeze the rest. The cookies are best when they are fresh out of the oven anyway.

I made 3 variations of this cookie recipe because there are 3 of us in this house and we all liked something different. I personally taste-tested all 3 versions and I've ranked them by their yumminess:

1. Double chocolate cookie with white chocolate chips and skor toffee bits
2. Chocolate chip cookie with skor toffee bits
3. White chocolate chip cookie with pinenuts

Eggnog Pound Cake

2008-12-25T23:40:00.006-06:00

Cake:
1 c. Butter, unsalted, room temperature
2 c. Sugar
3 Eggs, room temperature
3 c. Flour
2 tsp Baking powder
1/4 tsp Salt
1/8 tsp Nutmeg
1 c. Eggnog
1 tsp Vanilla extract
1 tbsp Orange zest
1 c. Dried cranberries
Dark rum, a few table spoons, enough to cover the cranberries

Glaze:
2 tbsp Orange juice
2 tbsp Dark rum
3/4 c. Sugar

Preheat the oven to 325°F. (Butter the bundt pan if it is not a silicone mold.)

Soak the cranberries in the rum for about 15 min.

Using an electric mixer, beat the butter until creamy, 30-45 seconds.

Add sugar and beat until fluffy, about 5 minutes.

Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.

In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt and nutmeg. Stir together with a fork.

Combine the eggnog and vanilla extract.

At low speed, add the dry ingredients and the eggnog to the butter mixture in 4 additions, alternating between wet and dry, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients.

Fold in the orange zest, the cranberries and the dark rum.

Pour the batter into bundt pan. Bake 60-70 minutes, turning the cake 180° half way through. Insert a skewer into the thickest part of the cake and it is done if it comes out clean.

Allow the cake to cool in the pan for 15 minutes.

For the glaze, stir together the orange juice, sugar and the rum in a bowl.

Place a cooling rack on a cookie sheet (to catch the glaze dripping from the cake). Invert the cake onto the rack and brush the glaze onto the surface of the cake. The cake should be completely cooled before serving.

My comments:

As always, Elise's recipe never fails to impress me. I pretty much followed her recipe to the dot and the pound cake turned out fabulous. I had to omit the currants/cranberries because my hubby doesn't like them. But I combined the dark rum with the eggnog because...well, hey, why not? :) Her recipe said the cake serves 20 people, but between my mom, hubby and I, we inhaled the cake by ourselves in 3 short days. A week later, my hubby asked me when I'm going to make the cake again. This recipe was that good.

I usually like to reduce the sugar content in any baking recipes I find. But I found the amount of sugar in this pound cake was perfect, especially with the glaze. I think the best part about this cake was the glaze. It smelled awesome and it tasted awesome. Let me put it this way: my hubby and I couldn't stop dipping our fingers into the glaze while we waited for the cake to bake. Thank goodness no one was eating this cake but us.

I don't own a bundt pan but it's high time I do. I decided to invest in a silicone baking pan because they are fantastic. Nothing sticks to it. The cake slipped out as soon as I inverted the pan. I have a silicone mini-muffin pan and it is the best thing ever!! No more scraping the side of the pan, no more greasing and no more papercups!! I love it. I don't recommend you throwing out all your baking pans and replace the entire set with silicone ones, but this would be nice to include on your Christmas gift list next year.

Recipe Update: Because this cake turned out so well last year, I decided to make it again for my guests who stayed with us over the holidays. I soaked some cranberries with the dark rum as instructed in Elise's original recipe and they were delicious!! I have increased the cranberries to 1 cup in my recipe here because I thought the cranberries were that good. Also, I didn't pay attention to the amount of rum the original recipe used and ended up using way more than it asked for. But that was an excellent mistake because I could taste the rum in the cake and it made it even yummier!! :P

Spicy Salad Dressing

2008-10-24T09:29:00.005-05:00

1.5 c. Extra virgin olive oil
1/2 c. Wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar
2 tbsp Sugar
1 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Ground pepper
2 tbsp Tomato paste
2 tbsp Chinese garlic chili sauce
1/2 c. Parmesan or Romano cheese
1/2 tsp Oregano, dried
1 Sweet pepper, sliced
1/2 Onion, medium size, sliced

Put all the ingredients in a blender or food processor. Puree to desired consistency.

Salad dressing can be stored in the fridge for up to 1 month.

Serve with your favourite salad. (This dressing has a thicker consistency when it's cold. If you want it to be more liquidy, warm the dressing up to room temperature before serving.)

My comments:

This is my favourite salad dressing. It's healthy because there are no preservative. It's tastey because it uses all fresh ingredients. You can adjust the amount of spices to your own taste and it keeps very well in the fridge. I shared this recipe with a few of my friends and they all love it.

The original recipe on Epicurious called for green peppers but I found the dressing tastes better with a sweet pepper. I've tried the red, orange and yellow peppers and each type of pepper gives the dressing just a slightly different tastes. Sometimes depending on what's on sale, I'll even mix and match the sweet peppers.

I love the Chinese garlic chili sauce whether I'm cooking Chinese, Indian, Thai or even Italian. You can buy it in Chinatown and maybe even a large franchised grocery store (eg. Loblaw). If you don't have Chinese garlic chili sauce, you can use 1 clove of garlic, minced, plus desired amount of hot sauce. Alternatively, you can omit the hot sauce completely if you don't like spicy food.

Lazy Raspberry Coulis

2008-10-24T09:05:00.006-05:00

1/2 c. Fresh raspberries
2-3 tsp Sugar
Juice from 1/4 of a lemon

Mash the raspberries with a fork. Add sugar and lemon juice to taste.

This raspberry coulis is delicious with a slice of citrus pound cake. It can be stored for 3 days in the refrigerator.

My comments:

Raspberries were on sale this week and I bought 3 half-pint boxes. Unfortunately, the quality of these berries were poor and I already had to throw away one box because of mold. I needed to use up my raspberries very quickly or the rest of them will go to waste as well. Since I was making a pound cake for dessert anyway, I thought a raspberry sauce would go very nicely it!

I found this raspberry coulis recipe on Epicurious. I was only making a small amount of sauce so I couldn't use my blender. I don't own a small handheld one nor do I have any sieve at home. Therefore, I decided to skip to purée part and make a "chunky" version of it. Also, I had just washed all the bakeware I used for the pound cake and I didn't feel like dirtying my measuring spoons again. So I skipped all the ingredient measurement part as well and added the sugar and lemon juice to taste. I must say, my chunky raspberry coulis turned out rather well and it complemented my pound cake perfectly. Yuuummmyyyy!! This raspberry coulis was so easy to make and so tasty, I'd definitely make this again in the future!!

NOTE: If you want a more precise method or if you want to use frozen berries, be sure to check out the original recipe.

Brandy-laced Squash Soup

2008-10-14T15:09:00.007-05:00

I usually like to post the recipe first and then make my comments. However, I got this squash soup recipe from Leslie on her food blog and the soup turned out so well every time that I wouldn't change a thing. I've made this squash soup several times and it turned out absolutely delicious every single time. All my guests loved the soup and this is definitely a keeper in my recipe book. For this reason, I want to keep a copy of the recipe on my own blog which I often refer to when I re-make these dishes.

6 lbs Buttercup squash
4 tbsp Olive oil
2 tbsp (1/4 stick) Butter, unsalted
2-3 Onions, chopped
2 Cinnamon sticks, broken in half
2 Bay leaves, broken in half
1 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Ground black pepper
1.2 L Chicken stock (or vegetable stock)
1/2 c. Brandy
1 can (375 mL) Evaporated milk, fat free
Brown sugar (to taste)

1/4 c. Sour cream, fat free
1/4 tsp Ground cinnamon
Dash of Ground cumin

Take 4 medium size butternut squashes, wash them and cut in half, lengthwise. Scoop out the seeds and brush the flesh with olive oil.

Preheat oven to 375°F. Lay the squash halves on a baking sheet lined with a silicon mat (SILPAT) or parchment paper, cut side down. Roast until the flesh is tender, approximately 45 min to 1 hour depending on the size of your squash.

When the squash is done, let cool for 20 min. Scoop out the flesh and set aside. (Discard any dark burnt bits as they will show up as dark flakes in your soup.)

On a small frying pan, melt the butter with the remaining olive oil. Sauté the onions with the cinnamon sticks, bay leaves, salt and pepper, until the onions are soft. Add the brandy and simmer until most of the liquids evaporates. Discard the cinnamon sticks and bay leaves.

In a large pot, stir together the onions, squash and chicken broth. Puree the soup with a blender and transfer the soup to the slowcooker. Add in evaporated milk.

At this point, you can refrigerate the soup overnight and reheat it the next day in the slowcooker at its lowest setting. I reheated the soup using the 10-hour setting but only heated it for 6 hours.

(Alternatively, you can use a regular pot for the soup and reheat the soup on the stove top.)

Before serving, mix together the sour cream, ground cinnamon and ground cumin. Garnish the soup with the sour cream mixture.

Useful Tips:

1. I always make the soup the day before, partly to reduce the work on the second day when I am busy preparing other courses. The soup also tastes better as "leftovers" after the different flavours have a chance to blend overnight.

2. I don't know how to pick the "sweet" squash and therefore, my squash soup isn't always as sweet as it should be. My remedy to this sweetness problem is brown sugar. Do a little taste test before serving. If you feel the soup lacks a bit of sweetness, add 2-3 Tbsp of brown sugar and stir.

Chinese Fried Rice

2008-08-28T13:43:00.005-05:00

3 c. Cooked rice*
2-3 tbsp Vegetable oil
2 Stalks of green onions, chopped
2-3 cloves Garlic, minced
4 Eggs
1 c. Carrots, grated
2 c. Mushrooms, cut small
1 tbsp Sesame oil
2-3 tbsp Soya sauce

1.5 c. Chicken, cut into small cubes
1 tbsp Teriyaki marinate sauce (or Soya sauce)
1/2 tbsp Vegetable oil
1 tsp Sugar
1/2 tsp Salt
Pepper
1 tsp Sesame oil (optional)

* Freshly cooked rice has too much moisture and it is too soggy to fry; therefore, it is best to use leftover rice. If you don't have leftover rice, you can cool freshly cooked rice to room temperature and then place the rice in the refrigerator, uncovered, for a minimum of 1 hour to reduce the moisture.

** You can use any vegetables you like. Frozen vegetable mix works well if you want to save some time (use 1 - 1.5 cup for this recipe). Thaw the vegetables to room temperature before frying.

Marinade the chicken with teriyaki sauce, oil, sugar, salt and a little bit of ground pepper. Leave the chicken, covered, in the fridge for 30 min (or overnight).

Heat up a little bit of vegetable oil on a frying pan and cook the chicken until it is cooked through. Set aside.

Clean the frying pan with paper towel.

Heat up a little bit of oil in the pan. Beat the eggs and quickly "scramble" the eggs until the eggs are just cooked (can be a little bit runny). Do not overcook. Set aside with the chicken.

Clean the frying pan again with paper towel.

Cook the carrots with oil. When the carrots are almost cooked, add the mushrooms and fry the vegetables until the liquid is gone. Season with salt and pepper. Set aside with the rest of the ingredients. (Note, if you are using frozen vegetables, you only need to cook it for a few minutes until the vegetables are hot.)

Drizzle 1 tbsp of oil to the rice and break up the rice into grains with a fork. Set aside.

Heat up a 2-3 Tbsp of vegetable oil in a wok. Cook the green onions and garlic for about 30 seconds, or until the onions and garlic are fragrant.

Add the rice, chicken, eggs and vegetables to the wok. Toss to combine the ingredients. Spread out the rice evenly on the wok and let it cook until the rice "dance" (popping noise), about 3 min. Do not stir the rice too much while it is cooking.

Drizzle soya sauce and sesame oil over the rice, give the rice a few quick toss and remove the wok from heat.

Do a quick taste test and add salt if needed.

Transfer the fried rice to a serving dish.

Variations:

Vegetarian - Omit the chicken and use more vegetables.
Seafood - Shrimp or scallop would be really nice. Clean the seafood and marinade with a little bit of salt for 30 min. Pre-cook the seafood and set aside, as you do with the chicken.
Beef or pork - Prepare the same way as you do with the chicken. Beef can be left slightly under cooked to preserve its tenderness.
BBQ Pork or Duck - BBQ pork and duck can be bought fresh from Chinese grocers. They are pre-marinaded and super tastey in fried rice. Simply cut the meat into small cubes and warm it up on the frying pan before adding to the rice.

My comments:

The principles of cooking this fried rice is the same as the Thai Curry Stir-Fried Rice. The important thing to remember is to not drown the rice with liquids, either vegetable/chicken stock or liquids from the vegetables; otherwise, the rice will become too soggy and mushy. I used a teflon pan to cook the ingredients so that I can minimize the amount of oil. However, I had to use a little more oil to cook the rice since I don't have a teflon wok. While this fried rice turned out pretty yummy, it is not exactly a healthy recipe.

I encourage you to try the other variations I've suggested. In particular, the BBQ pork or duck version is my favourite. Whenever I get a chance to go to Chinatown, I like to come home with both types of meat and you can do so much with it because they are just so tastey!!

Thai Curry Stir-Fried Rice

2008-08-23T12:17:00.012-05:00

3 c. Cooked rice*
2-3 tbsp Vegetable oil
1 Green onions, chopped
2-3 cloves Garlic, minced
3 Eggs
1/2 Fresh pineapple, cut into small chunks
3/4 c. Vegetables**
1 tbsp Sesame oil

2 tbsp Soya sauce
2 tsp Curry powder
1-2 tsp Thai curry paste

* Freshly cooked rice has too much moisture and it is too soggy to fry; therefore, it is best to use leftover rice. If you don't have leftover rice, you can cool freshly cooked rice to room temperature and then place the rice in the refrigerator, uncovered, for a minimum of 1 hour to reduce the moisture.

** You can use any vegetables you like. I used frozen vegetable mix because it was the easiest thing to do and I thaw the vegetables to room temperature. Alternatively, you can chop up fresh vegetables into small pieces (eg. carrots, mushrooms, peppers, etc.), pre-cook them on the frying pan and drain the excess liquid.

Drizzle 1 tbsp of oil to the rice and break up the rice into grains with a fork. Set aside.

Stir together the soya sauce, curry powder and Thai curry paste. Set aside.

Heat up a little bit of oil in the wok. Beat the eggs and pour into the wok, stir quickly to "scramble" the eggs until the eggs are just cooked. Do not overcook. Set aside.

(Clean up the wok with paper towel if needed.)

On a separate frying pan, cook the vegetables in the sauce for about 1 min.

While the vegetables are cooking, heat up a little bit of oil in the wok and cook the onions and garlic for about 30 seconds, or until the onions and garlic are fragrant.

Add the rice, pineapple chucks, eggs and vegetables to the wok. Toss to combine the ingredients. Spread out the rice evenly on the wok and let it cook until the rice "dance" (popping noise), about 3 min. While the rice is cooking, resist the temptation to stir.

Drizzle sesame oil over the rice, give the rice a few quick toss and remove the wok from heat.

Do a quick taste test and add salt if needed.

Transfer the fried rice to a serving dish.

My comments:

I saw this dish in a Thai restaurant menu and I was suddenly inspired. Although I had never had this dish before, I could easily imagine how delicious it would be and it is something I can definitely pull together myself. My biggest problem was that I have never been good at making fried rice. My fried rice always turned out too soggy even though I use leftover rice that have been sitting in my fridge for several days. Then, I came across this lovely Shrimp Fried Rice recipe on Simple Recipes. Guest author Jaden Hair (of Steamy Kitchen) included some really useful tips for making stir-fry dishes and I quickly realized why my fried rice always failed.

With these useful tips in hand, I then found this Thai Fried Rice recipe for the list of ingredients. By combining the cooking instructions from both recipes, I was able to whip up the BEST fried rice that ever came out of my kitchen!! The rice tasted even better the next day after the flavours had a chance to blend together.

I believe the key to a successful fried rice is to minimize the amount of moisture. This time, I used freshly cooked rice that have been refrigerated for 3-4 hours and it worked really well. Pre-cooking the eggs instead of pouring it over the rice also stopped the rice from clumping together. Furthermore, cooking the vegetables with the soya sauce and then tossing all the ingredients with the rice at the end worked much better than pouring the sauce over the rice directly; this ensured an even distribution of spices and moisture throughout the rice.

Most importantly, I didn't add any vegetable/chicken stock to the rice during the whole process when I thought the rice looked dry or when the rice began to stick to the bottom of the wok. The rice can absorb moisture from the rest of the ingredients while it's heating up in the wok. To minimize sticking, use a little more oil in the wok before cooking the rice. I still had quite a bit of rice stuck to the bottom (I didn't use a teflon wok); but once the bottom was caked with a thin layer of rice, the rest of the rice didn't stick to the wok anymore. After transferring the rice to a serving dish, I immediately soaked the wok with hot water and the burnt rice came off quite easily.

The original Thai fried rice recipe suggested using coconut oil instead of vegetable oil. I think the combination of curry and coconut would give the fried rice an unique aroma. Next time, I think I'll try incorporating a little bit of toasted coconut flakes (unsweeten) since I don't have any coconut oil at home. Alternatively, I can prepare the fried rice using this Coconut Rice (but without the sugar and salt).

Finally, chicken, beef, pork or shrimp would also taste wonderful in this recipe. Simply marinade the meat with a little bit of salt and pepper for 30 min. Then, pre-cook the meat and toss into the rice with the pineapple. And voila! there is the non-vegetarian version of the Thai curry fried rice is born!

Dutch Babies

2008-08-23T10:52:00.009-05:00

2 Eggs
1/2 c. Milk
1/2 c. All-purpose flour, sifted
1 pinch Ground nutmeg
1 pinch Salt
1 tbsp Butter
1 tsp Pure vanilla extract
Ground cinnamon
2 tbsp Confection sugar (optional)

Place a 9-in. glass casserole dish in the oven and preheat to 450°F.

Warm up the milk in the microwave for 20 sec.

Warm up the eggs in a bowl of hot tap water for 5 min.

Combine flour, nutmeg, salt and cinnamon in a bowl.

In a separate bowl, beat the eggs with a whisk until light. Then add the milk and vanilla extract.

Gradually whisk in the dry ingredient.

Remove the glass dish from the oven and lower the oven temperature to 350°F.

Drop the butter onto the glass dish and spread the butter around the dish with a brush (make sure the sides are buttered).

Pour the batter into the glass dish and bake at 350°F for 15 min, or until the top is puffed and golden brown. (Check the pancake after 10-12 min.)

Remove the pancake from the oven and serve with confection sugar or maple syrup.

My comments:

I found this Dutch pancake recipe from Allrecipes.com. It looked like an easy recipe and I found the "puffing" part really cool. I read some of the reviews, incorporated some of the reviewers' tips and my Dutch Baby turned out really well!

The pancake deflated quickly after leaving the hot oven. So if you want to take a cool picture of the puffed pancake, have your camera ready at hand and snap that photo as soon as it comes out!!

This is a fairly heavy pancake. I found a quarter of the pancake, served with maple syrup, fruits and a cup of coffee/tea is enough for a filling breakfast. The original recipe (and other versions of the Dutch Pancakes) uses a cast iron skillet. I don't own a cast iron skillet but I found the glass dish worked just as well. I've also reduced the amount of butter in the original recipe and I've added in the vanilla and cinnamon as a personal touch. I love the vanilla/cinnamon flavour in my pancakes, soooo Yummy!!

Orange Poppy Seed Cookies

2008-06-22T21:37:00.004-05:00

1/2 c. Sugar
1/2 c. Butter, unsalted, room temperature
1 Egg, room temperature
1 tbsp Orange zest (from 1 large orange)
1 1/4 c. Flour
1/2 tsp Baking soda
1 tbsp Poppy seeds
Pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Beat the butter until creamy. Add the sugar and beat until light and fluffy.

Add the egg and the orange zest. Beat until combined.

In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda and salt.

Slowly add into the butter mixture and mix with a wooden spoon until just combined.

Fold in the poppy seeds.

Place little mounds of cookie batter on a Silpat (or parchment paper or greased cookie sheet). Flatten slightly slightly with a fork.

Bake for 9-11 minutes or until the edges turn a little brown. Be careful not to over cook and burn the bottoms.

Allow the cookies to cool for 2-3 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack.

My comments:

When I saw the pictures on Elise's Simply Recipes, I knew I just had to try these cookies. It's easy to do and her cookies just looked SO GOOD!! The only thing I changed in the recipe was that I reduced the sugar from 2/3 cup to 1/2 cup and I found that level of sweetness was perfect for our tastebuds. The only problem with my cookies was that they didn't spread in the oven. My cookies with high and lumpy while Elise's were the beautiful shape of flat round disk. I guess as long as the end results taste good, it doesn't matter what the cookies look like. :)

When I first told my hubby about these cookies, he wasn't sure he'd like them because he's not a big fan of poppy seeds and he's never eaten them in anything but muffins and breads. But as soon as the cookies came out of the oven, I couldn't keep him away from them. In fact, I had to hide the cookies at the back of our cupboard so he doesn't eat them all at once!! These cookies are no doubt yummy-licious but they are still made with a 100% butter, so they are meant to be enjoyed slowly, not inhaled in a blink of an eye.

Canadian Onion Soup

2008-06-22T07:06:00.007-05:00

3 tbsp Vegetable oil
6 Sweet onions, medium size, thinly sliced
3 cloves Garlic
4 c. Beef broth
1/2 tsp Thyme, dried (or 1 tbsp Fresh chopped thyme)
1 tbsp Pure maple syrup
Salt & pepper
French baguette
Your favourite cheese (eg. Swiss, Elemental, Gruyere, Mozerella)

On a flat bottom frying pan, cook the onions in oil for 30 min or until caramelized. Stir frequently.

Add garlic and cook for 1 minute.

Drizzle the maple syrup over the onion and stir.

Add beef broth and thyme, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

While the soup is simmering, cut approximately 1/3 of the baguette into 1-inch cubes. Toast the bread in the toaster oven for 3-5 minutes, until they are slightly brown and crunchy. Set aside and let them cool to room temperature.

Transfer the soup into oven-safe bowls. Top with toasted bread cubes and your favourite cheese. Broil on high for 3 minutes, until the cheese have melted and turned lightly brown.

My comments:

We love French Onion Soup. We've always ordered it at a restaurant or buy the frozen ones from M&M Meatshop, but never thought we could make it ourselves because I thought it's hard to do. But oh boy! was I ever wrong!! The Onion Soup couldn't be easier to make and the homemade soup tastes a million times better than the restaurant ones!!

I came across this Canadian Onion Soup recipe on one of those free magazines I received in the mail from Sobeys. It uses simple ingredients I always have at home and the instructions are easy to follow. I followed the recipe exactly the first time and found some of the ingredients were too overpowering. I liked the modifciations I've made to the recipe and everyone I've shared this recipe with loved the taste of it.

My only criticism is the cooking time for the onions. It is necessary to stir the onions frequently while it's cooking so that the onions are cooked evenly. But 30 minutes is a long time to stand in front of the stove. My friend told me her recipe uses the microwave and you can have a yummy onion soup in less than 30 minutes. While you can cook the broth in the microwave, I found the soup to be more flavourful when the soup is simmered on the stove top. So try this method if you are squeezed for time:

Mix the onions with oil (or butter) in a casserole dish. Cover and microwave for 7-8 minutes, or until limp, stiring occasionally. Transfer the cooked onions to a pot.
Add the garlic, thyme and maple syrup. Stir to mix.
Add the beef broth, bring to a boil and simmer for 30 minutes.

I've made this recipe with simple cooking onions and I thought it tasted just as good as using sweet onions. Some people like the taste of beef consommé better than the beef broth, but we prefer the broth because we found the consommé too strong.

There are 2 other advantages I wanted to point out with this recipe. One is the sodium content. I always find the restaurant or the frozen soup to be too salty. You can reduce the sodium by a lot if you make the soup yourself and it is much healthier this way. The beef and onion flavours are strong enough that it is not necessary to overload on the salt. The second advantage is that this soup makes great leftovers. I always use more onions than the recipe asks for (6-7 medium size cooking onions), just so I can have leftovers. To re-heat the soup, simply add more beef broth and simmer for about 15 minutes on the stove. You can have onion soups for 2 people for up to 3 days. The leftover soup always taste much better than the first day. This is much faster, much healthier and far tastier than cooking the soup from a frozen package.

I can't rave enough about this recipe. It's my favourite soup recipe of all times and I highly recommend you try this out!

Whoopie Pie

2008-06-15T12:37:00.008-05:00

Cakes
2 c. All-purpose flour
1/2 c. Cocoa powder
1 1/4 tsp Baking soda
2/3 tsp Salt
3/4 c. Milk
3/4 tbsp Lemon juice
1 tsp Vanilla
6 tbsp Vegetable or canola oil
2/3 c. Brown sugar
2 Large eggs

Filling
1/4 c. Unsalted butter, room temperature
2 tbsp Milk
2 c. Icing sugar
1/4 tsp Vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350°F.

To make sour milk, add 1 tbsp of lemon juice and add milk to make 1 cup. Let stand at room temperature for 5 minutes. Stir in the vanilla. (The sour milk can be replaced with 1 cup of buttermilk.)

Combine the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt in a bowl.

In a separate bowl, beat together the vegetable oil and brown sugar until there are no sugar clumps. Add eggs one at a time and beat until well combined.

Alternately mix in the flour mixture and the sour milk mixture, starting and ending with flour. Scrap down the side of the bowl to ensure even mixing. At this point, the batter might become too dense for the electric mixer; you may switch to using a wooden spoon for mixing. Stir until the mixture is smooth.

Transfer spoonfuls of batter onto greased baking sheets, spacing each mound approximately 2-inches apart. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Allow the cakes to cool completely on wire racks.

For the filling, beat together butter, icing sugar, milk and vanilla with an electric mixer until smooth.

Before assembling the pies, try to pairs of cakes that match in shape and size. Spoon the filling onto the flat side of one cake and top with a second cake.

My comments:

When I was a university student, my friends and I spent a lot of evenings, weekends and summer at school. There is a little convenient store, "conveniently" located next to the engineering building, where we can find tons of homemade desserts and pastries, always fresh and yummy. Ironically, the name of this store is "The Goody Shop". One of our favourite perk-me-treats is their infamous whoopie pie. It is the best thing since sliced bread, I kid you not! With the unspeakable amount of sugar and chocolate contained in one little pie, it's no wonder that it was so popular with university students. It sure beats those energy drinks or caffeine pills students are popping these days.

After moving away, my friends and I occasionally reminisce about the good ol' times and some things always bring back warm and fuzzy memories. We've made these delectable treats several times and they were always a big hit. Unfortunately, I'm not as young as I used to be; my system shouldn't be processing delectable foods like this and if I want to pig out on whoopie pies, I best make a few adjustments to the recipe to produce a "healthier" version. So I've combined ideas from the Epicurious recipe and the Recipezaar recipe and made a few modifications.

My "healthy" whoopie pies were good, but definitely not as good as a full-fat version. I substituted the butter with vegetable oil and reduced the sugar content overall, especially in the chocolate cakes since the sugar cream filling is sweet enough to make up for the difference. I did find the cakes a little dry the first time I tried this recipe, so I've increased the amount milk by a little bit. A less dough-y batter will help the mounds spread a little better as they bake, whereas mine hardly spread at all.

Overall, I liked these whoopie pies and will definitely make them again. They store well in the fridge (up to several days) and they make great lunch snacks!!

Meatballs

2008-06-01T18:27:00.006-05:00

3 Slices of bread, cubed
3 lbs Lean hamburger
2 Onions, medium size, chopped small
1 c. Apple sauce, unsweeten (or 3 Eggs)
3 Garlic cloves, minced
1/2 c. Ketchup
Basil
Celery salt
Parsley
Chilli pepper
Salt & pepper

In a large bowl, mix all the ingredient by hands.

Roll the meat into 2-inch balls.

Bake at 375°F for 25 min.

At this point, we usually cook the meatballs again in a BBQ sauce.

2 Bottle of your favourite BBQ sauce

(...if you run out of BBQ sauce...)
1 Bottle of your favourite BBQ sauce
1 c. Ketchup
1/2 c. Brown sugar

Method:

Stove top - 1 hour on medium low heat
Slowcooker - 4-8 hours setting

Serve the meatballs over rice. Also taste good in a sandwich.

My comments:

We love meatballs. Whenever we find cheap ground beef, we make them. They are easy to make and freeze really well in the freezer in a sealed container.

Note that I didn't put any measurement for the spices. We normally just sprinkle whatever we feel like at the time and however much we want. As long as you don't go overboard with the sprinkling, your meatballs should taste pretty good and you can't make them taste bad.

Sour Cream Apple Pie

2008-05-30T07:55:00.014-05:00

Crust
1 Tenderflake deep dish crust

Filling
4 Apples (I used 2 Mcintosh and 2 Granny Smith)
1 c. Sour cream
3/4 c. Sugar
1/3 c. All purpose flour
1 Egg
2 tsp Vanilla
1/2 tsp Salt
1 tsp Cinnamon

Topping
2 c. Oats (I used instant)
1 c. Brown sugar
3/4 c. All purpose flour
1 tsp Cinnamon
3/4 c. Chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes

Preheat oven to 450°F.

Thaw the frozen crust at room temperature for 10 min.

Topping:
Mix the oats, sugar and flour in a bowl. Add butter and knead the ingredients together until well mixed. Chill in fridge until ready to use.

Filling:
Peel, core and slice apples into half moons.

Combine the sour cream, sugar, flour, egg, vanilla, and salt in large bowl and mix well. Stir in the apples.

Spoon the apple mixture into crust. Bake at 450°F for 10 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350°F and continue baking for about 40 min. The filling should be slightly puffed and golden brown.

Flatten small chunks of the topping and evenly lay them over the apple filling.

Bake pie for another 20-30 min until the topping is golden brown and crunchy.

My comments:

Sour cream is one of those things that I buy, eat a little bit of and then left forgotten in the fridge until well pass its expiry date. The main reason is that I never know what to do with sour cream aside from making dips. I've tried baking with sour cream several times and the food always turn out fairly well (ie. I didn't screw it up). Determined not to waste my sour cream this time, I searched high and low for an interesting recipe and found what I was looking for on Epicurious - The Sour Cream Apple Pie.

I have to admit that I am not normally a big fan of apple pies because I find them ordinary. I'm more of the exotic-cheesecake-mango-mousse kind of girl. But of course, fancy dessert is for me to buy, not to make; I only pretend to be a baker afterall. So making this apple pie with special topping was a real challenge for me.

The original recipe sounded delicious but I was too lazy to dig out a rolling pin and make my own crust. Also, my hubby is allergic to nuts, so I had to find a topping recipe he could enjoy as well. I did a little tweaking here and there and voila! the Bunny version of the apple pie was born!

I love the apple filling because the sour cream adds a bit of tangy-ness to an otherwise boring filling. The topping didn't "crumble" the way it should but it was still crunchy and super tastey. I think this apple would go wonderfully with vanilla ice-cream and I'd definitely make this again. Next time though, I think I will either reduce the filling and topping recipe by half or divide the recipe into two pie shells. I think my pie was just a little too big and it looked more like an apple mountain than an apple pie. :)

Blueberry Mango Bread

2008-05-19T16:24:00.006-05:00

1/2 c. Vegetable oil
1/2 c. White sugar
3 Large eggs
1 tsp Pure vanilla extract
2 c. Flour
1/2 tsp Baking powder
1/2 tsp Baking soda
1/4 tsp Salt
1 tsp Ground cinnamon
3/4 c. Sour cream (or plain yogurt)
3/4 c. Fresh blueberries
3/4 c. Fresh ripe mangos
1 c. Walnut pieces, chopped

Preheat oven to 350˚F.

Toast walnut pieces for 8 minute on a baking sheet. Set aside and let cool.

Cut the mangoes into cubes and set aside with the blueberries.

(If you don't know how to cut a mango, check out Elise's instructions on her Simply Recipes blog. She gave detailed instructions with fantastic photos to follow along.)

Beat the oil and sugar together for about 1 minute.

Add eggs one at a time, beat well.

Beat in vanilla.

In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.

Add the flour mixture and sour cream alternately, starting and ending with the flour.

Fold in the blueberries, mango and walnuts.

Spray the insides of two 9x5x3" loaf pans.

Divide the batter into the loaf pans and smooth out the top.

Bake for approximately 45 minute, until the top is golden brown and the toothpick comes out clean.

My comments:

Since my Strawberry Bread turned out so well, I thought I'd tweak the recipe a little bit and make a slightly healthier version of fruit bread. I replaced the butter with equal amounts of vegetable oil and the bread turned out pretty well!!

I experimented with a different type of fruits because blueberries were on sale this week. I also added in some mangoes since I have two riped mangoes sitting in the fridge, waiting to be eaten. The blueberries were absolutely tasty in the bread but the mangoes were a little disappointing. To be honest, I couldn't taste the mangoes pieces at all even when I bit into it. I was not surprised since many of the mango bread recipes I've seen online seemed to have the same problem. Next time, I think I'll skip the mangoes and just stick with blueberries.

I also added some toasted walnuts to the bread which gave the bread a beautiful nutty aroma and a bit of a crunch. The original plan was to throw the walnut pieces into the bread as it is without toasting it. But I'm glad I decided not to be lazy and did the extra step because the toasted walnuts were superb!!

Note: I used the ataulfo mangoes which are bright yellow in colour and they are smaller and narrower than the red/green variety we commonly see in grocery stores. I find these ataulfo mangoes sweeter and more flavourful in comparison. However, if you are looking for the most delicious mangoes EVER, try buying them in the season from ethnic grocers such as Chinese or Indian. There are different varieties and they can be skinny/long or skinny/short, but they should all be bright in yellowy-orangy colour. Ask the store owners for recommendation and keep in mind that these mangoes will probably cost more than the ataulfo or the red/green mangoes but they are worth the extra dollars.

Pound Cake

2008-05-11T15:14:00.011-05:00

2 c. All-purpose flour
1/2 tsp Baking powder
1/8 tsp Salt
1 c. Unsalted butter, room temperature
1 c. Sugar
3 Large eggs, room temperature
Zest from 1 lemon
2 tsp Vanilla
1/2 c. Milk, room temperature

Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray two 9x5x3" loaf pans with Pam cooking spray.

Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.

Beat together butter and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer until light and fluffy.

Add 1 egg at a time, beating well after each egg. Then beat in the lemon zest and vanilla.

Add flour mixture and milk alternately, staring and ending with flour. Mixing until just incorporated.

Divide the batter into the loaf pans and bake until golden and toothpick comes out clean, approximately 45 minute. Cool cake in pan before inverting it onto a rack.

Serve by itself (warm or room temperature), your favourite ice-cream or a fruit coulis.

My comments:

My hubby has been after me to make him a pound cake. But what is a pound cake, I ask? He was shocked that I've never had pound cake before. I don't know if I've never had it or just can't remember ever eating it. Either way, I have no point of reference for comparison, so I had to rely on his tastebuds to tell me whether my cake is a "proper" pound cake. I also had difficulty choosing a recipe because without knowing how it's supposed to taste, I couldn't make judgement on whether the recipe has too much butter, to much liquid, not enough sugar. In the end, I chose this recipe from Epicurious because it had raving reviews, and everyone said to follow the recipe exactly as written because it yields the BEST pound cake ever!!

My hubby's verdict on the finshed product was..."It's a pound cake! And it's delicious!"

Hooray for me!! *grin*

It was a pretty good cake; I thoroughly enjoyed it. I only made 2 slight modifications to the original recipe. I reduced the sugar from 1.5 cups to 1 cup only and I found that plenty sweet. I might even want to try to reduce the sugar content by 1/4 cup next time I make this and serve it with ice-cream or fruit coulis. (Check out my version of raspberry coulis.) I also divided the batter into two pans (reduced cook time to 45 minute) because I was concerned that with too much batter, the cake wouldn't cook properly inside but get too brown on the outside. That's why my pound cake looks so short, but it baked perfectly, both inside and out!

Strawberry Bread

2008-05-04T21:58:00.006-05:00

1/2 c. Butter
1/2 c. White sugar
3 Large eggs
1 tsp Pure vanilla extract
2 c. Flour
1/2 tsp Baking powder
1/2 tsp Baking soda
1/4 tsp Salt
1 tsp Ground cinnamon
3/4 c. Sour cream (or plain yogurt)
1 1/2 c. Fresh strawberries, chopped

Preheat oven to 350˚F. Spray the side and bottom of a 9x5x3" loaf pan.

Beat the butter until soft (~ 1 minute). Add the sugar and beat until fluffy.

Add eggs one at a time, beat well. Beat in vanilla.

(The mixture curdles a little bit at this point but it should go away after the addition of the remaining ingredients.)

In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.

Add the flour mixture and sour cream alternately, starting and ending with the flour.

Fold in the strawberries.

Pour the batter into the loaf pan and smooth out the top.

Bake for approximately 50-60 minute, until the top is golden brown and the toothpick comes out clean. If the top is golden brown but the center is not cooked, turn off the heat and leave the bread baking in the oven for an additional 5-15 minute, checking every 5 minute.

My comments:

I have never heard of a strawberry bread but believe me, this is as good as it sounds. I found this recipe from Joy of Baking and made a few minor modifications to suit my taste buds. This bread smells awesome when it was baking and it makes a wonderfully delicious and healthy breakfast. It's also a quick way of using up some of those strawberries that needs to be eaten very very quickly. This will make a great dessert when served with a lemon glaze or vanilla ice-cream.

I think next time, I'll have to try this recipe using other types of berries such as blueberries and raspberries. Other berries will be just as tasty but I will probably use sugar for the more sour berries such as raspberries. Also, I will definitely add the toasted walnuts to the bread that the original recipe asked for, but I didn't have any walnuts at home this time. Too bad because I think it'd be even more yummy with the nuts!!

Lemon Tartlets

2008-05-03T12:19:00.006-05:00

1 box Frozen mini tart shells
1/2 c. Granulated sugar
2 Eggs
1 tsp Lemon rind
1/3 c. Fresh lemon juice (2-3 lemons)
2 tbsp Butter

Bake the tart shells as instructed on the package. Set aside to cool.

In a double boiler, whisk together the eggs, sugar and lemon juice.

Cook for about 10 min and stir constantly to prevent eggs from scrambling. The water should be simmering lightly but not boiling.

When the lemon curd becomes thickened, remove from heat and whisk in the butter until melted.

Add the lemon zest and the curd cool. Cover immediately to prevent skin to form.

The curd will continue to thicken as it cools.

Spoon the lemon curd into the tart shells.

Note: The lemon curd can be refrigerated up to a week.

My comments:

I stumbled upon this recipe in a food magazine eons ago and it had become my favourite dessert recipe of all time. The lemon curd is super lemony but not too sweet. It is also very easy to do, so it's perfect to serve at your own party or to bring for a potluck dinner.

For a yummy summer variation, using a bigger tart shell and put some fresh berries with the lemon curd. I love using a mixture of raspberries and blueberries because they blend so well with the lemon flavour.

I found a very similar lemon curd recipe on Joy of Baking. I tried Stephanie's recipe once and found using 3 eggs resulted in a more runny lemon curd, but otherwise, it tasted pretty good. Stephanie also gave a lot of tips on how to do the lemon curd properly with detailed explanations of the important steps. In particular, I want to point out that she suggested mixing the lemon with whipped cream to give a lighter taste. I haven't tried this suggestion yet but it's definitely on my list of things to try in the near future.

Chinese Beef Congee

2007-09-16T10:43:00.000-05:00

1 c. Chinese white rice
6 c. Water
1/2 lb. Lean ground beef
1 Salted duck egg
Salt & pepper to taste
Lettuce, thinly sliced

Sauce:
2 Green onion, chopped
3 tbsp Soya sauce (Kikkoman)
1/2 tsp Sesame oil

Wash the rice several times with water. Drain out as much water as possible. Refridgerate for a few hours to let the water soak into the rice. It is easiest to pre-soak the rice overnight or in the morning, so that the rice will be ready to cook when you come home from work.

In a large pot, boil the water and add the rice. Let it simmer for 30 min on medium heat. The rice should become very soft and fluffy and the liquid is slightly thickened. The consistency of the congee is typically similar to a Western style cream soup, but you can always add or reduce the water to make the congee to your desired consistency. I like my congee with medium consistency (not too watery but not too thick).

While the rice is cooking, lightly marinade the ground beef with a little bit of salt or soya sauce.

Remove the salted duck egg from its plastic wrap and wash the shell with water.

When the rice is cooked, stir in the ground beef. Break up as many chunks as possible.

Crack open the egg and drop it into the congee. Gently stir in the egg white while it cooks. The yoke will remain intact.

Simmer the congee for another 10-15 min, until the ground beef and egg yoke are cooked.

If the congee becomes too thick, stir in more water, bring it to a boil and reduce the heat to simmer.

Place a small handful of fresh lettuce in a bowl and add the congee on top.

Serve immediately with homemade sauce.

Note: You can also cook congee without pre-soaking the rice, but it will take several hours to cook until the rice turns fluffy.

What is congee?

Congee is a traditional chinese meal that we like to eat on all occasions. Countless versions of congee exist, depending on the type of ingredients you use and the style of cooking. Congee can be served as breakfast, lunch, dinner or even midnight snack!!

In the morning, a bland version is prepared with only rice, seasoned with salt. Some people like to add dried scallop and/or dried shrimp. This breakfast congee is usually served with fried bread sticks or fried noodles (ingredients: soya or oyster sauce and mung bean sprouts).

For other meals, meat is often added to give the congee a little more substance. Congee is very good with all types of meat: chicken, beef or pork and the meat can be cut into thin slices or 1-in. cubes. For the grounded versions of the meat, you can stir the meat into the congee as instructed in this recipe, or you can roll the meat into balls and make meatball congee.

If you like seafood, salmon and shrimp both work very well in congees. When the congee is cooked and seasoned with salt, stir in the seafood and serve as soon as the meat is cooked. It is very important not to overcook the seafood.

My favourite type of congee is prepared with lean pork slices and preserved eggs. The preserved eggs looks gross but it's very yummy. :)

Congee is also Chinese counterpart of the "chicken soup for sick people". In this case, you can add chunks of meat to the boiling water along with the rice and let it cook for 30 min. This way, the nutrients from the meat will be boiled into the congee and the congee can be served to the "patient" without the meat. It will a light meal for the "patient" but he/she will still receive the proper nutrients. This congee can also be served to babies who are ready to eat real food, for the same reason. If you want even more nutrients in the congee, you can add a variety of carrot, winter melon, baby bok choy or Chinese cabbage.

As you can see, congee is a very versatile meal. It is easy to make and tastey to eat!!

Cauliflower Saffron Bisque

2007-09-16T10:32:00.000-05:00

4 c. Water
2 Vegetable bouillon cubes
1/2 tsp Saffron threads, crumbled
1 tbsp Butter
1 tbsp Olive oil
1 Vidalia onion, chopped small
1 Cauliflower, medium size
3/4 c. Light cream (5%)

Boil the water and dissolve the vegetable bouillon cubes. Remove from heat and add the saffron threads. Cover and steep for 20 min.

Melt the butter with the olive oil in a deep pan over medium heat. Sauté the chopped onion until very tender, about 10 minutes.

Cut the cauliflower head into 1/2"-3/4" pieces.

Add the cauliflower to the sautéd onion. Stir to coat.

Add saffron broth to the cauliflower and onion mixture.

Bring the soup to a simmer. Reduce heat, cover and continue to simmer until the cauliflower pieces are tender, about 20 minutes.

Purée the soup using a blender or food processor. If you have neither or in my case too lazy to use a blender, use a potato masher to reduce the chunks.

Stir in the light cream.

My comments:

This is another recipe I got from Leslie's food blog. Her photos are much better than mine and I'm sure her soup tasted better as well, so you should definitely check out her recipe.

As I mentioned in my recipe, I was too lazy to take out my blender. The masher was able to break up the larger pieces of cauliflower and onion but my cream soup had turned into a chunky bisque soup. The texture was rather strange. The flavour was nice and I liked it, but my hubby thought it was too bland. However, the flavour amplified a hundred fold overnight and it was the most delicious leftover soup EVER!!! It was so good that my hubby and I couldn't get enough of it. *grin*

I will definitely make this again. But next time, I will not be lazy and I will purée the soup properly with my blender. This will make a very impressive soup for entertaining and it is easy to do. I think I will make this the night before and let it sit overnight for the flavour to come out before serving it to guests.

Mini Chocolate Brownies

2007-09-16T09:37:00.000-05:00

100 g Bittersweet dark chocolate
1/4 c. Butter, unsalted
1/8 c. Sugar
2 Large eggs, room temperature
2 tbsp Kahlua (or Rum)
1/2 tsp Vanilla extract
1/2 tsp Salt
1/3 c. Flour
1/2 c. Coconut flakes
150 g Peanut butter chips (Hershey's Reeses PB Chipits)

Preheat oven to 350F and butter the mini-muffin pan.

Toast the coconut flakes on a non-greased frying pan until golden brown. Set aside.

In a double boiler, melt the butter and the chocolate. Whisk until smooth.

Remove the chocolate from heat and whisk in the sugar.

Whisk in 1 egg at a time.

Mix in the kahlua, vanill and salt.

Add the flour and whisk until well combined.

Fold the coconut or peanut butter chips (or both) into your batter.

Fill the muffin pans up to 1/2-2/3 full.

Bake for 20 min, until tester comes out clean.

These mini-cakes taste great the way they are or they can be warmed up and served with your favourite ice-cream.

My comments:

This is a tweeked version of Leslie's Individual Coconut Rum Chocolate Cakes. I have made this 3 times before I was satisfied with my own version of it. I love hot brownies served with ice-cream and although Leslie's recipe was very good, I found the cakes were too rich to go with ice-cream. So I turned her cakes into mini-cakes and I reduced the sugar content a little bit. Also, while I was experimenting with this recipe, I did not want to waste money buying the high quality dark chocolate. So I went to Bulk Barn for some regular bittersweet dark chocolate and it worked pretty well.

My hubby doesn't like coconut, so I've made a couple versions of the cakes with coconut and peanut butter chips. My hubby prefers the peanut butter chip version over the plain ones while I loved the coconut and peanut butter chip combo. The peanut butter chips adds just a tad more flavour to the cakes and made it just a little tastier. This inspired me to include a few walnuts or pecans in the recipe next time I bake them. *grin*

Leslie's recipe used dark rum and because I never seem to have dark rum at home, I've tried these cakes with a white rum or kahlua. I can't seem to taste the alcohol but my hubby liked both versions but he prefers the kahlua.

Final note on the failed attempts: I tried this recipe with white chocolate and kahlua. It didn't taste very good so don't bother to try this combination. Also in the same trial, I thought adding extra kahlua would make the cakes a little stronger, but all the extra alcohol did was made my cake batter more runny. So my recommendation is to stick to the recipe (mine or Leslie's) because they work!!