Christmas Cookie Attempt Number One

 

This is what I was up to yesterday

Click here to get the low down. xo

Pot Roast for Breakfast, Apple Bread Pudding for Dinner

This is what happens at 34 weeks pregnant.  People want to take your picture for no reason.  You want pot roast at 9am, and french toast at 7pm.  Why ask why?

Yum.  Leftover potroast, steamed green beans, and spiced yam mash.  Kept me full all day long.

Apple Bread Pudding

1 baguette French bread, cut into small pieces

7 egg whites

3 cups unsweetened vanilla almond milk

1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 dropperful liquid vanilla stevia

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

1 cup chunky unsweetened apple sauce

Combine eggs, milk, spice, vanilla, stevia and salt.  Pour over bread, and mix in applesauce.  Let sit, covered, in fridge for at least 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Pour mixture into buttered 9x12 inch pan.  Bake for 40 minutes or until top is golden brown and eggs are set.  Top with as much butter and syrup as you desire!

Breakfast:  It's what's for dinner.

Flourless Pumpkin Spice Bread

Oh yes, that's right.  Got the recipe here.  I made a few adjustments based on what I did and did not have on hand.  So exciting!  Husband's been on a health kick so I thought this was a perfect thing to send him to work with.  He's been living on raw fruit smoothies, nuts and cucumbers.  Except when I make him eat hot dogs with me...

1 cup pumpkin puree (next time I might sub some of the pumpkin with a smashed banana for a little sweetness)
1/2 cup coconut  butter (original recipe used almond butter)
3 eggs
3 Tablespoons ground flax
1 heaping Tablespoon chia seeds (mix in a small bowl with 3 tablespoons of water…will form a “gel” after about 10 minutes)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste (can use extract)
1/4 cup water

Mix ingredients.  Pour into greased loaf pan.  Bake at 350 degrees for one hour.  Important!  Let the loaf sit for at least 15 minutes before you try to get it out of the pan. 

It is mucho moist and more like a pumpkin bar than pumpkin bread (how did Alex and Heather get their bread to puff up more?), but very, very tasty.  Eggy.  I think I will top mine with some cinnamon sugar cream cheesy love.  What about you?

Heart Melt. Dad's Super Special Rice Krispie Treats.

Dad sent me these pictures along with this note.  How much do we love?


Dear Mandy,
 
I am so glad I managed to take these pictures of a cross section and the top of the crispie treats I made on my birthday. Now there is nothing left but the clean glass pan. All the rest just eroded into the ether. May make some more someday though. 

30 Marshmallows, a cup of chocolate chips and a cup of nuts; mine were mixed because they were handy and four cups of Rice Crispies. I slowly melted the chocolate chips and marshmallows and blended the nuts into the melt then poured the mixture into the rice crispies. The hard part was waiting until the mixture cooled. 

Your Mom and I were both unsuccessful with that part.

The main reason for this note is to thank you very much for all your help with your Mom and for your attention to me. I was very happy having you here.
 
Love, Dad

Peach Pie with Lard Crust!

First of all, I just have to say that the baby is rolling, rolling, rolling this morning and it makes me SO happy!  Baby dance in there.

I had the supreme pleasure and honor of baking with my best  Aunt Shayno, and we made a peach pie with LARD crust.  It's all about the lard.

We went to the farmer's market to buy the peaches and we kept moaning about having to go the grocery store just to get Crisco, when I thought, I wonder if the butcher would have lard for sale?  He did.  Beautiful, snow white, freshly rendered pork fat, y'all.

This pie was amazing.  What I learned was similar to my maple syrup experience earlier:  If you eat a little bit of the REAL THING, you are completely satisfied and have no desire to eat enormous quantities.  I have a sweet tooth's sweet tooth, and I couldn't imagine having more than one slice of this peach pie.  Why?  The lard in the crust made for such a complex, rich experience, two slices would have been too much (this is coming from the girl who ate half a store bought pecan pie on Christmas Day).

Use lard!  And real maple syrup!

My piece with a whipped cream skirt.  And yes, that is a bunny in the background.  Hungry bunny.

Aunt Shayno's Peach Crumb Pie with Lard Crust

Preheat oven to 425 degrees

Pie Crust:

For single large pie crust
1 1/2 cups flour all-purpose
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup lard, cut into small pieces
1/2 cup ice water, 1 tbsp at a time until right consistency

Combine flour and salt.  Cut in fat with pastry blender, two knifes, or just pinch mixture together until the fat is the size of small peas.  Add ice water, one tablespoon at a time, until the dough just comes together.

Place ball of dough on a lightly floured piece of waxed paper.  Press down with your hand.  Add a touch more flour and put a second piece of waxed paper on top.  Roll out dough with rolling pin until it is about 1/4 inch thick.  Place dough in an un-greased pie pan, cutting off extra dough from sides, if needed.

Lightly press the crust in pan, and create whatever edging you desire.  Refrigerate while you make the rest of the pie magic happen.

Crumb Topping:

1 cup flour
1/2 cup butter, cut into small pieces
1/2 cup brown sugar

Combine flour and sugar.  Cut in butter with pastry blender, two knifes, or just pinch mixture together until you get a "coarse sand" consistency.  Set aside.

Apple Filling:

about 5 cups sliced peaches (peeled and pitted)
1/4 cup sugar
1 tbsp cornstarch
1 tsp vanilla extract or paste
pinch of ground cinnamon

Toss peach slices in a bowl with the sugar, cornstarch, vanilla, and cinnamon. Stir to combine and set aside.

Put peach filling in pie pan, followed by crumb topping.  Bake at 425 degrees for 10 minutes, then reduce the heat to 375 degrees and bake for 40 minutes, or until top is golden brown and filling is bubbling.



Aunt Shayno in action:

Summer Lemon Poppy Seed Pound Cake

Where the fudge have I been?  I've been here, and I will return on a regularly scheduled basis VERY soon and I have a very good excuse...so please stay tuned!

Lately my sweet tooth has been quite selective.  Normally, anything involving sugar is aces with me, but these days the thought of anything chocolate, or ice cream, or Pop Tarts, or Starburst....can't deal.

Lemon remains a favorite flavor, so making this pound cake was a pleasure.  The recipe is from my days at The New School Of Cooking, and was one of the most amazing things I tasted while I was a student.

Summer Lemon Poppy Seed Pound Cake

1 1/4 cups   all-purpose flour

1 tsp            baking powder

1 tsp            finely grated lemon zest

1/4 tsp         salt
8 ounces      unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup        granulated sugar
2 large         eggs
2 Tbsp         poppy seeds
1 1/2 cups    confectioners sugar
3 Tbsp         fresh lemon juice

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Butter a 9-inch round cake pan (or loaf pan).

Whisk together flour, baking powder, lemon zest, and salt in a bowl.

Beat together butter and granulated sugar in another bowl with an electric mixer at medium speed until pale and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes.  Beat in eggs until combined.  Reduce speed to low, then add flour mixture and poppy seeds and mix until just combined.

Transfer batter to cake pan, smoothing top, and bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean and the top is golden brown, about 30 minutes.  Cool cake in pan on a rack for 5 minutes, then invert onto rack.

Whisk together confectioners sugar and lemon juice in a a bowl until smooth.  Pour glaze over warm cake, spreading it with a spatula to drizzle over edge.  Let stand until glaze is set, about 15 minutes.

Serve warm or at room temperature.  Enjoy!

My First Cream Puff

Is their anything prettier than a cream puff?  I was having a Monday, for sure, and languishing over these little babies for my favorite clients made me happy, happy, happy (clearly I'm in the right profession-I was seriously cranky).

I got the cream puff recipe here.  I especially loved a tip left by a reader who said to leave the puffs in the oven after baking.  Simply turn off the heat, crack open the oven door, and let them sit for awhile so the dry completely, in order to prevent "sagging".  Cream puff dough is kind of like a souffle; it will puff way up but will deflate quickly if it's not completely dry.

The recipe I used suggested filling the shells with pudding.  Eww.  I'm not a pudding fan and will gladly put whipped cream on almost anything.  This is how the whipped dreaminess was created:


1 cup whipping cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp granulated sugar

Stir cream, vanilla and sugar together in a large metal bowl.  Put whisk in bowl, cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes (cold cream, bowl and whisk makes for faster whipping).

Whisk until soft peaks form.

I was super fancy with filling the shells:  cut shells 3/4 of the way (left them whole at the back), put whipped cream in a freezer bag.  Cut the tip with scissors and piped the fluffy clouds into their little bready homes.

I have a feeling my clients will pour some chocolate sauce on top of these (I found some in the fridge).  They also have fresh cherries, which I pitted, chopped, added a tiny bit of sugar to, and left for them to do what they will.  My next baking challenge will be macarons.  I had these for the first time over the weekend, courtesy of Daydreamer Desserts, and they changed my life. 


In other news, I just returned my first blog conference, Camp Blogaway.  It was wonderful and I am completely traumatized.  This has nothing to do with the conference and everything to do with me.  I am overwhelmed and extremely busy comparing my blog with everyone else's blog, and feel like a complete blog, photographer, culinary and social media failure.  I'm ready to become a ultrasound technician now.  Just sayin'.

388 Calorie Oreo "Blizzard"

This isn't really a recipe.  More like an assembly.

Because I'm not a "bite of this, sip of that" kind of girl, I'm always looking for a way I can eat a lot and still fit in my clothes.  I discovered Arctic Zero at Whole Foods, and although it is not bad on it's own, it's a bit like eating icy hot chocolate air.  I had to sex it up.  Some call this being a "food pharmacist".  I call it art.

I started by whipping the hell out of it in my trusty Ninja, which gives it the illusion of creamy.

Next up:  four Dairy Free, Gluten Free Newman-O's (they taste exactly like Oreos with a little less crap in them).

Aaaaahhhh (angels singing)!  I'm sure this has no nutritive value, but it is a way to inhale a pint of creamy, chocolatey frozen goodness sans guilt.  It's also a great way to stretch the value of four little cookies.  I'm all about stretching.

This is only the beginning.  A swirl of chunky peanut butter (or any nut butter), frozen chunks of banana, coconut, caramel sauce...what would you mix in?

Frozen Fudge Mousse

I've been making some changes.  I'm letting go of diet soda and bars that are full of weird stuff (soy protein isolate-wha?).

These changes inspire me to get creative with treats.  Mama can't have frosted Luna bars anymore, so what can she have?

It was time to get out the Ninja and start playing with frozen bananas and this concoction...I am not kidding.  This is a revelation.

If you are craving ice cream or fudge or frosting...look no further.


This is richer than you can imagine, and would be amazing with berries or a slice of cake.

Frozen Fudge Mousse

Serves One

2 tbsp coconut flour
2 tbsp cocoa powder
2 tbsp almonds
1/8 tsp xanthan gum
1 frozen banana (make sure to peel banana and cut into chunks before freezing)
3 or 4 drops liquid vanilla stevia
1/4 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk

Total calories     294

Combine flour, powder, almonds and xanthan gum in a blender of food processor.  Blend until almonds are in little, tiny pieces.  Add banana and stevia, process until smooth.  Add milk gradually until you get the desired consistency.

Devour.

Who's Hungry For St. Patrick's Day?

 

  

All the details are here.  How will you celebrate?

I'm A Bread Baker!

I'm afraid of baking bread.  It reminds me of my years of struggling with math; I would sort of get mathematical concepts but I always seemed to skip a step which would result in countless wrong answers.

When I was a kid I tried to bake a loaf of bread shaped like a teddy bear.  I forgot to let it raise a second time and ended up with a teddy bear brick (a delicious brick, which I managed to eat, but a brick nonetheless).

I was asked to review a book on bread baking and I offered to test a recipe.  My bread baking fears are over!

 

My dough, mid-knead.  I lurve kneading.  It ranks up there with patting a washed whole chicken dry and sitting it on the counter like a little naked baby.  Totally normal.

 

Post knead.  So satisfying already.

 

After it rested in an oiled bowl covered in plastic, I shaped it into a "biguette" (my little sister's made up word because my baguette was so ginormous-funny sister).  My biguette then rested, uncovered for 30 minutes to create a nice "skin", which helps develop a crust during baking.

 

Beauty.  Wish you could smell it.  Right up there with movie popcorn.

 

Not a brick!  This was real bread that tastes REAL GOOD.

 

I am completely inspired.  I plan on making bread for all my clients.  In a world afraid of carbs, it is heartening to  feed someone bread with five simple ingredients:  yeast, sugar, flour, water and salt.

 Biguette

1 teaspoon active dry yeast
1 teaspoon sugar
1 1/2 cups warm water (105-115 degrees)
4 to 4 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons salt


In a large bowl sprinkle yeast and sugar over warm water and let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes. With a wooden spoon stir in 2 cups flour until combined. Stir in salt and 2 cups of remaining flour until mixture forms a stiff dough. On a lightly floured surface knead dough with lightly floured hands 8 minutes, or until smooth and elastic, kneading in enough of remaining 1/2 cup flour to keep dough from sticking. Transfer dough to a lightly oiled deep bowl, turning to coat with oil, and let rise, bowl covered with plastic wrap, until doubled in bulk, about 1 1/2 hours.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

Punch down dough and form into a long slender loaf about 21 inches long and 3 inches wide. Put loaf diagonally on a lightly greased large or 17- by 14-inch baking sheet and let rise, uncovered, about 30 minutes. (Baguette may be made up to this point 4 hours ahead and chilled.)

Make 3 or 4 diagonal slashes on loaf with a sharp knife and lightly brush top with cool water. Bake loaf in middle of oven 30 minutes, or until golden, and transfer to a rack to cool.

Recipe courtesy of Bon Appetit

Frozen Chocolate Souffle with Hot Fudge Sauce

Frozen chocolate souffle ingredients.  Love how simple!

 

First, I whipped most of the cream into soft peaks, which I forgot to photograph, because I'm a spaz.

Next, I melted the rest of the cream and the chocolate.

 

Thick.

 

This is the eggs, egg yolks and sugar, which I whipped over a pot of simmering water. 

This cooks the eggs, making a sort of pudding.

 

I folded the melted chocolate into the egg and sugar mixture,

then I folded in the whipped cream.

 

The finished product goes into a bowl I prepared with foil to hold the mixture in.

Well, that was the plan, but I ran out of mixture before I ran out of bowl. 

So, this souffle looks more like a mousse.  Also, I tasted it and it's VERY chocolately and not very sweet.  I'm going to suggest to my clients that they top it with sweetened whipped cream before they add the hot fudge (which I made extra sweet to contrast). 

I'm not a chocolate girl, so I'm a bad judge.  I hope it's good!

 

Hot fudge sauce ingredients.  Again, v simple.

 

Scalding the milk, which means bringing almost to a boil, but not quite.

Add scalding milk to the cocoa, sugar, flour and salt mixture, again over a pot of simmering water.

Whisked until it thickened by about 30%.

 

I removed from the heat, added butter and vanilla and put into some Tupperware

so it will be good to go tomorrow.

Frozen Chocolate Souffle

2 cups heavy or whipping cream, divided
1 Tablespoon vanilla
12 ounces bittersweet chocolate, melted
2 large eggs
4 large egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar

Cut a piece of aluminum foil long enough to go around a 6-cup souffle dish with a little overlap.
Fold it in half the long way and wrap it around the dish to form a collar that extends about 4 inches above the rim. Tape or tie foil in place.

Set the prepared dish in the freezer while preparing the dessert. Whip 1 1/2 cups of the cream until it holds a soft peak. Refrigerate.

Bring the remaining 1/2 cup of cream to a simmer in a small saucepan over low heat. Whisk the cream, then the vanilla, into the chocolate. Set aside to cool.

Whisk the eggs, egg yolks and sugar together in a heatproof bowl. Place the bowl over a small pan of simmering water and whisk constantly until the eggs are hot,
increased in volume and thickened (this takes only 2 or 3 minutes). Use an electric mixer to whip until cooled to room temperature, another 2 or 3 minutes.

Fold the chocolate mixture into the egg mixture, then fold in the whipped cream. Pour into prepared dish and place in freezer.
Cover with plastic wrap after the outside has frozen, about 2 hours after it is placed in the freezer.

To serve, unwrap the dessert and remove the collar. Wipe the outside of the dish clean with a damp cloth if necessary
and use 2 spoons to serve pieces of the frozen souffle -- don't try to cut it into wedges. Serves 12 to 16.

Hot Fudge Sauce

1 cup sugar

1 cup cocoa

2 tablespoons flour

pinch of salt

1 cup boiling water or scalding milk

1 tablespoon of butter

1 teaspoon of vanilla

Combine sugar, cocoa, salt, and flour in a bowl or pot over a double boiler.
Bring water or milk to a boil. Gradually add hot liquid to sugar mixture.
Stir constantly until mixture thickens.

Once it has reached the desired thickness, remove from heat and stir in butter and vanilla.

Serve this concoction with whipped cream, maybe some chopped peanuts, strawberries, caramel sauce...go bananas!