Currant Scones

Scones again?!! Yep. I can't get enough of these things lately. Hope you're not sick of them yet!! These are pretty darn good scones from Anna Olson's new cookbook Back to Baking. Anna's got a great dough folding technique that lets you work the dry ingredients into the dough without overworking it. The folding technique makes sure you have scones that rise up nice and high with flakey, buttery layers. 

Currant Scones
Recipe minimally adapted from Back to Baking

Ingredients:

• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 4 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• zest of one lemon, finely grated
• 1/8 tsp freshly ground nutmeg
• 3/4 cup unsalted butter, cut into pieces and chilled
• 1 egg
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 cup cold milk, plus extra for brushing scones
• 1/2 cup dried currants

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 400F and line a baking tray with parchment paper.
2. Place the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, zest and nutmeg in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse to combine.
3. Add the chilled butter pieces to the food processor bowl. Pulse until mixture is crumbly, but pieces of butter are still visible.
4. In a separate bowl, whisk the whole egg and egg yolk, then whick in 1 cup of milk. Add to the flour mixture and pulse until dough comes together (do not over work).
5. Turn dough out onto lightly floured surface and pat into a rough square. Sprinkle currants over the dough, then work them in by pressing them into the dough with your hands, then folding in half, pressing the currants in at the same time (it takes about 4 or 5 folds).
6. Shape the dough into a square and gently roll out into an 8 inch square. Cut the dough into 16 square scones, then place them onto the prepared baking tray, leaving one inch between them.
7. Brush the scones with milk and bake for about 15 minutes, until they are an even golden brown. The scones are best served the day they are baked, but can be reheated the second day for 5 minutes in a 300F oven to refresh them.

I brought these to my friends house in exchange for her sewing me some plastic bag organizers (they're cute btw, I will post the link up here when she gets around to posting about them on her blog). She thought it was more than sufficient payment for her services!! I love how little sugar is in these scones - you can sweeten them up with a touch of jam when serving if they're not quite sweet enough for you. :)

This post has been linked up with Mouth Watering Mondays over at The Sweet Spot. Check it out for some great recipes and inspiration.

This post has also been linked up with Fusion Fridays over at Jennifer Cooks! Head on over there for some weekly inspiration in the form of baking, cooking, crafts and other cool things.
Happy Baking my Friends!

Mini Meatloaf Bites

Hey Peeps! I know, I know, its been a couple days since I last posted! Today I'm blogging from my little ol' home town in Northern British Columbia. I'm up for a quick weekend visit and managed to find some time to get this post together. :)

I made these cute little mini meatloaf bites for our Super Bowl party last weekend, but they would be cute to make for any gathering you're having at your place. You could even make these in regular sized muffin tins for a cute dinner party main as well. Use a mini muffin pan for appetizer size though so people can eat them in a bite or two! I found the inspiration for these on the blog First Look Then Cook but I used my own recipes for meatloaf and mashed potatoes. Have a look at her photos because hers are far prettier than mine - my photos snapped from my iPhone just don't do these justice (it also doesn't help that I had probably consumed more than my fair share of super bowl beverages before attempting to put these together..!!). But they were delish! And super cute.

Meatloaf Bites

Recipe minimally adapted from the Girl Can't Cook

Ingredients:

•  3/4 lb lean ground beef
• 3/4 lb ground pork
• 1 onion, diced
• 2 loves garlic, minced
• 3/4 cup bread crumbs
• 1/2 up hickory bbq sauce (plus extra for brushing after wards)
• 1 tbsp worcestershire
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 1 tsp basil
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 1 cup parmesan
• mashed potatoes
• bacon bits

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. In a medium sautee pan, sautee onion and garlic with olive oil until softened, about 5 minutes. Set aside to cool.
3. In a large bowl mix together beef, pork and bread crumbs with your hands. Mix in sauteed vegetables, BBQ sauce, worcestershire, egg, basil, salt, peper and parmesan until uniformly mixed. Press scoopfulls of meat mixture into a mini muffin pan. Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes or until cooked through.
4. Prepare mashed potatoes (I make mine with butter, whipping cream, salt and pepper. Make them wetter than you normally do, so you can easily pipe them onto the meatloaves).
5. Brush each mini meatloaf with BBQ sauce. Pipe mashed potatoes on top of each mini meatloaf, then sprinkle with bacon bits.

Hope you enjoy this one! We didn't have many leftovers because these were eaten so quickly when I put them out. Enjoy the last day of the weekend!

This post was linked up with Mouth Watering Mondays over at the Sweet Spot. Head over there ASAP to check out all the linky deliciousness going on this week. :)

Happy Cooking my Friends!

Frozen Reese's Peanut Butter & Oreo Pie

Yeah, thats right, I put Oreos and Reese's in the same delicious frozen dessert! Annndddd it was flippin amazing! I found this recipe over at Baker's Royale, made a couple slight changes and BAM - this was the grande finale to our Super Bowl party. It was a total hit. This dessert is one of the easiest and quickest desserts you'll ever make. You can put it together in under 1/2 an hour (that includes time to bake the crust) and then all you have to do it let it set up in the freezer for a couple of hours and you're set with a wayyyyyy better than storebought dessert to serve to your hungry peeps!

 You may have noticed that my posts have been a little unhealthy this week... so, with the most ridiculous statement I've made in a while, I'll tell you, you could lighten this up by using low fat cool whip instead of the whipping cream. LOL, but chances are if you're already piling in the Oreos, peanut butter, and the Reese's PB cups, whats a few more grams of fat with the addition of whipping cream?! And it honestly tastes way better and you're not eating edible oil products! Woot!

Did you notice I tried to give my pictures a little valentines day theme with the heart shaped chocolates?! Did you also notice that the hearts don't match this pie one little bit?! Well, I tried... I am working on this food styling thing, sooooo I'm not perfect, but at least I'm putting in some effort right?!

Alright, recipe time!

Frozen Reese's Peanut Butter & Oreo Pie
Recipe adapted from Baker's Royale

Ingredients:

• 30 double stuff oreo cookies
• 4 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
• 2 1/2 cups whipping cream
• 1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
• 1/2 cup chunky peanut butter
• 1/2 cup icing sugar
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 1/2 cup Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, chopped

Method:

1. For the crust: Place 24 of the oreos in the bowl of your food processor. Pulse until cookies are finely crumbled. Pour in the melted butter and mix until well combined. Press into 9" springform pan to form crust. Bake 350F 7-10 minutes.
2. Place peanut butter, icing sugar and heavy cream in a small saucepan. Heat over medium heat until melted and smooth (stir carefully, because peanut butter will burn easily). Set mixture aside for 5-10 minutes to cool to room temperature. While mixture is cooling, whip the 2 1/2 cups of whipping cream. Then gently fold the peanut butter mixture into the whipped cream.
3. Chop up the remaining 6 oreos and toss with the chopped Reese's. Gently fold through the peanut butter, whipped cream mixture. Pour mixture into oreo crust and freeze for 3 hours. Garnish with caramel and white chocolate drizzle.

Sound good? This has got me wanting more... the last quarter of the pie is in my freezer calling out to me. Guess you know where I'm headed after I get this post up right? Better go whip up your own to indulge in! Catch ya later.

This post has been linked up with Fusion Fridays over at Jennifer Cooks! Head on over to check out Jennifer's favorite submissions from last week and to check out what new goodies fellow bloggers are deaming up this week.

This post has also been linked up with Mouth Watering Mondays over at the Sweet Spot! Head over there ASAP to check out all the delicious creations fellow bloggers have come up with this week. :)

Happy Baking my Friends!

Crazy Cooking Challenge: The Ultimate Chocolate Cake!

Surpise!! I've joined yet another cooking and baking challenge group. I love these things!! You get to try new things with a supportive and encouraging group of fellow bloggers. You learn new things and get to have fun doing it. This time the challenge is the Crazy Cooking Challenge hosted by Tina of Mom's Crazy Cooking. She posts some amazing things on her blog, so I knew the challenges would be great too.

The Crazy Cooking Challenge is a new dish each month of which each participant can make their own rendition of for the challenge. For example, some of the past challenges have been Macaroni & Cheese, Fudge, Mashed Potatoes and Chocolate Chip Cookies. YUM!! This month the challenge was to make the ultimate chocolate cake. It didn't matter what we did to the cake (i.e. icing, decorating, filling, recipe), but it had to be chocolate and it had to be cake. How fun right?!

I was on Pinterest (I love followers, so feel free to follow the link and follow me on Pinterest) the other day and I saw this cake - Mint Chocolate Chip Cake. Ummmmmm thats so my favorite kind of ice cream!!! So, it was settled, I was totally making that for the Crazy Cooking Challenge. I found this recipe on Raspberri Cupcakes (along with dozens of other amazing looking recipes). She had adapted the chocolate cake recipe from David Lebovitz's Devil's Food Cake, so I knew it was going to be delicious.

Yep, this is a pretty ugly piece of cake. It was the only piece leftover after serving it to my guests and I realized that I had better take a photo showcasing the lovely chocolate inside of the cake to show that my recipe is actually CHOCOLATE CAKE in light of what this challenge is about!!!

So, here is my entry into the Ultimate Chocolate Cake Crazy Cooking Challenge! Mint Chocolate Chip Cake. It seriously tastes just like the ice cream, so if you're a fan (and probably even if you aren't), you'll love this cake!

Mint Chocolate Chip Cake
Recipe minimally adapted from Raspberri Cupcakes

Ingredients:

For the Cake:

• 9 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 cups cake flour (not self-raising cake flour)
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 115g unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 cup strong coffee
• 1/2 cup cream

For the Frosting:

• 280g + 1/3- 1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
• 4 cups icing sugar
• 2 tsp peppermint extract
• 150g dark chocolate chips, run through the food processor until finely chopped
• green food colouring
• waffle ice cream cones to decorate (minis if you can find them!!)

Method:

1. Butter and line the base of a 9" springform pan with parchment paper. Preheat the oven to 350F. Sift together the cocoa, cake flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder. Using a stand mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and the sugar for about 5 minutes or until very fluffy and creamy. Add the eggs one at a time and beat after each addition until fully incorporated.
2. Mix together the coffee and the cream. Stir half the dry ingredients into the butter mixture. Add the coffee-cream mixture. Then add the rest of the dry ingredients until smooth. Pour the batter into the prepared pan.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 35-45 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean (be careful not to overbake). Remove from oven and cool in baking tin for 5 minutes. Remove from baking tin to a wire rack and cool completely.
4. Prepare the mint icing: In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat 280g of butter until fluffy and lighter in colour. Add the icing sugar one cup at a time and beat until smooth after each addition. Beat in additional butter (hence the 1/3 - 1/2 cup extra butter) until the icing is a nice spreading consistency. Beat in green food colouring until evenly distributed and coloured to desired green food colouring level. Stir through finely chopped chocolate until evenly distributed.
5. Using a serrated knife, cut the cake in half to form two layers. Place one layer on a cake plate. Spread 1/4 of the icing on top of first layer of the cake. Then place the other half of the cake on top (trim top if necesary to get a nice flat surface). Ice the entire cake with the remaining icing. Use an ice cream scoop to make "scoops" of any extra frosting and arrange artfully on top of the cake. Top with the mini waffle cones.Can be served immediately or stored in an airtight container overnight. Serve at room temperature.

Mmmmm this was a deliciously moist cake and the frosting tasted so much like mint chocolate chip ice cream. It is a super cute cake that has a bit of a wow factor to it. I served it for a ladies get together at my house and it was a hit. Hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

This post has been linked up with Mouth Watering Mondays over at the Sweet Spot. Head on over there to check out some of the other mouth watering dishes fellow bloggers have cooked up this week. :)

This post has also been linked up with Fusion Fridays over at Jennifer Cooks. Head on over to check out her favorite submissions from last week and what other bloggers are linking up this week.

Individual Seven Layer Dips with Homemade Salsa

During one of my tireless google searches for cute Superbowl appetizers, I came across these adorable individual seven layer dips on The Girl Who Ate Everything. These are perfect appetizers and party snacks for any kind of get together, especially a game day party or a summer BBQ. They're perfect because they prevent double dipping and you avoid that unappetizing mess that most seven layer dips turn into after a few people have dished themselves out a serving. These have a wow factor to them that make you look like you put a lot more work into them than you did!! So what are you waiting for? Plan on making these for your next party - you and your guests will love them. :)

I only made mine with five layers because I don't like veggies on top of my seven layer dip, but you can add green onions, tomatoes and olives if you want. My layers were as follows:

Refried beans - straight out of the can
Guacamole - this is a good recipe
Sour Cream - mix sour cream with some taco seasoning to taste
Salsa - recipe below
Cheddar Cheese - I used Tillamook Sharp Cheddar, but Pepper Jack would also be delicious
Garnish - I garnished with a tortilla chip

I piped in all of the layers except the salsa and the cheese using a freezer bag with the corner snipped off. Its far less messy and your layers will be prettier!

I am slightly concerned that this salsa recipe isn't going to get the attention it deserves because I've lumped it in with this seven layer dip recipe. But if you only try one thing from this post, try making the salsa - its quick - you can make it in under 5 minutes and it tastes soooo delicious. It is the closest to mexican restaurant salsa I've ever tasted and I LOOOOVVVVEEEEE that stuff. I found this recipe on Mountain Momma Cooks. I only changed the recipe a little because it was honestly such a delicious sounding recipe on its own!!

Speedy Salsa
Recipe minimally adapted from Mountain Momma Cooks

Ingredients:

• 2 14-oz cans of fire roasted, diced tomatoes
• 1/2 small onion, roughly chopped
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 jalepeno, seeded and roughly chopped (leave the seeds in if you like additional heat)
• 1 tsp honey
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt
• 1/2 tsp ground cumin
• large handful cilantro leaves, roughly chopped
• juice of 1 lime

Method:

1. Combine all ingredients in the large bowl of a food processor and pulse until your salsa reaches the desired consistency. I like mine quite finely minced, but you could pulse it for a very short time for a chunkier salsa.

Yep, thats it!! So easy and flavourful. Do you have a favorite salsa recipe or do you put something unexpected in your seven layer dip? I'd love to hear what you do!

Happy Cooking my Friends!

Super Bowl Recap

I hosted a small Super Bowl gathering at my place tonight. I made enough to feed an army... but isn't that always the way? I'm going to keep this post short because I will go into more details regarding some of these items in posts later this week. :) For now though, just a preview of what is to come this week - just some quick photos I snapped with my iPhone.

 As you can see in the photo above, I made some football themed chocolate dipped strawberries. Not perfect, but they're cute! And easy!

Cute little mini meatloaf bites - mini meat loaf brushed with bbq sauce with creamy mashed potatoes piped on top and then sprinkled with bacon. These were a hit! Recipe will for sure be posted this week, so definitely check back soon.



These were the strawberries, post dip, but pre-decorating. They look beautiful as is, but it was fun to do the extra step just in keeping in theme with the Super Bowl/ football thing!

Then I made some individual seven layer dips (but mine only had 5 layers because I'm fussy and don't really like veggies on top of my dips!! They were delicious. I made salsa (again, recipe will follow this week) and guacamole for these bad boys and topped with some Tillamook Sharp Cheddar and they were a hit.

Also made a couple of other things tonight that I didn't manage to snap some photos of with my iPhone. Made an amazing Reese's Peanut Butter & Oreo Frozen Pie (recipe will be up this week... sooner rather than later because it was sooooo good!) that was an absolute hit!

And the favorite cocktail of the night was Raspberry Beer Cocktail. Check out this easy recipe here.

Oh yeah, and we had some spectacular weather this weekend! So I got out with the dog on Saturday morning at one of our local parks and enjoyed it (yep, that pic is from our walk).

Oh yeah, congrats to the NY Giants on their win! They played hard and it was definitely a nail-biter toward the end of the game... I totally thought New England would pull through for the win, but I guess it wasn't in the cards this year. Sorry to any of you New England fans out there!!

What did you make for your Super Bowl get together? Do you make the same thing every year, or do you try to mix it up?  I would love to hear from you!

Happy Baking my Friends!

Healthy, Quick & Delicious Roasted Asparagus

In case you haven't noticed, I'm not really a fruit and veggie kind of girl. Yeah, I try to get in the proper servings of fruit and veggies each day (though I don't always succeed), but I don't really enjoy eating those good for you foods. But one vegetable I actually enjoy and I always go for seconds of is asparagus. I think asparagus has got a bad rap due to the fact that the majority of people overcook and underseason it. But its actually really delicious when its done right. Here are some tips and tricks to make sure your asparagus turns out delicious every time.

1. Pick out good asparagus! Garbage in = garbage out right?! Asparagus gets bitter and tough if the stalks are thick (which is the case with most veggies - the longer you let them grow, the less tender and sweet they are). So pick the skinniest stalks of asparagus you can find. Make sure the tops of each stalk are tight and well in tact - this indicates they are fresh!
2. Don't cut the ends off the stalks. This will result in woody, inedible parts being left for you to consume and those parts don't taste good. Instead, place one hand at each end of the asparagus and bend the stalk in half. The stalk will break at the point where the woody portion ends, leaving you with only the top tender part of the asparagus (don't worry if it seems to break a lot off - the woody part can actually go up to halfway up the stalk).
3. Get your oven good and hot! Before you start getting your asparagus ready, preheat your oven to 450F. You want to be able to cook them hot and fast to ensure the inside doesn't get overcooked!
4. Season well! Lay out your trimmed asparagus in a single layer on a large cookie sheet (line with foil for easy cleanup). Drizzle lightly (go easy here - you want this to stay healthy right?!) with olive oil. Shake the pan a little to coat the asparagus with the oil. Grind lots of fresh black pepper over the asparagus. Sprinkle with coarse salt (I used about 1/2 - 3/4 tbsp of kosher salt for 1 pan of asparagus).
5. Don't over cook the asparagus! You've gone to all this work to make the perfect asparagus and now you're in the home stretch!! Place the tray into your preheated oven (see step 3) and put your timer on for exactly 5 minutes. At five minutes, pull the pan out and give it a good shake. Then rotate the pan and put back in the oven for another 5 minutes - exactly!! No more, no less.
6. Finish it with a little extra flavour. If you've got any balsamic reduction, plate the asparagus and then drizzle with a tiny bit of balsamic reduction. If you want that extra decadence (though not as healthy), sprinkle with a little parmesan cheese (freshly grated of course).

So there ya go - easy, healthy, quick and delicious. What more can you ask of a week night veggie dish?! Oh yeah, you could also bust this one out at your next dinner party and you will impress even your foodie friends. :)

This post has been linked up with Fusion Fridays at Jennifer Cooks! Head over there to check out all the amazing Superbowl treats people have baked up this week. :D

Happy Cooking my Friends!