No Bake White Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies for SRC

Time for Secret Recipe Club again! This month seems to have been another busy month, even though I have been expecting life to just slow down a bit. No such luck though!! This is one of those months I wish I would have had more spare time because the blog I was assigned, Veronica's Cornucopia is such a great blog! There were so many great recipes and so many creative ideas. I will definitely be visiting again in a month I have more time to experiment, because there were a lot of great looking recipes to try. Go have a look around for yourself - I'll still be here when you come back. :)

I didn't really go too crazy due to my lack of time, but I was super impressed with how quick, easy and delicious the recipe I selected was! I made Veronica's Cow Pie Cookies - but changed them up to be made with white chocolate and peanut butter because that's what I had on hand!

White Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies
Recipe adapted from Veronica's Cornucopia

Ingredients:

• 12 oz white chocolate
• 4 tbsp peanut butter
• 2/3 cup rolled oats
• 1/2 cup shredded coconut
• chopped marshmallows (I used about 1/2 - 1 cup)

Method:

1. Melt the white chocolate and peanut butter on low heat in the microwave. Stir until smooth. Stir in the oats, coconut and marshmallows. Drop by spoonfuls onto parchment paper. Let set at room temperature until firm - approximately 1 hour. Enjoy!

Yep! Thats it - easy, and delicious. Veronica says you can mix in whatever you want! I think next time I make these I'll mix in pretzels for that sweet and salty combo that I can't get enough of.

Thanks for stopping by - Happy Baking my Friends!

Bavarian Style Soft Pretzels!

 So the first thing you probably noticed is that my pretzels are ugly... like super ugly. But, what they lack in beauty, the made up for in taste! These guys were delicious. They're a little bit of work, but most of the work is down time waiting for them to rise, freeze, then rise again, then the worst part - waiting for them to bake - its so hard when they smell sooooo delicious!

If you have a rainy Saturday with not much planned, these are a perfect way to spend the day! You can make them at a leisurely pace and enjoy the process and the fruits of your labour!

 We'll get on to the recipe and th process ASAP since its a bit longer than most recipes I post on my blog. :)

Bavarian Style Soft Pretzels
Minimally adapted from Fine Cooking - Oct/Nov 2012 Issue

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 tsp active dry yeast
• 19 1/2 oz (4 1/2 cups) flour
• 2 tbsp packed light brown sugar
• 2 1/4 tsp kosher salt
• vegetable oil or cooking spray
• 3 tbsp baking soda
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• 1 tbsp pretzel or coarse salt

Method:

1. In a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook, combine the yeast and 1 1/2 cups lukewarm water and let stand until dissolved, about 5 minutes. Add the flour, sugar, oil and salt. Mix on low speed until the ingredients are hydrated and form a coarse ball of dough, 2-3 minutes. Add more water as needed, 1 tsp at a time, if all of the flour isn't incorporated into the dough.
2. Increase the speed to medium low and mix until the dough becomes smooth, supple and elastic, about 3 minutes. The dough should be soft but only slightly tacky; if it seems sticky or very tacky, sprinkle in more flour, as needed.
3. Form te doug into a ball, transfer to a large, lightly oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let rise at room temperature until it is about 1 1/2 times its original size, 1 - 1 1/2 hours.
4. Lightly mist a work surface with oil and transfer the dough to it. Divide the dough into 6 equal pieces (about 6 oz each). Form each piece into a smooth, round ball, lightly mist wit oil, and cover with plastic wrap. Let rest on the work surface at room temperature for 20-30 minutes to allow the gluten to relax.
5. Line a large baking sheet with lightly oiled parchment paper and set aside (I needed two of them). Lightly mist a work surface and using your palms and fingers, roll each piece ofdough on the work surface into a rope that is about 30 inches long and 1/3 - 1/2 inch thick (note, this is why mine are ugly - I didn't roll my ropes long or thin enough). If the doug resists or shrinks back, let it rest for a few minutes while you work on other pieces; short rests will let the gluten relax enough to allow for the full rollout.
6. Working with 1 dough rope at a time, shape it into a large U that is 5-7 inches across with the curved side closest to you. Take the two ends of the rope in your fingers and cross one over the other so ends overhang the cross by about 3 inches. Twist the ends of the rope, shortening the overhang to about 2 inches. Next, pull the twisted section toward you and fold it down over the bottom curve of the U so the ends are a couple inches apart and overhand the bottom by about 1/4 inch.
7. Carefully transfer the partzels to the prepared baking sheet, spacing them evenly and reshaping as needed. Cover with plastic wrap and freeze til hard, at least 2 hours and up to three weeks.
8. Bring 2 cups of water to a boil in a small saucepan. Remove from the heat and add the baking soda and stir til completely dissolved. Transfer to a bowl and let cool to lukewarm, about 30 minutes.
9. Using stainless steel tongs, dip one pretzel into the baking soda bath at a time and soak for five seconds. If the liquid doesn't completely cover the pretzel, turn it over and submerge the other side for five seconds. Remove pretzel from liquid and allow excess to drip off. Return to baking sheet.
10. Brush tops and sides of pretzels with some of the beaten egg. Let pretzels thaw and rise at room temperature until they are soft and puffy, 1 1/2 to 2 hours.
11. Position a rack in the center of the oven and heat to 400F. Brush pretzels once more with egg. Lightly sprinkle with salt. Bake until dark golden-brown, approximately 20-22 minutes. Transfer to rack and cool for at least 15 minutes before serving.

So, like I said, a little labour intensive, but well worth the effort. Hope you enjoy!

Happy Baking my Friends!

Bacon Rolls for 7th World Bread Day

Its the 7th Annual World Bread Day hosted by Zorra Kochtopf!! Food bloggers all over the world join in and bake bread and post about it on October 16. How fun right? I missed it last year, so there was no way I was going to miss it this year. :)

I decided to do a savory version of cinnamon rolls - Bacon Rolls! Easy and delicious! First, you're going to start off by making my herb bun recipe and letting it have its first rise. Here's the recipe.

Once your dough has completed its first rise, roll it out into a large rectangle - til its about 1/4 - 1/2 inch thick. You'll need the following ingredients to put on that rectangle of dough:

• Bacon (I used 1 lb, but that was overkill!!) - chopped and cooked til crisp
• Cheese (I used a 4 cheese italian blend) - enough to sprinkle over the dough and a bit more to sprinkle on top of the pan
• 2 heads roasted garlic

Spread the roasted garlic on the dough rectangle, leaving a 1/2 inch border. Then sprinkle liberally with bacon and cheese. Roll tightly, starting on the long side of the rectangle (like you're rolling cinnamon buns). Then pinch the seam tightly to make sure it stays put. Next, cut into approximately 12-15 buns. Place in a greased 9x13 inch pan with the cut side up. Once the pan is full, sprinkle with a bit more cheese, bacon salt and a bit of smoked bacon salt. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise 45 minutes to one hour or until doubled in bulk.

Preheat oven to 375F. Bake in preheated oven for approximately 30 minutes or until they sound hollow when you tap on them. Let cool slightly and enjoy!

The picture above is the bacon salt I like to use, but you can use any brand you like. Most gourmet food stores will carry various types of salt and since bacon is so popular right now, they're likely to carry bacon salt.

Hope you enjoy my contribution to World Bread Day! I can't wait to see what everyone else contributes this year. :)

Happy Baking my Friends! And thanks Zorra for hosting this lovely gathering of food bloggers.

Coconut Crusted Salted Caramel Cookies

I follow a great blog called Taking on Magazines written by "the Mom Chef" who is actually Christiane. Its a great blog with loads of delicious recipe ideas. Please check it out right now - I'll be here when you get back. :)

Any way, a while back she posted the recipe for these amazing cookies and I pinned it to try later. Later finally came when I made them a couple weeks ago. They were such a hit!!! Devoured eagerly and quickly that I barely had time to snap a couple of pictures. You've gotta try making them they are absolutely delicious and easy to make. In fact they might be fun to make with your kids if you have them - the kids could help with rolling them into balls and rolling them in the coconut (or nuts if you choose). It would be a fun kitchen project to take on.

Coconut Crusted Salted Caramel Cookies
Recipe adapted from Taking on Magazines

Ingredients:

• 3 sticks unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tbsp vanilla
• 3 1/2 cups flour
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt
• 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
• coconut for rolling
• 1 2/3 cups sugar
• 1/2 c water
• a few drops lemon juice
• 1c whipping cream

Method:

1. First make the caramel sauce. Put the 1 2/3 cups of sugar into a very clean saucepan. Gently pour the water oer the sugar and add the lemon juice. Place pan over medium high heat with the lid on. Bring to a boil and let boil with lid on, removing and replacing the cover every so often. When all the water is boiled off, the sugar will be boiling with big bubbles breaking on the surface. The bubbles will gradually get smaller as the temperature rises. Remove the lid and pay attention now. The sugar will change colour - when it reaches a nice gold/ amber colour, remove it from the heat - don't let it get too dark or it will taste burnt. Add the cream carefully (it will bubble and steam like crazy). Have a wooden spoon ready and stir until well blended. Set aside to cool and thicken up a bit.
2. Preheat oven to 350F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Set aside.
3. Beat together butter with 1 cup sugar until smooth and fluffy. Beat in vanilla.
4. Add the flour a little at a time, then add the salt. Beat to combine.
5. Roll dough into 1 1/4 inch balls. Dip each ball in the egg, then roll in coconut to coat. Place on prepared cookie sheet. Press to flatten a bit, then use your thumb to make an indentation in the center of the cookie. Repeat with remaining dough.
6. Bake in preheated oven for 10 minutes. Repress indent with your thumb and then bake for another 9-10 minutes or until golden. Let cool on wire racks.
7. When completely cooled fill indentation with a little of the caramel sauce, then sprinkle with sea salt.

 Yep, so that is all!! I am writing this to share with you while enjoying bacon rolls - like cinnamon buns, but savory!! Recipe to follow on world bread day - 3 days left! Can you wait that long?!

Happy Baking my Friends!

Mixed Greens with Wild Blueberry Dressing, Herbed Goat Cheese & Spiced Pecans

Hey Friends! I'm back in the kitchen now that my exam is over and I am so happy to be here! Hopefully I'll post more regularly and have time to start tackling some cool dishes that I've been wanting to do for a while. I'll share everything with you as I go. :)

Want to eat the best salad of your life? Make this salad!!! Seriously the best thing ever. Plus, it plates up beautifully so your dinner party guests will be wowed by how "fancy" it is. While it is a bit of work because you have to make all of the components prior to assembling your salads, if you prepare the components the day before, then you just have to plate it up when your guests come over. Its an awesome dinner party dish.

All of the below recipes are from the cookbook No more Secrets - recipes from the Cow Bay Cafe by Adrienne Johnston.

 First, make the spiced pecans.

Ingredients:

• 3 tbsp corn syrup
• 1 1/2 tbsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 large pinch chipotle powder
• 1 1/4 cups pecan halves

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 325F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Place a 30 cm piece of foil on a flat, heat-proof work surface (I used my cutting board).
2. In a medium bowl, combine corn syrup, sugar, salt and chipotle powder. Add the nuts and mix well. Spread nuts on the prepared baking sheet in a single layer and bake for 12-15 minutes, stirring every five minutes until golden brown.
3. Spoon them onto the prepared foil and cool slightly. Quickly separate the nuts and cool thoroughly. Store in an air-tight container.

Next, make the blueberry dressing.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup frozen blueberries
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup tarragon vinegar
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• zest and juice of one lemon

Method:

1. In a medium pot over medium-high heat, place the blueberries, sugar, vinegar, cinnamon stick, ginger and lemon zest and juice. Bring to a boil and simmer for five minutes. Then remove from heat and cool. Refridgerate until ready to use.

Then, make the herbed goat cheese.

Ingredients:

• 1 small log goat cheese
• 3 tbsp tarragon vinegar
• fresh basil and tarragon

Method:

1. Finely chop basil and tarragon. Combine goat cheese, tarragon vinegar and chopped herbs. Set aside in fridge.

Finally, assemble your salads when ready to serve (don't preassemble them).

Method:

1. Toss mixed greens (approx 9 cups) lightly with olive oil, some kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper.
2. Place a puddle of the blueberry dressing on a plate. Mound some of the greens onto the blueberry dressing.
3. Place a few pieces of the herbed goat cheese and some of the pecans on top.
4. Serve immediately.

Hope you enjoy this one!! We most definitely did. What's your favorite salad to make when you have dinner guests?

Happy Cooking my Friends!

Triple Berry Lemon Muffins for SRC

Well, its time for SRC's Group C reveal again (seems like that was the last time I even posted last month... shame on me). Super excited about the blog I had this month and wishing I had more time to test out recipes this month! I was assigned Mommy's Menu this month - Toni is a stay at home mom to seven children in Utah!! Can you believe that she still has time to blog? My excuses look pretty weak now! I absolutely love how creative her blog is and I loved the wide variety of recipes she had available to try. I settled on something quick and adapted it to what I had on hand, but I can't wait to come back and try out her Pumpkin Snickerdoodle Bars and her Strawberry Cheesecake Chocolate Chip Sandwich Cookies. Both of them looked amazing!!

I settled on making Toni's Lemon Raspberry Muffins (in a slightly adapted version using what I had on hand). The results were delicious! Hubby has been eagerly devouring these babies!! Check out the link for the unadapted recipe... see below for my adapted version. Both I'm sure would be equally as delicious!!

Triple Berry Lemon Muffins
Recipe adapted from Mommy's Menu

Ingredients:

• 2 cups flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 3 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• zest of one lemon, finely grated
• 1 cup fresh or frozen mixed berries (I used a mix of raspberries, blackberries and blueberries)

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 400F. Grease 2 x 12 cup muffin tins (or line with paper liners). 
2. In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, lemon zest and salt. Set aside. In a medium bowl, combine eggs, cream, water, and oil and mix until combined. Add all at once to flour mixture and stir until just combined. Add berries and fold through batter (don't over mix or you will have tough, pink muffins).
3. Spoon mixture into prepared muffin tins, filling each tin approximately 2/3 of the way full. Bake in preheated oven for 18-22 minutes or until spring back slightly when lightly pressed.
4. Let cool on a rack. Enjoy!

 So, thats that. Make these, they're amazing!! And check out Toni's blog - you'll find loads of recipes you need to make. I found her blog quite addicting - not unlike pinterest!! :) Thanks Toni for the great recipes to choose from - I'll definitely be back to snoop around some more (only this time I won't have to lurk!).

Choux Swans for the August 2012 Daring Bakers' Challenge

Hey Friends! How was your weekend? Mine was excellent - had a little fun hiking and baking and got a little accomplished by dejunking and organizing my garage yesterday. Got the satisfaction of hauling an entire truckload full of junk to the dump!! Woohoo! Any way, after a long hiatus, I am finally back and participating in the Daring Bakers' Challenge for the month!

Kat of The Bobwhites was our August 2012 Daring Baker hostess who inspired us to have fun in creating pate a choux shapes, filled with crème patisserie or Chantilly cream. We were encouraged to create swans or any shape we wanted and to go crazy with filling flavors allowing our creativity to go wild!

I didn't go too wild - I kept with the swan shape (or as good as I could manage any way...) and filled them with a mocha (chocolate & coffee) pastry cream. The result was an amazing tasting dessert. The pastry cream was a hit and I will make it over and over again!!

Pate a Choux
Recipe from the Daring Bakers' (can't be doubled)

Ingredients:

• ½ cup (120 ml) (115 gm) (4 oz) butter
• 1 cup (240 ml) water
• ¼ teaspoon (1½ gm) salt
• 1 cup (240 ml) (140 gm) (5 oz) all-purpose flour
• 4 large eggs

Method:

1. Line at least two baking sheets with parchment paper. Preheat oven to moderately hot 375°F/190°C/gas mark 5 .
2. In a small saucepot, combine butter, water, and salt. Heat over  medium heat until butter melts, then remove from stove.
3. Add flour all at once and beat, beat, beat the mixture until the dough pulls away from the sides of the pot.
4. Add one egg, and beat until well combined. Add remaining eggs individually, beating vigorously after each addition. Resulting mixture should be somewhat glossy, very smooth, and somewhat thick.
5. Using a ¼" (6 mm) tip on a pastry bag, pipe out about 36 swan heads. You’re aiming for something between a numeral 2 and a question mark, with a little beak if you’re skilled and/or lucky.
6. Remove the tip from the bag and pipe out 36 swan bodies. These will be about 1.5" (40 mm) long, and about 1" (25 mm) wide. One end should be a bit narrower than the other.
7. Bake the heads and bodies until golden and puffy. The heads will be done a few minutes before the bodies, so keep a close eye on the baking process
9. Remove the pastries to a cooling rack, and let cool completely before filling.

 

 Next up, make the pastry cream:

Mocha Pastry Cream
Recipe minimally adapted from the Daring Bakers'

Ingredients:

• 1 cup (225 ml.) whole milk
• 2 Tbsp. cornstarch
• 6 Tbsp. (100 g.) sugar
• 1 large egg
• 2 large egg yolks
• 2 Tbsp. (30 g.) unsalted butter
• 1 Tsp. Vanilla
• 1/4 cup whole milk
• 3 oz dark chocolate
• 1 1/2 tsp instant espresso powder

Method:

1. Dissolve cornstarch in ¼ cup of milk. Combine the remaining milk with the sugar in a saucepan; bring to boil; remove from heat.
2. Beat the whole egg, then the yolks into the cornstarch mixture. Pour 1/3 of boiling milk into the egg mixture, whisking constantly so that the eggs do not begin to cook.
3. Return the remaining milk to boil. Pour in the hot egg mixture in a stream, continuing whisking.
4. Continue whisking (this is important – you do not want the eggs to solidify/cook) until the cream thickens and comes to a boil. Remove from heat.
5. Combine 1/4 cup whole milk, chocolate and espresso powder in a small, microwave safe container. Microwave on low heat until chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth. Mix chocolate mixture, butter and vanilla into pastry cream and stir until smooth and incorporated. Chill until ready to use. 

 To assemble your swans:

1. Take a swan body and use a very sharp knife to cut off the top 1/3rd to ½.
2. Cut the removed top down the center to make two wings.
3. Dollop a bit of filling into the body, insert head, and then add wings. 
4. Your first attempt will probably not look like much, but the more you make, the more your bevy of swans will become a beautiful work of swan art.

Okay, so I'm not going to lie, these were a bit of work, but they weren't nearly as difficult or finicky as I thought they were going to be. My choux swans didn't puff up quite as much as I wanted and they didn't look as seamless as I thought they should once they were all assembled, but I was pleased with the overall result. Probably with a little practice, I could make some pretty cute little swans!!

Thanks so much Kat for hosting such a spectacular challenge! Great idea and it was fun to have something new and challenging to try out. :)

Happy Baking my Friends!