This Week's Concoctions Ending 3/26

Here are some highlights of items that I made this week other than the "Weekly Cookie".


I brought out my deep fryer this week after not having used it in more than a year. I used peanut oil (which is quite expensive [$17 for a gallon]). I bought haddock fillets from a local Asian market and cut them in half due to the restricted space in the deep fryer.

Asparagus fries that didn't come out as nice...they were soggy.

Fish came out beautifully

 I bought my first jar of Nutella this week and it is one of my new favorite things!

Nutella Chocolate Chip cookies

 I had a friend ask me to make her cupcakes and thanks to a quick view on her Pinterest page...

Nutella Cupcakes I

Finished Nutella Cupcakes

March 24: Chocolate Peanut Raisin Clusters

Chocolate Peanut Raisin Clusters

Ingredients:
1 1/3 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 lb white or chocolate almond bark or white candy coating
1 cup raisins
12 oz lightly salted peanuts

1. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or nonstick foil.
2. In a microwave-safe mixing bowl, combine the chocolate chips and almond bark. Microwave at 50% power for 90 seconds to 2 minutes, stirring every 30 seconds, until melted. Alternatively, you may melt the mixture in the top of a double boiler. Stir the raisins and peanuts into the melted chocolate mixture.
3. Scoop up tablespoonfuls of batter and drop onto the baking sheets. Leave the candy at room temperature to set.

I guess I could've used more peanuts so the one in the upper left corner didn't happen!

Thoughts: I used white (vanilla) candy coating and only 4 oz of peanuts. I made one batch of just raisins and one the regular way. The pictures reflect the regular way. This was the easiest recipe so far. It took maybe 15 minutes for one batch. I used the microwave instead of the double boiler. Patrick thought these were awesome, I thought Raisinets were better.

This Week's Concoctions Ending 3/19

Here are some highlights of items that I made this week other than the "Weekly Cookie".

Butterfinger Cookies. This picture is why you don't put too many dough piles on one cookie sheet...

Slow Cooker BBQ Pulled Chicken

The next pictures are from my St. Patrick's Day meal I made on Sunday:

Corned beef, cream cheese, scallions and gruyere cheese on toasted baguettes

Irish Stew (made with lamb, raisins, potatoes)

Chocolate bread pudding

 

I didn't like any of the St. Patrick's Day food. I don't really like cream cheese when it's not in cheesecake, the lamb had a strange after taste and the bread pudding was bland.

March 16: Palm Sugar Cantucci

Palm Sugar Cantucci

Ingredients:
1 1/3 cups (6 oz) white whole wheat or all-purpose flour
2/3 cup very firmly packed coconut palm sugar
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup whole almonds, toasted

1. Preheat the oven to 350 and place a rack in the center. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or nonstick foil.
2. Mix the flour, coconut palm sugar, baking soda, and salt together in a medium-size bowl; set aside.
3. In a second bowl, using a handheld electric mixer on medium-high speed, or a whisk, beat the eggs until light ans fluffy. Beat in the vanilla.
4. Blend the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients by hand; the dough should be heavy and sticky.
5. Add the almonds. Using your hands, knead them into the dough so they are evenly distributed. The dough will be thick and crumbly. Wet your hands slightly and shape the dough into a log about 10x2.5 inches. Place the log on the prepared baking sheet.
6. Bake the log for 40 to 50 minutes, or until it becomes very dark and aromatic. It will spread quite a bit in the oven. Remove from the oven and let cool on the baking sheet for 20 minutes, leaving the oven on. Transfer the log to a large cutting board. Using a serrated knife, cut crosswise slightly on the diagonal every 1/2 to 3/4 inch. Place the cookies cut side up on the baking sheet. Bake for 20 to 30 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Dry ingredients

Wet ingredients

Introduction of dry to wet

Before the oven

After the oven

Thoughts: I forgot to complete the last step. I baked them for 45 minutes, let them cool and cut them without rebaking the cut slices for 20 minutes. Oops. That's probably why they didn't have that tough biscotti-like texture...however, I thought they were pretty dry. They have a taste that I can't quite place and when I asked Patrick, he couldn't recognize it either (but he was sick and couldn't taste much!).

Side note: Before reading this recipe, I had never heard of coconut palm sugar. I found out that my local grocery store sold it, but I would have to buy a pound of it for $5.49. I was a little bummed, but I was going to go ahead and buy it (all for the mission of cookies!). Then we went to Canada for Patrick's birthday. We stopped at a mall in St. Catherines to browse the bookstore, Chapters. After we were done browsing, we went in the store that was across from Chapters called Bulk Barn (http://www.bulkbarn.ca/en-ca/index.html). It was an AWESOME store and hope they eventually open a franchise here in the US. They had rows of items that you could buy in bulk from candy to flour to cookies to coconut palm sugar. So I bought what I needed for just under $2 (I know it wasn't cost efficient, but it prevented a 80% full bag of palm sugar on my shelf for a year).

This Week's Concoctions Ending 3/12

Here are some highlights of items that I made this week other than the "Weekly Cookie". This week was a little busy because I had two co-worker's birthdays. My first co-worker picked "Pineapple Angel Lush" (http://www.food.com/recipe/pineapple-angel-lush-114445). It is a three tier, Weight Watcher friendly angel food cake. Even though I hate making and eating angel food cake, I bought an angel food cake tube pan last year because I make about 2/year for the same two co-workers. She had asked me if I thought it was too much for the three tiers and suggested that I could make them into cupcakes instead, but I told her I was up for the challenge! After eating it, she said she was proud!

When it came out, it already had a huge indentation where I could make the first cut

2 Tiers

3rd Tier

"Frosting" - Crushed pineapple, cool whip and dry vanilla pudding mix

Voila! It actually was very good despite my dislike of angel food cake. It tastes much better after being in the fridge.

Avocado Dill Dip (green stuff) and green bean fries (from Schwann's)

My second co-worker requested her birthday treat be anything chocolate or cheesecake related. Because I had just made the cream cheese brownies a couple of weeks ago, I decided to make a super chocolate cake. I found this when I googled "chocolate sheet cake" (http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2007/06/the_best_chocol/). It was pretty easy although it is very important that the frosting is thick because the cake comes right up to the edge of the jelly roll pan and if it is too thin, it will overflow!

Chocolate Sheet Cake (if the frosting had been any thinner, it would've been a disaster for my kitchen floor)

The duck looks like chicken, doesn't it? Except it costs more ($4.29/lb) and smells funkier. It was very good and everyone (my mom, mother in-law and us) liked it although my father, who eats expired food, wouldn't try it.

Duck Breast from the slow cooker

March 10: Scottish Oat Cookies

Scottish Oat Cookies

Ingredients:
1 1/4 cups old-fashioned or quick cooking oats (not instant)
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons (1.8 oz) all-purpose flour
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons (1.8 oz) whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 scant teaspoon salt
1/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
9 tablespoons (4.5 oz) cold unsalted butter
1/2 tablespoon golden syrup or light corn syrup
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 oz milk chocolate, such as Cadbury

1. Preheat the oven to 350 and place a rack in the center. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper or nonstick foil.
2. Process the oats in a food processor until fine; add the flours, baking powder, baking soda, and the salt and pulse to mix. Add both sugars and pulse to mix again. Add the butter and process until the mixture is coarse and sand-like. Add the corn syrup and vanilla and pulse some more. The mixture will look very dry.
3. Transfer to a wide mixing bowl and shape into two big balls. Press each ball into a disk to about 1/4 inch thickness. Cut out circles with a round cookie cutter about 2 inches in diameter. Arrange 2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheets. Bake for 12 minutes or until the edges are lightly browned. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
4. Melt the milk chocolate in a bowl set over a saucepan of barely simmering water. Spoon the melted chocolate over the cookies. When the chocolate is partially set, drag a toothpick through it and make squiggly lines in the chocolate. Allow the chocolate to set at room temperature, or quick-set it in the fridge.

Addition of the sugars

Addition of butter...it's getting a little full!

Very crumbly

Who cares about the squiggle pattern?

Thoughts: My favorite type of cookie is a chewy one.  Then comes crispy then crumbly.  I think the same goes as far as baking them. I was not crazy about baking this cookie because the dough didn't hold together well. It also didn't yield many cookies (14). If this recipe hadn't been so annoying, I would've doubled the recipe because it only made under 20 cookies. I used semi-sweet chocolate instead of milk chocolate. I don't know where my cookie cutters are so I used the top rim of a glass. The taste of the cookie was ok, Patrick liked it.

This Week's Concoctions Ending 3/5

Here are some highlights of items that I made this week other than the "Weekly Cookie". These were both from Pinterest.

Cheesy Chicken and Rice Soup

Pesto Pinwheels

March 3: Key Lime Cheesecake Bars

Key Lime Cheesecake Bars

Crust
12 tablespoons (6 oz) unsalted butter
1/2 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups (9 oz) all-purpose flour

Filling
8 oz package cream cheese, softened
1 (14 oz) can sweetened condensed milk
4 large eggs, room temperature
2/3 cup key lime juice (bottled is fine)
1 tablespoon lime zest
1/2 cup (2.25 oz) all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
Softened raspberry preserves, for garnishing

1. Preheat the oven to 350 and place a rack in the center. Line a 9x13 inch metal pan with nonstick foil, or line it with regular foil and spray the foil with flour-added baking spray.
2. Make the crust: In the bowl of a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, or in a large mixing bowl, using a handheld electric mixer, beat the butter, brown sugar, salt, and vanilla on medium speed until creamy. By hand or using the lowest speed of the mixer, stir in the flour. Press the mixture into the bottom of the prepared pan and bake for 18-20 minutes. Let cool completely in the pan.
3. Make the filling: Beat the cream cheese until creamy and smooth. Add the sweetened milk, eggs, and lime juice and zest and mix on low speed. Stir in the flour and salt. Pour the filling over the cooled crust. Return the pan to the oven and bake for 20 minutes.
4. Let cool in the pan for at least an hour and then chill. If you've lined the pan with foil, grasp the foil, lift from the pan, set on a cutting board, and cut into 32 bars. Garnish with the preserves. Store in the fridge.

The dark brown sugar is in the container. I had to borrow some from my mother-in-law.

Addition of the zest and key lime juice

This is after it baked for 20 minutes and it looks the same as it did before the oven!

Before

After. Same pictorial result as the crust

Apparently I didn't mix it as well...

This highlights my lack of artistic ability

Thoughts: Sunday is my day to bake the "Cookie of the Week" knowing full well that I work on Sundays and I usually have a TV Night with my family. This week I worked and then we went to socialize with friends so I didn't get started on this recipe until 10pm. I was 1 egg short and had to run to the store so I really got a late start. So I took a couple of shortcuts that worked out 50/50 (See picture). I only let it cool for about 30 minutes before putting it in the fridge overnight. I took a lick of the batter and it was so sour! I was not feeling good about it, however, the next day we tried about a bite and it was not as bad.  It is probably my least favorite so far.