This Week's Concoctions Ending 4/2

Here is the only out of the ordinary item that I made this week other than the "Weekly Cookie".

Apple Cream Coffee Cake

This was given to the family that watched our dog while we were away

March 30: Espresso Toffee Bars

Espresso Toffee Bars

Ingredients:
2 cups (9 oz) all-purpose flour
1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon instant espresso powder
1 cup (8 oz) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 large egg yolk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup (4 oz) toffee bits
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips, or 10-12 oz semi-sweet chocolate, chopped
2/3 cup sliced almonds, toasted and chopped, or 2/3 cup slivered almonds, toasted

1. Preheat the oven to 350 and place a rack in the center. Line a 10x15 inch metal pan with nonstick foil or parchment paper.
2. In a bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, or in a large mixing bowl with a wooden spoon, mix together the flour, sugar, salt, and espresso powder. Cut the butter into chunks and add it to the flour mixture along with the egg yolk and vanilla. If using a stand mixer, mix on low speed until soft and crumbly. If using a wooden spoon, beat until the mixture comes together, and then use your hands to finish mixing until moist and crumbly. Alternatively, you may mix all dry ingredients in the food processor, add the butter, egg and vanilla, and then pulse until moist and crumbly. Stir in the toffee bits. Press the mixture evenly into the prepared pan and bake for 15-20 minutes, or until the edges are lightly browned.
3. Melt the chocolate in the microwave, using 50% power, stirring at 1 minute intervals until smooth, or in the top of a double boiler. Spread the melted chocolate over the bars. Sprinkle the top with almonds. Set the pan on a rack and let it cool in the pan for about a hour. Chill for about 30 minutes or until chocolate is set. To serve, lift from the pan and set on a cutting board. If cold, bring to room temperature. Using a chef's knife, cut into 36 bars.

 

 

Thoughts: Sorry about the delay...I made these the day before we left on a trip (more about that in a later post) and I loaded the pictures on the website but decided to write the thoughts section the next night. However, I brought the iPad instead of the laptop. The iPad wouldn't allow me to scroll down to complete this post in a timely manner. So here it is almost a week later...

 

Once again, this is another recipe that required the use of a jelly roll pan and I was once again worried about the chocolate topping overflowing. However, it turned out fine and everything meant smoothly. This recipe doesn't really appeal to me because I don't really like toffee. I had a taste of some of the toffee chips and they were not so good. I had a minor butter issue because I left it out to get to room temperature and when I went to go use it, I thought it was a little cold still. So I put it in the microwave for 11 seconds...bad idea. I guess it was ready before it melted all over the bottom of the microwave. Other than that, this was a very straightforward recipe. Patrick was extremely leery of trying this recipe because he doesn't like toffee or espresso-coffee like flavors, but he ended up trying a bite and it "wasn't horrible". As for me, the recipe was ok...it was a nice buttery shortbread cookie.

 

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