Hazelnut Artisan Bread

This is bread goes well with coffee or tea. Just spread a bit of butter on it and enjoy. The original recipe for my artisan bread is here. Just add 1 teaspoon of allspice, 1/4 cup brown sugar and 1/4 cup chopped hazelnuts.

Chocolate Bread Pudding

I love bread pudding so much. This chocolate version is simply divine. Although  I'm not including the recipe her but a dark chocolate rum sauces is delicious as a topping.

Ingredients

1 (12-inch) piece day-old baguette, cut into 1/3-inch slices, then slices halved crosswise (4 cups)

3 cups half-and-half

1/2 cup sugar

1/8 teaspoon salt

10 oz fine-quality bittersweet chocolate (not unsweetened), chopped

6 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into bits

Directions

1. Generously butter a 2 1/2- to 3-quart soufflé dish. Put bread in dish.

2. Heat half-and-half, sugar, and salt in a 2-quart saucepan over moderate heat, stirring, until sugar is dissolved and mixture is hot but not boiling. Remove from heat and add chocolate, then let stand 2 minutes. Whisk until smooth. Lightly beat eggs together in a large bowl and slowly add chocolate mixture, whisking until combined. Stir in vanilla. Pour mixture over bread and let soak at room temperature, pressing bread down occasionally, 1 hour.

3. Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 325°F.

4. Dot top of pudding with butter bits. Bake in a hot water bath until edge is set but center still trembles slightly, 45 minutes to 1 hour. Cool pudding to warm in dish on a rack. (Pudding will continue to set as it cools.)

STRAWBERRY FRENCH MACARONS

Macaroons

1 1/2 cups ground almonds

1 cup icing sugar

3 egg whites

Red liquid food coloring (not gel), 8 drops for pale pink macaroons or 24 for dark

1/2 cup sugar


Directions

(Macaroons)

1. With the rack in the middle position, preheat the oven to 180 °C (350 °F). Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

2. In a food processor, process the almonds and icing sugar into fine powder, about 2 to 3 minutes. Set aside.

3. In a bowl, beat the egg whites with the food coloring until soft peaks form. Gradually add the sugar, beating constantly until stiff peaks form. With a spatula, firmly combine with the ground almonds mixture and mix until the meringue fall and soften slightly.

4. With a pastry bag fitted with a 7-mm (1/2-inch) in diameter plain tip, shape 2.5-cm (1-inch) in diameter macarons, spacing them about 5-cm (2-inch) apart. (The batter should fall slightly. Otherwise, it is not quite soft enough. Remove from the bag and mix again). Hit the baking sheet flat on a work surface two or three times to slightly spread the batter.

5. Bake, one sheet at a time, for about 12 minutes, leaving the oven door ajar with a wooden spoon. The macarons should not brown. Cool completely on the baking sheet. (For smaller macarons, bake from 8 to 10 minutes. They should therefore be baked on two different baking sheets.)

(Basic Macaron Buttercream Filling)

Ingredients

7 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

2 egg yolks

1/4 cup granulated sugar

3 1/2 tablespoons milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

1. Cut butter into pieces, and mash with a spatula until the consistency resembles mayonnaise.

2. In a small bowl, whisk the egg yolks, then add the granulated sugar, and whisk until the mixture lightens to an off-white [3] and you can no longer see the granules of sugar. Add the milk, and whisk to combine.

3. Pour the egg mixture into a small saucepan, and heat over low heat, whisking frequently to ensure that the mixture does not curdle or scorch. Cook until the mixture becomes thick and custardy, like pudding.

4. Pour the egg mixture back into its bowl, and whisk constantly until it returns to room temperature. Whisk in the butter in three batches, add the vanilla, and stir until smooth and all ingredients are fully combined. Pipe or spread onto one macaron half and sandwich between the other.

Buttery, Flaky Pie Crust

I love a nice golden flaky crust be it for fruit pies or pot pies. This is another super easy recipe that makes a single pie crust so if you need a bottom and top simply double the recipe.  I used a food processor with this recipe because I used frozen butter and it just makes it easier, but if you don't have a food processor just use cold butter and a pastry cutter or fork to combine dry ingredients with chopped butter.

Flour your surface to knead dough, form into a disc, wrap with plastic wrap and refrigerate. 

After chilling, roll dough out and place in pie dish.

Ingredients

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup butter, frozen and diced if using a food processor (chilled           and diced if using a pastry cutter or fork).

1/4 cup ice water

Directions

1.  In a large bowl, combine flour and salt. 

2.  Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.  I used frozen butter and a food processor for this step, if you don't have a food processor just use cold butter and a pastry cutter or fork.

3.   Stir in water, a tablespoon at a time, until mixture forms a ball. Knead the mixture and form it into a disc.

4.  Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight.

5.  Roll dough out to fit a 9 inch pie plate. Place crust in pie plate. Press the dough evenly into the bottom and sides of the pie plate.

Raspberry Muffins

T

I love muffins on the weekend, because they're yummy, easy to make and all you have to do is grab them and go.  When you can use fresh fruit in them they're even better.

It's important to not use a mixer after adding the raspberries, I use a rubber spatula to fold them into the batter.

This recipe makes 12 muffins.

Ingredients

⅓ cup butter melted

1 cup sugar 

2 eggs

½ cup of milk (any kind of milk would work)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1¾ cup flour 

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 to 2 cups fresh raspberries

Directions

1.  Melt the butter then stir in the sugar, eggs, milk, and vanilla.

2.  Measure in the flour and baking powder - mix well

3.  Gently fold in the raspberries.

4.  Fill greased muffin cups two-thirds full.

5.  Bake at 375 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes.

Simple Pavlova Cake

Some say Pavlova cake comes from Australia and some say New Zealand. I could care less because even though looking  at this cake you'd think it rather difficult to prepare, in fact it isn't and very delicious.  It has a meringue base, topped with chocolate as I did or fresh fruit w/cream . This is a recipe that I have experimented with and am very pleased with.

A stand  mixer is ideal when preparing meringue, however if you don't have one a hand mixer will get the job done as well.

You'll know when your meringue is ready because it should have stiff peaks.

As I stated I used chocolate shaving as a topping rather than free fruit.

Ingredients

3 egg whites

1 pinch salt

1 cup white sugar

1 tablespoon cornstarch

1 teaspoon lemon juice

1 1/4 cups heavy whipping cream

1/2 cup confectioners' sugar

1/3 cup chocolate shavings

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C). Line a sheet pan with parchment paper. Draw a 9 inch circle on the parchment. An easy way to do this is to draw around the outside of a 9 inch pan with a pencil.

2. In a large bowl, beat egg whites on high speed until soft peaks form. Add 3/4 cup of the sugar gradually, while continuing to whip. Make sure sugar is completely dissolved. Mix together the remaining 1/4 cup sugar with the cornstarch; lightly fold into meringue with lemon juice.

3. Spread a layer of meringue to fit circle on parchment, approximately 1/4 inch thick. With remainder of mixture, pipe or spoon swirls around the edges to form a shallow bowl shape.

4. Bake at 300 degrees F (150 degrees C) for 1 hour. Turn off oven, but leave meringue in oven for an additional 30 minutes. When cool, the meringue should be hard on the outside, and slightly moist on the inside.

5. In a large bowl, combine the cream and half a cup of confectioners sugar, and whip until thickened.  Place on top and decorate with your chocolate shavings or fresh fruit.

Easy Crusty No-Knead Artisan Bread

I'd never even thought about making artisan bread until I came across this super simple recipe.  It requires minimal prep just a lot of time allowing the yeast to ferment, but results are absolutely amazing.  When I say it's super easy to make a child can do this,and it's very adaptable. Try using different flours, adding nuts or seeds, cheeses, dried fruit, herbs, and more. Make this yours. You won't wanna spend money on another loaf of crusty bread when you can make it yourself and without all the extra ingredients and/or chemicals added.

 I doesn't matter the type of corn meal you use just use what you have on parchment paper to keep the dough from sticking. Flour one side of your kitchen towel that will touch the dough.

I love my Dutch oven, I would highly recommend one to your cooking arsenal if you don't have one. 

I

INGREDIENTS:

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 cups warm water

1/4 tsp instant or rapid-rise yeast

2 tsp kosher salt (or 1 1/2 tsp table salt)

**optional

I added a couple tablespoons of fresh rosemary and thyme, along with some granulated garlic to the warm water. you can add fresh garlic if you choose. do whatever you want!

DIRECTIONS:

1. Mix dry ingredients until combined.

2. Add warm water and mix until flour mixture is absorbed by water. Dough will be wet and sticky.

3. Cover with plastic wrap and store at room-temp or a turned off oven for 12-18 hours, and up to 24.

4. Two hours before you're ready to bake, gently pull dough out of bowl onto a heavily floured surface, being careful not to puncture too many air bubbles. Gently form into a ball.

5. Place dough on top of cornmeal covered parchment paper and cover with a clean, floured kitchen towel for 2 hours.

6. During the last 30 minutes of those 2 hours, pre-heat your oven and empty Dutch oven to 450 degrees. Let it sit in there the entire 30 minutes.

7. When it's super hot, transfer the parchment/dough into the Dutch oven, cover and bake for 30 minutes with the lid on.

8. Remove lid after 30 minutes and bake an additional 5-15 minutes, or until bread registers 200 degrees on an instant read thermometer.

9. Immediately remove bread from the hot Dutch oven and let cool on a wire-rack for at least 30 minutes before slicing

Peanut Butter Chocolate Bar

Ingredients

cooking spray

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/4 cups packed light brown sugar

3/4 cup peanut butter

1/2 cup butter, softened

3 tablespoons milk

1 egg

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

3/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1lb chocolate bar (milk, dark or white)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Spray the bottom and sides of a 9x13-inch baking dish with cooking spray.

2. Mix flour, brown sugar, peanut butter, butter, milk, egg, vanilla extract, salt, and baking soda together in a bowl.  Pour batter into the prepared baking dish.

3. Bake in the preheated oven until lightly browned and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean, 20 minutes.

4. Put your chocolate bar in the microwave for 15 second increments to soften it a bit and use your vegetable peeler to shave out chocolate making little curly cues.

5. To get the shaving to stick place a very thin layer of peanut butter on top of the cooled baked peanut bar, then sprinkle your shaved chocolate on top.

Wedding Cake

Wedding Cake

Wedding cake with alternating tiers of:

Tuxedo - Layers of white & dark chocolate cakes filled with layers of white-chocolate truffle & rich fudge filling.

White Almond Sour Cream - White almond sour cream cake filled with cheesecake & raspberry puree. Also great with chocolate-cheesecake filling!