Lemon Blueberry Cheesecake Muffins

Those raspberry cheesecake suckers hooked me! Cream cheese in muffin batter is a MUST TRY for everyone!! These guys were very similar but I changed up the flavours a little. I also remembered baking soda so they weren't as stubby as the first round of raspberry ones.

To be honest, I'm not even a huge fan of lemon or blueberry but I think that is changing because these were out-of-this-world good!!!

INGREDIENTS

5 oz low fat cream cheese, softened
3 tablespoon butter, softened
3 tablespoon unsweetened applesauce
1 ½ cups sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large egg whites
1 large egg
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup white whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup low-fat buttermilk (keep reading for a substitute)
4 tablespopon fresh lemon juice
2 teaspoons lemon zest
2 cups blueberries

NOTE - My heart always sinks when I find a recipe that calls for buttermilk. Since it is only available in a larger container (and I don't bake THAT often) it means it always goes to waste. A quick and easy substitute is one cup of milk (whatever you have on hand) and one tablespoon of vinegar. Combine the two and let it sit for at least 5 minutes while the milk "sours", then use whatever you need from that for your recipe.

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat the oven to 350. Line 24 muffin cups with cupcake liners.

2. In a large bowl, combine the cream cheese, butter and applesauce and beat with an electric mixer until blended. Add sugar and beat until combined. Add vanilla, eggs and egg whites and beat until blended.

3. In a separate bowl, combine the flour (lightly spoon into measuring cups and then level with a knife), baking soda, baking powder and salt and stir together. In the bowl containing the wet ingredients, use the mixer on a low speed while pouring in the flour mixture until thoroughly combined. Add the lemon juice, zest and buttermilk and beat until blended. Add the blueberries and fold in gently.

4. Spoon the batter evenly into the liners. Bake for 25 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.

Here's a rather unflattering shot of the inside of one of these bad boys...look at all that blueberry goodness!!!

NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION

Serving Size - 1 muffin
WW Points - 3
Calories - 137
Carbs - 23g
Fat - 4g
Protein - 3g
Fibre - 1g

(Lightened Up) Raspberry Cheesecake Muffins

First off, don't let the name fool you. These guys are WW friendly (I actually am eating them for breakfasts all week) but I had to give them such a decadent name because they taste like they should be a gourmet dessert!

INGREDIENTS

5 oz 1/3 less fat cream cheese, softened
3 tbsp butter, softened
3 tbsp unsweetened applesauce
1 1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 large egg whites
1 large egg
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup white whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 cup raspberries (fresh or frozen)

NOTE: I couldn't find the baking soda when I was making these so I omitted it, but it really is necessary for a less dense/more airy texture (as you can see from the stubby muffin in the pic below). Clearly not necessary for taste though, since these were still out of this world!!

DIRECTIONS

Preheat the oven to 350. Line 24 muffin cups with cupcake liners.

In a large bowl, combine the cream cheese, butter and applesauce and beat with a mixer until blended. Add sugar and beat until combined. Add vanilla, eggs and egg whites and beat until blended.

In a separate bowl, combine the flour (lightly spoon into measuring cups and then level with a knife), baking soda, baking powder and salt and stir together. In the bowl containing the wet ingredients, use the mixer on a low speed while pouring in the flour mixture and the buttermilk. Beat until blended. Add raspberries and fold in gently.

Spoon the batter evenly into the liners. Bake for 25 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.

NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION

Serving Size - 1 Muffin
WW Points - 3

Stanley Cup Peanut Butter Cupcake Face-off

So, what do you do when you are trying to not eat cupcakes but you are craving them so violently that it is effecting your day???

Go home and make a double batch of course!!!! Oh and then maybe throw some blue and white sprinkles on them and tell people its in honour of the Maple Leafs kick-off play off game. That way they won't think you are some crazy person who gets home from a long day of work and crazily sets about baking two batches of cupcakes JUST to audition icing flavours...because that would cray cray!!

Clutterbuck and I have been obsessing over a local cupcakery’s chocolate peanut butter cupcake lately. It is so good that we are having trouble controlling ourselves…OK, I am having trouble controlling it but Clutterbuck is ALWAYS game to join in.

Anyway, his Mother’s Birthday is coming up so I figured I’d use that as an excuse to make my own version of this glorious cupcake. However, I have a dilemma….Of all the countless times that I scarfed down the original PB creation I never once stopped to assess what exactly I thought was in the icing. So off I went to the internet for some inspiration. Well….it turns out there are several different versions of PB icing out there, I got a little overwhelmed with the options so I did what most people would do and made two different batches, obviously!

On the left side we have Cupcake A and on the right side we have Cupcake B:

Cupcake A - found online and adapted to my taste

INGREDIENTS
4 oz unsalted butter, room temperature
4 oz cream cheese, room temperature
2-3 cups icing sugar, until desired sweetness is reached (I tend to reduce this amount usually)
1 tsp vanilla extract
2-3 tbs milk, if needed to reach desired consistency
1/3 cup (approx.) natural, unsweetened peanut butter

*NOTE: There have been some reports online that using natural peanut butter will cause the oil to separate in the icing after its been sitting for a while. I have not found this as of yet (They've now been sitting for 16 hours and show NO signs of separating. Plus, consider the amount of sugar that goes into these recipes, personally I think that using a sweetened peanut butter would end up sacrificing the peanut flavour and just adding more sweetness.

DIRECTIONS

Cream butter and cream cheese together with electric mixer (I used my beloved Kitchenaid). Add vanilla and then gradually add in sugar until icing is smooth. Make sure to scrape the sides of the bowl occasionally. Then gradually add peanut butter until desired taste is reached and mix in milk one tablespoon at a time if icing appears to be too dry (I didn't need any milk this time).

I made this version first and thought it was a winner. The taste is a perfect balance between cream cheese and peanut butter (seriously, what could be better??). Its a bit on the softer side because I didn't really want to add any more sugar to it. It was OK to pipe with once it chilled in the fridge for a while. However, once I compared it with the next recipe I was still confused because there is something nice about the purer peanut butter flavour in the buttercream version as well.

Cupcake B - The classic buttercream recipe with peanut butter mixed in

INGREDIENTS
1/3 cup shortening, room temperature
1/3 cup butter, room temperature
3/4 cup natural, unsweetened peanut butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
3-4 cups of icing sugar, I went with 3
4-6 tbs of milk

DIRECTIONS
Cream shortening and butter together with electric mixer. Add peanut butter and vanilla. Gradually add sugar, one cup at a time, beating well on medium speed. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl often. When all sugar has been mixed in, icing will appear dry. Add milk, one tablespoon at a time, and beat at medium speed until light and fluffy.

This recipe was definitely the winner in terms of piping ability. You really can't beat the consistency that shortening brings to the table. However, it definitely had that traditional buttercream icing taste which wasn't necessarily what I was looking for alongside the peanut butter...but it was still divine!!


The taste test is happening all day today and I even have two extra-minis on my desk waiting to be compared after my lunch. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that....there was a method to my madness because baking and decorating the cupcakes satisfied the craving completely. I actually haven't eaten one yet.

I will report on any findings, but I think the moral of the story here is that you can't go wrong either way!!!



Sorry folks, no nutritional information here....you probably wouldn't want to know it anyway!!

Cake decorating = GOOD TIMES!

My only memories of home-made and decorated cakes from my childhood are that they were exactly that. All of my friends would have these commercially produced store-bought cakes with Barbies and the Little Mermaid piped on top of them while I would have to settle for a made-from scratch cake with edible daisies or some other creative decorating idea that did not appeal to my young, and somewhat tasteless, mind.

It wasn’t even really about the decorative part, it was more about the synthetic, super sweet, shortening based icings that these cakes were laden with. Although I will admit that Barbie was a HUGE draw! In my teen years I learned to pre-empt the dreaded home-made cake by requesting a store-bought one as a birthday gift (or as ONE of my birthday gifts…I am an only child after all).

Its amazing how things have changed. Now I live for the days that allow me to bake and decorate cakes for those around me. The baking part is nice but it’s the decorating that I really get excited about. Here are two cakes I have created in the last few months.

This one is a three layer chocolate cake with a chocolate cream cheese icing and topped with fresh strawberries and white and dark chocolate curls (also made by me). My Dad loves chocolate cake…or chocolate anything, for that matter, so I went all out on this chocolate monstrosity.

INGREDIENTS

3 cups granulated sugar

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

3 large eggs
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
1 cup hot chocolate
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla

4 oz (4 squares) unsweetened chocolate squares melted and cooled slightly

Icing

1 1/4 cup granulated sugar

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup whipping cream
6 oz semi sweet chocolate squares
2 tsp vanilla
1 8oz (250g) pkg cream cheese
1 cup butter. softened

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 350 F. Lightly grease bottom and sides of three 9-inch round cake pans. Cut circles of wax paper or parchment paper to fit bottom of pans and place in pans. Lightly grease paper. Set pans aside.

Combine sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. Set aside.

In another large bowl, beat eggs on high speed of electric mixer for about 3 minutes, until they have thickened slightly and are lemon colored. Add buttermilk, hot chocolate, oil, vanilla and melted chocolate. Mix on low speed until well blended.

Gradually add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and mix on medium speed until batter is smooth. Divide batter evenly among pans. Bake for 25-30 minutes until a toothpick inserted in center of cakes comes out clean. Cool pans on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Remove cakes from pans, peel off paper, and cool completely before frosting.

To make frosting, whisk together sugar, cocoa and whipping cream in a medium sauce pan. Cook slowly over medium heat, whisking constantly, until mixture comes to a gentle boil. Cook 1 minute. Remove from heat and stir in chocolate until melted. Stir in vanilla. Let cool to room temperature.

In a large bowl, beat cream cheese and butter on high speed of an electric mixer until smooth. Add cooled chocolate mixture and beat on medium speed until well blended. Refrigerate frosting until desired spreading consistency is reached, about 1 hour. Important! Don’t let it get to firm, or you won’t be able to spread it.

To frost cake, place one cake layer on a pretty plate. Spread 1 cup frosting over top. Repeat with second layer. Place final layer on top. Ice top and sides of cake with remaining frosting. Decorate cake with chocolate curls and/pr chocolate covered strawberries, if desired. Cover and refrigerate. Let stand at room temperature for 30 minutes before serving

The chocolate curls were made by melting chocolate and mixing with a little bit of coconut oil. Spreading the chocolate on the back of a cookie sheet and letting it cool until firm but not hard. The back of a metal spatula or thick knife is then pressed along the chocolate to create a curl.

This beauty is my latest pride and joy. I just love it when I have an idea in my head about what the end result will look like…and it comes true right in front of my eyes. I saw a picture of something similar to this in a wedding magazine and thought “I could do that”. After some searching online I realized that several people had obviously thought the same and there were several examples of how others had executed this.
The cake is a three layer, gluten-free chocolate quinoa cake and the icing is a buttercream (1/2 shortening and 1/2 butter). This cake was baked by my mom for her friend Valerie’s 65th birthday. After the cake was cooled I went to work decorating. The colours are three shades of teal food colouring. This cake was a huge hit and will be hard to top!

ICING INGREDIENTS

1 cup shortening
1 cup butter
2 tsp vanilla extract
4 cups confectioners/icing sugar
2-4 tbsp milk (to desired consistency)
food colouring

DIRECTIONS

In a large bowl, cream together the butter, shortening, and vanilla. Blend in the sugar, one cup at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the milk, and continue mixing until light and fluffy.

Separate icing into separate bowls and tint each amount with desired colour.

Start with one colour (I started with the darkest shade) and place icing in a piping bag with a 1M rose time attached. Begin piping spiral roses in random order all over the cake. Continue this with the other two shades until the cake is covered in roses. pipe little stars or swirls into any empty spaces and VOILA!

Cinnamon Rolls

The day before the Easter long weekend I wrote my last final exam. It’s the not my last ever as I still have three more courses to complete but it is the last for now because I have decided to take some time away from school to focus on my new job.


In the last two years I have really allowed myself to be 100% absorbed in my studies and I have actively resisted getting involved in any of my usual activities. This covers anything from baking and cooking to keeping in touch with friends and acquaintances. I really have been out of commission for the last two years.

So, when I found myself on Good Friday without any studies to turn my mind to, no work to go to and no stores to browse/shop, I decided to bake.

I’ve wanted to make cinnamon rolls for a while now but they scared me. Yeast is scary and the margin for error seems to be fairly high for me when yeast is involved. I have never been very good at any baking that involves doughs or pastries but I wanted a challenge so I forged ahead.

We wont talk about the first batch of dough that I made and was about to set aside in the microwave to proof when I realized the melted butter was still sitting IN the microwave and NOT in the dough…moving right along….

INGREDIENTS

1 cup warm milk (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
2 eggs, room temperature
1/3 cup margarine, melted
4 1/2 cups bread flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup white sugar
1 package yeast (I used quick rise but I believe you could use any kind)

Filling
1 cup brown sugar, packed
2 1/2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
1/3 cup butter, softened

Icing
1 (3 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon salt

Dissolve the yeast in the warm milk in a large bowl. Mix in the sugar, margarine, salt, and eggs. Add flour and mix well. Knead the dough into a large ball, using your hands dusted lightly with flour. Put in a bowl, cover and let rise in a warm place about 1 hour, or until doubled in size.

I put my dough in the oven (the “keep warm” function had been on while the dough was being prepared), I let it rise for about 2 hours and it rose to be almost more than double. I wish I had taken a picture, it was almost spilling out of the bowl.
After the dough has doubled in size turn it out onto a lightly floured surface, cover and let rest for 10 minutes.

In a small bowl, combine brown sugar and cinnamon.Roll dough into a 16x21 inch rectangle. Spread dough with 1/3 cup butter and sprinkle evenly with sugar/cinnamon mixture.

Roll up dough and cut into 12 rolls. Place rolls in a lightly greased 9x13 inch baking pan.

Cover and let rise until nearly doubled, about 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).

Bake rolls in preheated oven until golden brown, about 15 minutes. While rolls are baking, beat together cream cheese, 1/4 cup butter, confectioners' sugar, vanilla extract and salt. Spread frosting on warm rolls before serving

Amazing! These were so good and so worth it! I was very happy with the end result…as was Clutterbuck...clearly...

Coconut Macaroons

Yummy! These were super easy and are super yummy…so a win-win. I have never made macaroons like this before. I seem to remember a no-bake version but since this contains egg whites it was necessary to bake them.
INGREDIENTS

3/4 cup (5 large) egg whites
1/2 cup sugar
pinch of salt
10 oz sweetened coconut flakes
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1-2 oz melted semi-sweet chocolate for drizzling

Combine the egg whites, sugar, salt and coconut in a saucepan and cook on medium-low heat, stirring often.

When the mixture comes together and loses its watery consistency remove it from the heat and add the vanilla. Mix well.

Allow mixture to cool completely (I put it in the fridge).

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Drop tablespoons of mixture onto a silicone lined baking pad (these will stick! So this is vital).

Bake for approximately 30 minutes until edges are golden brown. Cool

Melt chocolate in the microwave and drizzle on top of macaroons

When I make them again, which I will, I think I will reduce the sugar to ¼ cup and increase the coconut a little. These came out quite sweet and a little gooey. They were good but could have been a touch drier and the sweetened coconut didn’t need so much sugar to sweeten them.

NUTIRIONAL INFO
Servings: 19
Serving Size: 2 macaroons
WW Points: 3 pt
Calories: 105
Fat: 5.5 g
Protein: 2 g
Carb: 13 g
Fiber: 1 g
Sugar: 12 g
Sodium: 15 mg

Happy Birthday to Me

Angel food cake topped with a dark chocolate ganache and chocolate dipped strawberries. Served with a fresh berry salad, marinated in a tiny bit of sugar to bring out their juices.

That's right! What now biotch??

Appetizers

I've been really into appetizers recently. I mean, who isn't in to appetizers? Perhaps I should say, I've been into MAKING appetizers recently. We had some family over for dinner a few nights ago and it was the perfect occasion for finger foods. The main was stuffed meatloaf (from a previous post) with Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes and Steamed Veggies.

However the precursor to all that was a Low Fat Spinach and Artichoke Dip and some Bacon Wrapped Water Chestnuts. YUM!!!!! I was very pleased with how it all turned out. It was waaaay too much food but that's OK. Always better to have too much food than not enough.

I also made an Angel Food Cake for dessert. It was great, especially since it was my first attempt and our oven can be so tempermental. I'm not posting a pic of it though because I poured some strawberry juice on each slice which gave it a great flavour but made it look like a scene from CSI...so I'll just leave it to your imaginations to visualize

Bacon Wrapped Water Chestnut



Spinach and Artichoke Dip...Low Fat...yeah you read that right!

Pure Decadence

Peanut Butter Nutella Brownies....need I say more?

Chocolate Turtle Cookies

Would you believe these are relatively diet friendly???

Further to my "Curse of the KitchenAid Mixer Post", I've decided I need to find a way to keep up with healthy eating and still be able to bake on the regular. These cookies were quite good and only 2 points per serving/cookie. I will change up a few things next time around but let me first recap what this round contained:

• 1 cup sifted pastry flour
• 1/3 cup cocoa powder
• 1/3 cup white sugar
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup margarine (not ideal for baking but a bit more diet friendly than butter)
• 1/4 cup low fat cream cheese
• 1 large egg white
• 2 Tbsp milk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• Caramel candies
• Pecan halves

So first of all I chose the wrong caramel candies. I stood in the candy aisle for a very long time (a dangerous place for me) debating over two different types of caramel candies; Mackintosh Toffee and Kerr Caramels. I chose the Mackintosh Toffee. This was a mistake because its so hard. It did melt while baking but it just sets right back up again once it cools. The softer Kerr Caramels would have been a much better choice. I also would have chilled the batter for a lot longer than I did. It was a really sticky batter and I ended up with more on my fingers than on the cookie sheet.

I look forward to tweaking this recipe again in the near future. It definitely has potential and they seem to keep quite well. This means they make great lunch additions.

Lets Talk Cookies

Although the previous post’s cookie picture might look good, the actual cookies were not. There was nothing actually wrong with them, I used the recipe on the back of the chocolate chip package (well, actually we did end up tossing them after a suspected food poisoning incident between Clutterbuck and I the night I made them. However, the PC Blue Menu Chicken Pie was the prime suspect, but that’s a different story). No, these cookies turned out just fine….but they just weren’t….great. This made me start to think about all the different chocolate chip cookies I have had in my 27 years, which is A LOT! What was it about these cookies that I didn’t like and how were they different from other cookies I have liked.

To start, these cookies were very “cakey”, I prefer a chewy cookie (think grocery store bakery cookies). I also started to realize that I’ve never actually tasted any homemade cookies that were similar to the ones you buy in the bakery section at the grocery store, or another example would be Mrs. Fields cookies. Generally, I find homemade chocolate chip cookies are either thinner and crispier or puffy with a texture closer to cakes. We all try the same trick and pull them out of the oven before they are done to keep them a little soft, but that only works while they are fresh. Put them in a container for tomorrow and they are either cold undercooked cookies, or set up cakey cookies. This is not what I was going for.

So I set out to find ingredients more conducive to a chewy cookie. Here’s what I came up with:

• Sifted pastry flour. This has a higher gluten content than all purpose flour. Bread flour is even higher but I didn’t want to buy a big thing of bread flour.
• Melted butter. The heat of the melted butter helps the gluten to do its thing while mixing
• Brown sugar, the darker the better. Brown sugar has molasses in it which definitely helps create a chewy cookie (or anything)
• 2 eggs with one egg white removed. Yes, its true this is not a diet cookie, but egg whites actually dry out batter. I subbed in 2 tablespoons of milk as well to help moisten everything up
• Chilled dough. This is key for so many reasons. The primary one is that it will prohibit your cookies melting into flat puddles on your cookie sheet, but it also gives the butter time to set back up and makes it a lot easier to roll the cookies out onto the cookie sheet
• Check the cookies every 5 minutes. I ended up baking them for only 10 minutes and removed them only once the edges started to brown. I let them cool on the cookie sheet for 5 minutes and moved them to a rack to cool. They were not undercooked, but were not overly browned or dried out either

I apologize that I have no picture because these were such a screaming success. Although, Clutterbuck’s only comment about them was “these have soooo much chocolate” which completely threw me off, because for a man who can eat an entire giant Toblerone bar in one sitting, I didn’t think anything could have too much chocolate. Anyway, there were other opinions and all were positive. These were, hands down, EXACTLY what I was trying to achieve. They were chewy and yummy and stayed that way for the week that it took to devour them.

For those that are interested here was the final recipe:

2 sticks unsalted butter
2 1/4 cups bread flour
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/4 cups brown sugar
1 egg
1 egg yolk
2 tablespoons milk
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Heat oven to 375 degrees F.

Melt the butter in a heavy-bottom medium saucepan over low heat. Sift together the flour, salt, and baking soda and set aside.

Pour the melted butter in the mixer's work bowl. Add the sugar and brown sugar. Cream the butter and sugars on medium speed. Add the egg, yolk, 2 tablespoons milk and vanilla extract and mix until well combined. Slowly incorporate the flour mixture until thoroughly combined. Stir in the chocolate chips.

Chill the dough, then scoop onto parchment-lined baking sheets, 6 cookies per sheet. Bake for 10 minutes or until golden brown, checking the cookies after 5 minutes. Rotate the baking sheet for even browning.

Drum Roll Please....

After two long months my Christmas present from Clutterbuck has finally arrived. We picked it up on Saturday morning and I immediately put it to work!

Please allow me to introduce to you my brand new boysenberry KitchenAid Mixer.


I asked Clutterbuck what he'd like as the first item mixed with the new mixer. He decided on Carrot Cake. This is yet another thing I wouldn't have touched with a ten foot pole up until recently. The title is such an oxymoron. Carrot = healthy = gross....Cake = not healthy = yummy. I've since been able to revise that equation in my head. Carrot Cake = yummy sweet goodness!

I did do my best to "health" it up as best I could. I cut the sugar in half, used whole wheat flour and subbed in unsweetened apple sauce in place of the oil. The cream cheese icing on the other hand...not much I can do about butter, cream cheese and 3 cups of icing sugar.

It was DE-licious!!! So moist and flavourful and ridiculously easy to execute with the help of the mixer.

I also used silicone cake pans to bake it. I was a little hesitant because my oven is so temperamental, a new type of pan just adds to the variables that impact success, but they worked beautifully. I've also learned to put whatever I'm cooking on the rack above the center rack, put a small baking sheet on the bottom rack to deflect some of the heat and if I'm cooking something that I really don't want to dry out I put a small oven safe dish with water on the baking pan (I didn't need to do that for this cake). Ugh....what I would give for a gas convection oven...just sayin'

Banana Lemon Muffins

I made these on the weekend in mini muffin tins. I had 4 over-ripe banana sitting on the counter and couldn't bring myself to throw them away (or eat them). Considering the fact that I'm not too keen on muffins or banana bread these were actually quite good.

Also, only 3 points which is a bonus.

I had nothing to do with this...

We were invited over to a friends house for one final holiday celebration and the food was so fantastic it had to be documented and shared.

We were all prepared for a late night so we planned a multi-course meal that lasted all night. We had so much food we actually ended up passing on the main course (Chicken Mole). The menu was as follows:

Antipasto Platter


Brown Sugar Smokies & Roast Tomato Tart (both made by yours truly)

Onion Bisque - No photo...it was so good I forgot to snap a pic.

Winter Greek Salad



Cheese and Port



Sticky Toffee Pudding

Great Times!!!

Chocolate Dipped Marshmallows

Need I say more?

Holiday Baking

As mentioned in my earlier post, I got really lucky and didn't have to cook anything for any of the THREE Christmas dinners we were part of.

It didn't seem right so I decided to bake a few different items and gift them in tins (who doesn't love a good re-usable tin).

Blueberry Oat Bars

**The recipe calls for raspberry preserves but I opted to use blueberry pie filling.

Peanut Butter Blossom Cookies

**affectionately dubbed "nipple cookies" by Clutterbuck

Oreo Truffles

**Probably the easiest things to make and people go crazy for them!!! I called them Chocolate Cheesecake Truffles because it sounded much more gourmet than Oreo Truffles.

Marshmallows...I MADE marshmallows.


I love making things that sound so fancy or gourmet. Who makes marshmallows? They are such anomalies. You can buy them in the store for so cheap but who would ever think to actually make them from scratch...surely you would need to be some fancy candy maker or something to attempt that. Nope, I'm here to tell you that its even easier than the Oreo truffles.

I made them because I've been off work all week and Clutterbuck has been working. I've had lots of time to menu plan and satisfy my baking bug. I decided to make these S'mores for New Years Eve and the marshmallow recipe was also on the site...why not??

They are currently at the "let rest at room temperature for 12 hours stage" but I have a good feeling about them (how can you go wrong with 2 cups of sugar and vanilla extract?).

I will report on how the S'mores and the rest of the food for New Years goes.

Happy New Year to everyone!!! Hope you all have a great New Years Eve!

Crepes

So I realize this is following the pancake blog but unfortunately I haven't had much on the go in the kitchen since last week. Here's some crepes I made last weekend.
I have many fond memories of weekend mornings, watching tv and enjoying crepes that my dad made for me. It was always a crowd pleaser after any sleepover.
Good times!
Another new thing I've discovered is roasted chickpeas. YUM!!!!
-A can of chickpeas (drained and rinsed)
-A small amount of oil
-Some garlic power, salt and pepper and cayenne (or whatever you feel like seasoning with)
-Roast in a 350 degree oven for 30-40 minutes depending on your crispiness preference.
You will not be disappointed!!
Sent from my Crackberry wireless device
Please ignore all typos, unless they're funny
~ _ _/>
/\ /\
~~~~~~~~~

Pecan Pie Recipe

Here is the recipe for the Pecan Pie. I just ate the last slice last night and I'm resisting the urge to make another one already!

Ingredients
1 sheet refrigerated piecrust (half a 15-ounce package) I used a frozen Tenderflake crust
1 cup light corn syrup
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
5 1/3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 large eggs
2 cups toasted pecan halves
Freshly whipped cream, for serving (optional)

Directions
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Unroll the piecrust and place in a 9-inch pie plate. Fold the overhang under and crimp the edge with a fork or your fingers. Bake the crust until light golden brown, about 10 minutes. Cool completely on a rack. (Leave the oven on.) I decided against baking the crust before filling it. 40 minutes in a 375 degree oven was plenty to bake everything through.

Whisk the corn syrup, brown sugar, salt, butter and vanilla in a medium bowl. Lightly beat the eggs in a small bowl, then whisk into the corn syrup mixture.

Finely chop 1/2 cup pecans and spread evenly over the piecrust. Roughly chop another
1/2 cup pecans and mix into the corn syrup mixture, then pour the filling into the crust. Arrange the remaining 1 cup pecans on top in a decorative pattern.

Bake the pie until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean, 40 to 50 minutes. I baked for 40 minutes and it was ALMOST overdone. Cool completely on a rack. Serve with whipped cream, if desired.

Pecan Pie

Exactly what the title says. Baked this bad boy yesterday. The recipe couldn't have been easier and it took less than an hour (including baking time). It was really good and it will definitely be made again. The recipe came from Food Network magazine...my new fav. magazine!!