Butterscotch! Serious business:)

Tasty, delicious incredibly simple. Looking for that taste of Werthers Original or Skor, seriously that's the two things I immediately thought of when tasting this, I didn't have rum extract so I used vanilla, and I'm so glad I did, 

The recipe I halved is from taste of home and they deserve all the credit for this delightful treat.

http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/butterscotch-hard-candy. 

(Halved amounts below) 

1/2 cup butter (and enough to butter a 9 by 13.)

1 1/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup golden syrup

1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp of water

2 tbsp honey

1/4 tsp of salt

1/4 tsp of vanilla instead of rum extract,

Take the water, sugar, and syrup boil covered until it reaches 270F or soft crack. Do not stir during this stage.

Once it hits soft crack add the butter, honey and salt stir vigorously, don't get burned, until the mixture reaches hard crack or 300F keep stirring and add you flavoring, then pour into the prepared buttered dish, scor these into 1 inch squares as shown below. And then, be patient, unlike me. Wait for this to cool enough that you can break across the scored lines by hand, otherwise be impatient like me and whack with a butter knife and enjoy shards of candy everywhere. 

I hope you give this amazing treat a try:) 

Cheese crackers! Delish

I'm just going to say this now, watch Chef John's video from foodwishes.com

http://foodwishes.blogspot.ca/2013/10/cheesy-crackers-simple-joy-of-homemade.html?m=1

1 1/4 cup sharp cheddar grated

2 tbsp butter

1/4 tsp salt 

1/2 cup flour

1 tbsp water 

Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes if you don't refrigerate:) 

I baked mine for 15 some got a tad too crisp. Pics to show the steps:) hope you try these tasty bites out;) 

Hand stirred ice cream

So the other day, I got this hankering, yup that's right, for ice cream and not just any ice cream. Homemade. So I set to work. I took two mixing bowls and a measuring cup with a missing handle and a bag of beans to start the creation of my homemade icecream machine.  Which I'm not sure was worth the effort of making, so you might just want to skip this step. But, if you make it you put the measuring cup in the bottom of the big bowl and put water in the bowl, th beans weigh down the small bowl and after freezing for 24 hours you have an ice lined bowl like this. (I used salt, which was not very beneficial for the first freezing process)

Anyways, let the fun begin.

You'll need 6 egg yolks

3/4 cup of sugar

1 cup whole milk 

2 cups cream

1/2 tsp vanilla or to your liking

Take the cream and milk and heat on med/low until it reaches simmering, starting to slightly steam and possibly getting small bubbles on the edge. 

You will take the 6 yolks and whip them together with the sugar, it will go from golden yellow to a lighter yellow, carefully temper the eggs by adding small amounts of the dairy mixture into your yolks while vigorously whisking. I'd say around 6 additions is a safe way to go. 

Return the mixture to the pan on low and stir until the back of a wooden (in my case silicone) spoon gets coated and you can scrape a line down the center that stays visible. Or reaches approx 175F

Then remove from the stove, allow to cool and place in the fridge for 4-6 hours, or even overnight.  Mix in the vanilla at this point. 

Then place in any dish of your choice, (insert I used my makeshift maker:) then you will spend the next 3 hours checking and stirring. Many blogs complained of how it isn't as creamy because they would wait 45 minutes inbetween stirring, nope, I stirred every 10-20 minutes for 3 hours just keep setting that timer. It was perfect and magical. And no ice shards to be found. Put into a freezer safe container and freeze for 6 hours. Unless you want soft serve ice cream right then,

(* added an edit here, this may take up to 4 hours of stirring and checking if you don't have extra ice under or a flat wide container, unlike my deep tall bowl.)

Most of these ideas are from serious eats 

http://sweets.seriouseats.com/2013/05/easiest-best-homemade-vanilla-ice-cream-how-to.html

including the basic recipe.

And style from David Lebovitz.

http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2007/07/making-ice-crea-1/

This was amazing and I really think you should give it a try:)

Enjoy!

Angel Food Cake

So I decided to make a half sized Angel food cake last night, and just for the fun of it, I made it with a whisk and bowl and not an electric mixer. There are many methods and this was how I chose to make it. 

Here is my half cake recipe

6 egg whites, 

1/2 tsp cream of tartar

3/4 cup of sugar

2/3 cup AP flour

1 TBSP cornstarch

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/4 tsp almond extract

Prepare your angel food cake pan with butter and flour, 

Set oven to 350F

Sift sugar, flour and cornstarch together 3 times

Take egg whites and cream of tartar whisk together until holds soft peaks about 5 mins by hand, then add vanilla and almond extract gently whisk until incorporated

Now to add dry ingredients, I added mine in 4-5 additions, take 1/4 cup or so of the  dry ingredients, pour into the sifter above the egg whites then gently fold until incorporated. And add again until you run out of dry additions. 

Carefully pour into your prepared cake pan. Take a knife through and around 6 times to remove huge air pockets.

Put in the oven and cook until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the two pan edges comes out clean mine took 28 minutes. The top should be golden:)  then flip and let cool for 1 hour, after the hour carefully take a sharp knife or butter knife and pull the cake away from the pan edges. Pull out the inner insert and remove the cake top from the base of the pan.

This is now ready to be enjoyed with your favorite toppings, whipped cream, strawberries, ice cream, mango, you name it. 

Please give this a try and whether you whip by hand or machine, I hope you enjoy:) 

Plain egg whites with cream of tartar

Barely holding a form around 4 minutes of whisking

Holding soft peaks. The thick part was when I tapped the excess out of the whisk, the first addition of dry ingredients.

The swirls are from the knife gliding through to remove bubbles

Garlicky Onion Pan Roasted Fries

This recipe is simple yet meets your flavor needs. You can use any flavors you like or a favorite spice, but here is my recipe.

8 medium/small yellow flesh potatoes

   Sliced into a fry shape:)

1 white onion minced

2 garlic cloves minced

1 teaspoon white ground pepper

1 teaspoon of salt

1/8 cup of vegetable oil or more as needed

1 tsp of spicy sauce (any you like) 

This makes 2 pans worth of fries, depending on your fry needs I would say 4 small servings. 

Take a large mixing bowl or Ziploc bag 

Pour fries into the bowl add all the ingredients and the oil, mix thoroughly until all fries are completely coated and the hot sauce is hardly visible on any fry.

Put on a parchment covered pan, bake for 20 mins at 350F. If you want them evenly crisped flip halfway through, I was lazy and didn't.

The trick to this type of fry is to ensure the fries are not too crowded, when spread on the pan.

I really hope you give these delectable fries a try :)

Until next time Enjoy!

Moxie's White Chocolate Brownie (copycat) Recipe

This incredibly simple, flavorful and delectable dish will change your world as you know it, well not really, but your taste buds will thank you! As they should.

In the recipe at gourmethousewife she says to melt the ingredients in a microwave, which is perfect, but I double boiled the chocolate sugar and butter, and I will admit there was a point I worried I had ruined it as it looked too buttery, but when I added the eggs and whipped them in by hand until thick my fears had dissipated. Then came the dry ingredients and TaDa, this beauty appeared. 

It looked like the chocolate chips had just fallen to the bottom of the pan in her blog, so I just tossed most of the chocolate chips onto the bottom of a very well buttered and greased pie dish, you could easily use an 8x8 pan as well. Then I sprinkled a few chocolate chips on top.

I baked for around 32 minutes and the top looked very dark and the toothpick came out clean.(in my case the linguine stick) cause I don't buy toothpicks and that does the job too. 

4 oz white chocolate

2/3 cup sugar

1/2 cup butter

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/8 tsp salt

1/2-3/4 cup choc chips

Slightly adapted from gourmethousewife

The chocolatey sweet mixed with the perfect texture makes this brownie sought after. For a copycat recipe and my first try I must say it was way better than I anticipated. 

Next time you make a brownie give this beauty a try! Enjoy:)

http://www.gourmethousewife.com/2012/01/white-chocolate-brownies/

Moxie's Mosaic dip (copycat) recipe

This delectable dip recipe was found on Chicks and Whisks.

http://chicksandwhisks.blogspot.ca/2011/09/mosaic-dip.html?m=1

I followed the recipe almost exactly. But I used a lot less goat cheese. Like 1/4 cup.

I sliced a quarter of a pint of cherry tomatoes and used canned tomatoes to fill in what I lacked. 

I finely diced the garlic and onion. 

And put them in the layers as shown in their recipe. 

This was one of my favorite times making this. I will say, I did put black pepper and salt on top, so tasty!  Leaves you feeling content. 

I love Moxies and I was looking for a taste of their food, but in my home. 

Give this recipe a try and Enjoy! ;)

1 tomato diced

1 1/2 cup mushroom chopped fine

2 garlic cloves, minced or pressed

1/4 cup onion finely diced

1 - 2 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp cream cheese

1 tsp soy sauce

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 -1/2 cup goat cheese

As adapted from their site. Check their page for further instructions:) 

Macarons:)

I finally took the plunge and tried making French macarons. Here is the recipe I used from allrecipes.com 

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/223234/macaron-french-macaroon/

When making these I whipped the meringue and used icing sugar instead of  plain sugar.

I ground the almonds fresh that morning in my vita-mix and sifted them twice.

Then I sifted the almond and icing sugar together before mixing in the whipped meringue. 

Once combined i piped the contents onto a cookie sheet. Slammed the pan against the counter about 4 times to remove air bubbles, let them sit 1 hour until the top was firm then baked for 10 minutes on 280F

Use your favorite icing. I used  creamcheese and powdered sugar with a hint of vanilla. 

I hope you give these a try.

Enjoy;)