Sangria What a Wonderful Drink

One day I was looking at some other food blogs out there and came across a posting on Sangria. With the 4th of July coming it was the perfect time to try and make a new drink instead of the standard stuff. I was also able to get a recipe off of Amazon from one of the Sangria cookbooks out there.

One of the books had three or four recipes but I picked the one that seemed like a simple not fancy recipe. I had this HUGE bottle of wine leftover for some time now and was trying to figure out what to do with it. It actually ended up being more then 1 standard bottle but I just increased everything else accordingly.

Sangria

1 bottle red wine
1/4 cup Cognac
1/4 cup Cointreau
1/4 cup simple syrup
2 oranges, cut into half wheels
2 lemons, cut into half wheels
2 peaches, cut into chunks

Place all into a pitcher and refrigerate for at least 4 hours but more is best. Serve over ice and enjoy!

Review: OH YUMMMY!!! I put this together the night before and had it in the frig for I would say about 18 hours before I served it. I have one of those big containers with the spout on the front and a freeze thing in the middle of it. I didn't fill it all up but it was enough for the three of us that drank it. I sort of felt like I had to much fruit in there but that is something that is easy to adjust the next time...and yes there will be a next time. I actually forgot to take a picture of it in the thing but I took a picture this morning of what was leftover. Which I will enjoy as a little after dinner snack. I might top it with some lemon/lime type soda to dilute it a little bit and it give it some fizz.

I remember when I was young my mom would make it for the summer parties. I remember because Heidi and I always wanted to eat the fruit that was in the jug. Never realized why we weren't allowed until I got older of course. Also now that I have a little one who wanted to drink this juice and eat the fruit it has come full circle.

Sour Cream Coffee Cake

So, I am a super slacker in the blog department. I guess I can "blame" it on being pregnant, but just haven't had time or energy. At any rate, when I first saw this recipe, I first thought it was going to be like a pecan ring that you buy at a bakery and then realized this was definitely more cake and less pastry. But I wanted to give it a whirl anyhow, as it's nice to have a good coffee cake recipe.

Sour Cream Coffee Cake

Topping & Middle Layer

1 cup pecans, toasted
½ cup packed light brown sugar
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons cocoa powder

Cake

9 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
2 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 1/8 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/8 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup plus granulated sugar
4 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sour cream

Directions

1. For the Topping/Middle Layer: Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Coarsely chop 1/3 cup pecans; toast in oven on baking sheet for 2 minutes (shake pecans after 1st minute). Process remaining 2/3 cup pecans, brown sugar, cinnamon, and cocoa powder in food processor until pecans are finely ground, about ten 1-second pulses; set aside.

2. For the Cake: Spray Baker's Joy (with flour) on 10-inch tube (Angel Food) pan. Using a sifter, sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in medium bowl. In standing mixer fitted with paddle attachment, beat butter and sugar at medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes, scraping down sides and bottom of bowl twice with rubber spatula. Reduce to medium-low speed and add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition, scraping down beater and sides of bowl as necessary. Add vanilla and beat until incorporated, about 15 seconds. Reduce low speed; add one-third flour mixture, followed by half of sour cream, mixing until just incorporated after each addition, about 10 seconds. Repeat using half of remaining flour mixture and all of remaining sour cream. Scrape bowl and add remaining flour mixture; mix at low speed until batter is thoroughly combined, about 15 seconds. Remove bowl from mixer and fold batter once or twice with rubber spatula to incorporate any remaining flour.

3. Transfer 1/2 of batter to prepared pan and smooth top. Sprinkle evenly with half of streusel mixture. Spread remaining batter over streusel; sprinkle top of batter with coarsely chopped pecans, pressing gently into batter to adhere. Sprinkle remaining streusel over coarsely chopped pecans.

4. Bake until top is golden and just firm, and long skewer inserted in center comes out clean, 45 minutes. Cool cake in pan on wire rack for 30 minutes. Invert cake onto rimmed baking sheet (cake will be streusel-side down); remove tube pan, place wire rack on top of cake, and reinvert cake streusel-side up. Cool to room temperature, about 2 hours. Cut into pieces and serve.

Review: Hubby and I tried this about an hour after we took it out of the pan. It was just slightly warm and really moist. I was very happy with the way it came out and would definitely make it again. I made a couple of minor adjustments based on what I had in the house. I freeze butter so that I always have it when I'm going to bake (and usually buy it on sale), so I used Land O'Lakes Light Butter and melted it when defrosting in the micro. I also used Breakstone's Light Sour Cream. There was supposed to be 2 extra Tablespoons of sugar, which I missed and think it tasted fine without it, so left it out of the recipe. I had leftover brown sugar with cinnamon and cocoa powder from a KAF recipe I did, so used that and added additional dark brown sugar. I recommend this cake and think there is more you can do with it - like add frozen blueberries in the middle and maybe make more of a crumb topping. Enjoy!

Daring Baker's Challenge: Bakewell Tart...er...Pudding

The June Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Jasmine of Confessions of a Cardamom Addict and Annemarie of Ambrosia and Nectar. They chose a Traditional (UK) Bakewell Tart... er... pudding that was inspired by a rich baking history dating back to the 1800's in England.

Bakewell tarts…er…puddings combine a number of dessert elements but still let you show off your area’s seasonal fruits.

Like many regional dishes there’s no “one way” to make a Bakewell Tart…er…Pudding, but most of today’s versions fall within one of two types. The first is the “pudding” where a layer of jam is covered by an almondy pastry cream and baked in puff pastry. The second is the “tart” where a rich shortcrust pastry holds jam and an almondy sponge cake-like filling.

The version we’re daring you to make is a combination of the two: a sweet almond-flavoured shortcrust pastry, frangipane and jam.

Bakewell Tart…er…pudding

Makes one 23cm (9” tart)
Prep time: less than 10 minutes (plus time for the individual elements)
Resting time: 15 minutes
Baking time: 30 minutes
Equipment needed: 23cm (9”) tart pan or pie tin (preferably with ridged edges), rolling pin

One quantity sweet shortcrust pastry (recipe follows)
Bench flour
250ml (1cup (8 US fl. oz)) jam or curd, warmed for spreadability
One quantity frangipane (recipe follows)
One handful blanched, flaked almonds

Assembling the tart
Place the chilled dough disc on a lightly floured surface. If it's overly cold, you will need to let it become acclimatised for about 15 minutes before you roll it out. Flour the rolling pin and roll the pastry to 5mm (1/4”) thickness, by rolling in one direction only (start from the center and roll away from you), and turning the disc a quarter turn after each roll. When the pastry is to the desired size and thickness, transfer it to the tart pan, press in and trim the excess dough. Patch any holes, fissures or tears with trimmed bits. Chill in the freezer for 15 minutes.

Preheat oven to 200C/400F.

Remove shell from freezer, spread as even a layer as you can of jam onto the pastry base. Top with frangipane, spreading to cover the entire surface of the tart. Smooth the top and pop into the oven for 30 minutes. Five minutes before the tart is done, the top will be poofy and brownish. Remove from oven and strew flaked almonds on top and return to the heat for the last five minutes of baking.

The finished tart will have a golden crust and the frangipane will be tanned, poofy and a bit spongy-looking. Remove from the oven and cool on the counter. Serve warm, with crème fraîche, whipped cream or custard sauce if you wish.

When you slice into the tart, the almond paste will be firm, but slightly squidgy and the crust should be crisp but not tough.

Sweet shortcrust pastry
Prep time: 15-20 minutes
Resting time: 30 minutes (minimum)
Equipment needed: bowls, box grater, cling film

225g (8oz) all purpose flour
30g (1oz) sugar
2.5ml (½ tsp) salt
110g (4oz - 1 stick) unsalted butter, cold (frozen is better)
2 (2) egg yolks
2.5ml (½ tsp) almond extract (optional)
15-30ml (1-2 Tbsp) cold water

Sift together flour, sugar and salt. Grate butter into the flour mixture, using the large hole-side of a box grater. Using your finger tips only, and working very quickly, rub the fat into the flour until the mixture resembles bread crumbs. Set aside.

Lightly beat the egg yolks with the almond extract (if using) and quickly mix into the flour mixture. Keep mixing while dribbling in the water, only adding enough to form a cohesive and slightly sticky dough.

Form the dough into a disc, wrap in cling and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes

Frangipane

Prep time: 10-15 minutes
Equipment needed: bowls, hand mixer, rubber spatula

125g (4.5oz) unsalted butter, softened
125g (4.5oz) icing sugar
3 (3) eggs
2.5ml (½ tsp) almond extract
125g (4.5oz) ground almonds
30g (1oz) all purpose flour

Cream butter and sugar together for about a minute or until the mixture is primrose in colour and very fluffy. Scrape down the side of the bowl and add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. The batter may appear to curdle. In the words of Douglas Adams: Don’t panic. Really. It’ll be fine. After all three are in, pour in the almond extract and mix for about another 30 seconds and scrape down the sides again. With the beaters on, spoon in the ground nuts and the flour. Mix well. The mixture will be soft, keep its slightly curdled look (mostly from the almonds) and retain its pallid yellow colour.

Review: For me the challenge in this recipe was making the crust for the tart. I am not really the best make my own pie crust/dough type person. I decided to make the crust the night before because to me that seemed the most time consuming part. Well lets just say I should not make stuff after having gone out to dinner with friends and having some margaritas. As a result I didn't add enough butter the first time (I thought it said 4 TB and not 4 oz) and just decided to make it again. That is when I discovered my mistake and was thankful that I didn't suck as bad as I thought at that moment at making the tart dough. I also think that when I grate the butter into the flour part to mix it a little bit because my butter just all clumped together and was a big grated mass. Thankfully the crust part was forgiving in I couldn't roll it out that nicely and it got stuck to the counter.

I have to say I was really surprised on how easy this was to make and how it didn't really take that much time. I was also excited to finally use the tart pan I got as a gift maybe 5 years ago for the first time. All my guest really enjoyed the tart and my mom even asked me to make it again for the holidays...in September!

Why Mess With a Good Thing...

As usually or I should say a daily occurrence...I need to figure out what to make for dinner. It just seems that they days go by so fast that I forget to think ahead. Before I know it it is close to dinner time and I have no clue what to make. Oh but today is different I had the brilliant idea to try and make Cuban Black Beans.

I have posted before that I have a million and one cookbooks. I really am trying to make recipes out of as many as I could (secretly to justify why I have so many and to justify why I need more). So I thought hey why not try the recipe from the Cuban cookbook I have. The reason for the title of this post is why mess with a good thing is because I have a completely amazing black bean recipe already. One that is from the best Cuban chef I know...Mike's grandmother or as we all like to call her Mama. Then again for some odd reason we never can make the beans like she does. We just let her make them when we really want them.

So I thought everything was going well because it smelled the way it always does. There are a couple of differences in the recipes but nothing major. Then I tasted the beans...yuck...bland...something is missing...oh my what I am going to do that won't totally kill them. I would wait for Mike to get home from work but that could be midnight at the rate he is working these days. I am hoping that Mike's grandparents come and stay with my in-laws over the summer. That way I can get Mama to give me a few Cuban cooking lessons!!!

Baby Shower Favors

Today was Jenn's baby shower and I made some favors for the party. Since Jenn's theme for the baby's room is farm animals I ran with it. I think they came out great. My inspiration for the animals were from the Barnyard Centerpiece I found on Country Living's website.

The Pigs

The Sheep

The Chicks

The Whole Crew

I think every baby deserves a hand made blanket. So when Jenn told us she was pregnant I got to work. Since Jenn and Rocco decided not find out the gender of the baby I made a blanket gender neutral. I think she really liked it.....so did my cat...hehe

Sugar Cookies aka Jacob Cookies

Mike has a friend named Tommy. Whenever we see him he calls me the cookie girl. So I told Mike the next time you see Tommy I'm going to make him a batch of cookies. I wasn't sure what kind of cookie person he was so I wanted to make something neutral.

Sugar Cookies

Dough

• 3 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• 1/4 cup cream cheese
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
• 1 large egg

Topping

• 3/4 cup sugar for dredging

Dough

• 12 3/4 ounces King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 8 ounces unsalted butter
• 8 3/4 ounces sugar
• 2 ounces cream cheese
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
• 1 large egg

Topping

• 5 1/4 ounces sugar for dredging

Directions

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Lightly grease two baking sheets, or line with parchment. 1) In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

2) In a large bowl, cream together the butter, sugar, and cream cheese until light and fluffy.

3) Beat in the vanilla and almond extracts, and the egg; scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl.

4) Add the flour mixture, and mix at low to medium speed until the mixture is evenly moistened.

5) Place the 3/4 cup sugar in a large plastic bag, or in a shallow pan. Scoop the dough by tablespoonfuls into the sugar, rolling them in the pan or gently shaking them in the bag to coat them with the sugar.

6) Place on the prepared baking sheets, leaving 2" between them.

7) Bake for 10 to 12 minutes. The edges of the cookies will just barely begin to brown.

8) Remove from the oven and cool on the pan for 5 minutes, before transferring to a rack to finish cooling completely.

Tip: If you like a chewier, moister, "bendy" cookie, add 2 tablespoons (1 3/8 ounces) corn syrup to the dough. The cookies will spread out a little more and be 1/4" thick once they're baked.



My Review: I've made this recipe twice and both time they came out really gooooood!!! I decided with half of the second batch to roll some of the dough in sprinkles (Jacob's favorite cookies). They came out great. I told my sister that Jacob would be jealous...hehe...I highly recommend this recipe and I will definitely make it again and again and again!

Daring Baker's Challenge: Cheesecake

The April 2009 challenge is hosted by Jenny from Jenny Bakes. She has chosen Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake as the challenge.

This month has been a really busy month for me and my family. With a new baby at home I haven't had much time to do a lot of baking. When some of my husband's family were coming over to visit with us I decided to try my challenge for this month.

My father-in-law had an Aunt that would make cheesecake for local restaurants for a living. She would even send him one every year on his birthday as a gift. My husband always compares every cheesecake he tries to hers. Unfortunately she got sick before being able to pass down the recipe to anyone. So we are always in search for something that can compare to hers. So of course I got excited to try out a new recipe and see how it compares. Mike's favorite kind she made was with pineapple on the bottom which is what I tried to do with this one.





Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake:

crust:
2 cups / 180 g graham cracker crumbs
1 stick / 4 oz butter, melted
2 tbsp. / 24 g sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract

cheesecake:
3 sticks of cream cheese, 8 oz each (total of 24 oz) room temperature
1 cup / 210 g sugar
3 large eggs
1 cup / 8 oz heavy cream
1 tbsp. lemon juice
1 tbsp. vanilla extract (or the innards of a vanilla bean)
1 tbsp liqueur, optional, but choose what will work well with your cheesecake

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (Gas Mark 4 = 180C = Moderate heat). Begin to boil a large pot of water for the water bath.

2. Mix together the crust ingredients and press into your preferred pan. You can press the crust just into the bottom, or up the sides of the pan too - baker's choice. Set crust aside.

3. Combine cream cheese and sugar in the bowl of a stand-mixer (or in a large bowl if using a hand-mixer) and cream together until smooth. Add eggs, one at a time, fully incorporating each before adding the next. Make sure to scrape down the bowl in between each egg. Add heavy cream, vanilla, lemon juice, and alcohol and blend until smooth and creamy.

4. Pour batter into prepared crust and tap the pan on the counter a few times to bring all air bubbles to the surface. Place pan into a larger pan and pour boiling water into the larger pan until halfway up the side of the cheesecake pan. If cheesecake pan is not airtight, cover bottom securely with foil before adding water.

5. Bake 45 to 55 minutes, until it is almost done - this can be hard to judge, but you're looking for the cake to hold together, but still have a lot of jiggle to it in the center. You don't want it to be completely firm at this stage. Close the oven door, turn the heat off, and let rest in the cooling oven for one hour. This lets the cake finish cooking and cool down gently enough so that it won't crack on the top. After one hour, remove cheesecake from oven and lift carefully out of water bath. Let it finish cooling on the counter, and then cover and put in the fridge to chill. Once fully chilled, it is ready to serve.

Pan note: The creator of this recipe used to use a springform pan, but no matter how well she wrapped the thing in tin foil, water would always seep in and make the crust soggy. Now she uses one of those 1-use foil "casserole" shaped pans from the grocery store. They're 8 or 9 inches wide and really deep, and best of all, water-tight. When it comes time to serve, just cut the foil away.

Prep notes: While the actual making of this cheesecake is a minimal time commitment, it does need to bake for almost an hour, cool in the oven for an hour, and chill overnight before it is served. Please plan accordingly!

Review: I am going to start with the bad...well I should say my errors...I used the wrong size springform pan (10") and so my cheesecake was thinner then I expected. I thought I had the right size but then realized I didn't when it was too late. I should have used the casserole pan as suggested because my foil wrapping wasn't the best and some water did leak in which caused my crust to get a little soggy. Other than that everything came out great and the family loved the surprise of pineapple on the bottom. It wasn't like my husband's great-aunt's recipe but was still loved by the family!

Easter Dessert

I asked my sister-in-law if I could bring something for Easter dinner and she said a dessert. While food shopping, I had walked past the Easter candy isle and saw M&M's for Easter. That's when the idea of making a cookie cake popped into my head. Instead of using chocolate chips I would use the M&M's.


All I have to say is that it came out a lot better than the last one I made. The recipe tells you to leave an inch and a half border around the pan to let the cookie spread during baking. I must have been in a rush the last time I made it cause I didn't read that part carefully. I had spread the cookie dough to fill the whole pan. To make a long story short. The cookie spread over the edge of the pan and onto the oven floor. Where it started to burn and fill the house with smoke. So we had to open all the windows. Did I mention it was December!!! Also, the house smelted like burnt cookies for a few days. I told Mike I was going to write to Yankee Candle to let them know of a new scent. Burnt Cookie.

But this time I remember my past mistake and didn't make it again. Hooray Me!!

Chocolate Covered Marshmallows!

When Jacob was born I made chocolate covered pretzels for his Bris. So I asked Michelle when she was pregnant with William if she wanted me to make something like that for his Bris. She said yes. At first I was going to make the pretzels again, but then decided to do something different. Chocolate covered Marshmallows!!! I love making them...they are sooooo easy to make. The only problem I had was that when I made the Snowman for Christmas I used a Styrofoam block to stand them up while drying. I had thrown those out, thinking I wouldn't be making any kind of marshmallows for a while. So I had to get creative. What did I do.... I poked holes in a box.

Here's a picture of the finished product.

Now...Easter is Sunday and we're going to my brother-in-laws for dinner. I volunteered to bring a dessert (surprise, surprise) so while looking around the web for ideas I came across these marshmallow animals. I just had to try making them. I only made the chick, what do you think?

Is This Animal Cruelty?!?

I couldn't let the left over chocolate from making the chicks go to waste!!

Chicken w/ broccolli, bacon & shreaded cheese in the middle

I found this recipe on the kraft foods website and it looked so good I had to try it last night. A new twist to making chicken. It was so easy...the only tricky part was actually wrapping the chicken tightly with the chopped broccoli, bacon bits & shreaded cheese in it.

Ingredents:

Chicken breast, thighs (which ever you prefer)
Chopped fresh or thawed broccolli
Bacon chopped (I used bacon bits)
Bread crumbs

Using a meat tenderizer, flatten the chicken to about 1/2 inch. Sprinkle the chopped broccolli, bacon, & cheese on the chicken, then wrap tightly and secure with tooth picks. Coat wrapped chicken in bread crumbs and make sure completely covered.

Pre-heat oven to 400*, place breaded wrapped chicken, seam side down in a foil lined shallow baking dish. Cook for 25-30 mins or until chicken is cooked through. Remove all toothpicks and serve.















This took a bit longer to bake then the 30 mins it says...but that could just be my oven and the fact that I dont have a meat tenderizer and couldnt flatten the chicken as much as I should have. Kevin loved it, and I would def make this dish again. Very tasty.