Doughssants a welcomed addition!

I've been making my own puff pastry dough for quite some time now and have had amazing results with my croissants; after hearing about the Cronut craze in NYC I decided to whip up a batch of my own.

The light fluffy layers of croissant shaped and fried like a doughnut were delicious .... okay sinful! I dipped the doughssants in either a Bernard Callebaut chocolate glaze, a lemon glaze with wild blueberry, cinnamon sugar or a caramel fleur de sel.

Cutting the doughssant in half exposed the many layers of golden croissant dough. Not too sweet these treats were a hit in my household.

I'm excited to be able to offer the doughssants through my bakery. They are $3.50 each, or 6 for $20.

Visit Ever So Sweet Bakery to place your order! 

eversosweet.ca

or email me at sandra@eversosweet.ca

Chocolate Chip Popcorn Cookies

Are you bored of the regular chocolate chip, peanut butter or oatmeal cookie? This recipe hits all your cravings in one simple scrumptious cookie; salty & sweet. If you haven't found the blog by "Joy the Baker" at www.joythebaker.com you are missing out on some amazing recipes! Each day I visit her site to see if there are any new recipes/ideas. The things she comes up with are incredible. This recipe is taken from her website; she adapted it from the "Smitten Kitchen". These are great movie snacks or late night snacks as the girls at work enjoyed them during our night shifts.

Ingredients:

2 tablespoon vegetable oil
1/4 cup yellow corn kernels
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup dark chocolate (chips or chunks)
coarse sea salt for sprinkling

Method
 

To make the popcorn: 

Place oil in the bottom of a medium saucepan.  Heat over medium heat.  When oil is hot, add corn kernels in a single layer across the bottom of the pan.  Cover the pot but keep the lid ajar to let a bit of steam out.  Listen to the popcorn as it pops.  Turn off the heat and remove the pan from the burner once the popping has subsided.  Sprinkle with salt and drizzle with butter.  Toss to coat all of the popcorn in a bit of butter.  Piece through the popcorn to remove any unpopped kernels.  Set aside to cool.  You’ll have about 4 cups of popcorn.

To make the dough:

Place a rack in the center and upper third of the oven and preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.  Set aside.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream together butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar.  Cream until butter is pale and fluffy.
Beat in egg and vanilla extract for one more minute.  Add the flour, baking soda, and salt and beat on low until just combined.  Remove the bowl from the stand mixer and use a spatula to fold in the popcorn.  It looks like the large amount of popcorn will not work with the amount of cookie batter but it does.  Continue to fold, the popcorn will break down as you go and finally, add in the dark chocolate.

Scoop dough by the heaping tablespoonful onto the prepared baking sheet. Sprinkle the tops of the cookies with coarse sea salt.
Bake for 10 to 13 minutes.

 http://joythebaker.com/2013/04/buttered-popcorn-chocolate-chip-cookies/#more-11246

Lentil Soup

For those of you who don't know me well enough I'm a huge soup person, I love soup! I could have a bowl every day in the winter; nothing warms your body and soul more than a good bowl of homemade soup. Yesterday was the first day of April and mother nature was playing a cruel joke on us; we had scattered flurries. With this and another around of colds going around the house soup was on the menu.


I kept this lentil soup vegetarian but you could add shreddied/diced ham and it would be wonderful.

Ingredients:

2 tbsp olive oil
1 cup finely chopped onion
1/2 cup finely chopped carrot
1/2 cup finely chopped celery
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 pound lentils, rinsed
1 can diced tomatoes
2 quarts vegetable broth
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon ground toasted cumin

Salt & pepper to taste

Method:

Place the olive oil in your pan on medium heat. Once hot, add the onions, carrots and celery. Saute until onions are transparent. Add the tomatos, lentils, broth and herbs. Bring to a boil on high heat and then simmer on low for 30-40 minutes, until lentils are tender. Add salt and pepper to taste. 

You can either leave the soup chunky or puree it.

French Onion Soup

One of my favourite cookbooks is by the great Julia Child. I've enjoyed not only reading and preparing her recipes but also letting out a laugh or two watching her old episodes. If you've never seen an episode of her cooking show you really must. She can get clumsy and messy in the kitchen, I'm surprised she doesn't hurt herself.

Here is a great french recipe straight from her cookbook: Soupe a l'oignon.
Top with a toasted slice of bagette and some guyere cheese. Let's be honest, I was hooked with the toast and melted cheese part! The soup is bonus!

 Ingredients:

1 1/2lbs. about 5 cups thinly sliced yellow onions
3 tbsp butter
1 tbsp oil
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp sugar (helps to brown the onions)
3 tbsp flour
2 quarts boiling beef stock
1/2 cup dry white wine or dry vermouth
3 tbsp cognac
salt & pepper to taste



Directions:

1. cook the onions slowly with the butter and oil in a covered saucepan for 15 minutes
2. Uncover, raise heat to medium, and stir in the salt and sugar.
3. Cook for 30-40 minutes stirring frequently, until onions have turned an even, deep, golden brown.
4. Sprinkle in the flour and stir for 3 minutes
5. Blend in the boiling beef stock.
6. Add the wine, and season to taste
7. Simmer partially covered for 30-40 minutes or more, skimming occasionally.  Adjust seasoning as needed.
8. Just before serving stir in the cognac.
9. Pour into soup cups, place a piece of toasted bread on top and sprinkle with grated guyere cheese.
10. Broil soup cups until cheese is melted and bubbling

Bourbon Cream Sauce

I was walking through the duty free at airport in Philadelphia with a friend/coworker & she was telling me about her visit to the Jim Beam Bourbon Distillery with her family. Half way through her talking about the recipes her family has made from the distillery recipe book my mouth was watering. The snack I had on the plane was definitely not going to satisfy my cravings! The recipe that stuck out the most was this one, bourbon cream sauce. It tastes great on anything, meat, fish, vegetables and even just a spoon. It has become one of my go to sauces!

Ingredients:

1 cup mushrooms - sliced or chopped
1/2 shallot finely chopped
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup 35% (whipping) cream
1/4 cup bourbon
Salt & pepper to taste
(Recipe makes enough mushroom sauce to cover 4 steaks or 4 chicken breasts).

Directions:

1. In non- stick pan, over medium heat, add oil, finely chopped shallot & cook 4 - 5 minutes until soft.
2. Add mushrooms, salt & cook another 4 - 5 minutes.
3. Add bourbon, cook 1 minute to burn alcohol off.
4. Add cream and pepper.
5. Stir ingredients and reduce liquid to thicken (John thinks about 4-5 minutes depending on how thick you would like your sauce to be).
6. If sauce becomes too thick, add beef or chicken broth until you have consistency you want.

After removing sauce from heat, stir in 1 tsp parsley.

Serve over anything you would like!

 

Chicken Tortilla Soup

This soup was introduced to me on a night shift. We often have "Cozy Saturday" at work in the winter; meaning we bring soup and comfort foods to get us through the night I love tacos so this soup has been on my menu a couple of times this winter since being introduced to it.  I simply can't get enough of it!  This simple and easy recipe can be done in the crockpot or stove top.

Ingredients:

1 can of pinto beans
1 can of kidney beans
1 can of diced tomatoes
1can of cream of chicken soup
1 can of red enchilada sauce
1 pkg taco seasoning
750 - 950ml chicken/vegetable broth
1 cup frozen corn
1 cooked chicken breast shredded

Directions:

1. Put all ingredients in a pot/slow cooker and mix well
2. Bring to a boil
3. Let soup simmer for as long as you want.


Top with crushed tortilla chips and sour cream

Note: use green enchilada sauce if you prefer a milder soup. I can only find enchilada sauce at Metro grocery store. 

Chocolate Chip Cookies

This is a great chocolate chip cookie recipe, soft and chewy. The recipe comes from my Auntie Jan and is probably as old if not older than I am. My mom has used this as her staple cookie recipe when we were growing up and you can tell how often it's been used by the condition of the recipe card! Over the past couple years I have tried to find a better/different cookie recipe; from the ones in famous cookbooks to the back of the chocolate chip bag. In the end this one is truly the best!

Last night after a tough first swimming lesson I offered to make a treat for the little guy as a reward for sticking with it and jumping in so many times (not his favourite part of swimming lessons) He picked classic chocolate chip cookies! Bright and early this morning I made a quick batch. This recipe is simple and quick to make. Although I'm trying to avoid sugar and gluten right now I had to sneak a warm chocolate chip cookie off the baking sheet this morning! 

Ingredients:

1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup butter
1 cup  white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 cups chocolate chips
2 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup walnuts (optional)

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 F.
In a mixer cream shortening and butter. Gradually add in sugars, creaming thoroughly.  Beat in eggs & vanilla. Add in flour, baking soda and salt. The dough will be on the moist side. Stir in nuts and chocolate chips. Put teaspoon size dough balls on a cookie sheet. Bake for 10 minutes. If you like them crispy, bake them a couple minutes longer.