A few years ago, when the nearby Costco opened, they used to sell jars of Cinnamon Almonds that my husband went crazy for. For two years they would have them as a seasonal item around Christmas time. Then, the unthinkable happened....the Christmas items came in and ...no cinnamon almonds. Every time we would go to Costco my dear husband would say "I'm feeling lucky," but we would look and there would be no nuts. Then, last year the nut people started to bring a "road show" twice a year and sell their spiced nuts, albeit at a higher price and in smaller jar. Last week, while looking for seasonal recipes, I came across one from AllRecipes that looked promising. So that being the basis, I tweaked it a little and baked us some Cinnamon Almonds. This recipe was really good, extremely easy and great for gift giving.
Cinnamon Almonds 1 egg white 1 teaspoon vanilla 3 cups whole almonds 1/2 cup sugar 1/2 cup brown sugar scant 1/2 teaspoon popcorn salt 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Preheat oven to 250 degrees F (120 degrees C). Foil and grease 2 10x15 inch jellyroll pans.
Lightly beat the egg white; add vanilla, and beat until almost stiff. Add the nuts, and stir until well coated. Mix the sugar, salt, and cinnamon, and sprinkle over the nuts. Toss to coat, and spread evenly on the prepared pans.
Bake for 1 1/2 hour in the preheated oven, stirring evry 20 min., until dry and toasted. Allow to cool, then store in airtight containers.
Daring Bakers recipe this month is Caramel Cake from Shuna Fish Lydon's blog Eggbeater. Our hosts for the month - Dolores the host (http://culinarycuriosity.blogspot.com/) with co-hosts Alex (Brownie of the Blondie and Brownie duo: http://blondieandbrownie.blogspot.com/), Jenny of Foray into Food (http://forayintofood.blogspot.com/). Natalie of Gluten-a-Go-Go (http://glutenagogo.blogspot.com/) will assist those who are alternative bakers. Loved Loved Loved this cake! It is the perfect cake! Just the right amount of caramel in the cake and the icing, which is a Caramelized Butter Icing. Just thinking about it makes me drool! The caramel syrup gave me a problem on the first batch, so that got dumped because I cooked it a tad too long and it burnt. Hey! It said dark amber!!! Mine was a lil' too dark. Oh well, it was only sugar and water. Second try was fine! Our extra challenge was to make Caramels with golden syrup. I used another recipe I have and will post that one another time. I couldn't help but drizzle caramel all over the cake! All in all I will make this very dense cake again!
Wow, despite my lack of blogging for the past few weeks (whoa! how time flies!) I am a winner in this weeks giveaway at the Foodie Blogroll! Thanks Jenn!
Here is a link to the contests page at the Foodie website. Browse around the rest of the site, too, and check out all the great happenings!
I have been waiting, watching the Happy Sorceress' blog Dispensing Happiness for the event Blogging by Mail to come around again. I had never participated before and it seemed like a fun thing to do. So sure enough I joined in this time and received a fantastic package of goodies from Betsy of Food4Five. 10 wonderful items sent from CA- here they are.... The Bread and Chocolate Cookbook by Fran Gage- can't wait to try some of the recipes! A fine addition to my collection of cookbooks! ScharfenBergen Chocolate- 1 baking, 1 10th Anniversary bar! Oh my! Michael Mischer Chocolate w/ cherries bar- An San Fran artisanal bar! Dried Blenheim Apricots- I haven't had apricots this wonderful for a long time. I love them as an appetizer with a small piece of Saga blue cheese on top! Raw pistachios! Can't wait to add these to my holiday baking! Asian Pear& Ginger conserve from Eating with the Seasons. Crack that baby open! A hemp grocery bag also from Eating with the Seasons. So light, it's going right in my purse. A beautiful blue leaf pottery dish, fits right into my decor! Finally Clove Soap from Hawaii. I want to take this soap to bed and stick it under my pillow!!! The smell is heavenly! When I opened the box, the scent hit me and oh, man, it's incredible! I am such a dork- I took the wrapping paper it was in with me to smell in the car since I had to run errands right after I opened my box!!! I wish they had scratch n sniff and I could share! What a fun exchange! Thanks Betsy! And thanks to Stephanie, the Happy Sorceress, for hosting the event! My box went to Dagmar in Sweden.
Dear blogger- quit reducing my pics..... I was thrilled to find that the DB challenge this month was to make pizza. It's always a fun time waiting for the beginning of the month to see what surprise recipe the Daring Baker host of the month has in store for us. Our host this month is Rosa over in Switzerland, host of Rosa's Yummy Yums. The recipe is “Pizza Napoletana” from Peter Reinhart's “The Bread Baker's Apprentice”. This is the first time I have baked a Reinhart recipe. I have been looking for the perfect crust for years. One that is tender, but slighty chewy, and has a good yeasty taste. I haven't made pizza since last winter and now is a good time to get back into it. And we were asked to really get into it and toss our pizzas like a real pizza maker. So into my kitchen I go and mix my dough together the night before. Have I mentioned - I LOVE my Kitchen Aid??! The last time I made pizza, I was using a hand held mixer. The kitchenaid makes everything so much easier! Then into the fridge my dough went. The next day came the real test. Forming the crust is always the hardest part for me.Usually I try to roll it out. But Rosa asked us to try to toss it with the knowledge that it will make it more tender. My dough seemed the right texture, so I floured up my hands and tried to toss like this. UH HUH..... I guess the key is getting the hands to move in a slightly rotating motion with the dough. It took a while, but by the 3rd try I was getting a little better at it. Still couldn't really toss it in the air though. I ended up kinda stretching/patting into the shape I wanted. I made 3 pies this time and put half the dough in the freezer for another day. One was tomato sauce w/cheese, one w/pepperoni, and mine was w/onion, mushrooms and black olives. The sauce tasted sooo good on its own- baked on the pie- it lost the flavor. I will have to add a little more garlic, basil and parmesan next time, so I will post the sauce recipe when it is perfected. I will tell you the base was 1 small can of tomato paste and one 15 oz can of italian diced tomatoes. It was a great thick texture, so I will figure out the spices later. The crust- well lets's just say I will keep looking. It certainly may be me, but it wasn't quite the taste I was looking for. The texture was not bad though. You can find the recipe at Rosa's blog. You can connect to the Daring Bakers site by clicking their logo on the right.
Yes, I know! Judging from the title of this blog, an apple recipe is long overdue! So to honor the fall season I made these cupcakes. The cake is moist and has a great apple taste. The icing comes fromthis recipe. I have used it with other cakes and it is always a winner. (NOTE to Blogger- uhh whats up with the tiny pic??)
For the apple cake I used a DH yellow cake mix,used the ingredients on the box, added 2 lrg chopped apples, 1 pkg cheesecake pudding and a little extra oil. In place of the extra oil you could use 1/2 cup applesauce. In place of the liquid, you could use apple juice or even cider for a little extra tang. I also added about 1 tbl of cinnamon and a dash of nutmeg.
We had a great show of support for our guy Richard of the 10th Mountain Division. I want to send a sincere thank you to all of you! We sent our soldier so much love!
Here is a roundup of what my fabulous baking team sent ….. Please visit the web sites of my team members that have one! You will not be disappointed! Such talent!
Snickerdoodles, and oatmeal/white chocolate/coconut/pecan cookies
Susan – Orange cookies, devil food cake cookies and chocolate chips cookies
Kraft easy mac and cheese and some peanut butter crackers
Fran Z – Oatmeal Scotchie Bars.
Again, thanks for helping out. Watch for round 4 at Operation Baking Gals. And if you are from Northern Ohio (or want to support a soldier in Ohio) please consider helping here.
I have received permission from Susan of OBG to branch out into a regular group here in Ohio. If you would like to bake for soldiers with Ohio connections please email me at Fran@ZimmUSA.com (putOBG in the subject line). We expect to ship at the end of each month
Edit- I posted this on Sunday- but in the middle of Hurricane Ike so it didn't post. Sorry 'bout the crappy pics! (See last post about Ike) Uhhh the Browns lost.... But the cookies were a winner!!!! Here is the post.....
I could have sworn I made this recipe from Jennifer of Bake or Break and posted on it a few months ago. I KNOW I made the cookies, but I guess I didn't post on it. Loved the recipe! Not many cookies feature cashews and teamed with butterscotch you can't lose! Even so, when I made the original recipe, I knew I would change it up a bit the next time I made it, because we love pecans! Tonight is the famous football matchup- Cleveland Browns vs. PITTSburg Steelers. So in honor of my Browns, I have named my changed up recipe Cleveland Browns Bars. They are pretty dang delicious! The crust is like buttery shortbread; and the bscotch caramel- mmmmm! Here's the play by play...
Cleveland Browns Bars (aka Butterscotch Pecan Bars) 1/2 pound (2 sticks, or 1 cup) butter 1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar 1 & 1/4 teaspoons kosher salt 2 & 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 11 ounces butterscotch chips (I used Merckens Butterscotch Wafers this time) 3/4 cup light corn syrup 1 tablespoon 2 cups pecans (toasted lightly in the oven while the crust is baking) dash salt
Preheat oven to 350°. Line a 9″x 13″ pan with parchment paper (line the pan’s width and length, creating a parchment “sling'). Spray parchment paper with cooking spray. Using an mixer on medium speed, beat butter, brown sugar, and salt for 1 to 1 & 1/2 minutes. Decrease mixer speed to low and add the flour. Mix just until combined. Lightly press dough evenly into the prepared pan. Poke holes in the dough with a fork. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, until the crust is a golden color. Remove to wire rack to cool-pretty much completely. In a saucepan over low heat, stir together butterscotch chips, corn syrup, and water. Stir until mixture comes to a simmer and butterscotch chips are melted. Pour over crust. Sprinkle toasted pecans over the butterscotch. Bake for 5 minutes. Salt top very lightly. Cool completely on a wire rack. After cooling, remove from pan and use a very sharp knife to cut into bars.
I'm not complaining, cuz we really don't have it anywhere near as bad as the folks in the great state of Texas. But Ike was pretty wicked, even to Ohio. The storm hit Sunday at 7 PM and knocked down a large tree in our back yard that fell on our fence. Then a few minutes later, the front yard started exploding! Two trees in front and the telephone pole went across, blocking the street. Our power should be on by next Sunday. Edited to add- Friday morning- they started putting up the telephone/power pole at 1:45AM! and power was restored at 6AM. Our phone and internet were reconnected at 7pm (after much cajoling by me).
A few months ago, I had been talking with online friends about troops overseas, and wouldn't we love to be able to find a soldier and send him/her a goodie box, just as a show of support and thanks. Just a little morale boost and a taste of home. But we weren't sure how we would find the soldiers, not knowing any personally. Just days later, I saw a post on the Daring Bakers website from Susan of She's Becoming DoughMessTic. She had just sent cookies to a soldier oversees, and because of the feedback, came up with a brilliant idea to find soldiers, then to invite the blogging community to bake for them and send the goodies directly to the soldiers. Is that fate, or what?! The effort is called Operation Baking Gals. I immediately signed on and sent my package to a LT. aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln. I know he was able to share his packages with many on the ship. And it was pretty easy! Ok -come next round, no question I would help out again! It's the least I can do to show my appreciation. Susan's mission is growing by leaps and bounds. Bakers are signing up and soldiers names are coming in. This month, for Round 3, it's my turn to be a host. So, Could YOU help me bake this time? Our soldier is Richard Martin and he is a member of the 10th Mountain Division- Army Light Infantry based out of Fort Drum NY. I have been told he has LOTS of soldiers he will be sharing with. I have been told these heroes could really use a morale boost - and an unexpected shipment of goodies could really be the ticket. Will it bring them home? No it won't. But it will remind them of it...and that's a really positive thing in such a negative place. Capt. Ballard (our Round One soldier) told Susan in an email that "I just hope these ladies know that they are doing a good thing. Even if it is 'just' baking cookies...". These guys are protecting our rights, our liberty, our freedom. The least we can do in return is share a few homemade cookies with them. If you are up for helping me support this group of soldiers stationed in Iraq, please send an email to Fran@ZimmUSA.com. When I receive your email, I will respond with all the info you will need to ship to our guy Richard in Iraq. We will all ship our boxes at the same time - Beginning the week of Sept. 27th. If you get a free special APO Military Flat Rate box from the Post Office, the shipping should be very low for 1 large box. (Approx $12.95 or less). Please join the effort to support our troops!
I will be hosting in Round 3 for a soldier (to be named)! We will each bake and send off our goodies the week of September 27. I hope you will join me in this effort to supply homebaked goods to our troops overseas. Please email me at fran@zimmUSA.com (in the subject line type "I want on your team") and I will add you to the list of bakers. Please include your city and state in your email if you wish. For more info on Operation Baking Gals click here. Also,FYI- if you are planning to bake for this effort or to send anything to an APO or FPO address, USPS will send you free flat rate boxes that can be used to ship to military addresses at a reduced rate. More info will be added as I receive it. Thanks!
Those little pillows are Coconut Cupcakes filled and topped with coconut cream. I used the wedding cake recipe and added coconut flavoring instead and made a Mock Whipped Topping and added coconut pudding to it. So dang good!
Wedding Cake
1 box white cake mix
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup granulated sugar
3/4 teas. salt
2 eggs or 4 egg whites
1 1/3cups water
2 Tbls. vegetable oil
1 cup (8oz carton) sour cream
1 teaspoon clear vanilla flavor
1 teaspoon almond extract ( I used coconut)
Mix all dry ingredients by hand using a whisk in a very large mixing bowl. Add the rest of the ingredients and beat on low speed for 2 minutes. Bake at 325 degrees until done (approx 10 min for cupcakes)
Mock Whipped Cream
3/4 c. milk
3 tbsp. flour
6 tbsp. butter
6 tbsp. shortening
3/4 c. powdered sugar
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/4 tsp. salt
(Added 1 box Coconut Cream pudding and another 3/4 c milk at the end to give coconut flavoring)
Cook milk and flour until thick. Make sure there are no lumps. Cool. Beat butter, shortening, and sugar for 4 minutes in a bowl. Add flour and milk mixture. Beat 4 minutes. Add vanilla and salt.
Last weekend, we visited our daughter in Arlington VA. The weekend was beautiful, we had a few really good meals and got to go to our favorite bakery there- Heidelberg Bakery . If you ever are in the area, be sure to stop, you will find just about anything you want there! This has to be one of the biggest bakeries I have been in. I had a cheese danish both days- so good! Be sure to visit their website and drool over all the items!
We also walked about 5 miles on the Mt Vernon Trail along the Potomac River on Saturday. Had to walk off those breakfast calories! The trail is very nice and we crossed the footbridge to Teddy Roosevelt Island and saw a few deer in the woods. It was a perfect day weather-wise!
I joined the Daring Baker's group this year to try and stretch my skills. I never would have dreamed of making eclairs on my own and was pretty skeptical when I saw the challenge for August, posted by our hosts, Meeta and Tony. But learn new techniques is just what I have done here and I am just thrilled! The recipe comes from the book Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Herme. Éclairs consist of 3 elements: - Pâte à Choux, also known as Choux Pastry or Cream Puff Dough; - Pastry Cream; - Chocolate glaze I halved the recipe, not wanting to be piggy about it, and piped the choux on the baking sheet in little fingers, planning to make mini eclairs. I baked my pate`a choux according to the recipe, but got tied up on the phone and they baked a minute or 2 over. That somewhat spoiled my idea to pipe the cream directly inside, so I let them cool and cut them in half and spread the filling. Why I didn't pipe the filling on the halves, well, I don't know! Next time I will pipe to make them look so much neater. I changed it up a bit by using suggestions from the Martha Stewart Baking Book and added a bit of whipped cream to my pastry cream for an eclair that was less heavy. I also made the original chocolate glaze, but made some with butterscotch glaze, knowing how my family loves bscotch!My eclairs tasted pretty dang good! If I ever venture this recipe again, I promise to be neater!! You can find the original recipe at the hosts websites, listed above.
Well I sent my cookies off the the USS Abraham Lincoln yesterday. I made Oatmeal Scotchie Bars, Chocolate Chip cookies and Peanut Butter Chip cookies. Hope they get there in one piece!
I used my trusty Food Saver vac and sucked most of the air out- but not enough to flatten the cookies- to keep them fresh. Then, super bubble wrapped! Oatmeal Scotchies are, by far, my family's favorite cookie. I have always made them as a bar, using the recipe on the Nestle's Butterscotch Chip bag. As part of Operation Baking Gals, I am on Steph's team and am sending cookies to Eric for distribution on the USS Abraham Lincoln. I am happy to be involved in showing our appreciation to our troops as they fight to protect freedom in the world.
Browsing the cookbooks at BJ's last week I came across one which looked to have lots of great ideas in it. So I bought it. It is called Ultimate Cake Mix Book from Publications Unlimited. I was going to put a link to it, but couldn't find it easily online. There is another book with the same name by Betty Crocker. But this one is different. Anyway, one of the recipes is called Lemon Up Cake, but it was actually made as a cupcake. I sorta followed the recipe, and I used a different icing. The same icing was used recently by my buddy Bunny. It is a wonderful Lemon Cream Cheese Icing from Epicurious. I changed it up a bit by using lemon extract instead of lemon zest and adding a bit of yellow food coloring for effect. I topped some with crushed Lemonheads. The cupcakes baked up very nicely. I finally used my square cupcake pan for half the recipe. These were so delicious (baked and unbaked!!). Bowl licking good! Lemon Cupcakes I box Butter Recipe Golden Cake Mix 1 box lemon instant pudding 1/4 c fresh lemon juice zest from 1 lemon
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare cake mix according to directions on box, adding the pudding and substituting the lemon juice for 1/4 c of the water. Beat according to the instructions on the box. Batter will be thick. Scoop into 24 cupcakes. (I use an ice cream scoop.) Bake 18-23 minutes until light golden brown and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool. Ice as desired.
Last Sunday, Mark and I took a course on kayaking. It was something I had wanted to do for awhile and I'm so glad we finally got to go. The class is offered by 41 North Coastal Kayaks. Our class was supposed to be held at the Emerald Necklace Marina in the Cleveland Metroparks, but due to the weather and the roughness on Lake Erie, it was held at LaDue Reservoir in Aurora.
There were 6 of us in the class, with 2 instructors. They supplied all the needed gear and the kayaks. Yep, we had class from 9am to 4pm! Here, from their website is the course description, "This full-day course introduces students to the fundamental skills necessary to safely enjoy the sport of sea kayaking. The emphasis is on on-water safety and use of proper technique in basic strokes. Students will also become proficient in a variety of techniques (both solo and assisted) for safe re-entry to your boat in the event of a capsize."
UhHUH! Well we did learn that and more, but I personally can't say I became proficient at getting back in the boat after it overturns. Gotta start doing guy pushups I guess. Mark had little trouble getting back into the kayak in deep water, but it took me awhile and I did need some help to hold the boat steady. Gonna have to practice!
We did have a lot of fun and loved being on the water. The instructors do everything they can to teach you the basics and you can tell they love what they are doing. I'm hoping we can go again on our own in the next week or so.
I am blogging to let you know of a great new baking group, started by Susan of Doughmesstic called Operation Baking Gals. The idea is to send homemade baked goods to our troops overseas. Here, in Susan's own words is the plan. "Operation Baking GALS will be supporting our troops every month, once a month, and instead of our soldiers getting deodorant and soap, they'll be getting the one thing they can't get from the canteen - Homemade goodies made with LOVE. We will be assigning a different soldier to certain sub-groups of bakers each month so that we spread the love, and that way, a homesick troop will have a package with HIS name on it, filled with goodies to share." If you are inclined to help with baking and mailing to our guys and girls serving abroad, check out The Operation Baking Gals blog and read through for instructions.
My oldest daughter is such a butterscotch lover that when I made pecan pie she would beg me to put butterscotch chips on the bottom of the filling. When my girls were growing up I didn't have much spare time or interest in baking. Occasionally I would make a pie. It was only after they were done with college that I began to pick up this hobby. (Poor deprived children!) So when she came to visit last week, I knew I was gonna indulge her with some BScotch Cupcakes.
A few months ago I found Mercken's Butterscotch wafers at the cake store. I am now using them in most of my recipes that call for butterscotch chips (except for Oatmeal Scotchies). They have a less "fake" taste than the chips, that's the only way I could describe them. They are sooo good!
The Northern Ohio summer day was quite warm and we were having a busy time but these were really easy since I used a boxed cake mix (doctored up of course). Actually, I used a Cupcake mix. Some people complain and wonder why anyone would buy a cupcake mix when its the same thing as a cake mix. Well, the reason I like it is that it is HALF the size of a boxed cake mix, which means if I just can make a dozen instead of 2 dozen cupcakes.
Anyway, these were ButterScotch all the way- BS cake, BS icing and BS glaze. Here's the blueprint- Cake- Make cake according to box recipe, but add almost 1 box instant sugar free butterscotch pudding plus 2 tablespoons applesauce. Icing- Simple buttercream with a bit of the BS glaze added. Glaze- Heat a small amount of heavy cream, remove from heat and add enough wafers to make an almost ganache like glaze. (I'd guess I used maybe 2-3 T of cream and probably 1/3 C of wafers.)
Oh yeah, I added pecans to some of the batter and topped these with pecans.
