Breaking the Ice

Current Mood: Loopy/Dancey
Current Song/Music Mood: Yellowcard- "Way Away"

Happy Monday!!

...Said no one ever....

Well okay, I mean SOME people may say "Happy Monday" but anyone who works Monday through Friday has to agree that Monday is probably the worst day ever. Especially if your boyfriend flies out every Monday morning for work! Boooooooo

You may be wondering why the title of this blog is "Breaking the Ice." And that's understandable. Whenever I think of Creme Brulee though, I think about the smooth, shiny, thin layer of caramelized sugar on top of each little, itty bitty, ramekin filled with the creamy goodness. Then, when you dive into it with your spoon, it's like you're falling through a frozen pond. Breaking the ice. Get it?

I tried baking Creme Brulee for the first time ever yesterday while the boyfriend was fixing the brakes on his monster Jeep. Surprisingly, I didn't burn his house down with the cheap blow torch he has!

This recipe made me think about the 5 ingredient vanilla custard that I made back when I first started this blog in May. That was my "Five Ingredients and Under" month when I actually had themes going on here. I think those themes have come to an end by the way. Now it's just "Whatever Liv feels like making and blogging about" months!

Anyways, Creme Brulee is literally vanilla custard with a thin layer of "ice" on top. Here's the scoop:

5 egg yolks
1/2 c. white sugar
2 c. whipping cream
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
brown sugar or white sugar for the "ice"

That is LIT-RALLY it.

I got this recipe from Lacey, author of "A Sweet Pea Chef" and it is so yummy. I cut this in half but it would have made about 5 or 6 individual ramekins (mine are small...about 3 oz each).

Whip up the egg yolks and the sugar until smooth and creamy. Add the vanilla extract. Fold in the cream slowly being careful not to add too many extra air bubbles. Place the ramekins in a glass baking dish (9 x 13 inch would fit about 6 ramekins just fine) and fill dish with hot water until about halfway up the sides of the ramekins. Pour custard into each ramekin and place whole dish in the oven on 325 for about an hour and 10 minutes.

Lacey had 45 minutes to an hour but I found mine weren't ready until about an hour and 10 minutes. A knife should come out relatively clean when done baking. Remove ramekins from water and let sit for 15 minutes on a dish towel. Let them cool off in the fridge for at least an hour.

Place a thin layer of white or brown sugar on top of each custard and use a blow torch to caramelize it. Or "ice" it. You can also place the ramekins back in the water bath and into the oven on "broil" for like 15 minutes if you don't have a torch.

Tip: this dessert is really yummy cold but you can also heat it up before "icing" and torching. I like it cold though (when I actually eat it!)

Cheers!

P.S. It's not burnt, it's caramelized and DELISH :)
 

No One Likes Being Sick!

This week mother nature got the best of me, unfortunately. And even more unfortunately, I am sitting at work right now sneezing my head off and still feeling sick. I need sweatpants, a couch, and cuddle time with Dom ASAP!

Being sick this week meant no baking for Liv. However, Sunday, I plan on making the boyfriend's favorite dessert--Creme Brulee! I found this odd recipe for peach creme brulee but it was made in a large dish instead of individual ramekins. I decided to pass on that recipe.

Creme Brulee is literally vanilla custard (unless you add a fun flavor like...pumpkin!) with torched brown sugar on top for that nice, crisp touch. I'm not a HUGE fan of this dessert but I've never used a blow torch before so I thought eh, why not give it a try! It's literally 5 ingredients and looks extremely easy to make. Come back Monday to hear about the experience!

Until then...I will be living off hot tea with honey, orange/pineapple juice, cough drops, and tissues :)

Cheers!

Irish Potato Cookies...More Like Candies!

These are SO addicting! It is LITERALLY cream cheese butter cream icing only thicker, rolled into potato shapes, and covered in cinnamon. Literally...

I didn't even notice when I was skimming the recipe that it would be icing. I started making it and thought wow...this is what goes on top of my red velvet cupcakes! Then the cinnamon ties it all in.

These are INCREDIBLY easy it's ridiculous. The only time consuming part is letting the "dough" sit in the fridge for about an hour before rolling them into silly potato shapes. Remember I said the taste, texture, and everything about these treats was SO familiar and I couldn't think of where I've had them before??? Well I think it was just that I couldn't put two and two together. It's super thick icing!!

This is the recipe from our dear friend at Bake at 350:

2 cups pecans
4 tbsp. salted butter, room temp
1/4 cup cream cheese, room temp
1 tsp. vanilla
1/4 tsp. kosher salt
1 lb. powdered sugar
cinnamon
slivered almonds

What I changed: I doubled the recipe because I was bringing them to work and giving some to Dom. I don't remember how many exactly this made, but some of 'em were bigger potatoes then others. I'd say it made about 40, which was accurate because Bridgett said hers made 20.

I ALWAYS use unsalted butter no matter what and this is all I had, so that's what I went with! I left out the pecans because they are super expensive at the store. 1.5 cups of already chopped ones are $5! I would have had to spend $15 on just the pecans. I had sliced almonds at home so I dumped some of these in instead. But not TOO much. Many of the other recipes I compared this one to didn't even have nuts. They actually had coconut which would be delicious.

I also didn't put any of the slivered almonds in as "eyes." The amount of cinnamon wasn't provided so I went with 1 tbsp. and I had a little left over.

What was difficult: The "dough" gets EXTREMELY thick in the mixing bowl. I had to use a whole bag of powdered sugar and when I got down to about 1/6 of the bag, I had to remove the mixing bowl and try to "stir" the rest in. Now...when I say "stir" I mean that the spatula doesn't work and it comes down to the hands! I sort of "kneaded" the mixture and split it into two balls before placing them in the fridge.

I wrapped the balls of "dough" and placed 'em in the fridge for an hour. When you remove them, the "dough" is pretty hard. But then you shape into potatoes, roll 'em in cinnamon, dust the extra cinnamon off with a pastry brush and there ya go! You may be questioning why I keep putting "dough" in quotations. When I think of dough, I think of stuff ya bake. These are no bake mouth parties!!

IRISH POTATO CANDIES!

Beware: These are EXTREMELY sweet. You may become wired :)

Cheers!

Next Up! Irish Potatoes

Wait what?

These things are delish!! I CANNOT for the life of me remember where I had these a while back. The taste, texture, and just the treat itself seems SO familiar it's driving me NUTS. I had a sample of one of these at the Amish Market in Dundalk a few weekends back and that familiar taste came back to me. WHERE HAVE I HAD THESE BEFORE PEOPLE!? Grrrr...

Anyways, Thursday, I plan on making this recipe that I found on one of the blogs I follow on here. SO EASY! Anyone could make these. You don't even need to mess with the oven. These have nuts in them, but I'm even considering leaving those out. The one's I've tried did not have nuts. We will see what my little heart desires on Thursday!

As Bridget from "Bake at 350" says, "Never fear, no potatoes were harmed in the making of these cookies."

I plan on doubling this recipe...think the boyfriend and coworkers won't gobble 20 of these babies up in less than 5 minutes? 40 it is...

Stay tuned and cheers!

White Chocolate Almond Joy Cookies

Current Mood: Sorta sleepy but excited to go to dinner with the boyfriend tonight!

Current Song: Justin Bieber- "As Long As You Love Me"

Have you ever made cookies with browned butter? Well I just tried for the first time and I'm thinking I'd rather just use room-temp-softened butter. I'm not sure if this is what caused my cookies to come out biscotti-texture-like but they were not as soft as I wanted. Browning butter is so easy, just wondering if that was the problem...

I made my own version of Joy the Baker's "Brown Butter Toasted Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies" yesterday on my lunch break while we enjoyed the Blizzard of 2013...NOT. What are those weather people THINKING? Anyways...

The idea of white chocolate and almond joys popped into my head while I was thinking up a cookie recipe to concoct with the coconut and sliced almonds I had in my overflowing collection of baking ingredients at home. Immediately, someone thinks of an Almond Joy. WHO WOULDN'T? It's like the best chocolate candy ever...well...it's up there on my list...and for someone who doesn't eat lots of chocolate...that's pretty high up there. 

I don't even like white chocolate. Or dark chocolate. But I like chocolate chip cookies made with semi-sweet chocolate chips. Weird. Basically, I like baking with semi-sweet chocolate but I decided to go with the Baker's white chocolate baking squares that I found in my drawer. So...almonds, white chocolate, coconut...WHITE CHOCOLATE ALMOND JOYS! 

Joy's original ingredients were as followed:

1 c. butter, melted and browned

1 c. sugar 

3/4 c. brown sugar

1 tbsp. vanilla extract

2 1/2 c. flour

3/4 tsp. baking soda

1/2-3/4 tsp. salt

1 large egg

1 large egg yolk

1/4 c. toasted coconut (unsweetened or sweetened)

1 c. dark chocolate chunks

What I changed: Oh I browned the butter alright...almost browned it TOO much but caught it JUST in time! I actually reduced the white sugar to 3/4 c. because 2 cups of sugar altogether seemed like entirely way too much sugar. I also substituted ALMOND extract for vanilla and reduced the amount to 1/2 tbsp (almond extract is super strong...this was the PERFECT amount in these cookies). I used 1/2 tsp. salt, 1/2 c. UN-TOASTED sweetened coconut, 1 c. sliced almonds in place of the dark chocolate chunks, and 3 oz. of white chocolate baking squares. 

What worked awesomely: The almond extract. I LOVE the flavor of pure almond extract. Don't get ANY of that imitation stuff. NOT ANY FLAVOR. Don't even think about getting imitation vanilla extract. As much as any extract costs, please go with the good stuff. The pure stuff. No one likes cookies that lie :)

The almonds also worked well. They gave the cookie that extra crunch which, if you like nuts, is tasty. 

Not sure what went wrong...which made the cookies to turn out hard. The dough was VERY thick which Joy mentioned was supposed to happen...but after looking at her pictures, my dough looked even THICKER. Now...cookie dough is supposed to be relatively thick. But I don't think this was normal...I think the almonds and the coconut also made the dough thicker and more crumbly. Maybe I over-baked?? None of them came out dark in color though...Hmmm...

Overall the flavor is divine--I highly recommend purchasing and using almond extract. PURE. kthx :)

Random Tip of the Day: When your cookies (whatever flavor) come out of the oven, instead of placing them onto a cooling rack, let them cool in the pans for just a few minutes and then transfer them directly to your cookie jar or Tupperware. This keeps them nice and soft! This technique works with all my other cookies...don't know what happened with this recipe :( 

Thanks Mom for that tip growing up!!

Cheers!

Truffles Everywhere!

Okay well...they aren't everywhere right now...but I hope to be able to sell these in the near future! I just need to work on making them perfectly pretty and I will be set! I have so many ideas flowing in my head for truffles it's unbelievable.

A few include--white chocolate raspberry truffles, cherry almond truffles, and hazelnut coffee truffles.

Are you drooling yet??

If you haven't checked out my recipe for the mint chocolate truffles that I made last week, be sure to do so--it's featured in my last post!

They will be gone in NO TIME if you decide to make a batch and take them into your work or to any other event. They are bite sized--who doesn't want something so sweet and delicious that can be devoured in one bite!? ..............Couldn't think of any one, could ya?

Coming up tomorrow: White Chocolate Almond Joy cookies. Interesting idea, huh?

Stay tuned for the recipe and recap of my experience! Oh and don't forget to place your order NOW for St. Patty's Day!!

Cheers!