Lemon Thyme Olive Oil Cakes with Sugary Glaze

Lemon Thyme Olive Oil Cakes with Sugary Glaze

Inspired by:Tasty Kitchen

I have made these tasty cakes so many times now, I could do it in my sleep. My favorite part about this recipe is making the entire thing in my food processor. It makes the clean up super easy. If you don't have thyme available, you can use poppy seeds, leave them plain, or even add fresh crushed fruit.

Ingredients:

1-1/3 Cup Sugar

2 Tbsp Grated Lemon Zest

2 Whole eggs

1/4 Cup Olive Oil

2/3 Cup Whole Milk

1 Cup Flour

1/2 Tsp Baking powder

1/2 Tsp Salt

1 Tsp Minced Fresh Thyme

Glaze:

1 1/2 Cups Powdered Sugar

2 Tbsp melted butter

2 Tbsp milk

1-2 Tbsp lemon juice or more as needed

Preheat oven to 350

Line muffin pan with cupcake liners. I do not not recommend just spraying muffin tin as cakes are likely to stick. In food processor, pulse sugar and lemon zest until combined. Add eggs one at a time , then slowly add olive oil and milk pulsing until emulsified and batter is thin. Do not over mix batter or it will become too fluffy.

In small bowl, whisk flour, baking soda, salt, and thyme. Add in small batches to blender and pulse lightly just until combined. Pour batter into muffin tin and bake 20 mins depending on oven.

For glaze, whisk all 4 ingredients until smooth. When muffins are done, place on cooling rack over a baking sheet and drizzle or dunk cakes into glaze to coat. Allow to cool and store in container or plastic zip bags.

Creamy Tomato Bisque with Smoked Gouda Grilled Cheese

Creamy Tomato Bisque with Smoked Gouda Grilled Cheese

Inspired by: Food Wishes

Ingredients:

Olive Oil
1/2 Cup Celery
1 Large Onion diced
3 Garlic Cloves
28 oz of Canned Tomato (If using home canned tomato increase sugar)
Or 3 1/2 Cups crushed tomato(Recommended: San Marzano)
1 Quart Chicken Broth in addition we added 1 Quart of home canned tomato Juice and increased ingredients
1/2 Cup Heavy Cream
3 tbsp Long Grain Rice*
2 tbsp Sugar
Salt and Pepper to taste
Optional:
Basil
Cayenne Pepper
Paprika
*using rice brings the silky consistency to the soup without having to make a thick rue with flour or add any additional starches.

White Sandwich Bread
Butter
Shredded Smoked Gouda (Boars Head)
Shredded White American (Boars Head)

Special Equipment:
Immersion Blender (Subsitute: Regular Blender)
Electric Griddle ( Subsistute: Frying Pan)

In a large pot or dutch oven heat olive oil. When ready, saute diced onion, celery, and crushed garlic. Once soft, add chicken broth and/or tomato juice, crushed tomatoes and bring to a simmer on high. Add salt, pepper, sugar, cayenne and paprika if using, to taste. Once simmering on high, reduce heat to maintain a low steady simmer. Add rice and simmer for 35-45 minuets stirring occasionally or until rice is soft. At this point, taste to season with salt, pepper, and any additional sugar needed. It is important to taste as you are cooking and adjust seasoning as you go.Because we used the home canned tomatoes the salt and acidity where high and we ended up using several tablespoons of sugar to cut down on the acid.

When rice and vegetables are soft, turn down to low and blend soup in pot with your immersion blender until smooth and silky. If using a blender, allow to cool and gently pour the soup into your regular blender.

At this point, we chose to strain our soup through a fine mesh strainer to remove the additional pulp and skins left behind. We liked this better and felt it was worth the additional step to make an extra smooth and creamy dish. However, this step can be skipped.

Once blended and strained, return to low heat and add heavy cream. Stir until completed combined and taste to adjust any salt or additional sugar needed.


Sammachies:

Heat griddle or pan with melted butter. Shred cheese and make sandwhiches. Grill until melted and brown on the outside. The benefit of using shredded cheese instead of slices, the cheese melts faster and gives you a creamy consistency throughout the sandwich.


Cooking Notes:

If the soup tastes to acidic continue to add cream and sugar on low heat until it reaches your desired taste.

Using fresh tomatoes will require you to either roast or boil and remove skin and seeds. Using high quality canned tomatoes like home canned tomatoes or the San Marzano tomatoes will most likely work better.

To add an additional flavor dimension to your soup, roast the canned tomatoes and vegetables in the oven first with olive oil, salt and garlic for 20 minuets before starting your soup.

This soup can be frozen before adding in the cream.

Chocolate Truffles with Candied Orange Peel

Chocolate Truffles with Candied Orange Peel

Easier then you think...

Ingredients:

16 oz of semi-sweet Bakers Chocolate

3/4 Cups heavy whipping cream

1 tsp of real vanilla extract

4 tbsp of soft butter

1 tsp of strong coffee (optional)

Flavoring...

Use 1/4 cup of your choice of flavoring

Orange Juice

Beer/Alcohol

Coffee

Jams/Jellies

Soft Fresh Fruits

Shell:

To coat my chocolate I used 3 bags of Ghirardelli Dark Chocolate Flavor Melting Wafers

Other suggestions:

Powder Sugar

Refined Cocoa Powder

Tempered Chocolate

Confectioners Coating

Powdered suger mixed with cinnamon, nutmeg,pumpkin pie spice, or any other combination of spices

Orange Peel

Thinly shaved orange peel, with white part scrapped off

Sugar

Water

To make the inside of the truffle...

Chocolate Ganache

In a food processor, pulverize bakers chocolate until almost a powder. Heat heavy cream on stove top until it just starts to bubble. Turn the food processor on high and slowly pour in the warm whipping cream until mixture runs smooth. Then add butter, vanilla, coffee, and 1/4 cup of flavoring. Mix until smooth and texture is silky.

(The key to a great truffle is the ganache center. If the texture of the truffle is not smooth and silky but comes out rough and grainy, the mixture has broken. To fix this mix the broken ganache with a tablespoon or so of heavy cream the is roughly the same temperature as the ganache until smooth and silky.)

Pour ganache mixture into a clean bowl or dish, cover with plastic wrap and allow to sit at room temperature until firm 4+ hours. You can speed this process up by placing it in the fridge, however, the ganache may take on a grainy texture.

Once your mixture is firm enough to handle you are ready to form it into balls.

I put on clean plastic gloves and used a spoon to scoop the ganache out of the bowl and rolled it quickly between my hands. I made mine on the smaller side and placed the rolled balls onto sprayed parchment paper.

I let mine rest for 20 mins to firm up again before dipping in chocolate.

After several tries with the chocolate coating, I found the best method was to melt small batches in the microwave and as the chocolate starts to harden, add more chocolate wafers to the bowl and reheat. When melting the chocolate over the stove, my ganache center started to melt into the coating which made it hard for the chocolate to harden fully.

Let cool, and EAT! The truffles can be stored in the refrigerator for up to a week. They are served best at room temperature.

Candied Orange Peel:

Jacques Pepins Candied Orange

Thinly slice your orange peel with a vegetable peeler and scrap off any white that is left. Blanch 2 times by bringing water and orange peel to a boil, drain, and repeat with fresh water. 

Then in a small pan bring about a cup or more of sugar(depending on how much you are making) and water (enough to cover the oranges) to a boil. Allow sugar to crystalize and thicken while the liquid reduces for about 10 mins. When done, roll in sugar and allow to cool. Store in air tight container to keep from hardening.

Note: Before I made these Truffles I watched several you tube videos and read tons of blogs and recipe books before developing my own method. 

No Knead Pretzel Rolls

No Knead Pretzel Rolls

Adapted from Artisain Breads with Steve

Ingredients:

3 C bread flour

1-1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp instant yeast

1 tbsp sugar

10-1/2 oz water

3 tbsp baking soda

1 egg yolk

1 to 2 tbsp water

Coarse Sea Salt

Instructions:

Whisk the first four dry ingredients in a medium sized bowl. Once fully incorporate slowly add in the water and mix with the back of a wooden spoon. When the dough becomes difficult to stir, use a spatula to scrap down the sides of the bowl. Wet hands and begin turning and mixing the dough with your hands to form a ball. You will use a kneading motion to mix the bread at this point to smoosh the dough and form a soft ball. Once done, cover with plastic wrap and leave to sit for 8-10 hours.

Once the dough has more then doubled in size...

Scrape dough from bowl onto a clean work surface that has been dusted with flour. Using floured hands, fold the dough onto itself and form a ball and lightly knead the dough a couple of times. 

At this point you will need to decide how many and how large you would like your rolls to be. You cant make 6 sandwich rolls about the size of hamburger buns. Or, 12 small dinner sized rolls. I chose to make 6 roll

Cut your dough ball in half, and form each half into a ball. Then cut each half into 3 parts again forming each part into ball. 

Once your dough balls are rolled, leave to proof on the floured surface covered with a towel or plastic wrap for half an hour. 

When the rolls slightly increased in size, about 30 mins later...

Position your oven rack to the lower part of the oven. If using a baking stone, place in oven now to allow it to come to temp as the oven heats up. Preheat oven to 450.

Poaching...

While oven is heating, poach the dough.

Set up cooling wrack over  kitchen towel to catch moistuer after the poaching, and a piece of parchment the size of the baking sheet or stone you will be using.

Bring a skillet with 2 inches of water to a simmer and then add 3 tbsp of baking soda. Next, drop the dough 3 to 4 at a time into the simmering water and poach 30 seconds on each side. Remove when done and place on cooling rack while poaching the next batch of dough.

To make an egg wash use the egg yolk and a few tbsp of water, whisk together.

Transfer rolls to parchment paper and brush with egg wash. Sprinkle with course sea salt and score the top of each roll with a knife.

To transfer the rolls onto the hot baking stone I used a flat baking sheet and shimmied them on. You can use a pizza peel or if you chose to not use a baking stone, no preheating of the pan is needed and you can slide them into the oven on the baking sheet of your choice.

Bake for 14-16 mins

The perks of using a baking stone...

Creates even heating and a nice crunchy texture to the bottom on the bread.

Original video in link...

No Knead Pretzel Rolls by Steve