Garnishes, Part 1 – Chocolate Curls

Starting today Julie and I are going to be sharing monthly ideas on how to make your delectable eats look as good as they taste. :) To start this series I would like to remind you that people eat first with their eyes. So making food look as good as it tastes is worth a little bit of your time. Now let’s discuss what a garnish actually is. A garnish is typically edible, should enhance but not over power the dish, and should actually look good, but that part was self explanatory…I hope. Basically anything can be a garnish, from shaved cheese, to candied orange peel, to chocolate curls. Speaking of chocolate curls…

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You will need:

3/4 of semi sweet chocolate chips

2 tablespoons of shortening (preferably vegetable shortening)

Place both ingredients in a microwave safe bowl and microwave on 50% power until chips are glossy(1-2 minutes). Mix until smooth. NOTE: if your chips are not smoothing out, just microwave them for 15-30 seconds and then stir again. Spread melted mixture in a on the back of a sheet pan that will fit in your refrigerator. (For thicker curls make a thicker layer of chocolate, for more delicate curls spread the chocolate thinly.) Refrigerate 15-30 minutes until chocolate is very set.

Remove the pan from your refrigerator and use a metal cookie spatula to gently scrape off strips (refer to picture below) they will curl as you go. Make sure to keep the spatula slightly angled otherwise the chocolate will not curl. If your chocolate is not set completely it will come off in uncurled strips. If you encounter this problem, just place the pan back in your refrigerator and wait another 10 minutes.

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Make sure that the chocolate is completely smooth before you spread it on the pan, or you will have serious issues!

Don’t worry if the chocolate flows over the edges a bit.

This is the best spatula angle for curls.

And the finished curl! :)

I hope that throughout this series you will be excited to use simple, but beautiful garnishes on your next dish.

Happy eating,

Holly.

Salted Caramel Popcorn

This recipe starts with fluffy white popcorn coated in a thick caramel candy syrup which is enhanced with kosher salt, then mixed together and baked until crispy perfection. Here’s a picture of the finished popcorn.

I know you want the recipe, so here you go-

 

16-17 cups of popcorn (measured once it’s popped)

1 1/2 cups Light or dark brown sugar (depending on what color you want your syrup, I used light brown sugar)

6 tablespoons light corn syrup

12 tablespoons butter

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 tablespoon kosher salt or more depending on personal preference

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Preheat your oven to 300 degrees.

Spread popcorn in a large greased roasting pan. Combine butter, sugar, and corn syrup in a medium saucepan and cook over medium heat until the mixture combines and comes to a boil. Once the mixture is at a medium boil cook stirring constantly for five minutes. Remove caramel from heat and stir in the baking soda, vanilla, and salt, caramel mixture will bubble violently. Immediately pour caramel over popcorn and stir with a greased heat proof spatula or metal spoon until the popcorn is thoroughly covered with caramel. Taste your popcorn and, if desired, sprinkle with more kosher salt. Place the popcorn in the oven for 15 minutes. Remove and stir, then replace in over for another 5 minutes. Spread the cooked popcorn on greased foil or simply leave it in the pan to cool. Once it is fully cooled, enjoy!

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I know this looks like a lot of sugar, but a lot of it cooks down or is countered by the salt.

This is the caramel bubbling away, the boil should slow and almost stop when stirred. If it doesn’t slow, turn your heat down.

An artsy popcorn picture. ;)

Pouring your caramel in stripes helps provide for even distribution once mixed.

This is the mixture before the first baking. After the first baking you should stir it until it is even more evenly mixed.

And the scrumptious finished product.

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I hope you enjoy it!

-Holly

Savory Sausage and Pepper Pizza

The pizza is a wonderful study of flavor and texture combinations. I find that the ones I like most are crunchy on the bottom and edge of the crust, but the center is firm, yet chewy. The peppers have a little crunch left in them and the onions pretty much just melt into the pizza adding a layer on beautifully delicious onion flavor. The meat is a 50/50 mixture of pork sausage and beef which is seasoned with onion and garlic powder, chili flakes, paprika, cayenne pepper, kosher salt, and regular pepper. Finally, the cheese provides the binding that keeps our pizza harmony from falling out of tune. This pie is packed full of flavor, and while making your own crust takes a little extra time, I find it’s 110% worth it. Every time.

Starting with the crust

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2 1/4 teaspoons of active dry yeast

2 1/2 – 3 cups of AP flour (or bread flour if you want a little more chew)

1 cup of water (heated to between 120 and 130 degrees so that you don’t kill the wee beasties)

2 tablespoons of olive oil

2 tablespoons Italian seasoning mix

salt to taste

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Mix the yeast, 1 cup of flour, water, oil, and Italian seasonings in an electric mixer bowl for 30 seconds, scraping the bowl more than once during mixing, be careful not to over mix! After this mixture has come together, taste a little bit of it, if the mixture tastes bland add some salt and/or more Italian seasoning, your mixture should taste a little salty in order to help bring out the flavor of the herbs in the Italian seasoning mix. Once the yeast mixture has come together slowly add another cup of flour to the mixture. Stop the mixer and poke your dough, if it is very sticky and clings to your fingers, add another cup of flour. Once the dough is firm, but still moderately moist to the touch, remove it to a clean countertop and knead it until it is firm and elastic. Cover the dough and let it rest for 10-15 minutes. Once the dough has rested roll it out and lift it gently to a lightly oiled pizza stone. If you wish to have a crust with a raised edge, tuck 1/4 – 1/2 inch of dough under the pizza crust all the way around the edge. Poke holes all over the crust (except the raised edge if you chose to make your pizza that way) in order to let steam out while baking so that bubbles don’t form all over your crust. Bake in a 450 degree oven for 5-10 minutes or until the edge is barely golden brown.

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Now the meat

 

You will need:

1 pound ground Italian pork sausage

1 pound ground beef

1 tablespoon onion powder

1/2 tablespoon garlic powder

1/2 tablespoon red pepper chili flakes

2 teaspoons cayenne pepper

2 teaspoons paprika

Salt and pepper to taste.

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Brown both meats in a skillet, then mix in all seasonings. Drain the mixture but do not rinse! Taste the meat and adjust the seasonings to your preferences.

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Lastly, the veggies.

You will need-

1 green bell pepper, chopped

1 onion, chopped

1/2 tablespoon butter

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In a medium sized skillet, melt the butter. Once it is melted turn the burner down to low and let it heat the butter until it stops foaming and has turned slightly brown. Add in the vegetables and turn the heat up slightly. Allow vegetables to sweat until the pepper is tender and the onion is translucent.

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Assembling the pie.

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You will need-

2 cups of shredded mozzarella cheese

2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

1/2 – 3/4 cup pizza sauce

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Start by spreading a thin layer of sauce over the crust just up to the raised edge (or within a half inch of the edge of the pizza). Then sprinkle half of the meat mixture onto the sauce, now half of both cheeses, and the rest of the meat. Top with the last of the cheese and then the pepper and onion mixture. Place in a 450 degree oven for 5-10 minutes or until the cheese is bubbly and crust is golden.

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Here are some pictures of the pizza in the production stages

Look closely and you can see a grumpy old man in the cracks of the dough.

Make sure your crust is fairly even, no need to be 100% perfect though.

Poking the holes in the crust is very relieving after a stressful day.

Sweated to perfection.

That is some yummy looking sauce. :)

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Well no more pictures, I was getting hungry (I’m sure you are too) and stopping to take pictures was making my agonizing wait even longer.

I hope you all realize that the pizza is like an art canvas, paint on the sauce, layer the vegetables and sprinkle on some meat. Your creativity will take you anywhere.

Happy eating.

-Holly

Rich Triple Chocolate Muffins ~ Yum!

Here’s a picture of the finished muffins sprinkled with a tad of powdered sugar. Delicious! :)

First off, this recipe is SUPER simple, the only difficult part is not eating all of them in a day. I make them with dark chocolate and milk chocolate chips so that you get multiple layers of chocolate goodness. The ratio of

dry goods to wet goods provides for a very dense muffin, and baking them off in a 400 degree oven lends the top a nice crunch for added texture.

Now, I know you’re dying to make these so here’s the recipe:

Start by preheating the oven to 400 degrees

2 cups of AP flour

1 1/4 cups baking cocoa

1 1/2 cups sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 stick plus 2 tablespoons of butter, melted

1 egg

1 1/4 cups of milk

3/4 cup dark chocolate chips

3/4 cups milk chocolate chips

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Mix together all the dry ingredients together in a medium mixing bowl, combine thoroughly. Add the wet ingredients and mix until well combined. Sprinkle in the chocolate chips and stir until mixed in.

Dish 1/2 cup of the muffin dough into lined muffin tins and bake for 15-20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Cool until the muffins are just slightly warm to the touch and enjoy with a tall glass of milk.

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Here are some pictures of the muffin making process

Oops! Almost forgot the sugar, great photo op for my sister. :)

This egg is not spoiled. ;) My mom enjoys keeping chickens on our acreage, and last year I got a couple of my own.

They’re called Easter eggers or Americana’s and they’re bred to lay green eggs. Sometimes they’ll even lay blue or pink, though I have yet to see mine do that. :)

This is the dough before the chocolate chips. Mmm so fudgy and rich.

Dishing the dough.

And the final muffin.

Hope you enjoy them.

-Holly

Valentine’s Treat :)

    Before Valentine’s Day, my sister and I were trying to think of some kind of treat to make in celebration of the holiday. What better treat for Valentine’s day than a cake pop? They are so delicious! The recipe involves blending a cake together with frosting. Shaping the cake mixture into balls and then dipping them into almond bark. These little suckers could be used for any holiday and even birthdays if the decorations were changed up a bit. (like my little pun there?) ;)

The finished cake pops all decorated

The recipe is as follows:

Take a package of cake mix (any flavor)  and bake two rounds according to the package directions. Let the cakes cool completely, then cut them into wedges and put them into your mixers’ bowl, crumble them until the mixture is evenly crumbled then add to the cake one whole can of frosting (again, any flavor) once the mixture is combined take a 2 tsp scoop and place two scoops on top of each other, then roll until they are round making sure that any knobs on the cake balls are molded back into a round shape. After all the dough has been distributed and rolled, place in the refrigerator for 2-3 hours or until the cake balls have firmed up a bit. Melt some almond bark or chocolate until it is runny (if it seems thicker than you want it to be, add vegetable oil or shortening until you have the desired consistency) take 24 lollipop sticks and dip the ends up to 1/2” in the chocolate and stick one in each cake ball, place in the refrigerator until the chocolate has hardened (30 minutes or so) then take the cake pops out of the fridge and dip them in the chocolate (you may need to reheat the chocolate if it has set up again if you are going to put sprinkles on the cake pops then sprinkle them  now, if you prefer to make some drizzled, then wait until the chocolate shell has hardened. Also, if you want the cake pops to be made like we have ours (see above picture) then while they are drying stick the ends in a piece of Styrofoam and let them dry.