Never Bashful with Butter

I know, I know. Late again.

I should have been prepared and posted my picks for the best drinks to ring in the new year with WEEKS ago, back when people were planning their NYE parties and they could have made it to the grocery store in time to buy the ingredients to make these delicious things.

Oops. My bad.

So I guess instead of making these drinks for your New Years Eve party, you should just find some way to incorporate them into your usual mixed drink repertoire for the year 2008.

Why?
Because they’re just that good.

The Robot Graveyard

Remember when you were a kid and you used to make “the graveyard” (where you mix ALL the sodas together.) with your fountain drinks?

Yeah, its kind of like that, only with fruit juice and a little bit of soda and some alcohol.

The robot graveyard-

2 parts-
orange juice
lemonade
grape juice
cranberry juice
pineapple juice
Lemon lime soda
Cherry cola

1 part-
Strawberry nectar
banana puree
guava juice

1 shot of bacardi white rum for each serving

Mix together all the juices and sodas. In a cocktail glass, pour one shot of bacardi white rum and top off with the juice mixture. (You can also mix all of the ingredients together in a punch bowl or a pitcher, if you’re having a party and don’t want to be bothered with mixing individual drinks!)

Garnish with as many fruits as you have available, the more, the better.

The Poe

I guess you could call it “The Black Cat” but die hard EAP fans will recognize the nod to his short story, The Black Cat. Blue Curacao, fresh squeezed lime juice and cranberry juice make up this strangely coloured (you can’t really tell, but the colour starts out a much brighter purple at the bottom) but beautifully haunting drink.

“But my disease grew upon me –for what disease is like Alcohol!”

The Poe

for each serving-
1 measure blue curacao
1 measure vodka (can be flavoured, if you’re feeling adventurous)
3 measures lemon lime soda
1 measure cranberry juice
1/2 measure fresh squeezed lime juice

Shake together the curacao, vodka, lime juice and soda. Pour the cranberry juice into the bottom of a tall glass. Gently over the back of a spoon, pour the alcohol mixture over top. Serve with black cat cocktail stirrer (the drink should be stirred just before drinking) and a lime curl or slice.

The Cran-Pop

Ok, so this one is an oldie but a goodie (hence the play on “gran-pop” and “cran pop”) and I think I’ll keep drinking it until my liver fails and they pry my last bottle of vodka from my cold, dead, alcohol soaked hands.

…well, that makes me sound like a lush, doesn’t it? haha.. Seriously though, this drink is just as good without the alcohol. Its actually like cranberry lemon lime soda.. only prettier.

The Cran-pop

For each serving-
1 shot premium vodka
lemon lime soda
a few teaspoons of cranberry juice concentrate

In a balloon glass or other decorative (but large) cocktail glass, add the vodka and top off with enough soda to fill the glass 3/4 full. Stir. Pour the cold cranberry juice concentrate (not juice, but the actual frozen juice concentrate. You can use cranberry juice, but it won’t be as pretty) directly into the center of the glass, slowly. It should settle to the bottom of the glass and slowly spread out as you serve it, creating a pretty range of rose colours in the bottom of the glass. Serve with a wedge or slice of lime, which should be squeezed into the glass just before drinking.

The Blue Orange

If I were an alcoholic when I was in high school, I would have instead named this drink “The Oralue” As those of us who had the misfortune of growing up Spudders also had the misfortune of blue and orange being our school colours. (Oralue= ora(nge) + (b)lue, or the Ridgefield high school yearbook title)

Oh my darlin’ Clementine!

The Blue Orange

For each serving-
1 measure blue curacao
3 measures lemonade (the lemon actually accents the orange flavour)
2 measures lemon lime soda
1 scoop orange sherbet

In a tall, small glass, place a scoop of orange sherbet, and press it into the bottom, removing any air pockets. Mix together the curacao, lemonade and lemon lime soda, pour over top just before serving. Serve with an orange wedge and a straw/stirrer.

The Sparkle Ninja

I know what you’re thinking… But where is the ninja? I don’t see a ninja!
…Exactly.

You should never be able to see a good ninja, and with any luck, you’ll never taste the alcohol in this drink.

Just like the ninja, it sneaks up on you, and out of nowhere, it puts you out of your misery.
(if you have questions about ninjas, I suggest checking out Real Ultimate Power! NSFW)

The Sparkle Ninja

3 parts lemon lime soda
2 parts strawberry nectar
1 part guava juice

1 shot banana rum per serving

Dip cocktail glass into lemon juice and then into pink coloured rimming sugar (otherwise, its not sparkly) Allow to dry.

In a large container, mix together the soda, strawberry nectar and guava juice. (you can add the rum if you know how many servings you intend to make, which is why this is a great punch bowl or pitcher drink for parties) when serving, pour in the shot of banana rum and top off with the juice mixture. Serve with the a pink umbrella so the ninjas have something to hide behind.

So there you have it!

HAPPY NEW YEARS EVERYONE!

-A.

When I was a little girl, I would do whatever I could to get into the kitchen and bake with my mom.

For a while, I don’t think she really wanted me there. I asked too many questions, I made too many messes, I didn’t listen to directions well, and I’m pretty sure I was the most annoying child to have in the kitchen with you when you were actually attempting to make something that was- A.) edible and B.) would be appealing to the entire family and not just the crazy 5 year old who thought that sugar should be its own food group.

My mom’s answer to my constantly begging to make goodies in the kitchen was to give me outlets for my culinary creativity. Namely, the county fair baking competition.

For one week in August every year, the Clark County Fair would open and give me a chance to enter all sorts of baked goods that I’d tried to perfect during the rest of the year.

Most kids wanted to go to the fair for the rides or the cotton candy. Not me (ok, so maybe part of it was for the cotton candy). For months ahead of time Ineverbashfulwithbutter.comhttp://www.neverbashfulwithbutter.com would be in the kitchen perfecting my recipes and presentation for the big show. I longed for the excitement of entering. The first sight of the entry book at the local pharmacy would send shivers up my spine, and I would be giddy from then until the final submission date.

I had competition fever.

Sure, there were hits, and of course… there were misses. PLENTY of misses. So many misses that I often questioned my ability to make anything that tasted good. It was the few that won that kept me going.

This is one of those recipes. Just like the Zucchini bread muffins and the Sugar plums, this is one of the recipes from the good ol’ family recipe book, so no creativity necessary for these babies.

Few things have changed since my great grandmother created these recipes, so they’re perfect for days like today, when I don’t have a creative bone in my body.

Applesauce and pecan spice cake with raspberry preserves and cream cheese icing.

4 cups flour
4 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1-2 cups chopped pecans (you can use almonds or walnuts if you prefer)
1 cup oil
2 cups sugar
3 cups applesauce

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
In a large mixing bowl, mix all ingredients together and stir until smooth (with small bumps for the pecans, of course) spoon or pour into prepared muffin tins (will make about 36 standard size muffins or 24 standard plus 12+ mini muffins) or two well greased 9″ round cake pans.

Bake for 15-25 minutes for muffins (it took my oven about 20 minutes, but I’d check at 12 minutes just to be sure.) or 45 minutes+ for round cake pans.

Allow to fully cool before filling with raspberry jam (apple butter or apple sauce is also VERY tasty as filling) and either sprinkling with powdered sugar or icing with cream cheese icing (I used the cream cheese icing recipe posted here). Top with a pecan half and enjoy!

I did a few with the purple icing and the raspberry filling and the rest I left unfilled (because I’m lazy), and I topped them with uncoloured cream cheese icing. They were still pretty darn tasty.

They have pecans inside the batter in addition to the pecan half on the top. I sprinkled the icing with a little ground nutmeg and cinnamon as well.

I think I’ll feel more creative later on this week. Right now I’m still in “Christma-shock”, so I apologize for the boring tone of this post.

But really, you should totally make these cakes. They’re actually kind of healthy, so those of you whose New Years resolutions include eating healthier, these are totally up your alley.

Or maybe that’s just my great grandmother talking. After all, anything that has fruit in it HAS to be healthy, right? *smile*

-A.

Merry Christmas from me, my cookie monster, and all of the robots here at Never Bashful with Butter!

We sincerely wish you all the best this holiday.

-A.

These are SO simple to make.

However, with a special touch and some fancy wrapping, you can make them look like gourmet goodies, even if you let the kids help!

I should know. I grew up making these things. My mom called them sugarplums. I have no idea why, since they’re not plums, or even plum flavoured. I suppose you could try and make them with some sort of plum puree, but I prefer this version. Plain and simple and delicious.

Really, all they are, are really thick buttercreams. The secret is in how you mix the ingredients together.

To make these ones, you’ll need-

1lb powdered sugar (about 6 cups)
3 sticks (1 1/2 cups) butter at room temperature
1 tablespoon raspberry extract (though you can use any flavouring that you wish.)
2 bags white chocolate chips
white sprinkles
Extra powdered sugar

You can mix these by hand, or you can mix them with the paddle blade in a stand mixer.

Rather than whip the butter, you want to keep it as dense as possible, so you need to incorporate as little air as possible.

Place the butter in the bottom of the bowl. At LOW speed, begin by blending the butter, then slowly add the powdered sugar, about a cup at a time, allowing each cup to be fully mixed into the butter before adding more. Once all of the powdered sugar is mixed into the butter, you should have a pretty thick dough that separates itself from the side of the bowl. Add the flavouring extract and beat for few more seconds to make sure it is mixed in. At this time you can also add paste colouring. Whatever you do, do not add extra liquid to this recipe. If you don’t feel there is enough flavouring to it, be sure to add more powdered sugar to make up for the extra flavouring you add. The resulting mass should be a thick paste. You may need to add more than 6 cups of powdered sugar, so make sure you have extra powdered sugar on hand.

Remove the dough from the bowl and place on a powdered sugar coated piece of waxed paper (the waxed paper helps absorb any extra moisture when the dough is sitting at room temperature) Pinch off small pieces of the dough and roll into small balls, placing them on another sheet of waxed paper on a cookie sheet. The size of the ball doesn’t really matter, but I’d try to stay around 1″, as the larger ones tend to flatten out.

Once you’ve rolled the dough into balls and placed them on a waxed paper covered baking sheet, put them in the freezer and keep them there until they are solid. This took me about an hour. The larger the balls, the longer they’ll need to freeze.

Just before you remove them from the freezer, melt one bag of white chocolate chips with 1 tablespoon shortening in a double boiler. Stir, and dip each frozen raspberry ball into the white chocolate individually, removing it with a fork and placing it back on the waxed paper coated baking sheet. Sprinkle with white sprinkles and allow to sit for another hour or so at room temperature, so they will set up. if you freeze them, they may melt once removed from the freezer. This recipe makes about 100 1″ish snowballs. Feel free to halve the recipe!

Package and label them. Even just a few in a bag is a nice holiday treat!

I made my bags out of waxed paper that I sealed with a gluestick. They look pretty shnazzy, I think.

Here is the label I made-

…

Anyways, I’m off to spend the weekend with family! I’ll be back on Christmas eve to share a special story and photo post. Hope everyone has a great weekend!

-A.

Sometimes winter just needs a little kick in the pants.

Here in the northwest, we’ve already weathered wind storms, early snow and some very serious flooding, and it isn’t even technically winter yet! Sure, we’re used to the rain and its pretty much a given that between the months of September and March, the only colour in the sky is grey.

Its weather like this that makes me think of summertime flavours, if only to cheer me up a little. Sort of a “Calgon, take me away!” type deal.

So for this dessert, I mixed together one of of my favourite winter holiday recipes and one of my favourite summertime flavours, and in the process, I created one of my very favourite Christmas gifts from the kitchen-

Lime Curd.

Don’t knock it ’til ya try it. Like the label says, “Trust me, it tastes good!” It seems like most people who have never tried curd don’t really know what they’re missing out on. Its sort of like a fruit jelly, only… a little different. Its uses are pretty much the same though.

Lemon curd is very popular, but you can pretty much make curd out of any sort of fruit or vegetable juice, if you think about it… or you could mix different juices together! OH, the possibilities are endless!

After I made the lime curd I realized I had a little bit extra, so I made a little vanilla sour cream cake (one of my holiday favourites) and used the curd as filling. The flavours mesh perfectly!

You’ll have to pardon my lack of story for this dessert/kitchen gift, I’ve been so busy lately that I can’t seem to think of anything to share! you’ll have to settle for photos and a recipe, but I don’t think you’ll mind-

Anyways.. here are some more photos!

Curd.. tasty tasty curd.

The sour cream cake is nice and rich and moist and dense and perfect! I iced it with a basic cream cheese icing, and the sharp citrus lime curd really cut through the rich flavour of it all. Delicious!

Without any further ado, here is the recipe for lime curd-

6 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup lime juice**
2 tablespoons finely grated lime or lemon zest (optional)
1/2 teaspoon citric acid (sour salt)- (optional, but recommended)
8 tablespoons butter

The first few times you make any sort of curd, I’d suggest doing it in a double boiler to avoid making lime flavoured scrambled eggs. If you’re completely comfortable with it, it is alright to go ahead and use a pan over direct heat, but make sure you’re prepared to commit to constant whisking. Seriously, you can NOT stop whisking, or you’ll end up with weird scrambley eggs. ew.

Also, always try and use the freshest ingredients possible for this project. Fresh eggs and fresh squeezed juice really make this curd sharp and delicious. Some recipes you can get away with using less than the best ingredients for, but you can really tell the difference with this one.

Anyways..

Before you begin the cooking process, prepare your ingredients. Cut the butter into small pieces and set them aside. Have all of your ingredients measured out and ready to go. You’ll need to be able to add them with one hand while whisking constantly with the other.

Whisk together the eggs, sugar, and lemon juice in either the top pan of a double boiler (with the bottom pan full of boiling water) or in a medium saucepan over direct heat, until blended. Cook, whisking constantly (to prevent it from curdling), until the mixture becomes thick (like sour cream or a hollandaise sauce) and reaches 160 degrees Fahrenheit, which will take about 10-15 minutes. whisk into the mixture until the butter has melted. Add the lime zest and citric acid at this point and Remove from heat. Pour through a fine strainer to remove any lumps and pour into designated containers with tight fitting lids. Seal and let cool. The lime curd will continue to thicken as it cools. Keep refrigerated. The curd has a shelf life of about 2-3 weeks. Makes about 3 cups.

** You can use lemon or orange juice in this recipe if you wish, just make sure you use lemon zest with lemon juice or orange zest with orange juice, so you don’t end up with little green flecks in your orange curd!

As an added help, this site right here has some special tips and techniques for making curd. I didn’t follow their methods, so I can’t speak for them, but they look like viable ideas!

Also, check out this blogger’s delicious recipe for meyer lemon curd (and her completely adorable label!) you can see that there is much variation between recipes for curd. They’re all similar, but the amount of eggs, juice and butter is almost always different. Some people even use recipes that use entirely egg yolks, and not the full egg.

Oh, also- here is the label for the lime curd-

There are many different ways to gift the lime curd. Give it with a plate of fresh baked shortbread rounds, or with a pound cake in a tin (you can make the sour cream cake, and place IT in a tin!) You could even just make a little recipe book with all the different ways that lime curd can be used!

But all of that is up to you. I think the curd itself is gift enough!

Onward!
Here is the recipe that I used for Vanilla sour cream cake

1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup butter
2 eggs
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup milk
1 cup sour cream

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Grease a 9×9 inch pan or line a muffin pan with paper liners.

In a medium bowl, cream together the sugar and butter. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Combine flour and baking powder, add to the creamed mixture and mix well. Finally, mix together the sour cream and the milk, and stir it into the rest of the mixture until batter is smooth. Pour or spoon batter into the prepared pan.

Bake for 30 to 40 minutes in the preheated oven. For cupcakes, bake 20 to 25 minutes. Cake is done when it springs back to the touch.

Once the cake has cooled, fill with lime curd (or your desired filling) and either frost with cream cheese icing (which I did) or sprinkle with powdered sugar. Its soooo good!

Hope you are all having a delicious holiday season!
-A.

*EDIT*
I went and searched the intarwebz, and I found a recipe for VEGAN lemon curd! Here is a link to the recipe- CLICKY!

I haven’t tried it myself, but it makes sense that it would work.

Just a note, “Fructose syrup” can be substituted with organic corn syrup (organic doesn’t have high fructose corn syrup as an ingredient, whereas regular does. If that doesn’t matter to you, then rock on.) Also, you can use corn starch instead of arrowroot, though the finished product won’t be as clear as if you were using Arrowroot powder, but still just as tasty.

Another thing, the author doesn’t mention this, but you should still include the lemon zest, as it makes the curd just a little more tart. Also, you should still follow the “remove from heat when mixture thickens” directions for the non-vegan curd, because I don’t think just bringing the mixture to a boil will thicken it up enough for it to be the right consistency. Thats just me though, like I said, I haven’t tried this recipe yet. If you do, lemme know how it turns out!

Holiday baking, gift making and present wrapping has me pretty wiped out this week.

I mean, holy crap, Christmas is in ONE WEEK! Next Tuesday is the day, the big show… the day that children wait excitedly for all year, other than their birthday. It is a day full of smiles and happiness, not to mention gift giving and receiving.

Every year I make a tradition out of giving homemade gifts as Christmas presents. I’ve already shared one of my homemade holiday gifts- The dark chocolate orange dessert sauce I made last week- This weekend I got on the ball and finished up my “least perishable” homemade holiday gifts, and I’m here to share them with you!

Here are a couple of different and delicious homemade holiday gifts that ANYONE can make in their kitchen. Not only are they great for holiday gift giving, but they’re great for any other gift giving occasion, or even just a way to further personalize your own kitchen supplies!

So, without further ado-

First off, I’ll share with you my rich and delicious hot cocoa mix-

I actually got the original version of this recipe from Allrecipes.com, and someone who commented on the original version further refined it, and then I refined it again, because I wasn’t totally happy with the outcome. Feel free to do the same with mine.

2 cups dutch process cocoa powder
4 cups powdered sugar
5 cups powdered milk
1 1/2 cups powdered creamer
1 bag miniature milk chocolate chips

Mix all of the ingredients together in a GIANT bowl.
Actually, I have this giant tupperware bowl (I usually use it as a layer cake holder, but it holds about 3 gallons of liquid, if need be) and I poured all the ingredients into it, put the lid on and shook it until my arms got tired. I think the shaking method might work better than the stirring method, because the ingredients FULLY integrate, rather than just sort of being sloshed together.

Directions for making the mix into a liquid- For one serving, place 1/3 cup cocoa mixture into mug and “top off” with 3/4 cup boiling water. Stir until fully dissolved. Serve with whipped cream or homemade marshmallows.

Actually, I made two versions of hot cocoa from this mix today, and I REALLY liked the version I made with steamed milk. OMG delicious. I’d totally encourage others to do the same, or even just heat up some milk in the microwave.

In addition to this being a super easy Christmas gift idea, I’m making it even more super easy by including a printable label for it!
Here it is-

After I whipped up the mix, I used a 1/3 cup measure to scoop up 6 servings of the mix into ziploc sandwich bags, squeezed all the air out of the bag, sealed it, put that bag into a SECOND ziploc bag, squeezed all the air out of that, sealed it and then placed it into a homemade gift bag that I made out of gift wrap. (making a homemade gift bag is way easy. Just get out an old VHS tape and wrap it halfway, sealing the edges with a glue stick. Make sure you don’t wrap the whole thing, unless you intend to give the VHS tape as a gift! hehe.. Trim up the top and let the glue dry, and you’ve got yourself a pretty little gift bag!)

GIFT IDEA!

I’d recommend giving your hot cocoa mix as part of a gift basket with a pretty holiday mug, a little baggie of homemade marshmallows, a couple candy canes and maybe a DVD and some cushy socks, to encourage the use of the hot cocoa as a festive relaxing agent. You could even make it a couple gift by including two mugs and picking a romantic movie!

Next up, for all the Italian food lovers, or even the salad loving hippies out there-

Italian herb infused vinegar and garlic olive oil!

This gift idea is not only simple, but its economical to boot! I wouldn’t recommend children make them, as they require stovetop cooking, and hot vinegar and hot oil are especially dangerous.

GREAT BIG GIANT IMPORTANT EDIT!!!

As one commenter reminded me, do not leave the garlic infused olive oil at room temperature for longer than a week (the week guideline was laid out to me via the recipe and directions I initially used for this gift idea, though I am keeping my olive oil refrigerated until the day in which it will be gifted, with instructions for the recipient to keep it refrigerated) as it may begin to grow bacteria. Keep it refrigerated!

For the olive oil you’ll need-

3 garlic cloves
16 oz extra virgin olive oil

Peel and slice the garlic cloves thinly. Using a meat tenderizer, smash the garlic slices.
Pour the olive oil into a medium saucepan over LOW heat. Place the smashed garlic clove slices into the warmed oil. Stir occasionally. After about 15 minutes, use a metal or wooden spoon to scoop up some of the garlic pieces. They should appear slightly translucent, and yellowy, and the oil should smell garlicky. Do not cook longer than 20 minutes on the stovetop, and never allow the oil to boil, or bubbles to form at the bottom of the oil, this will change the chemical properties of the oil, lowering its smoke point further, which may cause difficulty if the receiver of this gift wishes to cook with it.

Remove the pan from the burner and allow the oil to cool inside the pan. Prepare the jars or bottles that you wish to place the oil by placing a peeled garlic clove and if you wish, a sprig of fresh rosemary or oregano inside the bottle. While still warm, pour the oil into the jar or bottle through a clean and dry funnel. Dispose of the cooked garlic (or use it in a stirfry!). When the oil is room temperature, cap and close the jar or bottle, and keep refrigerated.

Here is the label for the Garlic olive oil-

Of course, this gift could be given alone, or paired with a delicious and spicy herbed vinegar-

To make the herbed vinegar, you’ll need-

2 quarts distilled white vinegar

a handful of fresh organic oregano
a handful of fresh organic basil
a handful of fresh organic rosemary
(you can use any herb combination you wish, just make sure it is fresh and organic)
3 tablespoons garlic powder or chopped garlic
1 tablespoon Mrs. Dash sodium free salt alternative- Original (it is a mixture of all sorts of dried herbs, veggies, and it is also completely optional in this recipe, so if you don’t know what it is or if you don’t wish to purchase it, don’t worry about it.)

I made 2 quarts of herbed vinegar, so feel free to adjust the recipe accordingly if you wish to make more or less of it.

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, pour the vinegar and place within it all of the herbs, reserving one “sprig” of each herb per bottle or jar of vinegar you wish to make (they will be used as decoration within the bottle). Heat the vinegar, using a spoon to stir and press the herbs down into the vinegar occasionally, over medium heat for about 15 minutes. Do not boil. Place the reserved herbs into the jars or bottles you wish to store the vinegar in. After 15 minutes has passed, remove the pan from the burner and allow the vinegar to cool slightly. Remove the herbs, discarding them. Stir into the still warm mixture the Mrs. Dash and garlic powder, allow to sit for a few minutes and then strain, using a fine mesh sieve, into a medium sized bowl or pitcher. While the vinegar is still warm, pour through a clean and dry funnel into the jars or bottles with the reserved herbs in them. Allow to cool completely before sealing or capping.

Here is the label for the herbed vinegar-

GIFT IDEA!

This gift would be great alone, paired with the garlic olive oil or even better, make an Italian food gift basket with a package of gourmet spaghetti, a jar of grated parmesan, some salami, a homemade baguette or a selection of Italian cheeses. Take it even further by including The Godfather or one of the seasons of The Sopranos on DVD. (you could go completely crazy and give THIS in addition to the rest of the gift basket, for the big “Godfather” fan in your life.)

A few other ideas for homemade Christmas gifts from the kitchen can be found HERE.

I know this post was more about function than photo, but thats the nature of packaged food items. Only so much can be done to make a bottle of vinegar look… appetizing. In the end, its just a bottle of vinegar.

Anyways, I hope everyone enjoys this post, and maybe is inspired to create a few holiday gifts in their own kitchen!

If you’d like to print out any of the labels I posted here- Just click on the label and you’ll be sent to another window with the image at exact size. Right click on the image and select “save image as” to save it to your computer. Then just open it in whatever photo printing program you have (MSPaint works, even) and there you go!

-A.

P.S. Tomorrow I’m posting another Gift from the kitchen- Homemade lime curd and sour cream cake! (Also, I’ll be posting a selection of holiday candy on Thursday!)

Hey there everyone!

Its been a busy weekend for me, as I’ve been working to complete a bunch of homemade food gifts to give to my family for Christmas.

That being said, I wanted to share with you a few things-

First, I designed a cute little label to go along with the Chocolate orange dessert sauce I made last week, and I figured I’d throw it up here so anyone who wants to give it as a gift can use it if they wish!

Its actual size, since I used a fairly small bottle as packaging, but you’re more than welcome to enlarge it or personalize it! (I added my name above “late”, but I figured you didn’t want to give someone someone elses sauce! hehe)

Just click on the picture above and you’ll be sent to another window with the image at exact size. Right click on the image and select “save image as” to save itneverbashfulwithbutter.comhttp://www.neverbashfulwithbutter.com to your computer. Then just open it in whatever photo printing program you have (MSPaint works, even) and there you go!

Also, I wanted to share a link to my holiday website- Jealous of Gingerbread. I’ve been working to collect a bunch of cool holiday links and stuff, and I just posted one of my Original Christmas Card designs as a printable! So go on over there and check it out!

Don’t worry, I’ll be posting very shortly with a few more Gifts from the kitchen- Flavoured olive oil, Flavoured vinegar, Hot cocoa powder and marshmallows, Lime curd and shortbreads! Plus some more cupcakes and cookies and candies! All between now and Christmas!

-A.

One of my favourite things about Christmas time is Gingerbread.

There is nothing better than the smell of homemade gingerbread intermingling with the smell of just baked sugar cookies, buttery shortbread, apple cider, and a fresh cut Christmas tree. To me, these are the smells of Christmas.

Today I started my official countdown to Christmas… So of course, I had to make some Gingerbread cookies!

There are so may different combinations of ways to decorate your gingerbread, so I split my batch in half and showed my two favourite ways. This one is fun, like a deconstructed gingerbread man, with a little mound of gumdrop buttons in the center, while the photos above show a more sophisticated version, with a little gingerbread heart and red sugar sprinkles. Both are iced with brown sugar butter cream cheese icing.

My problem with gingerbread cookies is that so many of them are SO heavily spiced, that I couldn’t really enjoy more than one or two small cookies without getting a little bit of a stomach ache. I know its strange, since ginger is a natural remedy FOR stomach ache, but I’m thinking it wasn’t so much the ginger that caused my discomfort, but rather the general spiciness of the recipe that my family used, as well as the heaviness of the full flavoured molasses in the ingredients.

Over time, I fiddled with the recipe and found a great way to balance the flavours, yet maintain the cookie’s gingery goodness.

My recipe for softer, lighter gingerbread cookies-

1/3 cup dark molasses
1/3 cup honey (any variety will do, but I prefer oregon blackberry honey, because it is less sweet than most varieties. Also, if you would like a stronger flavoured cookie, or would like to veganize this recipe, you are more than welcome to use all molasses in place of the honey. The resulting cookie will be much darker, however.)
3/4 cup softened butter (Feel free to use earth balance if you’d like to veganize this recipe)
1/4 cup trans fat free non hydrogenated vegetable shortening
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice (or 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg, 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger, 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves)
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon allspice

In a medium size bowl, whip together the molasses, honey, butter, shortening, brown sugar and vanilla extract until fluffy and there are no visible large chunks for butter or shortening. Sift into this mixture the flour, followed by the remaining ingredients. Stir until combined.

The dough will be soft, like a very thick batter. Scoop it onto a sheet of waxed paper and roll into a short, wide log. Make sure all of the dough is covered, and refrigerate for a few hours (I prefer to let it chill overnight) to allow the flavours to fully develop. You can bake the dough before refrigerating, but the resulting cookie will not be as tasty.

Remove the dough from the refrigerator and pinch off about 2 tablespoons worth of the dough, roll it into a ball and place it on an ungrease cookie sheet. Place each cookie dough ball about 2 inches apart (on a standard half-sheet pan, you can fit 15 cookies) and tamp down the dough balls with the palm of your hand or the bottom of a drinking glass. The cookies will spread out and become thinner, but if you do not flatten the cookie balls a bit, the centers will not cook all the way through.

Bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes, but watch the cookies carefully, as the bottoms tend to burn quickly. You’ll know the cookies are done when the tops change from a darker brown to a more opaque, lighter brown colour.

This recipe makes about 3 dozen 2 inch cookies.

After the cookies have cooled, you can decorate them however you wish! If you prefer a sweeter cookie, I would suggest either glazing them with a plain sugar glaze (1/2 cup powdered sugar mixed with a few teaspoons of water or milk, until you’ve acheived the desired thinness) or any sort of sweet frosting! Vanilla, orange, almond, and apricot are delicious flavour pairings with gingerbread, but there are many more. Be creative!

I hope everyone out there is having a fabulous time creating Christmas cookie memories!

-A.

P.S. These cookies are softer and slightly chewy. I would NOT recommend using this recipe for complex cookie cutter shapes or for building a gingerbread house. I’m going to try and make a gingerbread house this weekend, so we’ll see if I am able to succeed and post about it!

Alright everyone, its time to take a deep breath *takes a deep breath* and recover from all this bacon cookie craziness with a tried and true flavour combination-

Chocolate and orange.

See, I’m feeling more mellow today.
I’m also feeling like its about time I start working on my Christmas gifts, since.. you know, the big day is like two weeks away. We’ll be giving our gifts out on the weekend before Christmas, so I figured I’d start today with a test batch of one of my favourite things to make and give as a gift from my kitchen.

Dark Chocolate orange sauce…

But I can’t just take a photo of a bottle of dark chocolate orange sauce, which is why I decided to make some Chocolate buttermilk cupcakes, fill them with orange cream filling and use the dark chocolate orange sauce as a topping for these tasty little bites of chocolate heaven.

Its nice and thick and rich, and it keeps well- so it is an excellent gift go give alone, maybe with a nice big bowl, a spoon and a gift certificate for Baskin Robbins… or with a mug, some hot cocoa mix and some homemade marshmallows (which is what I’ll be pairing my chocolate sauce with) Or as an “adults only” gift, with a quality nylon paintbrush and some candy sprinkles (Can you say Human cupcake?)

You could even make a whole gift basket of chocolate treats and tuck this in there.

Another great idea would be to make these cupcakes topped with an orange segment, filled with orange cream, pour a little of the dark chocolate orange sauce on top, have a Holiday party and as a party favour, have everyone take a little bottle of the sauce home with them!

..Or you could just eat it all yourself. I won’t tell anyone. *smile*

In the meantime, here are the recipes-

Chocolate Buttermilk Cupcakes

2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
4 large eggs, at room temperature
6 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted
1 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Line two 12-cup muffin tins with cupcake papers. Set aside.

In a small bowl, sift together the flour and baking soda. Set aside.

In a large bowl, on the medium speed of an electric mixer, cream the butter until smooth. Add the sugars and beat until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the chocolate, mixing until well incorporated. Add the dry ingredients in three parts, alternating with the buttermilk and vanilla. With each addition, beat until the ingredients are incorporated, but do not overbeat. Using a rubber spatula, scrape down the batter in the bowl to make sure the ingredients are well blended and the batter is smooth. Carefully spoon the batter into the cupcake liners, filling them about three-quarters full. Bake for 20–25 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted in the center of the cupcake comes out clean.

Cool the cupcakes in the tins for 15 minutes. Remove from the tins and cool completely on a wire rack.

Once the cupcakes have fully cooled, you can fill them with the orange cream filling.

I used THIS recipe for buttercreams, and for the flavours, I added 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract and 1/2 teaspoon orange extract. You can do all orange if you like, but I felt it was a bit overpowering, and I liked the ‘creamsicle’ effect of using the vanilla as well. I just made the buttercream filling, its like a thickened frosting.

To fill the cupcakes-

Use a small paring knife, cut off the top of the cupcake in the shape of a cone. Flip the top over and cut off the pointy end of the cone, leaving a the “shell” of the cupcake top with a little bit of fluffy cake still attached. Fill the cavity left in the cupcake with a teaspoon or so of the orange cream filling. Replace the top of the cupcake.

You don’t have to add this special step, but you may notice that there are two different tones of chocolate on the cupcake. I melted some milk chocolate and spread a little of it on top of the cupcake, that way it wasn’t just DARK chocolate on DARK cupcakes, the lighter tone of the milk chocolate really makes the chocolate sauce more noticeable in the photograph, and it tastes good too!

Dark Chocolate Orange Sauce

12 ounce dark chocolate cut into small pieces (if you really want to make a milk chocolate sauce, feel free to use milk chocolate, or even semi sweet chocolate)
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup light corn syrup
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 tablespoon orange liqueur (or you can use a teaspoon pure orange extract in its place)

Place the chopped chocolate in a medium sized stainless steel bowl and set aside.
Combine the cream, sugar, and corn syrup in a saucepan and place over low heat. Bring to a boil, stirring often.
Remove from heat and pour immediately over the chocolate. Let stand until the chocolate has melted, then stir until smooth.

Stir in the vanilla extract and liquor.
Strain into your choice of sealable container (I used food grade glass bottles from Specialtybottle.com, you can use canning jars, re-use other containers like baby food jars or peanut butter jars, Just make sure they can be immersed in hot water for reheating)

Makes about 2 cups of chocolate sauce.

The chocolate sauce will keep for a few months in the refrigerator.

If you give the sauce as a gift, you can label it however you wish. I made a simple label out of white paper, and I used a strip of clear tape to laminate and adhere it to the bottle. You can adorn the bottle or jar with a cloth topper, a ribbon tied around the bottle neck, or like I did, with a little wire ring and some beads (orange for orange flavour!) The wire embellishment is removeable once the lid is taken off, so it won’t interfere with pouring.

Just make sure to include a tag or a note stating the ingredients and the instructions for use-

Ingredients- Chocolate, Cream, Sugar, Corn syrup, Flavouring

To reheat chocolate sauce for use, remove the cap and dip the bottom 3/4 of the bottle in hot or boiling water for about 30 seconds. Do not boil the bottle, do not microwave the bottle with the lid on. Mix with milk, add a flavour boost to your hot cocoa, or pour on top of your choice of tasty treats. Enjoy!

-A.

P.S. if you’re not a fan of Chocolate and orange, you can make the cream filling using any flavour extract that appeals to you. Same with the Chocolate sauce, you can add a teaspoon of any sort of flavour extract, or a tablespoon of any flavoured liqueur that you feel would pair well with chocolate. Be creative! Be inventive!

My family has been making and eating oatmeal jam squares for as long as I can remember. I’ve actually even blogged about them way back when I first started this food blog (and wasn’t all that great with the photo taking just yet).

Truth be told, these cookies are just too tasty not to talk about.
Problem is, they have a bit of an image problem.

You see, they’re not exactly the best looking cookie on the planet.

Sure, I could dress them up with a drizzle of white chocolate, or a sprinkle of powdered sugar, or.. something, I don’t even know how many different ways there are to dress up a boring cookie. The problem isn’t so much that there aren’t options, but that it just doesn’t seem right.

A boring sugar cookie can be enhanced by sprinkles or frosting, which add colour and flavour in addition to eye appeal, but I guess some cookies just don’t need embellishment. These cookies are just THAT good.

These cookies are so good, one bite and you’ll want to eat the whole batch. The smell left in the house once these cookies start baking is amazing. They’re versatile. You can make them completely vegan without altering the taste, texture or appearance. You can change the whole flavour profile of the cookie by changing the flavour of the filling. You can make them more healthy by adding wheat germ or chopped nuts or using a wheat flour blend, all without damaging the flavour of these delicious cookies.

Here is a re-post of the recipe-

Oatmeal Jam squares

2 1/2 cups rolled Oats
1- 3/4 cups flour (either all purpose or half all purpose, half wheat)
1 cup melted butter or margarine (you can make this recipe completely vegan if you use Earth Balance)
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup jam, jelly, applesauce or mashed up fruit. ( I use raspberry, strawberry or apricot most often. You can also mix jam flavours, if you have odds and ends in your fridge!)

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit

Mix everything but the jam together in a bowl.

Separate 2 cups of the mixture, press the rest of it into a 13×9in greased pan.

Spread the jam over that as evenly as possible. If the jam is especially thick, you may need to warm it up a bit in the microwave and pour it onto the bottom layer of the oat mixture.

Sprinkle the rest of the oat mixture on top of the preserves. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until the top of the cookie is golden brown. Cool. Cut into little squares.

Make sure you allow the cookie to cool COMPLETELY (about half an hour) before cutting it, or the result will be a big gooey mess that burns your tongue. I know this because I made them last winter and couldn’t hold myself back, so I spooned a bit into my mouth, burning my tongue and the roof of my mouth. The small piece of missing cookie caused the rest of the cookie to slide forward and turn into a big gooey problem. it still tasted good, but it was even less pretty than the cookies you see here.

Enjoy!

-A.