Never Bashful with Butter

I highly doubt anyone will be starting a “grapefruit square” diet, anytime soon.

Beyond seriously tasty, these sweet treats pack a punch. With every bite there’s a burst of sweetness. I blame the little nuggets of grapefruit for that.

I’ve been in love with the almighty lemon bar for years. Until now, the only variation I’ve ever made was in making a batch of lime squares, which were quite delicious. I wanted something different though. Everyone has had lemon bars, Lime squares are just lemon bars, but with lime juice and lime rind. Same thing ‘cept green. No, today I wanted a bold new flavour.

I got to thinking about the grapefruits I had in my fridge.

I’m in love with the grapefruit. A passionate love that no woman should share with a fruit. I love grapefruit juice, grapefruit soda, grapefruit segments. Citrus salad with grapefruit supremes. I love it to death.

So today I decided I’d make a grapefruit variation on lemon bars.

I started off with a genericneverbashfulwithbutter.comhttp://www.neverbashfulwithbutter.com recipe for the crust-

1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1 cup flour

I mashed it up until it was flaky, just like you would pie crust, then pressed it into the bottom of a greased 8×8 square pan.

I baked it at 350 for about 20 minutes.

While it was baking I used my version of a typical lemon bar recipe, that I had adjusted so that I could use grapefruit juice and grape fruit segments-

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1/4 cup fresh grapefruit juice

1/4 cup grapefruit supremes from an un juiced grapefruit (segments with the white parts removed) chopped into small pieces about the size of your pinky fingernail.

1 teaspoon grated grapefruit zest
4 tablespoons flour

1 drop orange food colouring

mix up the sugar and the eggs with a mixer until smooth, add the grapefruit juice and the zest and the food colouring, mixing until combined. Fold in the flour and the grapefruit supremes.

Pour the mixture over top the shortbread crust and bake another 20 minutes or until the mixture is set and no longer wiggly in the middle.

When you take it out of the oven, sprinkle with some powdered sugar and let it cool to room temperature. Keep in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a week.

It really was a pleasant change from the standard lemon square. There was a little difficulty in cutting it, just because of the grapefruit segments, but it was well worth the irregular shape!

-A.

So, last week sometime, I was walking up and down the aisle of the grocery store, looking at every single item, (which is something I do quite often) looking for puff pastry.

I have no idea why I buy puff pastry so often, I rarely use it. I guess its just something to have “just incase”, though you have to thaw it before you can use it, so its not like something you can use at the last minute, like most “just incase” staples. Never the less, I was looking for it.

If you’ve ever looked for puff pastry at a grocery store, its like looking for a flashlight in the dark. You know its there, and if you could only find it, you could see where it was. That, and NO ONE ELSE knows where it is either. I’m lucky, I happen to be quite familiar with its whereabouts, because I buy it all the time. But there was a time when I didnt, and I had to spend forever searching for it.

While I was there I thought “ooh, I havent used phyllo dough before!” so, I picked up a roll and put it in my cart, bought it and brought it back home, still unsure of what I wouldneverbashfulwithbutter.comhttp://www.neverbashfulwithbutter.com create with it.

The other day I thought I would try something with it, but the roll was still frozen. The packaging says to thaw it for 24 hours before using it, so I put it in the fridge and made something else instead. Last night I decided I would actually do something with the stuff, so this morning I searched high and low for a recipe using ingredients that I already have in my house.

I couldnt find ANYTHING.

So, I made up my own recipe. I have no idea what to call it yet, but I got parts of the ideas from recipes for Galaktoboureko, spanakopita and baklava. I actually would have made baklava, because I normally have all the ingredients needed for making it, but I used the last of the honey in the house for a chicken glaze earlier in the week so that was a no go. I dont want to waste time going to the grocery store when I’ve got all sorts of crap to do later today. hehe.

Anyways, my husband said we should make a sweetened cheese pastry. I thought it sounded like a good idea, so I whipped up some cream cheese and sugar in our mixer, adding a little bit of almond extract and ground almonds.

This is what we came up with-

Phyllo dough is like the buried treasure of the supermarket…

You know its there, its just FINDING it thats the problem.

I didnt even know you could buy it in supermarkets until I happened upon it hiding right there in the freezer section, next to the pie crusts and the puff pastry. I dont know why I didnt think of looking there sooner. I wish I had.

I finally got the nerve to buy a tube of it, not really knowing what I would do with it. I decided a few days ago to read the packaging and it said I had to let it defrost in the fridge, so I did. I would happily abide by the rules considering I’d never even seen what phyllo dough looked like before it’s been baked and transformed into wonderful Greek delicacies. I didnt even know that phyllo dough is infact a Turkish item. It’s just been made popular through Greek food.

So this morning I decided I would make something delicious. I think I succeeded.

The first thing you’ll need to make this yet unnamed dessert-

Phyllo dough.

Follow the directions and let it thaw in the fridge for at least a day before using it.

Once you’ve opened it, take a dish cloth and dip it in water, wring as MUCH of the water out of it as you possibly can, and keep that over top the unused phyllo dough while you’re working with each of the sheets you are layering. There is almost nothing keeping this paper thin dough from flaking up and falling apart, its best to keep the little bit of moisture it has inside it, so just put the towel over top the dough. Trust me.

Second thing-

A pastry brush.

Yeah, I know, you can use a can of aerosol oil (pam) between the layers, but I’m big on the butter. You should know that. (and if you dont, you should read the blog address again.)

I usually use a spoon when recipe directions say I need a pastry brush, and I’ve never had problems.. until trying to use the spoon method with phyllo dough. The spoon and melted butter method puts entirely too much butter between the layers, and the result is much greasier than you would want. Soggy pastry is bad pastry. Especially when you consider how light and flaky phyllo dough SHOULD be.

Other than the phyllo dough and the pastry brush, you’ll need some melted butter (about a quarter cup) an 8×8 square pan and about a cup and a half of crushed dry roasted almonds, along with the filling.

Filling-

2 packages of cream cheese
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon almond extract
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 Tablespoons heavy cream or whole milk

Whip all of the filling ingredients with a mixer until smooth and creamy. Set aside.

When you’re preparing the pan for the phyllo dough, keep in mind that the dough becomes brittle very quickly. First, use the pastry brush to paint a thin layer of butter on the inside of the pan, sides and bottom.

Now you’ll begin layering the phyllo dough. You’ll need to lay down 5 layers of phyllo dough, topping each with a layer of butter painted on with the pastry brush, and then sprinkling a thin layer of crushed almonds.

Once you’ve got five layers of phyllo, spoon on the sweetened cheese filling. If its not sweet enough for you, add more sugar. I wouldnt go more than a half cup though. Be careful while attempting to spread the filling, the phyllo below is delicate, and will most likely tear if you lift up or push down on it too hard. Its alright if the cheese is lumpy. It does not need to be perfect.

Now that the filling is in place, fold the edges of the bottom five sheets of phyllo down and over the edges of the filling. Now you need to apply 4 or 5 top sheets of phyllo, tucking in the edges around the sides of the whole parcel. You can either do just like you did with the bottom layers and add crushed almonds between each layer, or omit the almonds for the top half and call it good. Just be sure to paint on a thin layer of butter between each layer.

Now that you’ve got a little phyllo bundle, paint a thin layer of butter on the top and, using a sharp knife, cut your pieces. You can either cut squares or cut diamonds, but once you’ve cut down and across, do not shift the pieces, you want them to stay where they are, just be cut separate.

Sprinkle on a layer of crushed almonds and bake at 375 for about 10 to 15 minutes, or until the tops look golden brown and not burnt. The cheese should be peeking out between the slices and be puffy, but not browned.

Once you’ve removed the pastry from the oven, drizzle on some butter caramel sauce. It can be home made or store bought, it doesnt matter. If you’re using store bought, I’ll recommend Mrs. Richardsons butterscotch caramel icecream sauce. Holy crap this stuff is almost as good as my secret recipe! haha..

I would suggest letting the pastry cool a while before serving it. In my experience, scalding cheese burns are nothing to laugh about, and rarely help out the whole tasting experience. Also, the depth of flavour will be enhanced through the cooling process.

I encourage you all to try your own cooking experiments. There is a whole world of delicious foods yet to be discovered. Be your own kitchen genius and try something new…

…Or try something old. Just dont be afraid to try.

-A.

I’ll admit it. I’ve only had creme brulee once. It was the same time I experienced the glory and wonder that is Lucy’s Table in Portland Oregon, with their delicious Gnocchi and fragrant cheese. I didnt order the Creme Brulee, My friend Amber did.

But of course, I tasted it. I cant even REMEMBER what dessert I ordered.

I dont remember exactly how it went, but she always has these crazy little witisizms. The elephant in the creme brulee is one of them. hehe.. Just like “mon petite cabbage” turned to “mon petite croissant” she used to sing that while she was working as an overnight security guard at a grocery store. It was hilarious.

Ok, so enough about the wonderful person that is Ambie. (cause its true, she’s wonderful) All I know is she really likes Creme Brulee, and when requested I make some and take some photos, I immediately thought that would be a great idea. Especially since I have never made it before.

One problem. I dont have ramekins. I dont even have sneverbashfulwithbutter.comhttp://www.neverbashfulwithbutter.commall pans. The closest thing I have to ramekins are these square shallow bowl-like plates.. I hoped they would work, they would HAVE to work. I wasnt about to go out and buy some ramekins without having made creme brulee to see if I even like it.

Well, now I have to go out and buy some ramekins.

I took a recipe and tweaked it a bit.. So I created something not so normal.

I made Creamsicle Creme Brulee-

Originally when I was asked to attempt a creme brulee, I felt a little nervous. I’d NEVER made one before, and everyone I know who has had one, says you can judge a restaurant based on their creme brulee. Then I happen to turn on the tv, and one of the chefs is making a creme brulee.

He stressed the importance of using a double boiler, and tempering the eggs, and heating the mixture before baking it. I was scared. But I had to try it.

So this morning I set out to make a creme brulee. I figured I would do something different with the flavour, so I made mine vanilla and orange flavoured. It would be a creamsicle-brulee!

The only problem was.. I dont own ramekins and I dont have a double boiler and I dont have a kitchen torch. I pressed on, assured I could broil the brown sugar to make the caramel topping.

I found suitable shallow bowls and looked for a recipe.

Whats this? I found the BEST recipe. The person who posted it on the CD Kitchen website goes right ahead and says you dont need to use a double boiler. You dont need to do ANY of that stuff. So.. I figure why not. I’ll try it.

Here is the recipe as it is posted on the CD Kitchen website-

Ingredients-

2 cups heavy cream
5 egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract (I added a teaspoon of orange extract in addition to the vanilla)

For the caramel topping-
1/2 cup or so of light brown sugar

And these are my ten step instructions-

Step 1- Mix up the ingredients in a bowl. Mix until everything is smooth.
Step 2- Put ramekins into a casserole dish.
Step 3- Pour mixture into ramekins inside casserole dish
Step 4- Pour hot water around the ramekins in the casserole dish
Step 5- Bake at 275 for about 45 minutes to an hour, or until it looks fully cooked but still has a slight jiggle in the center (a knife should come out clean).
Step 6- Remove from hot water bath and put ramekins directly into the freezer
Step 7- Remove from freezer after half an hour, spread a thin layer of brown sugar over the top of the custard.
Step 8- Place ramekins back inside casserole dish (without water in it) and broil on the top rack for 30 seconds-2 minutes depending on how long it takes to caramelize all the sugar
Step 9- Place ramekins back into freezer for 15 minutes
Step 10- Eat

I was pretty impressed. I ate a few bites and I wanted more! It was like eating a creamsicle with a crunch.. but I know it would taste delicious without the orange in there.

If you’ve ever thought about making creme brulee but have been afraid to, FEAR NO MORE! You’re only ten steps to heaven.. I promise.

-A.

A Torte is a fancy word for a multi layered cake. It’s actually a german word (though pronounced differently in german) meaning Layered cake.

So.. I made a layered cake. Mine only has 4 layers, because I dont have any more round pans and I’m not patient enough to cook a set, let them cool, bake another set and let them cool before I assembled it all. PLUS, I normally dont make full sized cakes because I have no one to pawn them off on (neighbours like cupcakes, but its a little odd to hand them a whole cake.

I’m pretty sure this one I can pass off as a “celebration” cake, because my husband comes home tonight (yay!), but we’ll probably take all but a slice of it over to my mom’s house this weekend.

Anyways..

I used to be a cake decorator. I worked at a grocery store bakery decorating birthday and wedding cakes. I got pretty good at it, though I must admit its MUCH different to decorate cakes at home.

First, I dont have all the same tools- Especially a turn table. Its so hard to smooth out the sides of a cake without a turn table. Ineverbashfulwithbutter.comhttp://www.neverbashfulwithbutter.comf I ever get into cake decorating on my own again, I’m definately buying one. Second, I dont have NEARLY as much space, and lastly, its totally different when you know the people who are going to eat it. I could totally screw up a strangers cake and as long as it looked good, no biggie. But with a cake that I’m giving to my family, or that I plan on having a part of, It has to taste great as well as look good.

Anyways, I used to make tortes there. We iced them and then put either nuts or chocolate flakes on the top, piped some icing around the edges and called it good. I didnt really like the standard look for them. I prefer more simple dressings.

So here is my torte-

Its really easy to make a torte. I promise. A lot of people are scared to make tortes, but really all you need is a lot of cake batter, many pans to distribute it amongst, and a long bladed serrated edge knife.

I went the easy way out and only made a four layer torte. I’ve seen tortes with up to 16 layers before. They’re amazing. I dont have enough pans or patience to do more layers!

All I did was find an awesome cake recipe and divide it amongst two heavily buttered round cake pans and baked it. The assembling part is where it gets tricky.

First off, here’s the recipe I used for the cake. Its a french vanilla cake recipe, and it smells SO GOOD while its baking.

2 1/4 cups cake flour
2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter
1 1/3 cups sugar
1 1/4 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
3 egg whites
1 cup milk

Put the butter in the bowl of a heavy duty stand mixer and whip it until its fluffy. Gradually add the sugar. Add the vanilla extract. Stir in the egg whites and beat vigorously until light and fluffy. Sift the baking powder and salt into the flour. Stir in the flour mixture and milk alternately in three portions, beginning and ending with the flour; beat well after each addition.

Pour into two heavily buttered round cake pans.
Bake in a 350°F oven for about 30 minutes or until cake springs back when lightly pressed with finger tips in center.

When the cake comes out of the oven, let it cool a bit at room temperature and then put it into the freezer for about an hour. If there is one thing I’ve learned from being an cake decorator, its that it is SO much easier to cut a frozen cake than it is to cut a fluffy fresh cake.

After about an hour, take the cake out of the freezer and flip onto its top on a plate. If the top of the cake is rounded, instead of flipping it onto its top, flip it onto your hand and then set it down on its bottom on the plate. Use your knife to level the cakes.

After both cakes are level, use your knife to cut them both in half, creating 4 layers.

Once you’ve got your layers cut, you can either put them back into the freezer while you make your frostings and fillings, or your could do like me, and prepare the frostings and fillings while the cake is in the freezer the first time! hehe..

I made a whipped cream cheese frosting with vanilla and strawberry flavouring. I dont know the recipe because honestly, it was just something that I made as I went.

The ingredients were-

Powdered sugar
Cream cheese
Whipping cream
Strawberry extract
Vanilla extract
red food colouring

I whipped it until it was fluffy.

Then I took some home made strawberry preserves and heated it in a saucepan until it was liquidy. Then I strained off the strawberry pieces.

Use a spoon to spread the strawberry jam onto the top of each layer of cake as you’re assembling. Your layering technique should be- Cake, Strawberry jam, Frosting, Cake, Strawberry jam, Frosting, Cake, Strawberry jam, Frosting, Cake, Frosting, decorations.

And thats about it. When you’ve got to your final layer of cake, you can press it down a bit to seal the layers, but thats not necessary. The weight of the cake will do that for you if you let it sit for a few hours in the fridge.

Tortes are super easy and SO pretty.

…Now I just have to find some way of getting rid of this HUGE thing..

Torte, anyone?

-A.

My first experience with panna cotta was back during my Junior year in highschool.

It was the day before new years eve, and I had planned on having a party at my house with all of my friends. We planned to have the evening be a formal event, and everyone who was attending would have to wear the fanciest clothes they had. Guys were only going to be allowed in if they wore button ups with a tie, and all the girls planned to wear dresses.

To be honest, I had a pretty small friend base. We lived in a small town, there were less than 500 kids in our entire highschool and nearly a third of those kids were freshman, meaning I had no idea who they were, save for the few who were completely awesome band nerds such as myself. They were invited along with the friends I had clung to my entire life. There were not many of us, probably about 10 of us, but that was fine, because we were having the party in the upstairs of my parents house and not too many people could fit up there anywneverbashfulwithbutter.comhttp://www.neverbashfulwithbutter.comays.

We had bottles of sparkling apple cider and champagne glasses, a fancy spread of all sorts of snacks all arranged like something you’d expect to see at a real upscale party. My mom was cool like that and always offered to make food for my friends. I thought I would wow my friends at the New Years Eve party by whipping up a fancy dessert that none of them had ever had before.

I had this awesome dessert recipe book (that I still own, actually) and I thumbed through it. The cool thing about this cookbook is that it has a page sized photo for EVERY dessert, and it has “step by step” photos throughout the instructions.

After looking through the book for a while I finally settled on Panna Cotta with Blackberry sauce. It looked awesome, and it didnt sound like too difficult of a dessert to make either. The instructions said that the dessert needed to sit in the fridge for at least 8 hours before it would completely set, so I figured I’d make it the day before and then give it plenty of time to gel, and I’d plate the desserts right before serving them after everyone had had their fill of snacks and whatnot at the party.

Preparation went pretty smoothly.
I used a giant pot that my mom used to make pasta, and nearly tripled the recipe. Tons of milk, Tons of gelatin, Tons of sugar… I guess I hadnt paid much attention to the exact instructions (who reads instructions anyways?!) and I used skim milk instead of whole milk, and I used skim milk instead of heavy cream. My mom wouldnt let me buy whole milk or cream. She said it was too fattening, and a waste. The dessert would be just fine with skim milk. On top of that, I didnt let the gelatin dissolve before I mixed it into the pot of boiling skim milk and sugar, and I didnt stir it too well either. (remember the whole ADHD kid in the kitchen thing? yeah. I wasnt very patient)

I thought it looked a little odd, but my mom said it would probably change in the fridge. So I spooned it into a wilton mini heart pan and put it in the fridge to sit overnight.

In the morning I poked at the mixture in the pan in the fridge, and it felt like Jello. I looked at the picture again, and.. yeah, it looked like jello too, so.. I figured everything was fine.

I cleaned up, took a shower, set up things for the party and got into my fancy dress just before people started arriving. Everything was going great.

I had invited a guy that I had a huge crush on, and lucky me, he said he could go. It wasnt that big of a stretch, we were friends and had mutual friends from school as well, so it just made sense for him to go even if he didnt return my feelings.

I really wanted to impress him with this dessert. I wanted to impress him, period. I got all dolled up, did my hair and everything. I tried my best to look as “sexy” as a sheltered kid could. I think I even wore lipstick which was completely UNHEARD OF for me.

The thing about this guy was his confidence. He was what most people would consider average looking, but he had a great personality. He was outgoing and as the saying goes, he could sell icecubes to an eskimo. I totally had it bad for him.

He showed up wearing a harvest gold coloured button up with a burgundy and what I would have to describe as pea green, striped tie. I thought he looked totally hawt though. I totally knew he would show up wearing some horrendous looking colour combination. For goodness sakes, this kid had already decided he was going to own a Gremlin, AND IT WAS 1998! SERIOUSLY! And as a side note, he did end up with a Gremlin. A bright orange gremlin with brown and orange PLAID vinyl interior. It was way cool but.. way 70’s.

I thought I was lookin hot, so I put a few moves over on him. I sat by him and kinda snuggled up to him during the romantic parts of the movie we were watching. I poured on the compliments about his singing voice while we all karaoke’d later in the evening. Everything was great. I felt like he might be returning my feelings, so I was excited, but I played it cool.

Time to get the desserts!

I knew something was wrong when I popped them out of their molds. They were nearly translucent. They looked like milky jello. Never the less, I plated them up, spooned some of the blackberry sauce over the top and started having one of my friends hand them out to people.

Hey, what did I know? I’d never made them before..

So yeah, there was definately something wrong with them. the gelatin hadnt completely dissolved, so they were kinda… chunky. Some had completely liquid centers, and others were so hard they were like gummy bears, only huge and heart shaped. Also, I apparently hadnt added enough sugar and I must have forgotten the vanilla.

All in all, they tasted like cold skim milk flavoured jello. DEFINATELY not what I was going for. It was really gross. I got embarrassed because I’d never made such a disgusting food before, and to me, my cooking was my pride. I had just failed at the one thing I knew I did well. I actually started to tear up a bit.

My friends were so sweet though, and despite the fact that, well.. I had just made probably the most disgusting concoction ever labeled “dessert”, they tried to make me feel better. Infact, The guy I had a crush on? He gave me a big hug and told me that it was ok, he still thought I was really cool and he still liked me.

YES! THATS RIGHT! I TOTALLY WON HIM OVER BECAUSE I FAILED AT DESSERT!

The rest of the evening went back to normal, other than the occasional friendly jab about the milk jello. I think someone kept theirs out and threw it across the room like a frisbee. I was able to laugh about it because I was too busy snuggling with my crush to get upset.

That night I decided I would never again attempt to make this dessert.

…And I wouldnt have.. Only.. I forgot what it was called, and when I came across a photo of panna cotta I decided I absolutely had to have some.. It wasnt until I read the ingredients that I remembered. I figured enough time had passed that perhaps I could conquer the panna cotta and make something that would actually taste alright. Besides, I’d gotten a lot better about following directions since then.

This time, I made sure I had heavy cream, infact, the recipe called for part skim milk and I used heavy cream for that part too!
AND I added more vanilla then the recipe called for AND I made sure and used just a little more sugar than the recipe called for.

I poured it into little mini muffin-top pans that I had greased with a little butter and put them in the fridge.

When I peeled them out of the molds, I was very happy with the result. They were not hard or chunky or liquidy. They were not translucent or anything, and they smelled divine.

I popped one in my mouth (they’re really tiny, like, milk jug cap tiny) and I nearly died of over-delicification. SO GOOD.

Originally I had planned to make some mandarin orange sauce to go with it, but I was having a heck of a time getting it to set up right.
I ended up making a strawberry sauce instead. Then I whipped up a little whipped cream, stacked two of the mini panna cottas on top of each other and plated them up with some sliced strawberries.

The best panna cotta I’ve ever made-

Sure, it was only the second time I’ve made it, but still. it was completely delicious.

I decided that my camera does not like taking photos of panna cotta. If it wasnt for the texture that was created from the little air bubbles in the mold, I dont think my camera would have ever focused on it.

Or maybe my camera is just jealous. *smile*

The thing I liked the best about this particular recipe is that its NOT completely solid. I’ve seen so many photos of panna cotta where it looks like its frozen or it looks like hard packed ice cream. If I wanted ice cream I’d eat ice cream. I happen to really like the texture of custard. This has a very custardy texture (mostly because it is a custard, only it has no eggs in it) and its completely smooth like pudding, with a totally different taste than pudding. I loved it!

I’m really glad I made this dessert again. I’m actually thinking this might be the dessert that I make for MY sweetheart for Valentines day, thats how much I like it.

HEY PANNA COTTA! aight. *smile*

It had been a very long time since I’d last attempted to make this dessert. Sure, I may have failed in creating something so delicious back then, but time heals all wounds, and this time.. It was PERFECT.

Perfect I tell you!

So, since I’ve got a little experience, having both failed and succeeded at creating panna cotta, I’m pretty sure I can tell you what I did wrong the first time.

I didnt use the right ingredients.

This happens to be a dessert where it is VERY important to have heavy cream. VERY important. I can definately tell you this dessert would NOT work right with skim milk. How do I know? Because thats what I did the first time I tried it, way back in highschool. Bad idea.

Also, it is imperative that you completely dissolve the gelatin before you let it set. If you arent sure, STRAIN IT. Seriously. There is nothing worse than a big boogery chunk of gelatin in the middle of a rich creamy dessert.

And while I’m at it, Dont forget the importance of patience in all cooking related activities. If you dont give this dessert the proper amount of time to set, you’ll totally mess it up.

All that having been said, ON TO THE RECIPE!

I adapted a recipe from the All Recipes website-

INGREDIENTS
1/3 cup skim milk (I used cream for this part as well)
1 (.25 ounce) envelope unflavored gelatin
2 1/2 cups heavy cream
1/2 cup white sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract (I added at least twice as much vanilla. I LOVE VANILLA!)

DIRECTIONS
Pour the milk (or the 1/3 cup cream) into a shallow bowl. Sprinkle the gelatin powder over it and set it aside.
In a medium saucepan, stir together the 2 1/2 cups heavy cream, sugar and vanilla, and set over medium heat. Bring to a full boil, watching carefully, as the cream will quickly rise to the top of the pan.

Pour the gelatin and milk(or the 1/3 cup cream) into the heated cream sugar and vanilla mixture, stirring until completely dissolved. Cook for about one minute, stirring constantly. Remove the saucepan from the heat and stir through the mixture to make sure all the gelatin is dissolved. If its not, boil for another minute or so. If its STILL not dissolved, strain over a fine mesh sieve, and pour into six individual ramekin dishes.

Let the ramekins cool for a little while uncovered at room temperature. When cool, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 4 hours, but preferably overnight before serving.

SO GOOD!

I mixed up a bit of my standard Strawberry syrup, but all you really have to do is take some strawberry jam and heat it up until its a little liquidy and plop it down on the dish before you set your little panna cotta on top of it, and you’re good!

I was really amazed at how good this ended up being. It was totally delicious. I wanted to keep eating it, but realized that much dairy couldnt be good for me to eat all at once, so its in the fridge until later. *smile*

-A.

Alright, tell me that at least a few of you know what song that comes from. Its not just a line from a Coca Cola commercial, it actually came from a real song that was REALLY popular back in the day.

It was so popular that it was featured in a skit on The Muppet Show and an episode of The Simpsons as well as numerous other movies, shows and commercials, the latest of which was the butchering of the lyrics “you put the lime in the coconut” changed to “you put the lime in the coke- you nut” in that darn Coca Cola commercial.

My mom used to sing that song to me and my sister. She had this thing that she used to do with songs where if there was a persons name in the song, or a person mentioned by name in the song, she would change that name to one of our names while singing it.. Songs like Richie Valens “Oh Donna” became - “Oh Andrea” and Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons “Sherry” had my mom singing lines like “AAAAA-AAA-AAAA-AAAAndrea.. Andrea baby AAAA-AAaaa-ndrea wont you cneverbashfulwithbutter.comhttp://www.neverbashfulwithbutter.comome out tonight” That might not make any sense to you if you’ve never heard the song, but those of you who have, you know. Its hilarious.

In all actuality, my mom did this to so many songs when both me and my sister were so young, that we actually believed that my mom wrote these songs and sang them to us. We hadnt heard the actual song on the radio, and when she played the records, she sang along with them, so we really just paid attention to her singing..

She did this with all sorts of songs though. Including Harry Nilsson’s “Coconut” off the Nilsson Schmilsson album, which was released in 1971.

An example-

-Original Lyrics-

Brother bought a coconut, he bought it for a dime
His sister had another one, she paid it for the lime
She put the lime in the coconut, she drank ‘em both up
Put the lime in the coconut, she called the doctor, woke him up, and said

-Mom’s lyrics-

Andrea bought a coconut, she bought it for a dime
Her sister had another one, she paid it for the lime
She put the lime in the coconut, she drank ‘em both up
Put the lime in the coconut, she called the doctor, woke him up, and said-

I Know.. Very slight change in lyrics. This is probably why we didnt notice it for so long. We seriously thought my mom had written this song.

Also, we were really young, so we didnt realize my mom might be foolin us.

Needless to say, a time finally came when we discovered that my mom was not infact a musical genius, but instead just a clever song rearranger.

That time came much later than you might think.

Having absolutely nothing to do with lime or coconuts (and nothing to do with the dessert), I finally discovered my mom was singing a song that did not belong to her during the summer of 1988. My dad, being completely obsessed with stereos and stereo accessories, he installed ginormous outdoor speakers under the edge of the roof of our house. It was a nice sunny day, moderately temperate, and my mom and dad decided to have a little barbeque and christen the speakers by playing music as loud as possible from them.

I was 7 years old and dancing around in the front yard with my older sister when we heard it. My mom’s song on the radio.. AND SHE WASNT SINGING IT

“I’m livin in a box, I’m livin in a cardboard box”
I seriously thought that song was just something my mom started singing to us because that just sounded like something strange my mom would say. Not that my mom is strange, but when I was young, she was a really fun mom to have. She would occasionally say some pretty silly things. Living in a cardboard box just seemed like something silly she would sing about on her own.

At first we were mad. Not at her, but at the person singing it. We actually thought they had stolen my mom’s song.

Of course, we immediately brought it to her attention. She laughed it off. What ? You mean you’re not mad someone stole your song?

So that started the conversation. The conversation where we learned that none of the songs my mom had been singing to us since our birth were infact original songs penned by my mom. She just personalized them for us.

Listening to those songs never was the same after that. Not until I got older and it became a funny story to tell people.
Every time I hear that Nilsson song, I can’t help but sing along, adding my sister’s name or my own..

I dont think that song is the reason why I love lime and coconut. I think thats just one of my quirks. I love limes and coconut. Together, alone, whatever. I just love them.

I remember on my second date with my now husband, I had come up with a mental list of questions I wanted to ask him. Sure, I knew a ton about him from what he said on the internet, but I wanted to know everything about him.

One of those questions was “do you like limes?”

To which he replied- “you put the lime in the coconut and drink ‘em both up”
And I knew it was love.

He’s the only guy I’ve ever known to be as obsessed with limes as me, and who also enjoys limes with coconut OUTSIDE of alcoholic drinky-treats.

We’re meant for each other, just like limes and coconut.

And with that, I bring you today’s sweet treat.

Put the lime in the coconut cupcakes-

I know they dont look like much. Just regular cupcakes. But these are my absolute favourite of any of the desserts I’ve made thus far. Seriously, They’re the bees knees. They’re fine as froghair. I just love ‘em.

But why are they called “put the lime in the coconut ” cupcakes?

Because they’re coconut cupcakes with lime frosting and filling!
Get it.. Put the lime (filling) in the coconut (cupcake)?

HAHA. I crack myself up.

Now I have to get back to editing Rodney Robot’s latest adventure. I’m hoping it will be done for tomorrow.

-A.

I guess this day was a long time coming.

I’ve never been vegan, and never really thought about becoming vegan. I love dairy products entirely too much, not to mention I don’t know if I could go without meat every now and then. I don’t eat it ALL the time, but when I do I enjoy it. Not that there is anything wrong with not eating meat or dairy or any other animal products.

I’m just not as strong willed as you guys. Seriously. I applaud anyone who’s able to be creative enough to survive off EVERYTHING BUT the foods I use in just about everything.

Especially butter.

But there may be a chance for me yet.

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot more about adding a few Vegan and Vegetarian dishes to my typical weekly food rotation. I owe this mainly to my new friend Celine, or chose. She’s a Vegan who creates delicious looking foods and posts photos on her food blog BlushinMuffin.
She’s been a real inspiration to me and my quest to discover all the delicious food possibilities that are out there.

So I thought the best time for me neverbashfulwithbutter.comhttp://www.neverbashfulwithbutter.comto develop my Vegan food producing skills would be during dessert week, since personally, I enjoy Desserts quite a bit, and I would more likely be swayed via dessert and then slowly transition myself to more savoury vegan foods as time goes on.

I searched high and low. I wanted something easy, but something new. I also didn’t want to just make a fruit based dessert and say I was making vegan food, because that feels like cheating. I could have just made a vegetable oil pastry crust and filled it with sliced strawberries and called it vegan. No, I wanted to tackle my main issue with vegan/ vegetarian food.

Tofu.

A lot of people eat tofu every day. I’ve eaten it in dishes before and not really noticed anything strange in particular. However, I’ve never MADE anything with it. Ever. Why?

Because frankly, the texture of tofu frightens me.

I can blame this on my dad. My dad has strange texture issues, and I think I learned them from him.

Pudding-like foods, wet bread, bread pudding and anything soggy makes my dad gag. Not only does it make him gag, but it makes him wretch. His entire body engages in a momentary convulsion. Don’t think this texture issue is limited to food that actually touches him in some way. No- just the sight of anything mildly soggy or pudding-y makes him react in such a way.

I’d have to say the zenith of this particular food issue with my father became rather humourous one day while I was reaching into the back of the fridge to get something, and not possessing the monkey-like arms to reach quite as far back as I had been attempting, I managed to knock a large tub of strawberry yogurt off the top shelf with the inside of my upper arm.

The yogurt fell onto the shelf below it sending the contents of the tub cascading down my side and across my lower body, finally dripping onto the floor. I thought it was hilarious.

My dad just happened to be walking down the hallway toward the kitchen at that point. I didn’t know he was standing there watching until he started gagging. He gagged so hard that he actually ended up being sick.

So even the appearance of a pudding like item made him wretch. I guess this was why my dad didn’t eat pudding or yogurt, and he stopped eating cornbread after the one time my sister made it an baked it in a cast iron pan, only the centers didn’t cook all the way, so the inside was kinda gooey. My dad took one bite and ran for the bathroom.

You can imagine his reaction the first time my mom brought tofu into the house.

Its ok, I had the same reaction.

I was in my teens and my mom brought home a bunch of weird stuff (to a young teenager) like bean sprouts and soy cheese and tofu. I had always wondered what tofu felt like, because ever since I was old enough to look over the lower rack of the refrigerator case at the grocery store, I’d dreamt of poking my finger through the little plastic package and feeling it. Just smushing the top of it through the top wrapper wasn’t enough anymore. I wanted to get my hands on it.

So, finally, it was time. My mom was making something odd. I don’t remember quite what it was. She had to cut up a package of extra firm tofu for it, and I quickly volunteered to do it.

I unwrapped the package and noted the strange smell that accompanied the contents. Weird. It smelled like fermentation. I had nothing to compare it to, since I hadn’t even laid eyes upon tofu out of the package, so I really had no idea what it was SUPPOSED to smell like.

I reached through the brine and attempted to pick up the block of tofu.

That was when an experienced tofu user/eat would have known something was really wrong. I don’t know exactly how it happened, but apparently there was either a hole in the packaging and some sort of bacteria had managed to get inside, or the bacteria had gotten inside before it was packaged. All I knew is I had just reached into a smushy, granulated blob that was hard on top, and liquid on the bottom. Not only was the texture off, but the colour was too. As soon as I lifted the top up, a light brown coloured liquid swirled inside the brine. The smell intensified and I immediately began to gag and just like my dad, ran down the hallway towards the bathroom.

My mom put it in a Ziploc bag and took it back to the store. My mom was one of those people. She wouldn’t just call and say she got rotten food, she would bring it back to the store and point out how disgusting something was, and then the guys behind the customer service counter would feel so bad they would either give her money back and give her new product to replace the bad one, or they would give her money back and give her coupons for money off her next purchase at the grocery store. This particular time she came back with new tofu, and completed the meal herself. Needless to say, I was not really interested in eating the result. Heh..

As time went on, I became slightly more adventurous. I’ve eaten tofu and had no problem. I’ve never really thought about preparing tofu at home, but I hate holding grudges, so I figured I’d take this chance to make amends with it.

I found a SUPER EASY recipe on 101 cookbooks for a Vegan chocolate mousse with amaretto flavouring.

I tweeked it a bit, using hazelnut liqueur instead of amaretto flavouring, and using a chocolate flavoured almond milk (I checked and made sure it was vegan!) instead of soy milk, and adding a bit of thai coconut cream to smooth out the texture a bit.

My experience with the tofu this time was much more pleasant and I have to admit, I’m fairly happy with the result. I know, I know.. It looks like pudding. But it’s not. Its fluffier than pudding. Its also got a little bit of a different texture, and it tastes TOTALLY different than any pudding I’ve ever had. It was pretty good though, I’ll admit.

I also made a little short crust freeform tart shell with veggie oil instead of butter. * Gasp * and I drizzled a little vegan chocolate over the top. I added a couple roasted unsalted almonds for garnish. I was hoping to use hazelnuts, but I couldn’t find any! It was so disappointing.

I had also planned on making a sauce for this, but I failed. I didn’t have enough time, since I had to run a bunch of errands this morning, and by the time I got home, daylight was fading fast. I hate that about winter time.

Anyways.. there you have it, Vegan Hazelnut Chocolate Mousse Tart-

Anyways.. I altered the recipe posted at 101 cookbooks. This is how it reads on that website-

1/2 cup organic chocolate soy milk
9 or 10 ounce bag of semisweet vegan chocolate chips
12 ounces silken tofu
1/4 cup Amaretto or almond-flavored liquor
1/4 teaspoon natural pure almond extract

With my alterations-

1/2 cup organic chocolate almond milk (best stuff ever)
9 or 10 ounce bag of semisweet vegan chocolate chips (I actually bought a bar of vegan chocolate and chopped it up, apparently Vegan chocolate chips are in short supply ’round here)
12 ounces silken tofu
1/4 cup thai coconut cream
2 teaspoons Hazelnut liquer

I didnt follow the mixing directions. I forgot to print them out, and I was sleepy, so I just came and did a quick glance at the recipe on my computer and then ran back to the kitchen.

I put the tofu in the mixer and whipped it up a bit. After I realized I wasnt happy with the texture (kinda cottage cheesy) I put in the coconut cream (which is the frothy part of coconut milk, so I’m assuming that would work just as well) And I was pretty happy with the texture at that point.

I melted the chocolate and added that to the mixer with the coconut-tofu mixture and whipped it up a bit. Then I boiled down the almond milk until it thickened slightly, and poured that into the entire mixture, adding the hazelnut liquer at the very end, whipping it just slightly after that point.

Then I put the entire thing in a giant pastry bag with a clip at one end and refridgerated it for about an hour.
I put a star tip on the pastry bag and piped it onto a vegan short crust pastry that I had made while the mousse was chillin, and drizzled a little more of the melted chocolate over the top of the whole thing.

I was really hoping to be able to garnish the whole thing with chopped hazelnuts, but I couldnt find them anywhere! Of course, I carry almonds around with me everywhere I go, so naturally I had a bunch of those to garnish the dessert with.

SO GOOD.

I was amazed. Now I’m gonna have to try more Vegan and Vegetarian recipes and thats scary.

Dont worry butter, I havent given up on you.

-A.

Seriously, who doesnt love fruit leather? I grew up with a mom that had a food dehydrator, and knew how to use it.

For reals, yo.

We had fruit leather all year long. Whatever fruit was in season, there was a tray in the food dehydrator just waiting for it. She even bought a professional model food dehydrator so that she could make strips of fruit leather instead of rings, although she had purchased the non stick plastic rings that fit inside that particular model of food dehydrator for use specifically while making fruit leather.

The other day when I was at Trader Joes searching for Agar powder, Tofu, Vegan Chocolate, organic beet sugar and a vegan margarine (Dont worry, I’m not abandoning butter, only trying my hand at a few healthier *cough* sacriledge *cough* choices. ) I stumbled upon a little cardboard display box that read “fruit leather” on the side.

Almost instantly I was brought back to my childhood.

You know in the book Charlie and the Chocolate Factoryneverbashfulwithbutter.comhttp://www.neverbashfulwithbutter.com?
Do you remember ‘lickable wallpaper’?

I remember.

I’ve always been a huge Roald Dahl fan. I read his books as a kid, and I read his books as an adult. I own most of them now actually. I’ve even got a recipe book filled with recipes for foods simular to those described in Roald Dahl’s books. One of them is for Lickable Wallpaper.

Basically, the recipe describes how to make fruit leather, attach dried fruits and lick away.

Before this book existed, and certainly before I owned it, I had my own ideas about how to make lickable wallpaper. I had a friend over and we decided to execute the plan.

Step 1.) Obtain fruit leather.
Step 2.) Adhere fruit leather to wall.
Step 3.) Lick

We took a strip of some of the fruit leather my mom had made in her ever expanding fruit dehydrator of doom and stuck it to a wall in my bedroom. We thought ahead and adhered it horizontally so that we could each lick at thes ame time while sitting down, and we wouldnt have to worry about one of us dripping drool onto the other one’s designated licking section. Surprisingly, it worked. It really did. It stuck better than anything else I’ve pressed against a wall expecting it to stay and I didnt even have to add anything to it like I thought I would have to.

The problem came when we tried to take it down. After a few minutes of being adhered, it appeared as though its delicate fibers had interwoven with the paint, forming a super nutritious wall covering that tasted great, but probably caused cancer.

No amount of picking would loosen it. We tried the corners. We tried the sides. We tried using a knife, and all I succeeded in doing was removing a little paint and chipping at the plaster that lay just below it.

I panicked a little, worrying about what my mom would say if she saw it. I thought that if all else failed, I could probably just cover it with something, or move my bed so that my pillows covered it. I could set a chair up against the wall and pretend its not really there. Sooner or later it would have to dry up and fall off.

My friend, however, didnt think that was too good of an option. She told me that chances are, all the moisture we had just imbued it with would not allow it to dry up quick enough to keep mold from taking hold, turning my wall into a virtual flower garden of bacteria and other nasty gross furry green things. She said she was pretty sure we had only one option…

To lick it off.

I dont know why we didnt just get a towel and soak it with water and try and wash it off. Licking it just seemed like what we had to do.

We readied ourselves with a two liter of soda and started working on it.

Mind you, this strip was probably two feet long and six inches wide. We were sitting cross legged on the floor infront of it, facing each other for what seemed like forever, but probably only amounted to 30 or so minutes. During that time we both managed to drool all over ourselves and drink an entire two liter of soda.

This would require drastic measures.

Using our pre-teen ninja-like moves, we exited my bedroom. It had to have been at least 1am. This means my mom would be asleep upstairs, but my dad would probably still be in the livingroom, which was right next to the kitchen. If he was still awake, he would definately see us dash across the walkway and into the kitchen, but if he had passed out in his easy chair, we might still have a chance.

We eased our way through the hallway. This was an old house, and there were many creaks. We stopped for a second and listened.. Could we hear my dad snoring yet?

No. We pressed on.

As soon as we made our way to the opening in the hallway, we stopped. We were seconds away from the mad dash to retrieve what we had come all this way for. My dad’s griddle spatula. If only we could make it there in time.

And then we heard it. The sound of my dad’s laboured breath. This meant he had JUST fallen asleep, and just in time. I held post in the doorway while my friend darted across the hall. I had pointed out where the spatula was, so it wasnt long before we were making our way back towards my room, Spatula in hand.

The thing about my dad was, he kept every metal object in the kitchen with an edge, sharp as hell. This meant you chould possibly sheer off a finger while chopping carrots, and god forbid you drop a knife on the ground, you might end up missing a toe. This went for his spatula too.

We had arrived. Now all we had to do was use the spatula to scrape off the gelatinous mess adhered to the wall. it would be no problem.

Long story short, we ended up taking off a layer of paint and the top layer of plaster that was just below it that was entire length and width of the fruit leather. Two feet by six inches. Missing. Gone. Thank god I had white walls.

I was pretty lucky that no one noticed until years later, when I blamed it the cat. The cat had to have clawed at the walls in a perfect rectangular shape. No one believed me, but they didnt care much either. I was lucky.

Let this story serve as a cautionary note to those attempting to recreate all the confectionary delights available in Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory- Unless you’re an Oompa Loompa or you live in a Chocolate factory, DO NOT apply lickable wallpaper to your walls.

Unless you like spores and mold or you’re looking for an edible alternative to paint stripper.

Needless to say, I may have bought the Trader Joes Fruit leather but I didnt buy it to stick to my wall. I bought it because I thought it would not only taste great (which it did) but I thought it would make a great decoration for a cupcake, which is what you have here-

Its just a chocolate muffin with some of that pink raspberry fondant, a dash of white sprinkles and an apple- raspberry Fruit leather heart!

Its cute AND tasty.

-A.

No seriously. I was.

I’ll spare you the story on this one and let you use your imagination to create the scene..

Imagine a group of girls, who happen to be Brownies in the Girl Scouts.

Its the weekend before Valentines day and at their weekly meeting the Scout leader has them make Valentines day candy. One of the candies to be made are butterscotch hard candies.

When you make butterscotch hard candies, you boil a mixture of sugar and cream and butter until it gets to a certain temperature and then you pour it into special molds after it cools down and thickens slightly.

Now imagine one of those girls being picked on by the other girls until she finally reaches her breaking point and grabs a bowl of the cooling butterscotch candy mixture and dumps it on the girl who was picking on her.

I was that girl. The dumper, not the dumpee.
Needless to say, I was kicked out of the brownies and stripped of my badges. Its alright though. I dont think I missed it at all, and it was totally awesome to finally DO SOMETHING to the girl who had been neverbashfulwithbutter.comhttp://www.neverbashfulwithbutter.compicking on me for so long. As a side note, she stopped picking on me after that. hehe..

Anyways.. Its Superbowl Sunday! I cant keep you guys tied up with long stories! You should be watching the game!

So here is my dessert for the day. In honour of that fateful day when I fought back with valentines day candy.. I bring you-

The Triple Chocolate Butterscotch Brownie..
I added Almonds for a little crunch.

This recipe is from my personal recipe book. I created it myself.
I totally OWN at making brownies, by the way. Its one of my bragging points.

But, since I know you guys come here for recipes, I will share it with you. Just promise you wont totally thrash me if I ever meet up with any of you in a bake off.

Triple chocolate butterscotch brownies-

1/3 cup butter
3 squares unsweetened chocolate
2/3 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/3 cup milk chocolate chunks
1/3 cup dark chocolate chunks
1/3 cup white chocolate chunks

1/2 cup butterscotch. I make my own, and it is my secret weapon. I cant go around sharing my secret weapon, so.. I’ll just say, you can use any sort of butterscotch for this. You could even use caramel. Home made or store bought, its all the same with this recipe.

Instructions are simple, cause thats how I roll.

Put everything but the chocolate chunks in the bowl of a stand mixer.

mix until thoroughly blended. Remove bowl from base and add the chocolate chunks. Either use the beaters from the mixer (because I hate extra dishes, this is how I do it) or with a spoon, fold in the chocolate chunks.

Take half of the mixture and pour it into a round or square cake pan about 8″x8″ Put the rest in the fridge and bake the half in the pan at 350 for about 10 minutes.

When 10 minutes is up, take the pan out of the oven and pour your butterscotch mixture over the brownie.

Take the rest of the brownie mixture out of the fridge and pour it over the butterscotch mixture on top of the brownie. Put the entire thing back in the oven for another 15 minutes, or until the center is baked through.

To be honest, it helps to use a glass dish for this so you can see the bottom and make sure it isnt burning. I’d rather have slightly underdone brownies than burnt ones, so its kind of important.

Anyway, After the brownies came out of the oven, I let them cool and cut out little rounds with a small cookie cutter. THEN I dipped them into white chocolate and sat them on a bed of crushed almonds to cool. After they were cooled, I drizzled both milk and dark chocolate over them.

Before the chocolate was able to cool, I sprinkled white nonpareils and some more crushed almonds on top and let them solidify.

Then I made my chocolate cream cheese.

You can make a really simple chocolate cream cheese by putting half a brick of cream cheese in a bowl and mixing it up until its softened. Add a bit of powdered sugar and then add melt about half a cup of milk chocolate and pour it into the bowl while the mixer is on, whipping it into the cream cheese as you pour.

I dont let it mix in entirely. I kinda like the little streaks of white and brown.

I piped a little of this on top of one of the brownie chocolates and topped it with another brownie chocolate.

THEN I plated it ontop of a bed of crushed almonds with a little butterscotch drizzled on top.

Seriously guys, this was overload. I think I had a chocolate induced coma two bites in and I gave up. It was just too much for me.

But maybe it wont be too much for you.

-A.

…Or you could even use your hands if you wanna get a little messy.

I’ve always been a big fan of ice cream sundaes. They just look appetizing. Something about little balls of sweetness topped with a big ol’ dollop of whipped cream, sprinkles and a cherry on top just screams delicious.

Sadly, I do not yet own an ice cream maker. Its on my list though! Right after a new kitchenaid mixer, ’cause my kitchenaid is almost 12 years old. If I have a new kitchenaid, I can get the ice cream maker attachment! yay!

Anyways, Since I do not have the ability to produce delicious frozen desserts, I had to think creatively to come up with a viable alternative for the base of my homemade sundae.

I already have plans in the works for making a granita later in the week, so that wouldnt do. Cream puffs would have been good, but they didnt have the right look. I wanted something soft and pink and fluffy…

So, why not a pink cherry-almond marshmallow sundae?

This is a recipe that I’ve cherished for years. Its from a book I think. I actually dont know. It could be from a magazine. I got the recipe originally from a huge file folder that my mom compiled of photos and recipes from magazines and books that she had since discarded. Only the recipes remained. She glued them all on sheets of white paper and put them in folders and put those folders in a box. I was able to rifle through the box when I was in highschool, but with the ancient technology my family possessed (We had a dot matrix printer with a limited amount of paper) I had no choice but to write down the recipes by hand and stash those sheets away in my own folders.

A lot of my every day recipes come from those folders. Recipes for fried chicken batter or pie crust or aebelskiver. Some strange recipes and some recipes that never worked out for me.

Out of all the recipes I’ve written down, this one would have to be the one that I’ve used the most. I’ve changed a few of the measures on it, and I’m really quite happy with the outcome, and have been consistantly happy with the outcome ever since I started using it.

So here goes-

Here is my slightly altered ancient cookbook recipe for Marshmallows.

2 Envelopes unflavoured gelatin

1/3 Cup + 1 Tablespoon cold water

2/3 Cup granulated sugar

1/2 Cup light corn syrup

Pinch of salt

2 lid measures (or scant teaspoons) of the flavouring of your choice (I used 1/2 almond and 1/2 cherry.)

liquid or paste colouring (optional. White marshmallows are pretty too!)

You will also need-

Equal parts cornstarch and powdered sugar.

First, prepare the area where you want the marshmallows to land. The mixture sets up real quick, so its best to have this part done before you start making the marshmallows.

If you want square marshmallows (which are super easy) Find a high sided square or rectangle container somewhere around 9×13 in size. I usually use a standard size casserole dish. You’ll end up with a layer of marshmallows about 1″ deep, so if you want thicker marshmallows use a smaller container but one with higher sides.

lightly grease the bottom and sides of the pan and sift in the cornstarch/ powdered sugar mixture over then entire pan. Shake the powder around to make sure that every surface is covered in a layer of the powdered sugar and cornstarch. leave a little extra in the pan, but not a huge layer of it.

If you use this approach, once you’ve got the marshmallows made up, you’ll just pour them into the pan, smooth out the top with a greased spatula and leave it sit.

If you want round marshmallows you’ll need to use a large sized oil cloth decorating bag without a tip on it. Spray a little pam or sprinkle a bit of vegetable oil into the bag and smush the bag around a little to make sure its got a little bit of oil on all the inside surfaces to ensure that the marshmallows will glide smoothly through the bag. Before you pour the mixture into the bag, fold the small end, where you would normally put the coupler, over and clip it closed with a strong clip. A chip clip, a bag clip, a painters clip, even a clothes pin would work.

If you’re using this method, you’ll also need to prepare a landing pad for your marshmallows.

I use a jelly roll pan with a thick layer of powdered sugar and cornstarch pressed down flat. You can do this by putting a jellyroll pan of the same size on top of it and pushing it down.

When you’re making the marshmallows with this method, you’ll pour the marshmallow mixture into the bag and remove the clip thats over the opening. Now you’ll pipe the marshmallows out onto the cornstarch and powdered sugar about an inch and a half away from each other and use a greased knife to cut them away from the bag when you’ve gotten them the right size. after you let them sit for about 5 minutes, use a spoon to flip the marshmallow up and then roll it around in the powder. This method sound a lot more difficult than it is, but I’d recommend making a couple batches before attempting it anyways, unless you’re familiar with filling and using decorating bags.

There is also the poured mold method. What you’ll do is take a large pan that’s fairly deep and fill it loosely with the cornstarch and powdered sugar mixture. You’ll need an object to press into the powder. You can use anything that will leave an indentation the size and shape of what you want the marshmallow to look like. Keep in mind, it will not hold details very well. I’d recommend things like the bottom of a glass, an egg, a candle holder. Something solid and undetailed. You’ll also want to make sure that the object you’re pressing into the powder is washed rinsed and sanitized. Very important. Theres nothing more disgusting than biting into a marshmallow with a hair or a piece of lint in it. Just thinking about that makes me want to gag, so I’m going to move on.

If you use the poured mold method, you’ll also not whip the mixture up as long as you would using the other methods. Instead of whipping it until the peaks hold their shape, you’ll want to whip it only until the peaks form. It needs to be liquidy to be pourable. I’d say this is the most difficult of all the methods because you’ll need to be pretty familiar with the process of making marshmallows to discern the difference between thicknesses and recognizing when its whipped enough to turn into a marshmallow and when its too thin and wont be good for anything other than fluff, which is still good, by the way.

Anyways.. now that you’ve gotten yourself an idea of where you’re going to put the mixture and how you’re going to shape them, you’ll need to make the marshmallows themselves.

This part is the easiest.

Sprinkle the gelatin over the cold water in a saucepan on the counter. Let the gelatin sit (bloom) for about 5 minutes.

During that 5 minutes, pour the cornsyrup, the pinch of salt and the flavouring into the bowl of a high powered stand mixer. If you have splash guards for your mixer, use them.

At the end of that 5 minutes, put the pan on the burner and turn it up to medium heat. Dump in the sugar. When it starts to heat up, stir it. Stir it until the sugar and gelatin are dissolved.

When the sugar and gelatin are completely dissolved and the mixture starts to boil, turn the burner off, remove it from the heat and pour it directly into the bowl of the stand mixer on top of the stuff you already put in there.

Turn the mixer on. Start out on low speed. ESPECIALLY if you dont have splash guards. There is nothing fun about being hit by boiling hot sugar splatter at 40 Miles per hour.

I’d leave it on a low speed that doesnt make it splash outside of the bowl for about 5 minutes or until it starts to thicken and fluff up.

At that point add the colouring. Keep in mind that as its whipping and fluffing up, it will turn from a solid colour into a pastel colour. You can add more colour at any point within the next 10 minutes and it will be fine. Now turn the speed up to the highest it will go.

WALK AWAY.

Drink some lemonade and watch a few minutes of a television show. Tidy up the kitchen, water your plants or feed the dog/cat/hamster.

About 15 minutes from when you first poured the mixture into the mixer, come back. If you whipped it on low speed for 5 minutes total, come back 10 minutes later.

Turn off the mixer, lift the blade and see if peaks form. They should be somewhere between soft peaks and strong peaks. They should hold their shape. If they dont, you’ve got pouring consistancy, so you could use the mold pouring technique. if you’re not pouring your marshmallows, turn the mixer back on and walk away for a few more minutes.

When the mix finally get to where it holds stiff peaks, remove the blade and either pour the mixture into the decorating bag or into the prepared pan. Pipe your shapes or smooth the top with a greased spatula.

Let the mixture sit for a few minutes. If you’re piping the shapes, now you’ll want to toss them around in the powder and remove the marshmallows, sitting them on a cookie sheet or a tray with a light dusting of cornstarch and powdered sugar. Leave them out overnight or for at least 2 hours.

If you’re cutting square marshmallows, sprinkle some of the powdered sugar and cornstarch mixture onto the top of the marshmallows in the pan. Leave them in the pan overnight or for at least 2 hours. After you’ve waited the right amount of time, turn the marshmallow block out onto a tray or cookie sheet, and use a greased knife or pizza cutter to cut strips and then cut the strips into squares. Using a gallon sized ziploc bag, dredge the squares in more powdered sugar and cornstarch. Remove them from the bag and shake them until any excess comes off. Let them sit another hour or so and then put them in an airtight container and leave them at room temperature.

If you’re pouring them, let them sit in their cornstarch and powdered sugar molds overnight. remove them with a spoon the next day and coat them in powdered sugar and cornstarch. Let them sit upright for another few hours before putting them in an airtight container, and leave them at room temperature.

See, its easy, and its fun. If you want to make a lot of marshmallows you could double or even triple this recipe and be alright. Any more than that and you’ll need to make separate batches. The small amount of liquid you’re mixing together looks like nothing, but it more than doubles when you’re whipping it up over the 15 minutes. Its magic!

I made the mistake this Christmas of making a quintuple batch of marshmallows. I ended up having to pour part of the mixture out of the mixer bowl and finish it off in two batches. Luckily it worked, but I had SO MANY marshmallows when I was done.

You can coat them with chocolate or leave them as is. I made mine into an “ice cream” sundae and topped them off with whipped cream and a cherry.

They’re softer and lighter and smoother than regular marshmallows. They melt in your mouth, and they’re not chewy at all.

They’re probably not very good for roasting, but who knows, you could give it a try.

I’m gonna make some more tomorrow. I love marshmallows!

-A.