Award Winning Recipes

I did say I would post these, so here goes... there is a F&F (friends and family) update at the end! ENJOY!


Blue Ribbon Chocolate Chip Cookies - 1st Place
Ingredients
· 2 cups all-purpose flour
· 1/2 tsp baking soda
· 1/2 tsp salt
· 3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
· 1 cup packed brown sugar
· 1/2 cup white sugar
· 1/2 tbsp vanilla extract
· 1/2 tbsp almond extract
· 1 egg
· 1 egg yolk
· 1-2 cups milk and dark chocolate chips (2 cups for extreme chocolate lovers)

Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 325°F. Grease cookie sheets or line with parchment paper.
2. Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.
3. In a medium bowl, cream together the melted butter, brown sugar and white sugar until well blended.
4. Beat in the vanilla, egg, and egg yolk until light and creamy.
5. Mix in the sifted ingredients until just blended.
6. Stir in the chocolate chips by hand.
7. Drop cookie dough 1/4 cup at a time onto the prepared cookie sheets. Cookies should be about 3 inches apart.
8. Bake for 15 to 17 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the edges are lightly toasted.
9. Cool on baking sheets for a few minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

Rosemary Bread - 2nd Place
Ingredients
· 1 cup water
· 1 & 1/2 tsp active dry yeast
· 1 & 1/2 tsp white sugar
· 1 & 1/2 tsp salt
· 3 tbsp olive oil
· 2 & 1/2 cups bread flour
· 1/4 tsp Italian seasoning
· 1/4 tsp ground black pepper
· 1 tbsp dried rosemary

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 375°F.
2. Add yeast and warm water to bowl. Proof for 10 minutes.
3. Add salt, sugar, olive oil and flour (by the cup). Knead well.
4. Add the herbs and pepper. Knead more.
5. Let rise in a well oiled bowl for one hour in a warm place.
6. Punch down; let rise another hour.
7. Split into two round loaves. Place on oiled baking sheet. Let rise 30 minutes.
8. Bake until browned, approximately 15-20 minutes.
9. Remove from oven and brush with olive oil. Sprinkle lightly with salt.

Black Pearls - 1st Place Ingredients
· 1 lb dark chocolate, melted and tempered for lining molds
· 1/2 cup heavy cream
· 2 tbsp light corn syrup
· 1/4 cup sugar
· 1/2 tsp lemon juice
· 8 oz dark or milk chocolate, chopped into 1/2 inch pieces
· 1 oz cognac
· Edible gold dust (optional)

Directions
1. Line gold dusted chocolate molds with tempered dark chocolate.
2. Combine the cream and corn syrup. Heat to just below a boil. Remove from heat and set aside to keep hot.
3. Preheat a 2 qt saucepan until hot. Put the sugar and lemon juice into the hot saucepan. Stir constantly over medium heat until the sugar completely melts and a medium-dark caramel color is obtained.
4. Pour the hot cream into the caramel over low heat while stirring constantly. When thoroughly blended, remove from heat.
5. Add the chopped chocolate to the cream mixture off the heat. Stir until all of the chocolate melts and the mixture is smooth. If some of the chocolate does not melt, heat the mixture over a hot water bath, not direct heat.
6. Add the cognac and stir until incorporated.
7. Allow the ganache to cool to 75°F. Transfer to piping bag and fill the molds to within 1/8 inch of the top. Tap the molds to flatten the filling.
8. Refrigerate the molds for 20 minutes to allow the ganache to firm.
9. Seal the molds with tempered dark chocolate.
10. Allow the molds to set at room temperature for 20 minutes. Refrigerate for 20 more minutes.
11. Remove the chocolates from the molds.

Coconut Rum Butter Cakes - 2nd Place
Cake Ingredients
· Melted butter and flour for pans
· 1/3 cup buttermilk
· 1 tbsp coconut rum
· 1 cup all-purpose flour
· 1/2 baking powder
· 1/4 tsp baking soda
· 1/4 tsp salt
· 5 tbsp butter
· 1/2 cup sugar
· 2 large eggs, room temperature
· Powdered sugar (garnish)
Coconut Rum Sauce Ingredients
· 1/2 cup sugar
· 1/2 cup water
· 1 tbsp butter
· 4 tbsp coconut rum

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 325°F. Brush bottoms of 12 miniature Bundt pans with melted butter and dust with flour.
2. Combine buttermilk and coconut rum; set aside.
3. Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.
4. In a medium bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until well blended.
5. Beat in the eggs until light and fluffy.
6. Stir in the buttermilk/rum mixture, then the flour mixture until batter is smooth.
7. Divide batter into Bundt pans and back for 20-30 minutes and the cakes are firm when touched. Prepare the coconut rum sauce while the cakes are baking:
    a. Combine the sugar, water and butter over medium-high heat. Bring to boil and then remove from heat.
    b. Stir in the rum.
8. While the cakes are still hot, pierce several times with a skewer and then drench them in half of the hot coconut rum sauce.
9. Remove cakes from pans after they cool.
10. Spoon remaining sauce onto the cakes and garnish with powdered sugar.

Chocolate Turnovers - 1st Place
Ingredients
· 2 cups dark or milk chocolate chips
· 1 tsp ground cinnamon
· 1 package (17.3 oz.) frozen puff pastry, thawed (2 sheets)
· 1 egg, beaten with 2 tsp water
· 1 & 1/2 tsp shortening (do not use butter, margarine, spread or oil)

Directions 1. Heat oven to 400°F. Combine 1-1/2 cups chocolate chips and cinnamon in small bowl; set aside.
2. Unfold one pastry sheet; roll on lightly floured surface to form 12-inch square. Cut into nine 4-inch squares.
3. Place 1 heaping tbsp chip mixture onto center of each square.
4. Lightly brush egg mixture onto edges of each square. Fold diagonally in half; seal edges. Transfer to ungreased baking sheet. Repeat procedure with remaining puff pastry sheet and remaining chip mixture. Lightly brush tops of turnovers with egg mixture.
5. Bake 15 minutes or until light golden brown. Remove from baking sheet to wire rack.
6. Place remaining 1/2 cup chips and shortening in small microwave-safe bowl. Microwave at MEDIUM (50%) 30 seconds; stir. If necessary, microwave at MEDIUM an additional 10 seconds at a time, stirring after each heating, just until chips are melted when stirred. Drizzle melted chocolate over each turnover. 18 servings.

UPDATE: Still waiting on the house that we are looking at and since it is a short sale, we will keep waiting until the mortgage company decides to move faster---which won't happen. So, in the mean time, we are going to be looking at another house that just popped up on the market... Maybe this was why we were supposed to be waiting, who knows?! Anyways, buying a house is one of the most complicated things ever and in my personal opinion, it is this way so that realtors have a job and so that someone (the buyer or seller) gets screwed over in the deal, which is essentially your realtors responsibility. Am I a little jaded about house buying by now? You bet... however, it's a necessary evil.

Onto other things, Jace is understanding sign language but not signing yet. He knows: milk, stars (baby puffs), more, finished and eat. I keep waiting for the day he will sign back to me, but nothing yet. Jace is now walking around objects but not on his own; he would rather drop to the floor to crawl then walk---and he is a little speed demon. It's hard to believe his 1st birthday is right around the corner! We are going to be having two parties, one for sure up on Cape Cod on June 22. This will be the Friday after his baptism on the 16th.

Speaking of birthdays, mine is this Sunday, the 22nd of April! Chad and Jace took me to The Melting Pot, a fondu restaurant in Houston where we met up with Jaron. Jace was a trooper and made it through the evening even though we were out way past his bedtime. As an additional surprise, Chad gave me a brand new TV for the living room! Oh it's amazing...

Chad has completed most of his testing for the upcoming academy in October, but the physical agility test was rained out. We are hoping that he is selected for it! 

That's pretty much it for this go round, so stay tuned for next time! :)

Rock Candy

Hey everyone! I know, I'm slacking already... We have been really busy lately! So in the next post I'm going to make up for it by posting the recipes that won awards in the cooking competition I entered :)

First, let's walk through the Recipe of the Week... Rock Candy!

This recipe is really simple, but it takes 10-14 days for the candy to form. So if you plan on making this for an event, plan accordingly...

First thing you need are mason jars. I used the same size mason jars as we used for the cake last time, but if you want to make more per jar than I would go for the gallon sized glass jars (shown in picture above). I'm going to give you the whole recipe, but I halved it and still have plenty of sugar syrup left over for my next batch.

Things you need:

- 9 lbs (18 cups) sugar
- 1 1/2 qt water
- bamboo skewers
- 1 egg white, lightly beaten
- 2 tbsp sugar
- food coloring (opt)
- mason jars w/ hole in lid

The bamboo skewers need to be longer than the jar you are using so that the lid will hold them in place. To get the lid to hold them in place, you will need to poke holes through the thin metal piece of the lid. I used a screw driver and a hammer to lightly tap a hole in the top. (sorry about the sideways picture)

Once you have the holes punched set the mason jars aside. Preheat the oven to 200*F. Then you are going to take the sugar and water and put them into a clean sauce pan. When it reaches a boil, cover it and boil it for 5 min. Remove the pan from the heat and using a wet brush, brush any sugar crystals off the pan sides. Recover and let sit undisturbed for ONE HOUR. If you are going to add color, now is the time to do so.

I made blue and green. I poured half of the still hot sugar syrup into a bowl and added blue. The other half I left in the pan and dyed it green. Make sure to keep it covered after coloring.

While that is sitting, you are going to take your egg white and brush it onto the part of the skewers that will be sticking into the mason jar. Then roll the egg part of the skewer in that 2 tbsp of sugar that we set aside. The sugar should coat the skewer and stick nicely. Set it on a piece of parchment paper on a sheet pan and slide them into the oven to bake for 30 minutes to adhere the sugar.

Once the syrup has cooled for an hour, pour it into your mason jar(s). Then take the back end of your skewers and push them up through the lid so that they are secured. Place the skewer/lid onto the mason jar and screw on tightly. Then set them aside for at least 10 days.

Just for reference, I was able to fill up 2 1/2 mason jars with half the recipe. When you pull them out, let them dry overnight on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper. You can reboil the syrup and use it again. To reuse it, bring the syrup to a boil and then boil it for 10 minutes. From there, repeat all of the above steps from covering and cooling it.