An Unofficial Pinterest Challenge and Ooey Gooey Goodness

I have been following the goings on over at Young House Love for a few years now.  Along with Bower Power, Decor and the Dog and The Remodeled Life they hosted an unofficial Pinterest Challenge; take something you've pinned, put your own spin on it, blog about it and link up.  Well, I've made a few crafts I've pinned but had only drooled over the recipes.  So, I read the post, took a look at my Favourite Recipes board, had a quick scan of my pantry and 10 minutes later my challenge  began.

I first began by challenging myself not to leave the house in order to make what I wanted - no going to the grocery store to pick up missing ingredients.  That would involve dressing.  And running a brush through my hair.

This was my inspiration:

Image from The Bite Sized Baker

                         
I had the ingredients for chocolate chip cookies - only just.  I had exactly the right amount of flour needed.  Phew.  I made chocolate chip cookie dough.

I also had Carnation Caramel - or so I thought.  I had picked up regular old condensed milk.  The challenge became more intense.  I opted not to boil the can in a pot of water for 3 hours because I didn't want to wait that long and couldn't face the challenge of cleaning condensed milk off the ceiling when said can exploded.  Instead, I stood by the stove, constantly stirring the milk until it became caramel.

After half an hour it still looked the same.

Forty-five minutes later it stated to look like caramel.

An hour later I was satisfied with what I had and a little fed up.  Always, always, read the label carefully and know what you're buying.

How could I put my own spin on this?  Well, I made the bloody caramel from scratch - wasn't that personal enough?!  I really needed to get these made; I was getting hungry and grumpy.  The two feelings go hand in hand.  I grabbed a package of Reese's Peanut Butter Chips I had brought over from Canada on my last visit in October.  And then I began to layer.

I was pretty impressed with myself.  I had completed the challenge and I was still in my pyjamas.  I'm not even going to tell you what time it was.  I still needed to blog about it and link up to the post over at YHL but I'd get to it.  Sure.  I'd get to it.

Then I flew home to Canada for my mom's hip replacement and completely forgot about it (she's doing great by the way).  Challenge not completed.  But, I did make caramel from scratch and gave several people in my neighbourhood a major sugar high when I realised I would make myself sick if I ate anymore and posted a picture on Facebook asking those who wanted some to come and get 'em!

Make these - they're awesome.  Just be sure to have a lot of people around to help you eat them.

Chocolate Chip Cookie and Caramel Peanut Butter Chip Bars AKA Ooey Gooey Goodness
Adapted from The Bite Sized Baker

For the chocolate chip cookies either make your favourite recipe or follow this one adapted from the Joy of Baking:


1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup granulated white sugar
3/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

For the filling:
Carnation Caramel Condensed Milk
Peanut Butter Chips

In a large bowl, beat butter and sugars.  Whisk in eggs one at a time and add vanilla.  In another bowl, whisk dry ingredients together.  Slowly add dry mix to wet mixture until fully incorporated.  Stir in chocolate chips.  Add half of the cookie dough to a square non-stick baking pan (I used a silicone pan) and flatten to cover the bottom of the pan with dough.  Bake at 190 degrees Celsius for 8-10 minutes.  

Remove from the oven and pour the caramel over the cookie base.  Sprinkle peanut butter chips to cover the caramel and add the rest of the cookie dough by placing dollops over the top and gently spreading it out to cover the chips.  Bake for 15-20 minutes or until cookie top is golden brown.  Allow pan to fully cool on a wire rack before slicing into bars.

Option:
If you can't get your hands on peanut butter chips try adding a 1/4 cup of peanut butter to the caramel and top with chocolate chips instead.  I haven't tried this but would have had I not had any peanut butter chips available.

The Last of the Christmas Baking

Hark! The Herald angels sing, Chloé is done with her baking!

Over the last few weeks, I have made 9 different varieties of Christmas goodness; some made with ease and others proving a little more difficult.  Starting my baking ahead of time was good in that I was able to take my time and even try a few new recipes that I wouldn't have tried if I were baking everything in one Great British Bake-off style night.  I was also able to squeeze in a tourtiere (French-Canadian meat pie) making session the other day and made 3 in a couple of hours (helps that I buy ready made pastry!).

A little OTT, Yeah you know me!

I took all of the cookies from the freezer last night and with a little solo assembly line going, made up a few tins for friends and family.  It's my favourite gift to give at Christmas and not everyone has time or enjoys baking as much as I do and, really, we can't eat all of that! (well we can, but we shouldn't)

Now there's just the Christmas dinner to think about.  We are currently watching Nigel Slater's 12 Tastes of Christmas and the husband has just asked if we can "have that".  "Have what?" I said.  "All of that" gesturing to the television.  It's something fancy, looks like brandy snaps and fruit.  He's teasing me (I hope) but I still don't know what to make for Christmas dinner.  I will probably get a turkey in the end but with only 2 of us I feel like I should tone it down slightly.  What is everyone making?  Pork roast, beef, turducken, tofurky or Chinese food??

These last two cookie recipes I'm going to share are easily done in about an hour.  They're great if you need to bulk out what you already have.  Same recipe just different fillers.

White Chocolate and Cranberry Cookies (adapted from All Recipes)

1/2 cup butter, softened 
1/2 cup packed brown sugar 

1/2 cup white sugar 

1 egg  

1 tablespoon Cointreau 

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 

1/2 teaspoon baking soda 

1 cup white chocolate chips 

1 cup dried cranberries

1. In a bowl, whisk flour and baking soda and set aside.

2. Cream butter in a large bowl and then blend in both sugars.  Beat in egg and Cointreau.  

3. Slowly add the flour mixture to the sugar mixture until fully incorporated.

4. Stir in white chocolate chips and dried cranberries.

5. Bake in a pre-heated oven (190°C) for 8-10 minutes (for a chewy cookie take out while still doughy). Allow to cool for 1 minute and transfer cookies to wire rack.

Change out 3 ingredients, follow the same steps and you get:
 

Chocolate Chunk and Walnut Cookies

1/2 cup butter, softened 
1/2 cup packed brown sugar 

1/2 cup white sugar 

1 egg  

1 tablespoon vanilla

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 

1/2 teaspoon baking soda 

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

1 cup chocolate chunks (I used a large bar, placed in a resealable bag and broken up with a hammer)

1. In a bowl, whisk flour and baking soda and set aside.

2. Cream butter in a large bowl and then blend in both sugars.  Beat in egg and vanilla.  

3. Slowly add the flour mixture to the sugar mixture until fully incorporated.

4. Stir in white chocolate chunks and walnuts.

5. Bake in a pre-heated oven (190°C) for 8-10 minutes (for a chewy cookie take out while still doughy). Allow to cool for 1 minute and transfer cookies to wire rack.

I hope you have all finished (or are nearly finished) shopping, baking and all around prepping for Christmas and ready to start relaxing and enjoying the festivities.  I attempted a bit of a shopping trip today - I should never have left the comfort of my laptop.  Online shopping forever!

 

It's Not Christmas Without Sugar Cookies

I love sugar cookies.  Actually, I should re-phrase that: I love decorating sugar cookies.  They are definitely not my favourite in the taste department.  Of course they taste great - there's just a long list of cookie loves ahead of these guys.  It's the decorating that really gets me going.  It doesn't take much.

I make them every year because out of all the Christmas baking they look the part the most with the festive shapes and all the colours.  I also really enjoy time set aside to decorate.  Last year, I had a terrible cold so I stayed home to "rest" (you'll have to strap me to my deathbed).  So probably after some light vaccuming and a few loads of laundry, I got my decorating on.  I had baked the cookies a day earlier and they were ready to be covered in sprinkles and glitter so I got everything ready and took it to the dinning table and began what would be a couple of hours of painting and sprinkling and icing the cookies.  W walked in and saw me surrounded by my creations and said "You need some kids!" (we're working it on people).  This is a fun activity to do with kids, sure, if you don't want them to look just right.  I'm kidding here - I love the handmade look and how each cookie looks different.

Every year, I've made them a little differently.  The recipe and shapes stay the same but the colours and sprinkles are changed up, mainly because not one supermarket seems to carry the same thing from year to year but also because I like to try out different styles.  One year, I went very traditional with greens and reds, another year was pastel colours and 'hundreds and thousands' and last year I found some cute snowflake sprinkles and red and green sugar.  This year I've gone for wintry with a white and silver theme and some blue glitter.


This was very much like the Toblerone shortbread adventure from last week.  A few slip ups and some cookie casualties (don't worry - I saved 'em!)  but I've made the mistakes so you don't have to.  When you think to yourself  "I'm sure I didn't line the cookie sheets with wax paper last year", think again and go and buy some wax paper.  Don't even try a few without it.  It won't work - they will stick like glue and break and you'll be forced to take 1 (or 6) for the team.  What did you have for dinner last night?  I had a half a dozen sugar cookies.

Handle the stars very carefully; a few were fully decorated before they decided to take the plunge. Face down.

My entire kitchen was covered in glitter and sprinkles and little silver balls.  And just for fun I threw some all over the counter.

The recipe has been scribbled down in my notebook for about 5 years (most likely given to me by my mother) with very clear instructions like mix in flour etc and divide in half, wrap, fridge, roll, cut, 1cm, 10 min but I'll try and be a bit more specific down below.  The decorating, however is recipe free and entirely up to the creator.  Go get yourself some kids and make some cookies!  ( I feel I need to be clear here - children you know, your own or some nieces and nephews will do but don't go rounding up the neighbourhood kids claiming you need them for a recipe -it won't go down well).

Sugar Cookies (adapted from my little blue notebook)

For the cookies
1 3/4 cups flour
pinch of salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup butter (softened)
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla

Whisk flour, salt and baking powder in a bowl and set aside.  In another bowl, blend butter and sugar until smooth.  Add in egg and vanilla and mix together.  Slowly stir in flour mixture a little at a time until fully incorporated.  Divide dough in half and roll into large balls and flatten into a disk shape.  Wrap in cling film and set in the fridge for an hour.

Roll out on a lightly floured surface until 1 cm thick and cut with cookie cutters.  Line baking sheets with wax paper and place cookies about 2 cm apart.  Place in the fridge for about 10-15 minutes (this helps cookies retain their shape when baked).  

Bake in a pre-heated oven at 190 degrees Celsius for 8-10 minutes.  Edges will burn quickly so keep an eye on them.

For the icing
1 egg white
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 1/2 cups icing sugar

With a hand mixer blend everything until smooth.  Cover the bowl with a dish towel as you mix to minimise the dust cloud that emerges.  Once cookies have cooled, use a small clean paintbrush to decorate.  Gently push the icing to the edges in a circular motion and decorate with sprinkles.  Alternatively, add food colouring to the icing or use a piping bag to draw designs on the cookies.

Toblerone Shortbread: A Twelve Step Program

The cafe at my university sold ginormous shortbread cookies with a full piece of Toblerone in the centre.  Absolute heaven!  Kept me going during those 3 hour night lectures.  I haven't seen them anywhere else and always wanted to make my own.  A quick search on "The Pinterest" tells me I'm not the only one - though I didn't see any that were made with a full size Toblerone.  Probably due to the insane amount of sugar and calories in one little bite!  So I too went the mini Toblerone route since having bite sized Christmas cookies are great for a (somewhat) guilt free biscuit buffet.

Step 1 - Get ingredients ready.

Step 2 - Beat butter and sugar and then stir in flour mixture.

Step 3 - When shortbread turns out really crumbly, watch video from The Joy of Baking website (which is where you can find the recipe I used for shortbread) to see where you went wrong and shout "HALF a cup of sugar? What? Really?!"  Then re-read recipe to find out - yes indeed, half a cup of sugar NOT 1 cup.

Step 4 - Run down to Tesco to buy more butter.  I bought 6 because they were on sale and I'm bound to need more at some point.  This won't be the only mistake.

Step 5 - Get ingredients ready (again) and measure out HALF a cup of sugar.

Step 6 - Follow instructions carefully and make sure butter is smooth.

Step 7 - Watch as the dough goes crumbly (again) and cry a little on the inside.

Step 8 -  Get a brain wave (they sometimes happen, infrequently yes, but they do) and place the crumbly dough in a re-sealable bag and add little water.  Gently smoosh everything around in the bag until the dough looks more like the dough in the video.  Form dough into a ball, place in plastic wrap and flatten into a disk shape.  Refrigerate for an hour or overnight because you're going out for dinner and you can't spend all your time baking in the kitchen.  Note the difference:

Step 9 - Roll out dough and cut into shapes using a cookie cutter.  Halfway through, when your black jeans are covered in flour, remember to put on your apron (this should really be step 1).

 

Step 10 - Taste test Toblerone triangle.  If determined to be of good quality (it might take a couple to be sure) place one triangle in the centre of each cookie, place on a baking tray and stick in the fridge for 15 minutes.

Step 11 - Bake in the oven while crossing your fingers that they taste okay when done.

Step 12 - Give yourself a good ol' pat on the back when they come out looking  beautiful and tasting absolutely fantastic.  Pat, pat, pat.

Peanut Butter Cookies

All aboard the baking train.  Woo woo - I've been busy today.  I'll start with a favourite - ah, who am I kidding, they're all favourites!

When I was back in Canada, I picked up a large jar of Kraft peanut butter, among other Canadian favourites.  And although you can use any peanut butter for this recipe, for me, this is the best.  These cookies remind me of our school packed lunches as children, as my mom used to bake them for us quite a lot.  Not traditionally a Christmas cookie per say, I do like to add them to the collection purely for the memories.

Another oldie but a goodie from the mom (adapted from Better Homes and Gardens, no doubt) I give you:
 
Peanut Butter Cookies 

3/4 cup butter (room temperature)
1/2 cup brown sugar (lightly packed)
1/2 granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup peanut butter
2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt

In a large bowl, beat butter for about 1 minute.  Add both sugars and cream together until smooth (it goes crumbly before it gets smooth).  Beat in vanilla, egg and peanut butter.  In another bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt.  Slowly stir in the flour mixture until incorporated.

Roll into balls (I weighed them at 20 grams each) and coat with white sugar.  Place on a baking tray about 2 cm apart and press with a fork.  Bake for 8-10 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius.

Makes approximately 3 1/2 dozen cookies.

So, tell me - what do you include in you Christmas baking? Stick to the same things every year or switch it up?

Ginger Snaps That Don't Snap!

I've done it!  I've actually started my Christmas baking ahead of schedule.  My usual, wait until a week before Christmas and pound out as many different types of cookies in one day while turning the kitchen into a scene from a disaster movie and staying up till 3am to get that last batch done and wipe the icing sugar off the cupboards (leave the stuff on the ceiling till morning) so as not to infuriate the husband, routine will not be happening this year.  Finally.  Though it feels a little strange starting the baking without any decorations up in the house (meet the seven little reasons why I can't put my tree up yet here).

I like to give out tins of cookies to friends and family as a way of spreading the joy.  Plus, I love to bake.  But I also love to eat and the fella doesn't exactly have a sweet tooth so I'm left to enjoy the Christmassy goodness all by myself (I know, poor me - but folks, my gym closes for 2 weeks over the holidays, so you see my problem here).  The tins are always returned empty so I must be doing something right, or my people just ain't that picky.  I'll let you decide for yourself.  I'll post my adventures in Christmas baking as I go along and let me know what you think if you try any of the recipes.  You can also just let me know what your thinking, about anything really, unless it's creepy - keep that to yourself.

So, to kickstart the baking bonanza I give you ginger snaps, that don't snap.

I got this recipe from my mother, who says she adapted from Better Homes and Gardens.  These are cookies she made for us while growing up.  I have to be honest here, I didn't really like them.  I wasn't a huge fan of molasses and they were always very hard to bite into.  But my palate has developed since then and I have also found that when I make these cookies, they never snap.  They always stay chewy, even after having been in the freezer for awhile (this batch makes a lot and I always have some left come January - I'm not really talking these up here, am I?  They're good, I swear!).  I was trying to figure out what I might be doing differently to make them stay chewy and discussed my thoughts with my mother.  I thought it could be the sugar I was using, my mother says my house is damp.  I get it, it rains a lot here (it's chucking it down as I type).  And I like them on the chewy side.  But here's an experiment:  if you make these cookies, report back here and tell me where in the world you made them and are they snappy or chewy.  In the meantime, I'm off to turn up the heat and dry out my maison.  Shh, don't tell my husband.

Ginger Snaps (that don't snap) yields 4 dozen  
Adapted from my mother who adapted from Better Homes and Gardens

3/4 cups butter
2 cups granulated sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup black treacle (molasses)
2 teaspoons vinegar (I used malt)
3 and 3/4 cups flour
1 and 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
pinch ofground cloves
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
pinch of pepper (my mom's addition; I didn't have any today)

Sidebar: my cheapy mixer decided to hold all of the butter between the beaters and forced me to go old skool and use a wooden spoon.  Good thing I got that little upper body workout because I had to do a fair bit of taste testing (for chewyness).

In a large bowl, beat butter with a hand mixer (or wooden spoon).  Add in the sugar a little at a time and beat in with butter.  Stir in slightly beaten eggs and vinegar and then mix in the treacle.  In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda and spices.  Then, while stirring the wet mixture with a spoon, blend in the flour mixture a little at a time until everything has combined.

Roll dough into similar sized balls and roll in white sugar.  Place at least 5cm apart on baking tray and bake for 8-10 minutes at 200°C.

Tip from my mom:  weigh each ball of dough to achieve cookies of the same size.  I did most of these at 30 grams each but 20 grams made nice bite size cookies (perfect because you can eat more!) 

20 grams to the left and 30 on the right

Ghost...Uh Dinner of Christmas Past

I hope Christmas isn't too much of a distant memory.  Some of you very busy people may still have your tree up?!  There was once or twice, growing up, that ours was threatened to have Easter eggs hung from it!  Thankfully, I took all our decorations down the day after I arrived home from Canada - otherwise there's a good chance we'd be hanging some Valentine's hearts on it!  I have been extremely busy, and have neglected this blog somewhat.  As part of my new year's resolutions, I plan to make time for the things I love and find balance.  For those who don't know, I am currently training to be a teacher and planning a wedding - both of which will come to fruition in less than 6 months!  Can we say "steeeeressed"?!

So, a Christmas catch up is in order!  Because I would be going to spend Christmas in Canada with my family and friends, I began decorating much earlier than usual, so I could enjoy it!  Although, I did worry that the other half  Grinch would spend Christmas day throwing my holiday cheer into the fire.

I also don't feel Christmassy until I bake cookies (and Bailey's in my coffee helps too!).  So I spent a few evenings in December spreading flour around the kitchen.  I like to give tins filled with cookies to family and friends.

I made sugar cookies, buttertarts, gingersnaps, peanut butter cookies, Skor and chocolate chip and cranberry and white chocolate.  Shortbread and gingerbread men usually make an appearance but I didn't want to go overboard!  I won't list all of the recipes but I get most of them from The Joy of Baking website.

I flew to Canada on the 18th of December and enjoyed a plethora of Christmas goodness over the next two weeks.  I spent a few days in Timmins before making the trip to Toronto for the holidays.  Lots of time was spent eating, drinking, shopping and more eating.  Our Christmas Eve feast consisted of my mom's meatpie, homemade fried rice and lots of nibbles - cheese and crackers, veggies and dip, chips and dip etc.  This is standard and I can always count on it.  I thought I could count on Christmas Day being what I remembered it to be, but no.  We now have pork for dinner.  I was counting on turkey but apparently Turkey is reserved for Thanksgiving and my mom no longer makes it for Christmas.  I tried to fight it but pork was sitting firm on the menu.  I prepped the roast vegetables and par boiled the roast potatoes (English style) and when it came time to start cooking, I somehow took over.  Then it happened...

Dinner was just about ready (okay so it was burning slightly) and someone (you know who you are) decided to "help" and poured cold water into the Pyrex dish the pork was crisping burning up in. If you want a pipe bomb type explosion in your oven then this is the move for you. Glass went everywhere - in the food, in the oven, in my mother.

And so, this is how we ended up having pork (after slicing the bottom off it was glass free - at least I hope it was) frozen vegetables and mashed potato (I was not having leftover fried rice on Christmas day so I whipped some up quick).

 

When all was said and done it wasn't too bad.  I'm very thankful we had food to eat and family to share it with.  I had a great time with my family and friends, and there was plenty of snow!  Anyone else have any little Christmas dinner hiccups?