Thanksgiving 2012 - Fun with Pecans

 we are going to our friends' house for Thanksgiving Dinnner #2 on Monday night. (Thanksgiving Dinner #1 is tonight at a different house!) I offered to take dessert which will be pumpkin creme brulee. I decided that I wanted a bit more of a crunchy, decorative topping, so I have been experimenting with pecans today. So far, Frank likes both of them, but this is my favourite. It still needs a bit of a kick, but I am now out of pecans!

Happy Thanksgiving, 2012!

Cinnamony Orangey Candied Pecans

1  ½ tsp          Sugar

1/4 tsp            Salt

3/4 tsp            Saigon roasted cinnamon

1/8 tsp            Cinnamon

1/8 tsp            Ground nutmeg

1 tsp                Finely grated orange peel

3 tbsp              Butter

3 tbsp              Maple syrup (the good stuff – not faux!)

1 tbsp              Orange liqueur (optional – NOT!)

1  ¾ C            Pecans

Preheat oven to 375 Deg. –

Toast pecans in a baking sheet lined with tin foil for about 3 minutes – be careful not to over-toast them!

In a small bowl, mix salt, sugar, cinnamon, Saigon cinnamon, nutmeg and orange peel.

Melt butter and maple syrup together in a non-stick pan; add liqueur (if using) and boil until slightly thickened; stir in orange peel/spice mixture; add nuts and stir until well-coated.

Put nut mixture back in foil-lined baking sheet – and bake for 5 minutes. Remove pan from oven. Turn oven off. Stir nuts and return the pan to the oven for 1 minute. Cool nuts completely, then eat the crunchy bits.

Champagne Cupcakes with Champagne Cream Cheese Icing

Pink Champagne Cupcakes

Makes 2 dozen cupcakes.

CUPCAKES

1 cup (2 sticks) salted butter, room temperature
2 cups sugar
1 tsp vanilla
6 egg whites
3 cups all purpose flour
3 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
2-3 drops red food coloring (instead of food colouring I threw in 4-8 frozen raspberries)
1 cup champagne (I used extra dry Prosecco, but the recipe recommends sweet)

CREAM CHEESE ICING

8 oz (250mg) cream cheese, room temp, cut into cubes

1/2 stick unsalted butter, cool, cut into cubes

1/2 c white sugar (I can't eat powdered sugar, but you could use that, too)

1/4 c champagne

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

PREPARE BATTER

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare muffin tins by lightly buttering or using muffin cups.

In a medium sized bowl combine flour, baking powder and salt.

In a mixing bowl beat together butter and sugar for 3-5 minutes until light and fluffy. Add vanilla, then beat in egg whites one at a time. Add a few drops of food coloring (or in my case, throw in the frozen raspberries) until the batter is the color of your preference.

Add in flour mixture and champagne in three alternating additions, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Pour batter into cupcake liners, filling ⅔ full. Bake for 20-30 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean.

PREPARE ICING

In a mixer on medium speed, cream the cream cheese and butter until smooth. Reduce speed and add the sugar. Increase speed again for about 2-4 minutes, until sugar well combined and mixture is smooth. Reduce speed and add the champagne and vanilla extract until just combined; overmixing at this point will make the icing too runny.

NOTE: My icing tasted a bit too much of champagne (I know!) so in future I would reduce to 1/8 c or even omit, depending on how champagne-y my cupcakes tasted.

Lemon Cardamom Ricotta Babycakes

I bought some ricotta cheese a few days ago with the intention of making cannelloni, but then I realized how much work it would be to come up with a tomato-free sauce (allergy), and I gave up. So then I had this ricotta. I thought, I like cheese. I like cookies. Surely there is a recipe for such a dreamy combination.

So I made these:

(Sorry for the poor photo quality.)

I combined a few online recipes and added some lemon zest and cardamom and: AMAZEBALLS. I call them babycakes because they have a soft, cakey texture inside when baked.

You're welcome.


Ingredients:

1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temp
1 cup white sugar
1 egg, room temp, whisked
1 cup ricotta cheese
zest of one lemon
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp ground cardamom

Glaze (optional - I didn't try it)

1 cup icing sugar (I'm allergic to corn, so I can't have this)
3 Tbsp milk
1 Tbsp lemon zest/finely grated lemon rind

To do:

Preheat oven to 350.

In the gorgeous stand mixer that you got from your adoring boyfriend last Christmas (or with whisk), cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Beat in egg, ricotta cheese, lemon zest and vanilla, mixing well after each addition.

In a separate bowl, sift together flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder and cardamom. Whisk to combine. With mixer on lowest setting, add to ricotta mixture. Mix on medium until incorporated.

Drop by tsp/Tbsp onto cookie sheet lined with parchment paper (or Silpat). Using the back of the spoon (or your fingers), spread the blobs out a bit so they bake evenly. Bake until bottoms start to brown, about 12-15min (15min worked for me). Remove from oven and allow to cool before removing from cookie sheets (about 2min). Move to wire rack to continue cooling.

Glaze: In small bowl, whisk together icing sugar, milk and lemon rind until smooth. Dip tops of cookies into glaze. Let stand on rack until icing is set, about 30min.

Pear and Blood Orange Salad

One blood orange - peeled and chopped into bite-sized pieces

One mini cucumber - scraped and sliced

One Bosc pear - cored and sliced

Three green onions - white and some green bits - sliced

Three or four handfuls of salad mix - we used the one with herbs

Renee's Pear and Blue Cheese salad dressing

Next time I am going to add some lightly toasted, chopped pecans or some crumbled blue cheese or some fresh, crispy fennel ...

As it was, it was deeee-lish!!!!

The salad served two - but with some left over.

It will go with the fresh basil/Compari tomato/mushroom/3 cheese pizza from last night's dinner.

Banana Cake with Broiled Caramel Topping (Neighbour Cake)

This recipe is from The Complete Harrowsmith Cookbook (Best Ever Banana Cake.) Our neighbour, who otherwise eschews sweets, likes it so much we now call it Neighbour Cake.

INGREDIENTS:

Cake
1/2 C Butter
1 1/2 C white sugar
2 eggs, well beaten
1 C (plus) mashed ripe bananas
1 tsp vanilla
2 C flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 C buttermilk

Caramel Topping (This is 1.5 times the amount called for in the original recipe.)
1/2 C chopped pecans (or shredded coconut)
4 1/2 Tbsp melted butter (no substitutions)
3/4 C brown sugar
1 1/2 Tbsp cream

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Cream butter and white sugar together, then beat in eggs, bananas and vanilla. Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add to creamed mixture alternately with milk, beating well after each addition. Bake in greased and floured 9"x9" pan at 350 F for 50 to 60 minutes. (I check it after 40 minutes - it's usually done, maybe because I often bake it in two smaller foil pans.) I once got this far reading one of my aunt's recipes where it said, "Remove from oven."Your call.

Meanwhile, combine topping ingredients. Spread over warm cake in pan and brown under broiler until bubbling. If you think you might start clean-up while the cake is under the broiler, I would advise against it. The nuts can burn very, very quickly. Besides, it's kind of fun to watch those bubbles appear. I've made this countless times and I can attest that the longer you can broil it without burning, the better. I keep rotating and moving the pan around for a couple of minutes, watching the nuts for signs of burning with an eagle eye. Eagle eye not included in recipe.

Peanut Butter Banana Muffins

These muffins taste best when prepared barefoot on a sunny Sunday afternoon in February, windows open to let in the unseasonably warm air, while you are singing Mozart and Handel arias at the top of your lungs, scaring your cats and disturbing the neighbours. But you can alter the recipe as you see fit.

I got this recipe from Epicurious.com, my new favourite iPhone app, but you can also visit the website: www.epicurious.com.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
• 1/4 cup toasted wheat germ (I substituted a bit of whole wheat flour)
  
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup mashed ripe bananas (about 3 or 4 medium)
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1/2 cup chunky peanut butter (I used smooth and added a handful of crushed roasted almonds and cashews)
  
• 2 large eggs
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil (I don't use vegetable oil so I added 1/4 cup of olive oil instead; I figured the peanut butter would have enough oil in it)
  
• 1/4 cup (packed) dark brown sugar (I used light brown sugar and it was fine)
  
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 400°F. Line 12 muffin cups with muffin papers. Sift first 4 ingredients into a small bowl to blend and set aside. In a medium bowl, beat bananas, honey, peanut butter, eggs, oil, sugar and vanilla to blend. Beat in flour mixture. Divide batter among muffin cups.

Bake muffins until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Transfer muffins to rack; cool. Makes 12 large muffins, or 24 small-ish muffins which fit into mason jars and look super cute on the kitchen counter.

Enjoy!

New Year's Eve Baked Seafood Fettucine

Watch this space. Recipe soon and photos to be organized!