Quick and Easy Pecan Brittle

I love to eat brittle and I found this recipe on the Good House Keeping website, it's super easy and quick to make and you can pretty much use any type of nuts you want.  It makes a really cute garnish to put on top of pumpkin pie or ice cream.  You can even just eat them as a snack and pack them up in cute little bags to give your friends since the recipe is super simple and delicious!

Pecan Brittle!

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 cup sugar

2 tablespoons water

2 tablespoons chopped pecans

DIRECTIONS:

1. Line a large cookie sheet with foil and place cookie sheet on wire rack since the foil and cookie sheet will get very hot when topped with the caramel/nut mixture. 
2. In heavy 2-quart saucepan, heat sugar and water on medium until mixture turns golden, about 5-8 minutes. 
3. With a heat-safe spatula, stir in pecans and cook 30 seconds. 
4. Working quickly and carefully, pour hot caramel/nut mixture onto foil and carefully lift and tilt cookie sheet slightly (holding foil in place) to spread caramel into a thin even layer. 
5. Let brittle cool completely, about 30 minutes.
6. When cool, peel foil away, and break brittle into pieces, pack up as sweet snack or use as a garnish.

 PICTURES: 

Pecans!

Cookie sheet lined with foil.

Cooking the sugar and water until it's golden brown.

Spreading the caramel/nut mixture on the foil.

Breaking the brittle into pieces!

Using the pecan brittle as a garnish for pumpkin ice cream! yum!!

Cut-Out Butter Cookies - Happy Halloween!

I have tried many cut-out cookie recipes and this Martha Stewart recipe definitely has to be my favorite, the cookies taste really light, not too sweet and are soft but crispy.  I really like to bake cookies for my nephews, they always ask me to bake them different shapes and decorate them a certain way so I am always on the look out for cookie cutters and decorating ideas.  Halloween is almost here and I promised my niece I would make her some cookies and send them to her (she lives in WA).  I spent most of the morning decorating them but it was definitely worth it, they turned out great and I know the kids will love them :)

Happy Halloween!

INGREDIENTS:

3 cups (spooned and leveled) all-purpose flour

1 cup confectioners' sugar

1 cup (2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut in pieces

1/2 teaspoon salt

4 large egg yolks

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS:

1. Mix butter and sugar in a large bowl with a mixer.  
2. Add flour and salt to the butter/sugar mixture, beat until it is the texture of a course meal.
3. In a separate small bowl, lightly beat egg yolks and vanilla.  Add to the large bowl and mix, mix until the dough forms.
   
4. Divide dough in half; form into two balls. Wrap in plastic; chill until firm, at least 1 hour.
5. Preheat oven to 350 degrees C. 
6. On a floured surface, roll out one ball at a time to a thickness of 3/16 inch.
7. Cut dough into desired shapes; carefully transfer to baking sheets. 
8. Place the baking sheet with the desired shapes for 10 minutes into the refrigerator (this will help the cookies hold their shape better).
9. Bake until edges are firm (not brown), 10 to 15 minutes for 3-inch cookies. Cool 1 to 2 minutes on baking sheets; cool completely on a wire rack. 
10. Decorate as you wish. ** I used some store bought frosting, adding food coloring, put the frosting in Ziploc bags, cut the tip and used that to pipe out the frosting to decorate the cookies.
11. Cookies can be stored in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.

CANDY CORN COOKIES:

1. In order to make the candy corn cookies, divide the dough into 3 pieces.  
2. If you do not have orange food coloring, mix the red and yellow food coloring together to make orange and add to the first piece of dough. 
3. Add yellow food coloring to the second piece of dough.
4. Leave the third piece plain.
5. Roll out each piece of dough into logs and stick together, yellow at the bottom, orange in the middle and the "white" or plain piece on top, now shape into a triangle.  It works better if you wrap all three pieces together in plastic then shape into a triangle.
6. Place dough into the refrigerator for 1 hour or until cool.
7. Once cool, slice by the desired thickness and bake at 350 deg C for 10-15 minutes.
8. Cool 1 to 2 minutes on baking sheets; cool completely on a wire rack.

PICTURES:

I love colored dough, it looks so pretty and fun!

Shaping the candy corn cookies, so festive!

Candy Corn!! Baked and ready to eat!

Rolling out the dough and cutting some pumpkins.

Decorating the cookies, check out my awesome Ziploc bags frosting bags. I had some leaf sprinkles so I added them to the pumpkin cookies.

Mexican Sweet Bread (Conchas a.k.a Seashells)

I love Mexican Pan Dulce (Sweet Bread), it has such a light flavor, it's perfect with coffee, tea or better yet hot chocolate! I was born in El Salvador and since there were never any Salvadorean Bakeries in the areas where we lived in Canada and the U.S. we would always opt for the next best thing, Mexican Pan Dulce.  I've been eating this stuff for years and finally decided to try to make it for myself, this was my first attempt and although I didn't get the topping quite right, they still turned out amazing! This recipe comes from allrecipes.com and have great reviews!

Fluffy and ready to eat!

INGREDIENTS:
Bread:

2 1/2 teaspoons yeast

1/2 cup warm water (110 deg F)

1/2 cup evaporated milk

3/8 cup white sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup butter or margarine, melted

1 egg

4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Topping #1:

2/3 cup white sugar

1/2 cup butter or margarine

1 cup all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Topping #2:  

1/2 cup white sugar

2 tbsp melted butter

DIRECTIONS:

1. In a large bowl, stir together the yeast and warm water. Mix in the milk, 3/8 cup sugar, 1/3 cup melted butter, salt, egg and half of the flour. Gradually mix in the remaining flour, and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon. Turn the dough out onto a floured counter to knead as soon as it pulls together enough.
2. Knead for 6 to 8 minutes, until smooth and elastic. Place in a large greased bowl, and turn the dough to coat. Cover, and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.
3. Make the topping while the dough rises. In a medium bowl, beat 2/3 cup sugar and 1/2 cup butter until light and fluffy. Stir in the flour until the mixture is the consistency of thick paste. Divide into two parts, and place one part in a separate bowl. Mix cinnamon into one half, and vanilla into the other half.** You can also add food coloring to make different colored conchas.
4. When the dough is done rising, cut into 12 even-sized pieces. Shape into balls, and place on a greased cookie sheet, spacing about 3 inches apart. If using Topping #1: Divide each bowl of topping into 6 balls, and pat flat. Place circles of topping on top of the dough balls patting down lightly. Use a knife to cut grooves in the topping like a clam shell. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 45 minutes. ** I felt like I used too much topping since my conchas were quite small, the topping tended to grow quite a bit, so I would recommend using 1/2 a topping ball per pastry if your conchas are small.  If you want to try Topping #1, bake the bread with no topping
5. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until lightly golden brown.
6. Decorating with Topping #1, as soon as you take the bread out of the oven, brush with melted butter and sprinkle sugar on top and let dry, see pictures below.

PICTURES OF PROCESS:


Making the dough!



After the dough was left to rise for about 2 hrs I divided it into 12 balls

Making Topping #1! Orange in honor of Halloween or OSU ;)



Making them Clam looking



And they're done! Yum, yum!

Making some sugar ones with Topping #2!



Sugar ones are ready to eat! They kind of resemble Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) bread :)

Mexican Sweet Bread Feast!

Flan from an Ex

This recipe comes from the wife of one of my college professors.  She got the recipe from my professor who got it from one of his ex-girlfriends who happened to be from Spain.  Weird story right? I am not a big fan of flan but my family and boyfriend love it so I decided to make this recipe for them.  Flan tastes a lot better homemade than from a package, the texture and flavor is so different, especially this recipe, the flan tastes so smooth it's to die for! This recipe requires lots of egg yolks, so maybe make it in the morning and use all those extra egg whites for a healthy omelet :)

Flan with Caramel #2!

INGREDIENTS:

**I have provided two caramel recipes, just try one of the two, caramel #1 is a much lighter syrup and takes a lot longer to make than caramel #2. 

Caramel #1:
2 cups white sugar
2/3 cups of water

Caramel #2:
2 cups white sugar

Flan:
3 cups whole milk
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1 1/4 cup white sugar
1 small cinnamon stick
1 1/2 tsp lemon peel
8 egg yolks
2 eggs

DIRECTIONS: (makes about 10 Flans in 60 oz ramekins)

Caramel #1: *This is a lighter syrup.

1. Over medium heat, in a small sauce pan, mix white sugar and water together, stir until all sugar has melted
2. Cook until the sugar turns golden brown (about 15mins if done over medium heat)
3. Poor into the bottom of the ramekins or the dish you are using for the flan.  Don't worry if it hardens, once they bake with the flan mixture the caramel will become syrupy.

Caramel #2: *This syrup has a darker flavor but is faster to make

1. Over medium heat, in a small sauce pan, cook the sugar until all the sugar has melted and become a golden brown syrup

Flan:

1. In a medium sauce pan mix whole milk, heavy whipping cream, white sugar, cinnamon and lemon peel.
2. Cook over medium heat until the milk mixture comes to a light boil (about 20-30 mins)
3. Once it starts boiling remove from heat and let cool 20 mins
4. In a separate bowl, Beat the egg yolks and eggs
5. Slowly add 1/2 cup of milk mixture to the eggs while beating constantly.  This is done to temper the eggs.  Now add this mixture to the milk.
6. Strain the mixture.
7. Pour into the caramel lined ramekins or dish.
8. Pre-heat oven to 350 deg F.
9. Place ramekins in a large glass or ceramic baking dish and fill with about 1-2 inches of hot water. Bake for 60-70 minutes in the water bath and check with a knife just to the side of the center. If knife comes out clean, it's ready.
10. Now refrigerate (refrigerate for at least 1 hour before eating) **TIP: to take them out of the ramekin, place the ramekin in hot water for about 1 minute, then create an air pocket by sliding a knife in and out on the side (just once), now you can flip it over on a plate and enjoy!

PICTURES OF PROCESS: ** Sorry there are not more pictures of the process, I forgot to take pics of the milk cooking!

Adding the syrup to the dish and spreading it around, if you can't spread it around because the syrup has hardened don't worry, once cooked the syrup will melt through the bottom and when taken out of the dish it will just melt on top of the Flan. (Pic is of Flan with caramel #2)



I only had 6 small ramekins so I had to improvise by using some glass dishes in order to use up all of the Flan mixture.  So here is the Flan in the oven in a water bath. Oh yeah don't forget to cover with tin foil!! Or else the top will burn, bubble and become dry and rubbery!



All cooked and ready to be cooled in the fridge :)

Flan with Caramel #1, delicious!