Author: Andrea

Truffles

Just for fun, I have been trying new truffle recipes.  I am out of good chocolate, so I can not make any more candy till we get some.

These truffles are peanut butter M&M, hazelnut/nutella, date/almond, and pretzel.  I mixed marshmallows and peanuts with the leftover chocolate.  My favorites were the hazelnut and the pretzel truffles.

I am still looking for fun new truffle recipes and plan to experiment creating more of my own recipes.

 

National Popcorn Day!

IMG_9537.PopcornToday is National Popcorn day!  So we made popcorn for a snack and shared some with our closest neighbors.

Here is the recipe if you want to try some too. If you don’t like really sweet popcorn, half the sugar and spices, we like it with lots of flavor.

3 quarts popped popcorn
1/3 cup butter, unsalted is our preference
1/2 cup sugar
+/- 1.5 tsp ground cinnamon or favorite cinnamon based spice mix
1/2 tsp salt (optional)		 Directions:
Use 3/4 cup unpopped kernels to make 3 quarts of popped corn. Butter a large cookie sheet. Preheat oven to 300 degrees.Melt butter, sugar, cinnamon and salt in small saucepan over medium heat heat. Cook until sugar dissolves and mixture is bubbly.Carefully pour over popcorn and bake for 15 minutes, stirring once during baking and again during cooling.

Cinnamon Sticky Roll

IMG_9533.Cinnamon RollI was experimenting with cinnamon sticky rolls.  I was trying to make a three pound one because my Uncle Dave shared about a place that makes cinnamon rolls that heavy.

IMG_9529.Cinnamon RollI like the caramel sticky roll topping better than frosting, so I tried that instead. It is not quite heavy enough, but it is close!The roll is really good, but next time, I think I will try more cinnamon and experiment a little more.

Short Bread

Today is National short bread day.shortbreadIf you like shortbread, here is a great recipe from the Joy of Cooking Cookbook!

Cream 1 cup butter.  Mix together 2 cups flour, 1/2 cup powdered sugar and a dash salt.  Blend dry ingredients into butter.  Pat into ungreased pie pan and press edges down. Pierce with a fork every so often.  Bake 25-30 minutes.  Cut while warm.

Coat of Arms

We had to design our own family coat of arms for a journal entry.

coat-of-armsMy Coat of Arms

My armor would be brown with a cast iron pot on it because I like to cook and my brothers like to snitch while I am baking. The cast iron pot is for hitting them on the hand so they can not snitch anymore.

Pumpkin Angel Food Cake

Fall is here. Here is a good fall recipe.

cake

1 1/4 cup powdered sugar
½ cup potato starch
¼ cup tapioca flour
¼ cup millet flour
1 teaspoon xanthan gum
¼ teaspoon salt
12 large egg whites (1½ cup) without any yolk in them. Otherwise it won’t work!
1½ teaspoon cream of tartar
1 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 tsp Lebkucken spice or favorite recipe for the spices in pumpkin pie.
3/4 cup pumpkin puree

Preheat oven to 350°

In a medium bowl, whisk together the powdered sugar, potato starch, tapioca starch, millet flour, xanthan gum, and salt. This is the “flour” mixture.

In another bowl, mix pie spice with granulated sugar. Taste a little before setting aside.

In a large mixing bowl, start beating the egg whites.  Add cream of tartar and continue beating until foamy.

Slowly add the spiced sugar, a few tablespoons at a time, beating only until stiff peaks form.

Spoon at least a half cup of beaten egg mixture into pumpkin and fold carefully. Save for a little bit.

Carefully fold flour mixture into eggs about one fourth at a time, folding in until all the flour mixture is moistened. Don’t mix or be rough or the beaten eggs will fall.

Now fold in pumpkin mixture carefully.

Spoon the mixture into an ungreased angel food cake pan and make the top look pretty. Remove air bubbles by carefully cutting through batter with a knife.

Bake for 35 minutes, then check if it is done. It is done when the top looks dry and springs back when touched and when a toothpick comes out clean when poked  in the middle.

Turn the cake upside down and cool a few hours in the pan.

When completely cool, use a knife to separate cake from pan and carefully remove it.

Serve with whip cream or some frosting if you want.

Recipe adapted from gluten free homemaker.