Whole wheat pancakes!

I have been trying to eat healthier for a couple months now.  Today I really wanted pancakes so I decided to find a recipe using whole wheat flour. I haven't tried other recipes but apparently you can go wrong.  Well I am glad I picked a recipe which actually taste good... no literally, that is the title from fifteen spatulas!  I was hesitant with the vinegar but it all worked out in the end!

 If you do not like my picture, click on the link above and you will get the recipe in text format!

Yum yum!

Chocolate Peppermint Cheesecake

One of my goals this week was to make a Cheesecake.  I had tons of cream cheese to use up as well as I haven't made one since before I moved back from France.  Needless to say, it was important that I make one this week while I was off.  I took the recipe from Good Housekeeping's cookbook which I will post later.  It was interesting because the recipe was for a make your own cheesecake.  To me it was much more difficult to follow it as I didn't know which combinations would work the best.  Mine had chocolate peppermint pieces in it as I thought it might be an interesting addition. 

 

 As you can see, I just had to try a slice before it went in the freezer.  I wouldn't want to serve it to guests and it taste bad, now would I? It tasted good but I am not sure I liked my crust and might have to change the brand of graham cracker crumbs that I use for next time.  That and there was too much butter in the crust (not that I tasted it) because it leaked in the oven and on my counter. Good things to know for next time!

All bran buds bran muffins!

I've decided that I need to eat better and with that I decided to make bran muffins to increase my fibre while also using up my all bran cereal which I keep for company and is expiring soon. I looked all over and found this recipe from the All Bran Site. Yummy! Hope they taste as good as they smell!!

All Bran Muffins

INGREDIENTS

1 1/3 cups or 325 ml All-purpose flour  1/2 cup or 125 ml Sugar  1 tbsp or 15 ml Baking powder  1/4 tsp or 1 ml Salt  1 1/2 cups or 375 ml All-Bran Original* cereal  -OR-  All-Bran Buds* cereal  1 cup or 250 ml Milk  1 Egg  1/3 cup or 75 ml vegetable oil

DIRECTIONS

1. Stir together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

2. In large mixing bowl, combine cereal and milk . Let stand about 2 minutes or until cereal softens. Add egg and oil. Beat well. Add flour mixture, stirring only until combined. Portion batter evenly into twelve greased 2 1/2-inch muffin pan cups coated with cooking spray.

4. Bake in oven at 200°C (400°F) for about 20 minutes or until muffins are golden brown. Serve warm.

Do you have a great recipie for bran muffins? What do you add to them to add flavour?

Meringue nests/Pavlova: Depending where you live

So Im not entirely sure if you have all seen the show "American baking competition" but if you are a baker, it is awesome!  I learned soo much about baking from watching these amateurs compete to take home the ultimate prize of a cookbook deal!
Sadly it wasn't a long show, having only a small number of episodes but there were a few where I was mesmerized as to how to make things that I didn't know existed (or didn't know the "American" term for)!  One of the "showstoppers" was a meringue tart with custard and fruit topped on it.  I liked this because it reminded me of my days in France where I would see meringues in the pastry shops' windows constantly.  Having never actually having tried a meringue (other than on my lemon pie), I decided to try my best and create my version of the same thing.

I have some of my closest friends over today to be my guinea pigs! :) Thanks guys!

Pavlova Recipe: Courtesy of Chef John on Allrecipes.com

• 
  
  3/4 cups of granulated sugar
  2 teaspoons cornstarch
  3 egg whites at room temperature
  1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  3/4 teaspoons of white vinegar (to stabilize it apparently)
  
  
• Directions:
• 1. Preheat oven to 250 degrees F (120 degrees C).
• 2. Line a baking sheet with a silicone baking mat or parchment paper.
• 3. Whisk sugar and cornstarch in a bowl. Set aside.
• 4. Beat egg whites in a bowl until they are foamy and have a thick, ribbony texture, 2 to 3 minutes.
• 5. Pour 1/4 of the sugar mixture into the egg whites; whisk until completely incorporated, about 30 seconds. Repeat for the rest of the sugar mixture, whisking after each addition, until all of the sugar mixture is incorporated and the egg whites are glossy and thick.
• 6. Pour vanilla and vinegar into egg white mixture; whisk until you can lift your beater or whisk straight up and the egg whites form a sharp peak that holds its shape, 2 to 3 minutes.
• 7. Spoon egg white mixture onto prepared baking sheet; spread out into a 2-inch high by 6-inch wide disc.
• 8. Bake in the preheated oven for 1 hour.
• 9. Turn off the oven, crack open the oven door and let the Pavlova cool for one hour.

10. Spoon lemon filling onto meringues and garnish with berries. Enjoy!

In the oven like this

Served with Sheriff lemon pie filling and fresh berries

Chocolate Macarons: Take 1

 Today, being that I am off for March Break,  I decided to do something that I've been meaning to try for a while but just haven't had the time. Macarons.... These delicious treats are becoming increasingly popular over the years with the origins coming from France. My devirginizing moment with Macarons was back when I was teaching in France in 2007. It was my roommate's birthday and she had never been bowling so my other friend and I took Melissa on a devirginizational tour.  We tried things she had never done before and came across "Grand Mere Auzou".  Now Auzou is my FAVOURITE chocolate shop in Rouen.  I love love their 'larmes de Jeanne d'arc' (Joan of Arc's tears in English).  They are a yummy version of chocolate covered almonds with little extra yumminess!

Anywho, on with my story.  Melissa, Tamar and I had our very first Macarons in Rouen on that special day in February and we all fell in love.  So light and fluffy yet so full of goodness!

Moving along to 2012.  Since I've been back, I keep saying 'one day' to all the French things I want to recreate. Today was the day! I set off to the grocery store to get the ingredients and thanks to Choco Paris' recipe I was off to the races!

Disclaimer:  I am not one of those blogs who shows you the best possible result.  As much as I love those professional blogs who show you their 500th batch when all the kinks have been ironed out, I do appreciate those who tell you what their problems were so that you don't continue to have the same mistakes!

1st batch had slight problems.  I started out dropping the batter on the wax paper rather than piping it into a blob.  I now see why this was important as the macarons are supposed to be smooth on top.  Secondly, I was supposed to wait 20-30 minutes before putting them in the oven but didn't.  This might be why the cracking was on top....  

2nd batch was a bit better and most have the frothy bottom that is the trademark to macarons but still have cracking on the top which I don't really understand considering they were left out for a good 30 minutes before being put in the oven.

Now on to the filling.... heat cream then pour it onto the chocolate, add a little bit of butter and voila..... Ummmm newsflash, the cream didn't rise and it is still very much liquid.  The recipe called for heavy cream.  The heaviest that I could find in the store was whipping cream at 35%.  Maybe it wasn't thick enough....  Tomorrow I will test out the filling and if it hasn't thickened by then, I will whip it to see if that works.  Otherwise I have no clue, do you?

March 12th update:

 After refrigerating, the filling became hard enough that I could spread the filling onto the macarons.  Voila!

Some came out looking pretty nice!

One of my best ones up close!

All in all, I am quite pleased with my first attempt!  I am usually pretty lucky with my baking, having never had to do a recipe twice unless I wanted to!