Open For Business!

I have loved to bake for as long as I can remember. It has always been something that I do at home and then share with my family, friends, and co-workers. I am happy to say that although it has taken me quite a while to get to this point, I have finally opened a bakery of my own! While I do not have a store front, anyone may put in order through my website, send me an email, or even send me amessage  through the company Facebook. I do my best to keep these pages updated with all the new treats that I create. I offer many types of cakes, cupcakes, cookies, and other items.  Stop on by and orders your treats today!

Tuna PIzza

When I was a kid my mom used to make us tuna pizza for supper. Now that I am an adult, I still find this a delicious meal that is so simple to prepare on a busy weeknight.

You can either start with a premade pizza dough or prepare one from scratch. In this situation, I used a premade dough that I just added some water to, rolled out in a square, and then baked for a few minutes.

Take about a 1/2 container of cream cheese over the partially baked dough. You may use whatever flavor of cream cheese you like, I just used the standard kind since it is what I had on hand.

Take about 4 cans of tuna and mix in mayonnaise, mustard, and pickly relish just as you would if you were making a tuna sandwhich. Do not make it too runny or it the crust will become soggy. Spread this mixture over the top of the cream cheese.

Cover the tuna with a nice layer of shredded cheese.

Cook the pizza again until the center is hot and the cheese has melted. This should take appx 10 minutes.

Let is sit for just a moment before cutting into it.

This is so easy and so delicious, even the kids like it :)

4th of July Swirly Cookies

The 4th of July is always such an exciting time for families across the country, celebrating our Independence. In order to honor that, I made some red, white, and blue swirly cookies.

Go ahead and make your favorite sugar cookie dough, dividing it into 3 portions. 

Add red coloring to one portion and blue to another. Put in fridge and let cool down for appx 20 minutes. 

Once it has cooled enough, place in a floured surface and roll all 3 portions into rectangles, then placing them on too if each other in whichever order you prefer.

Trim the edges to make uniform shaped.

Roll the dough up from the long side. 

Slice the dough about 1/4" thick rolls. 

Place in cookie sheet and cook for 5-7 minutes at 375 degrees. 

You can also take the remainder of the dough from trimmings, roll it out, and cut out other shapes. I stuck with circle since it was the only cookie cutter I had available at the moment. 

Enjoy!! 

THE DARING BAKERS’ JUNE, 2013 CHALLENGE: LIFE OF PIE

Thank you so much to Rachael of Pizzarossa for giving us such a wonderful challenge for June's Daring Baker's Challenge. 

I chose to do the Chocolate and Caramel Tart as it was something that I have never done before. I ended up using a pit pan as I do not have a tart pan and could not find one at the stores out here. One of the downfalls of living in a smal town I guess. I will definitely need to order one online since I would love to do more baking using it.   I will admit that the crust was a bit challenging for me. The first go around I used granulated sugar in the crust and I just could not get it to be 'wet' enough to bind together. I tried again the second time with powdered sugar instead and it came out lovely.  The end result of the crust made enough for 2, so I made a double batch of the chocolate mousse and made two 'pies'.   When the recipe gives the options to use powdered sugar in the chocolate mousse, I decided against it as it seemed like it would already be rich enough with the caramel and chocolate.


Download printable file Here

Chocolate and Caramel Tart:

Recipe Source:

Pastry by: chefsimon
Filling by: Valéry Drouet's "Chocolat"

Servings: 8

Active time: 1 hour altogether

Baking time: 35 minutes altogether

Cooling time: approx. 2 hours altogether

Ingredients

Pâte sablée

1 large egg yolk

5 tablespoons (75 ml) (70 gm) (2½ oz) granulated or powdered sugar, as you prefer

1¾ cups (420 ml) (250 gm) (8¾ oz) all-purpose flour

pinch salt

9 tablespoons (1 stick + 1 tablespoon) (125 gm) (4 ½ oz) cold butter, diced

3 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon (50 ml) cold water

Filling

For the caramel

7 tablespoons (105 ml) (100 gm) (3½ oz) granulated sugar

7 tablespoons (100ml) whole cream, hot

For the chocolate mousse

2 large eggs

7 tablespoons (100ml) whole milk

1/3 cup (80 ml) (75 gm) (2½ oz) powdered sugar (optional)

13 tablespoons (200ml) whole cream

1 cup plus 3 tablespoons (280 ml) (200 gm) (7 oz) dark chocolate, broken into pieces

Directions:

Pâte sablée

1. Preheat oven to moderate 350°F/180°C/gas mark 4. Lightly grease a 9"/24cm or 10"/26cm tart pan, ideally a fluted metal one with a removable bottom.

2. In a small bowl, whisk the egg yolk and sugar together with a teaspoon of the water until pale and fluffy. Set aside.

3. Sift the flour and salt together into a mound on a work surface.

4. Scatter the diced butter over the top of the flour. Quickly toss the butter in the flour so it's all coated, then, using your fingers, rub it in until it resembles breadcrumbs. Keep repeating the operation until it has the consistency of sand.



5. Gather the flour mixture into a mound and make a well in the center.

6. Pour the egg mixture and the rest of the water into the well. Working quickly, incorporate the wet ingredients into the flour, first with your fingertips then with a bench scraper until just mixed but not brought together.



7. Gently gather dough together into a rough ball between your palms. If it stays together, it is sufficiently moist. If it doesn't stay together, add a touch more water and repeat the process.



8. Using the palm of your hand, push away from you to smear the dough across the work surface, gather it up and repeat until it comes together into a smooth, soft ball. You aren't kneading, you are using the smearing action to bind the elements of the dough without developing the gluten in the flour. The dough ball shouldn't spring back when pressed.



9. Lightly flour your work surface and lightly roll the dough out to about 3mm thick in a circle to fit your pan. Press the dough gently into the pan, prick all over the bottom with a fork.

10. Line the tart pan with baking paper and fill with dry beans or pie weights and bake until set, around 9 minutes. Remove pie weights and paper and bake another 6 minutes, until dry.



11. Remove the pastry from the oven and allow to cool in the pan. Leave the oven on.

Filling

For the caramel

1. Spread the sugar evenly across the bottom of a small, heavy-based, non-coated saucepan (it needs to be metallic so you can see the color). Heat over a medium-low heat without stirring until the sugar starts to melt and becomes liquid around the edges. Once about a quarter of it has melted, gently stir continuously with a wooden spoon or heat-proof spatula until it turns a deep amber color, a few minutes depending on how high the heat is.

2. Remove from heat and very slowly and carefully pour all (100ml) of the hot cream into the caramel, stirring continuously - it will splutter and steam so be very careful as it is extremely hot. The cream needs to hot and poured very slowly, otherwise the caramel will seize. Keep stirring until it stops bubbling and is well combined then set aside to cool. I couldn't take a lot of pictures of this process because I needed both my hands!

For the chocolate mousse

1. In a medium bowl, whisk the eggs together with the milk (and powdered sugar, if using).



2. In a small heavy-based saucepan, bring all (200ml) of the cream to a boil.



3. Remove cream from heat and add the broken chocolate. Stir until the chocolate has melted completely and the mixture is smooth. Let cool a few minutes.



4. Pour the chocolate mixture into the egg and milk mixture and stir gently with a spatula to obtain a smooth cream.



5. Spread the cooled caramel in the bottom of the cooked tart shell.



6. Gently pour the chocolate cream over the caramel so you don't disturb it.



7. Place the tart into the hot oven and bake for 30 minutes, until the filling has set but is still wobbly in the center.



10. Remove the tart from the oven and allow to cool to room temperature. If using a tart pan with removable bottom, unmold before serving.



       

              It will keep in the fridge, covered with plastic wrap, for 3 days. It is unsuitable for freezing. The pastry can be made a day ahead.

Additional Information:

Pâte sablée step-by-step pictures (the text is in French but the pictures are great)

http://chefsimon.com/pate-sablee.html


and a video of the pâte sablée process

http://chefsimon.com/videos/pate-sablee.html


David Lebovitz has some great tips and pictures on making caramel here

http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2008/01/how-to-make-the/

National Fresh Veggies Day 2013- Spaghetti Squash

In honor of National Fresh Veggies Day, I figured that we would try some spaghetti squash for the first time. Its really refreshing to eat and doesn't make you feel all weighted down. Even my 5 year old enjoyed this recipe. Simple yet delicious.

Ingredients:

1 spaghetti squash
Cherry Tomatoes
Bacon
Parmesan Cheese (I used a mix of Parmesan, Romano, and Asiago)
Mexican Shredded Cheese
Mozzarella cheese
salt pepper

Directions:

I cut the squash in half lengthwise and put them face down in a baking dish with about an inch of water. After baking this for appx 30-40 minutes, I let them cool slightly and then scooped out the seed section. Using a fork, I then carefully scraped the squash out making it look like spaghetti noodles. I let them drain in a colander while I was preparing the rest of the ingredients.

Lay the spaghetti squash in a small baking dish so its evenly distributed across the bottom. Then sprinkle with salt, pepper, Parmesan cheese mix, and mozzarella cheese. Bake for about 20 minutes or until the squash is cooked through and cheese is melted.





Top with Sliced cherry tomatoes, bacon, and Mexican shredded cheese.

The Daring Cooks June 2013 Challenge - Meatballs Around The World

The Daring Kitchen never fails to give wonderful recipes to work from at making some amazing food and challenge ourselves as cooks. June 2013's challenge for The Daring Cooks was Meatballs Around the World.

We were to either choose a 'wet-prep' method (where the bread is soaked in milk) or the 'dry-prep' method (where you use dry bread crumbs) to make the meatballs.

Thank you so much to Shelley from C Mom Cook and her twin sister Ruth from Mommy-Crafts for giving us such a wonderful challenge this month!

I decided that I would go with the 'wet-prep' method since I have never done it before when making meatballs. Usually Im a 'dry-prep' method kind of girl, but there is ALWAYS room for trying something new.

I chose my recipe for the 'wet-prep' method, based on Mark Bittman’s recipe, as seen from: Seasonally Effective and then added my own twist to finish it off.

Salisbury Steak Meatballs

Ingredients:

2 slices of wheat bread (crusts removed), cut into small pieces
¼ cup milk
2 pounds ground beef (or other meat, or meat combination of your choice)
Salt
Pepper
1 egg
1 large Onion (chopped finely
Handful of Mushrooms (chopped finely)
Strips of bacon (Cut into small pieces)
Garlic EVOO
Steak Seasoning

Directions:

1. Fry up the bacon until crisp., set to the side.

2. Saute the onion and mushroom in the leftover bacon grease until near carmelized, set to the side.

3. Soak the bread in the milk (using only enough milk to soak up the bread), until the milk has been soaked through, draining any excess milk

4. Once the bread has soaked up the milk, add the meat, egg, salt, pepper, bacon, onion and mushroom mix, and steak seasoning and mix it thoroughly with a spoon or your hands (The hands work the best at getting the mixture really worked in).






5. Roll the mixture into uniform sized balls.

6.Fry in a pan with a small amount of EVOO until outside is nice and crisp and inside are cooked through, making sure not to crown the pan.





I served mine with mashed potatoes and a mushroom gravy.





The family absoultely loved it, and that says a lot since my boyfriend is not usually big fans of meatballs.

Co-Worker's Baby Shower Lunch

I generally jump at any opportunity to bake, my work throwing a baby showe lunch for a co-worker of mine wasnt any different. It was requested of me to make cupcakes for this luncheon. I couldnt just leave it at that, I needed to overachieve in order to make it up to myself that I havent been baking as much as I have wanted to lately. My goal was to overachieve and I did just that. I decided that I wanted to make not one, but two different types of cupcakes. I also decided that I wanted to try and make one of those adorable baby in a bassenette, made out of watermelon and cantelope, that I keep seeing all of the internet. And last but not least, I decided to make some apple cinnamon muffins to bring in for breakfast. Yeah I realize that all of this didnt need to be made and brought to work. I also realize that I like to do it and that being an overachiever is okay with me. The first thing that I made was apple cinnamon muffins for everyone's breakfast. They were made with some of my homemade applesauce and the final product came out quite good. I decided that I wanted to make two different kind of chocolate cupcakes. The first is a chocolate butter cake recipe with a chocolate buttercream frosting, topped with homemade carmel and sea salt, and then finished with a chocolate covered expresso bean. The second is a chocolate cupcake made with vegetable oil instead of butter, topped with a Peanut Butter and Reese's Pieces buttercream frosting, finished with a few Reese's Pieces candies. Since my co-workers is going to be having a baby girl, I wanted to incorporate the color pink in these cupcakes somehow. I decided on making a yellow cake and added food coloring to make it a pink color. I then took this now pink-yellow cake and decided to put it in the center of the chocalte cupcakes for a nice pink surprise. I just added a small amount of the chocolate mix to each wrapper, then added a small amount of the pink onto the center of those, then covered the rest with some more chocolate mix. It was so warm in my kitchen, as my home is like most in the Casper area and do ot have A/C installed, that the buttercream frosting wanted to melt faster than I could top them with the additional ingredients. They all still tastes wonderful, just not as appealing looking as I may have liked. One thing that I have seen online is those cute little babies made out of watermelon, cantelope, and misc fruit. I decided that I had to make this as well, as I could not resist. I had never made one before, so I made sure to buy two watermelons just in case I screwed one up. It took a bit longer than I expected to hollow out the watermelon and ended up with an extremely tired arm. Once that was done though, it was smooth sailing form there. When I had purchased my cantelope, I swear I stood there at the grocery store staring and sizing up every single one trying to find the one that would end up making the best baby face. I eventually decided on two different ones and figured that if one didnt work out, then I would have a back-up. I basically just cut the cantelope in half length wise and then skinned it with a pairing knife. All that was left to do was to take a melon ball cutter (not sure if that is the tehnical name for them) and cut out two eyes and a mouth. I then used toothpicks to attach two grapes to make the eyeballs and then used another toothpick to hold the binky in the mouth as it kept wanting to fall right back out. In order to get the baby face to stay up like I wanted, I ended up using bamboo skewers, snapped in half, to heold the head in place. Then it was as easy as filling the inside with mixed fruit. It tooka lot of time and hard work, but it was completely worth it to see how excited everyone was about the treats and seeing their faces happy with the results.