Homemade Marshmallows!

One of those things you never really think about being able to make yourself. They are so creamy and soft. My husband was scraping the bowl clean and I was cleaning off the whisk. It was THAT good

Homemade Marshmallows
 From Alton Brown 

Ingredients:
~3 packages unflavored gelatin
~1 cup ice cold water, divided
~1 1/2 cups sugar
~1 cup light corn syrup
~1/4 tsp salt
~1 tsp vanilla
~1/2 cup powdered sugar
~1/2 cup cornstarch


Directions:

Place 1/2 cup water and gelatin into bowl of stand mixer. Put on whisk attachment

In a small saucepan, combine the other 1/2 cup water, sugar, syrup, and salt. Put on med-high heat and cover. Cook for 3-4 minutes. Uncover and clip on a candy thermometer. Cook 7-8 minutes until it reaches 240 or "soft ball" stage. Once temperature is reached, remove immediately from heat.

Turn mixer on lowest speed and pour sugar syrup down the side of the bowl. Once added, increase speed to high. Continue to mix on high 12-15 minutes until very thick.

Add vanilla in last minute of mixing.

Meanwhile, spray 9x13 pan with nonstick spray. Sprinkle with cornstarch mix and move around to completely coat.

When ready, pour the marshmallow mix into the pan and spread around with a oiled spatula. Dust top with cornstarch mix. Reserve the rest for later.

Let sit 4 ours or overnight.

Turn marshmallows out onto a cutting board and cut into one inch squares. Lightly dust all sides with cornstarch mix and store in airtight containers up to 3 weeks

My FAMOUS Cheesy Chicken Pot Pie

No joke. Out of everything I have ever made for someone or out of any recipe I have ever given out, this one has gotten the most RAVE reviews. Its comfort food to the max. Its the first meal my husband asks for when he returns from a patrol.


*edit, I recently was asked to make this and add mushrooms. Oh mylanta....it was AMAZING! I highly recommend sautéing up a 8oz package in a little butter and adding it to the mix.

Cheesy Chicken Pot Pie:
~1 medium onion, diced
~2 garlic cloves, minced
~2 chicken breasts, cut into 1 inch squares.
~3 medium carrots, sliced into buttons (or sub 1-1.5 cups frozen carrots and peas)
~3 green onions, diced
~1 8oz package mushrooms (optional)
~Either: 3 russet potatoes, baked and cooled. OR 1/2 bag of frozen hash browns
~1 cup sour cream
~1 can cream of chicken soup (or 1 recipe from scratch)
~1.5 cups sharp cheddar cheese, shredded.
~Either: I box Pilsbury Pie Crust, OR 1 recipe double pie crust

Put the carrots in a small saucepan of water and boil until soft. (Skip if using frozen)
Put the onion and garlic in a deep skillet on medium heat. Cook until transparent. Add chicken. Cook until done. Set aside.
If using the mushrooms, sauté on medium in a little butter until softened and browned.

Grate the baked potatoes (no need to peel, it will do it itself)into a bowl. Add carrots, entire chicken skillet including the juices, sour cream, green onions, soup, and cheese. Mix well.

Preheat oven to 425. Put bottom crust in pie pan. Fill with filling.

Cover and pinch edges. Either prick or slice top to vent.

Cook 30 minutes or so. Until deep golden brown. Let sit 10-15 minutes. Cut and serve. 99% of the time, the first slice will totally fall apart and glob everywhere!

Herb Crust Veggie Pizza or Calzone

This has become a staple in our house. The dough is chewy and flavorful and is ready to use right after mixing! The toppings are obviously endless, but this is what we did today.

Trust me. FRESH mozzarella.

Dough:


~1 cup warm water
~1/4 cup milk
~1 1/2 tsp sugar
~1 pkg (2 1/4 tsp) dry active yeast
~3 cup flour
~1 tsp salt
~2-3 tbsp of dried herbs, IE oregano, basil, and parsley
~ 2 tbs garlic powder

Cornmeal for dusting

Toppings:

Pizza sauce (recipe below)
FRESH mozzarella. (This makes ALL the difference)
Veggies, we used green, yellow, and red bell pepper slices, thin asparagus, and mushrooms
Garlic salt

Proof the yeast in the water, sugar, and milk for 10 minutes.

Combine with flour, salt, and seasonings in a mixer bowl and mix with dough hook on med until starting to come together, then lower speed to "2". Once dough has become one large ball, let machine knead for about 5 minutes.

Put on floured surface and divide in half. You can either make two 10-12" pizzas, or place in ziplock bag with all air removed and store in fridge for one week. I am sure you can freeze it as well.

Roll out to about 1/4" thick.

If you have a pizza peel (paddle) and baking stone:

Place cornmeal on pizza peel and place dough on it. Put toppings on and slide into a 500 degree preheated oven onto the baking stone. Cook 12-17 minutes or until its as brown and crispy as you'd like


If you just have a baking sheet:

Preheat oven to 450. Dust sheet with cornmeal and put dough on top. Pre bake dough in the oven for 7 minutes. Dough will poof up.

Remove from oven and push down on the bubbles a little. Put toppings on and return to oven for 10+ minutes

Calzones:

Place toppings (minus sauce) on one half of the dough, leaving about 1 inch of free dough around the side. Pull opposite side over and pinch together and roll up. Brush with melted butter and cook until golden brown. 12-17 minutes (or more if you don't use a stone)



Pizza Sauce:

1 6oz can tomato paste
1 15 oz can tomato sauce
2 tsp oregano

2 tsp basil

2 tsp parsley

2 tsp minced onion
1 tbsp balsamic
2 garlic cloves, minced

Mix together and simmer until ready to serve. Add a little water if its too thick.

Heavenly Cinnamon Swirl Waffles

These waffles are super light and the cinnamon swirl kind of caramelizes in the iron. Can be served with a quick cream cheese or simple powdered sugar drizzle or with syrup.

Heavenly Waffle Batter:

Ingredients

~3 eggs, separated.
~1 3/4 cup milk
~1/4 cup oil
~1/2 tsp vanilla
~2 cups flour
~4 tsp baking powder
~1 tsp salt
~2 tbsp sugar
~1 tsp cinnamon

Cinnamon swirl :

~1/2 cup brown sugar
~1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
~3 tbsp melted butter
Combine and put in a squeeze bottle. I used a empty Honey Bear bottle

Put the egg whites in a metal or glass bowl and beat on high until stiff peaks

Remove from bowl and set aside. Put yolks, milk, oil, and vanilla in bowl. Beat until light and bubbly.

Add dry ingredients and blend until just mixed. Will be lumpy, do not over mix.

Gently fold in the whites

Preheat waffle iron and spray with cooking spray.

Put a heaping half cup in the middle of the iron and spread around some. Squeeze a swirl of the cinnamon mix onto the waffle.

Bake per iron directions.

On a pancake, the swirl would be more visible. But I suck at pancakes. So I am making waffles. And it tastes like a cinnamon roll. I promise.

Challah Rolls

This bread is seriously the best. I make sure to get the egg wash in every nook and cranny of the surface to get the maximum yummy crust. You can divide the dough into 3rds and braid it, but I prefer rolls just so I can get more crust.

You can use instant yeast and skip the proofing step.

Challah

Recipe: Given to me by Sarah R: Mollie Katzen’s recipe from Enchanted Broccoli Forest
Ingredients
~1 egg,
~1 ¼ cup warm water
~¼ cup honey 
~2 1/4 tsp dry active yeast (1 packet)
 ~2 tbs melted butter
~4-5 cups unbleached flour, divided. (up to ½ cup can be whole wheat flour)
~1 ½ tsp. salt
~1 egg for wash

Proof the yeast in the warm water with the honey. (if you have instant yeast, you can skip this step)

Add to stand mixer bowl with the egg, 2 cups of flour, butter, and salt. Mix with the dough hook. Once well mixed, turn the speed down to ‘2’.  Add 2-3 more cups flour in 1/2 cup increments  and mix until the dough on the sides of the bowl get pulled into the middle and there’s one lovely lump of dough. Let machine knead the dough for a few minutes

Remove the dough hook, cover with a cloth, and let it nap for a few hours or until double. It can be left several hours

Take out the dough and divide in half onto a nicely floured counter. Divide in half again. 
Cut those into 3-4 pieces, depending on how big you want the rolls to be. 3 will result in 12 large hamburger sized rolls, and 4 will be more dinner roll size. I did 12 rolls today.

Roll into long logs and tie in a knot

Here is a good video if you  need a visual.

Cover and let rise 45-60 minutes. No more than 1 hour. 



Beat an egg, and brush it on them right before baking. If they rise too long in their knotted state, they’ll deflate when brushed with egg or even when moved, and they won’t recover; they’ll look wrinkly after baking, but of course still taste wonderful.

Bake for about 28-33 minutes at 375 degrees. 

Prepare for life to never be the same after eating these...<3

Chocolate Cake with Caramel Whipped Cream and Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

Whats a birthday without a to-die-for cake?

This recipe is a hodge podge and mish mash of many many recipes. I think I tweaked and pulled from enough places to call it my own. LaineyP gave the the backbone of this recipe, which I adapted with tips from many other places.


Caramel whipped cream

Make in advance, preferably the day before.

~1/2 cup sugar
~1/4 cup water
~3 cups heavy whipping cream (1/2 cup of it at room temp)

Mix sugar and water in a 2 or 3 qt saucepan on medium heat. Do not stir once it starts to boil. Swirl the pan occasionally to move the liquid around. Boil on high until the liquid starts to turn a light brown. Remove from heat and add the 1/2 cup of room temp cream. It will bubble up like crazy. Be careful. Stir and pour into heat safe bowl. Cool to room temp and add the rest of the cream. Refrigerate 2 hours or overnight.

Once ready to whip, pour into an ice cold bowl and use ice cold beaters/whisk (put in freezer for 15 minutes. Whip on high until stiff peaks form


Chocolate Cake


Can be made the day before. Just wrap tightly and leave on the counter

~2 cups Sugar
~1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
~3/4 cup cocoa
~1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
~1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
~1 teaspoon salt
~2 eggs
~1 cup buttermilk
~1/2 cup canola oil
~2 teaspoons vanilla extract
~1 cup fresh strong brewed coffee still pipping hot.

Preheat oven to 350. Rub butter all over the insides of two 9 inch round cake pans. Flour the pans and tap out the excess.

In a stand mixer or with a hand mixer, combine the sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Once combined, add eggs, buttermilk, oil and vanilla and beat for 2-3 minutes on medium. Add hot coffee.

Pour the very thin batter equally into the two pans.

Put in preheated oven and cook until it passes the clean toothpick test. Start checking around 28 minutes.

Cool completely.

Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting
Adapted from Allrecipes

~4 one oz squares unsweetened chocolate, melted and let cool
~1 8oz package 1/3rd fat cream cheese
~3-4 cups powdered sugar
~1 tsp vanilla
~Salt
~small can evaporated milk

Cream chocolate and cream cheese until well combined and fluffy.
Add 3-4 cups of powdered sugar until desired sweetness.
It will be crazy clumpy and thick
Add vanilla and a few tbsps of evaporated milk.
Stir on low speed and add enough evaporated milk until its the consistency you want frosting to be


Assembly  


Put about 1/2 cup of the frosting into a small ziplock and smush into one corner. Snip the tip off. Use it to pipe a small amount of frosting around the top of one cake, right up against the edge. This will act like a dam and keep the whipped cream from smushing out when you put the next layer on.

Put desired amount of whipped cream in the center of the cake and smear around. Top with the other cake, upside down.

Put all the frosting on the top of the cake and use the back of a spoon or a spatula to spread the frosting gently to the sides. Then drag the extra frosting down and frost the sides.

Slice and enjoy. Refrigerate the leftovers.

Wine Braised Short Ribs with Mushrooms

Yesterday was the Husbands birthday! He is the hardest person to shop for, so I made him a crazy good meal.


Wine Braised Shortribs with Mushrooms


Adapted from Epicurious

~3 pounds beef short ribs (either bone-in or deboned. I prefer deboned)
~1 lb mushrooms of your choice. (I used white button, crimini, chanterelle, and portobello)
~1 large leek. Cleaned thoroughly, cut in half the long way, and sliced.
~1-2 large shallots
~6-8 smashed garlic cloves
~2 cups dry red wine (Merlot or Chardonnay Sauvignon. I used the latter)
~handful fresh Italian parsley
~1 14oz can diced tomatoes in juice (optional. I omitted *ahem forgot ahem* this time. I have made both ways though)


This can be made in a slow cooker on low all day or in a Dutch Oven in 3 or so hours


Coat each slab of short ribs with a good coat of coarse salt and pepper. Either in a skillet or Dutch Oven, brown all 4 sides of each slab very well

Once well browned, add the wine

Move the ribs around some to loosen all the yummy brown bits at the bottom.

Add leeks, garlic, and shallots to the liquid and shimmy the ribs around to get the veggies all over, under, and around the meat.

Top with the mushrooms and parsley (unless you use chanterelle mushrooms. Wait until the last hour or so to add or they will be tough)

Cook in a 275 oven for around 3 hours or so. Until meat is very very tender.

I like the sauce a little thicker. So I remove about 1 cup of the sauce, add a few tbsp of cornstarch to it, mix well, and add back to the pot and stir.

Finished meal:

I served with roasted garlic and brie mashed potatoes, crispy parmesan asparagus, and crusty bread.

Its a seriously impressive dinner, I promise