Aaron got me a popover pan awhile ago, but I haven't used it yet. I was thinking about getting the Barefoot Contessa Foolproof Popover Mix, but when I looked at a recipe for popovers and saw how simple the ingredients were I thought it would be ridiculous to not make them myself.
Hmmfff. My popovers were more like popunders. Very disappointing.
I made another batch and they started to pop a little but still not enough. I think it's all in the technique, so I will keep trying.
Aaron just harvested some of his rhubarb. He sure does love rhubarb. I could hear him out in the kitchen chopping it up into freezer bags - humming happily to himself.
I took some of the rhubarb and made a strawberry rhubarb pie. That's how I like my rhubarb. Mmmm crumb crust.
Many people asked me what recipe I used for the French Macarons I made for Easter gifts. It was a recipe from this cookie book... and it worked well the first time I tried it.
If you would like to try it, here it is.
3 egg whites
3 tablespoons sugar
pink food coloring (mine didn't turn out pink tho)
1 1/4 cups powdered sugar
1 cup almond meal (found some in the gluten free section of natural foods)
3 tablespoons extra powdered sugar
3 1/2 white chocolate chopped coarsely
3 tablespoons heavy cream
1. Make a white chocolate ganache by melting white chocolate and cream together in a small pot over low heat until smooth. Move mixture to a small bowl, cover and put in the fridge.
2. Grease baking sheets, line with parchment paper
3. Beat egg whites in small bowl with mixer until soft peaks form. Add sugar and food coloring, beat until sugar dissolves. Move mixture to large bowl and fold in powdered sugar and almond meal, in two batches.
4. Spoon mixture into large piping bag with 1/2 inch plain tube. Pice thirty six 1 1/2 inch rounds, 3/4 inches apart onto baking sheets. Tap sheets on counter, dust with sifted extra powdered sugar and let stand for 15 minutes.
5. Pre heat oven to 300 degrees.
6. Bake macarons 20 minutes. Let stand 5 minutes, transfer to wire rack to cool.
My coworkers and I baked several different Betty Crocker cookie recipes to celebrate a partnership with Betty Crocker. You can read about it on 1000 Words blog.
I love using this Mexican chocolate... it's called Abuelita and is made by Nestle. Abuelita means "little grandmother" and there is picture of one on the packaging. I like it for hot chocoate, but it can be used for many things.
It was very good in these cookies! Note the super cool carried Aaron made me to carry the cookies in. He made it out of two used clementine boxes. Crafty!
We are going to PA this weekend to help replace my grandparent's garage roof and I made an apple pie to take home for my dad. Yeah, the crust is all fancy and here is how I did it.
Tah-dah! A handy dandy crust cutter I found at Target on clearance. For $2 it makes my pies look extra special.
The flip side has heart cutouts and I used it for this chicken pot pie I made earlier the week. Jazzy!
I almost forgot to report back on the Friendship Bread. I really didn't know what to expect, but we baked it and it was DELICIOUS! Turns out it is a sweet bread... kind of like a coffee cake.
I took the starters to work to give out and everyone was suspicous until they tasted the bread. Joel and Shruti each got one. I had one for Tina or Aprille but another coworker tasted the bread and got it before they did.
That's okay, because contrary to what I previously stated... I kept one bag of starter for myself. So in ten days I will have more to give Tina and Aprille. It's that good. Soon we will all have gurgling bubbling bags slowly taking over our kitchens.
I had a brainstorm last night. We were getting ready to make banana bread with four bananas that were over ripe. Usually we add chocolate chips, but this time I thought... let's add peanut butter chips and mini marshmallows! Combined with the banana it will be like a fluffer nutter baked into bread!
I present to you Jenny's Fluffer Nutter Bread.
I also got to use the Martha Stewart silicone bread pan I got for Christmas. The loaf popped right out. Very nice.
Here is the recipe.
Ljc's Fluffernutter Bread
4 over ripe bananas
1/3 cup melted butter
1 beaten egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup of sugar
1 1/2 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 cup peanut butter chips
1 cup mini marshmallows
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Smash together bananas and butter in a large bowl with a spoon. Mix egg,vanilla and sugar into bananas. Mix in baking soda and salt. Mix in flour. Mix in peanut butter chips and marshmallows. Butter and flour a 4x8 in loaf pan. Pour mixture into loaf pan and bake for one hour.
When I was in high school, someone gave me a zip lock baggie of oozing friendship bread starter. The idea is you let the goo age for 10 days, add ingredients and then you bake it into a loaf of bread. The friendship part comes in when you separate a portion of that aged starter into other bags and give it to friends to make their own bread. And so on. And so forth.
I was obsessed with it. I kept making it. And it kept growing more. Soon we ran out of family members to give the bubbling bags of starter to, but I couldn't bring myself to throw them out. Throw out friendship?! There were gurgling, burping zip lock bags all over our kitchen and my mom finally had to throw them out bringing an end to my manaical bread production streak.
When I came home last week, this was on our kitchen counter. Ack! A coworker bequeathed Aaron with a gooey bag of friendship bread starter. We have begun the process of Day 1 - mush bag, Day 2 - mush bag, Day 3 - mush bag... etc.
This time I am giving away all the starter. I cannot allow our house to become a friendship bread breeding ground.
Tina, Shruti, Aprille and Joel. Prepare yourselves. In a few days you've got some friendship coming your way.
