Petite Fours

Everything tasted really good on it's own but I will never make this combination again. I do not like frozen cake very much. I think you lose all the texture and flavour that makes a cake, a cake. Next time I would just use a yummy filling to compliment the cake and coating. All the individual recipes are a winner in my book and will try again in various combinations.

Vanilla Ice Cream

1 cup (250ml) whole milk
A pinch of salt
3/4 cup (165g) sugar
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise OR 2 teaspoons (10ml) pure vanilla extract
2 cups (500ml) heavy (approx 35% butterfat) cream
5 large egg yolks
1 teaspoon (5ml) pure vanilla extract

1. Heat the milk, salt, and sugar in a medium saucepan until the liquid steams. Scrape out the seeds of the vanilla bean with a paring knife and add to the milk, along with the bean pod. Cover, remove from heat, and let infuse for an hour. (If you do not have a vanilla bean, simply heat the milk, salt, and sugar in a medium saucepan until the liquid steams, then let cool to room temperature.)

2. Set up an ice bath by placing a 2-quart (2 litre) bowl inside a large bowl partially filled with water and ice. Put a strainer on top of the smaller bowl and pour in the cream.

3. In another bowl, lightly beat the egg yolks together. Reheat the milk in the medium saucepan until warmed, and then gradually pour ¼ cup warmed milk into the yolks, constantly whisking to keep the eggs from scrambling. Once the yolks are warmed, scrape the yolk and milk mixture back into the saucepan of warmed milk and cook over low heat. Stir constantly and scrape the bottom with a spatula until the mixture thickens into a custard which thinly coats the back of the spatula.

4. Strain the custard into the heavy cream and stir the mixture until cooled. Add the vanilla extract (1 teaspoon [5ml] if you are using a vanilla bean; 3 teaspoons [15ml] if you are not using a vanilla bean) and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled, preferably overnight.

5. Remove the vanilla bean and freeze in an ice cream maker

Brown Butter Pound Cake

19 tablespoons (9.5 oz) (275g) unsalted (sweet) butter
2 cups (200g) sifted cake flour (not self-rising; sift before measuring) (See “Note” section for cake flour substitution)
1 teaspoon (5g) baking powder
1/2 teaspoon (3g) salt
1/2 cup (110g) packed light brown sugar
1/3 (75g) cup granulated sugar
4 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1. Preheat the oven to 325°F/160°C and put a rack in the center. Butter and flour a 9”x9” (23cmx23cm) square pan.

2. Place the butter in a 10” (25cm) skillet over medium heat. Brown the butter until the milk solids are a dark chocolate brown and the butter smells nutty. (Don’t take your eyes off the butter in case it burns.) Pour into a shallow bowl and chill in the freezer until just congealed, 15-30 minutes.

3. Whisk together cake flour, baking powder, and salt.

4. Beat the brown butter, light brown sugar, and granulated sugar in an electric mixer until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Beat in the eggs one at a time, mixing well, and then the vanilla extract.

5. Stir in the flour mixture at low speed until just combined.

6. Scrape the batter into the greased and floured 9”x9” (23cmx23cm) square pan. Smooth the top with a rubber spatula and rap the pan on the counter. Bake until golden brown on top and when a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 25 minutes.

7. Cool in the pan 10 minutes. Run a knife along the edge and invert right-side-up onto a cooling rack to cool completely.

Chocolate Glaze (For the Ice Cream Petit Fours)

9 ounces (250g) dark chocolate, finely chopped
1 cup (250 ml) heavy (approx 35% butterfat) cream
1 1/2 tablespoons (32g) light corn syrup, Golden syrup, or agave nectar
2 teaspoons (10ml) vanilla extract

Stir the heavy cream and light corn syrup in a small saucepan over medium heat until it comes to a boil. Remove from heat and add the dark chocolate. Let sit 30 seconds, then stir to completely melt the chocolate. Stir in the vanilla and let cool until tepid before glazing the petit fours

Assembly Instructions – Ice Cream Petit Fours

1. Line a 9”x9” (23cmx23cm) pan with plastic wrap, so that no sides of the pan are exposed and so there is some extra plastic wrap hanging off the sides. Spread 1 ¾ to 2 cups (450ml to 500ml) ice cream into the pan. Cover with more plastic wrap and freeze several hours.

2. Once the brown butter pound cake has completely cooled, level the top with a cake leveler or a serrated knife. Then split the cake in half horizontally to form two thin layers.

3. Unwrap the frozen ice cream. Flip out onto one of the layers of cake and top with the second layer of cake. Wrap well in plastic wrap and return to the freezer overnight.

4. Make the chocolate glaze (see above.)

5. While the glaze cools, trim ¾” (2cm) off each side of the ice cream cake to leave a perfectly square 7.5” (19cm) ice cream cake. Cut the cake into twenty five petit fours, each 1.5”x1.5” (4cmx4cm).

6. Glaze the petit fours one at a time: place a petit four on a fork and spoon chocolate glaze over it

7. Place the petit fours on a parchment-lined baking sheet and return to the freezer for one hour.

Cucumber Salad

As I mentioned in my previous post, we grew a vegetable garden this year and so this salad is made with super fresh ingredients! Love it! My husband was BBQ'ing some pork chops and grilling vegetables for lunch today after church and I baked some fresh potatoes. I wanted some sort of salad to go with it and so I thought it would be the perfect time to try this salad recipe that I found off of All Recipes.

Cucumber Salad

2-3 medium cucumbers, peeled and sliced
1 large tomato, halved and then sliced
1/2 red onion, thinly sliced (I only used 1/4 onion)
1 Tbsp vinegar
3 Tbsp mayo
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper

After reading some of the reviews about the dressing getting very runny and their solution was to first let the vegetables sit for a few minutes with the vinegar, salt and pepper and then drain the extra liquid. Now stir in the mayo and let this chill for about 1 hour before serving. You might need to add a touch more vinegar. I didn't let this chill and we still found it to be really tasty.

*I found 3 Tbsp of mayo to be a bit much so next time I'll use a little less, maybe start off with 1 or 2 and adjust as needed.

Schaubel Zup (Green Bean Soup)

This summer is my first attempt at gardening, and what fun it's been! It's immensely satisfying to be able to go to your backyard and pick fresh vegetables to use for your dinner, so when I saw that my green beans were ready for picking I knew I wanted to make this soup for dinner. But my Internet was down and I couldn't find the recipe that I had saved, so after getting a few recipes, some from family and some from Church cookbooks I was ready. I'll give you the rough measurements of what I used, but you can change it according to how thick you like your soup.

Schaubel Zup

1/2 Link Mennonite Sausage (about 12"), cut into bite size pieces
4-6 cups fresh green beans

Let this cook together in a large pot with about 4L of water until the green beans are tender, add:

2 medium carrots, sliced
5 medium potatoes, cubed
1 medium onion, diced
handful of fresh parsley (or 1 tbsp dried)
handful of fresh savoury (I didn't have any so I added a little dill instead but I have heard you can add a tiny sprinkle of thyme)
1 tbsp Chicken bouillon
Salt to taste

Let this simmer until the vegetables are done, just before serving add about 1/2- 1cup cream, I use light cream. At this point you could also add a 1/4 cup butter and let it melt in the soup, but this is optional. For a treat serve this with warm biscuits!

*These were just my rough measurements, you might need to add more or less of the vegetables. I think next time I make it I'll add more vegetables to get it a little thicker.

Enjoy!
Tina

Mushroom Chicken

This is a recipe that I love, but don't make often enough. We're having a bit of a cool spell so I thought today was a good day for this recipe, I got it from one of my husband's cousins. I love to serve this with vegetables and potatoes, using the sauce as the gravy for the potatoes. I have since changed this recipe a little to make it slightly healthier. The original asked for 1/2 cup each of the butter and oil (aack!) and a cup cream. I use either half and half or 1/4 cup heavy cream and the rest just milk.

Mushroom Chicken

4-5 chicken breasts
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup olive oil
salt and pepper

1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can of cream of chicken soup
1 tsp chicken bouillon (I use the Mexican)
1 cup light cream

Heat the butter and oil in a frying pan, I use cast iron. Season the chicken with salt and pepper and then fry in the butter and olive oil for about 20-30 minutes turning once. Remove the chicken and some of the oil, leaving about half of the oil in the pan. Add the soups and stir together, it will splatter at this point. Stir in the cream and bouillon. Add the cooked chicken and let this simmer for a few minutes.

*You will find that you will have quite a bit of the sauce leftover, I think there would be enough for twice the chicken but my pan wasn't big enough.

Enjoy!
Tina

Pierogi

Cottage Cheese Wareneki (pierogi)

Dough:
½ cup (125 ml) milk (can be whole milk, 2% or skim milk)
½ cup (125 ml) whipping cream
3 large egg whites
1 tsp (5 ml) salt
3 cups (450 gm) all-purpose flour

1. Mix flour and salt, add other ingredients, and knead dough until you have a smooth dough. (I kneaded this dough quite a bit, and it yielded a nice, pliable dough).
2. On a floured surface roll out fairly thin (1/8” or about 3 millimeters), cut into 2” (5 cm) squares, and fill with 1 tsp (5ml) cottage cheese filling (see below).

Filling:
Traditional
1 lb (455 g) dry cottage cheese (this is usually found beside the “wet” cottage cheese in the supermarket’s dairy aisle. If you can’t find it, please see below for how to proceed with the “wet” cottage cheese.)
3 large egg yolks
Salt to taste

1. Mix well all the ingredients for the filling.
2. Put 1 rounded teaspoon (5 ml) of the filling in each square, fold corners to form a triangle, seal edges well using your fingers or a fork
3. Cook in salted, boiling water for 5 minutes.

Boiled pierogi can also be fried after boiling for a nice crunchy dumpling.

If you can’t find dry cottage cheese, simply drain normal cottage cheese by nesting the cottage in a few layers of cheese cloth or a fine sieve over a bowl.

Cream Gravy

There are many different ways of making this gravy but this is how I do it. I don't do exact measurements, just throw things in a pot.

Couple of tablespoons butter
Tbsp flour
cream
milk
salt to taste

Melt butter.
Mix in flour and stir for a little while to cook out the flour taste.
Pour in cream and milk and bring to a boil until it thickens.

Adapted from The Mennonite Cookbook