cooking ala mel

Gingerbread Penguins

February 6, 2011

Every year, I make my sister’s fiancé, Mark, ginger snaps. It’s his favorite cookie. His favorite animal is a penguin, so this year, I decided to mix it up a bit and make him gingerbread penguins. I used a gingerbread cookie mix (the shame!) and decorated them with royal icing.

By the end of it, I was so sick of decorating, and it was slightly noticeable in the eyes, feet and noses of the penguins.

I also made a few squirrels for my cousin, Colbey, and just decorated them with the icing and sugar, being way too tired of icing to do anything more fancy.

Royal Icing
3 cups confectioners’ sugar
1/4 t cream of tartar
2 egg whites, beaten

In a bowl, sift together sugar and cream of tartar. Using electric mixer, beat in 2 beaten egg whites for about 5 minutes or until mixture is thick enough to hold its shape.

Homemade Granola

February 6, 2011

I’ve wanted to make homemade granola for a really long time. I’ve been seeing so many good recipes out there, and they all looked so delicious, so I planned on making Alex’s mom some for Christmas. I combined a bunch of recipes together to create my own, and I set to work. Each recipe I make fills up about 2 mason jars, so I kept one for at home and sent one off to Buffalo. For this recipe, I made it with almonds, pecans, dried cranberries, blueberries and cherries.

When Jenny got home from work that day, she ended up almost finishing off the other jar and requested I make more (which I did..note how little is left in the jar in front!). For this batch, I did it with pecans, walnuts, raisins and craisins.

I have since been making granola for my breakfast every morning. My most recent batch, I made with almonds, walnuts, dried strawberries, cherries, blueberries and cranberries. I’ve been having it with a splash of milk and a banana.

I love that granola’s so versatile; you can top your yogurt with it, eat it by itself, have it with some milk..

Homemade Granola
4 cups old-fashioned oats
1/2 cup honey (or maple syrup)
1/2 cup coconut
3/4 cup nuts (whatever you prefer)
1 cup dried fruit (again, whatever you prefer)
1/2 t cinnamon
1/4 cup water
1/3 cup applesauce
Dash of salt

Preheat the oven to 350 ºF. Combine oats, nuts, salt and cinnamon in a large bowl. Combine water, honey and applesauce in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Pour the boiling mixture over the dry mix and stir until mixed together. Place evenly coated onto a baking sheet and bake for about 25 minutes. Once cool, stir in fruit and store in an air-tight container.

Almond Joy Truffles

February 6, 2011

One of my mom’s favorite candies is an almond joy. My sisters and I got my dad a Wii Fit for Christmas, and while I wanted to also include my mom as part of that gift because she’s been wanting to find a good exercise video to do, I wanted to do something else too. As I was perusing some recipes, I found a recipe for almond joy truffles…I had to make them.

When I got home from school for Christmas break, my dad had already gotten a few of the ingredients for me (seeing as I’m not 21), so all I needed was a day my mom wouldn’t be there. Since she works from 12-6 every day, that was pretty easy. The day I made them, I made a bunch of other things as well, so she wouldn’t be suspicious of me being in the kitchen if she got home before I was finished. She asked me several times what the heavy cream was for, but I just passed it off saying it was for a recipe I wanted to try. I was surprised she accepted that as an answer.

I had some of the nut/coconut topping left over from coating the truffles in them, so I topped my yogurt with some of it and left the rest in a bowl on the counter, planning on continuing to use it for my yogurt instead of tossing it. The next day, I was searching high and low for those nuts, but they were just gone. When my mom got home from work that day, I asked her if she’d seen them, and sure enough, she’d eaten them. Wondering why I made them, I told her I toasted it all to put in my yogurt, which she seemed satisfied with. At least I knew she liked the nuts!

Almond Joy Truffles
from Sweet Tooth
(yields about 18 truffles)
1/2 cup sliced almonds, chopped
1/2 cup sweetened coconut, chopped
9 whole almonds, cut in half
5 oz. semi sweet chocolate
2 oz. unsweetened chocolate
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 T hot coffee
1 T coconut rum
1/4 t vanilla extract
1/4 t almond extract

In a pan over medium heat, toast coconut and sliced almonds until the coconut starts to brown and is fragrant. Chop the mixture finely. Set aside in a small bowl.
Chop the chocolate and place in a bowl. Heat cream over medium-high heat until it reaches a boil. Immediately pour hot cream over chocolate and whisk until smooth. Whisk in coffee and liqueurs. Cover mixture and refrigerate for about 1 hour. Using a small ice cream scoop (or cookie scoop), make scoops of chocolate mixture, placing half an almond in the center of each, and place on lined cookie sheet. Return to the fridge for about 20 minutes.

Remove truffles from fridge about four at a time (I did it one at a time) to precent unnecessary melting. Roll the chocolate dollops into balls with your hands and roll into coconut/almond mixture. Package as you wish and store in the fridge until ready to serve.

I found it useful to wash my hands with cold water in between every four truffles to ensure they wouldn’t melt so quickly in my hands.