Hand dipped chocolates

What goes hand in hand with Valentines day? Chocolate! Whether you like chocolate or not you will like my recipe for homemade hand dipped chocolates. I have an entire handout for this that is 3 pages long and has lots of recipes. I am putting my most used one here.

1 cup butter
1 can sweetened condensed milk
2 tsp. vanilla
2 lbs. powder sugar
2 tsp. salt

Mix your butter and sweetened condensed milk at medium speed with an electric mixer. This is not a recipe to do by hand. You will see why in a little bit. Add your vanilla. Then add your powder sugar and salt. From here you can make your various different flavors.

I will give you the 3 flavors that we did at today's class

Cookies and Cream

Add 1 package double stuff oreo cookies that have been crushed really well. To do this I put the cookies in a gallon ziploc bag and hammer away. It feels good to do this. Pick a day when you feel particularly stressed. It helps. Add the cookies to your mixture and mix at a low speed. This where you need that electric mixer. It is very thick and you need the power. Roll or scoop into balls. I recommend a 1.25 inch scoop. Think melon baller and you will be good. Or just roll them by hand, that works great. Refrigerate for one hour and then you are good to dip these bad boys. I will tell you about the dipping at the end.

Cherry Divine

I call these divine because they are. For this one you are going to substitue 1 tsp of cherry flavoring from your local cake decorating store for the vanilla in the basic recipe. Or just do it to taste. The flavorings that they have at these stores are much stronger than the extracts that you can buy at the supermarket. Or you can use almond extract. It has a similar taste and smell. I also add one drop of pink food coloring at this point. Then take one jar of maraschino cherries ( I don't remember what size it was. It wasn't the huge jar, i know that) and chop them up pretty small. Then press with paper towels to get the excess juice out. Add the cherries at the end. Refrigerate for 2 hours before rolling. And then refrigerate again for at least an hour before dipping.

Maple Walnut

Substitue maple flavoring (i bought mine at Winco) for the vanilla. And add 2 cups chopped walnuts. Refrigerate for one hour before rolling and refrigerate for one hour before dipping.

Dipping

I use the smooth and melties from Winco bulk section. They are the best. I buy the dark chocolate which is not a real dark taste and the vanilla. I like the maple walnut dipped in the vanilla and the cookies and cream and the cherry dipped in the chocolate. Although the cherry dipped in the vanilla with a dash of red or pink sprinkles on top was gorgeous.

I put my chocolate in the double boiler and start melting at a low temp. When 75% melted turn donw to the lowest temperature possible until completely melted. I use a dipping tool but you can use a fork and a toothpick. Set your center on the fork, dip in the chocolate and use the toothpick to run underneath to get the excess off. Put on wax paper or aluminum foil to set.

Some tips about chocolate:

Do not ever get water into it, it will ruin the chocolate
Do not melt too quickly or at too high a heat. It will start breaking down and look curdly.
You should be able to touch it. If it is too hot to touch it is too hot to dip.
If you get pools of chocolate around the bottoms of the chocolates you can just trim away with a knife.


Rolling cookies and cream
This is Sarah getting ready to dip the cherry ones in vanilla.

This is Diana and Sarah dipping in chocolate

mmmmmm, maple walnut dipped in vanilla.

Homemade Pizza

Everyone who left this class left feeling very full and with great ideas. Ellen Fisher and Sarah Smith gave us some wonderful recipes.

Here is Ellen's recipe and her ideas:

Basic Crust:

In a large bowl and using a wire whisk mix: 2 cups flour, 2 T or pkg, yeast, 2 T sugar and 2 tsp salt. Then add 2 cups hot water and 2 T olive oil. Finally, using a large rubber spatula or metal spoon, add 2 additional heaping cups of flour and mix it until you can knead the dough without getting your hands sticky (about 5 minutes.) This dough will make enough crust for 2 family sized pizzas. Divide the dough in half and roll out on a board dusted with cornmeal. The cornmeal makes a nice, crispy bottom.

Sauce Ideas:

Bottled pizza sauce, bottled barbecue sauce, or a quick sauce using 1 can tomato sauce with 1 tsp dry basil or oregano and a dash of pepper.

Black Bean Sauce:

1 can black beans
2 cloves garlic-minced
1 T olive oil
1/2 cup finely chopped onions
1/4 cup finely chopped green pepper

Saute garlic, onion and green pepper in olive oil until vegetables are well cooked. Stir into a semi-drained can of black beans.

Baking instructions:

Bake all pizzas at 450 for 15-20 minutes.

Barbecue Chicken Pizza:

Spread crust with bottled barbecue sauce, then top with grilled chicken, onions and cheese. Bake then sprinkle with chopped fresh cilantro.


Sarah's Pizza Recipe:

Dough:

Mix 1 3/4 cup water with 2 tsp. olive oil, 1 tsp. sugar and 2 Tbsp yeast. Blend 3 cups flour with 2 tsp. salt and then mix in with wet ingredients. Continue to kneed in 1 more cup to the consistency you desire. Kneed until mixed and then let rest 10 min. and kneed again. Spray your pan with Olive oil and sprinkle with corn meal. Pull dough flat and then spread over pan. I like mine as thin as i can make it because it does raise.

Spread olive oil over dough. sprinkle with chopped fresh basil and oregano or any Italian seasoning mixes you like. Pull apart one chunk fresh mozzarella in pieces. Finish with Romano, regular mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses. Top with prosciutto Italian ham or any toppings.

Bake 400 for 20 min.

Gifts from the Kitchen

What a fun morning we had. Thanks to everyone who came and all those who so graciously gave us the wonderful tips that you did for making inexpensive gifts for Christmas. Here are some of the highlights of our morning:

Rachael showed us how to make Kettle Korn. She uses a whirlyjig (I think that's how you spell it) or you can make it on the stove if you shake it constantly.

Rachael's Kettle Korn

1/4 Cup oil
1/4 cup popcorn
1/2 cup sugar

Put it all in the pan over medium high heat and when the first one pops start shaking vigorously or turning the handle until it finishes popping. Rachael puts it in containers from the dollar store and delivers them to friends and neighbors with a card.

Stephanie's tortilla snowflakes

Take a tortilla and microwave for a few seconds until just soft. Then fold it like you would a piece of paper for cutting a snow flake and cut your snowflake. When done fry it in some oil on the stove and then drizzle melted white chocolate over it, let set for a few minutes and then sprinkle with powdered sugar. Very beautiful.

My battery died at this point so I dont have anymore pictures. Julie showed us some dipped pretzels in caramel and chocolate that tasted really good. Merilee showed us some adorable packaging that I wish I had pictures of. We all left inspired to go home and try a few new things in our kitchen.

Cherry Eggnog Tea Bread

Bread

3/4 cup maraschine cherries, chopped and well drained
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp ground nutmeg
3/4 tsp. salt
1 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup butter softened
3 eggs
1 cup eggnog

Glaze

1/2 cup powdered sugar
3-4 tsp. eggnog
1/4 cup toasted sliced almonds

Preheat oven to 325. Pray bottom of your loaf pan with cooking spray. Chop your maraschino cherries and lay on paper towel and pat dry. In a medium bowl combine four, baking powder, nutmeg and salt. Set aside. Beat together your sugar and butter on a high speed of electric mixer until mixture is light and fluffy. On medium speed add eggs one at a time, beating until blended. Add one third of the flour mixture, beating on low speed just until combined. Beat in half of the eggnog. Add another one third of the flour mixture, the remaining eggnog, and then the remaining flour mixture beating after each addition just until combined. Gently stir cherries into batter, pour batter into pan.

Bake one hour, 15 minutes to 1 hour 20 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean and top is golden brown. Cool in pan for 5 minutes. Lossen sides of loaf. Remove from pan to cooling rack and cool completely.

For glaze mix powdered sugar and eggnog until smooth. Drizzle half of the mixture over the cooled loaf. Sprinkle evenly with almonds. Drizzle remaining glaze over almonds.

Dutch Oven Cooking Class

One of the best websites I know of for care of your dutch oven and recipes is Byron's Dutch Oven Cooking. Here you should find all of the information you need to be successful in your dutch oven endeavors.


Thanks to everyone who braved the cold weather and showed up for our Dutch Oven Cooking class. It was a lot of fun and I hope that a lot was learned about cooking in this unique way.

Special thanks to our three teachers, Brenda with her Mountain Woman Breakfast, Kiersten with her Barbecue Chicken and Potatoes and Val with her Cobblers. They were all yummy and it was great to have some new recipes to try.

And thanks to Paula for hosting our class and welcoming all of us into your home to escape the cold!

Dutch Oven Dump Cake

Light about 40 coals about 20 minutes before you want to start cooking.

Layer oven with heavy foil--this helps with clean up.

Put 1 can of pie filling (your choice) in bottom of oven. If using fresh fruit use 1 quart.

Add 1 cake mix (your choice).

Pour in 1 can soda.

Cut a cube of butter into tablespoons and spread over top.

When cooking your cake, place coals about 1/2 inch apart to cover the bottom area of the oven. Place oven on top of coals. Spread around the top cover of the oven 15-18 coals. Every 15 Min. rotate the whole oven 1/4 turn and then lift the lid and turn it back 1/4 turn. This gives even heat. Baking time is about 45 minutes. But it depends on the weather.

You can add an egg to make this have more of a cake texture. If you do this you will need to mix the cake, egg, and soda in a bowl before pouring over fruit in the oven. Then top with the butter.)

Mountain Woman Breakfast

1/2 cup butter
2 cups ham, cubed
2 medium yellow onions, diced
1 1/2 cups fresh mushrooms, sliced
3 cloves garlic, minced
10 medium potatoes, sliced or bag of frozen southwest style hashbrowns
12 eggs, beaten
salt and pepper to taste
3 cups grated cheddar cheese

Heat a 12" Dutch oven using 18-20 briquettes on bottom until hot. Melt cube of butter. Add onion, mushrooms, bell pepper and saute until onions are translucent. Add potatoes and season with salt and pepper. Cover and bake suing 8 briquettes bottom and 14-16 top for 30 minutes. Season eggs with salt and pepper then pour eggs over top of potatoes. Add ham. Cover and bake another 20 minutes. Stir gently every 5 minutes. When eggs are done, cover top with cheese and replace lid. Let stand until cheese is melted.

Serve topped with picante sauce.

Serves 10-2

(adaptation from papadutch.hom.comcast.net which uses bacon and bell peppers.)

Squash

Our first cooking and preparedness class was about squash. Our class presenters were Ellen, Annette B. and her neighbor, Suzie (I think that was her name). Ellen started off by showing us all how to make a pumpkin pie from the actual pumpkin. Did you know that you can make aproximatley 12 pies from one pumpkin? It depends on the size of your pumpkin of course. But how economical is that? Here is her recipe:

Crust
1 3/4 Cup flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 cup sugar
2/3 cup shortening
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
2 to 4 Tbsp. of ice water


Filling:
15 oz pumpkin
2 eggs
12 oz can evaporated milk
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sgar
1/4 cup honey
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 tsp cloves
1/4 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp nutmeg

Preheat to 425. Bake at 425 for 15 minutes. Reduce to 350 and bake for 30 to 40 more minutes. If using a 10-12 inch pie pan you may need to increase cooking time to an hour.

Our next demonstration was by Annette Bell showing us how to make Zucchini Soup. This recipe was super quick and we all agreed it was very tasty.

Zucchini Soup

3 cups zucchini, cut in cubes
1 cup Onions, chopped
1/2 cup bacon, diced uncooked
1 Tbsp. parsley, chopped
1/2 tsp. basil
dash pepper
2 cups chicken broth

Place all ingredients into a saucepan. Simmer for 15 minutes, puree in blender. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese and croutons.

Our last presenter was Suzie who showed us four different types of cooked squash. I believe she had grown each one and she had spaghetti, butternut, delicata and acorn. We got to taste each one. It was interesting to try all of them at the same time and be able to tell a difference in texture and taste.

Can you name each one?

We learned that the difference between a winter squash and a summer squash is that the winter squash has a thicker skin. You can take the whole squash and cook it whole in your oven without cutting it up. This is how Suzie does it. She cut them open in front of us and you could see the steam billowing out. A great tip on how to cook them!

Darilyn May brought some Pumpkin bread that is made with whole wheat flower and very little oil. It is a recipe that you can use your food storage with. It was very good and moist. The recipe was found at Everyday Food Storage. Check out this sight. It's a must read for everyone wanting to cook from their food storage.

Whole Wheat Pumpkin Bread

Ingredients:
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
3 egg whites (or 2 T. dryPowdered Egg + 1/4 C. Water)
1/2 cup fat-free milk (1-1/2 T. Dry Powdered Milk + 1/2 C. Water)
1/4 cup canola oil
2 cups whole wheat flour
2-1/2 tsp. Baking Powder
2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
1/4 tsp. salt

Directions:
PREHEAT oven to 350ºF. Grease a nonstick 9x5-inch loaf pan; set aside. Mix pumpkin, 1 cup granulated sugar, the brown sugar, 3 of the egg whites, milk and oil in large bowl. Add flour, baking powder, pie spice and salt; stir just until moistened.

SPOON the pumpkin batter into prepared pan.

BAKE 1 hour to 1 hour 5 min. or until wooden toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Run knife or thin spatula around edges of pan to loosen bread; cool in pan on wire rack 10 min. Remove bread from pan to wire rack; cool completely.


The answer to the squash quiz is 1. Delicata 2. Acorn 3. Butternut 4. Spaghetti

Here we go

So here it is. The new Hazeldale ward's Let's Get Cooking blog. Here we can put all the mouth watering recipes, pictures of our adventures and any and all tips that just must be shared.

I'm really looking forward to this group and all the great things we will learn together.

This blog will evolve over time so look for all the changes in the upcoming weeks.