freshly grated nutmeg | smilingfrog.ca

I’ve been a bad blogger….no updates for a long time…..I’ve been doing this….

I bought a house! And I’ve been picking paint colors, hardwood floor colors, etc. drool. I love this stuff.

Among wedding preparations and house planning I did attempt this!

Creme Brulee! My number one coveted item on my wedding registry is the creme brulee torch. I had to use the broiler on my ancient oven for this, which made the custard slighly overdone (tear). But good nonetheless! They were less than perfect and need to be made again! Hopefully this time in my new oven in my new kitchen!

Creme Brulee

From the Joy of Cooking

Ingredients

• 2 cups heavy cream
• 4 large eggs
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla

1. Set oven temperature to 325°F. Heat the cream in a small saucepan, almost to a simmer. Set aside. In a medium bowl, stir the eggs and sugar until just blended. Gradually stir in the cream. Strain thru a fine-mesh sieve into a bowl or large measure with a pouring tip. Stir in vanilla .

2.Pour into four 6-oz or six 4-oz ramekins and place in a water bath. Set the pan in the oven and bake until the custards are set but still slightly quivery in the center when the cups are gently shaken… 30-35 minutes.

3.Remove the custards from the water bath and let cool to room temperature. Cover each tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 8 hours.

4. Shortly before serving, gently blot with a paper towel any liquid that has formed on the surface of the custards. Then sprinkle with sugar and caramelize either using a broiler or if you’re extremely lucky and have one, a kitchen torch! 

I also have a Bailey’s White Chocolate Creme Brulee recipe that I’ve been dying to try!

At the request of my art school classmates, I’m posting my recipe for Snickerdoodles! Okay, some people look at me funny when I say this, but this is actually what these cookies are called….Snickerdoodles (aka cinnamon sugar cookies). Either way, they’re delicious, and remind me of  childhood recess snacks.

Snickerdoodles

• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup butter
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 egg (or in my case, 1 egg replacer)
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1/4 tsp cream of tartar
• 1/4 tsp baking soda

For rolling…

• 2 Tbsp sugar
• 2 tsp cinnamon

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat butter to soften, add sugar and beat until soft. Add egg/egg replacer and vanilla and whip well, until soft and fluffy.

2. In another bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients. Add 2/3 of the dry ingredients to the whipped butter mixture and whip until combined. Add in the remaining flour and mix by hand. 

3. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and chill 1 hour.

4. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F and line a baking sheet with parchment.

5. Roll dough into one inch balls, then roll them in cinnamon sugar mixture before placing them on the prepared sheet.  Once you have placed the cookies on the sheet, flatten them a bit with a fork.

6. Bake for 10 minutes for a nice soft chewy cookie. Transfer to a cooling rack. Makes about 18 cookies.

Sorry no pic These disappeared too fast!

Carrot cake is my favorite dessert of all time….especially Dufflet Carrot Cake…moist but not oily, and full of carrots, spices, coconut, nuts and pinapple,topped with cream cheese icing! For Valentines day, I succeeded at making a fantastic replica of my fave Dufflet Carrot Cake! Dufflet uses all natural ingredients, which I love. Insead of 4 “real” eggs I had to use 2 egg replacers to prevent spending Valentines day with a very sick fiance. Anyways, here is my recipe.

My version of Dufflet Carrot Cake

1. Preheat oven to 350. Grease 2 9-inch circular cake pans

2. In the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, beat together the butter and sugar until light. Add eggs/egg replacer one at a time and beat until smooth, scraping down the bowl as needed.

3. In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking power, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg

4. In another bowl, combine carrots, pinapple, coconut and pecans and add to butter/sugar mixture. Mix.

5. Stir in dry ingredients until just combined. Do not overmix.

6. Divide into the two prepared pans and bake 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

7. Let cool a few minutes before removing from pans onto a cooling rack. Let cool completely before icing.

8.  Once cool, Turn one half upside down. To ice,  Spread a layer of frosting on top and place the other half on top, flat side up. Ice the rest of the cake. I used this cream cheese icing recipe from Canadian Living:

• 1 pkg (8 oz/250 g) cream cheese softened 
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 cup icing sugar

In bowl, beat cream cheese with butter until smooth. Beat in vanilla. Beat in icing sugar, one-third at a time, until smooth.