Here is a prototype for some new towels I’m working with for the craft fair season:
And here are some cookies I made with my new mixer and some dipping chocolate I’ve been meaning to try:
February 17th
Yummy Baked Goods
Nom nom nom. I had decided awhile ago that I wanted to learn how to make these simple yummy treats my mom sent me last semester at college. And furthermore, i wanted to work on sending them to two of my friends who seem to be having a rough time lately - so really, no time like the present to whip up a nice, yummy surprise.
They have no name, but I was fiddling with names like: Chocolate Saucers. But my brain got fried, so it ended there. And technically, you could call them chocolate covered pretzels but that’s not really what they are and that’s boring. So pfft. Chocolate saucers it is.
Watch as I give you a homemade recipe.
Step Number One:
Buy a bag of Hershey’s hugs or kisses. I have done both, and hugs taste better (kisses are a bit overwhelming - although both taste good!!!) and melt quicker/are easier to deal with. But anyway, do as you please, both work. C’est la vie. Anyway, proceed to unwrap all those hugs/kisses. This is probably the most time-consuming step of the process. Other than waiting for the chocolate pretzels to solidify in your fridge.
Step Number Two:
Find a place that sells circular pretzels. Or something similar. If you live around the Illinois area - um, I don’t know how popular this chain is anywhere else, but Jewel Osco (grocery store) has them. I don’t know of anywhere else that would really.
Step Number Three:
Place hugs/kisses on circular pretzels. Really, rocket scientists invented this formula.
Step Number Four: Preheat oven to 200 degrees. When it’s all fired up and ready to go, place those pretzels in. I should clarify that if you’re using a stone slab such as that… you really ought to use parchment paper on top of it, otherwise it’s hell to get those things off. If you’re using a cookie sheet, apparently no sort of paper is necessary (according to my mom who made them on cookie sheets before and popped them off quite easily). Anyway, if you are using hugs, you should leave them in for 2-4 minutes. The original recipe says 2-3, but our oven must be weak or something, because we needed to keep them in for four minutes. As for kisses, you are better off leaving them in between 3-5 minutes, or, in our oven, it was best between 4-5 minutes. Assuming you don’t like my haphazard time frame, you should pull them out when they begin to look glossy and a bit gloopy/melty.
If you leave them in too long: The kisses will begin to form this weird shell, which doesn’t matter too much in the long run, but it doesn’t make the pretzels look as appetizing. The hugs usually just melt down into the pretzel (fo srs, they are mad convenient).
Step Number Five:
YUM. I mean. When you take them out, if they aren’t already melted down (most won’t be, it’s sheer good luck really if they do), you take your finger to each kiss/hug and press down until they smush into the pretzel. Yup, it gets messy. But so so yummy. The chocolate will try and follow your finger back up, but you’re going to have to try and swirl it around a bit and get it to lie flat - if you want them to look like a discus, rather.
The real challenge of this step is, after so many of the candies you have pushed down, you will be EXTREMELY tempted to lick your gooey chocolatey finger. DON’T DO IT. Or rather, you can do it, but remember you licked that finger and proceed to use a different finger for the rest of them. Get what I’m saying?
Also, kisses will be harder to push down - for the same strange reason that they take longer to melt. Also also, it might be easier/less messy if you wet your finger first before flattening the chocolate - or rather, it will make the chocolate flatter, which is preferable.
Step Number Six: After that funderful (yes, I just said funderful) process, proceed to take your pretzels and place them in the fridge for about 45 minutes - 1 hour and a half until they look chilled and solidified in place. You don’t want gooey pretzels at this stage, haha, so make sure they are definitely not that.
Step Number Seven: Pop pretzels off tray/stone slab/parchment paper. And eat. Nom nom nom. So good.
As I said, it’s really not a long process. It’s just the unwrapping candy. And waiting.
Funny story: I’ve still been making these consistently the past two days. See, once I almost finished the bags for my friends, my mom requested some for the household. -_- So, here I go again. I made two more batches tonight, and I’ll probably make two more tomorrow. Jeezus
Ok, so I didn’t make any truffles, I got to listen to a seminar by master chocolatier Joseph Schmidt, who showed everyone how to make ridiculously beautiful chocolate bowls and tulips. His technique was a lot easier than it looks - think balloons. He also showed a shortcut on making truffles (not shown, but still his line of truffles). He was a very charming old man, and free truffles after a loooong day of work wasn’t so bad.
I started cleaning out my closet tonight. This is gonna take a while. The bad thing: I’ve bought a lot of dreadful clothes that I don’t want anymore. Salvation Army, here I come. The good thing: I found a bunch of stuff I still love, like this t-shirt I bought after a tour at the Sharffen Berger chocolate factory:
There is something simply happy about a plate of perfect chocolate chip cookies - crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside.
Made this at work today with my daughter.
White chocolate, brushed with Luster Dust. Blogged at greetingarts.typepad.com.
I made some cookies today for the guys at work tomorrow. They seem to look okay. let’s hope they taste good!
Title: Counts as a fruit
Description: Homemade dark chocolate dip with fresh strawberries
Inspirations: This day in history, Hershey’s Chocolate was founded (1894); “Forget love… I’d rather fall in chocolate!”
Last night my best friend told me a wonderful story about her 6-year-old daughter. I don’t really like kids, except my own and this one little girl. The story was funny, and amazing all at the same time, and we are very proud of this special little girl.
So for my Day 9 Thing-A-Day I decided to make something for her. This is what I did.
And filled it with dark chocolate Hershey’s Kisses.
What I really made today? A mess of my kitchen!
I promised the office I would bring chocolate truffles tomorrow, which I make on a regular basis. I wanted to try chocolate with coconut this time though, and decided instead of mixing my usual soy milk with the chocolate I would use coconut milk (I used canned Thai coconut milk, which is much thicker than the Goya brand coconut milk I use when making flan). Then I’d roll the truffles in shredded coconut (I usually roll them in cinnamon or powdered sugar). Despite the fact that I make these things frequently, I failed today.
I didn’t get the consistency right. I don’t usually measure things but just go by how it looks. Well, since I knew I’d be sharing it here, I figured I’d better measure things so I could give the recipe. Apparently, I measured out too much of the coconut milk! Part of the problem of course is that the Thai coconut milk is a totally different consistency than soy milk. The mix never hardened up enough to roll truffles out of it. So then I tried adding the shredded coconut, thinking it would dry it up a bit and make it easier to roll but it didn’t.
Finally I decided I’d just make cookie bars. The recipe for the cookies is as follows:
Cream together:
1 cup butter or margarine (I use soy based instead)
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
Add:
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla (I use a special kind imported from India that has no alcohol content)
Sift together:
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
Add the sifted ingredients to the creamed mixture.
Bake at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes.
After I let it cool for a few minutes, I melted down the chocolate-coconut mixture again so that it would be spreadable and spread it across the cookie. Then sprinkled the top with more shredded coconut. It’s in the fridge right now, in hopes that the chocolate will firm up again and simply act like a think frosting.
Pictures:
The Cookie with the Chocolate-Coconut Mix Spread
The Product Going Into the Fridge
UPDATED:
What better way to kick off a month of creativity than to focus on what I love. I want to write, draw, and sketch more, so this project was a perfect way to get my practice in on all of the above. The body always gets better at exactly what it does, so if I don’t draw or write, then how can I possibly get better at it.
One of my favorite foods in the world (and a constant topic of conversation at a training event I was at last weekend) is peanut butter cups.
Make your own Peanut Butter:
If you like the salty-sweet thing, than this peanut butter is for you! The only way it can be improved upon is to buy a block of Ghiradelli chocolate while you are at Trader Joes, and slice off small pieces, and add some of your freshly-made PB.
Don’t forget to store the PB in the fridge!
