Strawberry Trifle and Crepes

Strawberries, whipped cream, vanilla pudding and vanilla cake. My mom used to make this when I was growing up and it was heavenly. We didn't have a nice big bowl so we bought one from the thrift store for $1.99. We ate some of the trifle as a filling for our breakfast crepes. 

Amaretto Bonbons

Sage Brushing Tempered Chocolate Into Molds

The search for Bonbons here in Canada goes on. I've been to five different grocery stores and still no sign of them, not even Dibs. I decided to finally make my own. First I made amaretto ice cream using the last of our Disaronno.

 I watched an Emeril video where he just scooped the ice cream into balls and put toothpicks in them. Then dipped them in chocolate. Easy right? Upon removing the balls from the freezer, they stuck to the parchment, fell off of the toothpicks and melted. 

I decided to use my chocolate molds instead. I tempered semisweet chocolate in the microwave (first time in the microwave) and we brushed it into the molds using a pastry brush. There was not enough ice cream and too much chocolate to have a thin, crispy shell on the bottom. The ice cream started to push out in little bits through the chocolate and some cracked during unmolding. In fact the plastic mold cracked as well.

They tasted o.k. though we all agreed we liked the amaretto ice cream by itself better because the chocolate overpowered it. 

I still want Bonbons.

Apple Turnovers

The boys and I had fun making these apple turnovers. I used organic Fuji apples for the filling. I didn't want to go through the trouble of making my own dough so I bought frozen puff pastry dough. These turned out delicately flaky and bursting with apple and cinnamon flavor. We liked them so much we made them again the following morning using the left over apple filling. There's no place you can eat warm, fresh apple turnovers except from your own kitchen.

Bacon Caramels

Cook bacon? Me? I never thought I would being a vegetarian of 23 years. I did it for a friend who has bought my sea salt caramels on several occasions. He requested bacon caramels not knowing I was not a meat eater. I was going to have August cook the bacon but when I found out our friend was babysitting that week, I decided to give it to him as a thank you gift. 

August laughed when I had to look on the internet to figure out how to cook the bacon. The first batch I cooked on the stove. I was instructed to put it in a cold pan and cook it on low. Some sites said to flip it regularly and others said just once. When I told August he laughed and said that low heat would take forever. 

The second batch I cooked in the oven but it looked kind of stringy and shredded and pinkish. I finished it off in the pan. 

The caramels I made like regular caramels but substituted some of the butter with bacon fat. I poured half the caramel into the pan to set, sprinkled chopped bacon, poured the other half of the caramel and sprinkled a little bit of chopped bacon on top. 

The verdict was that these caramels were good but the bacon flavor was very subtle. I think having a larger piece of bacon garnishing the top might be the key. However, I'm giving up on cooking meat. I'll just stick to the sea salt caramels.

Star Rice Krispies Treats

Classic favorites! These turned out just like they should. The batch before this I tried to make Nutella ones and first off I didn't have Cocoa Krispies so they turned out mottled and not a nice brown like they should. And secondly, I used old marshmallows and they were hard as a rock. The boys didn't even want to eat them and they ended up in the trash. Fortunately I had more Rice Krispies and a new bag of marshmallows. Happy smiles returned.

Vanilla Lemon Berry Tartlets and Tarts

Vanilla Bean Pastry Cream on the Outside

Lemon Curd in the Center

 

Delicious yet time consuming! These tartlets and tarts took days to make. I made the crust out of a shortbread cookie tart recipe. It took a long time to roll the dough into balls and press them into the tiny tartlet molds. I think I overfilled most of them as they puffed up and rather than being concave, turned out rather flat. The outer filling is a vanilla bean pastry cream and in the middle of that is lemon curd, both also made from scratch. Fresh blackberries and raspberries from the local fruit stand adorn the top. It is garnished with a candied lemon curl. These lemon rinds were peeled and finely sliced, boiled in simple syrup and curled around straws to dry overnight.

Caramel Fudge Almond Ice Cream

Caramel ice cream is so yummy and I've made it many times. This time I thought I would jazz it up by adding fudge sauce and toasted almonds. It was good but not as good as just plain caramel. Sometimes less is more.