Leave for a few minutes to allow the yeast to activate.

You can tell the yeast is active when you see carbon dioxide in the form of bubbles. Once this has occurred you can gradually stir in more flour and water in the well.

Knead the dough until it is smooth and satiny. This should take about 10 minutes. Shape into a round when finished kneading. Put it to one side and leave to ferment. It should rise until doubled in size. This can take 45 minutes to an hour and a half.

Knock the dough back. Deflate the dough and knead for several minutes then form into a round and leave to rise again. Heat your oven to 250 °C and bake for 10 minutes. Reduce the heat to 100 °C for another 10 to 20 minutes.

Photo by Kat Kellner via Flickr using a CC-BY license.

I LOVE this dip! My grandma makes this dip for many of our holiday gatherings. It’s great with vegetables or with rye bread. It’s totally delicious!
Photo by theresac via flickr is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Generic License.

In a mixing bowl, cream together the eggs, 3/4 cup cream, the sugar, vanilla extract and the cinnamon. Whisk the ingredients until well blended. Dip slices of bread into the mixture, then lightly coat each side of the bread with cereal crumbs.

In a large skillet and over medium heat add butter, place a few slices of coated bread into the skillet and cook until golden on both sides.

Photo by Andrew Currie via Flickr using a CC-BY license.

This recipe was enough for about 10 children.

Combine ingredients and mix in a large container until cloud sand holds it’s shape when squeezed in your hand.
We used cookie cutters, small cups to make cloud sand castles, small shovels ad rakes. It’s great for children to explore textures and have some creative F-U-N.

Preheat the oven to 160°C/ 325°F. Place the vegetables into a large roasting pan. Then add the 5 cloves of garlic in skins, toss vegetables in a few splashes of olive oil and sprinkle with cumin. Roast in the oven 20-30 minutes or until vegetables are soft. Once vegetables have been removed from the oven, squeeze garlic cloves to remove skin.

Place all the roasted vegetables and coconut milk into the food processor and blend until smooth. If too thick add some soup stock. Season to with salt and pepper to taste. Pour into soup pot and heat over low-medium heat for 15 to 20 minutes. When soup is fully warmed, it’s ready to serve.

Photo by Krista via Flickr using a CC-BY license.

In a bowl, cream softened butter with icing sugar. When the ingredients are well blended, add vanilla and a squeeze of lemon juice. Just enough juice to loosen the mixture slightly.

Photo by cliffajw via Flickr using a CC-BY license.

I recently decided to spend some time investigating the do’s and don’ts of this cookie. If you google french macaron, you’ll find dozens of articles and photos dedicated to the art of baking this delicate meringue treat. What this cookie isn’t, is easy. It’s a process and must be followed to the letter if you want perfection.  If you take the time to follow this recipe you’ll have created a work of art (seriously). Totally. Worth. It.

Late one night, armed with a dozen room temperature eggs, music and 64 ounces of soda, I could wait no longer. I set out on a quest to create this work of scrumptious. I went into this baking endeavor wanting to bake a macaron that was one part tradition and one part my own crafty work. Sometime around 3:30 am, I think I nailed it. I have to tell you, once you’ve mastered it, you will indeed feel like you’ve created a work of art.

Directions:

First thing you’ll want to do is line your baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats and set them aside.

In a mixing bowl, combine the almond meal, powdered sugar, cocoa powder, powdered malted drink mix and the salt. Most recipes call for you to take these dry ingredients and pulse them in a food processor until you have a very fine mix, about 30-45 seconds. I found using a mortar and pestle worked well too. After you’ve mixed the dry ingredients, use a flour sifter to sift the dry ingredients into a bowl and set aside. You want to use a flour sifter to make sure you’ve removed any chunky bits or almond slivers from the mix. 

In a second bowl, add the room temperature egg whites and using an electric mixer beat on medium until it becomes foamy.

Then add a pinch of cream of tartar to the foamy egg whites and continue to mix until it starts to become white and fluffy. This usually takes about a minute and should look like this: 

Continue to blend with the electric mixer on medium high and add sugar 1 tablespoon at a time. Continue beating until your mixture is beginning to stiff, is forming peaks and looks glossy. Take care not to over whip, this process should take about 60 seconds and look like this:

The next step will be adding the meringue to the dry ingredients. You want to fold the ingredients together with a spoon or spatula. You don’t want to whisk or use an electric mixer for this step. As you fold the batter, you’ll notice the meringue deflating, this is supposed to happen. Continue mixing until combined. It will resemble a gooey cake batter.

Once blended, add the batter to an icing or piping bag. Some people suggest using a pastry tip. I found cutting the tip off a icing bag works well too. I personally try to fill the piping bag with all of the batter the first time. Trying to refill the bags can turn into a huge sticky mess.

Slowly squeeze the batter onto your baking trays or silicone mats. After much practice I’ve decided squeezing the batter out in a spiral motion made for a nice round shape. I’ve also found making the cookies 1 1/2 – to 2 inches is a great size and easy to work with. Try to remember to space them a few inches apart. It should look something like this:

When you’re finished piping the batter, drop the tray a few times on a hard surface (like the table top) to remove any air pockets and this creates a foot for the macarons. Let the trays sit for 30 minutes or so to allow the batter to dry. The macarons will develop a skim and this will allow the cookie to evenly bake. During this wait time preheat your oven to 350°F.

While you wait go ahead and prepare the ganache. Place the butter, chocolate chips and heavy cream into a sauce pan and melt over medium heat. Remember to stir this constantly to prevent mixture from scorching. When the yummy chocolate ganache is fully melted and well blended, pour the creamy goodness into a bowl and set it in the refrigerator. It will need about 30 minutes to firm up and become spreadable.

Once the cookie batter has skimmed, place in the oven and bake for 7 minutes. At the 7 minute mark, rotate the tray and bake another 7 minutes. You want your cookies to bake but not brown. Remove the cookies after 14 minutes and transfer the entire sheet to a cooling rack. Allow these beauties to fully cool. This is a must do.

If you try to remove them right away the cookie will totally crumple. If you try to remove them half cooled they will stick to the sheets and you lose half the cookie. When fully cooled gently peel the cookie from the sheet and place on the cooling rack. You want the bottom of the macarons to have a nice flat base or “foot” They should look something like this:

Once the ganache has chilled and the french macarons have fully cooled. Match the macarons by size, then add one teaspoon of ganache to the bottom of one of the cookies and place the second cookie to create a sandwich. It should look something like this: 

Be sure not to press your macarons together too tightly as you don’t want ganuache to be oozy and the delicate cookie tops will dent. Lastly, you want to pop the finished cookies into the refrigerator and it’s suggested to let them to chill 24 hours before serving.

If you’ve never had a french macaron, the outside of the cookie should be thin and shell-like. However, when you bite into it , the cookie should be soft and chewy. I liked the idea of adding a malted drink mix, like Ovaltine to give it a light chocolate malt flavor. If you want to create an all  chocolate macaron just adjust the recipe to 3 tablespoons of cocoa powder and omit the malt mix.

It looks like a lot of work but I think it’s really worth the task. Enjoy!

Bake in the oven for 50 to 60 minutes or until cake tester comes out clean. Let cool in pan for several minutes, then transfer to cooling rack.

Photo by eddie welker via Flickr using a CC-BY license.

Line a 13x9x2 pan with heavy duty foil. Extend the foil over the edges.

Next, combine the marshmallow, peanut butter, and vanilla in large bowl, set aside. Combine the sugar, evaporated milk, and butter in a heavy 3 quart saucepan.

Cook over medium-high heat, stirring constantly to prevent scorching, until temperature reaches 234F (check the temperature with a candy thermometer).

Remove from heat and stir in the peanut butter mixture, stirring thoroughly and pour into the lined pan.

Score into squares while still warm, if desired, press walnuts lightly into each square.

When fudge is completely cooled, very carefully lift it out by the  foil liner, or invert onto a flat board or cookie sheet and cut into squares.

Photo by Judy via Flickr using a CC-BY-SA license.