Almond Roca Cream wine

 A recent trip to the Costco in Bellingham resulted in this little find. $4.97 for a bottle of Almond Roca Cream. When I picked it up, I thought, "Oh, this is like Irish Cream! This will be a fantastic addition to a nice cup of coffee or tea. And at $5, what a STEAL!". When I was checking out, I finally noticed it went through as a wine. WTF?! cream and wine? That sounds gross. No wonder it was on clearance. I was really hesitant about trying this. The hubby opened it and we drank it out of a couple of wine glasses. The verdict? Not baaaaad... in fact, it could still go into a tea or coffee and it was just like Irish cream. Whoever is in their marketing department should be fired though. If they hadn't put "cream" and "wine" on the bottle, I'm sure they would have sold a lot more and wouldn't sadly be on clearance at a Costco. It's got quite the alcohol content (14%) and a nice creamy toffee scent to it. Alone it's drinkable although I think paired with a good coffee or Trader Joe's vanilla cinammon tea and you've got a sure winner.

Seriously. When you say "Almond, Chocolate and  Toffee cream", you just want to guzzle it and whip it up in some frosting and have it on cupcakes. But throw "wine" in there and you think of curdling and want to barf. Thank God for bad marketing people otherwise it would have been priced higher and I never would have bought it. This bottle will be finished for sure and totally worth $5.

Garlic Parmesan pull apart bread

I kept seeing all these post about pull apart bread on Pinterest (damn you, Pinterest) so last night I finally gave in and tried one out since I was making chicken soup for dinner. Here is a recipe for Garlic Parmesan pull apart bread:  http://smells-like-home.com/2012/09/garlic-parmesan-pull-apart-bread/

Garlic Parmesan Pull-Apart Bread
source: adapted from Pastry Affair

Ingredients:

• 2 1/4 tsp (1 packet) instant yeast
• 1 1/3 cups warm water
• 2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 tsp salt
• 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 4 tbsp (1/4 cup) salted butter, melted
• 1 tbsp dried parsley flakes or 2 tbsp fresh parsley, finely chopped
• 1/4 tsp Italian seasoning
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Instructions:

The dough after the first proof

Butter, parsley, seasoning, and mmmm garlic!

1. In the bowl of the stand mixer, stir together the yeast and water. Let the mixture sit for 5 minutes until yeast is somewhat dissolved. Mix in the olive oil, salt, and flour. Using the dough hook, knead the dough for 5 minutes, or until elastic. (Alternatively, you can mix the ingredients in a large bowl then knead the dough on a lightly floured surface until it is elastic, 7-10 minutes.) Transfer dough to a lightly oiled bowl and cover with a clean kitchen towel or plastic wrap. Allow the dough to rise for 1 to 1 1/2 hours, or until it has doubled in size.   

 2. In a small bowl, combine melted butter, parsley, Italian seasoning, and minced garlic. Set aside.

 
3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Ready to go in the oven

4. Gently push the air out of the dough. Tear off a golf ball-size piece of dough, roll in the butter mixture, and place in the bottom of a Bundt pan. Repeat this process until you have one layer of dough balls. Sprinkle on 1/3 of the Parmesan cheese. Continue layering the dough balls and cheese until you have 3 layers. (Note: We ended up with only 2 layers but the bread still turned out fine.) Cover the pan with a clean towel or plastic wrap and allow the dough to double in size, 20-30 minutes.

5. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until bread is golden brown. Let the pan cool on a wire rack for 5 minutes then invert the pan onto a large serving plate and let the bread fall out of the pan.  Serve hot.

the end result

My notes: Since you have to proof it twice, it actually took a lot longer than I thought it would. But with my Kitchenaid mixer, this recipe was a snap. And fresh out of the oven? Heaven and loveliness. I modified the recipe by putting FOUR (yes, count them FOUR) cloves of garlic because the husband is Romanian and a bigger garlic lover than I (who would have thought it possible, but it is). I also used Trader Joe's romano parmesan instead of fresh because I was too lazy to actually grind it up in the food processor. I'm not sure if I had "Italian seasoning" (it's an Italian spice mix), so for good measure, I threw in a few dashes of Johnny's Garlic spread and seasoning. I use that stuff on EVERYTHING (goes great with roasted potatoes) and available at Costco in of course, Costco-size.

I don't own a bundt pan so I used my tube pan instead. Hopefully I didn't ruin it by spraying Pam all over it. It didn't make three layers of dough, just one and a few balls in the second layer. Still took about 20 minutes to bake.

The end result was a little salty but tasty! It was fun pulling it apart and dipping it into our soup. To store, I put in a plastic bag and knotted the top to seal the air out. Had another piece today and it's still soft and lovely and yes, very garlicky. Will make this again but will consider using another pan instead of the tube pan. Maybe a loaf pan instead?

Chateau Doisy-Vedrines

Mela came back from Bordeau a month ago and of course, she returned with wine. This is a bottle that she shared with me a 2002 Chateau Doisy-Vedrines. When she saw the cork, she said the Grand-Cru stamp meant that it was an excellent vineyard. A quick wiki search returned the following:

"
Grand cru (French for great growth) is a regional wine classification that designates a vineyard known for its favorable reputation in producing wine. Although often used to describe grapes, wine or cognac, the term is not technically a classification of wine quality per se, but is intended to indicate the potential of the vineyard or terroir. It is the highest level of classification of AOC wines from Burgundy or Alsace. The same term is applied to Châteaux in Saint-Émilion, although in that region it has a different meaning and does not represent the top tier of classification. In Burgundy the level immediately below grand cru is known as premier cru, sometimes written as 1er cru.^[6]"

 I don't by any means have a sophisticated enough palate to distinguish what made it a good wine, but it was tasty. Very flavourful and very sweet. Like crazy sweet. Although it smelled like brown sugar, it also had a high alcohol scent and the lines on the glass told me that probably wasn't far from the truth. But it didn't taste like it. The husband said it reminded him of the top of a creme brulee. Mela drank three glasses. It was delicious and I felt honored that she would share it with me. A great wine with an acidic or spicy pairing (I unfortunately only had triple lemon biscuits from TJ's and wasabi seaweed) but it wasn't bad.

Starbucks Cranberry Bliss Bars

Well Sandy has done it to me again. She has introduced me to a new food that I can't get enough of! We went for coffee the other day at Starbucks and she convinced me (didn't take very much, mind you) to buy a Cranberry Bliss bar.

OMG, it was DIVINE. I meant to share it but ended up eating the whole thing.

I found this website that has the "secret recipes" to everything. Here is the one for Starbucks' cranberry bliss bar:

Cake
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter, softened
1 1/4 cups packed light brown sugar
3 eggs
2 tablespoons minced crystallized ginger
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 cup chopped sweetened dried cranberries
4 ounces white chocolate, cut into chunks

Frosting
4-ounces cream cheese, softened
3 cups powdered sugar
4 teaspoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 cup chopped sweetened dried cranberries

Drizzled Icing
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 tablespoon milk
2 teaspoons vegetable shortening



1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Make cake by beating the butter and brown sugar together with an electric mixer until smooth. Add the eggs, ginger, vanilla, and salt and beat well. Gradually mix in the flour and baking powder until smooth. Mix the chopped dried cranberries and white chocolate chunks into the batter by hand. Pour the batter into a buttered 9 x 13-inch baking pan. Use a spatula to spread the batter evenly across the pan. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until the cake is lightly browned on top. Allow the cake to cool.

3. Make the frosting by combining the softened cream cheese, powdered sugar, lemon juice, and vanilla in a medium bowl with an electric mixer until smooth. When the cake has cooled, use a spatula to spread the frosting over the top of the cake.

4. Sprinkle 1/4 cup of chopped dried cranberries over the frosting on the cake.

5. Make the drizzled icing by whisking together powdered sugar, milk, and shortening. Drizzle this icing over the cranberries in a sweeping motion with a squirt bottle or fill a small plastic storage bag with the icing and cut off the tip of one corner.

6. Cover the cake and let it chill out in the fridge for a couple hours, then slice the cake lengthwise (the long way) through the middle. Slice the cake across the width three times, making a total of eight rectangular slices. Slice each of those rectangles diagonally creating 16 triangular slices.

Makes 16 bars.

I have no idea where to buy crystallized ginger. I know Trader Joes sells it but the last couple of times I've gone down, they've been out of stock. One of the staff told me there was an issue with their packaging. d'oh!! I can't WAIT to try this recipe out.

Update December 20, 2011: 
I made this after finding crystallized ginger at my local Save-On-Foods. It wasn't bad but it was so SWEET! It seriously hurt my tooth when I ate it. Nica kept sneaking into the fridge to eat it. I meant to take some into work but by the time I went to plate it, it was half gone. *sigh* I did let a couple girls at work try some since I took one piece in as an after-lunch snack and they said it was really good. Not sure if they were just saying that though.

Things to remember for the next time I make this: 
* I cut a hole much too large when I was covering it with the drizzled icing. I think I could have skipped that part of the bar entirely and it would have been fine. 
* The entire bar was WAY too sweet. Next time, I will definitely cut back on the sugar. 
* Don't put crystallized ginger in the mini food processor. The ginger gets caught in the blades and just makes it a gooey mess. I'm guessing it would be ditto for the cranberries although I smartened up and chopped them with a french knife after the ginger fiasco.
* line the baking pan with parchment paper to prevent it from sticking to the sides.

Interestingly, it seemed to taste a lot better after a few days in the fridge and then eaten at room temp.

Lemon Tart adventure

Whole Foods Lemon tart ingredients

On Thursdays, I get together with my friends to watch "So You Think You Can dance". It's a girls night, complete with dinner, dessert and a lot of shouting at the t.v. as we pretend to be judges.

A couple of Thursdays ago, my friend Vania bought a lemon tart from Whole foods. We had to stop the PVR to relish it. Janine claimed it was a slice of "lemon heaven". And it was. It was light, fruity, sweet and yet slightly tart. The crust was delicious too and I'm not a huge crust fan!

the Whole Foods lemon tart

So I made it my goal to try and recreate it. As soon as I got home, I googled "lemon tart whole foods recipe" and unfortunately, the *exact* recipe was not to be found although there was a whole foods berry tart recipe. Essentially what they said was to use a pre-baked pie shell and add lemon curd. The thing is, it tasted like there was cream in it and sure enough, further google searching found other recipes that did this.

I was heading down to the States that weekend so on our usual trip to Trader Joe's, I picked up pie pastry and lemon curd in anticipation of making it for the next SYTYCD night.

It has been a comedy of errors trying to make this tart but the short of it is that I wasn't able to make it in time of the next SYTYCD night but I was successful in making something that was similar. Here's what I did:

1. Whip 1 cup of whipping cream until it's thick
2. Add 1 jar of Trader Joe lemon curd and mix together
3. Pour into baked Trader Joe pie shell
4. Refrigerate and garnish with fruit

Yes, it's truly that easy. I let Nica lick the spoon from the lemon curd/whipped cream mixture and he loved it. Mom and Dad both praised the crust and they're really judgmental about pastry. I know it doesn't look that tasty in the photo but it was really good! Honest!

Next time I might actually attempt to make lemon curd and the time after that maybe I'll try my hand at pastry dough. We'll see!

Trader Joe's Lemon Curd: $2.99
Pretty good on its own, even better when mixed with whipped cream. Quite sweet with a tart finish. Strong lemon flavour. Imported from England. Would buy it again!

Trader Joe's Pie Crust: $3.99 for two.

Instructions

They give you two in the event you want to make a double crust pie. I thought it would come in a pie shell but it doesn't. You have to thaw and then put it in a plate yourself (which to be honest, is more environmentally friendly anyway). Very delicious. I would easily buy this pie shell again for future pies for its convenience and taste. I only forked the bottom of the pie before putting it into the oven to brown but I really should have pricked the sides as well. Failure to do this resulted in the sides puffing up. Still tasty... but definitely not pretty.

Macaron Adventure

I met another Mom in the Oakridge Baby Time class and she looked so familiar. It turned out she was the sister of an old elementary school friend who I actually remembered (I think Mommy brain only effects my short term memory).
She organizes this event called Baker's market - http://www.bakersmarket.com/ and I can't wait to attend this event with my baking friends. She also has another side hobby which is baking macarons. She even went to PARIS to learn how to bake these! Here's a link to her website: http://www.jadorelesmacarons.com/

After browsing her blog, I was hooked. I've never eaten these little creations but they look so pretty and I vowed to have a macaron party and attempt to make them.

I found this awesome website that I've been drooling reading over for the last couple hours. 
http://bravetart.com/recipes/Macarons
The photos are fantastic and the author debunks common Macaron theories such as the effect of aged eggs, when sugar should be added to the meringue, etc.

I'm going to attempt to make the Strawberries and Cream macaron after picking up some Freeze Dried Strawberries from Trader Joes. Wish me luck! If this is successful a pastry bag is definitely going on my shopping wish list.

Strawberry Cream Cheese

Trader Joe's is such a fun place to try new things. On my last trip, I picked up some Strawberry Cream Cheese Spread (made from RBST-free milk). I'm not sure what was wrong with me that day. I probably bought around 5 different cheeses and I'm lactose intolerant. On top of all that, I always find myself buying sweet cream cheeses (like the strawberry one up above) when really, I'm a savory fan!

Anyway, I was not disappointed. Tried this cream cheese on some toast this morning and I was impressed! It reminded me of the double whipped cream cheese that you can get down in San Francisco. It was light and easy to spread. Plus, if you can see in the picture, there are actual bits of STRAWBERRY in it! Wouldn't buy it every time I go down, but it's a nice treat.
Cost: $2.49

Trader Joe's Chocolate Covered Belgian Butter Thins

Mela told me about these Chocolate covered Belgian Butter thins from Trader Joe's. I'm not a huge cookie fan so I was skeptical but I tried one and YUM! Delicious. I picked up two boxes on my next State side trip.
I love having them with a cup of orange pekoe tea. The box doesn't contain THAT many biscuits (Maybe 8 of each dark, milk and white chocolate) but the crispy biscuit center is delicious. The only drawback is the chocolate melts on your hand if you don't eat it fast enough.
Cost: $3.49