Challah

So as the exam period has officially started, so has procrastination baking. It is the perfect way to forget about exams for a little bit and relax. I have made Challah bread before when I was younger, but this was my first time trying it alone. It turned out really well and perfectly tasty. The great part about it is I don't have to fight with my siblings for the delicious crustless pieces!
Well I guess I should get back to studying.. good luck on exams everyone!!

activating the yeastletting the dough restready for the oven!ready to be eaten!

Anne's Birthday Cupcakes

So this post is a little late seeing as I made these cupcakes on Wednesday, but I couldn't post about them til after my friend Annes birthday, or it would have ruined the surprise. As most of you know, I LOVE to bake cupcakes, its just so fun! So whenever there is an excuse to bake up some delicious little treats I will take advantage of it. For Anne's birthday I made devils food cake chocolate cake and my signature cream cheese icing. I was going for a turquoise colour with the icing, but it is a lot harder colouring icing then one might think! Unfortunately, there are no cupcakes left, so you will just have to imagine how delicious they were by looking at the pics!

Mixing the wet ingredients

The dry ingredients being sifted

Fresh out of the oven


All dolled up!

Cake recipe:
Cream together 1/2 cup butter and 1 1/2 cups white sugar
Add two eggs and 1 tsp vanilla, beat until smooth
Sift 1 3/4 cup flour, 1/2 cup cocoa, 1/4tsp baking powder and
1tsp baking soda in a separate bowl
Boil 1 cup water
Blend into butter mixture 1/3 of the flour mixture unitl almost incorporated
Than add 1/2 cup of water, and repeat process til all is incorporated (the
flour mixture should always be added last)
Bake at 350 for 18-20 mins in a cupcake tin

Icing recipe:
Cream 1/2 cup butter and 1 pkg cream cheese (both at room temperature)
Add 2 cups icing sugar and 1tsp vanilla
Colour as you please

Sun-dried Tomato Risotto

Staring at the container of sun-dried tomatoes sitting on my counter I wondered what to do. The first thing I thought of was pasta, but that idea didn't have enough umph, so I decided to go with a risotto. A risotto looks and seems much more complicated than it actually is. I used the basic risotto recipe on the back of the abborio rice box, and just added the sun-dried tomatoes at the same time I added the rice.

sauteed onions (front) ; chicken broth (back)toasting the risotto and sun-dried tomatoesthe finished product

Recipe:
Sautee 1 finely chopped onion in 1tbsp olive oil on medium heat
Add 1 cup abborio rice and 10 diced sun-dried tomatoes, toast for 1 minute
Add 3 1/2 cups chicken broth, 1/2 a cup at a time, waiting until previous broth is almost all absorbed
When all chicken broth has been added, rice should be plump and ready to eat
Season with salt and pepper and add 1/4 cup parmesan cheese
Enjoy!

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie

With a big road trip coming up I figured some chocolate chip cookies were in order. I didn't want just any chocolate chip cookies, so I decided to make oatmeal chocolate chip ones. I followed a basic recipe and added some cinnamon for an extra kick. They turned out pretty well, crispy on the outside and deliciously chewy on the inside! Hopefully they will keep us fueled for the drive to NYC!

the batterready for the oven

all done!

Crepes filled with Creamed Spinach

This morning I woke up craving crepes, and as I had a group meeting at 930 I had no time to make them, so I decided to have them for dinner. They were super easy to make and all you need is 3 ingredients: eggs, flour and milk! You whisk the eggs and flour together into a smooth paste and then slowly poor the milk in while consistently stirring. Let the batter sit for 30mins and then they are ready to be cooked. For the filling I made some creamed spinach, not as good as my dads but still pretty tasty. I made a simple bechamel sauce and then added boiled spinach to it. The final product was very tasty, the crepes were delicate and perfectly tender. For dessert I really wanted crepes with Nutella, but I didn't have any! So I resorted to the next best thing, chocolate chips, they melted in the crepes and were delicious!

The Filling

The Crepes

The Finished Product

Desert

Cinnamon Rolls

Today I decided to make chef Michael Smith's cinnamon rolls as part of the foodtv.ca's november cooking club challenge. I have only ever made cinnamon rolls once before, on a camping trip. Needless to say these looked and tasted MUCH better. Since I am a student I do not have the most luxurious kitchen, so some challenges I ran into with this recipie were no rolling pin and no stand mixer. So I had to use some creativity, I used a wooden spoon to mix the batter and then moved to my hands to finish the kneading. As for the rolling pin, I came up with a great alternative: an english cucmber! All in all this was a fun challenge, I stuck to his recipie but added walnuts for a delicious crunch. I am sure my rugby friends will be thrilled with their breakfast treat at our tournament on saturday!

Letting my dough rest

It got so big!

all rolled out

the finished product.. mmm!

My first Blog!

Hey everyone,

This blog is where I will be posting the delectable photos of my cooking/baking adventures! As I am a student, there will be times I will be too busy to post, but I will do my best to post something each week. I hope you enjoy the photos, and maybe even give the recipies a try for yourself!