Chocolate Pie Crust - SMS

Why doesn't pie crust like me? Maybe it's like an animal and smells my fear. Santa brought me pie weights and a pastry blender for Christmas. Like a kid on their first day of school, I was excited about making this pie dough. I didn't feel like the dough came together like it should, it seemed a little too crumbly. I added a little more water. Concerned about overworking the dough, I formed the ball and put it in the frig. After the alloted time, I cut my circle of parchment formed my crust. I sprinkled on the shiny new pie weights and in the oven it went.

Tim's favorite pie is pecan. I needed a pie for Christmas Eve dinner and Sweet Melissa's Chocolate Pecan seemed like a natural. I didn't have any maple syrup or dark corn syrup so I substituted honey and light corn syrup with a little molasses.

Unfortuntely, my crust was like all of the other pie crusts I've made over the years, hard and not flaky. The color on the pie crust was too brown and the flavor rather bland. The filling was okay but not as good as other pecan pies. All in all is was really disappointed in these recipes. I will keep trying, pie crust is one of those cooking challenges that I want to conquer.


Donna of L’Amour de Tarte chose this week's Sweet Melissa Sunday's, Chocolate Pie Crust. We could choose whatever filling we liked. Stop over to Sweet Melissa Sunday's and see some of the other baker's beautiful flaky pies.

Next week, Lemon Walnut Sour Cream Pound Cake!!

35" and Counting!!

Breaking a record can be a good thing. Not these records!! We have had 38 inches of snow so far this season and most of it is still on the ground. Our seasonal average is 30 inches.

The other record we're going to either break or tie tomorrow night is temperature. The forecast low is 24 below zero. The record is 24 below set in the 1800's.

This could be a long winter!!

Kitchen Aid Sixty Minute Dinner Rolls

Okay this is good, I am following through with one of my 2010 blogging goals, baking bread. Kitchen Aid 60 Minute Dinner Rolls, homemade bread in 60 minutes, it doesn't get much better than that! I followed the recipe I found on Erin Cooks.



KitchenAid Sixty-Minute Dinner Rolls
Makes: 24 Dinner Rolls

1/2 cup low-fat milk
1/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons salt
3 tablespoons butter
3 packages of dry active yeast or 6 3/4 teaspoons
1 1/2 cups warm water (105F – 115F)
5 – 6 cups all-purpose flour

In a small saucepan, stir milk, sugar, salt and butter together. Heat over low heat until butter melts and sugar dissolves. Cool until lukewarm.

Dissolve yeast in warm water in warmed mixer bowl. Add lukewarm milk mixture and 4 1/2 cups flour to yeast mixture, and using a dough hook, mix on low speed for about 1 minute. With the mixer still going, add remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time, and mix about 1 1/2 minutes, or until dough starts to clean the sides of the bowl. Knead on low speed for about 2 more minutes, or until dough is smooth and elastic – the dough will still be slightly sticky to the touch.

Place dough in a greased bowl, turning it to grease the top. Cover the dough with a clean, dry dish towel, and let it rise in a warm place, free from draft, for about 15minutes.

Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface, and divide into 24 equal pieces. Form each piece into a ball, and place in a greased muffin pan. Using kitchen shears or a pizza cutter (a knife will also work), cut each ball in half, then in quarters, and place in the muffin pan. Cover the muffin pan with the dish towel, and let the dough rise for about 15 minutes.

Bake at 425ºF for 12 minutes, or until the rolls are golden brown. Remove from pans immediately, and cool on wire racks.

My notes on this recipe: I thought they could have used a little more flavor, maybe some herbs? Rosemary next time? Still this recipe makes beautiful dinner rolls in an hour.

Butternut Squash Risotto

It's a cold winter night in Nebraska. We received another 3 1/2 inches of snow overnight, making our grand total around 20 inches. Cold winter nights just beg for comfort food. Risotto is a delicious comfort food. Many people are intimidated by risotto. I took a risotto class years ago and have always had good results.

I think the most challenging thing about this risotto was chopping up the butternut squash. When is that knife skills class anyway? I thought I would never finish chopping this squash. AFTER, I finished chopping up the squash, I searched for helpful hints. There's a great post over at Simply Recipes. If only, I had read it BEFORE I chopped the squash.

I found this recipe at Bay Area Bites. The only change I made was to use shallots instead of onion. This risotto has a beautiful creamy texture and a wonderful slight cinnamon flavor. It went well with our Bourbon Apple Pork Loin.


Butternut Squash Risotto
Serves: 10-12

1/2 small butternut squash (about 1 1/2 pounds)
16 oz chicken broth
1 shallot, diced
1 small carrot, peeled and shredded
1 large garlic cloves, minced
1/2 teaspoon grated ginger
1 1/2 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 cups Arborio rice
1/4 cup dry white wine
1 1/2 teaspoons honey
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
Pinch of nutmeg
1/4 cup Parmigiano Reggiano, freshly grated
Olive oil for roasting and finishing

Roast the Butternut Squash
Preheat oven to 450°F with the rack in the middle.
Microwave the entire squash for 3-4 minutes so that it's easier to cut through. Halve squash lengthwise and discard seeds.
Peel and cut into 1-inch dice. Place in a baking pan, drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper.. Bake the squash, stirring the diced pieces occasionally, until tender and browned lightly, 20-25 minutes. Set aside.

In a saucepan bring broth to a simmer and keep at a bare simmer.
In a large pot melt the butter and add onion, carrot, garlic, and ginger. Cook over moderate heat, stirring, until softened. Stir in rice and let it toast a bit, stirring constantly, about 1 minute.
Add wine and cook, stirring, until absorbed. Stir in the broth ¼ cup at a time, stirring constantly, until absorbed. Keep the risotto at a simmer throughout. Continue simmering, stirring, and adding broth, letting each addition be absorbed before adding next, until about half of broth has been added. Stir in diced squash, honey, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg, and continue simmering and adding broth in same manner until rice is tender and creamy-looking but still slightly al dente, about 20-25 minutes. Stir in the grated Parmigiano and combine.
Spoon risotto into serving bowls and garnish with a drizzle of olive oil and a few curls of Parmigiano using a vegetable peeler.

Chocolate Creme Caramels - SMS

When I read the Sweet Melissa Sunday's recipes for January, I was thrilled. January is going to be a crazy month for me. I am traveling on business and we are going on a cruise!! I knew I needed to have these posts done in advance. I decided to make the Chocolate Creme Caramels for the holiday treat bag for my staff at work!

I was a little nervous because I'd heard how tricky caramel could be. Even as I was making these, I heard Sandy Gluck on Martha Stewart Living Radio talk about the challenges she'd had when making caramel. EEEKKKKK! I hope these turn out!!

There are two recipes in the cookbook for Carmels. The base recipe is Honey Creme Caramels and to make the Chocolate Creme Caramels, you just add...Chocolate. The carmel mixture is the most beautiful honey brown color while it is cooking.

Well turn out, they did! These are the most delicious caramels and remind me of one you might purchase at a fine candy store. Now with that said, don't make this recipe if you are in a hurry, it's not a quick one. The caramel took about an hour to get to 248 degrees. It seemed like it took forever to get from 225 to 248!!! I didn't have an 8 x 8 pan, so I'd planned to use a 7 x 7. I ended up with enough caramel for for two 7 x 7 pans.

These caramels made a wonderful addition to the treat bags for my staff. Thanks to Jeanette of The Whimsical Cupcake for choosing this fabulous recipe. You can find the recipe on her site and links to all of the other Sweet Melissa Sunday's members here!

Next up...Chocolate Pie Crust and Chocolate Bourbon Pecan Pie.

Cranberry, Pecan and Chocolate Cookies - SSB

This month's Sweet and Simple Bakes will be the perfect Christmas cookie...next year. The flavors in this cookie are meant to go together, cranberries, chocolate and pecans. Yummy!

This recipe is easy to put together. Measuring the ingredients is a snap using my scale. I am so glad I purchased one!!! The only change I made was to use semi-sweet chips instead of white chocolate chips. White chocolate is the ONLY kind of chocolate I don't like.



Stop over to Sweet and Simple Bakes and check out the other bakers cookies.

Little Bit of Everything in 2010

Little Bit of Everything will celebrate it's 1st blogversary in February of 2010. This year has gone so fast. I feel like I learned a lot but still there's so much more I want to learn. In 2010, one of the things I am really looking forward to is partipating in Adopt a Blogger and learning from one of the many talented bloggers out on the blogsphere.

What else do I want to accomplish in 2010?

In 2009, I took a series of cooking classes, Culinary Boot Camp. I'd love to take more classes, a bread baking class and a knife skills class, as well as a cake decorating class.

I think my friends and family consider me a good cook but I want to learn to be more like a chef. I can follow a recipe and most of the time, it turns out great. I want to learn to create dishes without always following a recipe.

Create cocktails using herbs and infusions. These make for interesting and fun cocktails.

Explore the recipes from my collection of cookbooks. 100+ cookbooks, full of great recipes just waiting to be created!

Make more of the recipes from the recipe cards that belonged to my mother. These are such a special memory and should be shared.

Make more homemade bread! I love bread and nothing is better than warm homemade bread.

Let's consider these my blogging resolutions. Oh boy, resolutions!! I don't know about you but I am never very good at carrying out my resolutions. So let's just call them goals and maybe I will do better. Okay now I need a favor from everyone, help me to stay on task to achieve these goals.