southern fusion.

I'm still trying to get a hang of making pralines ever since the last time I made them successfully. Turns out, the sugar to milk ratios are pretty important to these little suckers. Too much milk and I get myself a caramel. And if they're not finicky enough, I can't just throw in anything or else they won't set properly. Right now, I'm still trying to figure out how to make almond butter pralines from the original recipe that I'm using.

However, I did successfully make some Mexican chocolate pralines! In an effort to make the praline a little more gourmet, I got the wacky idea to play around with flavor combinations. I've always loved chocolate and cinnamon together. Add a little bit of chile to it, and this flavor was exactly what I was looking for! I dusted these with a little sprinkle of cinnamon to make it extra fancy, but feel free to leave that out. I, on the other hand, like the extra boost of cinnamon!

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Mexican Chocolate Pralines
(adapted from Snapguide: Jada's DIY's & Recipes)

3/4 cup granulated white sugar
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup fat-free half and half or evaporated milk
4 tbsp light butter (cubed)
2 tsp pure vanilla paste or extract
1 1/2 cups roasted pecan pieces
1 tbsp dark cocoa powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ancho chile powder
1/4 tsp kosher salt

 
Prepare a piece of non-stick parchment paper (about 12-15 in. long) and place on counter next to cooking station. In a small bowl, stir together cocoa powder, cinnamon, ancho chile powder, and salt. Set aside.

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, add both sugars and the milk into the pot and mix well with a wooden spoon until sugars dissolve. Dip a pastry or any kind of small cooking brush in cold icy water then brush the sides of the pot to melt away any sugar crystals that may have formed.

Put in your candy thermometer. Make sure the tip is not touching the bottom but is in the actual candy liquid. The mixture should begin to froth at this point. Cook the candy, stirring occasionally, until it reaches it's proper temperature of 240F degrees.

Turn the heat completely off and take it off the burner. Add in the butter, vanilla, cinnamon mixture, and chopped pecans.

Stir mixture until it becomes thick and start to turn opaque. When the candy starts to hold together, quickly spoon it onto the parchment paper. Make sure to not over crowd and make them touch, otherwise the pralines will dry stuck together. Sprinkle with additional cinnamon to garnish, if desired.

Let the pralines set at room temperature for 30 min. Afterwards, if not serving right away, store in a air-tight container for up to 2 to 3 days. Makes about 9 to 12 pralines.

triumph: creamy pecan pralines.

Last night, I had a hankering for pralines. I don't know what triggered it, but I went online and tried to see if I can get some shipped to my house. Holy crap, were they expensive! Just a small tin from my favorite praline store, Savannah Sweets, ran about $30! Granted, I could just drive down to St. Augustine in Florida to go to onne of their stores, but I didn't really feel like driving an hour and some minutes just to get candy. And anyway, it was also the middle of the night.

My only other option? Well, I guess I can make them myself.

But I remember all too well what happened the last time I tried to make pralines . . . they were a disaster. Okay, well "disaster" might not be an accurate term. But I still messed them up, no matter how tasty they were anyway. So this time around, I opted to try a different recipe that I found before that had lots of good visuals in the tutorial. Boy, did they help! Not only was I able to see how to mix the ingredients, but the author also had video on the consistency of the candy! There was no way I would be able to mess this up!

And guess what? I made an almost perfect batch of pralines! Huzzah!

How could I have made this better? Surprisingly, just a couple of things. For one thing, I found them to be a tad sweet. The original recipe called for 1 cups each of white and brown sugar. I could tell already that that was going to be too sweet for me. So I reduced the amount to 3/4 cup each, but I still found them too sweet. Next time I make these, I'm going to further reduce the brown sugar to maybe 1/2 a cup and see where that is.

The other thing I was slightly unhappy about was with the fact that the pralines slightly bloomed. The trick for avoiding bloom (in other words, the sugar from crystallizing), is to make sure that all the sugar crystals melt in the cooking process. So, since I didn't really follow the directions and use a brush to get the crystals on the side, that affected my candy's appearance. Thankfully, they stayed creamy and didn't get crumbly and hard.

Other than that, I'm super happy with the way I made these. And a bonus? I used light butter and fat-free half and half and it still worked! Not only that, I used roasted and salted pecan pieces from Kahler Pecan House down the road. The pecans really made a difference! It was just enough salt to balance out all that sugar. The pralines themselves were melt-in-your-mouth and creamy despite the lighter butter and dairy used. As for me, all I can say is, yay, I found my prefect praline recipe! :D

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Creamy Pecan Pralines
(adapted from Snapguide: Jada's DIY's & Recipes)

3/4 cup granulated white sugar
1/2 to 3/4 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup fat-free half and half or evaporated milk
4 tbsp light butter (cubed)
2 tsp pure vanilla paste or extract
1 1/2 cups roasted and salted pecan pieces*
      (*or substitute with: 1 1/2 cups roasted pecan pieces and 1/4 tsp kosher salt)

 
Prepare a piece of non-stick parchment paper (about 12-15 in. long) and place on counter next to cooking station.

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, add both sugars and the milk into the pot and mix well with a wooden spoon until sugars dissolve. Dip a pastry or any kind of small cooking brush in cold icy water then brush the sides of the pot to melt away any sugar crystals that may have formed.

Put in your candy thermometer. Make sure the tip is not touching the bottom but is in the actual candy liquid. The mixture should begin to froth at this point. Cook the candy, stirring occasionally, until it reaches it's proper temperature of 240F degrees.

Turn the heat completely off and take it off the burner. Add in the butter, vanilla, and chopped pecans.

Stir mixture until it becomes thick and start to turn opaque. When the candy starts to hold together, quickly spoon it onto the parchment paper. Make sure to not over crowd and make them touch, otherwise the pralines will dry stuck together.

Let the pralines set at room temperature for 30 min. Afterwards, if not serving right away, store in a air-tight container for up to 2 to 3 days. Makes about 9 to 12 pralines.

chocolate covered failures.

Yesterday was a very trying day. From the moment I woke up to the time I went to bed, nothing I did seemed to go right. Ever have one of those days?

It all started when I woke up later than I wanted to. 10 am, not too bad. just enough time to make some shrimp and grits for breakfast. That idea turned out to be a disaster. Ingredients were flying everywhere, things weren't tasting like they should, and the whole thing wasn't worth the effort it took to make . . . and I usually make a decent shrimp and grits. So after taking longer that I wanted in the kitchen, I was running behind for my shower. And since I was behind on taking a shower, The hubby came home right when I got out and we had an errand to run that day during his lunch break. So, that snowballed for a while until we got home.

When we finally got home later that we should've, I decided to go back into the kitchen and de-stress. I figured that the best way to do that was to finally make some Southern pralines. This recipe seemed easy enough and, since I wanted my pralines to be chewy, perfectly fit what I was looking for.

Problems started arising when I realized that I didn't have the right ingredients. Well, that was no biggie since I always sub a lot of my cooking with this or that. Heavy cream was a major ingredient in the recipe and I didn't have any. What I did have, however, was a big ole box of store brand, powdered skim milk from a recipe I tried a while back. So, not only was I subbing CREAM with NON-FAT dairy, I was using a CHEAP substitute POWDER to boot. Needless to say, I was wondering if this was a bad Idea after all.

I pushed on, though, despite my reservations. Despite adding too much vanilla, adding salt, and misreading the recipe. By the time I realized that I had missed the final step of stirring the pot to crystallize the boiling sugar, my concoction was beyond making pralines . . . it had cooked into caramel.

At this point, I reached the "I-don't-give-a-fuck-anymore" mode. My pralines were ruined, I wasted my precious Georgia-grown pecans my sister gave me, and I hadn't even gotten dinner ready. All the failures seemed to accumulate to this point and I was just not having it. However, I wan't so far gone that I still didn't want to salvage what was left on my counter.

Off I went to Walmart and purchased a couple bars of Cadbury's Dairy Milk and a single Lindt's White Choclate bar. I proceeded to melt the chocolate down and mix it with some coconut oil to help temper the chocolate. Then one by one, I covered the pralines-turned-caramels first in the milk chocolate, then drizzled it with white. When I ran out of the milk for dipping, I used the white instead.

In the end, my hopes for pralines were just a distant memory. I've since found a good tutorial for my next attempt on making these confections. While these milk chocolate pecan turtles turned out to be an adequate consolation, it still is a far cry to what they were supposed to be. Failure is failure, no matter how you look at it. *sigh*

But, what better way to fix failure than to cover it with lots of chocolate?

going a little nuts...

Sometimes when I look through desserts on Pinterest, I get carried away and pin almost every dessert I come across. Every. Single. Delectable one I see. I have almost 4,500 pins alone just for sweets!! And I plan on making them all... one day. Yeeees... oh yeeeeeeeeees.....

*AHEM*

Sometimes, when I see a healthy dessert, it makes me wanna try and make a recipe even more. The fact that these bars are so easy to make and I virtually have everything listed in the ingredients list was a major plus! One problem though... I kind of didn't follow the recipe.

Let me explain... Turns out I was out of some of the things. Like maple syrup. Or canola oil. Or raisins. Or pastry flour. And I wanted to get rid of things that I had hanging around... like a handful of cinnamon chips. And pecans. And dried cranberries. And blueberries. So yeah...

They're not as "healthy" as the original, but they didn't turn out so bad. It's got the taste of granola with a nutty, almost shortbread-like crust. I thought they were awesome. Definitely adding this to my cookie repertoire. Next time I will bake them a little less though... following the recipe almost burned them (hence why they look a little dark)! The sweet spot is definitely around the 25 to 30 minute mark. Maybe even less. Hmmmm.... Anyway, enjoy!

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Cinnamon Honey Fruit and Nut Bars
(adapted from Healthy Seasonal Recipes)

½ cup chopped walnuts
2 cups chopped pecans, divided
1 tbsp granulated sugar
¾ cup whole wheat flour
3 tbsp plus 1 tsp all-purpose flour, divided
½ tsp salt, divided
3 tsp ground cinnamon, divided
2 eggs, plus 1 egg yolk, divided
1/3 cup unsalted butter, melted and divided
3 tbsp vegetable oil
½ cup honey
1 tsp vinegar
1 tbsp pure vanilla extract
½ cup dried cranberries
½ cup dried blueberries
¼ cup cinnamon chips

 
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Coat an 8 x 8 baking dish with cooking spray.

For the crust:
Place ½ cup walnuts and sugar in a food processor fitted with steel blade attachment. Process until the walnuts are the consistency of rough meal. Add whole wheat flour, 3 tbsp all-purpose flour, ¼ teaspoon salt, and 1 tsp cinnamon and pulse until combined.

Stir together 1 egg yolk, 2 tablespoon melted butter, and oil in a small bowl.

With the food processor motor running, drizzle yolk mixture through the feed tube and process until mixture clumps together.

Turn mixture out into the prepared pan; spread evenly and press firmly into the bottom to form a crust. Prick all over with a fork and transfer to the oven. Bake, pressing down with the back of a fork only if it starts to puff, until dry and slightly golden along the edges, 13 to 15 minutes.

For the filling:
Meanwhile, whisk honey, vinegar, vanilla, the remaining ¼ teaspoon salt, the remaining 2 tsp cinnamon, the remaining 2 eggs and the remaining butter in a medium bowl, reserving ¼ cup of the honey mixture for topping. Add in ½ cup of chopped pecans. Stir in the dried fruit. Set aside.

For the topping:
Mix the reserved ¼ cup of honey mixture in a small bowl with the remaining 1½ cup of chopped pecans. Set aside.

Putting the bar together:
Remove the crust from the oven and reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees F. While the crust is hot, brush the remaining 1 tsp flour over the crust with a pastry brush to fill in any holes or cracks.

Spread the fruit and nut mixture in the baked crust. Arrange pecan topping over the top. Drizzle on any remaining honey mixture then evenly sprinkle on the cinnamon chips.

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until the center no longer jiggles when gently shaken, the top is lightly crackled, and the filling is set. Cool completely, at least 1 hour. Cut into 16 squares.

taste it and make it: cookies!

When I was back in San Diego, I used to work for this resort. At the resort, they had a little coffee shop that sold some fancy pastries and coffee drinks. I remember, I would stop by there every other day and get this big ass bakery cookie that they sold. It was a German chocolate flavored cookie that was just awesome!

What I liked about the cookie was that it had coconut flakes, pecans, and chocolate chips baked into the cookie itself. It sweet, compact, and had the taste of German chocolate cake but in cookie form. So, rather than buying the cookie at $3.50 every other day and the fact that I'm now living in Guam, I decided to look in the internet to see if I could recreate those delicious cookies.

The problem that I kept coming across was the fact that the cookies I found were either, filled, topped, had the wrong base, or had ingredients that I really didn't want in them (namely corn syrup). The closest recipe that I could find was this, which had a nice short ingredients list. Still...not what I wanted in the recipe. So I decided to do some experimenting.

Taking some pointers from this site, I decided to change the flour amounts. Since I definitely wanted a chewy cookie, I added an extra yolk to the recipe. I also took out the corn syrup as I didn't think that it needed it and bumped up the vanilla. While I normally love coconut, I thought that 2 1/4 cups seemed a bit excessive so that got cut too. Needless to say, this recipe got dissected, pulled apart, and brought back together again.

So what did I end up with? A fantastic cookie that was amazingly identical to the cookie I had from the resort's cafe! It was nice and chewy, nutty from the pecans, caramelly from the toasted coconut, and oh so chocolatey from the semi-sweet chocolate!

I packed a batch of this for my hubby to take to work and it was gone within minutes. Poor hubbs, he didn't even get to taste any. Luckily for him, there was a batch waiting for him when he got home. Now, whenever he wants to be a popular kid at work, his number one request is a batch of these German chocolate chip cookies. Please and thank you! ;D

German Chocolate Chip Cookies
(adapted from FabFood and Cook The TV!)

2 cups flaked sweetened coconut
1 1/2 cups chopped pecans
1 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup bread flour
1 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 tsp or so kosher salt
1/2 cup brown sugar, tightly packed
1/2 cup white sugar
3/4 cup butter, softened
1 large egg plus extra egg yolk
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1 pkg semi-sweet chocolate disks, chunks, or chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray cookie sheet with non-stick spray.

Toast the coconut and pecans on a large skillet, stirring occasionally, for 7 to 9 minutes, or until lightly browned. Be careful not to burn. Let stand until cool. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, thoroughly stir together the flours, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

In a large bowl, with an electric mixer on medium speed, beat together the sugars and butter until very well blended and light (do not over beat or else the cookie will not spread properly). Beat in the egg, extra yolk, and vanilla until well blended. Beat or stir in the flour mixture, then the pecans, coconut and chocolate, until evenly incorporated.

Drop the dough onto the baking sheets by heaping measuring tablespoons, spacing about 3 inches apart. Using the tip of a table knife (or your palm), spread out the cookies to about 1-1/2 inches in diameter.

Bake the cookies, one sheet at a time, in the upper third of the oven for 6 to 9 minutes, or until lightly browned all over and slightly darker at the edges. Leave cookies on baking sheet until completely cooled. Makes about 45 cookies.

persimmon schtick...

i'm in a persimmon schtick. having tried pudding last week, i thought i'd try my hand at making a quick bread this time around. this one was recently bookmarked on my pinterest board, despite it being two years old. i looked over the ingredients list this morning and decided to give it a shot.

man, i'm so glad i tried this recipe! it's nice and sweet and even though the whole thing is spiced with nutmeg (a spice i don't normally like), i found that it's used brilliantly in this bread! actually, the taste reminds me of eating pumpkin bread or christmas fruitcake. either way, this was fantastic and is a nice addition to the collection of seasonal recipes in my repertoire.

for this recipe, i did end up making a few changes (namely halving the recipe and swapping the liquor). i used overly ripe fuyu since i only had that on hand. i also changed out the whiskey for dark spiced rum...more my preference than necessity. didn't bother toasting the pecans too, i figured "recipe ready" was alright. also, did an almost 1:1 ratio of whole wheat and all-purpose flour. the result? it's got a nice nutty flavor, thanks to the pecans and whole wheat flour. the raisins and chopped dates stayed nice and evenly dispersed with the help of a flour coating. and the rum? well, rum makes everything all the more festive for this time of year! ;)

Persimmon Rum Bread
(adapted from Putney Farm)

1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1 cup white granulated sugar
1/2 cup melted unsalted butter, cooled
2 extra large or large eggs, lightly beaten
1/3 cup spiced dark rum
1 cup persimmon puree (i used 2 very ripe large fuyu persimmons)
1 cup pecans (i used the ones labeled "recipe ready")
1 cup or so dried fruit (i used a mix of chopped whole dates, golden raisins, and regular raisins)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour or line loaf pan with a piece of parchment paper.

Mix flour, baking soda, salt, nutmeg and sugar into a large mixing bowl. Reserve 1/4 cup of the flour mixture in a separate small bowl. Toss in the dried fruit in the reserved mixture, making sure to coat each piece well.

Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and then stir in the butter, eggs, liquor, persimmon puree, pecans and floured dried fruit (note: you want to add any leftover flour that the fruit was tossed in as well...waste not, want not!). Mix the batter just until combined (having little streaks of flour is okay...don't over mix).

Pour the batter into the loaf pan and then place the pan in the oven. Bake 1 hour or until toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Allow to cool completely in the pan before serving.