Bailey's Caramel Fudge

This fudge is soooooo creamy !!!

I wanted a Bailey's fudge that had cream in it.  Couldn't find one, so I worked with a few recipes and came up with this.  Fiddled with the creams and added caramel spread just for fun!

2 cups brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
1/4 cup 35% cream
1/4 cup milk
1/2 cup 10% coffee cream
1/4 cup Bailey's Irish Cream Liquor (plus 2 Tbsps. for later)
2 Tbsp. Log Cabin Syrup
2 Tbsp. caramel spread
2 Tbsp. butter

Butter a piece of foil, then line an 8 X 8 pan with it.  (Easier to butter the foil first)
Mix all the ingredients in a pot and cook to boiling.  Use a good sized pot so you don't boil over. Boil until it reaches 238F on a candy thermometer (softball). Remove from heat and cool to 120F.  Do not stir.  You really need to use the candy thermometer, guessing doesn't work.
Add 2 more Tbsp. of Bailey's then beat until it loses the glossy sheen.  I actually took the pot outside (in the winter) to beat it.  It started thickening pretty quickly.
Pour into the 8 X 8 pan to set.

Really......let it set.  Don't be tempted to eat it with a spoon because it will set and make lovely squares. 
Hope you like it.

This is our friend, Bayley.  No relation to Baileys : )

Souped-Up Skillet Pasta

This was one of the first recipes I ever made when I was a newlywed.  And we made it like this for years.
The other day I wanted to make it, but discovered that I didn't have any ground beef in the freezer.  So I tried it with hot Italian sausage.  This might be better than the original!

Just slice the sausage into chunks and brown.  Follow the rest of the recipe as is.  I used 1 cup of penne rigate this time.

Colorful Swirl Cookies

I found this recipe here:
http://ouritaliankitchen.blogspot.ca/2010/12/colorful-swirl-cookies.html


and it was as easy as they said it would be.  When I got to the part where you had to lift one sheet of dough up and put it on the other, I thought it would be a problem.  But chilling the dough made it stiff enough to just pick it up. Easy peasy.

Makes36

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2/3 cup unsifted powdered sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 1/2 sticks (1 1/4 cups) unsalted butter (cut in chunks)
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp of food coloring of your choice(and/or 1/2 tsp of any desired extra extracts)
1 1/2 cup holiday sprinkles

1. In a stand mixer, combine flour, baking powder, salt, and sugars with paddle on medium until well blended.

2. Add butter in, gradually, and continue mixing. Add in vanilla extract. At this point, your dough will form a ball on your paddle.

3. Remove all your dough and divide into two equal parts. Return one portion back in to the mixer and add the food coloring and any extra extracts. I used Wilton gel food coloring in leaf green and vanilla extract for this batch. You could coordinate your colors and flavors, for example green food coloring matched with a mint extract or yellow with a lemon extract, etc. Also, if you are using liquid food coloring, you will need to add a few tbsp of flour to keep the dough from becoming too wet. Mix until the color is spread out evenly.

4. Roll out each portions of your dough, between two sheets a wax paper until is reaches about 11 x 9 inches and is 1/4 inch thick. Slide both unto a cookie sheet and chill in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours.

5. When firm, remove the top sheets of wax paper from both. Brush the uncolored vanilla dough lightly with water using a pastry brush. Then flip the colored dough onto the vanilla uncolored dough so they are stacked atop each other and even. Press the edges lightly with your fingertips to seal them together. Using a small pairing knife, trim the edges of the dough to make straight, even lines.

6. Pour out sprinkles onto a large platter and set aside. Be sure your dough is still cold, but flexible. Once it's ready, begin rolling the long side of dough into a swirl, jelly-roll style. Now, don't get nervous if the outer layer of uncolored dough tears a bit. It's no problem, just pinch and pat those tears and voila, then just keep rolling.

7. Now gently lift your dough log onto the sprinkles and roll away. Cover the log completely with your sprinkles. Wrap the colorfully decorated log in plastic wrap twice. Depending on when you want to bake the cookies, either place the wrapped dough into refrigerator for about 3-4 hours or you can put it the freezer and keep it there for up to 2 months. (If freezing, give yourself time for the dough to defrost in the fridge overnight before cutting.)

8. Slice your dough into 1/4-1/8 inch slices and bake on parchment lined baking sheets. Bake at 350 for 15-17 minutes until edges are slightly golden. Let the cookies rest on the baking sheet for about 5 minutes, then move them to a cookie rack to finish cooling.

Roll them up, then roll in sprinkles, slice and bake!

Next time I'm going to add chocolate to a layer.

Here's another tasty swirl cookie
http://hotandcoldrunningmom.blogspot.ca/2015/12/cinnamon-roll-cookies.html

Salted Caramel Bark

You don't need many ingredients for this recipe.

6 squares of white Baker's chocolate
1 tsp. coconut oil
some chocolate to melt
some salted caramel bits to sprinkle

Melt the white chocolate along with the coconut oil in a double boiler.

Pour into a buttered foil-lined tray.  This was an 8 X 8.
Spread out the melted chocolate.  (Not too thin)  I should have doubled this recipe.
Pop it in the fridge to set.

 In the meantime melt a bit of chocolate in a ziplok bag in a bowl of warm water.  Snip the corner of the bag off and drizzle over white chocolate.

Sprinkle salted caramel bits (from Bulk Barn) over top, tap a little to press on and set in fridge before breaking into pieces. Ya, really should have doubled this recipe.

Meat Pie (Tourtière à la Québecoise)

This is an adaptation of the tourtière recipe in my tattered old (read well used and loved) Five Roses cookbook.

1 Double Crust Pastry
1 1b. (total) ground veal, pork and beef
1  medium onion, minced
1/4 cup water
3/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1/8 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp savory
1/4 cup apple juice
1/4 cup bread crumbs

Prepare pastry and set aside. Combine all ingredients together in a saucepan.  Cook over medium heat just until meat has lost its pink colour, but is still moist, check seasonings.  Cool and place mixture into uncooked pie shell.  Cover with top crust and seal.

Bake in 425F oven for 25 minutes until browned.

Baked tourtière may be frozen.  

Sour Cream Sugar Cookies

Sour Cream Sugar Cookies (from http://www.simplysogood.com )
Makes about 2 dozen cookies

1 cup butter, softened

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

½ teaspoon vanilla

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoons baking powder

½ cup sour cream

3 cups flour

In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter and sugar. Beat for about 3 minutes. Add eggs and vanilla. Beat for another 3 minutes. Sift together baking soda, salt, baking powder and flour. Add alternately with sour cream in three additions. Cover dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.

When ready to use, remove dough from refrigerator and divide into fourths. Roll dough to ¼-inch thickness. Using a cookie cutter, cut into desired shapes. The dough is very easy to handle. Bake in a preheated 375 degree oven for 8-10 minutes or until just barely beginning to brown around the edges. 

Glaze:

1 cup icing sugar

1 tbsp. & 1 tsp. water

1/4 tsp vanilla

Mix together, glaze the cookies and let it set well.  You will probably need to make a second batch of glaze to do all these cookie, but wait until you need it, don't double as the glaze will start to harden before you can use it all.

(Please see note at the end)

Then take some food colouring and add to small amounts of the glaze.  If you use liquid colour you will have to add a little more icing sugar.  Put some in a ziplok bag and cut a small hole in the corner.   Decorate to your heart's content.

Here are some dreidel cookies too.

NOTE: Oops!  I think I didn't let the white glaze set well enough before putting the coloured glaze on top.  The cookies looked like this a couple of days after making them   : (  

Christmas Shortbread Cookies

Shortbread Cookies that Grandma and Nana made every Christmas. 














 1/2 cup corn starch
 1/2 cup icing sugar
 1 cup flour
 1 cup butter
 Glazed cherries cut in half 

Makes 3-4 dozen cookies

Sift together dry ingredients. Blend in room temp butter with pastry knife until soft dough forms. See room temp butter post here if your butter is still cold 

http://hotandcoldrunningmom.blogspot.ca/2016/12/room-temperature-butter.html

Shape into 1 inch balls. Place on ungreased pan. You can use parchment paper for quicker clean-up, but it's not necessary with these. Press down with fork, add glazed cherries.

Bake at 300F  16 - 18 mins. 

Wouldn't be Christmas without them! I always double the recipe.

You could have a good movie playing in the background while you bake  : ) 

This was the original way we put the cherries on. Did it for years this way.

but this year I saw someone on Pinterest who put the cherries on their cookies like, well duh, a cherry!

And then of course you might have someone who doesn't like cherries.  That's OK.  Flatten the cookies, then dip in sprinkles.  Use a floured straw to press out a hole.  Blow the bit of dough out the end of the straw.  When they come out of the oven just press the straw in the hole again.  

Cute eh?  They look like mini sprinkle doughnuts.

MERRY CHRISTMAS !

You might also like:

http://hotandcoldrunningmom.blogspot.ca/2014/12/scottish-shortbread.html

http://hotandcoldrunningmom.blogspot.ca/2014/08/earl-grey-and-orange-shortbread.html