Elvis's Favorite Pound Cake

Elvis knew a lot about music and drugs and food and guns.  But the only one of those that I care about right now is the food.  Elvis loved his pound cake.  This is a perfectly velvet-y, rich but fluffy pound cake that would be perfect for any kind of party or get together.  I never make any other kind of pound cake, ever.  This one never fails me and it can be dressed up any way you like.  Everyone at our house sneaks into the kitchen for a sniggle.

Elvis's Favorite Pound Cake

• 3 cups of sugar
• 1 cup of butter, softened
• 8 eggs, room temperature
• 3 cups of cake flour, sifted twice
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions:

1.  Butter and flour a 10 inch tube or bundt pan. Thoroughly cream together sugar and butter for about 5 minutes, until fluffy. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Mix in half the flour, then the whipping cream, then the other half of the flour. Add Vanilla. Pour into prepared pan. Set in COLD oven and turn heat to 350ºF.  Bake 1 hour to 70 minutes, until a sharp knife inserted in cake turns out clean.  Cool in pan 5 minutes.  Remove from pan and cool thoroughly.
2. Wrapped well, this cake will keep for several days. Note: while the original recipe did not suggest this, when I'm in the mood for something different I will add a teaspoon or two of orange or lemon extract.  Serve with fresh fruit or berries and whipped cream or mix 1/4 cup of milk or cream into 1 cup of confectioners sugar mix until desired thickness for glaze.  Pour glaze over the top of cooled pound cake, let set.  

Chicken & White Bean Chili and Herb Focaccia

This post will be a departure from the previous ones because I will be doing a lovely soup and focaccia bread.  Here in Seattle, we have gotten about 4-5 inches of snow and we are expecting more overnight.  In our house, the Fall and Winter seasons are about soup and since we are "snowed in" (by Seattle standards) I thought a spicy Mexican chili with chicken, tomatillo's, garlic and cumin would warm up anyone.  Then, I love this no-fail focaccia bread.  It is perfect for soup, sandwiches or a lovely one-eyed-sailor breakfast.

Chicken and White Bean Chili

7 medium-large chicken thighs (baked)
32 ounces of chicken stock
3  18 ounce cans of tomatillos (diced or whole)
2  12 ounce cans of stewed tomatoes
10 cloves of garlic
1 can of diced green chiles
1 jalapeno diced, seeds and membrane removed(more or less depending on preference)
1 large onion
2 teaspoons of ground cumin
1 teaspoon of chili powder
2 teaspoons salt
1 can of white or cannalini beans

Bake chicken thighs for 45 minutes, set aside to cool about 30 minutes.
Heat large soup pot over medium heat with 1 tablespoon olive oil. Dice onion, tomatillos, green chiles and jalapeno, add to soup pot, stir to combine and add salt. As this cooks stir it occasionally, about 10 minutes.  Add cumin, chili powder and chicken stock, stir.
Add cooked chicken meat, stewed tomatoes and garlic cloves (whole).  Cook for 1 hour on low, stirring occasionally, making sure nothing sticks to bottom of pot.
Add beans, stir.  Cook another hour on low.  Enjoy with this incredible focaccia....

Herbed Focaccia

1 packet dry active yeast
1  3/4 cup warm water
1 Tablespoon raw or brown sugar, honey or regular sugar
5 cups all purpose flour
1 cup olive oil (separated)
garlic powder, ground cumin or any other herbs and a pinch of salt (all optional)

Add sugar or honey to a large mixing bowl (stand mixer with dough hook recommended), add yeast and warm water place this bowl somewhere warm and wait about 15 minutes until yeast is bubbly and aromatic.
Add flour slowly, one cup at a time alternating with 1/2 of the olive oil until dough is smooth and no longer clings to the side of the bowl.
The other 1/2 of the olive oil will be used on the bottom of a jelly roll or sheet pan.  This is a lot of olive oil but this bread is an olive oil bread and it helps to flavor it and brown this bread gorgeously.  Oil sheet pan now. Remove dough from bowl, coat mixing bowl with a thin coat of olive oil and return dough to bowl making sure to oil all sides of dough. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise for about an hour or until doubled in size.
Punch down dough and remove from bowl and place onto oiled sheet pan.  Stretch dough to fit size of pan, then poke holes into the dough with your fingers all over and drizzle with olive oil.  Cover and let rise for another hour.  Sprinkle with herbs.
Preheat oven to 400'.
Bake for about 20 minutes or until golden brown and bubbly.

Love!

Strawberry Pate De Fruit

Strawberry Pate De Fruit.  Simple ingredients. Simple instructions. Beautiful results.

These are the very popular little gems of jellied fruit that in any French boulangerie or confiserie you will find crusted with fine sugar.  They are the much better version of our "gum drops" (or those gummy orange slices) they have an amazingly smooth texture and pure fruit tang.
I confess that I was drawn to the romantic idea of making these beautiful little candies because, well, they are gorgeous and secondly, just to see if I could. But, after the process of making these, I'm totally hooked because the end result is visually stunning and so darn yummy.  So many people describe these as tasting like concentrated jelly, and that is exactly what they are, but the taste transcends ordinary jelly.
Recipes that I found on-line are difficult or confusing because the ingredient measurements are sometimes in grams or ounces or they just don't match up to what you have.  Next time I will use liquid pectin as it is supposed to work a little better and faster.

This is what I did.
First, prepare a sheet pan or casserole dish by either spraying with PAM or lining with Silpat or parchment paper.  Get your candy thermometer, silicone whisk, heavy bottomed sauce pan, and silicone spatula and ingredients ready.  Also, wear long sleeves while making this, the bubbling molten fruit will spit at you regularly.

2 pounds fresh or frozen fruit
1 cup light corn syrup
5 1/2 cups of sugar (and more for coating finished candy)
1- 2 ounce box Powdered Pectin (I used MCP from Sure Jell)
I bought frozen strawberries (2 pounds) and defrosted them, and processed them into a smooth puree in my food processor, you can also use a blender.  I chose strawberries because I knew I wouldn't have to strain the seeds out, but if you choose blackberries, raspberries or any other fruit that has seeds, you need to strain those out.

I then put all of the puree into a large, heavy bottomed sauce pan (I picked one that I use for boiling large amounts of pasta) and turned the heat on medium.  With a silicone whisk I stirred in 5 cups of sugar to the puree until the sugar was dissolved.  Once the puree was beginning to bubble, I mixed 3 tablespoons of powdered pectin with 1/2 cup of sugar (mixing the pectin with sugar will help stop the pectin from clumping in your puree) and once the puree was good and bubbly I slowly sprinkled in the sugar/pectin and again used my whisk to combine.  At this point stir, stir, stir and get used to it.  Clip on a candy thermometer to your sauce pan.
You will then add the corn syrup.  One cup of light corn syrup.  Stir.  Watch the temperature of your puree, you don't want to burn it, so keep the heat at medium and keep stirring.   You might be tempted to turn the heat up to hurry the process along, but really you want to take your time and be patient, it is worth it.
At this point all you have to do is watch your temperature and stir, for a while.  Mine took about an hour to get to the thickness and temperature required.  The temperature you need to reach is 223', and you'll think hey, "I'm almost there...my temperature is 220"...hold on there skippy!  It may take a half hour to an hour to reach 223' so I suggest getting a bar stool to sit on.  :)
Once 223' has been reached, add 2 Tablespoons of lemon or lime juice and stir. This is an important and critical step.  The citric acid helps to "set up" or "jell" your puree.
Then, let the mixture come to a boil again for another minute or two.
Ok. You are almost done.  Carefully pour your thick puree into your prepared pan.  Let cool for about 5-10 minutes and sprinkle the top with a bit of sugar.  Now leave it on your counter to cool and set completely, which can take a couple of hours to overnight.

Then cut with a sharp knife or small cookie cutters into the shapes desired.  Coat with sugar.  These will last if stored in a cool, dry airtight containers for up to 6 months!!  If the candies "sweat" just coat them with sugar again.  These make great little gifts because they are so unexpected and so pretty, especially if you make several flavors.

I probably won't be making these again.  They were way too sweet for me, they gave me the hee-bee-jee-bees, they are not my favorite.  At least they were pretty.

I was asked by a lovely friend to add a Florentine Cookie recipe to my blog...so here it is.

Florentine cookies are a crisp, thin Italian cookie made normally with fruit and nuts.  This "cookie" is different because it starts out more like a batter than a traditional cookie dough.  The Florentine is like no other, it is lacy and thin, crunchy, buttery and if you drizzle chocolate on them, they will be irresistible to mammals. You can let them cool flat or roll them up like cannoli's (this is done while they are hot) even use them as cannoli's or sandwich flat cookies together with a dollop of melted chocolate.  There will be broken cookies...yes you will be astonished at how many you will inevitably destroy-even when you are being careful...(the good news is that one batch makes plenty of cookies.)  But, hey that's ok, you can use the delicious "crumbs" on top of ice cream, pudding, yogurt, cottage cheese, in or on cakes and cupcakes or you can use them to add crunch to your french toast...the crumbs are too good to throw out.

Ok. Lets get started.  Hopefully you have a small (size 100) ice cream/server scoop, or one smaller than a (huge) standard ice cream scoop, if not just use a 1/2 tablespoon per scoop of batter.

You will need:
1 3/4 cup nuts, any kind
3/4 cup dried fruit, any kind
1 orange (for 2 Tablespoons of zest)
3 Tablespoons of all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon of fine salt
3/4 cup sugar
2 Tablespoons heavy cream
1 Tablespoon corn syrup
5 Tablespoons butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Chocolate Topping Optional
4-5 ounces of semi-sweet or milk chocolate chips melted for 30 seconds at a time until just melted.

Position rack in center of oven. Preheat oven to 350'.  Line a baking sheet with a Silpat mat or parchment paper.

Pulse nuts and dried fruit in food processor until finely chopped but not pasty.  Stir together the nut/fruit mixture with the flour, zest and salt in a large bowl.
In a small saucepan, put the cream, sugar, corn syrup and butter together and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally until this comes to a rolling boil.  Continue to boil for one more minute, remove from heat and add vanilla, stir.
Stir the hot sugar and butter mixture over the nuts/fruit/flour mixture and stir to combine. Set this aside to cool for about 30 minutes.
Scoop small rounds of batter onto your prepared pan, keeping 3-4 inches between each cookie as they spread while baking.
Bake one pan at a time for 10-11 minutes.  Rotate pan halfway through baking.
To make rolled up cookies, wait to quickly hand roll each one 1-2 minutes after cookies are out of the oven.  Be warned, if you want to make rolled cookies you have to work quickly to get all of the cookies done before they cool too much and because they are very hot and it can hurt.
Otherwise, let cool for 5 minutes on the cookie sheet, remove to wire cooling rack.  Drizzle with chocolate if desired.  You can also dip one or both ends of rolled cookies in melted chocolate.  Let chocolate cool and set up.

To store these cookies is another thing.  If left out they will get sticky and lose their crispy-ness.  I suggest storing them in airtight containers with parchment paper between each cookie.

Honey Sesame Pastelli
I have always loved these candies, but once you make your own, you will never eat another store bought Honey Sesame Candy again.
These are a Greek sweet treat, simple and nutritious, but you don't even think about the nutrition because you are stopped cold by the lovely rich caramel-y honey, the hint of orange and the toasted sesame seeds...
These are traditionally made for Greek celebrations, especially weddings.  Honey and sesame are both symbols of fertility, so they are offered to the bride after the wedding ceremony.  I thought that since Valentines Day is a romantic holiday this treat would be perfect.

Honey Sesame Pastelli

2 cups of sesame seeds
1 1/3 cup good honey
1-2 teaspoons of orange zest (1-2 small oranges)
1 teaspoon good vanilla (optional)

Prepare a sheet pan sprayed with PAM, or lined with parchment paper or Silpat with no oil.
I add about 2 ounces of black sesame seeds just for a speckled look, but this is optional. Cook the honey, orange zest and sesame seeds together gently stirring over medium heat, until the mixture is golden brown and you can slowly start to smell the toasting of the seeds.

Keep stirring every couple of minutes, scraping the sides of the pan often. When soft crack stage (280') is reached, remove from heat, add vanilla if desired and pour into sheet pan.

After it cools for at least 10 minutes, you can roll candy with rolling pin to flatten uniformly. Allow to cool completely. Cut into squares or other desired shapes.  Wrap with parchment or wax paper.

These are commercially made with white sugar which takes the texture to a hard, crunchy, very sugary candy.  This authentic version is a softer, chewier, pure honey treat.
Simple. Magical.

I've also decided on my other Valentine Candy.  I'm doing 4 different kinds.  Honeycomb Brulee (of course!), Homemade Conversation Hearts, Honey Sesame Pastelli and Gourmet Fruit Jellies. My Fruit Jellies will be in several flavors...so far I'm doing Strawberry/Champagne, Pomegranate Blueberry, Honey Key Lime & Apple-Honey-Jalapeno.  More flavors are being concocted in my head still...I'd like to have about 7 flavors, but I'll settle for 5.  :)

While I love making Honeycomb Brulee, the weather is not cooperating.  Tons of Rain.  So, instead, I'm going to start my quality control tests for Valentine candy making a bit early.  Then, I'll return to my true obsession...mastering Honeycomb Brulee.

I'm making 2 candies so far for sure:

Homemade Conversation Hearts
                    &
Honey Sesame Snaps

I'm excited because while I'm not a big fan of the taste or texture of "store bought" conversation hearts. But, I love the idea of them and I love a challenge to make their texture enjoyable and the taste way better.  I'm not too sure that is a difficult challenge given the store bought chalk that they call "candy".   The flavors I have chosen for my conversation hearts are:
Grape
Wild Raspberry
Marshmallow
Cinnamon
But, that's next week...

Tomorrow I'll  be making the Honey Sesame Snaps.  These are a Greek delight.  So good.  Finding bulk sesame seeds and pure honey for a reasonable price is not easy.  But, once you make these little gorgeous, satisfying, golden treats...you will want them around all the time.  Great snack for adults and kids...nutritious candy!! See you tomorrow.  <3

Yes. Another batch of Honeycomb Brulee, this time with rose essential oil (about 4 drops).  The weather is cooperating today so I figured I'd give it a try, since all of our Honeycomb candy was eaten and my husband was hoping for more.  Because of the rose essential oil and honey together, the kitchen smells impossibly floral and glorious.  This batch came out beautifully so far, puffy, golden and bubbly just how it's supposed to.  What I'm hoping for flavor wise is a very delicate rose aroma/taste that compliments the floral of the honey. Texture is super important here.  You don't want deflated Honeycomb candy because then you might as well just make honey hard candy (which by the way, is really, really good). The bubbles are what makes this candy.  The structural integrity of those bubbles are solely your responsibility.  Too much stirring and you kill off all the baking soda's magic, stir too little and you get gross clumps of baking soda in your not-so-bubbly candy. The most important step in making this candy is the ability to just walk out of the kitchen (for about an hour) after you pour the bubbly mess into a prepared pan.  Touching it, moving it, bumping it, washing dishes next to it...all of these things will destroy all of your hard work.  Just walk away.

I also learned a big lesson with this particular candy.  Honey scorches at high temperatures so I never turn my stove up past 8...or "medium-high".  This is a candy that may need a quick stir from time to time while it boils...this is hard for me because I'm conditioned not to stir boiling candy because this can cause the sugar to "seize".  This candy needs a stir every 5 minutes to make sure the honey isn't scorching on the bottom of your pan.

After an hour go ahead and lift up one edge and break it with your hands or you can use a knife.  Eating this candy is crazy addictive.  The texture keeps you coming back for more.

I just broke up this batch into smaller, bite sized pieces.  Pretty good.  Unfortunately, I have made this candy at least 20 times and at least half of the batches have failed to bubble up as I want.  I'll try again...maybe in an hour or so...

Honeycomb Brulee

La Lune De Miel

After a 2 month obsession with lollipops and hard candies, I have rediscovered my love of making and eating honeycomb candy.  If you have ever had a Violet Crumble candy bar, then you have had honeycomb.  But, until I made Honeycomb Brulee myself I did not know the magic and delight that this candy brings to anyone you share it with. This recipe is basically like making hard candy with the main and only real flavoring being honey.  Then, the step that puts this candy in it's own category...adding the baking soda.  The baking soda makes the hot molten candy syrup bubble and foam up & lighten in color as you stir.  It's exciting, a bit scary and addictive to make (and eat).

I LOVE HONEY.  It has been my dark, secret love since early childhood.  I would drool at the sight of a honey bear or the smell of honey.  I put honey on toast, cereal, desserts peanut butter sammiches and in tea and on a spoon in my mouth.  Honeycomb Brulee combines my love of honey and a texture that is so surprising and satisfying.  This candy is kind of high maintenance because of several steps.  BTW: This recipe won't work well on rainy days.
First, to make real quality hard candy you need a good candy/deep fry thermometer, this isn't an option to me.  There are ways to "test" your molten candy for stages but the whole process is much less stressful with the right tools.  A good thermometer will cost about $20 or less.
Second, quality shows in the end product.  Like this recipe for example, a high quality honey is a must.  Orange blossom honey is my favorite.  But, always buy Grade A real honey...check that there are no fillers like high fructose corn syrup, yuck.
Third and Lastly, when the baking soda is added the molten candy will bubble up to sometimes 4 times it's volume.  This is what you want, but this is a critical step because you have to work fast to stir in the baking soda completely.  You have to stir continuously do not start & stop stirring during this step.  Then you quickly have to pour the bubbly mess out into a sheet pan or jelly roll pan.  Do not spread the candy out, in fact don't touch it!!  Pour and walk away.
This is where the magic happens.  As the candy cools, the bubbles harden and are structurally sound, but when the candy is still hot, freshly poured out onto the Silpat, it will quickly deflate if it is bumped or touched. That's why this recipe is best done with a friend.  Not only is this a fun recipe to do with someone you love, but they can help you hold the heavy pan as you pour out the hot bubbly candy and dip the broken up candies in chocolate. The best part is that you can add other flavors to infuse delicate flavors to compliment the floral honey, we love lavender and rose.

Ingredients

2 cups of sugar
1 cup water (for lavender/rose use 2-4 drops of essential oil or 1/2 cup rose water)
1/4 cup honey
1/2 cup corn syrup
3 1/2 teaspoons baking soda


Prepare a sheet pan or casserole dish with aluminum foil and spray the foil with Pam, or if you have a silicone baking sheet you can use that and forgo the oil.
Combine sugar, water, honey and corn syrup in a large, heavy-bottomed saucepan, stir until no dry sugar remains...(I use a saucepan that I boil larger amounts of pasta in.) Boil this mixture on medium high heat with candy thermometer clipped to side of pan and into your candy mixture. Honey can burn at high temperatures so watch this candy syrup at all times.  The temperature of the candy is really determined by the water evaporation...so to avoid burnt honey I usually don't go too high on temperature.
You will be boiling the candy mixture to 300' or the "hard crack" stage.
Once this temperature is reached, remove from heat, grab a large spoon/spatula/whisk and sprinkle in the baking soda into the hot candy syrup.  Be very careful.  The candy will violently bubble as you stir, this is normal.  Like I said, do not start then stop then start stirring...this will kill your bubbles.
Ok, done stirring?  Quickly pour your bubbly molten candy out onto your prepared pan, do not spread out candy.  Walk away from kitchen for about an hour.  Don't touch, bump or move the candy. When you come back, you will have a gorgeous, (although rustic and not uniform) puffy mass of candy.  Lift up one corner, break with hands or you can break it with a knife.
After breaking into bite sized pieces, dip into melted chocolate and let chocolate set up.  If you don't opt for chocolate, then immediately store candy in zip top bags and place those bags inside an airtight container.  After chocolate is set up, store as undipped candy. This candy will absorb moisture quickly from the air and it will turn to goo in an hour or two.  You can't be too careful about the storage of this candy, it will be highly prized at your house if you make it correctly so storage and shelf life are important.  I found that if stored properly, Honeycomb Brulee will last about 10-14 days.  But, it doesn't last that long, ever.

I hope you decide to make this candy.  It is well worth the work.  I bring this candy to parties and give it at Christmas, and the response is consistently stunned amazement. I always have crazy, addicted Honeycomb junkies asking for more.