Yes, so I decided to try out this fad of chocolate and bacon combo in my cupcakes. Being a bit wary of how it would turn out, I cut down the recipe in half and modified it slightly (recipe based on Dark Chocolate Bacon Cupcakes). Hey, just because people rave about this, doesn't mean it'll actually be good...although how could anyone not love bacon? hehe
Ingredients: - makes 24 mini cupcakes
1 cup all purpose flour
1/3 cup unsweetened chocolate chips (more if you want the chocolate to stand out)
3/4-1 cup sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp sea salt
1 egg
1/2 cup brewed strong coffee
1/2 cup buttermilk (or 1/2 cup milk with 1 1/2 tsp vinegar)
1/4 cup bacon fat**
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
**if you use chopped up bacon instead, substitute bacon fat with butter or vegetable oil
Preheat oven to 375F.
In a sauce pan, combine hot coffee and chocolate and place over low heat on the stove. Whisk until smooth.
In a large bowl, mix bacon fat and sugar until smooth - add the egg and mix thoroughly. Add buttermilk and vanilla extract.
In another bowl, combine the rest of the dry ingredients. Pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients slowly as you mix. Once blended, spoon the batter into prepared mini muffin pan.
Bake for about 20 min or until toothpick comes out clean. Turn off oven and let pan sit in oven for about 5 min then remove and let the pan set over a wire rack to cool.
Frost with chocolate icing or any other icing of your choice.
RESULT:
light and fluffy cupcakes and was actually better than expected. Has this salty/sweet combo - can't really taste the bacon unless you know it's there. All in all, good experiment and comments were good :)
Monday, February 27, 2012
Friday, January 27, 2012
Recap of Florida
Finally found the time to recap a bit about our Florida trip. First thing - I can totally see why snowbirds go there during the winter. I fell in love with the weather - the perfect temperature for me...not too hot and not too cold (in the low to mid 20s).
The remainder of our trip was going to Sunrise to watch the Panthers and to Tampa to watch the Lightnings. A few highlights - playing mini golf at a wicked course, driving along the coast to Sunrise from Cape Canarval, seeing the Everglades, checking out Palm Beach (total balling area), eating at small restaurants with good reviews from urbanspoon and of course the Canucks games.
The Canucks games were fun. Observations - Panthers arena atmosphere is kind of boring...made the game uninteresting (didn't help that the Canucks were playing poorly). The upside: about 1/4 of the fans were Canucks fans but still a ton of empty seats. Lightnings arena was another story. Very electric and filled with excitement. The fans there are quite die-hard there. The area where we sat had the whole row of Canucks fans with an exception of one older couple who sat next to us. The man was fun to chat with as he pointed out some new additions to the hockey rink (e.g. the organ). We saw Stamkos get smoked by Edler in front of us and missed Kesler's goal as we watched Stamkos struggle to get up. LOL. I think this will be the closest I'll ever be to watching the Canucks play live. And to think that the tickets for both games plus flight would probably cost about the same price as 1 ticket watching the Canucks play at home.
All in all, it was a great trip and would love to go back again.
The main purpose of this trip - a mini Canucks road trip and I guess something minor like hubby's 30th birthday. Usually the main attraction for a Florida trip is to enjoy the theme parks there. Not us - didn't have the time (5 days) and I'm not much of a rides person anyways. We did Disneyland not even 2 years ago so it was something I didn't mind skipping.
We ended spending one day doing massive outlet shopping around the Orlando area. I LOVE shopping but after walking through 2 outlet malls, I was pretty shopped out *gasp*. The great thing about going to Florida during the winter time when essentially it's quite warm there...winter clothes are dirt cheap! We both were able to score nice wool jackets for less than $30 (mine was less than $15). That definitely made the deal queen happy.
The following day we went to Kennedy Space Centre. I thought it was pretty cool there! Lots to see and learn. Funny thing - so hubby was wearing Canucks Jersey and this employee walks up to us. He asked if we were really from Vancouver, when we said yes, he told us he used to live in Montreal. Said his last name is LaFleur and that one of his cousin plays in the NHL. We kind of looked at him trying to figure out who his cousin would be...and he asked if we heard of Lafleur (which we have of course) but we couldn't think of a current hockey player with that last name. Then he told us that Bobby Ryan is his younger cousin. He asked hubby if he could skate and hubby replied yes but definitely not as well as Ryan. And the employee told hubby not to worry since Ryan used to be fat and was not good.......I can't remember much about the rest of the conversation but it was definitely interesting.
The remainder of our trip was going to Sunrise to watch the Panthers and to Tampa to watch the Lightnings. A few highlights - playing mini golf at a wicked course, driving along the coast to Sunrise from Cape Canarval, seeing the Everglades, checking out Palm Beach (total balling area), eating at small restaurants with good reviews from urbanspoon and of course the Canucks games.
The Canucks games were fun. Observations - Panthers arena atmosphere is kind of boring...made the game uninteresting (didn't help that the Canucks were playing poorly). The upside: about 1/4 of the fans were Canucks fans but still a ton of empty seats. Lightnings arena was another story. Very electric and filled with excitement. The fans there are quite die-hard there. The area where we sat had the whole row of Canucks fans with an exception of one older couple who sat next to us. The man was fun to chat with as he pointed out some new additions to the hockey rink (e.g. the organ). We saw Stamkos get smoked by Edler in front of us and missed Kesler's goal as we watched Stamkos struggle to get up. LOL. I think this will be the closest I'll ever be to watching the Canucks play live. And to think that the tickets for both games plus flight would probably cost about the same price as 1 ticket watching the Canucks play at home.
All in all, it was a great trip and would love to go back again.
Sunday, December 18, 2011
Gingerbread Cookies
What's Christmas without gingerbread cookies? I bought cookies cutters a couple months ago but haven't had the chance to use them...now I can! Unfortunately I didn't buy or make icing so these cookies are just plain ones.
Ingredients:
2 cups all purpose flour (and extra for rolling)
2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup unsalted butter (1 stick), room temperature
1/3 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/3 cup molasses
1 large egg
In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, spices, baking soda, salt and baking powder and sent aside. In large bowl, beat butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in molasses and egg. With the mixer on low, mix in the flour mixture just until dough forms. Cover and chill for at least an hour.
Preheat oven to 350F. Divide the dough in half so it's easier to work with. Place one half back in the fridge while working with the other half. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to about 1/4 inch thickness and use cookie cutters to cut out the shapes. Place the cut out cookies on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake in the preheated oven for about 10 min or until firm and edges slightly darkened. Cool on baking sheet for a few minutes and then transfer to wire racks.
**THOUGHTS** make sure you don't roll out the dough too thin - my first batch was too thin and it kind of burnt. So if your dough is thin, bake for a shorter time period
Ingredients:
2 cups all purpose flour (and extra for rolling)
2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup unsalted butter (1 stick), room temperature
1/3 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/3 cup molasses
1 large egg
In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, spices, baking soda, salt and baking powder and sent aside. In large bowl, beat butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in molasses and egg. With the mixer on low, mix in the flour mixture just until dough forms. Cover and chill for at least an hour.
Preheat oven to 350F. Divide the dough in half so it's easier to work with. Place one half back in the fridge while working with the other half. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to about 1/4 inch thickness and use cookie cutters to cut out the shapes. Place the cut out cookies on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake in the preheated oven for about 10 min or until firm and edges slightly darkened. Cool on baking sheet for a few minutes and then transfer to wire racks.
**THOUGHTS** make sure you don't roll out the dough too thin - my first batch was too thin and it kind of burnt. So if your dough is thin, bake for a shorter time period
Saturday, December 17, 2011
Peppermint Bark
This is probably the easiest Christmas recipe out there with the fewest ingredients needed :)
Ingredients:
bag of dark chocolate chunks
bag of white chocolate chunks
approx 1/2-3/4 cup crushed candy cane
peppermint hot chocolate powder (optional)
Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
Melt dark chocolate in a bowl and mix in the peppermint hot chocolate powder. Pour the melted chocolate over the parchment paper on the cookie sheet and cool in fridge for about 10 min. Melt white chocolate in another bowl and pour over cooled dark chocolate on cookie sheet. Sprinkle crushed candy cane over the white chocolate and place the cookie sheet in the fridge to cool and harden. Once hardened, remove cookie sheet from fridge and break the chocolate into irregular pieces. Store pieces in a container in the fridge.
Ingredients:
bag of dark chocolate chunks
bag of white chocolate chunks
approx 1/2-3/4 cup crushed candy cane
peppermint hot chocolate powder (optional)
Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
Melt dark chocolate in a bowl and mix in the peppermint hot chocolate powder. Pour the melted chocolate over the parchment paper on the cookie sheet and cool in fridge for about 10 min. Melt white chocolate in another bowl and pour over cooled dark chocolate on cookie sheet. Sprinkle crushed candy cane over the white chocolate and place the cookie sheet in the fridge to cool and harden. Once hardened, remove cookie sheet from fridge and break the chocolate into irregular pieces. Store pieces in a container in the fridge.
Friday, December 16, 2011
Coconut-Berry Macaroon
It's Christmas time! Love the this time of the year...my favourite holiday :) And what's Christmas without the usual baking? This year I've decided to try out this recipe that's easy and doesn't require a lot of ingredients.
Ingredients:
4 egg whites
1 cup chopped dried berries or cranberries
1/2-3/4 tsp salt
zest of 2 oranges
3 tsp of vanilla extract
1/4 cup sugar
5 cups of sweetened shredded coconut flakes
Preheat the oven to 350F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Lightly beat the egg white and mix in the sugar and vanilla extract. Then add the berries and orange zest. Lastly, add the coconut flakes and coat it thoroughly with the egg white mixture.
Moisten your fingers a bit and create mounds about the size of a tablespoon. Place the mounds on the baking sheet about 1 inch apart; bake until the edges are golden brown and the entire macaroon is nicely toasted and dry (approx 16-20 min). Transfer to a rack and cool. Makes about 3.5 dozen.
**Thoughts**
I like it because this is NOT sweet - a mix of saltiness and sweetness. My kind of dessert :) If you don't like the zest taste, I would cut back the zest to 1 orange.
Ingredients:
4 egg whites
1 cup chopped dried berries or cranberries
1/2-3/4 tsp salt
zest of 2 oranges
3 tsp of vanilla extract
1/4 cup sugar
5 cups of sweetened shredded coconut flakes
Preheat the oven to 350F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Lightly beat the egg white and mix in the sugar and vanilla extract. Then add the berries and orange zest. Lastly, add the coconut flakes and coat it thoroughly with the egg white mixture.
Moisten your fingers a bit and create mounds about the size of a tablespoon. Place the mounds on the baking sheet about 1 inch apart; bake until the edges are golden brown and the entire macaroon is nicely toasted and dry (approx 16-20 min). Transfer to a rack and cool. Makes about 3.5 dozen.
**Thoughts**
I like it because this is NOT sweet - a mix of saltiness and sweetness. My kind of dessert :) If you don't like the zest taste, I would cut back the zest to 1 orange.
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