Friday, October 30, 2009

New Foods

Every now and then I go through an experimental phase where I wonder through supermarkets and specialty food markets grabbing things I have never tried. I have been doing this all week and am looking forward to blogging about it. I have a few items left that I havent tried so please check back soon...


COMING SOON!

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Browning Biscuits

All the cooks and chefs on TV always tell you to brush egg, cream, butter, or something else on the top of biscuits or other pastries that you bake to get that pretty sheen. So I decided to test a few of the most common and let you know what works the best

I used 10 canned biscuits and applied the following toppings

Plain (3)
Egg(2)
Egg with water (1)
Water (1)
Egg with Cream (1)
Cream (1)
Butter (1)

Can you guess which one was the most delicious looking when it came out the of the oven?

The plain ones were golden brown but not shiny, the Egg ones were very nicely golden and shiny, Egg with water was a dull brown, water was just beginning to brown, Egg with Cream was golden brown and shiny, the one with just cream on it was dull brown, and the butter one was just beginning to brown.

There was a 2-way tie for the winner, Egg & Egg with Cream, but for practical reasons, EGG is the Winner!!!!!


Word of Caution: Items out of the oven are HOTHOTHOT!!! As I was taking these biscuits out of the oven I didn't notice that my oven mitt had a small hole in the thumb, so my thumb starting burning so instinctively grabbed the wire part of the baking stone with my other had, that burned so I slapped it and it landed on my arm. I now have a "Nike" Checked brand burned into my arm.

Almond & Apricot Cookies

These are a great little cookie and they take icing really well!

Cookie Ingredients

1 & 1/4 Cups Sugar
1 Cup Crisco
2 Eggs
1/4 Cup Corn Syrup
1 tbsp Vanilla
3 Cups Flour
3/4 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp Salt
1/2 Cup Apricot Preserves
1/2 Cup Slices Almonds

Add all of the ingredients into a stand mixer except for the almonds and apricots, mix until everything is well incorporated. Add the Almonds and Preserves and mix by hand so you don't break the almonds up. Spoon onto a GREASED baking sheet and bake 8-10 minutes at 350 until lightly golden.
'
Frosting

1 tsp honey
1 tsp apricot preserves
1 tbsp hot water
2 cups powdered sugar

Mix all ingredients and decorate your cookies!


TIPS.. make sure you grease the cookie sheet because the preserves will make the cookies stick. The frosting can be thinned with more water and cookies can just be dipped if preferred. If you dont want your cookies to spread out as much when they cook, form the cookies into "balls" and refrigerate for 10-15 minutes before baking.