Sponge Candy ~ Cinder Toffee Recipe

I haven't had this candy since I was a kid and it was a special treat.  It would come in this block, all wrapped in clear plastic.  And you would eat it until your tongue hurt and your teeth ached.  And still it would be so good that you just had to keep eating it.  But as the years went by and I didn't see it forever, I just forgot about it.

Sponge Candy

2 1/2   Cups Sugar

2/3      Cups Light Corn Syrup

6 Tbsp Water

2 Tsp   Vanilla

2 Tbsp Baking Soda

In a large pot put Sugar, Corn Syrup, Water and Vanilla.  Heat on medium/high heat (do not stir) until candy thermometer reaches 300* (hard crack stage).  It will turn a light brown color.  (I don't know if I messed it up, but I did stir it before I turned on the heat... I couldn't resist).

Remove from heat and immediately stir in baking soda.  Mix quickly (like around 5ish seconds), and pour into parchment paper lined greased pan.  Leave it to set and get hard, then pry it out of the pan, and break it into chunks.  This can be messy, but I do it on a huge cookie sheet to catch most of the crumbs.

Store in an air tight container.  I use quart jars.  If you leave it out and air gets at it, any moisture in the air will make the candy shrink and get harder.

****  Make sure you use a very large pot, because when you add the baking soda it will foam up like crazy.  Also, pre-measure the baking soda so you have it on hand ready to go.  I also sifted my soda because the first time I made it, it had lumps and every once in a while when you were eating it you would get a lump of baking soda.  

****You are supposed to use one of those round cheese cake pans that the sides comes off of but I don't have one, so I used a rectangle cake Pan, but I greased the sides really well  (I used butter.) and made sure I had the bottom lined with the parchment paper.  

~~~~~  Now, if you want to get fancy, you can dip chunks into melted chocolate, and then you will be doomed to eat it all for sure.  The result is this delicious Crunchy Chocolate bar that crunches, and then somehow melts in your mouth and leaves you reaching for more.  It is seriously maybe even better then those store bought crunchy bars.~~~~~~

Anyways there you have it.  And it's seriously good, and not even hard to make.  Surprisingly easy in fact.  And sooo so good.  Everyone who tried a piece said it was just like when they were a kid.

Enjoy!

All jarred up!  Good to give out to friends or to hide in the pantry for a sweet craving.

Marble Almond Roca

Every year around Christmas I make this yummy treat.  They also make a wonderful gift if you put them in a pretty tin or jar.

Marble Almond Roca

1/2 Cup Slivered Almonds, Toasted

1 Cup Butter, Cubed

1 Cup Sugar

3 Tbsp Boiling Water

2 Tbsp Light Corn Syrup

1/2 Cup Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips

1/2 Cup White Chocolate Chips

Brown Almonds at 300*F for 15 minutes or toast in a pan on the stove top.  Spread on a Parchment Paper lined 15 X 10 inch baking sheet.

In a large saucepan, cook butter and sugar for 5 minutes on medium heat.  Add water and corn syrup.  Bring to boil over medium heat.  |Cook string occasionally until candy thermometer reaches 300*F (Hard Crack Stage).  Quickly pour over Almonds.  Sprinkle Chips and let set for 2 minutes.  Swirl chocolate over candy.  Cool completely.  Break into pieces.  

Stores well in Freezer for quite a long time.  Not sure exactly how long, since it always gets eaten.  

I like to toast my nuts on the stove top.  I just put them in the pan at medium heat.

I keep tossing them in the pan or stirring them around until they start to get a nice toasted scent and color.

Spread them on a cookie sheet that you've lined with parchment paper.  Otherwise the candy will stick.  Don't worry about getting the nuts right to the edge.  The candy won't spread that far.

Mix your semi sweet and white chocolate chips in a bowl and set it aside.

In a large saucepan, add the sugar and butter.

On Medium heat, cook the butter and sugar for 5 minutes or so.

Add in the light corn syrup and boiling water.  Thbis will make the sugar mixture bubble and steam.

On medium heat cook the mixture until it reaches 300* (Hard Crack Stage) on the candy thermometer.  The sugar mixture will darken in color.  Give it a stir once in a while.

When it reaches 300*, immediately remove it from the heat and pour it over the toasted almonds.  You will have to sort of pour it her and there over the almonds.  Be careful, it is very, very hot and will stick to you and burn you if you get it on yourself.

Sprinkle the chocolate chips over top of it and let it sit for 2 minutes.  Sometimes I will wait a minute before sprinkling the chocolate chips as the candy is really hot and cooks the white chips so that they don't melt that great.

After a few minutes, give the chips a swirl around.

Let the candy completely cool.  You can quicken the cool time by popping it in the fridge.  This works for me if I can't wait.  Once it is cool break it into pieces and put it in a tin, or jar.

Enjoy!

Boterkoek ~ Dutch Butter Cake

This is a favorite in our house.  It's so buttery and moist.  It's quite a rich cake actually.  It's something that I don't mind making year round.  It's pretty quick and easy to do.  Perfect if you have someone coming over for tea!

Boterkoek ~ Dutch Butter Cake

1 1/2 cups Sugar

2 Cups Sugar

3 Cups Flour

2 Tsp Baking Powder

2 Eggs

1- 1 1/2 Tsp Almond Extract

1 Egg White

Sliced Almonds

In a large mixing bowl, add sugar butter and eggs.

Blend until well creamed.  Add in Almond Extract. and blend until it's mixed in.

A bit at a time, add in your Flour and Baking Powder.

Mix until Flour is blended. 

It will form a soft dough.

Divide dough in half and press into two 9 inch pie tins.  This time I did one pie tin and 10 tart tins for my kids to bring in lunches.  Take an Egg White and beat it some with a fork, then brush it over the tops of the pies.  This will stick the Almonds to the tops and give it a bit of a shiny crust.

 Sprinkle sliced almonds over the tops of the pies.  You could arrange the Almonds if you want to take the time.  They look quite pretty.

Bake 350*F for 30 minutes until the edge is the pie is golden.  Remove from oven and set on cooling racks. 

This is the first time I've baked it in the tart tins.  I think they came out quite nicely.  The tart sized ones had a bake time of 20 minutes.  

Blueberry Lemon Muffins

These muffins are a nice moist dense muffin with good flavor.  The Sugar and Lemon Zest on top give it a little extra sweetness and crunch on top.  If the muffin isn't sweet enough for your taste, you can add an extra half cup of sugar to the batter.  

Blueberry Lemon Muffins

4 Eggs

2 Cups Sugar + 1/2 cup

1 Cup Melted Butter

1 Tsp Vanilla Extract

2 Cups Sour Cream

4 Cups All Purpose Flour

1 Tsp Salt

1 Tsp Baking Soda

2 Cups Blue Berries

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Zest the yellow part off of 3 Lemons.  Put the zest from one of the lemons in a smaller bowl and mix with 1/2 Cup of Sugar for topping.  Set aside.

Gather your ingredients. 

In a separate bowl, mix Flour, Salt and Baking Soda with a dry whisk until blended.  Then add in your Blueberries, and give them a mix in with the dry ingredients.  Today I used berries that I froze earlier this summer.  

In a separate bowl blend the Sugar, and melted Butter, then add in your Eggs and Vanilla.

Blend your Sour Cream into the Sugar, butter, eggs mixture. 

Add the wet ingredients into the dry and mix it in with a spoon or rubber spatula.  The batter should be kind of thick and lumpy.  Don't over mix it.

 Spoon into greased or lined muffin tins.

Sprinkle Lemon Sugar on top of muffin batter.  

Bake in the oven at 400*F for 20 minutes until they start to get a little golden. 

 Cool on racks.

Crock Pot Roast Beef

I had yesterday off and thought it would be a great day to put a roast in the crock pot...  Ok, what inspired me was, a few days back my boyfriend and I were in Safeway and he was drooling over a piece of hot Roast Beef in gravy.  Well, I haven't made a roast in a long time, so I decided that enough was enough and I wold go all out and put on a roast...

My friend was over for coffee and got to witness my magic in action.  Ha ha!  Magic I say.  She probably thinks I'm nuts now.  I secretly (or now not so secretly) hate touching meat.  But alas, meat must be handled somewhat.  So she had to witness my delight in repeatedly touching the lovely roast.  Don't get me wrong... I have handled a lot of meat in the past, and can do this.  I just don't like to.  Not my favorite thing.  

Anyways... Crockpot Roast Beef...  There is no real set rules in my kitchen for what goes into it.  But one thing I do like to do is put some sort of veggies into the bottom of the pot.  I think this adds flavor to it and helps to make yummy gravy.

So before the roast goes in, I put in some celery chopped a few times, but left in pretty long chunks.  Peel and chop up a few carrots, big chunks.  Peel and halve and roughly chop an onion into big chunks.  Spread out on bottom of crock pot.  Then I sprinkle in some onion soup mix.  Put in a cup or so of Beef Stock.  Yesterday I threw in a few springs of fresh Savory.  

The roast its self, I gave a rinse.  Stabbed it full of holes with a thin knife and stuffed them with slices of fresh garlic.  (About 3 or 4 cloves.) |All over top bottom and sides, randomly.  Put pepper all over the outside. Ok, sometimes I will sear the roast in a hot pan with oil to brown the outside and seal in the moisture.  This time I didn't.  I figured it usually comes out tender enough out of the crock pot.  You can sprinkle on more herbs or spices if you want.  Because I used Onion Soup Mix, I didn't add any salt to anything.  It was salty enough.  I put another sprig of Savory on top.  and dusted a little more onion soup mix on it.  You can also just use onion powder if you want.  Whatever floats your boat.

Into the Crock Pot.

Put a lid on it.  Pug it in and set it to Low.  Now, Forget about it.... For about 8 hours.  Or if you put it on High, then leave it for 4 hours.  Let the crock pot do it's magic!

In about 8 hours you will lift the lid to see this steaming beauty!

So last night to go with my roast I cooked Butternut Squash.  Just cut in half, seeds scooped out, and into a casserole dish.  I dab butter here and there all over it and sprinkle it over with salt and pepper. You cold put in a little splash of water if you want.  Cover with tin foil.  Bake at 350" until tender... (It takes my oven over an hour I think).

Also had Mashed Potatoes.  Peel, quarter, and boil until fork tender, Drain.  Throw in some butter, whipping cream (or milk), salt and pepper and mash.  Also good with a some dill sprinkled on top.  Yummm!

Of course we needed cooked carrots with butter and dill.  They go so well together.

Then I got all ambitious and attempted Yorkshire Pudding.  Oh yeah.  Something I haven't done for several years.  I will post the recipe separately as soon as I can.  I just love Yorkshire Pudding with roast and gravy.  Mmmm!

Oh yes!  Lets not forget the gravy.  Gravy is pretty easy.  After I took the roast out of the crock pot, I strained the juices and veggies.  The liquid went into a pot.  And back on to the stove top to be brought to a boil.  You can thicken it with flour and water shaken in a jar, or you can use a gravy browner.  I used a gravy browner for the first tiem ever last night and it came out really nice.  I just sprinkled it over the boiling broth and whisked it until it was thickened.  I didn't need to add anymore spices or salt, because of the onion soup mix.  Easy and good to go.

Oh yeah!  We also had my Wicked Greek Salad with our meal!  
http://thekitchenexpedition.blogspot.ca/2013/08/wicked-greek-salad-recipe.html

Well, I wish I had taken more pictures, but I was too busy preparing and by the time I was ready to eat I it was smelling to good to take the time.  Ahhhh!  What a life!

My New Job! The Baker Extraordinaire!

So, I'm rather excited about this!

I have a new job!  I have started working at a lovely little bakery called The Baker Extraordinaire! It's a small very homey bakery that grinds their own wholewheat flour and makes wonderful fresh bread, muffins, scones, cookies, and pies, as well as some seasonal things.   The baking is done fresh every day, so what ever you go pick off the shelf will be really yummy.  

 I've worked 4 shifts there and absolutely love it.  The owner arrives in the wee hours of the morning and gets the bread all on the go, and by the time I arrive in the morning I can smell the wonderful smell of baking bread wafting down the street.  Is that not the best smell in the world?  When I walk in the door there is such a homey feel to the place that I feel like I am stepping into someones kitchen.  I just love it.

I have so much to learn, but so far I am learning to make the muffins, scones, and pies among other things such as making up the mixes and prep.Soon we will be starting Thanks Giving and then it's Christmas Baking!

Yesterday I made my first ever Pumpkin Pies.  I've never bothered making them before.  Instead usually just have a slice at my Mom's or something like that.  For some reason, Mission Pumpkin Pie has always kind of scared me...  Well, people, no more!  It wasn't so bad to make after all.  The hardest part was getting it to the oven without spilling it.

I also made Mixed Berry Pecan Muffins, Cranberry Scones, Apple Pie, Apple Crumble, Blueberry Pie, Strawberry Rhubarb Pie, Mixed Berry Pie, and Peach Pie....  never made so many different pies in a day in my life!  Right now, I am feel like I am rather slow, but I hope with time and practice I can pick it up.  We use a dough roller to get the dough to the right thicknesses.  The pie dough is rolled back and forth on this sort of conveyor belt thing making it thinner with each passing.  You need to hit a start button and send it thought to the other side... then hit a stop button before it falls of the end of the conveyor... then back through to the other side.  Back and forth... start button, stop button, start button, stop button.  A different start button for each side depending on which way you are sending he dough.  My fear is hitting the wrong  button and sending the dough flying off the end.  So far it's only happened once.  Yay for the dough roller!

Anyways, I'm really enjoying working there... it's kind of a dream thing for me.  The owner is wonderful and are the coworkers and so far the customer base coming in are really nice.

I'm sure I'll be talking more about my job as time goes on.

Here's a link to their website.  Check it out!
http://www.engr.mun.ca/~brianclaus/bakerex/index.html

Super Dill Pickles

I finally found some pickling cucumbers!  Just the other day we finished the last jar of my Super Dills, so I was really happy to find these cucs at the Farmers Market.  I just wish I had bought more.

Brine

12 Cups Water

4 Cups Vinegar (7%|)

1 Cup Sugar

1 Cup Course Pickling Salt

2 Tsp Pickling Spice, tied in a cheese cloth.

  

Combine ingredients in a large pot.  Stir and bring to a a boil.  Boil 3-5 Minutes.  Left over brine can be stored in the fridge in jars for future use.

Pickles

1 Garlic Clove per Quart

2 Heads Dill, 3 inch stems in tact per quart

8 Lbs Small pickling cucumbers

Pack hot sterilized jars with garlic, dill and cucumbers to within 1 inch of top of jar.  Fill jar with boiling brine, 1/2 Inch from top.  Wipe rim of jar with clean cloth, Place sterilized metal lids on jars.  Screw on metal rings finger tight.

Place jars in a canner filled with warm (120*F - 140*) water.  Then add hot water to cover jars 1 inch above the tops.  Heat the water enough to maintain 180*F- 180*F for 30 Minutes.  Check with candy thermometer to be sure that water temperature is maintained.  

Let stand for 4 or 5 weeks before serving.

I like to halve the cucumber so I can get more in the jar.

I pre-peel a bunch of garlic.  Any unused can be pickled as well or put into a jar and kept in the fridge for cooking.  It keeps pretty good.in a canning jar with a tight lid.

Pack the Dill and Garlic into the hot Jars.  I can't resist adding some extra.

Pack as many cucumbers into the jars as you can, leaving an inch of head space.  It helps to tip the jars a little on their sides. 

 Pour boiling brine over the cucumbers stopping a half inch below the rim.

Wipe rims and place sterilized lids on top of jars.

Put on rims finger tight.

Place jars on rack in canner.

Make sure jars aren't touching.

Lower into hot water bath canner.  Make sure the water is an inch over the tops of the jars.

Put lid on canner.  Ok.  Here's a confession....  I didn't can my pickles this year according to the above instructions.  I found that they didn't come out quite as crunchy as I would have liked, although the flavor was wonderful.   This year, I put my pickles in the canner and let them boil for 10 minutes then removed them from the canner.  I'm hoping that this shorter canning time will leave me with a crisper pickle.  My mother tells me that she doesn't even hot water bath hers.  She just pours the brine over the cucumbers and seals the jars that way.  I'm a little chicken to try that yet.

When time is up, remove from canner and put on a tea towel on the counter to cool.  When they are completely cool, wash and label jars.

 Super Dill Peas

Instead of using pickling cucumbers use peas;

I discovered this a few years back when I had a whole bunch of peas that I needed to use up because I was going out of town and making pickles before I went.  I noticed the peas in the fridge, and thought "why not try pickling them?"  They turned out awesome!

Wash and trim the flower ends off as well as any tough zipper that is sometimes there.   Pack them into the jars with the dill, garlic and brine.  I make them in pints.  Process in the hot water bath for less less time, only 5 - 10 minutes.  I have found that the thinner flatter peas hold their crispness longer.

The color changes some when you can them, but they are delicious!

So here's my pickles for the day.  A little bit of a mishap when I pickled my cucumber.  One of the jars must of had a small hairline crack that I missed in the washing.  It broke while it was in the canner.  I ended up with 4 (5 including the broken one) out of 7 lbs of cucumbers.