Chocolate and Cinnamon Panna Cotta with Florentine Cookies

Over the weekend I completed my first Daring Bakers challenge. This is my second Daring KITCHEN challenge, but my first time as a Daring Baker. The February 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Mallory from A Sofa in the Kitchen. She chose to challenge everyone to make Panna Cotta from a Giada De Laurentiis recipe and Nestle Florentine Cookies.

I'd never made a Panna Cotta before this challenge. While I liked the look of the Giada recipe we were all given, I've been hoarding Donna Hay cookbooks and magazines for quite a while, and wanted to try her version first. And since I'd just picked up some cinnamon chips at the market, I wanted to incorporate them, so here's my ever-so-slightly modified version of Donna Hay's recipe:

Chocolate (and Cinnamon!) Panna Cotta
4 cups cream
3/4 cup confectioner's sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 oz milk chocolate
2 oz cinnamon chips
2 tsp gelatin
1/4 cup water


Place the cream, sugar, and vanilla in a saucepan and bring up to a slow simmer, stirring occasionally until the liquid has reduced by 1/3. Add the chocolate and cinnamon chips, and stir until smooth. Place gelatin in a bowl with the water and let sit for 5 minutes. Place the gelatin mixture in a saucepan over low heat until the gelatin has dissolved. Then stir it into the hot cream mixture and simmer for 1 minute. Pour into ramekins or bowls and refrigerate for 4-6 hours. Finish with sea salt if desired. (I desired. I love my chocolate with salt.) While my Panna Cotta was a little loose, it was no less delicious. Seriously delicious.

To make the Florentines, I used a slightly modified version of the recipe on the Nestle website:
2/3 cup butter
2 cups quick oats 

1 cup granulated sugar 

2/3 cup all-purpose flour 

1/4 cup light or dark corn syrup 

1/4 cup milk 

1 teaspoon vanilla extract 

1/4 teaspoon salt 

1/4 cup Cinnamon Chips

3-5 Ghirardelli Caramel & Chocolate Squares

Preheat the oven to 375° F. Melt the butter in medium saucepan, then remove it from heat. Stir in oats, sugar, flour, corn syrup, milk, vanilla extract and salt; mix well. Drop tablespoons of cookie batter about 3 inches apart, onto Silpat baking sheets. Spread thin with a rubber spatula. Bake for 6 to 8 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on wire racks.

Microwave the Ghirardelli caramel chocolate squares with the cinnamon chips in an uncovered, microwave-safe bowl for 40 seconds. Stir until chocolate is melted. Spread thin layer of melted caramel/cinnamon/chocolate mixture onto flat side of half the cookies. Top with remaining cookies to make sandwiches. Serve with giant glass of milk.

These cookies are super sweet and tasty with the chocolate spread, but also stand alone as a satisfying crunchy treat without it. 

For the unmodified version of Donna Hay's Chocolate Panna Cotta, check out her book Flavors, here:

Thanks for reading, and thanks for the challenge, Mallory!

Photo Saturday: Greenhouse at Night

Taken at a friend's house last Saturday.

I Love Scotch (Eggs)

Now that I have half a dozen heart-shaped hard-boiled eggs from yesterday's post, I wanted to use them in a way that showed off their pretty insides, rather than mashing them up for egg salad. 

The first thing that came to my mind, was Scotch Eggs. Scotch Eggs are hard boiled eggs, wrapped in sausage and breadcrumbs, and then fried and baked. They are sooooo gooood. They look like monster-sized meatballs, but when you cut into them it's like a burst of yummy sunshine.

To make Scotch Eggs, I used my six "heart-boiled" eggs, and one pound of pork sausage. I patted the sausage into a disc, and then wrapped it around the eggs.

Then I brushed the sausage with one beaten egg, and coated it lightly with flour.

Next, I rolled the sausage ball in Panko breadcrumbs.

With two of my Scotch Eggs, I fried them in vegetable oil that had been brought up to 350 degrees. Once they were golden brown, I baked them for 10 minutes in the oven at 350 degrees. With the other four eggs, I put them straight into the oven on an un-greased cookie sheet for 45 minutes at 350 degrees. I wanted to see if there was a big difference in taste, since it seemed like it would save a lot of calories to skip the frying...

While the (all-baked) Scotch Eggs tasted just as good as the (fried-first-then-baked) Scotch Eggs, the ones that were fried first sure looked prettier; they were golden brown and evenly crispy. The (all-baked) Scotch Eggs looked a little uneven. Like I said, they tasted just as good, and were completely cooked but the presentation wasn't as striking. Before serving both types of eggs, I let them rest on a stack of napkins to absorb the extra grease.

Have I mentioned how tasty and satisfying these were? The salt from the sausage was the perfect compliment to the egg. The crispy outer crust was juicy and tender, while the yolky inside was so creamy. One Scotch Egg is enough for a person, but if you have a hungry husband or teenage boys, these may disappear quicker than you can believe.

Serve them cold with pickles and salad, or warm with spicy mustard or ranch dressing. Great for picnics, breakfast-on-the-go, or just a hearty after-school snack, this is one of those things you can make ahead of time and leave in the fridge for your family to nibble on. 


Even though the heart-shape got lost in some of the Scotch Eggs, they were still filled with lots of love! Awwww... thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed.

Heart-Boiled Egg

Yesterday, a friend of mine sent me an image he'd found online* of a heart-shaped egg. It was so cute I had to figure out how to make my own. When I made my camping-inspired bento boxes, I mentioned that I was totally in awe of AnnaTheRed's bento creations. She has an egg-molding demonstration that I've always admired, but until I saw the heart-shaped egg, I didn't think I could really make this on my own. As it turns out, shaping hard-boiled eggs is pretty easy!

I started by washing out a paper milk carton. I cut the carton along the seams and laid it flat. Then I cut it in wide strips that I folded in half. After boiling my eggs and rinsing them in cold water, I peeled off the shells, and placed one egg gently inside the folded strip of carton.

I attached a chopstick to one end of the milk carton with rubber bands, and gently laid it down atop the egg so that it pressed into the white. I attached the opposite end of the chopstick with more rubber-bands and put the eggs in the refrigerator to set for about 15 minutes.

I was so excited to see my first heart-boiled eggs! I made some toast with a heart-shaped cookie cutter, and breakfast was served!

This was my first time shaping eggs, and on the whole, I would say that it was successful. I look forward to trying the shapes that AnnaTheRed teaches on her site now that I've tried the heart! If you have picky eaters at home, or are just looking for a way to add some fun to your plate, try shaping your own heart-boiled eggs!



* EDIT: Turns out the inspiration image my friend sent me (from Reddit), WAS a pic of a heart-shapped eggs that AnnaTheRed herself had created and just not posted online yet! Awkward.... since I love her and would never want to steal her idea! Just so you know, her full egg post is up here, and her hearts are way cuter than mine!

Modern Paper Dwelling (A Girl Can Dream)

We've been house-hunting. Or at least, house-window-shopping. 

The only development thus far has been discovering that my dear husband and I have slightly different ideas about the kind of house we'd like to live in. He keeps showing me listings that have boarded up windows, boast of "freeway access", and almost inevitably are pictured with at least half a dozen broken down cars, ally cats or abandoned refrigerators strewn about the front yard. 

I picture us in something like this:

...only with a giant backyard, fruit tree orchard, thriving vegetable garden, private craft studio, a trampoline, ducks, a waterfall, stream or river on the property, two-story garage for hubby dearest, and a pony. Ok, that's excessive. No pony. But I really am having a hard time seeing past the boarded windows of the inner-city listings, so I decided that ONE way to get us an awesome home and share my vision with the mister, was to make a paper model of what I wanted.

During a recent trip to the hardware store, I drifted into the garden center and picked up a 6-pack of Irish Moss. Armed with my miniature "lawn", and my trusty pack of construction paper, I got busy sketching out the modern home pictured above.

I simplified the design a little to accommodate my clumsy and inelegant construction paper-cutting skills.

After a bit of snipping and gluing, my paper home began to come together.

I glued toothpicks to the back of the finished design, drew some furniture in the windows, and covered them with wax paper to give a translucent look.

I went into the garden to look for a rock that would make a nice backyard mountain range, created a waterfall out of more wax paper and part of a Q-Tip, added a stream, and presto...The house of my dreams?

(Minus the ducks, garage, and all that other crap.)

While it did end up being an exercise in futility (husband BARELY noticed it- probably due to lack of paper alley cats...), it was a fun project and did really get me thinking about what I wanted in a house and neighborhood. Plus, working with these materials reminded me of working on dioramas when I was in elementary school (fun!). Only time will tell if this craft has any lasting influence on the location or style of our future home.... in the meantime, wish me luck?

Coke Bottle Watering "Globes"

I've had six empty glass Coke bottles sitting on my kitchen counter since late last summer. Every time my husband suggested that they get recycled, thrown out, or just moved off the counter, I would tell him that I was RIGHT in the middle of a craft that required those six glass bottles to be on the kitchen counter, and that I just needed another week. Just oooooone more week. 

When the mister and I left for a quick weekend get-away and returned to wilted vegetable seedlings and limp bulb stalks, I finally figured out how to use my bottles: Watering "Globes" for my garden! 

It's not glamorous, but recycled bottles work JUST as well as Aqua Globesonly they are free. To make your own recycled bottle watering "globe," take an empty glass bottle, fill it with water, and slam it down into moist soil! If you see bubbles rapidly forming, or the water level changing at ALL, the bottle-mouth may not have sealed against the soil, so pull the bottle out, re-fill it, and try it again. 

Out of six bottles I filled and jammed into my potted plants, one of them needed to be re-filled and re-stuck into the dirt. This seems to work best when the soil is already damp, so water before you go out of town, and then add the water bottles to the planters. And since they *are* glass, be careful when you are pushing the bottles into the soil. If the soil is hard, or there are loads of rocks in your medium, there's a chance the bottle could break, so consider using heavy work gloves if you are concerned.

And if you have an extremely thirsty plant, or are going to be gone longer than a few days, use a Martinelli's or wine bottle- the bigger the bottle, the deeper drink your plants will get. 

Baking Pavlova with Citrus Chantilly Cream

I had something else entirely lined up for the radmegan blog today. But when I pulled my FIRST Pavlova out of the oven yesterday afternoon, I couldn't wait to share the recipe with you. I was smitten.

I've made meringue cookies, and contributed in the making of meringue topping for pies, but before yesterday, I'd never made a pavlova. I've eaten pavlova in both Australia, and New Zealand- where it's said this dessert was first made to honor the ballerina Anna Pavlova. After flipping through cookbook, magazine and web pages, I came upon a recipe that seemed to have lots of Kiwi approval and set out to try it for myself.

And since we happened to have a bounty of citrus on our table right now, I wanted to incorporate it in this already light dessert. Here's the recipe I used: 

3 egg whites

1 1/4 cups white sugar

2 tablespoons water

3 teaspoons cornstarch

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon distilled white vinegar

1/8 teaspoon salt

Directions

Preheat oven to 275 degrees F. Grease a cookie sheet, line it with parchment paper and sprinkle a little water over paper.

In a large glass or metal mixing bowl, beat egg whites until foamy. Gradually add sugar, continuing to beat until stiff peaks form. Beat in water, then mix in cornstarch, vanilla, vinegar and salt.

Pour entire meringue mixture onto the center of the pan. Pavlova will spread as it bakes.

Bake in the preheated oven for 45 minutes. Turn oven off and leave Pavlova in the oven until cold. Top with fresh fruit and whipped cream.

I whipped up some Chantilly Cream (whipping cream, vanilla sugar, vanilla extract, and the zest of a home-grown tangerine) to top the mountainous pile of baked meringue.

After carefully transferring the pav from the baking sheet to the table, we hovered over the plate like buzzards and decided we couldn't wait to cut it open.

The outer crust was firm and hard. Inside, the meringue was light, soft and wet (like the meringue on a lemon pie). We scooped a bit of citrus cream up with each bite for that little burst of citrus.

We savored each bite. It was somehow creamy, somehow refreshing... we wanted to stop, but we couldn't. I look forward to making this dessert again soon!

Photo Saturday: The Carnivorous Sarracenia

I'm off to the Los Angeles Carnivorous Plant Club meeting today to look at all of the wonderful and meat-eating plants. Hope you have a great weekend ahead of you!

Camping Craft: Rock Friends

I've mentioned before how much I love camping. Even before I was old enough to roast my own marshmallows, I knew that there was something pretty magical about falling asleep under the stars and waking up to your mom grilling bacon, your dad tending the fire, and the sun rising over the ocean/desert/mountains etc...

Now that I am older, lots of my good friends and relatives have kids. Being an aunt/godmother/second-cousin/etc. has given me one of the greatest excuses to play dress-up, read children's books, run around like a Wild Thing, and enjoy life as I did when I was seven. It's the most socially acceptable way of never really growing up! (I think. My family may be calling me a weirdo behind my back, and I just haven't picked up on it because I'm too busy lying in the grass looking for animal shapes in the clouds with my nieces.)

Either way, now that there are so many sweet kiddos in my life, I've been thinking about crafts and activities that would make sleeping under the stars as magical for them, as it was for me- BEFORE there was texting, handheld video games, and before anyone had come down with Bieber-Fever.

Last September, I went camping with a few of my cousins and their kids. One of the activities we did was "Night Writing" (writing messages with glow-in-the-dark bracelets while we set the camera on a tri-pod at a long exposure.) This was SO.MUCH.FUN. But the kids who participated ranged in age from eight to forty-something...

For a fun craft that kids a little younger than eight, (4+) can enjoy, I recommend throwing a bottle of craft glue and a bag of googly eyes in your backpack and making a some rock friends when you get to your campsite! 

Young kids don't always have the attention span to appreciate a craft that takes more than a few minutes. Asking them to collect a few rocks around the campsite, or shells off the beach, and then letting them glue on the googly eyes is a fun and fast way to keep the little ones excited about being away from home.

Take the kids on a walk, or feed them lunch while the glue sets. Later, place the new rock friends around camp. Kids and adults will get a kick out of looking for the rocks that are also looking back at them.

I wouldn't recommend leaving the googly-eyed rock friends at camp when you leave, (although if I rolled up to a campsite and found this trio welcoming me, it would be one of the happiest moments of my LIFE- BUT...) if left in the elements for too long, the eyes and glue may eventually break down and become litter. And do you really want to be the camper who takes only photos, and leaves only footprints... AND eyeballs? Take your little friends home. They will be a great reminder of your fun camping trip, and a fun addition to the household. Oh- one other teeny weeny note on collecting items while camping... if you are camping in a National Park, please do not collect rocks, plants, flowers etc., it's illegal. That said, happy crafting, happy camping!