Chocolate Pots de Creme

There were a lot of amazing things about each of the countries that I visited last year.  Things ranged from the most hospitable people ever (Albania) to best beaches (Croatia) to the best food all around (France).  Italy had some really great food (hello arancini), but everything in France was just plain good.

We went to a grocery store while we were there and even the ordinary food was better than average. And it cost less than here! If I could magically get groceries delivered to my door from France, I could die happy.

One of the things in the store that we got were these little glass jars of chocolate pots de creme.  It was something ridiculously cheap like 1.50 euros.

As we've been planning our next trip, I've been dreaming about that grocery store and those little pots de creme and then it finally dawned on me to try to make some! So I ran to Pinterest, trusty site that it is, and found a few to try out.  This one is the easiest and closest to what I had in France.

Chocolate Pots de Creme
By Melskitchencafe.com

12 ounces (2 cups) semisweet or bittersweet chocolate chips or chopped baking chocolate
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 cups heavy cream
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Lightly sweetened whipped cream and/or berries

In the bowl of a food processor, combine the chocolate, salt, sugar and eggs in a food processor or blender and pulse until well mixed. The mixture might look a little granular or curdled; that's ok.

Heat the heavy cream to just simmering. Drizzle the hot cream into the food processor, while pulsing, until the mixture is smooth and creamy. Add the vanilla and pulse to combine.

Pour into dishes or cups and press plastic wrap directly across the surface to avoid the cream forming a skin. Chill at least an hour (they can be chilled up to several days). Garnish with fresh whipped cream and berries, if desired.

Sock-It-to-Me Cake

One of my favorite childhood desserts is this Sock-It-to-Me bundt cake. I think my brother was louder in his praise of it, and I was probably off singing about my little pony or pretending I had my own cooking show (surprise surprise), so I remember it being referred to as his favorite even though I loved it, too.

Once I became an "adult" and could make cake whenever I wanted, I remembered this cake and got so excited! I made it and then ate it all myself. It was delightful.

I recently made it for a church activity and people kept coming back for more! I stock up on cake mixes when I see them on sale since it is best with the butter mix, though any should work.

Sock-It-to-Me Cake

1 package any brand butter cake mix (though the recipe is on the Duncan Hines mix)

2 Tbsp. brown sugar

2 tsp. ground cinnamon

4 large eggs

1 cup sour cream

⅓ cup vegetable oil

¼ cup water

¼ cup sugar

Preheat oven to 375°F. Grease a bundt pan.

Combine 2 tablespoons of cake mix (I had to add 2 Tbsp of flour to mine in order for it to have the right consistency to not sink all the way down to the bottom--I'm guessing due to the altitude), brown sugar, and cinnamon in medium bowl; set aside.

Combine remaining cake mix, eggs, sour cream, oil, water and sugar in large bowl.

Beat with an electric mixer at medium speed 4 minutes.

Pour 2/3 of batter into prepared pan. Sprinkle with cinnamon mixture. Spoon the remaining batter evenly over cinnamon mixture.

Bake 40 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool cake on wire rack 25 minutes. Remove cake from pan and cool completely.

Breakfast Biscuits

So pretty much Dillon is on his own in the mornings before work.  He is so kind and let's me sleep in. Even if he did try to wake me up, he wouldn't get very far since it takes me a good hour to actually move out of zombie phase.

He jokes that when he comes to kiss me goodbye and say our morning prayer together it's more like he's just praying over my dead body. That's probably an accurate description. I mean, I wouldn't know since I'm the dead one, but I can imagine it's a sight ha.

Anyway, he usually makes a bunch of breakfast burritos ahead of time so he actually has a good breakfast to take off to work.  It's been almost 2 years of that now and I figured maybe he needed a little change up, so I tried to think of something else easy to make ahead and freeze.

When I thought of biscuits and gravy (because I love them) I knew that that wouldn't really work, but it did give me the idea of just regular biscuits with bacon and cheese in them. They're pretty simple, but I figure he can fry an egg in the time it takes to reheat it and then he can make himself a little breakfast sandwich. He's easy to please, but was excited about the new addition to the breakfast line up.

I have this handy homemade baking mix that I use for the base, but any biscuit recipe will work.

Bacon and Cheese Breakfast Biscuits

2 c baking mix
2/3 c milk
3/4 c cheese of choice
4 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled (or 1/2 c bacon bits)

Preheat oven to 450*

Blend in cheese and bacon bits to biscuit mix. Add milk and stir until just combined (less mixing equals better biscuits). Dump out onto floured surface, flatten with your hands, then roll out to 1/2 inch thick. Using biscuit cutters or a cup, cut out and then place on baking sheet.

Bake at 450* for 10-12 mins.

Soft Pretzels

I love soft pretzels so much! Maybe it's just because I love any form of bread... Carbs, so good but so bad! I've been on the look out for a soft pretzel recipe, and I can't say that I'm completely satisfied with this one, but it's still good enough to pass on.

I really wanted to try out a pretzel recipe after Dillon and I had been browsing TJ Maxx and found a fancy honey mustard spread/dip. It definitely satisfied the craving!

Soft Pretzels

2 cups milk 

1 1/2 Tbsp active dry yeast (2 packets)

6 Tbsp brown sugar

4 Tbsp butter, room temperature

4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus an up to an additional 1/2 cup as needed

2 tsp fine salt

1/3 cup baking soda

3 cups warm water

coarse salt, to taste

6 Tbsp butter, melted

Microwave milk for 1 min. Pour milk and yeast into the bowl of an electric stand mixer and whisk together until yeast has dissolved, let rest 5 minutes. Add brown sugar, 4 tbsp softened butter, 1 cup flour and 2 tsp fine sea salt to milk mixture and using the whisk attachment, stir until blended. 

Switch attachment to a dough hook, add remaining 3 1/2 cups flour and kneaded mixture on medium low speed until elastic. Mix in up to an additional 1/2 cup flour, as needed, until dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and allow dough to rise in warm place until doubled in size, about 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Line two baking sheets with Silpats or parchment paper (or you could grease them). Punch dough down several times to release any air pockets. Divide dough into 12 equal pieces. Roll each piece out into a long, thin rope about 32 - 36 inches long.

In a shallow bowl, whisk together baking soda and warm water then fully immerse pretzel into water mixture and allow excess water to drip off. Shape into pretzel and place on prepared baking sheet, then sprinkle to taste with coarse salt. Repeat this process with remaining dough. 

Bake pretzels in preheated oven 7 - 11 minutes until golden brown. Remove from oven and brush top and bottom of pretzels with melted butter. 

Serve warm with dipping sauces, such as honey mustard or cheese sauce, and even the cinnamon pear caramel sauce. Alternately, sprinkle with cinnamon sugar after brushing with butter.

Makes 12

Homemade Baking Mix

This baking mix was a Pinterest find that I had wanted to try out to see if it was any better than just combining ingredients when I was making something. But once I made it and used it on a regular basis, it passed the test with flying colors!

I've used it to whip up pancakes and biscuits very frequently.  The best part is that since it's premixed portions, I can make only four biscuits at a time instead of 12 when I'm using a biscuit recipe.  The same goes with the pancakes, since apparently I love pancakes and Dillon doesn't so much. But I still don't want to eat a family sized batch of pancakes by myself so using the baking mix works great.

Homemade Baking Mix

5 cups flour
¼ cup baking powder
2 teaspoons sugar
1 tsp salt
1 cup Butter flavor shortening or butter

Using a Kitchenaid mixer or food processor – blend in ingredients until powder.
Store in an airtight container for up to 6 weeks.
If you use butter, baking mix needs to be stored in the fridge or freezer so that the butter wont go rancid. If using shortening, it can be stored in a cool, dry place.
I usually do about 3 batches of this recipe at once.

For pancakes

2 cups mix
1 cup milk
2 eggs
Instructions
Mix ingredients together.
Pour ¼ cup of batter for each pancake unto a hot greased griddle.
Cook until both sides are golden brown.

For biscuits

1 cup mix
⅓ cup milk

Add milk to baking mix. Be careful not to over stir it.
Drop by spoonfuls on a greased cookie sheet or roll out and cut with cutters.
Bake at 450 degrees for 10-12 minutes

For waffles

2 cups mix
1⅓ cup milk
2 tablespoons melted butter
1 egg yolk
1 egg white beaten to fluff.

Stir all ingredients until blended.
Pour batter onto a heated greased waffle maker.

In Which I Bake

I don't really use one specific recipe for when I make something.  I usually spend way too much time scouring the internet for the perfect combo of ingredients look up a few recipes and combine them into one that has all the elements that I like (or specific ingredients that I have on hand), or use certain tried and true recipes in things I want to make.  That is what I did with the cinnamon swirl bread that I made recently.

I used Dillon's current favorite roll recipe which I found on Pinterest--and modified to my liking--(original recipe here from A Bear in the Kitchen) and just added a bunch of sugar to it once I rolled it out. 

For the dough:

1/4 cup + 1 tablespoon warm water
1 1/2 tablespoon yeast
1 cups milk, warmed
1/2 cup canola oil 
3 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons salt
5 - 5 1/2 cups flour

For the filling:

1/2 c room temperature butter
1 c sugar (I used half white, half brown)
3 TBS cinnamon
a dash of nutmeg

In the bowl of an electric mixer, fitted with dough hook, combine warm water and yeast. Let sit for a few minutes until foamy.  Microwave milk for 1 minute to warm. Add to warmed milk the canola oil, eggs, sugar and salt; mix. Add mixture to yeast in mixing bowl and stir to combine.  Add flour in one cup increments and mix. Add 1/4 - 1/2 cup more flour if needed to form a soft dough that pulls away from the sides of the bowl. Knead with dough hook on medium high speed for 5 minutes. Remove dough, form into a ball, and place in an oiled bowl. Allow to rise in a warm place until doubled in size, 1 1/2 - 2 hours.



This is when I started taking pictures :)

 Punch down dough and turn onto a lightly floured surface.  Divide in to two equal parts.  Roll out each to the width of your bread pan and the length according to how many swirls you want; the longer and thinner the roll out, the more swirls.

 
Once rolled out, spread the softened butter onto the dough and sprinkle with the cinnamon sugar mixture.  Roll up tightly from the short side and place seam side down into a well greased bread pan.

Let rise for about 45 mins.

Bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 mins.

 Let cool (if you can) and enjoy!!