Valentine time recipes

Valentine time recipes

Raisin Sugar Pie
Yield: 8
Ingredients:
Crust

* 2 2/3 cups all purpose flour
* 1/3 cup sugar
* 1/4 tsp salt
* 2/3 cup unsalted butter, cut into pieces and chilled
* 1/4 cup 2% milk

Raisin Pie

* 1/3 cup brown sugar
* 1 tsp cinnamon
* 1 cup golden raisins
* 1 1/3 cups whipping cream
* cinnamon, for sprinkling


Directions:
Crust

1. For the crust, pulse flour, brown sugar and salt in food processor. Add in chilled butter and pulse until a rough, crumbly texture. While pulsing, add milk until dough comes together. Shape dough into a disc, wrap and chill for an hour.

Raisin Pie

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. and sprinkle a 9-inch pie plate lightly with flour.
2. On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough to about a 10-inch circle and line pie plate, pinching edges.
3. For filling, toss sugar, cinnamon and raisins together and spread over bottom of dough. Carefully pour in cream and sprinkle top with cinnamon. Bake for 10 minutes, then reduce heat to 400 degrees F. and bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until crust is brown and filling is browned and bubbly.
4. Serve pie warm or at room temperature.

A Honey of a Honey Cake
Yield: 12
Ingredients:
A Honey Of A Honey Cake

* 4 x eggs
* 1 cup brown sugar
* 1/3 cup canola oil
* 1/4 cup honey
* 3 cup flour
* 1 tsp baking soda
* 2 tsp baking powder
* 2 tsp cinnamon
* 1/2 tsp ground ginger
* 1/4 cup meid (honey wine) or 1/4 cup orange juice


Directions:
A Honey Of A Honey Cake

1. Preheat oven to 325°F
2. In a large bowl, beat eggs, sugar and oil until pale in colour. Add honey, and meid. Mix. In a second bowl, combine flower, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and ginger. One cup at a time, add dry ingredients to wet ingredients. Blend until smooth. Transfer batter to a greased 10 x 14-inch baking dish. Bake for approximately 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out dry.
3. Let cake cool and cut into honeycomb shapes. Drizzle with honey (ideally lavender) and garnish with fresh lavender flowers, if available.

Sticky Maple Pudding with Maple Compound Butter
Yield: 8
Ingredients:
Maple Toffee Sauce

* 6 Tbsps unsalted butter
* 1/2 cup pure maple syrup
* 1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed
* 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
* 2 Tbsps orange juice
* 2 Tbsps rum
* 3 Tbsps whipping cream

Pudding

* 1 3/4 cup pitted dates, about 10 ounces
* 1 cup orange juice
* 1 cup maple syrup
* 1 tsp baking soda
* 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
* 1/2 tsp baking powder
* 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
* 1/2 tsp ground ginger
* 1/2 tsp fine salt
* 6 Tbsps unsalted butter at room temperature
* 2/3 cup light brown sugar, packed
* 3 large eggs

Maple Walnuts

* 2 cups maple syrup
* 1 cup walnuts

Maple Butter

* 1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
* splash maple syrup
* pinch cinnamon


Maple Butter

1. Preheat oven to 350 ?F and grease and flour eight 5-ounce ramekins and place them in a baking dish.
2. For sauce, melt butter, maple syrup and brown sugar over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Once bubbling, add cinnamon, orange juice and rum and return to a simmer, stirring. Remove from heat and stir in cream. Spoon 2 Tbsp of sauce into each ramekin and reserve rest of the sauce to serve with puddings.
3. Roughly chop dates and simmer in orange juice and maple syrup, uncovered, for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in baking soda. Let cool while preparing batter.
4. Sift flour, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger and salt. In a separate bowl, cream butter and brown sugar until light. Add eggs one at a time, stirring well after each addition. Add flour mixture alternately with date mixture, stirring well after each addition, starting and ending with flour. Spoon batter evenly between prepared ramekins. Pour boiling water around ramekins (coming up ½ inch) and bake for 30 to 40 minutes, until a tester inserted in the centre of a pudding comes out clean. Remove from water bath and allow to cool at least 10 minutes, and unmold to serve.
5. Toast walnuts in saucepan on medium heat or in a 350 oven for 10 minutes. Simply stir walnuts in maple syrup to coat. Allow to cool slightly before using.
6. With a spatula blend butter with pinch of cinnamon and a splash of maple syrup. Fill a piping bag with mixture to pipe on top of pudding.
7. To serve: Reheat toffee sauce and spoon over warm puddings. Using a piping bag pipe the maple compound onto the sticky pudding and then garnish with maple walnuts.

Butterscotch Cream Pie
Yield: 8
Ingredients:
Crust

* 2 cups all purpose flour
* 2 tbsp ground pecans, toasted
* 1/4 tsp salt
* 1/2 cup unsalted butter, cut into pieces and chilled
* 2 tbsp golden brown sugar, packed
* 1 egg yolk
* 4 to 6 tbsp cold water

Filling

* 1 cup pecan halves, lightly toasted
* 1 cup golden brown sugar, packed
* 1/3 cup all purpose flour
* 1 cup milk
* 3 tbsp unsalted butter
* 1 tbsp vanilla extract
* 1 egg yolk

Topping

* 1 cup whipping cream
* 2 tbsp sugar
* 1 tsp vanilla extract
* chopped toasted pecans, for garnish


To Assemble

1. For crust, combine flour, ground pecans and salt. Cut in butter until an even, crumbly texture. In a separate bowl, whisk brown sugar with egg yolk and 4 Tbsp water and add to flour. Mix just until dough comes together, adding a little more water, if needed. Wrap and chill for 30 minutes.
2. On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough to 1/8-inch thick. Line a 10-inch pie shell with dough and trim. Chill for 20 minutes.
3. Preheat oven to 375° F. Line pie shell with aluminium foil and weight with pie weights, rice or dried beans. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes, then remove foil and weights and bake for 5 to 7 minutes more, until centre of pie shell is dry and edges are lightly browned. Allow to cool.
4. For filling, line bottom of baked pie shell with toasted pecan halves. In a saucepot, mix brown sugar and flour together, crushing any visibly large lumps of brown sugar. Whisk in milk until smooth. Stir filling over medium low heat to start dissolving sugar, then stir in butter. Cook filling for about 8 minutes, stirring constantly, until it thickens. Remove from heat and scrape into a bowl. Stir in vanilla and egg yolk. Scrape filling into pie shell and spread evenly. Chill for at least 2 hours before topping.
5. For topping, whip cream to soft peaks and fold in sugar and vanilla. Spread evenly over butterscotch filling and garnish with chopped pecans. Chill until ready to serve.
6. Pie with filling can be made up to 2 days in advance, and topped up to 6 hours in advance.
7. Yield: 1 10-inch pie. Makes 8 to 12 servings

Valentine day videos link:
Chocolate Dipped Strawberries and Decadent Truffles
Chocolate Martini
Halibut Provencal and Artichokes with Almond Sauce

Other links
http://www.hgtv.ca/articles/articledetails.aspx?ContentId=2414&cat=2&by=2&nwsltrfood20080205ref=F3A
http://www.hgtv.ca/content/ContentDetail.aspx?ContentId=2698&nwsltrfood20080205ref=F3B
http://www.hgtv.ca/video/default.aspx?&maven_playerId=hgtvvideocenter&maven_referralParentPlaylistId=2f64bc616287504a86ae909a5d187f960aaff90d&maven_referralPlaylistId=57e2aa8df90848d8ac9ab0586ea53ae141c0da94&maven_referralObject=622258066&maven_referrer=staf&nwsltrfood20080205ref=F3C

February CCC: Laura Calder's Chocolate Mousse

INGREDIENTS:

* 5 ounces dark chocolate
* 4 egg whites
* 2 tbsps sugar
* 2 egg yolks
* 1 tsp orange zest
* 1 tbsp Cointreau

DIRECTIONS:

1. Melt the chocolate over a bain-marie (double boiler) until smooth. Beat the egg whites to soft peaks, sprinkle over the sugar, and continue beating to a stiff meringue, a minute or two longer.
2. Beat the yolks with the orange zest and Cointreau in a bowl.
3. Whisk the chocolate into the yolks. Fold in a spoonful of the whites, then pour the chocolate onto the remaining whites and fold gently to combine evenly. Pour the mousse into a serving bowl. Wrap well with plastic, and refrigerate at least a few hours. Serve garnished with whipped cream, chocolate shavings, and a little orange zest.

Published by Catherine Jheon
Filed under: Recipes, Cooking Club Challenge