thecakebar:

Triple Layer Chocolate Ganache Cake w/Strawberries (tutorial/recipe)

dizzymaiden:

Monkey Bread Muffins 

This is the 2nd food blog that I can’t resist! Monkey bread was all the rage last year and with good cause. Sticky sweet lumps of dough you just pull off! 

http://thefauxmartha.com/ has the right stuff for me…large, clear photos with concise recipes. 

find-fitness:

Stuffed Cheesecake Strawberries

These Strawberry Cheesecake Bites are simple and so, SO good! A low fat cheesecake filling is stuffed inside of hollowed out strawberries and then dipped into graham cracker crumbs. All the flavor of strawberry cheesecake and just a fraction of the calories. Perfect to fill in that sweet tooth at any time.

Ingredients:

• 4 oz of low-fat cream cheese, softened
• 3 tablespoons of powdered sugar (depends on how sweet you want the filling)
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
• 10-20 strawberries ( quantity is your choice )
• 1/4 cup of graham crackers crumbs

Instructions:
Rinse strawberries and cut around the top of the strawberry. Remove the top and clean out inside with a paring knife if necessary. I found most of the strawberries already had a nice hollow center so that step was not necessary. If you want to stand your strawberries upright ( like in the picture ) slice a bit off the bottom.

Combine cream cheese, powdered sugar and vanilla with a mixer or by hand. Add cream cheese mix to piping bag ( you can use a Ziploc bag ) and fill strawberries. Once strawberries are filled dip the top in graham cracker crumbs. Devour and fall in love. Enjoy! You could also drizzle or dip strawberries in chocolate if desired.

thefoodhabit:

Dinner: Salmon + Spicy Garlic Tomato Sauce

Recipe @ Bev Cooks

thefoodhabit:

Lunch: Crispy Brussel Sprouts + Garlic Aoili 

Recipe @ Savoring Life Anna Costa

thefoodhabit:

Lunch: Pesto Penne Pasta + Chickpeas & Goat Cheese

Recipe @ Cook Your Dream

thefoodhabit:

Dinner: Chicken & Basil Rice + Fried Onion 

Recipe @ A Cup of Mai

thefoodhabit:

Lunch: Roasted Red Pepper Pita Pizza

Recipe @ A Couple Cooks

thefoodhabit:

Dinner: Japanese Pork Curry + White Rice

Recipe @ Just One Cookbook

Wild Salmon With Berry Noir Sauce and Sage Parsnip Puree [x]

Ever wanted to try Rapunzel’s favourite soup from the beloved Disney film Tangled? Well I’ve concocted a simple recipe that I think she’d love with the only directions being that it includes parsnips and is infused with the flavour of hazelnuts.

You Will Need:

• 2 Tbsp of Butter
• 1 Brown Onion
• 3 Cloves of Garlic
• 2 Leeks
• 3 Parsnips
• 2 Green Apples
• 1 Large Potato
• 120g Roasted Hazelnuts
• 4 Cups of Chicken Stock
• 1/2 Cup of Cream
• Salt and Pepper
• A handful each of Mint, Basil and Thyme

COOK’S NOTES: If you can, buy pre-roasted hazelnuts. Roasting any nut can be a tricky business and burnt nuts are unusable. If you want to roast them yourself then take a frying pan large enough so all the nuts are touching the surface. Place it on a medium heat and stir the nuts every 30 seconds. Roast until they become a deeper brown and aromatic.

This soup will be blended at a later stage so there is no need to cut the ingredients into very small pieces. It can also help retain flavour in the food. Chop the onion in half and remove the skin, remove the skin from the garlic but keep it whole, chop the leeks into manageable chunks.

COOK’S NOTES: As with all long stemmed onions (like leeks and shallots) it’s actually the whiter part at the roots that contains the flavour. The green, leafiest part at the top can be trimmed off as well the roots - keeping as much of the white as possible.

Leek’s notoriously have dirt hidden in the many folds of their leaves too. Slice them down the middle lengthways and run water through the folds while keeping the whole intact.

Heat the butter in a large saucepan (heavy based is best) until melted and bubbly. Add the aromatic vegetables you’ve cut up and allow them to cook off their stringent onion flavour until they become a little translucent.

Peel and chop the parsnips in half, quarter and core the apples, peel and quarter the potato and place into pot. Stir and allow to heat up. Pour in the chicken stock and make sure there is enough to cover all the vegetables.

COOK’S NOTES: Unless a recipe specifically calls for cold stock, it’s a rule of thumb that the stock should always be hot. If you add cold stock to a soup, for instance, you then have brought the cooking temperature right down again and you’ll have to wait for 4 cups of liquid to completely heat up.

Bring the soup to the boil, keep boiling for 5 minutes, then bring it back to a simmer for 1 hour. In this time, place the whole roasted hazelnuts into a food processor or mortar and pestle and crush them into a mealy powder - doesn’t have to be too fine as it will be blended later.

Turn off heat. Add the cream, roughly chopped herbs, salt and pepper (to taste), and hazelnuts. Using a stick blender, purée the soup until smooth. Make sure you have blended ALL the ingredients well. If you do not have a stick blender it is a little trickier. Pour the soup into a separate bowl and wait for it to cool so that it’s not steaming. Ladle some of the broth and vegetables into a blender and blend ‘til smooth. Pour into the pot and repeat in batches with the remaining soup.

Serve the soup hot and garnish with cream, a little of the hazelnut powder, and chives or thyme. Also, some thickly buttered toast or Turkish bread goes beautifully with it (and all soups).

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Master Hayden’s Cauldron Cakes Recipe:

For experienced bakers the recipe card will tell you everything, but here are some tricks for you novices as well as my reasoning behind this treat.

Why use a pie shell? Because it looks cauldron-like and adds a crunchy element which is different to normal cakes. It’s like the hard exterior of a real cauldron. 
You can just use ready-rolled pastry for this - though it should be a sweet pastry. If you get square sheets just cut it into quarters and gently press it into your muffin tray. A rule with pastry is that you always allow a little extra than the desired finished size because it will shrink when it cooks. Blind baking is where you cook a pie shell a little first before you add filling so the pastry cooks properly. Because you will be putting these back in to the oven for 20 minutes you don’t want to cook them too much. They should be lightly golden.

When it comes to adding the melted dark chocolate to the cake mixture you’ll want to start mixing the other ingredients and then add it in as you’re mixing because it can cook the eggs if you pour hot chocolate on them. Also, the chocolate should be quite cooled - but still runny - before you add it because otherwise is will harden when it hits the cool mixture.

We dip the pastry in chocolate because in the books the cakes were chocolate on the outside.

The golden sauce is simple and delicious. Though make sure you don’t let the sugar boil and form a toffee because that will set hard once you add the cream and/or after you pour it in. The idea is you’ll bite into your cake and there will be a flood of warm caramel sauce that spills out without being messy. It’s like having a potion from the cauldron and the warmth/liquid adds another depth of sensations to the cake. You can of course serve them cooled too.

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