The Gutsy Cooks and Sweet Melissa Sunday for Breakfast and Dessert!

Sweet Melissa Sunday and The Gutsy Cooks Group are sharing a post this morning. Leslie with Lethally Delicious picked an amazing Chocolate Pudding for SMS. I have the dessert posted further down =).



I get the pleasure of hosting for the month of March at the Gutsy Cooks Club and my choice for this weekend is homemade English Muffins and Eggs Benedict. I have made English muffins before and already know the muffins are pretty easy to make. My husband is usually the one to make eggs Benedict in our kitchen, so he helped with the poached eggs. We cheat a little with the eggs and I am going to share what we do.

I enjoy making English Muffins. In fact, the first time surprised the beegeebees out of me because I had no idea English Muffins were cooked on a griddle. You can bake the muffins in the oven but the griddle is much more fun.

Victoria Blashford-Snell's recipe for English Muffins in her cookbook, The Illustrated Kitchen Bible is:

3 cups bread flour, plus more for kneading (I use my KA mixer to knead the dough for 10 minutes)

1 teaspoon instant yeast (I use 1 pkg of fast rise instant yeast)

1 teaspoon of salt (I use 1/2 teaspoon of salt)
1 1/4 cup tepid water

2 Tablespoons butter, melted

2 Tablespoons of semolina (I use yellow cornmeal)

Directions:

Mix the flour, yeast, and salt in a bowl. (I put the ingredients in my KA mixer and use a paddle attachment to combine.)

Make a well in the center and pour in the water and butter. Stir to make a slightly sticky dough.

Knead the dough on a floured surface for about 8 minutes, until smooth and elastic. (I change out the paddle for the dough hook attachment and let the mixer knead for 10 minutes.) Shape into a ball, place in an oiled bowl, and turn to coat. Cover with plastic wrap. Let stand for 1 hour in a warm place until doubled.



Line a baking sheet with a kitchen towel and sprinkle with most of the semolina. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead. Divide into 10 balls. Place the balls on the towel and press into thick disks. (I roll the dough into 1/4" thickness and use 3" rounds to cut my dough.) Sprinkle with the rest of the semolina. Cover with another towel. Leave for 20-30 minutes, until risen.



Heat a frying pan with a lid. (I use a griddle at 325 degrees. I cook 2 minutes per side, then turn the heat down to 300 degrees and bake for another 6 minutes per side, watching to make sure the muffins do not get overly brown.)

In batches, place the muffins in the pan and cover. Reduce heat to low and cook for 10-12 minutes, until they puff up. Flip and cook for 3-4 minutes, until golden.

Now for the Eggs Benedict:

I use a fast blender method for Hollandaise Sauce. The recipe is from Julia Child's very first French cookbook (Mastering the Art of French Cooking, pg. 81) and has "never" failed me. The sauce takes all of 10 minutes, tops, to put together.

According to Julia, this very quick method for making hollandaise cannot fail when you add your butter in a small stream of droplets.

(Makes about 3/4 cup of sauce.)

3 egg yolks

2 T. lemon juice

1/4 t. salt

Pinch of freshly ground black pepper

4 ounces (1 stick) unsalted butter

Directions:
Put all the ingredients, EXCEPT the butter in the jar of the blender. Put the butter in a small saucepan and heat it to foaming hot.

Start blending your egg yolk mixture at top speed for 2 seconds. Cover, and still blending at top speed, immediately start pouring on the hot butter in a thin stream of droplets. (You may need to protect yourself with a towel during this operation.) By the time two thirds of the butter has gone in, the sauce will be a thick cream. Omit the milky residue at the bottom of the butter pan. Taste the sauce, and blend in more seasoning if necessary.

Victoria's recipe for Eggs Benedict is as follows:

8 large eggs
2 T. distilled white vinegar
4 English muffins
butter, for spreading
1 cup warm hollandaise sauce

Directions:
Fill a large frying pan with water to a depth of 2-inches. Add the vinegar and bring to a simmer over medium heat. When tiny bubbles appear at the bottom of the pan, carefully crack 4 eggs, one by one, into each pan.

Cook for 1 minute. Remove from the heat and let stand for exactly 6 minutes. Remove the eggs using a slotted spoon, and drain on paper towels.

Meanwhile, split each muffin in half and toast. Butter each muffin half and place 2 on each serving plate. Top each half with a poached egg and spoon the hollandaise over the top. Good with ham or crisp grilled bacon on the side.

Now, our version:

My husband, Larry, makes the eggs Benedict in our kitchen. He cooks very little but for some reason, he has always been drawn to perfecting this breakfast dish. Who the heck am I to complain about amazing and perfect eggs Benedict? My job is to make the hollandaise sauce and English muffins if I have the extra time.

We use either thin ham slices, crab meat, or shredded chunks of moist, smoked salmon.

Here is our secret weapon for perfect poached eggs. A $10 egg poacher pan we bought at Wal-Mart several years ago. You put about 1 inch of water in the pan and bring to a boil. Larry sprays PAM in each egg cup then adds the egg. The eggs poach with the lid on for 3 minutes.


He then takes a toothpick and runs it around the edges of the cup so the eggs pop right out.

Sorry for the dark picture but you can see our steps. TOAST the muffin halves first, a little sauce next, then the poached egg.

Put the salmon over the egg, then more sauce, and finally a little chopped parsley. AMAZING crispy, creamy, lightly lemony, slight salty with the smoked salmon. The egg yolks ooze out over the sauce, making a thick and creamy gravy. This has to be my all time favorite breakfast dish!

I had so much fun hosting and taking photos this week! Thank you Gutsy Cooks!!!!!

NOW on to Sweet Melissa Sunday if you made it down this far! Leslie, I really enjoyed how easy the recipe was to put together. Thank you for hosting and the delicious choice!


Heating up heavy cream with half the sugar was a snap. Pour half of the cream over the chocolate chunks, let sit 5 minutes, stir till smooth, add the rest of the heavy cream, and stir. Now add this slowly to your egg yolks with the sugar, vanilla, and salt. Strain mixture into a pouring cup.

Fill your ramekins, add boiling water to fill half way up the ramekins, and bake for 50 to 55 minutes.

My pudding is pretty thick and I am waiting to see if everyone else's pudding was as thick. Loved the deep chocolate flavor! Add homemade whipped cream with vanilla sugar. A great dessert to an Eggs Benedict breakfast. Thank you Leslie and please check out the rest of the SMS bakers for all the variations of this recipe. YUM!

Sweet Melissa Sunday - Chocolate Rumm Truffles

Sweet Melissa Sundays is here and Nina of Nina's Cupcakes is our wonderful host for this week! I love that Nina chose Chocolate Rum truffles just because I felt in the mood to make truffles.


The truffles went together super fast last night. Just melt butter and bittersweet chocolate over simmering water until melted. Add egg yolks and rum, I used 10 Cane rum, and whip until shiny and smooth. Now refrigerate; I did, overnight.

My coatings were fun to pick out this morning. I used crushed Skor toffee bars, crushed peanuts, a powdered chocolate for sprinkling on espresso drinks, pearl sugar, and colored sprinkles. I put each truffle in its' own miniature cupcake liner and now I can share with friends and family! Thank you for a great choice this week. Make sure and check out the other SMS bakers to see imaginations at work.

I also made my famous homemade chicken fried steak and gravy, eggs over easy, and toast with blueberry peach jam for breakfast.

I am also working on making a Hot Buttered Rum Cheesecake with dark Appleton Rum, freshly grated nutmeg, cinnamon, and ground cloves. A hot buttered rum sauce will be drizzled over each slice. If all turns out well, I will come back and post the results along with the recipe!

SMS-Hazelnut Raspberry Layer Cake; HCB'ers-White Velvet Cake with Milk Chocolate Ganache; ABC'ers-Evie Lieb's Processor Challah and Football Food

GUTSY COOKS post is coming shortly.

I LOVE the color of this cake! How pretty and what a great cake this would be to bake for Valentine's Day. Candy Girl chose the new year's recipe from Sweet Melissa Sundays short list left to bake. Candy picked a fun cake called Hazelnut Raspberry Layer Cake.

Seedless raspberry jam, fresh raspberries, and Chambord liqueur give this cake an amazing raspberry flavor.

I have learned a long time ago to shorten the baking time from whatever is listed in Melissa's cookbook. I have no idea why oven times are so different compared to Melissa's. I baked my cakes for 20 minutes.

The raspberries we found looked beautiful and using such bright colored berries seemed to cheer the whole kitchen up.

The cake has a light crumb with a deep hazelnut and raspberry flavor. I am not a buttercream frosting person and yet this particular buttercream frosting flavor works for me. Dumping a bowl of fresh raspberries and Chambord into the buttercream was kind of fun.

Thank you Candy for such a delicious and pretty dessert to start the year off right!

Heavenly Cake Bakers

The Heavenly Cake Bakers cake for this week is the White Velvet Cake with Milk Chocolate Ganache.

The cake itself was easy to assemble and bake. The ganache went swimmingly until I added that last tablespoon of butter. My ganache then turned into a pourable, yet slightly thick, frosting.

The chocolate flavor in the ganache was delicious. The velvet cake baked up nice and fluffy but I was a little surprised at how mine turned out a little crumbly when I cut into the cake. Maybe I didn't wait long enough for the cake to be completely cool.


Overall, this is a good cake recipe but with so many other to-die-for cake recipes I have tried from Rose's heavenly cakes cookbook, I may leave this one as we enjoyed it but now I want to see if she has one even better to bake in the near future.

Avid Cake Bakers - Evie Lieb's Processor Challah


I adore Flo Braker and every recipe I have tried out of her cookbooks has been a winner in my kitchen. Her Challah bread, made in a food processor, is no exception. Fun and easy to make is a great way to describe making and baking this loaf of bread.

I have never made a two-tier braided bread before and had fun assembling the loaf.

I am a week behind in posting about baking the processor Challah but I did make the bread over a week ago. Sometimes, finding the time to sit and blog can become a rarity; I am here now =0).

Thank you for such a delicious choice for January 2011~! We loved every bite.


FOOTBALL SUNDAY food - Stuffed Sweet Onions Toluca

4 Sweet onions about 4 to 6 inches in diameter

4 ounces chorizo

4 ounces lean ground beef

1/4 t. salt

1/2 t. pepper

4 slices Muenster or Gruyere

4 flour tortillas

1/2 c. salsa

1/2 c. guacamole

1/3 c. sour cream

Directions:

Remove a slice from the top (stem end) of each onion so it sits flat. Starting at the opposite end (root end), hollow each onion, leaving about a 1/2-inch thick shell. Place onions in a steamer basket. Place in a large pot over boiling water; cover and steam 20 minutes. Remove; cool until easy to handle.

Meanwhile, for filling, in a medium saucepan, cook and stir chorizo, ground beef, salt (optional), and pepper about 10 minutes or until meat is brown. Drain in colander.

Arrange onions in an 8x8x2-inch baking pan. Spoon meat mixture into onions. Top each with a cheese slice. Also, wrap the tortilla shells in tinfoil. Bake both the stuffed onions and wrapped tortilla shells in a 350 degree oven for 10 minutes.

Remove both from the oven and raise the oven rack to about 6 inches from heat element. Broil onions 2 to 3 minutes or until cheese begins to turn light brown. Place one tortilla on each plate and top with an onion. Serve with salsa, guacamole, and sour cream.

SMS - Strawberry Muffins with Fresh Lemon and Rosemary along with Gutsy Cooks

Sweet Melissa Sunday's is such a fun group! I love everyone here. I have felt terrible because I am still adjusting to my new work schedule and I seem to be bombing everything else. My kitties don't even know me right now =).

This weekend is my birthday weekend so Larry and I went to the Trans-Siberian Orchestra concert in Seattle Key Arena Saturday afternoon.

We sat close to the bottom row of the arena and towards the back. When fire shot out, we could feel the heat from where we sat. I felt bad for the people towards the front because I know they were cooking. Amazing show! Laser lights, fireworks, flames, hair flinging and the music, Wow! Loved it!

Know what else we loved? The Strawberry, Lemon and Rosemary Muffins! My choice for this week. Rosemary has a distinctive flavor all its' own so I wasn't sure if the flavor would over-power the fruit but we were pleasantly surprised. I am hoping you were too.

Here is Melissa's recipe for the Sweet Muffins with strawberries, lemon zest and Rosemary:

Ingredients:

2 3/4 c. all-purpose flour

1 T. plus 1 t. baking powder

1/2 c. granulated sugar

1/2 t. kosher salt

8 T. (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted

1/3 c. firmly packed light brown sugar

2 large eggs, at room temperature

1/4 c. heavy cream, at room temperature

1/2 cup minus 2 T. whole milk, at room temperature

(You can use more or less milk according to the juiciness of the fruit)

1 1/2 t. freshly grated zest of a lemon

1 cup strawberries, cut into 1/4 to 1/2 - inch pieces

1 T. vanilla sugar or granulated sugar for sprinkling

(To make vanilla sugar, combine the split and scraped pod and seeds of 1 vanilla bean with 8 cups of sugar. Rub them together with your hands. Store in an airtight container.)

Directions:

Position a rack in the center of your oven. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F, line a standard 12-cup muffin tin with muffin papers (or butter and flour the cups or spray with nonstick vegetable cooking spray).

1. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, granulated sugar, and salt. Set aside.

2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the melted butter, brown sugar, and eggs until smooth - -no lumps. Whisk in the heavy cream and milk until combined.

3. Add the lemon zest and 3/4 t. finely chopped fresh rosemary to rub into the flour mixture with your hands, releasing the oils and breaking up the bits. Add the fresh strawberries and gently toss with your fingers to combine. Make a well in the center of the bowl. Pour the butter mixture into the center of the well and, using a rubber spatula, gently pull the flour mixture into

the center of the well until just combined.

4. Divide the batter evenly among the prepared muffin cups, filling each cup until full. Bake for (I bake for 18 to 22 minutes) but Melissa states to bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until golden and a wooden skewer inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove to a wire rack and sprinkle with sugar. Let cool to warm.

I sprinkled the vanilla sugar on the muffin dough before inserting into the oven. I also baked 6 LARGE muffins and 13 mini-muffin caps. We loved the flavor and texture.


Too cute! Thank you everyone for baking along with me! I can not wait for next week's Chocolate Bourbon Pecan Pie!

Check out the rest of the SMS baker's muffins by clicking here for the list of blogs. =)

Gutsy Cooks

I am a whole week behind BUT I wanted to show off the Spanish Vegetable Tortilla and the Cod in Tomato Sauce! Jenn, Monica of Sweetbites co-anchor, chose the month of November's recipes and I "will" catch up.

I LOVED both dishes! The Spanish Vegetable Tortilla was altered a little by me doubling the amount of the broccoli, peas, and adding in 1 cup of sauteed mushrooms. What a delicious tortilla. Mine baked a little darker then the photo in The Illustrated Kitchen Bible but did not taste over cooked. Relief!

Doesn't all the ingredients together look fresh, chunky, and delicious?

My only downside is the filling tasted a little to eggy for us but the rest was perfect!

Then there was the fresh fish, Rockfish to be precise! So good for us and I never get enough fish in my dinner menus for the week. I try but for some reason the idea of fish always slips past me.

LOVED, loved, loved the fresh Roma tomato sauce with sauteed onions, white wine, and seasonings. Would definitely make this again! Thank you Jenn for the great menu choices!