Triple Chocolate Pudding

Another recipe from SaraBeth's Bakery. Randal bought me this book for christmas and this was the first recipe we made from it, and actually we made these puddings on new years eve, so I'm a little late in posting them but better late than never.
They were actually quite quick to make and Randal loved these puddings, one of his favourite desserts is the pot de creme from central market and these actually taste quite similar to that.


3 tablespoons unsalted butter
4 ½ ounces semisweet chocolate (no more than 62 percent cacao)
1 ounce unsweetened chocolate, finely chopped
3 cups whole milk
1 cup granulated sugar, divided
¼ cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
3 large eggs plus 1 large egg yolk, at room temperature
¼ cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon dark rum
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1. Bring 1 inch of water to a simmer in a medium saucepan over low heat. Place the butter in a heatproof bowl and melt the butter. Add the semisweet and unsweetened chocolates and let stand, stirring often, until melted and smooth. Remove the bowl from the heat.

2. Heat the milk and 1/3 cup of the sugar in a medium saucepan over low heat until steaming. Whisk the remaining 2/3 cup sugar with the cocoa, cornstarch, and salt in a heatproof medium bowl. Add the eggs, yolk, and cream and whisk until well combined. Gradually whisk in about half of the hot milk mixture. Pour the cocoa mixture into the medium saucepan. Bring to a full boil over medium heat, whisking often, being sure to reach into the corners of the saucepan. Reduce the heat to low and let boil for 30 seconds.

3. Remove from the heat. Add the melted chocolate mixture, rum, and vanilla and whisk until combined. Pour into six 8-ounce bowls. Cover each with a piece of plastic wrap, letting the plastic touch the surface of the pudding, and pierce a few times with the tip of a small sharp knife. Let cool until tepid, about 1 hour. Refrigerate until chilled, at least 2 hours.

4. To serve, top each pudding with whipped cream and chocolate shavings.

Rosemary Focaccia

A lady that Randal works with has been sharing the herbs she grows with us, and as both Randal and I have black thumbs (literally everything we plant dies!) we are both so grateful for that as we love fresh herbs. I knew I wanted to bake something for Sue as a thank you, and as I was looking through my new favourite cookbook SaraBeth's Bakery I found a rosemary focaccia recipe that looked perfect, and just like everything I have made from this book, it was great!




2 cups cold water
2 teaspoons finely chopped fresh rosemary
3 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast
4 1/2 cups unbleached all purpose flour, as needed
1 3/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided, plus additional for the bowl

1. Sprinkle the yeast over 1/4 cup warm water in a small bowl. Let stand for 5 minutes, then stir to dissolve. Pour into a mixer bowl. Add 1 3/4 cups cold water and the rosemary and whisk to combine.

2. Attached the bowl to the mixer and fit with the paddle attachment. With the mixer on low speed, gradually add half of the flour, then the salt. Add enough of the remaining flour to make a soft dough. Replace the paddle attachment with the dough hook. Knead on medium-low speed just until the dough is smooth and it cleans the bowl, about 3 minutes. Do not overknead. Gather up the dough and shape into a ball.

3. Coat the inside of a medium bowl generously with olive oil. Place the ball of dough in the bow, and turn to coat with oil. Cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap. Let stand in a warm place until doubled in volume, about 1 hour.

4. Pour 2 tablespoons of the olive oil in a half-sheet pan, and spread evenly with your fingers. Punch down the dough and transfer to the oiled pan. Using your hands, coax and stretch the dough to fill the pan. If the dough is too elastic, cover the dough in the pan with plastic wrap and let rest for 5 minutes, then try again.

5. Choose a warm place in the kitchen for proofing. Slip the pan into a tall "kitchen-sized" plastic bag and place two tall glasses of very hot water in the bag at opposite ends of the pan to keep the plastic from touching the dough. Tightly close the bag, trapping air in the bag to partially inflate it. Let stand in a warm place until the dough looks puffy, about 45 minutes.

6. Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 450 degrees F. Fill a spray bottle with water. Remove the glasses from the bag, then the pan. Using your fingers, gently dimple the top of the dough. Drizzle the remaining 2 tablespoons oil over the top of the dough. Using the palms of your hands, taking special care not to deflate the dough, very lightly spread the oil over the focaccia.

7. Place the focaccia in the oven. Aiming for the walls of the oven (and not the top of the focaccia), spray water into the oven. The water will create steam to help crisp the focaccia. Bake until the focaccia is golden brown, about 20 minutes. Cool in the pan for 20 minutes before serving. Cut into rectangles and serve warm or at room temperature.

Menu Plan Monday

Monday: Chili and Cheese Macaroni

Tuesday: Enchilada casserole

Wednesday: Chicken Crescent Roll Casserole

Thursday: Tacos

Friday: Eating out

See other menu plans over at Organizing Junkie

Coconut Chicken with Apricot Sauce

This was one of the first recipes I pinned when I joined pinterest, and we only now got around to trying it, but it definitely will not be the last time we make this, we both loved it and I'm even thinking about putting it back on the menu plan for next week! Original recipe can be found over at Pennies on a platter.


1 egg
1 cup sweetened coconut flakes
1/2 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
4 boneless chicken breasts
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
1/2 cup apricot preserves
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

Preheat the oven to 400

Mix together the coconut, flour, garlic powder, salt and pepper in a shallow bowl. In a seperate bowl beat the egg. Dip the chicken into the egg, then coat with the coconut mixture, and place on a baking tray. Pour the melted butter over the chicken, bake for 15 minutes, flip the chicken over and bake for a further 15 minutes.

To make the sauce, combine the apricot and mustard in a small saucepan and heat until the preserves and mustard have combined.

See other recipes at The Grocery Cart Challenge

Boursin Sausage Balls

Another pinterest recipe! I have made these before, without the boursin though, and as Randal loves the black pepper boursin I thought he would prefer these. In the end I ended up loving them whereas Randal thought they needed more spice to them.


1 lb sweet italian sausage
1 package (5.2 oz) black pepper boursin cheese
3 oz cream cheese
1 1/4 cup Bisquick
1 cup mozzarella cheese

Preheat oven to 400.

Mix everything together, roll into balls and bake for 25 minutes, until browned.

Honey Glazed Chicken and Bacon Bites

I think these were Randal's favourite appetizer that I made for valentine's day, and to be honest they were a last minute addition, to use up the rest of the bacon from making the bacon wrapped stuffed jalapenos. I did a quick search looking for a glaze recipe, so they weren't just plain chicken wrapped in bacon and found this over at Kayotic Kitchen.


Boneless chicken breasts
Bacon
3 tbsp honey
2 tsp coarse mustard
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice

I didn't give a quantity of chicken or bacon, because it's really just as much as you want or need to make. I used 2 chicken breasts that I cut into bite sized pieces, cut each bacon slice into thirds and wrapped it around the chicken.

To make the glaze just mix together the mustard, honey and lemon and brush half of it over the bacon wrapped chicken, bake at 425 for 15 minutes, turn them over and brush with remaining glaze and bake for another 15 minutes.

Valentine's Cake

When I saw this cake truffle box over at the incredible
Bakerella I knew I had to attempt this for valentine's day. I am no where near as talented as Bakerella, so I will link to her detailed instructions on how to make this Cake. The truffles I made for this were raspberry cheesecake truffles, I am not putting the recipe here because I was not that happy with them and I have definitely made better and easier to work with truffles before.