Honey Crepes for Breakfast

Yesterday I was really in the mood to make something with maple as the main flavor and when I typed in maple recipes into Google it gave me a recommendation for honey recipes, so I clicked on it, because honey is yummy too. And the first link was a honey website and where better to find honey recipes than a honey site, right? Well I looked all around the recipe categories and I made a mental note of a lot of recipes and then came the honey crepe recipe. I have only made crepes once before in my catering class, but that was with a crepe maker, and lets just say it wasn’t my shining moment. Well I decided to make it anyway because maybe it would be easier with a skillet. Let me just tell you if you are in the mood for crepes, just use your skillet, don’t go blow off $500 for a stupid crepe machine maker thing.


The first one I made was a disaster, I guess I had the temp too high (even though the directions said to do that) and there was smoke and it just wasn’t pretty, so I switched to a different pan and turned the head waaay down and started again. The next couple were decent and every now and then I would have a mishap, but after the 6th crepe I started to get much better, so better that there were hardly any gaps in the crepe, which I think is an accomplishment. These crepes are really good on their own or with some caramel sauce or chocolate or pretty much anything you can dream up. I had this one for breakfast:

I have a few crepe recipes stock piled onto my favorites bar, but I've been too scared to make them, but now I think I can, maybe today will be a crepe day and all I will have is crepes!

Honey Crepes
from Honey
makes 12 crepes (6 servings)

Ingredients
2 cups 2% milk
1 cup all purpose flour
2 egg whites
1 whole egg
1 tbsp honey
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1/8 tsp salt

Directions

1. Combine all ingredients into a blender or food processor until smooth
2. Spray and 8 inch skillet with cookies spray and heat over medium heat
3. Measure out 1/4 cup of the batter and pour into hot skillet, twisting and turning it until the batter covers the bottom of the skillet
4. Cook crepe for about 1 to 2 minutes and then gently turn the crepe over (Note: I killed my rubber spatula trying the do this, so start by pulling away the edges with a regular pancake spatula and then use your hands to flip it) Once flipped, cook for an additional 30 seconds to 1 minutes
5. Remove crepe to cool and repeat with the remaining batter. Crepes can be refrigerated for 3 days or frozen for 1 month

Nutrition Facts
serving size: 2 plain crepes
Calories 155.9 Total Fat 4.8 g Saturated Fat 1.4 g Polyunsaturated Fat 0.9 g Monounsaturated Fat 2.2 g Cholesterol 37.3 mg Sodium 63.5 mg Potassium 31.5 mg Total Carbohydrate 21.4 g Dietary Fiber 0.0 g Sugars 6.7 g Protein 7.4 g

Cake Slice Bakers - February 2011: Coffee Heath Bar Crunch Cake

This month the Cake Slice members voted for the Coffee Heath Bar Crunch Cake. However, the title of this post is a lie. I didn’t make the Coffee Heath Bar Crunch Cake per say. You see, I hate coffee, so I automatically omitted that ingredients from this recipe. Now I was totally fine making a regular Heath Bar Crunch Cake, but when I went to the grocery store, I couldn’t find the stupid heath bars; in mini or in regular size. So instead of looking at all of the candy bars available, I picked the pack of fun sized Twix bars, and I’m not complaining because Twix is amazing! Well, while I was at check out, guess what; I found the Heath bars, but I didn’t switch it out because I was now in the mood for a Twix cake :D

So I made the cake into cupcake because I haven’t made cupcakes in a while. Well, I made these in the early afternoon and I told myself throughout the day that I would save a cupcake for myself for dessert. Well I was stupid for waiting that long. These cupcakes were freakin’ GREAT! As I type this up right now I can still taste that luscious, light, brown sugary cake in the my mouth and I ate it 30 minutes ago! I have to keep telling myself not to eat more. My sister ate four of them today! Make these, I tell you. Make these NOW!
 

The inside of this magnificent piece of food. I found myself

licking the wrapper to get every crumb.

 

And the strusel was mmmmm DE-LICIOUS!

Coffee Heath Bar Crunch Cake

adapted from Cake Keeper Cakes by Lauren Chattman

makes 15 cupcakes

Ingredients
Strusel
4 Heath bars (1.4ounces each), chopped (5 fun sized Twix bars)
2 tbsp light brown sugar
2 tbsp unbleached all purpose flour
1 tbsp butter, softened

Cake
1½ cups unbleached all purpose flour
1 tbsp instant espresso powder (omited)
1½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1 egg
1 egg yolk
1½ tsp vanilla extract
1 cup milk (2% milk)

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350F. Grease a 9inch round springform pan. (Line cupcake tin with liners)
2. Combine the Heath bars (Twix bars), brown sugar, flour and butter in a medium mixing bowl. Work the mixture with your fingers until it resembles large crumbs.(I used the food processor here, just to make it easier, and I got smaller crumbs) Refrigerate until ready to use.
3. Combine the flour, espresso powder, baking powder and salt in a medium mixing bowl.
4. Combine the butter and brown sugar in a large mixing bowl and cream with an electric mixer on medium-high speed until fluffy, about 3 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary. With the mixer on low speed, add the egg, egg yolk and vanilla.
5. With the mixer on low speed, add a third of the flour mixture and then half the milk, scraping down the bowl after each addition. Repeat, alternating the flour and milk, ending with the flour.
6. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth into an even layer with a spatula.
7. Scatter the streusel onto the batter, distributing it evenly over the cake.
8. Bake the cake until golden and a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean, 55 to 60 minutes (21 minutes for cupcakes with a convection bake). Let the cake cool in the pan on a wire rack for 5 minutes. Release the sides of the pan and use a large spatula to slide the cake from the pan bottom to onto a wire rack.
9. Cool completely, cut into wedges and serve. Store uneaten cake in a cake keeper or wrap in plastic and store at room temperature for up to 3 days.

Nutrition Facts
serving size: 1 cupcake
Calories 202.1 Total Fat 8.9 g Saturated Fat 1.4 g Polyunsaturated Fat 0.1 g Monounsaturated Fat 0.4 g Cholesterol 47.5 mg Sodium 153.2 mg Potassium 23.3 mg Total Carbohydrate 28.3 g Dietary Fiber 0.2 g Sugars 18.1 g Protein 3.4 g

Strawberry Valentine's Day Cookies

So, tomorrow is Valentine’s Day, the day dedicated to love. I used to hate this holiday so much because I used to really like this one guy and every Valentine’s Day I would wish that he would miraculously ask me out, well that never happened and I became very bitter about this holiday. Also I went through this phase where I didn’t want to be associated with anything girly, and this holiday is like the girliest holiday ever. Well, all that has changed now because I realized I didn’t need that boy and I actually love all holidays! They are fun and festive and just all around fun to celebrate, even Groundhogs Day.

Now onto the cookies. I found these cookies on the Taste of Home website a few months ago and I favorited them without reading the comments. And yesterday I was like, crap I haven’t added anything to the blog in forever so I might as well get cracking on some Valentine’s Day goodies. And so yesterday I was looking at the comments and people were saying how horrible these cookies were and how great these cookies were and I was thinking, man, what have I gotten myself into? But I decided to make these cookies anyway and they would just have to be and experiment because I would have to do some major adaptation, I thought. Turns out I didn’t have to make too many adaptations, but it was still nerve racking because I didn’t know if they were going to be a dud or not. Now these cookies do taste like strawberry and they are pretty tasty, they remind me of the strawberry cookies my grocery store hands out, but they have strawberry flavored chocolate chip type things and I think next time I’m going to maybe decrease the baking powder some and maybe add some of those chips, if I can find any. And I don’t need to tell you that these cookies taste great with a glass of milk because every cookies tastes great with a glass of milk. ;)

They have a nice pink color too :) You can decorate these as you please. I just decided to melt the rest of the chocolate chips I've had in the pantry and pipe it onto the cookies. 

I hope you enjoy your Valentine’s Day, whether you be single or taken.


Strawberry Cookies
adapted from the Taste of Home
makes 32 cookies

Ingredients
5 tbsp unsalted butter, soft
2/3 cup sugar
1 egg
1 egg white
1 tbsp milk
2 cups all purpose flour
1/3 cup strawberry drink mix (Nestle Nesquick)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper
2. In a large bowl cream togeth the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg, egg white and milk until well incorporated.
3. In a seperate bowl combine the flour, strawberry drink mix, baking powder and salt. Once combined, add the flour mixture to the butter mixture slowly, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.
4. Once combined, roll dough into about 1 inch balls and place on the baking sheet about 2 inches apartand, using the palm of your hand, flatten the cookie slightly.
5. Bake for 8-10 minutes. Cool for a few minutes before removing onto wire racks to cool completely.

Nutrition Facts
Serving size: 1 cookie
Calories 63.9 Total Fat 1.9 g Saturated Fat 1.3 g Polyunsaturated Fat 0.0 g Monounsaturated Fat 0.1 g Cholesterol 11.4 mg Sodium 87.1 mg Potassium 13.6 mg Total Carbohydrate 10.9 g Dietary Fiber 0.3 g Sugars 5.5 g Protein 5.6 g