Monday 28 December 2009

Homemade sea salt and poppyseed crackers!

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My dad loved getting these in his stocking (Recipe from
joythebaker.com):

Thursday 17 December 2009

Who's a gal got to kiss around here to get a little SUCCESS?!

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Yes, technically this is a spoiler: I did finally succeed.  But it's the journey, not the destination, that matters.

Yeesh, this week has been rough.  I planned on making caramels for the boyfriend's families, and you all know how that went down.  Then I decided on toffee, which I was promised could be "super easy," and lemon bars, which I've made a few times and had few problems with (jest you wait, 'enry 'iggins).  Now it's the day before my birthday, and we're leaving for the States in 3 days, and today was my last chance to get the gifts to the bf's dad, so things have been escalating for a while.  And the end result is that I'm exhausted, so I'll let the photos and captions speak for themselves.

It's a long-un, so just jump to continue.

Wednesday 16 December 2009

We interrupt this scheduled post to bring you...

Pin It A PUPPY IN BATTER.

oh my goodness.

This is just what I needed to get over my recent mojo failings in the kitchen (more on that next post).

Monday 7 December 2009

Easy biscuits, easy cleanup!

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And that's the best kind of recipe, in my opinion!  Although the delicious results don't hurt either:


And now, as promised, instead of writing about the biscuit-making, I'll just let the pics and captions speak for themselves.  That last post got kind of long-winded...



Normally I sift for no man, but I'd had enough mistakes to allow for a little humility.

Easy cleanup point number one: cling film instead of flour on your surface.  Easy peasy!

Who can take a sunrise, sprinkle it with dew?

Pin It Not me, apparently.  No candyman am I.

I've been trying to make candy all week.  I can't make it to my boyfriend's families houses for the holidays, so I wanted to send him with a big, pretty jar of caramels (I was going to make toffee, with chocolate and nuts, but his dad hates chocolate.  I KNOW).  I found a recipe on Allrecipes.com, which is my new favorite hunting ground because of the number of reviewers and the helpful suggestions they make about cooking time, flavors, etc.

The recipe, found here, looks really easy.  There are only 7 ingredients, and the process is basically: put all ingredients in saucepan, bring to boil over medium heat, and when a candy thermometer reads 250 (or 240, as most reviewers suggested), pop it into a greased tray to cool.  A few hours later, Bob's-yer-uncle!  Easy peasy caramels!

So far, so good.

But in this instance, even 217 reviewers and all their collective wisdom couldn't help me.  First, there was the problem of the corn syrup the recipe calls for.  They don't really do corn syrup here in the UK, so I was back to substituting.  The first time around, I used a combo of something called liquid glucose and honey.  The consistency seemed right, and I didn't think honey flavor would be a problem.  And it wasn't, although it was noticeable.