Almonds

Slow Cooker Almond Joy Chocolate Clusters

November 23, 2018

Slow Cooker Almond Joy Chocolate Clusters are great to whip up for homemade holiday gifts. Making them is basically hands off as you use a slow cooker!

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It’s time to get baking cooking, making candy, and decking halls. Fa la la la la, la la la la.

I’m sure that you are just as stuffed as we are from Thanksgiving, but I’m still ready to cook up a storm. I’m not running out looking for the best deals today. I don’t do all that Black Friday Hoopla. I’m just going to get cozy with some cookbooks and plan out all that baking I am going to be doing this Holiday Season.

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Copy Cat Almond Joy’s- SRC

May 26, 2014

Yay! Today is Memorial Day!

We are sticking home today to hang out, cross some things off the to do list, and grill. We made steak last night so I think some hot dogs for lunch and chicken for dinner. Autumn even had her own piece of steak (not seasoned, well done) that she sucked on and then dropped for the dog. I swear I try to grab what she is about to do but she is sneaky. And when she isn’t dropping him food she hangs a hand over the edge for him to lick. Those two are going to be trouble as she grows up. It’s going to be too cute! And a bit awful!!

Anyway, we did some crafty stuff for our room yesterday and we’re going to do some stuff for her room today. I have most of the elements together for a gallery wall for her so I am going to put it up while mapping out some place holders for the 2 little canvases I am going to order. I just love to be able to create something new for our house. I only wish we did it more often.

Anyway, May has sped by and it’s now time for this month’s Secret Recipe Club post I was given the blog Sew You Think You Can Cook. Lauren shares recipes on her blog that she makes when she is not busy with quilting scrapbooking, and cross stitch. When she is not cooking and crafting she is an aerospace engineer… hello smarty! Sounds like a cool profession says the person who pulls out a calculator to figure out a tip. ha!

While I was eyeing a few of her savory recipes, like the Vineyard Chicken, her homemade Almond Joy bars jumped out to me. I hadn’t made candy in the awhile and never a candy bar like this. I was up for the little challenge!

I really suggest using a stand mixer to make these Almond Joy’s. The mixture is sticky and would require a bit of muscle so I think it’s best to use the stand mixer so you knew you evenly mixed everything together. If you need a workout then be sure to just a greased bowl and a wooden spoon. Assembling the bars is a breeze. The trickest part is the chocolate part. I never have much luck coating candy evenly, and neither did Lauren, so I decided just to coat the tops. If you are a pro at coating candy then feel free to do that instead, you’ll just need more chocolate.

So a big thanks to Lauren for such a wonderful recipe. As well, a very special thanks on this Memorial Day to her and her husband, who is in the Air Force!!!

Copy Cat Almond Joy’s

Makes 24 candy bars

Ingredients

10 ounces sweetened condensed milk
2 1/2 Cup powdered sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
pinch of kosher salt
3 Cup sweetened shredded coconut
48 whole salted almonds
8 ounces of milk chocolate

Process

Line an 8″ x 8″ baking pan with aluminum foil. Then spray the lined pan with cooking spray.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, pour the condensed milk and half of the sugar. Using the paddle attachment, beat until combined. Then add the remaining sugar and beat.
Add in the vanilla extract and salt then beat for another minute until really whipped.
In one large batch, add in shredded coconut and beat together until the coconut evenly coated with the condensed milk mixture
Using greased hands, press the coconut mixture into an even layer in the lined baking pan. Score the candy bars by dividing the pan in 3 pieces in one direction. Then rotate the pan and score it into 8 equal pieces in that direction. Place 2 almonds onto each candy bar.
Freeze for at least 30 minutes.
While the bars are still in the pan, completely cut through where you had previously scored the candy bars.
Melt the chocolate and then evenly pour it over the bars. Let cool complete prior to removing the liner from the pan. Gently flip the candy over onto a cutting board. Cut out each candy bar by cutting through the chocolate at each location where you had cut through the candy previously.

Adaped from Sew You Think You Can Cook

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Check out my 2 years of Secret Recipe Club posts!!!!

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Strawberry Almond Stuffed French Toast

April 7, 2012

One of my favorite things is when I discover a new to me blog and I did that recently when I came across Alice’s Savory Sweet Life. Once I stumbled over there I was hooked. I spent a solid hour flipping around the recipes. And then I bought her cookbook. I could not wait to try something so I picked something that jumped out to me which was Alice’s Strawberry Almond Stuffed French Toast. How could I pass that up?!?!

It is no secret that I prefer a savory breakfast/brunch more than a sweet one. But… when I have something sweet I go all out. Syrup is my downfall at breakfast. I love it all over pancakes, french toast, and oatmeal so it is no surprise that when I saw this recipe I just knew I would have to make it. It reminded me of a stuffed french toast I had at Stephanie’s On Newbury when I first moved up to Boston. Nice reminder what a great brunch I had years and years ago when the city was so new to me.

I made some changes to the original recipe based upon what I had on hand and my on preferences. I swapped out the sour cream for greek yogurt, upped the amount of almond extract, and used a mixture of egg whites and whole eggs instead of using just whole eggs. Also, I mixed the strawberries right into the cream so it would be a consistent flavor and texture throughout the piece of french toast.

This stuffed French toast is so amazing. It is soft, fluffy, sweet, and so delightful. It is very easy to prepare and will satisfy everyone! Now don’t fret if you don’t have a crowd to serve if you are craving it. I individulally wrapped slices of cooked french toast and then froze them. Since then, I have brought slices out to enjoy at a later day and I have just had to let them thaw and have them warmed them in a skillet or toaster oven. yum!!

Strawberry Almond Stuffed French Toast

*Serves 6-8*

Ingredients

6 oz cream cheese, softened
6 oz greek yogurt
1 cup confectioner’s sugar
1 tablespoon almond extract
8 oz chopped strawberries
2 eggs, 3 egg whites
1 1/2 cups milk
1 teaspoon almond extract
1 loaf Italian Bread
Garnish – 1/2 cup confectioner’s sugar and 1/3 cup slivered almonds

Process

Using an electric hand or stand mixer, combine the cream cheese, yogurt, confectioner’s sugar, and almond extract until light and creamy. Fold the strawberries into the mixture. Transfer the cream mixture to a bowl or to a large piping bag.
In a shallow bowl, like a casserole dish, beat the eggs, milk and almond extract together.
Slice the bread into 1″ thick slices. Lay each piece down on a cutting board. While holding each piece down, create a pocket in the slices of bread by almost cutting it in half. (Placing your hand on top of the piece of bread will help keep the bread in place and help you monitor creating a pocket.)
Spoon or pipe out 2 generous tablespoons of the filling inside the pocket of each slice. Gently close each slice of bread to help the filling stay inside.
Over medium high heat, heat a non-stick skillet to prepare it for the french toast. Immediately prior to putting pieces on the skillet, spray the pan with non-stick cooking spray or put a pat of butter on it.
Once the pan is heated up, dip slices of bread in the egg mixture to coat both sides. Cook each side of the stuffed french toast is golden brown. Repeat this process until all slices are cooked.
To garnish the dish, dust with confectioner’s sugar and slivered almonds or spoon any left over strawberries cream mixture on top of each slice. Serve with maple syrup, if desired.

Sautéed Green Beans with Lemon and Almonds- SRC

March 26, 2012

When Price and I were first dating he was working at a place close to Chinatown and we would often meet for lunch in there. We would often go to Chau Chow City down the road from his office. I would always get their “String Bean Szechuan Style” dish. A spicy dish that is so large that it would make up 2 lunches for me. String beans are one of my favorite vegetables so an entire dish centered around them was an obvious winner. And that is why I loved this recipe for Secret Recipe Club this month.

This month I was given Yasmeen’s blog called Wandering Spice. What I loved most about her blos is that she paired a song with each recipe. I think that is adorable. Yasmeen makes such interesting recipes that it was so hard to pick from. It sounds corny but I could see myself making most of them in the summer. I just equate flavorful spicey food for the summer. Strange… I know! So I’m sure I’ll be whipping up something like her lentil + fresh basil orzotto or her Chicken + Phyllo “Ladies Fingers”. I have not really explored cooking with lentils before , although I keep buying bags of them to stack up in the cabinet, so her recipes will definitely help me learn.

Yasmeen posted a simple Sauteed String Beans with Lemon and Almonds recipe around Thanksgiving and I was hooked once I saw it. I know that string beans are often associated with Thanksgiving but I think that they should be made more often. As long as they are not viciously overcooked and mushy. Please don’t do that to this lovely bean. And with this recipe you won’t do that since it’s quick cooking and very flavorful.

Sauteed Green Beans with Lemon and Almonds

Serves 4

Ingredients:

4 cups fresh green beans, approximately 1 1/3 pounds
2 medium-sized garlic cloves, minced
1/3 cup raw sliced almonds
Juice of 1 lemon
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
pinch of red pepper flake, optional
Extra virgin olive oil, for dressing

Process:

Warm a large skillet over low heat. Gently toast the almond until they are aromatic and light brown, around 2-3 minutes. Remove from skillet and set aside.

Wash and trim the cut ends of the beans.
Turn the heat up for the beans. Once the skillet has gotten hot again,add the green beans and 1/4 cup water. Cover the skillet and let steam 2-3 minutes, until beans are just tender.

Add the minced garlic, lemon juice, salt and pepper, red pepper flake, and rice vinegar to the beans. Sauté for a 1-2 minutes, until flavours combine and beans are tender (but still crisp). Once done toss in the toasted almonds and dress lightly with olive oil.

Serve immediately or at room temperature.

Check out my previous Secret Recipe Club Posts:

February: Fried Pickles

December: Shrimp Sriracha Stir Fry

November: Vegetable Enchiladas

October: Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars

Check out the rest of the reveal day posts!

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Polenta, Almond and Lemon Cake

February 22, 2010

Price and I made this Polenta, Almond, and Lemon Cake for Valentine’s Day. We went through my new cookbook several times because everything sounds soooo good. Emily gave me The River Cafe Cookbook for my birthday. It’s a great book that I don’t want to put down. Price and I have gone through the book several times with “Oh this sounds good”, ” I want to try this!” or ” Oh, wait look at this one.” Basically I want an ice cream maker to make all the sorbets they have in there- like a Campari Sorbet!

“Mise en Place”

We chose this cake because it was different than anything we had before. Plus we did not want to go with chocolate, which just seemed a little too Valentines Day too us. This cake had me thrown for a bit because of its use of polenta flour. I went shopping a Trader Joes and Whole Foods and could not find Polenta Flour. I googled it and still did not get a definitive answer as to what it was or a manufacturer so I could find it easier. What I ended up using was Polenta. I think that it was fine with Polenta because it gave the cake a gritty texture but there were the occasional rougher grit that stuck out. It seems that Polenta is okay to use but I think corn meal (still gritty, but a bit finer) would be okay to use if you could not find Polenta or if you wanted a less gritty cake.

I always read a recipe and its ingredients prior to jumping into cooking or baking. So I was well prepared for this but all of the ingredients in place shocked me. It was not until I started baking that I realized that it really called for 1 pound of unsalted butter, 1 pound of sugar, and 1 pound of ground almonds. Think about it….. that’s A LOT OF BUTTER. What’s even more crazy is that the cookbook said this cake serves 10-12 people. After making the cake and cutting it into normal pieces/slivers it would feed 24-30 people. No we did not eat it our selves! I gave Emily and her boyfriend some and brought just about the rest to work.

Lastly, I did not use the 12in cake pan it called for. I had a 10in springform pan so I used that. By using a smaller pan the cake was higher than it would have been in a 12in pan, and took longer to bake. At 1 hour and 15 minutes I figured it was good enough and yanked it out of the oven. I think that 10in is the smallest you should try to substitute, if needed use two 8in but watch the cake carefully.

Polenta, Almond, and Lemon Cake

serves 10-12 (but it can serve at least 24 with “normal” slices)

450 grams (1 pound) unsalted butter, softened at room temperature

450 grams (1 pound) caster/superfine sugar (granulated will work)

450 grams (1 pound) ground almonds*

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

6 eggs

zest of 4 lemons

juice of 1 lemon

225 grams (8 oz) Polenta flour (polenta/corn meal)

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

Preheat over to 325.

Butter and flour a 12in round cake pan

Combine the polenta, baking powder, and salt in a bowl, set aside.

Using an electric mixer/stand mixer, the butter and sugar together until the mixture is pale and fluffy. Stir in the ground almonds and vanilla extract.

Beat the eggs in, one at a time.

Fold in the lemon zest and juice and the dry ingredients.

Spoon the mixture into the prepared pan. Bake for 45-50 minutes, or until set. The cake will be a deep brown on the top.

*I bought almond meal at Trader Joes- worked perfectly!

**I suggest to weigh the ingredients when possible.