hallowe'en party

Cooking With Christie: Brigadeiros

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Inspiration: Last amongst the treats I whipped up this year as holiday gifts were Brigadeiros.

The recipe I used was from the 2017 American Test Kitchen Christmas Cookie issue. However, while brilliant at turning out some of the most reliable recipes around, the ATK site requires you to pay to gain unrestricted access to their site, or you need to purchase their magazines and/or books as I do. So here are two different web recipes, 1 & 2; that, while similar to the ATK one, are not carbon copies.

The magazine where I got the recipe from!

In any case, these sweets are super simple to make….and are probably the stickest substance I’ve worked with in several years! Even after they are chilled!

Even better, due to their coating of sprinkles, they turn the gooey chocolate instantly festive! And since they’re so rich, I can only envision myself making them on holidays like Christmas, Valentine’s Day, and Halloween. (As these suckers are so soft, I cannot imagine making them for warm weather holidays, lest my parent friends quietly kill me as their kids get the fudgy substance all over their clothes and person.)

These Brazilian treats went over splendidly with every chocolate lover on our gift list this year!

Helpful Hint: If you use a teaspoon to scoop the gooey goodness out of the pan — make sure to grip the measuring spoon by the neck. Otherwise, if yours are like mine, there’s a possibility the spoon will bend from the sheer effort needed to drag it through the set chocolate.

Christie: If these were introduced to St. Mary Mead, I could see Miss Marple or any other village ladies whipping these up for holiday parties and church fetes! Or at Halloween parties where kids and chocolaty treats go together like Ariadne Oliver and apples!

Cooking With Christie: Pumpkin Spice Muffins

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Inspiration: Did you know that pumpkins are a good source of potassium? This tidbit is excellent news for people like me who love and loathe bananas in equal measure.

In any case, thanks to fall and spooky season, cooking magazines have all kinds of pumpkin based bakes around this time of year. The recipe that caught my eye this year was Cook’s Illustrated Pumpkin Spice Muffins, and, like most quickbreads, is relatively easy to make, even with the addition of a streusel topping.

Now, I say relatively easy because according to my grandmother (and everyone else) who first taught me how to make them, you’re only supposed to mix the batter enough to ensure everything is incorporated.

No more, no less. An instruction I’ve struggled with ever since.

However, a page and a half later, I read an interesting instruction for a different set of muffins in the Fall Harvest Recipe magazine that I thought would apply equally well to the pumpkin muffins. So, after mixing all the ingredients, I let the batter sit on my kitchen counter for thirty minutes prior to portioning it out in the paper-lined muffin tin.

For nut-based flour (which formed the base of the other bake), this interval allows the flour to absorb the moisture and create a bit of gluten, giving the end result a better structure. I’ve no idea if this same principle applies to AP flour, but ever since enacting this bit of info, my quickbread bakes have improved significantly!

Christie: Honestly, I can imagine Miss Marple or Tuppence baking these beauties for friends, family, and for themselves! As they are tasty without being overly sweet.

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This Week’s Recipe: Cranberry Orange Chicken

Inspiration: Whilst perusing recipes one day, I was listening to Bob’s Burgers with half an ear and their Holiday Special came on…and I’d a sudden hankering for cranberry sauce. However, since I don’t generally eat it by the spoonful, I looked in the fridge and spotted….chicken thighs.

Whereupon I tilted my head and thought — why not?

So I emptied an entire bag of frozen cranberries into a pan with a third of a cup of water and a cup of sugar, then cooked them until the berries just start to burst.

While the sauce is simmering away, I added the bone-in-chicken thighs to a crock pot — then added the juice and zest of an orange, a couple of teaspoons of ginger, and several (eight) Calabrian chilis. Once the cranberry sauce thickened, I chucked it in as well and set the cook timer for ten hours.

The chicken turned out delicious….However, it was an odd shade of purple when it finally finished cooking….which was interesting. But once we’d stuffed it into a taco, the slightly unappetizing hue was disguised.

Christie: Griselda Clement, the Vicar’s wife from Murder at the Vicarage, strikes me as an experimental cook — should the mood strike!

Cooking With Christie: Cookies!

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Cooking With Christie!

This Week’s Recipe: Soft-Baked Vanilla Lemon Confetti Cookies

I am so excited the thermometer’s finally started to dip into the fifties! That means I need to start gearing up for the baking season! This recipe I found in a magazine and turned out beautifully the first time.

I only increased the amount of sprinkles called for in the instructions…as well I like sprinkles.

Here’s where I found this great recipe:

Christie: This is a cookie I can see being served at a kids party, like the one in Hallowe’en Party!