Pizza Crust

Homemade pizza, Moosehead's hockey, and World Series baseball equals a good Saturday night.

What you'll need:

2 1/4 tsp yeast
1 cup warm water
2 1/2 cup flour
1 tsp honey
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp olive oil
cornmeal

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Line a round baking sheet or pizza stone with parchment paper. Sprinkle the paper with cornmeal. Set aside.

In a large bowl, combine the yeast and warm water (be sure that your water is not too hot or else you'll kill the yeast and dead yeast is no good!). Stir together until the yeast dissolves. Add the flour, honey, salt, and olive oil. Mix everything together with a wooden spoon, then use your hands to form a ball. On a lightly floured surface, knead the dough for a few minutes until it is soft. Put the dough an oiled bowl (just coat the inside of a bowl with a little bit of olive oil), cover, and let rest for 10-15 minutes.

Form the ball of dough into a disc shape and stretch into your desired thickness (I did this by holding the dough in the air and rotating it —letting gravity stretch it). Place it on your prepared baking sheet or pizza stone.

Add your favourite toppings and bake for ~25 minutes. Slice and serve.

Homemade Oreo Cookies

With Halloween just around the corner, I thought some "festive" baking so in order. After searching foodgawker, I stumbled upon a recipe for Homemade Oreo Cookies by Smitten Kitchen. I thought they looked delicious and with a touch of green food colouring for the filling, they were perfect for Halloween. Dan agreed.

What you'll need for the Oreo Cookies:

1 1/4 cup AP Flour

1/2 cup unsweetened Dutch process cocoa

1 1/4 cup sugar

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 + 2 tbsp salted butter

1 egg

What you'll need for the Filling:

1/2 cup salted butter, at room temperature

1/4 cup vegetable shortening 

2 cups confectioners sugar

2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 375 F.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. 

In an electric mixer, combine the flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Mix on low speed for a couple of minutes until everything is well combined and there are no lumps. Add the butter, then the egg while continuing to mix on low speed. After a few minutes, you should have a ball of dough. It may be a bit crumbling, but it's moist, so when you form the cookie dough balls, it will all stick together. No worries!

Now, the original recipe said to make rounded teaspoons of batter —mine were a bit bigger than this (probably more like a tablespoon; however, be careful because the cookies do expand while baking). Place your balls of dough 2 inches apart on the parchment lined baking sheet. Flatten the balls slightly using you hands. I actually did this while I was forming the ball of dough. Instead of making "balls" of dough, I made "discs" of dough. Either way works just fine. 

Bake for ~9 minutes, then let cool on a wire rack. 

While you're patiently waiting for the cookies to cool (and/or have another batch in the oven), you can get started on the filling. Place the softened butter and vegetable shortening in a mixing bowl and mix at medium speed for a couple of minutes. Gradually add the confectioners sugar and vanilla. Mix on high speed for a couple of minutes. My filling was a bit dry, so I added a tbsp of milk. This softened the filling up quite nicely and made it a bit more fluffy. 

Now, have fun with it and add some colour to the filling. 

To assemble the Oreo Cookies, simply spread or pipe the filling onto one cookie then sandwich together with another cookie. Serve with a tall glass of milk!

This recipe made about 13 Oreo Cookies (but, like I said, mine were quite large).


               

French Chocolate Macaroons

So, I've always been curious about these french macaroon things. I've never actually ate one before. But, they look so darn pretty. I had to give them a try.

I got this recipe from David Lebovitz. 

What you'll need for the Macaroon Batter:

1 cup (100 grams) powdered sugar

1/2 cup powdered almonds (50 grams sliced almonds, pulverized)

3 tbsp (25 grams) unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder

2 large egg whites, at room temperature

5 tbsp (65 grams) granulated sugar

What you'll need for the Chocolate Filling:

1/2 cup heavy cream

2 tsp light corn syrup

4 ounces semisweet chocolate, finely chopped

1 tbsp butter, cut into small pieces

Preheat the oven to 350 F.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Also, have a pastry bag with a plain tip (1/2 inch) ready. Unfortunately, I didn't have a pastry bag on hand, so I cut a 1/2 inch hole in a ziploc bag. As a result, my macaroons turned out a bit more "rough" looking than other peoples, but I had to make do with what I had. 

Using a blender or food processor, grind together the powdered sugar, almond powder, and cocoa powder until there are no lumps. This mixture needs to be very fine. I read a tip on another blog about sift the mixture a few times to increase smoothness.

Now, set the dry ingredients aside while you beat the egg whites. I used a handheld electric mixer. You need to beat the egg whites until they rise and hold their shape. Beat in the  sugar until the mixture is stiff and firm (about 2-3 minutes). You can check this by tipping your bowl upside-down —the mixture should be firm enough to stay in the bowl (see, I was able to tip the bowl upside-down and take a photo haha —don't be afraid to give it a try).

In two batches, use a spatula to fold the egg whites into the bowl containing the dry ingredients. When the mixture is smooth and appears to be mixed well, put the batter into the pastry bag or ziploc bag. 

Pipe the batter into one-inch circles on the parchment-lined baking sheet. Leave about a one-inch space in between macaroons. To flatten the macaroons, smack the baking sheet on the counter a few tops, then place in the oven to bake for ~15 minutes. Before removing the macaroons from the baking sheet, let them cool completely.

While you're waiting for the macaroons to cool, you can prepare the chocolate filling. To do this, heat the cream and corn syrup in a saucepan. As soon as this mixture begins to boil, remove from heat and add in the chopped chocolate. Stir until smooth, add in the pieces of butter, then stir again until smooth. Let the chocolate filling cool completely before assembling the cookies.

Now, for the fun part!! Once the macaroons and chocolate filling are both cool, you can assemble the cookies. To do this, you simply spread the chocolate filling on the inside of one macaroon then sandwich it together with another macaroon. Ta-da —all done. Now, enjoy them with a cup of tea :)